The Ministry of Plantation Industries and Commodities commented that the MSPO standard is aligned to the management of palm oil production with many existing national laws and regulations. In the context of palm oil sustainability, the similar type of schemes that have been implemented are Roundtable Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) and Indonesia Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO).
MPIC further adds the certificates issued by these independent certification bodies are done after conducting successful audits and approval from Malaysian Palm Oil Board. According to the MPOB, 3,040 estates, or 96.04% comprising 4,064,895 hectares of planted land had obtained MSPO certificate (certification) as of 30 June 2020 while as many as 400 oil mills, or 88.5% have been MSPO certified.
Accoding to its Minister, Datuk Zuraida Kamaruddin the MSPO is intended as a national scheme for oil palm plantations – both state-owned or independent – as well as organised smallholding and palm oil processing facilities to be certified against the requirements of the MSPO standards. Initiated as a gauge for responsible palm oil production, the said certification covers all aspects of palm oil production – from the field to the final product.
Including the need for rainforest conservation, as per the country’s pledge at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit to keep at least 50% of its land under forest cover. The MSPO standard was eventually made mandatory by the end of 2019 with three-set timelines comprising, plantation industries that already have the RSPO certification by 31 December, 2018, those without certification by 30 June 2019; and smallholders by 31 December 2019.
Today, she said the MSPO standard is aligned to the management of palm oil production with many existing national laws and regulations. In the context of palm oil sustainability, the similar type of schemes have been implemented Roundtable Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) and Indonesia Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO).
Independent certification bodies that are registered with MPOB are allowed to evaluate the organisations based on the relevant MSPO standards and to ensure that all participating premises comply with the MSPO standards. Certificates are issued by these independent certification bodies after conducting successful audits and approval from MPOB.
According to the MPOB, 3,040 estates or 96.04% comprising 4,064,895 hectares of planted land had obtained MSPO certificates as of 30 June 2020 while as many as 400 oil mills or 88.5% have been MSPO certified. Based on the mandatory implementation of the MSPO certification from 1 January 2020, owners of oil palm estates and factories that have not begun the certification process would have legal actions taken against them beginning 1 July MPOB enforcement actions which include issuing warnings, legal actions and ultimately, suspension or revocation of licence was supposed to be enforced beginning 1 January 2021.
Regrettably, although there has been some increase in the European Union’s (EU) awareness of sustainable palm oil and MSPO, there is still not enough understanding of the metric or of its successes. The strengths of the MSPO standard are often being overlooked in view of the economic block’s favouritism towards the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) certification. To re-cap, the RSPO was developed by an international team of palm oil producers, traders, investors, and non-profit organisations in 2004 – slightly more than a decade prior to MSPO. Founded in 2004, the RSPO is a multistakeholder, non-profit group that unites seven sectors of the palm oil industry in regular dialogue, including investors, growers, retailers and NGOs (non-governmental organisations) using a consensus voting system to develop standards and criteria on an ongoing basis. Currently, 20% of palm oil worldwide is RSPO-certified.
As a pioneering certification RSPO has been praised for promoting the growth and use of sustainable palm oil. Doubtlessly, when grown responsibly, palm oil is incredibly land efficient. Of the major crops (oil palm, soybean sunflower, and canola), oil palm occupies the least land but produces the most oil. A single acre of oil palm produces 11 times more oil than soybeans and 10 times more than sunflower. In recent times, however, RSPO has also been criticised, especially by environmental non-profit organisations who feel that its standards failed to accord sufficient protection for pristine forests or palm oil labourers nor address climate protection.
Greenpeace research has described RSPO as a “little more than greenwash.” The international organisation also recently revealed massive rainforest destruction in Indonesia, allegedly caused by RSPO certified companies. Some RSPO-member
companies even support a EU palm oil ban which could accelerate deforestation leading to many environmentalists wondering if the certification is diverting away from its original mission of adopting sustainable palm oil production practices.
Notably, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, multiple RSPO companies have been alleged to have violated human rights. In its report “Burning Questions: – Credibility of Sustainable Palm Oil Still Illusive”, the international NGO Environmental Investigation Agency UK and its Malaysian partner Grassroots acknowledged that although 2020 saw the RSPO’s Assurance Standing Committee (ASC) again taking up the task of trying to improve assurance, it has yet to complete any major tasks which would address longstanding concerns about the production of palm oil under the RSPO.
“The RSPO’s assurance system is supposed to oversee the process of verifying that palm oil has been sustainably produced but there are, and continue to be, major concerns,” EIA Forests Campaigner Siobhan Pearce pointed out. “The RSPO’s badge of approval is enabling greenwashing, a tactic whereby consumers are led to believe products are sustainable and good for the environment when in reality they are not.
“Despite various actions over the past five years, there is little to inspire optimism that the RSPO will fix the problems. The ASC and RSPO must act faster by getting to the root of the problems and put in place changes that will truly address
them.” Grassroots ’founder Andrew Ng added: “New and existing human rights and forest-linked conflicts associated with RSPO certificate holders show that despite the efforts of the ASC, the sustainable palm oil claim is still unreliable.”
Among the RSPO’s nearly 5,000 members are some of the world’s biggest multinationals, such as Unilever, Procter & Gamble, Kellogg’s and Johnson & Johnson. It is clear that there is room for improvement for certification schemes such as
the RSPO in the quest to instill confidence in their claims, according to Environmental Investigation Agency the UK.
With both the UK and EU set to introduce new laws to address illegalities, land rights, and deforestation in supply chains, this has become even more apparent. In fact, a report adopted by the EU Parliament has highlighted that certification schemes can only be complementary and can never replace due diligence by companies due to concerns that certification schemes alone are not effective
