Grower Certification

The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) is a global, multi-stakeholder initiative on sustainable palm oil. Members of RSPO, and participants in its activities come from many different backgrounds, including plantation companies, manufacturers and retailers of palm oil products, environmental NGOs and social NGOs and from many countries that produce or use palm oil. The principal objective of RSPO is "to promote the growth and use of sustainable palm oil through co-operation within the supply chain and open dialogue between its stakeholders".

The RSPO Principles and Criteria for Sustainable Palm Oil Production were adopted in November 2005, are being applied for an initial pilot implementation period of two years from the date of adoption, and will be reviewed at the end of this period.

No public claims relating to compliance with the RSPO principles and criteria can be made without third party certification and authorisation by RSPO. Third party certification arrangements are needed for evaluation of compliance with the RSPO Principles and Criteria, and in supply chain audits to verify compliance with requirements for sustainable palm oil traceability.

The RSPO Verification Working Group (VWG) was established in order to provide detailed recommendations on certification arrangements for consideration by RSPO's Executive Board (EB). The objective of these detailed requirements is to ensure that RSPO assessments are carried out with objectivity and consistency, together with the required levels of technical rigour and stakeholder credibility.

These certification systems will be reviewed by RSPO after two years. The RSPO Executive Board can also decide to review any aspect of these systems at any time at its discretion. Certification bodies will be asked to hold an annual meeting to review best practice and provide feedback to RSPO.

Download in PDF format
RSPO Certification Systems document	198 KB
Application for RSPO Accredited Certification Body Process Flowchart	18.7 KB
RSPO Statement: Sustainable Palm Oil Certification and Trading Systems	25 KB
RSPO Statement: Sustainable Palm Oil Certification and Trading Systems  (Bahasa Indonesia)	27 KB