Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil

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Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil
(RSPO)
purpose Promoting the growth and use of sustainable palm oil through cooperation within the supply chain and open dialogue with all stakeholders
Chair: Jan Kees Vis, Unilever (2010/2011)
Establishment date: April 8, 2004
Number of members: 1593 full members (Sep. 2017)
Seat : Zurich , Switzerland
Website: rspo.org

The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil ( RSPO ; English for 'Round Table for Sustainable Palm Oil '), founded in 2004 on the initiative of the WWF , seeks to promote sustainable cultivation methods for palm oil as a central organization and thus limit environmental damage. In addition to environmental protection associations and other NGOs , members of the roundtable are primarily companies and institutions from the palm oil value chain, including plantation operators, traders and industrial buyers of palm oil, as well as investors and banks.

history

In 2001 the WWF began exploring opportunities for a round table. The result in 2002 was an informal cooperation with several producers and trading companies. In initial meetings, these organizations prepared the establishment of the RSPO. The founding meeting took place in Malaysia in August 2003 with the participation of 200 participants from 16 countries. The participants declared their intention to support the round table. Finally, the RSPO was formally founded as an association on April 8, 2004 in Zurich by WWF, the Malaysian Palm Oil Association (MPOC) , Migros , Unilever and the international vegetable oil processor AAK .

In November 2007, the RSPO principles and criteria for the sustainable production of palm oil came into force. At the end of 2008, the first certified palm oil was available on the market.

In 2018, Coop announced that it would switch to other oils for its own brands or replace them with Bio Suisse -certified palm oil.

organization

Second roundtable meeting (RT2) in Zurich, 2005.
Second roundtable meeting (RT2) in Zurich, 2005

The RSPO is an association based in Zurich. Ordinary full members must be involved in the palm oil supply chain and should actively contribute to the work of the round table. Other interested parties can become associate members. The RSPO is dominated, at least numerically, by the economy. In October 2009 the RSPO had 312 full members, most of whom (Oct. 2009: 206) came from the fields of cultivation, processing and trade. Around 6.7% were made up of environmental and development organizations. There were also organizations from other economic sectors, such as banks and investors. In 2018 the voluntary set of rules had 3,659 members. Three quarters of them are processors and large distributors.

In a general assembly, the full members elect the board. Associate members have the right to participate but not to vote. The board is composed according to a quota system, according to which non-governmental organizations provide four of the 16 board members.

The general secretary appointed by the board and employees are responsible for the operational business of the association. The association's offices are located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and are supported by an office in Indonesia. The board can set up working groups. The RSPO has three working groups, namely on the topics of standards and certification, trade and traceability and public relations.

Members are forced to “promote and not impair” the sale of sustainable palm oil. This has been stipulated by the internal guidelines for market communication since November 2016. The whole point: negative advertising is not allowed. Members are not even allowed to say that not using palm oil in a product is more environmentally friendly than sustainable palm oil. If they fail to comply, the RSPO organization can take legal action against them.

Standards

RSPO principles and criteria

The RSPO has defined a number of principles and criteria ( Principles and Criteria , abbreviated to P&C ) which, when applied, should meet the requirement of sustainable palm oil production.

The catalog comprises eight principles, each with one to eleven criteria. Indicators and guidelines are given for the criteria, by means of which compliance with the criteria can be verified. The eight principles are:

  1. Commitment to transparency,
  2. Compliance with laws and other legal provisions, for example the lawful use of cultivation areas,
  3. Commitment to long-term economic viability,
  4. Use of appropriate, proven and exemplary methods by cultivating companies and mills, for example for long-term preservation of soil fertility and avoidance of erosion or when using agrochemicals,
  5. Responsibility to the environment and preservation of natural resources and biodiversity,
  6. responsible consideration of employees and affected individuals and communities,
  7. responsible development of new growing areas,
  8. Commitment to continuous improvement in main areas of work.

Indicators and guidelines primarily contain general, qualitative requirements for plans, documentation and evidence. The RSPO specifies the interpretation and application of these generic principles and criteria for the individual growing countries in national guidelines.

RSPO-RED requirements

The RSPO-RED requirements for palm oil producers, processors and the supply chain supplement the principles and criteria with a catalog of requirements that ensure compliance with the sustainability requirements from Directive 2009/28 / EC ( Renewable Energies Directive - RED ) to ensure. Only areas that were already used for palm oil production in January 2008 can meet these requirements. If it was peat or wetland, it must not have been drained since 2008. From April 2013, certified companies have to demonstrate the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Smallholder cooperatives are currently not certified according to RSPO-RED. Only segregation or mass balance are permitted as control procedures along the supply chain .

The European Commission has decided that the RSPO-RED system meets the sustainability criteria for biofuels of the Renewable Energy Sources Directive.

Certification and product labeling

RSPO eco-label on the packaging of cookies with palm oil that is certified according to the mass balance approach

A certification system should ensure compliance with the principles and criteria. During the RSPO certification, producers are checked to ensure that palm oil has been produced in accordance with these criteria. The RSPO certification of traders and other companies in the supply chain is intended to ensure that claims about the use of certified palm oil are true. The RSPO certification of the supply chain allows and checks different types of information:

Identity Preserved , identity assurance '
The traceability of oil down to the individual, specific plantation should be possible. The Dutch organization UTZ Certified , as a partner of the RSPO, offers a service with which the path from oil certified in this way to the last refinery can be traced.
Corresponding products can be marked with the RSPO logo with the addition “certified” and / or “This product contains certified, sustainable palm oil.”.
Segregation ' segregated '
At every stage along the supply chain, certified palm oil should be kept separate from non-certified palm oil. In this case, the end product would actually only contain certified palm oil, which, however, can come from different sources.
Corresponding products can be marked with the RSPO logo with the addition “certified” and / or “This product contains certified, sustainable palm oil.”.
Mass balance 'mass balance'
A certain mixing ratio of certified and non-certified palm oil along the supply chain up to the end product should be ensured.
Corresponding products can be marked with the RSPO logo with the addition “Mixed” and optionally “Increases the production of certified sustainable palm oil.”.
Book and claim 'buy and declare'
This represents a certificate trading system. Producers sell certificates for certified palm oil, the palm oil itself then goes into further processing like non-certified palm oil. Companies at the end of the value chain can then buy the certificates based on the amount of non-certified palm oil they use. This would ensure that a corresponding amount of certified palm oil was produced for the palm oil used in an end product. For such an end product, it is permitted as an eco-label to indicate that it supports the production of sustainable palm oil. The certificate trading system is operated by the Greenpalm company.
Corresponding products can be marked with a Greenpalm logo and optionally with the addition “Contributes to the production of certified sustainable palm oil.”.

The test is carried out by a number of independent certifiers, for example from the German-speaking area TÜV Nord , BM TRADA Germany, Control Union or agroVet Austria.

Production of palm oil

RSPO-certified palm oil has been available on the market since September 2008. At that time, RSPO members had a 35% share of global palm oil production. However, only a small part of the total production of the RSPO members is actually certified. The production and sales of palm oil are well below initial expectations. For the period up to the end of 2008, the RSPO expected production of 1.5 million t of certified palm oil and significant increases in production in the future. In contrast, the total production since the market entry only reached the mark of 1.8 million t in March 2010 and the monthly production was 128,000 t. Total production could not be sold in all months. The demand was too low at the start of the RSPO certification. The world's largest consumers, China and India, showed little interest in sustainably produced palm oil. The price for RSPO-certified palm oil was around 8–15% higher than that for non-certified palm oil. Most of the oil was sold through the Book and Claim certificate trading system .

criticism

The RSPO is criticized for the fact that sustainability goals and social goals are not achieved through certification. Numerous environmental organizations such as Greenpeace or Rettet den Regenwald accuse the RSPO of greenwashing . In a joint statement, 256 environmental, social and human rights organizations from all over the world criticized the label massively and describe it as a "label fraud": The trust of consumers is abused by companies by offering products from "environmentally friendly production" and using palm oil from RSPO certified production as sustainable, although it is actually not environmentally friendly and sustainably produced. In addition, land grabbing, expulsion of indigenous peoples and the destruction of primary rainforest are the order of the day, as the RSPO requirements are too weak and no effective sanctions are provided. In addition, the organizations point out that huge plantations of monocultures of palm oil trees would never be sustainable. The plantations lead to deforestation and consequent loss of biodiversity, floods, severe droughts, soil erosion , water pollution and the emergence of pests as a result of the breakdown of the ecological balance and changes in the food chains. Furthermore, the clearing of rainforests and the draining of peat bogs, especially in Southeast Asia, have serious consequences for the global climate, as huge amounts of carbon dioxide are released.

The documentary The Pact with the Panda , which ran on ARD in June 2011, shows the effects of the RSPO and takes up the criticisms described here. The report Chocolate, Shampoo, Sunscreen - How Everyday Products Destroy the Rainforest by ZDF is just as critical of this topic. The environmental association WWF, initiator of the RSPO, does not see its standards and labeling as an eco-label , it only defines minimum standards.

The Swiss foundation PanEco , which is committed to protecting the rainforest in Indonesia, has already turned away from the label organization . Paneco was the first non-profit organization to leave the round table in spring 2016. "For years there has been practically no improvement at RSPO," says Irena Wettstein from Paneco. RSPO-certified palm oil is "not sustainable". Wettstein even speaks of “fraudulent labeling”.

In January 2018, residents of two villages on the island of Borneo filed a complaint against the RSPO with the OECD with the help of a civil rights organization . The RSPO did not respond to their complaint about land grabbing by the Sime Darby company . The company contradicts this representation.

No sustainable cultivation possible

First of all, a “sustainable” cultivation of palm oil in an environmentally friendly way is hardly possible. The RSPO criteria only serve to preserve forest areas with a "high protection value"; other forest areas can be converted into palm oil plantations. In practice, this leads to fragmented, small protected forest areas that have a significantly lower biodiversity, for example of bird species.

The so-called “selective felling”, which the industry calls “environmentally friendly”, provides for only the desired wood to be removed from the rainforest (e.g. by rope pull). But even then, a wide swath of surrounding trees is affected; as a result, soil erosion occurs. In addition, many of the desired tree species have a particularly long growth phase and are only widespread in isolated cases. Clearing them means endangering their conservation in the long term. This is in direct contradiction to one of the main official goals of the RSPO, which is to limit the ecological damage.

Economic interests take precedence over ecological and social interests

Since the body consists of 303 members, of which 282 commercial enterprises make up the majority, the remaining 21 environmental and social organizations hardly play a major role. The RSPO is therefore primarily a body to assert the interests of industry. In addition, the RSPO allows country-specific policy issues such as B. disregards the protection of indigenous peoples. This, too, is in direct contradiction to one of the main official goals of the RSPO, to minimize social contrasts for the benefit of the population.

Small farmers not sufficiently involved

Smallholders were not involved in the standard-setting process in proportion to their share of palm oil production. Compliance with the RSPO criteria is considered difficult for smallholders.

The current focus of the RSPO on national criteria ignores important regional differences, for example with regard to competition and the bargaining power of the actors. Significant changes and standardizations at the district level are important for improving social conditions, for example standardized, fair contracts would help to strengthen the rights of small farmers.

The RSPO has set up a working group to discuss better consideration of smallholders.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Roundtable on Sustainable Palmoil (Ed.): Statutes . ( PDF; 32 kB [accessed December 12, 2010]).
  2. ^ Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, website
  3. ^ Players in the Palm Oil Supply Chain. ( Memento from April 15, 2009 in the web archive archive.today ) Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil
  4. ↑ a b c d Complaint against the palm oil label from Migros and Coop. Der Bund , accessed on January 31, 2018 .
  5. ^ History. Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, accessed December 14, 2010 .
  6. ↑ Palm oil petition is having an impact: Coop is reducing consumption, others must follow suit. In: pronatura.ch . July 5, 2018, accessed April 13, 2019 .
  7. ^ A b c William F. Laurance et al .: Improving the Performance of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil for Nature Conservation . In: Conservation Biology . tape 24 , no. 2 , April 2010, p. 377–381 , doi : 10.1111 / j.1523-1739.2010.01448.x (English).
  8. ↑ Roundtable on Sustainable Palmoil (Ed.): RSPO By-laws . (English, PDF; 56 kB [accessed December 12, 2010]).
  9. ↑ Ecolabel: The Palm Oil Muzzle In: observer.ch. November 9, 2017, accessed January 31, 2018.
  10. ↑ Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (Ed.): RSPO Principles and Criteria for Sustainable Palm Oil Production - Including Indicators and Guidance . October 2007 (English, PDF [accessed December 12, 2010]).
  11. ↑ RSPO-RED Requirements for compliance with the EU Renewable Energy Directive requirements. (PDF; 153 kB) Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, February 10, 2012, accessed on December 4, 2012 .
  12. ↑ Implementation decision of the Commission of November 23, 2012 on the recognition of the "Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil RED" system to demonstrate compliance with the sustainability criteria of Directives 98/70 / EC and 2009/28 / EC of the European Parliament and of the Council , accessed on 4th December 2012
  13. ↑ a b Round Table on Sustainable Palm Oil (Ed.): Factsheet - Overview of RSPO . (English, PDF [accessed December 13, 2010]).
  14. ↑ Roundtable on Sustainable Palmoil (Ed.): RSPO'S Strategic Marketing for CSPO through Greenpalm & UTZ Certified . February 2010 (English, PDF [accessed December 15, 2010]).
  15. ↑ Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (Ed.): RSPO rules for market communications and claims . November 30, 2011 ( PDF ).
  16. ↑ a b 136,000 tons in March sales of certified palm oil continue to increase. comcenture, April 9, 2010, accessed Dec. 13, 2010.
  17. ↑ regenwald.org
  18. ^ Rainforest Report , 01/2010. Save the rainforest e. V.
  19. ↑ members.greenpeace.org Greenpeace member blog
  20. ↑ Nestle, Kitkat, Orangutans, and the Rainforests .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Save the rainforest e. V.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.regenwald.org  
  21. ↑ ARD: ARD Documentation: The pact with the panda . Retrieved June 4, 2012.
  22. ↑ Chocolate, shampoo, sunscreen - How everyday products destroy the rainforest ( Memento of the original from December 3, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. zdf.de @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.zdf.de
  23. ↑ EU is tinkering with "sustainable" palm oil. Klimaretter.info, December 3, 2012, accessed on May 9, 2018 .
  24. ^ Kalimantan Villagers File Complaint Against RSPO in Switzerland . Jakarta Globe, January 24, 2018
  25. ↑ Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (Ed.): RSPO Principles and Criteria for Sustainable Palm Oil Production - Including Indicators and Guidance . October 2007 (English, PDF [accessed December 12, 2010]). , Criterion 5.2
  26. ↑ David P. Edwards et al .: Wildlife-friendly oil palm plantations fail to protect biodiversity effectively . In: Conservation Letters . No. 3 , 2010, p. 236-242 (English).
  27. ↑ regenwald.org
  28. ↑ Rainforest is being destroyed for palm kernel oil for the alleged organic product Terra-Aktiv ( memento from July 12, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
  29. ↑ a b Justus von Geibler: Biomass certification under pressure to grow: How effective are sustainability standards with increasing demand - discussion using the example of the value chain of palm oil . In: Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment, Energy GmbH (Ed.): Wuppertal Papers . No. 168 , November 2007, ISSN  0949-5266 , p. 27–32 ( PDF [accessed March 9, 2011]).
  30. ↑ Lucy Rist, Laurène Feintrenie, Patrice Levang: The livelihood impacts of oil palm: smallholders in Indonesia . In: Biodiversity and Conservation . tape 19 , no. 4 , March 2010, ISSN  1572-9710 , p. 1009-1024 , doi : 10.1007 / s10531-010-9815-z (English).