An Open Letter signed by more than 80 organizations from 31 countries was delivered yesterday to the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) [search] and to World Wildlife Fund (WWF) co-initiator of the initiative. In the letter, they are urged to end the "greenwashing" and certification of palm oil plantations as being "sustainable".

According to the Open Letter, palm oil companies certified by the RSPO are directly responsible for much social and environmental damage: dislocation of local populations' livelihoods, destruction of rainforests and peat lands, pollution of soils and water, and contribution to global warming. These are the reasons why "palm oil monoculture[s] are not and can never be sustainable and ‘certification' serves as a means of perpetuating and expanding this destructive industry".

The letter also points out that the certification delivered by the RSPO is insufficient and highly unreliable: the standards which the RSPO refers to would not exclude social and environmental prejudices and the certification are based solely on self-assessments by the companies involved. The real goal of the RSPO certification is not to protect people or the environment, but "to legitimise an expansion in the demand for palm oil", and to serve "to ‘greenwash' the disastrous social and environmental impacts of the palm oil industry". For example Unilever, the world's first palm oil consumer company, is doing exactly this: it is using RSPO certification "as a way of portraying itself as a ‘responsible' company, ignoring the real impacts of palm oil."

The authors of the Open Letter are also concerned about "the role played by WWF in promoting the RSPO and using it to support endless growth in the demand for palm oil." The fact that WWF contributed to the foundation of the RSPO and still lobbies for it worldwide is being used by the palm oil industry to legitimise its expansion and to obtain subsidies for example from the EU which decided to keep its 10% agrofuel target by 2020. The consequence of the involvement of the environmental organization WWF is the "speeding up of indiscriminate palm oil expansion in even more countries".

Therefore, the Open Letter reiterates the call made in an "International Declaration Against the 'Greenwashing' of Palm Oil by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO)" last year, and demands the end of promotion and support from the NGOs for the RSPO; a reduction in the demand for palm oil by the North; an end to the subsidies coming from northern governments; the protection of human rights and biodiversity and the reparation of damages.

Links

The open letter can be found below and on the Internet at:
http://www.regenwald.org/international/englisch/news.php?id=1445

The International Declaration Against the 'Greenwashing' of Palm Oil by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) can be found at:
http://www.biofuelwatch.org.uk/docs/17-11-2008-ENGLISH-RSPOInternational-Declaration.pdf

More information about palm oil greenwashing: http://www.wrm.org.uy/

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2-11-2009

Open Letter to RSPO and WWF
Palm oil monocultures will never be sustainable

One year ago, the "International Declaration Against the `Greenwashing' of Palm Oil by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil" was published, signed by over 250 organisations worldwide (http://www.regenwald.org/international/englisch/news.php?id=1070). 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. Even worse, palm oil suppliers are being granted `interim' RSPO certification based solely on self-assessments.

Destructive oil palm plantations have been certified in Malaysia, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea and the same greenwashing exercise has started in Colombia, Thailand and Ghana.

We are deeply concerned that RSPO certification is being used to legitimise an expansion in the demand for palm oil and thus in oil palm plantation, and it serves to greenwash the disastrous social and environmental impacts of the palm oil industry. The RSPO standards do not exclude clear cutting of many natural forests, the destruction of other important ecosystems, nor plantings on peat. The RSPO certifies plantations which impact on the livelihoods of local communities and their environments. The problems are exacerbated by the in-built conflict of interest in the system under which a company wanting to be certified commissions another company to carry our the assessment.

We also concerned about the role played by WWF in promoting the RSPO and using it to support endless growth in the demand for palm oil. WWF initiated the founding of the RSPO, continues to lobby worldwide for it, and combines this with their support for the agrofuel industry, including palm oil.

WWF's involvement is being used by agrofuel companies to justify building more refineries and more palm oil power stations in Europe. The promise of `sustainable palm oil', backed by WWF, was one important factor behind the EU's decision to go ahead with a 10% agrofuel target by 2020, and the RSPO will be used to allow palm oil to become eligible for EU agrofuel subsidies and other support. This is speeding up indiscriminate palm oil expansion in even more countries, including Mexico, Guatemala, Cameroon, DR Congo, Republic of Congo, Uganda and Tanzania.

Unilever, with 1.6 million tonnes per year the biggest palm oil consumer in the world, uses a `commitment' to use RSPO palm oil in future as a way of portraying itself as a `responsible' company, ignoring the real impacts of palm oil. Wilmar International has applied for RSPO certificates in Indonesia, even though evidence of their involvement in illegal land-grabbing, fire-raising and rainforest and peatland destruction has led to the World Bank having suspended funding for palm oil. That hard-won suspension is now at risk of being lost because of false promises by the RSPO.

In Colombia, palm oil company Daabon, an RSPO member, succeeded in being portrayed in European media as a `responsible' company, despite the fact that they had illegally evicted small farmers from their land, felled trees and contaminated the Caribbean Sea with palm oil spills. In South-east Asia, IOI has had plantations certified, despite being responsible for the illegal destruction of peatlands and rainforests in Kalimantan, destroying the livelihood of indigenous peoples. Their customer Neste Oil has gained an interim RSPO certificate on this basis and is using this to promote biofuels for aviation, while building the world's biggest palm oil biofuel refinery.

Palm oil monocultures for food production, cosmetic and chemical industries and agrofuels are a major cause of deforestation and climate change, they destroy the livelihoods of millions of small farmers, indigenous peoples and other communities. They require agro-chemicals which poison workers and communities, soil, water and wildlife, they deplete freshwater and soils. Palm oil monocultures are not and can never be sustainable and `certification' serves as a means of perpetuating and expanding this destructive industry.

We therefore reiterate the call made in the International Declaration last year and demand

+ An end to all agrofuel targets, subsidies and incentives, particularly in Europe and the US;

+ Major reductions in the demand for vegetable oil and energy in the North;

+ The cancellation of trade relations between companies purchasing palm oil and suppliers destroying forests and peatlands as they are responsible for or benefit from violating Human Rights;

+ Land reform to devolve land to local communities, guarantee food sovereignty and restore biodiverse agriculture and ecosystems;

+ Resolution of land conflicts, protection of human rights, reparation for damages;

+ Restoring all remaining peatlands which have been drained for oil palms as far as this is still possible in order to mitigate global warming.

NGOs should not lend legitimacy to the RSPO and WWF must stop promoting the RSPO palm oil supporting agrofuels;

Governments in Europe and the US must reduce the demand for palm oil by stopping the policies which have created the artificial agrofuel market and ending agrofuel use.

NOTES:

The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) is a private organisation or `stakeholder forum', which has created an `independent' label for certification of `sustainable' palm oil. Among the members of the RSPO are 80 palm oil plantation companies and federations, 8 banks and finance companies, 51 consumer good manufacturers, 23 retailers, 118 processors and traders and 21 NGOs.

http://www.rainforestportal.org/issues/2009/11/wwf_confronted_for_rainforest.asp