PR93273

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Nov. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire=KYODO JBN/--

--With renewed COP26 commitments, Airbus, CottonConnect, Earthworm Foundation,

Tropical Forest Alliance and World Resources Institute called for collaborative

action across supply chains during RSPO's 2021 roundtable conference to achieve

positive impact for people and planet.

On 16 November, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) hosted the 2021

Virtual Roundtable Conference on the theme of "Climate Resilience: Assuring the

Future of Sustainable Palm Oil". The panel brought together leading voices

across the agricultural commodities sector to exchange views on some of the

thorniest issues in the industry - from climate change to accessible

technological innovation to economic inclusion.

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Panellists opened with their views on COP26, highlighting that forests and land

use have never been more prominent during the summit where over 100 world

leaders pledged to end and reverse deforestation by 2030. Directly impacting

commodities like palm oil - often seen as a driver of deforestation and

greenhouse gas emissions - COP26 underscored the vital need for solutions like

RSPO and other voluntary initiatives.

Protecting human rights and labour rights

The first deep dive addressed the complex issue of human rights and labour

rights, where panellists emphasised that human rights and labour rights'

violations cannot be separated from environmental issues, and they remain some

of the toughest challenges facing agri-commodity industries.

Panellists highlighted the importance of standards, such as RSPO's, "as

guidance for a rights-based approach across supply chains," Janhavi Naidu from

the Earthworm Foundation said. "We focus on translating the agenda, visions and

expectations set by RSPO and similar standards into resources and actionable

solutions. This is because actors require guidance, time and investment to be

able to scale just labour practices."

Echoing this sentiment, Alison Ward from CottonConnect added, "Ensuring just

treatment of workers requires strong investment in each step of the supply

chain, local intervention and engagement. In the textile sector, this means

brands and companies meeting farmers, ginners and spinners to understand their

concerns and investing adequate resources to address them." She shared examples

of building trust in cotton growing communities in India and Pakistan to ensure

that their health and safety needs are met, inspired by similar work in the

palm oil sector.  

Appropriate uses of technology

Panellists also explored the importance of leveraging innovation and

technologies to address climate challenges. Technology can help provide greater

transparency and traceability in the palm oil supply chain and enable

businesses to uphold their sustainability commitments. RSPO has been at the

forefront of developing solutions to strengthen the credibility of its

certification scheme.

Rod Taylor from the World Resources Institute (WRI) cited one example, GeoRSPO,

which integrates RSPO concession maps with the Global Forest Watch platform. He

explained "Global Forest Watch feeds directly into GeoRSPO by combining

satellite imagery and cloud computing to show land use change in a

user-friendly manner... it helps companies manage deforestation risk in their

supply chain and integrate risk management and reporting into a single

system".  

Wendy Carrara from Airbus elaborated, "We have invested 20 years of research

and development on a verification tool that promotes traceability to

plantations, raises alerts on deforestation and correlates it with supply chain

data. Altogether, this ensures the responsible sourcing of palm oil. Satellite

images are analysed using biophysical parameters to create a base map against

which monitoring can be done at scale and with local precision".

Supporting rural livelihoods

The final deep dive discussion covered how achieving climate resilience through

certification like RSPO not only delivers benefits for the planet, but for

people too. Achieving climate resilience in the sustainable palm oil sector is

not merely an ecological imperative - it can also generate social empowerment

by strengthening workforce capacity, creating jobs and fostering economic

development.

Justin Adams from the Tropical Forest Alliance advocated for integrating

livelihoods into climate action: "There is a clear recognition of the

importance of the social dimension in achieving environmental goals; climate

goals are central but just one dimension to optimise. We need ecopreneurs in

the landscape to drive real change". Rod continued by highlighting that the big

picture solution is to optimise existing resources like land through

sustainable practices, stabilise existing resources, and make farming more

lucrative, topped with incentives to reward good stewardship.

Despite the challenges ahead, the past few years have seen closer integration

of environmental and social goals - key to securing a sustainable and resilient

future across the palm oil sector. Panellists closed on an optimistic note by

saying that organisations like RSPO are critical because they bring communities

together to solve problems. "It goes beyond simply increasing the volume of

Certified Sustainable Palm Oil and towards creating a sustainable palm oil

ecosystem; all of us have a role to play in achieving this", said Justin.

About RSPO:

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. RSPO is a

not-for-profit, international, membership organisation that unites stakeholders

from the different sectors of the palm oil industry including 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.

This multi-stakeholder representation is mirrored in the governance structure

of RSPO such that seats in the Board of Governors, Steering Committees and

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, facilitating traditionally adversarial stakeholders in working together

to reach decisions by consensus, and achieving RSPO's shared vision of making

sustainable palm oil the norm.

The seat of the association is in Zurich, Switzerland, while the secretariat is

currently based in Kuala Lumpur with satellite offices in Jakarta (ID), London

(UK), Zoetermeer (NL), Beijing (CN) and Bogotá (CO).

SOURCE: Roundtable On Sustainable Palm Oil

CONTACT: For further information, kindly contact:

Fay Richards, fay.richards@rspo.org;

Sara Cowling, sara.cowling@rspo.org