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Palm Oil
Industry
Introduction
Vegetable oil production worldwide totals 95 million
tonnes per year, of which over 28 million tonnes are
produced by the oil palm, the world’s second largest oil
crop after soyoil. Palm oil is an important and
versatile raw material for both food and non-food
industries, which contributes to the economic
development of the producing countries and to the diets
of millions of people around the world. Although palm
oil is entirely GM free and has the highest yield per
hectare than any oil or oilseed crop, it is recognized
that there are environmental pressures on its expansion
to eco-sensitive areas, particularly as oil palm can
only be cultivated in tropical areas of Asia, Africa and
South America. It is vital that production and use of
palm oil must be done in a sustainable manner based on
economic, social and environmental viability.
Why sustainable palm oil?
Driven by ever increasing global demand for edible oils,
the past few decades have seen rapid expansion in the
production of two major edible oils, soyoil in South
America and palm oil the tropics. From the 1990s to the
present time, the area under palm oil cultivation had
increased by about 43% , most of which were in Malaysia
and Indonesia – the world’s largest producers of palm
oil. While better managed plantations and oil palm
smallholdings serve as models of sustainable
agriculture, in terms of economic performance as well as
social and environmental responsibility, there is
serious concern that not all palm oil is being produced
sustainably at present. Development of new plantations
has resulted in the conversion of large areas of forests
with high conservation value and has threatened the rich
biodiversity in these ecosystems. Use of fire for
preparation of land for oil palm planting has been
reported to contribute to the problem of forest fires in
the late 1990s. The expansion of oil palm plantations
have also given rise to social conflicts between the
local communities and project proponents in many
instances.
Based on current trends, the oil palm industry is set to
continue its growth in order to satisfy global demand.
However, it is imperative that the expansion must be
done sustainably. To ensure that this happens, it is
necessary to develop a globally acceptable definition of
sustainable palm oil production and use as well as
implement better management practices that comply with
this definition. Recently, the Roundtable on Sustainable
Palm Oil (RSPO) was established to address this issue
and promote the sustainable production and use of palm
oil.
History of RSPO
In 2001, WWF gave an assignment to
Reinier de Man, a Dutch consultant, to explore the
possibilities for a Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil.
The result was an informal co-operation among Aarhus United UK Ltd, Golden Hope
Plantations Berhad, Migros, Malaysian Palm Oil
Association, Sainsbury’s and Unilever together with WWF
in 2002. A preparatory meeting was held in
London
on 20 September 2002 and this was followed
by a meeting in
Gland
on 17 December 2002. These
organizations constituted themselves as an Organizing
Committee to organize the first Roundtable meeting and
to prepare the foundation for the organizational and
governance structure for the formation of the RSPO.
Reinier de Man was the Organising Committee's
facilitator until April 2004.
The inaugural meeting of the
Roundtable took place in Kuala
Lumpur, Malaysia on 21 – 22 August 2003 and was attended by 200 participants from 16
countries. The key output from this meeting was the
adoption of the
Statement of Intent
(SoI) which is a non-legally
binding expression of support for the Roundtable
process. As of 31 August 2004,
forty
seven organisations
have signed the SoI.
On 8
April 2004, the “Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil
(RSPO),” was formally established under Article 60 of
the Swiss Civil Code with a governance structure that
ensures fair representation of all stakeholders
throughout the entire supply chain . The seat of the
association is in Zurich, Switzerland, while the
secretariat is currently based in Kuala Lumpur.
Download the official
press statement
[26 KB]
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