Excerpt from reuters.com
Malaysia’s Sabah state, on Borneo island, is looking to revolutionise its palm oil industry with a decade-long initiative that will ensure all growers adopt ethical standards and are certified as sustainable producers by 2025.
The innovative project, launched in 2015, brings together the state’s authorities, plantation owners, palm oil traders and buyers, green groups and local communities.
Led by the Sabah government, the scheme will help all oil palm growers – big and small – first earn national-level green certification as a stepping stone to meeting the global standard managed by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).
It is hoped the state’s effort will help protect and restore forests, improve agriculture practices and oil palm yields, resolve land disputes, end labour abuses and eventually give producers access to international premium-paying buyers.
The “jurisdictional” approach being pursued across Sabah is “globally recognised as a pioneering model” to tackle deforestation and improve labour rights in the supply chain, said Robecca Jumin, head of conservation in Sabah for green group WWF-Malaysia, which is backing the initiative.
While large companies have the resources to earn RSPO certification, small and medium-sized growers find it harder to comply and need a support system like Sabah’s, she added.
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