30/11/2009 (Big Wide World) - Were you hoping that the cosmetics or other goods you bought that were RSPO (Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil) certified were from genuinely sustainable sources? Think again.

Earlier this month, Friends of the Earth International pointed out at a meeting of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil in Kuala Lumpur that “the certification of palm oil by the RSPO does not halt deforestation, it does not halt the expansion of damaging oil palm plantations and it does not benefit local communities. Basically it fails to deal with the causes of the palm oil problems”. Friends of the Earth point out that the RSPO certification process is deeply flawed, that only part of a huge palm oil plantation owned by a large producer may be ‘certified’, that there is no permanent monitoring body, and that there are scant provisions for Social Impact Assessments or emissions controls amongst other measures.

Essentially, there are more holes in RSPO than a tramp’s sock.

An enquiry sent to Bomb Cosmetics recently on the use of RSPO certified ‘sustainable’ palm oil in their products yielded a quick and thorough response from the director, which I’ve reproduced in part here:

I investigated the RSPO Palm when they launched the initiative and we had a number of issues with the scheme, mainly that the palm we purchased may have come from a non sustainable source. The scheme worked on purchasing “credits” from other sustainable sources and using these to be able to join the scheme, much as the producers waste obligations allows someone who doesn’t recycle to purchase credits from companies that do to offset their obligations.

So unfortunately, not only environmental groups but also manufacturers with vigorous ethical policies are rejecting ‘sustainable’ palm oil, and are seeking not sustainable palm oil, but a complete move away from the use of palm oil.