European Palm Oil Industry Sets Course for 100% Certified Sustainable Palm Oil by 2020

Amsterdam (ots/PRNewswire) -

Third European RSPO roundtable: regional objectives, tougher
enforcement

rules and innovative sustainability standards

A new drive to address palm oil's global sustainability challenges
emerged at RSPO's third European Roundtable held yesterday in
Amsterdam, gathering an audience of around two hundred and eighty
industries, NGOs and stakeholders from palm oil producing and
importing countries. While all parties agreed that RSPO certified
sustainable palm oil (CSPO) is part of the answer and acknowledged
the work done by RSPO so far, they did not see any room for
complacency and stressed the importance of change.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150604/748196 )

Ambitious regional objectives

In his opening speech, Biswaranjan Sen, Co-chair of the RSPO Board
of Governors and VP Chemicals Procurement & Supply Procurement at
Unilever, said: "Times are changing. Watch this space, there is more
to come. If we do not change, RSPO will be left behind." The
organisation has adopted a set of ambitious regional objectives for
market uptake: to reach 100% CSPO in Europe by 2020, 50% in Indonesia
and Malaysia, 30% in India and 10% in China. The conference
highlighted a number of challenges that RSPO will need to address in
order to implement its market transformation vision in Europe and
globally.

Credibility and sustainability are high on the agenda. Today, the
RSPO Board of Governors will discuss the adoption of RSPO+, a set of
additional sustainability criteria which most innovative members will
be able to integrate into their certification process. Among the
biggest sustainability challenges, Jonathon Porritt, Forum for the
Future and Chair of the High Carbon Stock Study, highlighted a need
"for a robust methodology to balance forest protection with the
socio-economic interest of local communities."

To meet the credibility challenge, Biswaranjan Sen stressed that
RSPO is not a club, and that the organisation has taken serious
measures to suspend or expel non-compliant members earlier this year,
and has revamped its complaint panel. Another positive signal came
when Annisa Rahmawati, Forest Campaigner, Greenpeace said she gave
RSPO 7/10 score when asked about the potential of RSPO to meet the
sustainability challenges. Greenpeace have been among the critical of
the NGOs, and yesterday it was clear that they did not support a Palm
Oil boycott.

Driving up market demand in all companies and sectors is another
key challenge RSPO needs to address, particularly in Europe, as there
is no better place than the EU for RSPO members to work together to
drive uptake of CSPO.

Support of governments is needed

Mike Barry, Director of Sustainable Business at Marks & Spencer,
said: "I stand here as a businessman. Business can contribute to a
sustainable future, but I think there is also a role for governments
to play." Christiaan Rebergen, Director General International
Cooperation, Government of The Netherlands, agreed on the importance
of governments and encouraged stakeholders to share their ideas with
policy makers. "RSPO cannot do it alone", he said, and added that
frontrunners in Europe represent an opportunity. "How do we get the
European market to reach 100%? The Dutch government will back this
process during its EU presidency. And Minister Ploumen tends to put
the sustainability of the international value chain on the EU agenda,
starting with a high level conference in December."

About RSPO

In response to the urgent and pressing global call for
sustainably-produced palm oil, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil
(RSPO) was formed in 2004 with the objective of promoting the growth
and use of sustainable oil palm products through credible global
standards and engagement of stakeholders. The seat of the association
is in Zurich, Switzerland, while the secretariat is currently based
in Kuala Lumpur with satellite offices in Jakarta, London and
Zoetermeer (NL).

RSPO is a not-for-profit association that unites stakeholders from
seven sectors of the palm oil industry - oil palm producers, palm oil
processors or traders, consumer goods manufacturers, retailers, banks
and investors, environmental or nature conservation NGOs and social
or developmental NGOs - to develop and implement global standards for
sustainable palm oil.

Such multi-stakeholder representation is mirrored in the
governance structure of RSPO such that seats in the Executive Board
and project-level Working Groups are fairly allocated to each sector.
In this way, RSPO lives out the philosophy of the "roundtable" by
giving equal rights to each stakeholder group to bring group-specific
agendas to the roundtable, facilitating traditionally adversarial
stakeholders and business competitors to work together towards a
common objective and make decisions by consensus.

Contacts for RSPO Secretariat:
Stefano Savi
Acting Communications Director
T: +603-2302-1500
stefano.savi@rspo.org

Danielle Morley
European Communications Director
T: +44(0)208-282-6069
danielle@rspo.org

Photo:
http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150604/748196

ots Originaltext: Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil
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