I missed Thanksgiving this year. Instead of feasting on turkey, I joined oil palm producers, exporters, processors, small farmers, and NGO reps at the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).

The RSPO bills itself as a “multi-stakeholder initiative” with the goal of bringing everyone on the oil palm supply chain—from smallholders in Indonesia, to Cargill, to KitKat—together with the goal of creating a certification standard for “sustainable” palm oil. The process was initiated by WWF, Unilever, and others in 2001, and since has grown astronomically—there are now 198 official RSPO members.

RAN is not an RSPO member—I was there with our Indonesian partners SawitWatch (www.sawitwatch.or.id). SawitWatch is one of the few organizations that is committed to making sure that the RSPO respects the voices of smallholders (who produce 40% of Indonesia’s palm oil)—making sure that they both are able to reap profits when “sustainable” palm oil goes on the market, and that the conflicts community members have with companies are addressed. SawitWatch brought 23 smallholders and 2 people who had rejected oil palm to the RSPO this year.

The smallholders brought some difficult stories with them:

• In Kutai Barat, East Kalimantan, a student was thrown into jail for a month for exercising his right to Free Prior and Informed Consent and rejecting oil palm on his family’s land.
• In Sanggau, West Kalimantan, companies seized community-owned land without legal permits and without consulting the community for oil palm development.
• In Jambi, Sumatra, the members of the indigenous Suku Anak Dalam community were kicked off their land without compensation when the government failed to recognize any of their traditional land rights—instead claiming that oil palm would develop them and pull them out of poverty.

For many, the RSPO was the first time that they had been in the same room with the leaders—or at least Corporate Social Responsibly reps—of the companies that were destroying their livelihoods and ignoring their rights.

But, the problem is, there wasn’t really a chance to talk.

Although smallholders are a vital part of the supply chain, there was no formal and accessible mechanism for them to sit down—round table style—at the RSPO.

Throughout the RSPO meeting, there were few other opportunities for smallholders to address the companies directly—only group discussions and summary reports backs—no direct testimony. Oxfam showed a video on the effects of indigenous peoples—which was then publicly based by oil palm producers. The official grievance procedure of the RSPO is not accessible to poor smallholders who live in villages far away from email and fax machine.

To give credit where it is due, the smallholders do get represented by the Smallholder Taskforce– a useful committee spearheaded by NGOs to ensure that smallholders’ voices were heard in the RSPO. Unfortunately, the focus here is on making sure that smallholders can reap the benefits of sustainable palm oil if it makes its way onto the market, not on solving currently conflicts—although an accessible conflict resolution mechanism was discussed in this year’s smallholder meeting.

Here’s my take on all of this: The RSPO can be an important tool, both for communities and for our work against the US Agribusiness giants. But the RSPO’s success and credibility depends on the work of organizations like SawitWatch, the Forest People’s Program, and other local NGOs who work to ensure that the RSPO is a real multi-stakeholder initiative, and works actively to ensure that community-level conflict is solved before oil palm companies are certified “sustainable”. As part of the Rainforest Agribusiness campaign, I am looking forward to working more with these organizations representing frontline communities, and pressuring the palm oil industry to live up to its RSPO promises.

And, of course, holding them responsible when they fail…