14/01/2010 (Bernama), Sandakan - The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) is making efforts to include palm oil smallholders in the scheme to avoid marginalising the poorer sector of the industry.

Malaysian Palm Oil Association (MPOA) chief executive, Datuk Mamat Salleh, said the association would use the modified RSPO's principles and criteria.

"It will be done under the Group Certification Scheme based on successful certification models for smallholders for other commodities such as for coffee and cocoa," he said in his keynote address at "Awareness Workshop on Sustainable Palm Oil -- From Tree to Table" here on Thursday.

The workshop is joinly organised by the MPOA Sabah branch and WWF-Malaysia's Kinabatangan -- Corridor of Life Project.

Mamat said palm oil producers must be willing to change and follow the current sustainability trend, as demand for sustainable palm oil was inevitable.

He said the RSPO, with its principles and criteria, would offer the long-term solution for sustainable palm oil.

"As an organisation that focuses on the issues and concerns of its members, MPOA believes that the guidelines provided by RSPO will offer long-term solution to sustainable palm oil.

"RSPO is an internationally-recognised voluntary organisation for the certification of sustainable palm oil," he said.

He said the government has allocated RM50 million for the RSPO Fund, which was managed by Ministry of Plantation Industries and Commodities.

Mamat said the plantation companies that had received the RSPO certification could file claims for part of their expenditure on environmental projects.

"The fund will also be used to finance the certification of the independent smallholders to link them to the supply of sustainable palm oil to the world market," he said.