{"id":63496,"date":"2024-10-25T18:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-10-25T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/malaysia\/?p=63496"},"modified":"2025-12-05T00:00:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T16:00:13","slug":"rspo-weakens-standard-on-no-deforestation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/malaysia\/press\/63496\/rspo-weakens-standard-on-no-deforestation\/","title":{"rendered":"RSPO weakens standard on No Deforestation; misses opportunity to become compliant with incoming EU Deforestation Regulation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Jakarta, 24 October 2024<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) has revised its key rule set for member companies, known as its \u2018Principles and Criteria\u2019.\u00a0Grant Rosoman, Senior Advisor at Greenpeace International said<\/strong>\u00a0of the new changes: \u201cIn its revised Principles and Criteria the RSPO has scored an \u2018own goal\u2019 by weakening its commitment to ensuring No Deforestation, its very raison d\u2019\u00eatre. It has dropped the hard-won definition of High Carbon Stock forest \u2013 the global No Deforestation standard created through a long collaboration between companies, small-scale growers, scientists and environmentalists, embodied in the\u00a0HCS Approach Toolkit<\/a>. The definition of HCS that RSPO members must apply before development is now perversely based on a comparison with the amount of carbon that may be accumulated by oil palms taking the place of forest destroyed for a plantation.\u201d

\u201cAs well, shockingly, the standard allows deforestation after November 2018, as long as remedy and compensation procedures are applied, meaning the RSPO standard will remain non-compliant with the incoming\u00a0EU Deforestation Regulation<\/a>. Surely the RSPO should aim to ensure the relevance of its standard, future-proofing it with an absolute No Deforestation cut-off date to ensure basic compliance with one of its key markets,\u201d added Rosoman.

\u201cThis fits with the lobbying by many companies against the EU Deforestation Regulation so they can continue destroying forest to expand plantations, and their general weakening of commitments to No Deforestation, such as pushing out having \u2018clean\u2019 supply chains to by 2025 or beyond.\u201d said Rosoman.

Kiki Taufik, Global Project Leader of Indonesia Forest Campaign, Greenpeace South East Asia said:<\/strong>
\u201cI am disappointed that under its the new standard the RSPO will continue to turn a blind eye to deforestation and human rights abuses that are committed at a corporate group level by RSPO certified member companies. Many of Indonesia\u2019s oligarchs use \u2018shadow\u2019 companies, owned by untouchable entities in offshore secrecy jurisdictions to do the dirty work of deforestation and land clearance that they themselves have pledged not to do. To have any credibility the RSPO needs to enforce the principle of group-level accountability. This means proactively ensuring that no deforestation is being carried out by companies under common control with its certified members, rather than relying on their self-declarations.\u201d

\u201cOne positive aspect of the new standard is that RSPO\u2019s commitment to no development of peatland areas for oil palm plantations remains, although the requirements for phasing-out plantations on peat need to be strengthened and sped up. This is critical for Indonesia to help protect biodiversity, and reduce peatland fires, regional haze and greenhouse gas emissions,\u201d Kiki said.<\/p>\n\n

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