The RSPO needs to have a good year to convince doubters it is on the right track
The RSPO needs to have a good year to convince doubters it is on the right track
In one sense, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil is a success story. It brings NGOs and industry together to tackle a serious environmental problem: a model for multistakeholder cooperation. But such initiatives are judged on results, and seven years on, campaigners say progress has been too slow.
Certified sustainable palm oil has only been available since November 2008, with annual capacity now somewhere between 1.75m and 2m tonnes, around 10% of global palm oil production. But annual sales of certified oil, while on the increase, are still estimated to be no higher than 250,000 tonnes.
Campaigners are dissatisfied with the uptake of available certified oil and with companies’ unwillingness to pay the premium on certified products. They also see the GreenPalm certificate trading programme, aimed at encouraging the production of sustainable palm oil, as a limited measure at best.
WWF, one of the RSPO’s founders, launched its Palm Oil Buyers’ Scorecard in October, which assesses the performance of 59 European retailers and manufacturers. Pressure groups say it is too lenient, rewarding good intentions rather than action.
Adam Harrison of WWF accepts that some of the criticism of the RSPO is fair and says WWF shares the concerns. The job of building consensus is always going to be a “slow and painful one”, but he expects certified oil capacity to be 3m to 4m tonnes in 2010 and take-up to increase as the price differential between certified and regular palm oil decreases.
The right direction
Trevor Gorin, global media relations director at Unilever, another founder of the RSPO and the world’s largest user of palm oil, is also sanguine. “Without the RSPO we would be nowhere so I genuinely do think it is moving us in the right direction, albeit slowly,” he says.
Of all the recent developments, Unilever’s decision in December to suspend all future purchases of palm oil from Indonesian company PT Smart, part of the Sinar Mas group, was arguably the most notable. Gorin believes the move was a “signal point” for Unilever and, if the company’s lead is followed by others, for the wider palm oil industry.
While Greenpeace executive director John Sauven says Unilever’s move has “set a new standard for others to follow”, other campaigners remain guarded.
Jutta Kill of deforestation pressure group Fern says those criticising the pace of change have “a very strong case because the expansion is continuing, the displacement is continuing and the environmental impact continues”.
For Kill, the RSPO’s main challenge lies in moving from setting standards to changing behaviour. She says: “It is voluntary, and whether it can really make a difference depends on the commitment of the companies involved and the rigour with which those standards are implemented.”
Criticism of multistakeholder schemes, where NGOs and industry become perhaps a little too comfortable, is inevitable. And Harrison says it is important that there are groups outside the scheme which can provide testing criticism.
As for the slow progress, only time will tell if the RSPO can pick up the pace. If it can, it may not only be a major step forward in the battle against unsustainable agricultural practices but tangible evidence that multistakeholder partnerships can, if given time, produce results.