Roundtable meeting adopts ideas from palm growers, NGOs

The Roundtable meeting and the 7th General Assembly of RSPO members concluded on high notes. In the general assembly meeting, a number of grower- and NGO-submitted resolutions were adopted. Some other resolutions did not require a vote because the underlying issues had been resolved in other ways. "This Roundtable meeting has been a resounding success," RSPO President Jan Kees Vis said in a media briefing that followed the assembly meeting. "It transpired in a true RSPO tradition, with all members and stakeholders taking part in a process of give and take." "Palm oil growers, palm oil smallholders, consumer goods manufacturers and NGOs see very different risks and opportunities related to certified sustainable palm oil, and the Roundtable is all about working to understand the other stakeholder groups," he added. Among the grower-backed resolutions that were accepted was one that asks the RSPO to review its Board structure to ensure that relevant producer expertise is on board. Another resolution will require palm oil users to make time-bound and verifiable commitments to purchase certified sustainable palm oil. "This resolution will further increase the market uptake of certified sustainable palm oil," Derom Bangun, chairman of the Roundtable meeting and executive chairman of the Indonesian Palm Oil Association, said in a press briefing following the general assembly. "Palm growers know that if demand will be strong enough, there will also be a price premium for sustainable palm oil in the market." A resolution put forward by the Sumatran Orangutan Society, asking the RSPO to reconfirm that secondary and degraded forests can be part of High Conservation Values (HCV) areas, also was adopted by the assembly. The RSPO'sPrinciples and criteria for sustainable palm oil production (2007) included 'forest necessary to maintain or enhance one or more high conservation values