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Palm Oil HCS Study, Consumer Action on Sustainably Sourced Palm Oil

by Tomas DiFiore
Is it any wonder, that the Palm Oil Industry giants are moving 'certified' operations to greener landscapes of Latin America, as they assuage the consumer's concern with a new certifying scheme, and a manifesto, and corporate pledges. The companies have all stated that the Indonesian fires were started adjacent to their plantations – the area known as the plasma obligation. Palm Oil companies fought the NGO's and Civil Society groups over whether the plasma obligation (as area equal to 20 percent of the main plantation) would be on the inside or the outside of the existing plantations. The plasma obligation was successfully lobbied to the outside of the perimeter, where new forests would be felled to accommodate the development of the smallholder input to global palm oil exports. Said smallholder, is beholden to the plantation owners (and likely in debt, as the oil palm takes 7 years to produce). And now, there's another year of cut forests, fire, haze, and smoke.
800_plantation_vs_hcv_forest_sumatra.jpg
Palm Oil HCS Study, Consumer Action on Sustainably Sourced Palm Oil

The externalized debt to future generations due to reckless industrialization of new landscapes by the plague of deforestation for the expansion of Palm Oil over the last 20 years and continuing into the foreseeable future for food and fuel, by the corporate commodity driven agricultural systems of transnationals (backed by corrupt repressive regimes worldwide), is difficult to grasp – while making up a shopping list.

Conquest and enslavement of people and the natural world (nature) are as old as societies organized around principles of wealth built upon disparity. There's often an entrenched incestuous lineage of family clans and business Groups (conglomerates). Sometimes these families are the ruling families - the elite of a small country, and as palm oil expands, new cronyism and corruption are rampant. Thus is the lucrative profit margin of palm oil.

Land Grabs come in many forms but there are many actors, each complicit in their own action; lending institutions, investment firms, various levels of central government, the local or regional government officials, the legal system through judicial and legislative actions as to how title of ownership is conveyed, the surveyors and resource sniffers, etc. An added incentive may be that the labor is cheap, really cheap, even free as has been extensively documented throughout Malaysia and Indonesia.

Communal lands in Malaysia, Indonesia, Africa or Latin America, and most of the world, have supported centuries of generations of Indigenous and peasant farmers engaged in agroecological lifestyles. There is often no title (per se) to the land, which is shared amongst various groups. These are people of the forests. Today, some 60 million people worldwide depend on the forests for food, fiber, shelter, medicine... but the forests which had once remained intact though inhabited, are now becoming so fragmented and destroyed, likely never to return.

IMAGE – Jouneyman TV: “Will Palm Oil Obliterate Our Forests” (2012) 12 minutes
Orangutan Rescue - The magnitude of the destruction caused by palm oil plantations is hard to comprehend, the Orang-utans are trying to escape the destruction. Dr. Ian Singleton and Lone Droescher-Nieslen - "Palm oil is totally destructive. They're cutting down every single tree", complains Lone Droescher-Nieslen from the Orang-utan Survival Foundation. On visiting the decimated forests of the Sumatran jungle, the problem she faces is clear to see. Although she hopes to rehabilitate "traumatized" apes back into the wild, if the present rate of deforestation continues, there may be no forests to release them into."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yW3jZFLVMxI

Links Between Tropical Forests And Food Security Have Become Clear

Research by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) has highlighted the contributions that forest-based foods make to nutrition in rural communities. In the face of competing land-use demands, many forests in Southeast Asia are being lost to extractive or agricultural activities.

“Children who live in areas with more tree cover have more diverse and nutritious diets, and this holds independent of income level,” said Simran Sethi, an Associate at the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute of the University of Melbourne, citing research that found a positive correlation between nutrition and forest cover.
http://blog.cifor.org/21069/study-highlights-link-between-tree-cover-and-nutrition-in-children#.U3M7EC-od20

“Biodiversity from natural ecosystems serves two crucial functions for food systems, according to David Cooper, Director for the Scientific, Assessments and Monitoring Branch at the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The first is to provide nutrient-dense products that are crucial for local populations, such as high-antioxidant fruits, or iron-rich bushmeat. The second is to provide ecosystem services crucial to food production, such as habitat for insects that pollinate food crops, or water retention and purification.”
http://www.cbd.int/

It's Better To Live A Lie, Than Pretend We're Not

A 2014 study by Juan Luis Dammert, Ph.D. candidate at the Graduate School of Geography at Clark University in Massachusetts, summarized oil palm growth in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. Colombia is the region’s largest palm oil producer and is among the top five producers worldwide, with more than 1 million acres of oil palm as of 2012 and plans to increase production sixfold by 2020, which would require 7 million acres of plantations.
http://betterpalmoildebate.org/features/post.php?s=2014-01-07-latin-america-and-market-advantage-meeting-demand-for-deforestation-free-palm-oil

In most cases, it’s simply cheaper to clear forest - “Large areas that may have been cleared - that have been appropriated by thousands of people, if you try to take the land for oil palm development, all these people will ask for compensation. In most cases, it’s simply faster and cheaper to clear forest - and likely will remain so until policies change in a way that better protects forests and serves to incentivize production on non-forested land.”

By now, many folks are aware that the much heralded Zero-deforestation pledges are interpreted differently by industry than the concerned consumer. Big Green should be held accountable for being complicit in the continued deforestation for oil palm and it's business model of compromise behind closed doors, and building hope on false market solutions and bleeding heart campaigns. Green groups (NGOs) promoting zero-deforestation and deforestation free shopping to save the forests are not telling you, the concerned consumer, the full story.

World Wildlife Fund Calls For Zero-Deforestation Pledge (not!)

It was May, 2008, at the Ninth Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP9) in Bonn, that delegates of 68 countries pledged support for WWF's call for Zero Net Deforestation by 2020.
http://awsassets.panda.org/downloads/wwf_2020_zero_net_deforest_brief.pdf

“Zero Net Deforestation” can be distinguished from "Zero Deforestation" which means no deforestation.” The following example rationalizes the unspoken trade-offs of shifting dynamics of rural poverty, the institutional racism (structural racism) built into National governance systems, loss of land, displaced populations, lack of enforcement of protected areas, and the effort shift to new areas of forest recently cleared for new grazing territories and palm plantations.

The Consumer Goods Forum endorses the WWF definition of zero net deforestation:

The Consumer Goods Forum (CGF), a group of the world’s 400 largest consumer goods companies from 70 countries, announced their commitment to "source only deforestation-free commodities in their supply chains and help achieve net-zero deforestation by 2020." The Tropical Forest Alliance (TFA) 2020, a public-private partnership (PPP) was established in 2012 at the Rio+20 Summit, to provide guidance on how to implement the forum’s pledge. The CGF pledge group boasts combined annual sales of more than $3 trillion, and includes leading brands such as Unilever, Johnson & Johnson, Walmart, and IKEA.
http://www.tfa2020.com/index.php/about-tfa2020

Zero-Deforestation and Deforestation-Free vs No-Deforestation

"As the Board of The Consumer Goods Forum, we pledge to mobilize resources within our respective businesses to help achieve zero net deforestation by 2020. We will achieve this both by individual company initiatives and by working collectively in partnership with governments and NGOs. Together we will develop specific, time bound and cost effective action plans for the different challenges in sourcing commodities like palm oil, soya, beef, paper and board in a sustainable fashion.”
http://www.theconsumergoodsforum.com/sustainability-strategic-focus/sustainability-resolutions/deforestation-resolution

"Zero Net Deforestation acknowledges that some forest loss could be offset by forest restoration. Zero Net Deforestation is not synonymous with a total prohibition on forest clearing. Rather, it leaves room for change in the configuration of the land-use mosaic, provided the net quantity, quality and carbon density of forests is maintained. It recognizes that, in some circumstances, conversion of forests in one site may contribute to the sustainable development and conservation of the wider landscape (e.g. reducing livestock grazing in a protected area may require conversion of forest areas in the buffer zone to provide farmland to local communities).”

The “No-deforestation policy” by definition, according to Greenpeace, “is no human induced conversion of natural forests, with the exclusion of small-scale low intensity subsistence conversion. Only degraded forest lands that are not High Carbon Stock, High Conservation Value, or peatlands may be converted to non-forest, it also involves the active conservation, protection, and if necessary, restoration of natural forests by those who control and/or manage them.”

For industry, there are two different target approaches to Zero-Deforestation;
-One is gross which equates the reduction of deforestation of native forests to the increase in the establishment of new forests on previously cleared lands (reforestation).
-While net deforestation inherently equates the value of protecting native forests with that of planted forests.

2014 – Was It Really 'The Year of the Zero Deforestation Commitment'?

“Old-fashioned activist strategies, of shaming bad practice, boycotting products, and encouraging alternatives, do work. The market opportunity presently being exploited by WWF and company resulted from the success of these strategies, not their failure. Multinational corporations, we should conclude, really do fear activists, non-profits, informed consumers, and small producers all working together.” From: “Way Beyond Greenwashing - Have Corporations Captured Big Conservation?” By Jonathan Latham
http://www.commondreams.org/views/2012/03/05/way-beyond-greenwashing-have-corporations-captured-big-conservation

The Green shopper has had an impact on the palm oil industry. That impact (still felt industry wide), was won through many means including boycotts, and the industry is acutely aware that it must clean up it's image.

“Over 70% of palm oil produced ends up in food, but biofuel demand for palm oil is expanding rapidly. Africa and Latin America are the next frontiers to supply rising global demand for palm oil, with tens of thousands of hectares under development in sensitive and ecologically diverse tropical rainforest regions.”

STOP, right there!
The 'rising global demand' for palm oil? This is promotion, not fact. There are surpluses each year and the price is still falling. The only demand is from within the industry, demanding that we consume more palm oil!

Back in February 2015 I wrote an article; “Sustainable Palm Oil Certification: Principles And Criteria In Crisis”
https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2015/02/23/18768957.php

The article covers Indonesia, Liberia, and Malaysia, land grabs, the Roundtable On Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) and with detailed critique – the continuing human rights abuses that can be legally certified under the banner of 'sustainable' based on the RSPO Principles and Criteria. Three critical Criterion are:

(Criterion 2.1) There is compliance with all applicable local, national and ratified international laws and regulations.
(Criterion 2.2) The right to use the land is demonstrated, and is not legitimately contested by local people who can demonstrate that they have legal, customary or user rights.
(Criterion 2.3) Use of the land for oil palm does not diminish the legal, customary or user rights of other users without their free, prior and informed consent. (Known as FPIC, the reality on the ground falls far short of the stated intention.)

Malaysia, though a member of the UN, has not ratified any UN Human Rights accords, and in fact, has rejected any UN Indigenous Rights proposals and those from independent nations, regarding the expansion of palm oil plantations and impacts on Indigenous communities - the most recent in 2014 (International Law). So, there it is, key phrasing of the RSPO certification criteria states “applicable or relevant National and International laws”.

While deforestation and plantations are part of the scenery of the global assault on 'developing nations' that warrants the world's attention, there is a great deal more going on.

Labeling Sustainable Palm Oil

Consumers are assured though, that palm plantations can expand to the marginally productive lands left behind by the livestock ranching industry, as that industry moves to more productive landscapes, while the reality is that flex-crops for food and fuels, are consuming vast landscapes on every continent considered a 'new frontier'. There's nothing new going on here. Peasant farmers, forest peoples, indigenous agroecologists, and place-based cultures sharing communal lands, are losing ground - lots of ground, and water, and food security.

The added value of 'certified' products under the labels green, sustainable, and now 'responsible' is based in part, on the consumer's perception and misconception of 'sustainable standards' and the premise of the voluntary participation by global transnationals, often led by NGOs.

RSPO Is Insufficient To Prevent Abuses

In early 2013, WWF, the primary founder and key stakeholder in the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, released a statement that RSPO certification can no longer be considered an adequate measure to ensure sustainability.
http://awsassets.panda.org/downloads/wwf_statement_revised_rspo_principlescriteria_april_2013.pdf

The RSPO itself states that it does not rule out the destruction of rainforest land for new oil palm plantations. Only “high conservation value areas” (HCVAs) may not be cleared.

And Corporations Are Attempting To Postpone Zero-Deforestation Pledges Deadlines

There has been corrupted interpretation at all levels by national and regional governments - in the wording of laws, legislative acts, and presidential decrees which serve to assist; 1) the increase in accumulated wealth of the ruling elite, family members, cronies, 2) the consumer organizations, certification systems, and corporate pledges, 3) international trade agreements, 4) the servicing of national debt arrangements, and 5) strategic hegemony of a hemisphere in the acquisition of, and development of resource rich commodities land base and land use trends - which all serve as allies to the owners of production. International Aid and Development funds fuel the infrastructures that divide the land, replacing communal land tenure systems, with titled ownership.

“The RSPO is a mechanism that merely ‘greens’ an already ‘shady’ business. Furthermore, many point to the RSPO as establishing terrain for ‘green grabbing’ practices. Its top-down approach to resource governance within Latin America has rightly elicited major opposition, as this industry-led initiative is said to highlight the contradictions of green capitalism by placing a green veneer on company operations so business can proceed without miring company brands.”

“The RSPO and its governing regime have major implications for Latin American countries like Ecuador whose government is looking to intensify domestic production and increase global exports of the country’s palm oil sector. Ecuador is Latin American’s second largest palm oil producer behind Colombia. According to ANCUPA, the National Palm Oil Cultivator’s Association of the country, there are a total of 280 thousand hectares of palm currently under cultivation. The industry directly and indirectly provides employment for approximately 150 thousand workers and out of this number, about 7 thousand people are palm growers. 87% of palm growers are considered small producers who own less than 50 hectares of land.”

“In 2013, ANCUPA launched Ecuador’s national interpretation of the RSPO’s governing principles and criteria - with exclusionary and problematic results. The features of the process were extremely uneven, as only a little more than 20 people participated in the supposed consultation, many of whom were ANCUPA members and not part of local indigenous or Afro-Ecuadorian communities affected by palm plantation expansion. And commentary could only be given by inputting personal identification information into an online system.”

“Within the RSPO, the registering of private property can be interpreted as a positive practice that can lead to future social and financial gains for society. As Feder and Nishio (1999) and other mainstream scholars working on land tenure issues would agree, land titling has the potential to bring many benefits such as more land security, agricultural productivity, access to a larger selection of credit and bank loans, and a general higher value associated with the land.”

“In Ecuador, land issues are large in number and are very complex as it is widely agreed that the country’s land distribution is severely unequal. It is estimated that many properties in Ecuador lack land title. For example, the International Development Bank estimates that 12% of all 2.7 million rural properties in the country lack title with 60% of those lacking current records. Organizations such as USAID have pushed the practice of land titling in Ecuador as a way to combat weak bureaucratic processes and poor and corrupt record‐keeping and more importantly, as a way to increase access to formal urban land markets especially for the poor, to strengthen women’s rights, to support indigenous rights to land and forest resources, and to mitigate deforestation. But as other critical scholars have discussed, the practice of land titling is very contested, with many divided on what exactly the advantages are and for whom. A key observation related to land registration as a necessary requirement for RSPO certification is the fact that land titling makes lands ‘market‐ready’ and more susceptible to land‐grabbing practices.” From: Journal of Latin American Geography Volume 13, Number 3, 2014 “Ecuador’s National Interpretation of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO): Green-Grabbing through Green Certification” - Adrienne Johnson
Published by: The Land Deal Politics Initiative
http://www.iss.nl/ldpi

The developing world is being developed at a rapid pace, while the displaced are increasing by the sidelines. In 2011, Honduras had the highest rates of violence and displaced people outside of a war zone in the world. Colombia has some 5.7 million displaced people.

Behind The Deception Of Market Solutions - Felled Forests, Falling Palm Oil Prices

The global price of crude palm oil continued on a steady decline in 2014, reaching its lowest point in the past five years. After March 2014, palm oil prices declined 23.65% from $860.52 per metric tonne down to $656.98 per metric tonne in September. The month of August alone saw a 9.97% decline, bringing prices to their lowest point in five years. September 2014 marked the first time palm oil prices had dropped below $660 per metric ton since October 2009.

Along with global boycotts over deforestation and human rights, one of the major drivers of this decline was the over-supply of palm oil that followed the market peak in 2011, when high prices spurred a new wave of plantings. The fruit of this additional wave of planting flooded global markets, creating huge stockpiles, that, combined with the large soybean harvest in the United States and elsewhere, put significant downward pressure on palm oil prices. The declines came despite policy interventions meant to shore up prices, such as increased biofuels mandates and reduced tariffs on palm oil exports in Malaysia.

Overall, since their highest point in February 2011 at $1,248.55 per metric ton, global palm oil prices had dropped approximately 47% by summer 2014. It is the consumer that drives market demand; and then, and then, and then, in October-November 2014, the news broke; “Over three quarters of global palm oil now covered by deforestation-free sourcing policies.”

Has 'Big Green' helped to lead the world astray on the verification of palm oil's sustainability?

Of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil Principles and Criteria, the WWF states: “The 
final 
outcome
 is
 a
 compromise,
 because
 the
 Principles and Criteria
 review is a
 consensus‐driven,
 multi‐stakeholder 
standard 
setting
 process.

 The
 RSPO
 aims
 to transform
 the 
industry
 as 
a
 whole.

 The
 Principles and Criteria 
therefore
 need
 to 
retain 
widespread 
support from
 all
 RSPO 
members 
and
 not 
act
 as
 a niche
 standard
 that
 only 
a 
few 
companies
 can achieve.
 The decision
 making process
 for
 the
 RSPO
 Principles and Criteria
 review
 is 
by
 consensus,
 which 
is defined
 as
 the
 absence of
 sustained
 objection
 to 
the 
final
 decision, and it
 means
 that
 all
 members
 agreed
 to
 ‘live
 with’
 the 
final
 wording.” WWF

I wonder how the 5.7 million displaced peasant farmers and the poor, the Afro-Colombians, the Indigenous cultures are doing, having had to 'live with' eleven years of RSPO P&C?
http://www.rspo.org/file/acop2014/submissions/daabon-group-ACOP2014.pdf

There are only 1200 Orangutans in rescue centers, there were less than 60,000 Orangutans left in the wild in 2013, and more than 3,000 Orangutans are killed each year in deforestation.

The Industry has made several attempts to bolster (clean-up) it's image:
-Malaysia and Indonesia both have National industry Certification Councils.
-There's also SOPPOA, the Malaysian renegade climate deniers of the Sarawak Oil Palm Plantation Owner's Association continuing development of peatlands.
-SPOM The Sustainable Palm Oil Manifesto

Greenpeace Indonesia Calls The SPOM Greenwash

Industry crafted a response in reference to the July 11, 2014 Greenpeace article; “Greenwash Alert As Palm Oil Companies Sign Onto Continued Deforestation.”

The initial Signatories of the Manifesto are growers that together produce almost a tenth of, and physically trade more than a third of global palm oil. They include Apical, Asian Agri, Cargill, IOI Corporation Berhad, Kuala Lumpur Kepong Berhad, Musim Mas Group and Sime Darby Plantation. Sime Darby responded: “A critical commitment under the Manifesto is the agreement to fund a major scientific study to determine HCS thresholds, in the absence of an industry-accepted methodology and standard for what constitutes HCS. Global agribusiness group, Wilmar International Ltd, although not a signatory to the Manifesto, has joined the group to co-fund the study.”

“The Signatories understand that Greenpeace's main concern against the efforts to fund and undertake the HCS study, is to ensure that until the study is completed, palm oil companies will only plant on grassland and scrubland. While Greenpeace's intention to maintain HCS areas is laudable, the Signatories would like to highlight that this request does not in any way acknowledge the role of governments and rural communities to assess their own rights to development, leaving the decision solely to NGOs and companies. This, we believe, is unacceptable and all conversations that limit sustainable development must include these critical stakeholders before policies are implemented, as they have the potential to cause long-term impact.”

“All the Signatories are members of the RSPO and are already preserving virgin forests, High Conservation Value (HCV) areas, and peat land. The Signatories all strictly observe the principles of Free, Prior and Informed Consent, and engage with local communities. All Signatories have, or are developing smallholder programs.”

“Once the new HCS study is completed and HCS thresholds suitably defined with due consideration given to socio-economic factors, the Signatories will implement the new standards. It is very clearly stated in the Manifesto that the HCS study will take 12 months (and then 2 months peer review, and then the adoption process).”

So, that industry posture 'statement' was prompted by Greenpeace's:
“Greenwash Alert As Palm Oil Companies Sign Onto Continued Deforestation” Press release - 11 July, 2014 Jakarta: “Major palm oil producers including Sime Darby, KLK and Asian Agri announced this week a sustainability initiative which Greenpeace warns will undermine consumer companies' recent commitments to remove deforestation from their palm oil supply chains.”

“The initiative, called the Sustainable Palm Oil Manifesto (SPOM), claims to go beyond sustainability standards established by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). But rather than stopping forest clearance, it will allow for continued deforestation while members of the Manifesto study tools to determine what forests to develop or protect, known as the High Carbon Stock (HCS) Approach.”

“The Head of the Indonesia forest campaign at Greenpeace International, said: "This is not the milestone Sime Darby is saying it is. Greenpeace does not support a process that allows companies to claim 'no deforestation' while their manifesto allows them to continue to clear forests.
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/press/releases/Greenwash-alert-as-palm-oil-companies-sign-onto-continued-deforestation/

The Sime Darby market friendly version would state: “Environmentalists had confronted the Chief Executive Officer of Kellogg Co. about palm oil purchases from Wilmar.” But now on target for 2015 - “Environmentalists are far less critical now. Wilmar and about 30 other firms including Unilever and McDonald’s Corp. have pledged by the end of 2015 to buy palm oil that’s certified as coming from sustainable sources. The pledge effectively means no trees, peat land or orangutans were harmed in making the products.”

“Wilmar's Kuok Khoon Hong. co-founder and chairman of giant Wilmar International Ltd, is business-minded to the end, and fears palm oil prices will crash if his new alliance with his former critics doesn’t hold. “If the industry continues business as usual, NGOs will continue to tarnish the reputation of palm oil and governments and consumers will be pressured to restrict the use of palm oil in food, biofuel and so on,” the palm oil king warns.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-12/how-the-palm-oil-king-went-from-environmental-foe-to-best-buddy

Certified Sustainable Palm Oil (CSPO) In the Americas

As oil palm production sourcing solidifies control over vast landscapes of 'new territories' in Latin America, and Africa a new improved version of the RSPO has risen to the occasion. POIG, calling itself the “Palm Oil Innovation Group.”

“Unveiled on the sidelines of a meeting of the Tropical Forest Alliance in 2012 (a coalition of government leaders and companies from the Consumer Goods Forum), the Palm Oil Innovation Group (POIG) will determine production standards that will help the alliance meet the ambitious goal of eliminating deforestation from the production of soybeans, palm oil, beef and pulp and paper by 2020.”

“The eight initial members are social and environmental non-profits Greenpeace, Rainforest Action Network, the World Wildlife Fund and the Forest Peoples Programme; while Brazil-based Agropalma, Colombia-based DAABON, Papua New Guinea-based New Britain Palm Oil and Indonesia-based Golden Agri-Resources represent the producer side.”

“Members of the POIG say the carbon accountability measure is key to setting it apart from RSPO. They’ve also called on companies to establish mechanisms so they can trace the origins of their palm oil. As the recent fires have indicated, attaching responsibility to companies for deforestation becomes difficult as you move down the supply chain, since many producers work with contractors and smallholders who take the blame when land is cleared by burning.”

POIG requires members to meet the requirements of its charter and producers to have at least “50 percent of their plantations already compliant with RSPO Principles and Criteria.” POIG’s charter includes additional requirements to ensure palm oil is free from conversion of high carbon stock forests and peatlands as well as human and labor rights abuses.
http://news.mongabay.com/2014/03/progressive-palm-oil-group-opens-door-to-companies-ngos-adopting-zero-deforestation-policies/

New, Improved, Better Than Sustainable Palm Oil - Responsible Palm Oil

We hear often that “there have been substantial shifts in the palm oil industry in recent years, with more and more palm oil buyers mandating stricter sourcing standards. On the supply side, two of the world’s biggest palm oil producers and traders, Wilmar and Golden Agri Resources, have established zero deforestation policies, driven in part by pressure from environmental groups and buyers.” And still, the industry is concerned about it's image, it's past.

“The Palm Oil Innovation Group is inviting progressive palm oil producers, processors, traders, manufacturers, consumers and financiers to join this initiative and tip the balance towards responsible palm oil,” said POIG in a statement. “We will prove that palm oil production does not need to be linked to forest destruction, social conflict or worsen climate change. All that is needed now is for other stakeholders to actively support innovation and improvements in the palm oil sector and demonstrate that business as usual is not longer tenable.”

As the years go by, original forests continue to fall, communities of animal species die trapped in fire and smoke, indigenous people are forced to become Internally Displaced People (IDP) in their own land. The world outcry remains the same, and it's business as usual in the green zone business climate exchange.

The US-based Rainforest Action Network (RAN) described the initiative as a talk-and-log manifesto, and said it fell short of the new global benchmark for responsible palm oil. “It is a far weaker commitment than the robust policies recently adopted by other palm oil producers and traders, including Wilmar and Golden Agri-Resources.”

The executive director of the Orangutan Land Trust, Michelle Desilets, also sees the new manifesto as a greenwash. “It falls short of the objectives set out by the Palm Oil Innovation Group (POIG) charter. It’s going to be up to the NGOs and the consumers themselves to differentiate between what is truly responsible palm oil and what are half-hearted stabs at sustainability.”

The new manifesto itself, in text, “doesn’t encompass Free, Prior, and Informed Consent, and this leaves the way open to land grabbing of community forest areas.” (POIG has responded to criticisms, here they defer to RSPO Principles and Criterion or to International Law, which leaves a loophole big enough to sail a tanker of Crude Palm Oil through).

“David Dellatore, who is program manager for the UK-based Sumatran Orangutan Society (SOS), points to the vagueness of some of the manifesto commitments. “I hope it will prove to be more than an empty proclamation of intent. There is room in such documents for irresponsible outfits to do as they like and still remain under the manifesto banner.”

The GreenPalm Greenwash

Scott Poynton of The Forest Trust (TFT) says GreenPalm is a massive greenwash. “It’s the most disgraceful environment-destroying process that I’ve ever seen in my life. WWF are a disgrace for supporting GreenPalm so strongly. It’s a distortion of the marketplace by a false sustainability claim that allows business as usual.”

Poynton says that with GreenPalm, you don’t know where your oil comes from so you cannot know if you are causing deforestation or destroying people’s lives. “On the GreenPalm website they make of virtue out of the fact that you don’t have to change your business; you’ve just got to pay them a little bit of money and you can claim your oil is sustainable.”

Buyers, Poynton says, can buy their oil from wherever they want. “They can buy the cheapest, nastiest, most horrendous oil the world has ever seen, and just have to pay an extra three dollars a tonne to have a GreenPalm certificate. If a company did what the WWF and the RSPO and GreenPalm are doing, the NGOs would tear them apart for greenwashing.”

The system is painted as a necessary evil, Poynton says, because it makes up about half of the RSPO budget. “Without it, the RSPO would cease to exist.”

Glen Hurowitz (Catapult and Forest Heroes) says GreenPalm is “just a scam” – a subsidy for deforestation. “The palm oil companies are using the proceeds from the GreenPalm certificates to finance deforestation on the frontier.”

“Most areas planted with palm oil were once forest, so the term deforestation-free means there has been no deforestation since a particular date. To qualify for RSPO certification, a plantation has to be deforestation-free since 2005.”

“Companies can commit to no-deforestation and be listed as selling certified palm oil from one plantation, but be deforesting elsewhere. Certification applies to individual plantations, not companies. While the RSPO lists all of its members, it only lists plantations that have been certified.”

The Forest Trust (TFT) – a UK-based, non-profit organization that helps companies and communities deliver their products responsibly. TFT Executive director, Scott Poynton says TFT was instrumental in bringing about the change at Wilmar. The other driving force was the US-based Forest Heroes campaign, headed by Glenn Hurowitz.

Poynton and Hurowitz prefer not to use the word sustainability; they would rather talk about acting responsibly. “The word sustainable shouldn’t be used in reference to any industry,” Poynton said. “It is the biggest greenwash that we have ever created. Many negative things are done under the banner of sustainability.”

“The new Sustainable Palm Oil Manifesto (SPOM) announced by leading producers in July 2014 is one example Poynton would cite. The manifesto signatories say their initiative goes beyond RSPO standards, but, at its launch, Poynton felt it was just an exercise in greenwashing.

Greenpeace says the manifesto will undermine consumer companies’ recent commitments to remove deforestation from their palm oil supply chains.”

Five oil palm growers who together produce more than nine percent of the world’s palm oil, are among the manifesto signatories:
-The Malaysian multi-national, Sime Darby;
-The Malaysian conglomerate, IOI Corporation Berhad;
-The Musim Mas Group, which is headquartered in Singapore;
-The multi-national Kuala Lumpur Kepong Berhad, which was recently exposed for its controversial involvement in deforestation in Indonesia and land-grabbing and human rights violations in Papua New Guinea and Liberia; and
-The Indonesian company Asian Agri/Apical, which is owned by tycoon Sukanto Tanoto. In 2012, the company was fined more than 200 million US dollars for tax evasion.
-Cargill is another manifesto signatory.

(Above excerpts from the following linked 36 page article – a really great evaluation of the bio-politics of the flex-crop palm oil.) “Forest Pledges Multiply As Palm Oil Companies Respond To Clean-Up Demands” By Annette Gartland published on November 7, 2014
https://time2transcend.wordpress.com/2014/11/07/forest-pledges-multiply-as-palm-oil-companies-respond-to-clean-up-demands/


While the article shuns the idea of a boycott of palm oil products, it is comprehensive in it's analysis of Indonesia and Malaysia legal systems that foster deforestation and the ruse of certification systems. There is no mention of 'Fair Trade' or 'Fair for Life' as the article focuses on global transnationals.

Cargill, which is the biggest importer of palm oil to North America added this disclaimer to their statement on no deforestation policies: "To implement these policies, we will need buy-in from multiple stakeholders: communities to value and protect High Carbon Stock (HCS) land, governments to implement policies to enable HCS forest conservation and industry players to adopt similar policies."

Which brings us back to a certification requirement from the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) where its criteria state that its members must be "in compliance with all local and national laws (Criterion 2.1)"

In the case of Indonesian policies, plantations would have to remove forests in order to comply with local laws!

The Sustainable Palm Oil Manifesto is a document that commits its signatories to no deforestation in High Carbon Stock (HCS) forest areas, creating traceable and transparent supply chains, and protecting peatlands... once HCS areas have been defined by the High Carbon Stock Study.

These signatories, along with global agribusiness group, Wilmar International Limited, will fund research to define what constitutes an HCS forest and to establish HCS thresholds that take into account environmental, socio-economic and political factors in developing and emerging economies.
http://www.carbonstockstudy.com/Home

Unlike High Conservation Value (HCV) areas, the Manifesto signatories argue that HCS needs further study to establish appropriate thresholds that will not stifle the economic development of nations while ensuring that environmental concerns are addressed. The research aims to establish these, and determine suitable assessment methods to identify HCS forests, which will be excluded from future oil palm plantation development.
http://www.sustainablepalmoil.org/growers-millers/growers/high-conservation-values/

Timeline: “Once HCS areas have been defined by the High Carbon Stock Study.”
http://www.carbonstockstudy.com/Resource-Center/Key-Documents/Letter_140723

“It is very clearly stated in the Manifesto that the HCS study will take 12 months. This will then be subject to a transparent and scientific peer review process of two months. Signatories will abide by the results of the study and avoid HCS areas once defined. The Manifesto aims to build upon the Signatories’ existing commitments to the RSPO, which has well-established auditing, reporting, monitoring, dispute resolution processes and grievance mechanisms.”

The POIG has initiated responses to concerns by Rainforest Action Network.

RAN: “The manifesto does not accept the definition and thresholds of High Carbon Stock forests and the robust HCS Approach tool that has been developed and tested now by Golden Agri Resources, The Forest Trust and Greenpeace. Instead, the signatories are proposing to redefine High Carbon Stock forests so they can continue to clear ecologically important areas of secondary forests.”

POIG: “The new HCS study will review all relevant science and practical experience... will include the work carried out by The Forest Trust (TFT), Golden Agri Resources (GAR) and Greenpeace (GP) in piloting an HCS study in 2011. It is important to note that the TFT-GAR-GP study is still in its pilot phase and is open to adaptation - as acknowledged by GAR. We believe that a more comprehensive, and regionally adapted approach is required in order to reliably estimate carbon emissions from both soils and biomass during and after land conversion to oil palm. There is also a critical need to consider the socio-economic impacts of oil palm development to people and communities in developing and emerging economies.”

RAN: Is biodiversity incorporated at all into the HCS Study?

POIG: “Whilst HCS areas may clearly have important biodiversity value, it seems more sensible to deal with all biodiversity issues under HCV, rather than to try to account for further biodiversity considerations under the banner of HCS. Our study will take account of two of the values identified under the existing HCV approach. These relate to the socio-economic aspects of our work, and are HCV 5 which deals with community needs, and HCV 6 which deals with cultural values. Other HCVs, including those relating to protection of biodiversity and other environmental values, will not explicitly be part of our study.”
http://www.carbonstockstudy.com/Resource-Center/Key-Documents/Letter_141202

Conflict Or Consent? The Oil Palm Sector At A Crossroads (November 2013)

Advocates circulated this “seventh in a series of research by Forest People's Programme at the annual meeting of the RSPO, about the same time as the POIG came in to being, and the Sustainable Palm Oil Manifesto and the HCS. “Underlying this failure of ‘voluntary best practice’ are national laws and policies which deny or ignore indigenous peoples’ and communities’ land rights,” said Marcus Colchester, Senior Policy Advisor at Forest Peoples Programme, an international human rights organisation. “In their rush to encourage investment and exports, governments are trampling their own citizens’ rights. Global investors, retailers, manufacturers and traders must insist on dealing in conflict-free palm oil, and national governments must up their game and respect communities’ rights.”

“Conflict or Consent” is a publication of Forest Peoples Programme, Sawit Watch, and TuK Indonesia. For the full publication, “Conflict Or Consent? The Oil Palm Sector At A Crossroads”, (428 pages, 9 MB) and supporting materials, please visit:
http://www.forestpeoples.org/press-room

One year later, in a response to an invitation to join the High Carbon Stock Study (HCS) the Forest Peoples Programme responded: “At the moment we do not see a role for ourselves as observers in the Steering Committee of the SPOM, and prefer to be engaged in this process through the observer role from the HCS Approach Steering Group to the Technical Committee. In addition to this, FPP has offered to execute part of HCS Study on how to accommodate the rights and livelihoods of local communities.”
http://www.carbonstockstudy.com/Resource-Center/Key-Documents/Letter_141116

Look for “Beyond Certification” May 2015 Scott Poynton - This book is all the rage this year, from UK to Malaysia. Scott is savvy. Explains the big-business of certification and the failures. Download E-book free.
http://www.dosustainability.com/shop/beyond-certification-p-64.html?zenid=fec4487347616f9f1a6034f63b8309d0

Has sustainability certification failed us? Scott Poynton thinks so, and explains why in this interview from August 2015.
http://sustainablesmartbusiness.com/2015/08/has-sustainability-certification-failed-us-scott-poynton-thinks-so-and-explains-why/

In 2008, as the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) was arriving in Latin America to facilitate new frontiers of certified Real Estate and flex-crop development, the International Declaration Against the 'Greenwashing' of Palm Oil by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil was published, signed by over 250 organizations worldwide."
http://www.regenwald.org/international/englisch/news.php?id=1070

One year later, in November of 2009, the same organizations were compelled to reiterate the call made in the International Declaration the previous year. “Since then, the RSPO has continued to certify palm oil produced by companies which are directly responsible for violating the rights of local communities, for the ongoing destruction of rainforests and peatlands and other abuses against people, the environment and climate. 'Conflict palm oil' plantations have been certified in Malaysia, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea and the same greenwashing exercise has started in Colombia, Thailand and Ghana.”

256 organizations have signed the International Declaration Against the 'Greenwashing' of Palm Oil by the RSPO (Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil).

“There is a need to prevent agribusiness lobby organizations, such as the RSPO, from serving as a justification for the indiscriminate expansion of oil palm plantations and products. Generally, ah high level of agribusiness, only benefits large companies at the expense of the future of peoples and the planet.”

“An immediate moratorium on the incentives of the EU and others to agrofuel and agricultural biomass-energy produced by extensive monoculture plantations, including tree plantations, and a moratorium on imports. This includes the immediate suspension of all obligatory percentages and incentives such as tax exemption and subventions that benefit agrofuel from monoculture plantations, including those funded by carbon trading mechanisms, international development aid or credits granted by International Funding Agencies such as the World Bank.”

1) End privatization of natural resources. 2) Dismantle agri-business companies, financial speculation with raw material and economic and trade policies responsible for the food crisis emergency. 3) Replace industrialized agriculture by sustainable peasant and family agriculture that is supported by real Agrarian Reform programs. 4) Promote sustainable energy policies. Consume less energy and produce solar and wind energy and bio-gas locally instead of promoting large-scale agrofuel as is the case at present.

256 organizations have signed on. Adhieren a esta declaración: View the entire proclamation and list of groups! 'International Declaration Against the 'Greenwashing' of Palm Oil by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) November 17, 2008
http://www.biofuelwatch.org.uk/docs/17-11-2008-ENGLISH-RSPOInternational-Declaration.pdf

“NGOs should not lend legitimacy to the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) must stop promoting the RSPO palm oil supporting agrofuels.”
http://www.wrm.org.uy/oldsite/plantations/RSPO_letter.html

Green Green, It's green they say, on the far side....

It must be included in any discussion, that fees accompany all certification and consultation. Scott Poynton (The Forest Trust) and Glenn Hurowitz (Catapult – Forest Heroes) are each in their individual way, and together, competing over market share with the RSPO. TFT even will help clients attain RSPO certification as a company milestone if desired.

As the POIG states of the HCS Study: “There is also a critical need to consider the socio-economic impacts of oil palm development to people and communities in developing and emerging economies.”

The financing of access to remote forests fuels several market systems; investment, mining, drilling, logging, and after the land is cleared, conversion. Palm oil acreage pays the highest now. It is a boom time. Workers are imported, (both foreign and national, from desperate regions) and as the roads are cut in, the settlements begin. Towns and distribution centers are located, there are airports and mills, ranching lands, processing centers, dams and heavy equipment which all consume the once forested landscape where people already live in balance with nature and have developed communities.

POIG, where the High Carbon Stock study continues.... Greenpeace, Nov 2014:
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/Blogs/makingwaves/momentum-builds-for-no-deforestation-palm-oil/blog/51454/

Rainforest Action Network: Nov 2014
http://www.ran.org/palm_oil_where_to_from_here

The Haze

“With political pressure mounting on plantation companies, including threats of fines and legal action by the Indonesian and Singaporean governments and boycotts in consumer countries, palm oil and timber giants in Indonesia are embracing an array of tactics to battle haze-spewing blazes burning across the islands of Sumatra and Borneo, according to Mongabay.com’s informal survey of six major companies.”

“All six companies - Asia Pulp & Paper, Asia Pacific Resources International Limited (APRIL), Golden Agri Resources (GAR), Cargill, Wilmar, and Musim Mas - contacted by Mongabay responded. However none of the companies acknowledged their sector’s role in creating conditions that exacerbate haze and fires, specifically draining peatlands and replacing forests with industrial monocultures. Instead companies cited illegal encroachment and spread of fires from adjacent areas as the cause of the current environmental crisis.”
http://news.mongabay.com/2015/10/companies-struggle-to-fight-fires-in-indonesia/

The reader should not forget that the “plasma obligation” which Indonesian President Jokowi lauded as giving the land to the people, because people won't do the harm that corporations would, helped to set up the situation that burns today. The companies have all stated that the fires were started adjacent to their plantations – the area known as the plasma obligation. Palm Oil companies fought the NGO's and Civil Society groups over whether the plasma obligation (as area equal to 20 percent of the main plantation) would be on the inside or the outside of the existing plantations. The plasma obligation was successfully lobbied to the outside of the perimeter, where new forests would be felled to accommodate the development of the smallholder input to global palm oil exports. Said smallholder, is beholden to the plantation owners (and likely in debt, as the oil palm takes 7 years to produce). And now, there's another year of fire, haze, and smoke.

Is it any wonder, that the Palm Oil Industry giants are moving 'certified' operations to greener landscapes of Latin America, as they assuage the consumer's concern with a new certifying scheme, and a manifesto, and corporate pledges.

Boycott Palm Oil Products - There Are So Many Other Oils

On July 27, 2015 RAN reported that the Obama administration had “removed Malaysia from the list of worst offenders for human trafficking and forced labor, one day after The Wall Street Journal published an extensive report on human trafficking and forced labor on Malaysian palm oil plantations that directly supply major U.S. companies. Malaysia is one of 12 nations in the contentious Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, and inclusion of a country with the lowest ranking in the State Department’s Trafficking in Persons Report would be problematic for the administration. The report is an annual assessment on human rights-related issues.”

“Today’s announcement from the State Department is nothing short of shocking. The conditions faced by workers in Malaysia, well documented by The Wall Street Journal, are deplorable and a clear case of modern day slavery in the palm oil industry. Unfortunately, the Journal’s story on Felda Global Ventures’ plantations is only the tip of the iceberg in exposing the systemic abuses faced by migrant workers in the Malaysian palm oil industry. “
http://www.ran.org/tags/rainforest

Indonesia Does Not Ban Commercial Destruction Of Peatlands

“This year’s El Nino weather pattern, along with the clearing of forests and draining of carbon-rich peatlands has fueled the blazes: On Friday, Widodo said he will ban the commercial destruction of any more peatlands, but it is unclear how easily he can enforce the new policy.”

“Presidents Obama and Jokowi met, while much of Indonesia and Southeast Asia is choking on smoke from fires set to clear forests for farming,” said Nigel Purvis, president and chief executive of the Washington-based consulting firm Climate Advisers. Widodo has resolved to get the fires under control. He’s getting more determined as the fires become worse, because of course he feels very bad, and very guilty, and quite angry.”
http://m.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/10/23/jokowi-calls-peatland-moratorium-after-10-killed-haze.html

“Indonesia is an open economy,” Widodo told reporters, adding his country intends to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade accord encompassing a dozen Pacific Rim dozen including the United States. “Indonesia is an open economy,” Widodo told reporters, adding his country intends to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade accord encompassing a dozen Pacific Rim dozen including the United States.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/10/26/indonesias-climate-crisis-rages-as-its-president-meets-with-obama-on-monday/

Localization Is Good For The Economy
You can help block the TPP by a Boycott on Palm Oil Products

Tomas DiFiore

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