Gaining certification changes everything

At the RSPO, we strongly support independent smallholders. We help them improve their livelihoods by building the capacity of sustainable agriculture practices on their farms.

Today, more than 7 million smallholders around the world make a living from oil palm. In Malaysia and Indonesia alone, smallholdings represent approximately 40% of the total area for oil palm production.

As the name suggests, smallholder plantations are small-scale, with planted oil palm areas of less than 50 hectares. Under RSPO Certification, smallholders can grow oil palm independently, as part of an Independent Smallholder Group or as part of a Smallholder Scheme. They have the potential to make a significant impact to our shared mission to transform oil palm production and procurement into a sustainable industry.

We want to support more smallholders to become RSPO Certified.

This will help them produce more oil using less land, improve livelihoods, and reduce the risk of land conversion which threatens forest, wildlife, and biodiversity. By learning best management practices, certified smallholders also gain improved access to markets.

To include more smallholders and to reflect their unique circumstances and needs, we have developed the RSPO Independent Smallholder (ISH) Standard. Exclusively for independent smallholders, this standard strikes a balance between promoting greater smallholder inclusion and protecting our core sustainability requirements. The standard has a simplified certification approach, which makes it more straightforward to enter the RSPO Certification System, and provides a phased process for reaching and verifying compliance.