MARKET DEVELOPMENT
Corporations Call for Stronger Standards of Palm Oil Production
Corporations Call for Stronger Standards of Palm Oil Production
03/06/2015 (Peru This Week) - A consortium of the world’s largest users of palm oil has called for stronger environmental standards.
Multinational companies, together representing US$ 5 trillion in assets, are calling for stronger environmental and human rights safeguards on palm oil production.
On Monday, PepsiCo, Kellog, Mars, Starbucks, Wal-Mart, Colgate-Palmolive, and many other food, retail, and packaging companies co-signed a letter calling for sustainability issues to be more properly addressed.
“We recognize that protecting forests and upholding human rights are essential for long-term business models,” the companies said in the letter.
The group sent the letter to Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
The companies said RSPO certification of palm oil operations does too little to protect high-carbon stock and peatlands, and must shore up transparency, auditing, and enforcement.
Palm oil is now an ingredient in a great many consumer products, including cosmetics, chocolate, toothpaste, ice cream, and potato chips.
While Peru is currently a relatively small producer of palm oil, over a million hectares of land have been identified as suitable for production by the government.
Peruvian law ostensibly forbids the destruction of primary forest for palm plantations, but NGOs say a legal loophole means tens of thousands of hectares are at risk of deforestation.
Mongabay reports that scientists monitoring the Amazon say nearly 10,000 hectares of rainforest was recently removed for palm oil.
Most investors deny they are contributing to deforestation and say the crop is only grown on already degraded land.
Multinational companies, together representing US$ 5 trillion in assets, are calling for stronger environmental and human rights safeguards on palm oil production.
On Monday, PepsiCo, Kellog, Mars, Starbucks, Wal-Mart, Colgate-Palmolive, and many other food, retail, and packaging companies co-signed a letter calling for sustainability issues to be more properly addressed.
“We recognize that protecting forests and upholding human rights are essential for long-term business models,” the companies said in the letter.
The group sent the letter to Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
The companies said RSPO certification of palm oil operations does too little to protect high-carbon stock and peatlands, and must shore up transparency, auditing, and enforcement.
Palm oil is now an ingredient in a great many consumer products, including cosmetics, chocolate, toothpaste, ice cream, and potato chips.
While Peru is currently a relatively small producer of palm oil, over a million hectares of land have been identified as suitable for production by the government.
Peruvian law ostensibly forbids the destruction of primary forest for palm plantations, but NGOs say a legal loophole means tens of thousands of hectares are at risk of deforestation.
Mongabay reports that scientists monitoring the Amazon say nearly 10,000 hectares of rainforest was recently removed for palm oil.
Most investors deny they are contributing to deforestation and say the crop is only grown on already degraded land.