17/11/2008 (Business Times, Malaysia) - THE battle lines remain drawn for oil palm growers from Malaysia and Indonesia, as pressure groups continue to question the credibility of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) certification process that was put in place earlier this year.

A three-day conference, themed "RSPO Certified Sustainable Palm Oil - The Gathering Momentum" which opens in Bali tomorrow may seek additional criteria for the certification process which covers the production and development of the palm oil.

RSPO secretary-general Dr Vengeta Rao said four resolutions have been received for the conference, including from Wetlands International and Pan Eco.

Wetlands International wants to call for a moratorium on palm oil from tropical peatlands until a greenhouse gases (GHG) committee has been established and carried out its work.
 
To strong activists and non-RSPO members like Greenpeace, the RSPO has yet to prove its credibility. Greenpeace is campaigning strongly for palm oil buyers to cancel contracts with suppliers who continue deforestation and peat clearance.

The sixth RSPO meeting which will be in Bali from November 18 till 20, has attracted 540 participants from 30 countries, mostly from Malaysia and Indonesia.

In a short span of four years since inception, the RSPO has to date certified three plantations and an estimated 1.5 million tonnes of certified palm oil is being produced by the end of 2008.

So far, 500 tonnes of the certified green oil from Malaysia have reached Rotterdam while another 4,000 tonnes are scheduled for next month.

Rao admitted that a lot of work still needs to be done on the Principles and Criteria (P&C) under the RSPO. For example, it is looking into ways to help small and large organisations within the palm oil supply chain, especially smallholders, to ensure that they too can comply with the sustainability requirements.

The P&C for smallholders is expected to be in place by January.

Organised smallholdings dominate the landscape of crude palm oil production in Malaysia and Indonesia, contributing about 30 per cent of the volume. Excluding the Federal Land Development Authority, there are 120,000 smallholders in Malaysia versus 2.9 million in Indonesia.

Rao reckons that the bigger challenges will be in Indonesia as the Malaysian Palm Oil Board has a good database of its growers and their diverse crops including rubber and cash crops like tobacco and tea.

The right to use the land for oil palm cultivation is also a very important criteria for smallholders, just as mills will be subject to annual surveillance to ensure that they are RSPO-compliant.

The RSPO Task Force on Smallholders, which has now secured funds to advance its work, will be holding its meeting today, ahead of the general assembly.

The National Association of Smallholders Malaysia (NASH) information chief Faiz Abdul Rahman told Business Times that it is going to reiterate its stand that smallholders should not be left out in the process.

"We have set up a working group in Malaysia to comply with the eight principles, 39 criteria, and 123 indicators of the RSPO as well as educating the smallholders across the country," said a spokesman.

Seven sessions have been held including in Sandakan and Miri with three more scheduled for Jengka (Pahang), Teluk Intan (Perak) and Beaufort (Sabah) by year-end.

NASH, which has 100,000 members in Peninsular Malaysia, is also seeking a RM2.5 million allocation from the government to carry out RSPO activities for smallholders next year.