Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil
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| Abbreviation | RSPO |
|---|---|
| Formation | April 2004 |
| Type | Non-governmental |
| Headquarters | Geneva and Kuala Lumpur |
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Secretary General
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Datuk Darrel Webber |
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Revenue (FY 2014)
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RM27.1 million |
| Website | www |
The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) was established in 2004 with the objective of promoting the growth and use of sustainable oil palm products through credible global standards and engagement of stakeholders. The seat of the association is in Zurich, Switzerland, while the secretariat is currently based in Kuala Lumpur with a satellite office in Jakarta. RSPO claims more than 3,082 member organizations.
RSPO is an association under Swiss Law composed of various organizations from different sectors of the palm oil industry (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) for the purpose of developing and implementing global standards for sustainable palm oil.
RSPO is inspired by the idea of the "roundtable" in which all members have equal rights. There are different types of membership with different membership fees: Ordinary Member, Ordinary Member (small grower), Affiliate Member, and Supply Chain Associate. Affiliate Members and Supply Chain Associates do not have voting rights in the General Assembly but Ordinary Members, and Ordinary Members who qualify as small growers do. Affiliate Members include groups such as academic organizations or individual supporters while Supply Chain Associates are organizations dealing with less than a total of 500 metric tonnes of palm oil or palm oil derivatives per year.
The organization holds an annual meeting to bring together the various stakeholders to negotiate and discuss various issues affecting the industry.
The RSPO has been criticised by various sectors, especially the environmental NGOs. Issues include the impact of palm oil plantations on the orangutan population; destruction of tropical forest for the new oil palm plantations; the burning and draining of large tracts of peat swamp forest in Kalimantan, Indonesia. The fact that RSPO members are allowed to clear cut pristine forest areas, when there are large areas of Imperata grasslands (alang alang) available in Indonesia raises doubts about commitment to sustainability. In 2013, the 11th annual RSPO meeting was crashed by palm oil workers and others, and Indonesian and international labour-rights groups have documented a litany of abuses, including forced labour and child labour. A 2013 study uncovered "flagrant disregard for human rights at some of the very plantations the RSPO certifies as 'sustainable'".
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