The RSPO has published a revised certification standard (RSPO Principles & Criteria 2024) that will be voted on during its upcoming General Assembly—an annual meeting of its members held during the RSPO roundtable meeting in Bangkok on November 11th-13th.
RAN has reviewed the revised standard to see if the certification system still requires its members to adhere to global best practice “No Deforestation, No Peatland, and No Exploration’ benchmarks or if it has been weakened as a result of intensive lobbying by its members in the palm oil industry. This ‘backflipping’ on commitments is increasingly common in the palm oil sector – as shown by the industry’s intensive and successful lobbying efforts that have convinced the European Union to propose a delay in implementing the EU Deforestation-free Regulation (EUDR).
Gemma Tillack, Rainforest Action Network’s forest policy director, issued the following statement:
“The RSPO’s new standard seems to maintain a prohibition on deforestation and expansion into carbon-rich peatlands since it maintains the pre-existing cut-off dates for the destruction of High Conservation Values, High Carbon Stock forests, and peatlands, but the devil is in the details.
“The definition of what constitutes a High Carbon Stock forest is problematic as the RSPO has replaced credible definitions outlined by the High Carbon Stock Approach with a definition of its own creation.
“It is concerning that the RSPO has dropped a requirement for members to fully adhere to the High Carbon Stock toolkit—which sets strict requirements for all stages of new palm oil development.
“The RSPO still intends to develop a new adapted standard for High Forest Cover Landscapes in High Forest Cover Countries that may enable deforestation to “balance ‘conservation’ and development.” The RSPO promises to ensure the adapted standard will have safeguards to protect Indigenous and local communities that are eligible for exemption to its tougher ‘no deforestation’ requirements, but for 5 years, it has failed to develop safeguards that are needed to provide assurances that communities will be protected from being exploited by palm oil companies looking to expand into High Forest Cover Landscapes in frontier regions.
“The RSPO needs to strengthen the standard to include explicit requirements for growers to remedy lands taken without communities’ Free, Prior, and Informed Consent in existing oil palm plantations.”