#BeliYangBaik writing competition – in search of inspired ideas to move consumers towards sustainable palm oil consumption

Jakarta, Indonesia, October 17, 2015 – As a continuation to its support to WWF Indonesia’s #BeliYangBaik campaign, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) is running a #BeliYangBaik Writing Competition in Indonesia. 

Themed “Sustainable Palm Oil, Lifestyle of a Mindful Consumer”, the competition has been rolled out at the start of the month of October 2015, inviting Indonesians to share their opinions, thoughts or experience about what role consumers can play in supporting sustainable palm oil in the region. 

The competition is part of a broader campaign by WWF Indonesia, also known as the #BeliYangBaik campaign, aimed at urging the public to make changes in their buying behaviour, by prompting that unwise consumption and buying habit have a massive impact to forest, biodiversity, and local communities, and identifies Palm Oil as one of the commodities able to bring a real change.

“Palm oil is one of the basic ingredients found in most of daily consumption products, but awareness need to be built about sustainable practices of palm oil production and what power that consumer has to make sustainable palm oil the norm. Through this writing competition, we want to highlight that consumers have the right to know that their purchasing choices can have a direct impact in supporting the environment,” said Stefano Savi, Global Outreach and Engagement Director, RSPO.

Within the competition period, several programmes focused on educating consumers through university roadshows and talkshow events are being enrolled. The activities will be a booster to inform the public on the issues, and to stimulate writers in transforming their thoughts into written works. Participants` entries are accepted in the form of either blog or online forum pieces, so to influence wider public exposure.

Further information about the competition can be found at: https://rspo.org/news-and-events/announcements/lomba-menulis-beliyangbaik-sustainable-palm-oil-gaya-hidup-konsumen-bijak 

Media contact:

Dhiny Nedyasari, Communications Manager – Indonesia

T: +62 818 740 121, E: [email protected]

About RSPO

In response to the urgent and pressing global call for sustainably-produced palm oil, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) was formed in 2004 with the objective of promoting the growth and use of sustainable oil palm products through credible global standards and engagement of stakeholders. The seat of the association is in Zurich, Switzerland, while the secretariat is currently based in Kuala Lumpur with satellite offices in Jakarta, London and Zoetermeer (NL).

RSPO is a not-for-profit association that unites stakeholders from seven sectors of the palm oil industry – oil palm producers, palm oil processors or traders, consumer goods manufacturers, retailers, banks and investors, environmental or nature conservation NGOs and social or developmental NGOs – to develop and implement global standards for sustainable palm oil.

Such multi-stakeholder representation is mirrored in the governance structure of RSPO such that seats in the Executive Board and project-level Working Groups are fairly allocated to each sector. In this way, RSPO lives out the philosophy of the "roundtable" by giving equal rights to each stakeholder group to bring group-specific agendas to the roundtable, facilitating traditionally adversarial stakeholders and business competitors to work together towards a common objective and make decisions by consensus.