RSPO Emphasizes the Inclusive Aspect of the Palm Oil Market

By : Herry Barus And Aldo Bella Putra | Wednesday, December 06 2017 - 17:00 IWST

INDUSTRY.co.id - Jakarta - Organization of the international palm oil product Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) emphasizes the importance of aspects of inclusiveness, accountability and commitment to change the commodity market.

"We have to realize that to create real and long-term change, we need to involve all parties and start helping them to be above average," said RSPO CEO Datuk Darrel Webber in a press release received here Tuesday (5/12/2017).

As is known, the RSPO has just held the 15th Annual Meeting and the 14th General Meeting of the organization held in Bali, November-December 2017.

The global meeting is a place to listen and take into account the opinions of the entire palm oil supply chain, to ensure that best practices and standards can be achieved and beneficial to all.

Based on RSPO data, the number of oil palm plantations certified by international institutions Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) is more than three million hectares in various countries.

In addition, the number of RSPO members has increased significantly worldwide, with China and North America accounting for an increase of 30 percent and 62 percent respectively.

As proclaimed, palm oil industry business actors must ensure that their owned companies are completely free from deforestation activities in order to improve the quality of one of Indonesia's main export commodities.

"The palm oil industry is still destructive and our report shows traders have no plans to improve it," Greenpeace Indonesia Forest Campaigner Bagus Kusuma said in a press release received here Tuesday.

According to him, Greenpeace International has issued a recent report revealing that suppliers to some brands in the world still cannot guarantee their palm is free from deforestation.

He also believes that none of these companies can prove there is no deforestation in their palm oil supply chain, and declared the palm oil industry the main cause of deforestation.

Good to say this situation is very important for Indonesia's forests, because the country is considered to have lost millions of hectares of forest and deforestation is a major threat to the rare animals that live there.