Both the Sekonyer Community and endangered orangutans are losing their forest homes.

Since joining RAN’s forest program over two years ago, I have read and written about the many dire consequences of industrial scale palm oil plantations in Indonesia: one of the highest deforestation rates in the world, critical habitat for endangered species like orangutans destroyed, gross human rights abuses and labor conditions, and social conflict between communities that depend on the forests for their livelihoods and the companies destroying those forests. But until recently, my personal connection to all of this remained largely academic.

Our trip to the wilds of Borneo this month after attending the annual meeting of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) has transformed my theoretical understanding of the problems with palm oil. The experience of witnessing these impacts in person has been staggering, and I found it hard to believe that, even on the edge of a globally treasured, protected area, I was able to document one of the most severe cases of active forest destruction from palm oil expansion I have heard about to date.

What I saw during the four days we toured the forests surrounding Borneo’s Tanjung Puting National Park was more extraordinary and devastating than anything I could have imagined. The weight of my realization about what’s at stake hit me hard the day we spent walking through old-growth tropical rainforest, seeing wild orangutans, Horn Bills, Proboscis monkeys, and the recent evidence of a Sun Bear clawing a tree for honey, followed by an afternoon watching an excavator tearing down towering trees and digging a drainage canal into one of the last areas of natural forest remaining in the buffer zone of the park. We were on the edge of a community agroforestry project designed to demonstrate an alternative to destructive monoculture in an area almost entirely razed to make way for palm oil plantations.

We watched, horrified, as an irreplaceable hotspot of biodiversity fell before our eyes, two majestic Horn Bills flew overhead, and an endangered Red Langur monkey peered at us through the trees.

After spending a full day documenting human rights abuses with our allies from Save Our Borneo, an organization working on the frontlines of Central Kalimantan’s palm oil expansion crisis, RAN forest team member Lafcadio Cortesi and I took a night bus across Borneo from the city of Palangkaraya to Pangkalanbun. Even though the landscape was shrouded in darkness, the endless sea of sterile palm oil plantations beyond the road stood out throughout our entire 11 hour journey — a grim reminder that the province of Central Kalimantan has one of the fastest rates of oil palm expansion in Indonesia, perhaps even in the world.

The Sekonyer River

Around 4am we arrived in the small port town of Kumai at the office of Friends of the National Parks Foundation (FNPF), the incredible organization my colleague Laurel visited in Bali earlier this year that also operates community development and reforestation projects in Borneo. I collapsed in a makeshift bunk bed and fell asleep to the sounds of Indonesian sunrise: distant speakers blaring Muslim calls to prayer, a singing gecko, a rooster crowing, and a chainsaw running somewhere behind the little house we slept in.

A few hours later we were racing to the edge of the Kumai River on motorbikes to travel by speed boat to the Sekonyer River, the gateway to Tanjung Puting National Park. Tanjung Puting is a globally recognized biosphere reserve and an unparalleled diversity hotspot. It’s home to many endangered species such as orangutans and Clouded leopards. Despite the incredible importance of Tanjung Puting, the park and its surroundings — the buffer zone — are under threat from illegal logging and mining operations and, most ominously, the encroachment of palm oil.

The reckless, short-sighted expansion of palm oil plantations in Central Kalimantan is pushing many of these species to the brink of extinction, literally leaving them with nowhere to go. The disappearing rainforest we witnessed falling is sandwiched between the Sekonyer River, the national park, and 10,000 hectares of plantations. Inside the national park, orangutans have more hope of survival. But orangutans can’t swim, so when we saw a pregnant orangutan mother with her young children on the west side of the river — where the forest was actively being converted to oil palm plantation — my heart sank.

Oil Palm on Peat

The deeper in we got, the more severe the problems. The drainage canals along the edge of the plantations were filled with the dark black water of dissolved peat soil — highlighting the troubling reality that the much of this plantation was on top of carbon-rich peat soils and thus emitting massive amounts of CO2 as it rots upon being exposed to the air. In the converted peatlands, many of the oil palms were growing sideways and some even falling over. It seemed certain that the yields were marginal and the costs — the loss of a thriving and rare ecosystem and community livelihoods — was great. It seemed sure the Indonesian law prohibiting conversion of deep peatlands was being violated.

Responsible for this mess is BW Plantations, an RSPO member with about 100,000 hectares (240,000 acres) of oil palm plantations in Central and East Kalimantan. In addition to its draining of peatlands and destroying primary forests right up against a national park filled with many of the world’s last orangutans, the company is also grossly disrespecting the rights of the local community.

Community secretary Mr. Taufik delivers an impassioned speech about the community's resistance to palm oil expansion. The banner reads: PT Bumi Langgeng Return Community Rights

The vibrant village of Tanjung Harapan on the Sekonyer river has over 100 families who are actively opposing the palm oil plantation and its expansion. Immediately upon entering the village by water, we saw two huge protest banners and a large sign reading, “PT Bumi Langgeng: Return the Rights of the Sekonyer Community.” The community members depend on the forest for their livelihoods and see the encroaching palm oil as a threat to their reliance on community food gardens, agroforestry, and fishing. They are angry that the palm oil plantation has used over 2,200 hectares (over 5,000 acres) of their village lands without any consultation or approval.

During our stay in the Sekonyer community, we slept under mosquito nets on a boat on the river’s edge. Our second night we met with community leaders and they told us their story. We learned that the community has been at odds with the palm oil company PT Bumi Langgeng, a subsidiary of BW Plantations, for many years over a land conflict. In the last several months, community resistance has escalated as land clearing continues at breakneck speed. I could actually hear the bulldozers demolishing forest from the community garden — to say it was unsettling would be a major understatement.

Mother and baby orangutan at Camp Leakey

When the company cut down the community’s native rubber trees around six months ago, it triggered the first demonstration. Police showed up but no one was arrested. The latest demonstration took place just a few months ago after community leaders sent formal letters of complaint to the company as well as the district, provincial, and national governments seeking recognition of their lands, compensation for the 2,200 ha. of community land already taken by the company, and a halt to further expansion into forests and remaining community lands. Community members blocked the canal from the palm oil plantation to the main river. So far they have not received any response.

This is the true cost of palm oil. Is it worth it?

As the cheapest, highest-yielding vegetable oil and now the most heavily traded edible oil in the world, I understand that companies benefit from this lucrative industry so dependent on cheap labor and precious yet cheap rainforests. But at what price are we going to continue expanding this commodity? Expansion of palm oil into ecological and cultural hotspots needs to stop. The community of Sekonyer needs our support to secure their rights and justice. The time is ticking for the orangutans and other species depending on the forests — if they can’t be protected from palm oil expansion on the edge of a national park, the prospects for responsible palm oil look grim.

RAN sent a delegation of four staff to lobby for human rights and rainforest protections at the 9th Annual RSPO Meeting in Malaysia.

As the 9^thAnnual Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) meeting wrapped up on the island of Borneo, the crisis stemming from the uncontrolled expansion of palm oil plantations into rainforests and communities reached a fever pitch.

Consider this: In the few days that RAN’s four staff-member delegation attended the RSPO meeting in SE Asia, the Forest People’s Programme (FPP) released a comprehensive and scathing report that documents Cargill supplier and palm oil giant Wilmar’s complicity in the bulldozing of homes and the use of live ammunition to forcibly evict Indigenous community members on the island of Sumatra.

In a press conference on the human rights impacts of palm oil held during the RSPO meeting, Rukaiyah Rofiq, who goes by Uki and works with the human rights advocacy group Yayasan Setara Jambi, warned that companies producing palm oil under the RSPO umbrella are failing to resolve the social conflict caused by plantation expansion. In a November 24 article in the print version of the Borneo Post titled “RSPO Emboldens Violators of Indigenous Rights – NGO,” Uki said:

Ideally, we had hoped that with the RSPO, these conflicts would be stopped or at least reduced, and the rights of the communities be restored. But we’re not seeing any impact with the RSPO. This is evident in the ninth meeting we’ve had with the RSPO. There has not been any change; the conflicts have not decreased. The presence of RSPO has not reduced or resolved the conflicts.

Uki is referring to the more than 600 cases of social conflict related to palm oil in Indonesia documented by Sawit Watch. In the same press conference, Jefri Gideon of Sawit Watch said: “There is a big hope among everyone that the RSPO can help resolve these conflicts.” He urged RSPO members to go beyond talking about the RSPO principles and criteria and code of conduct and actually implement them.

During the same week, the Jakarta Globe published two articles, “Indonesian Palm Oil Dispute at ‘Crisis Point’” and “Paradise Lost at Hands of Palm Oil Companies“, about a separate conflict surrounding the village of Muara Tae on the island of Borneo.

Muara Tae is in a stand-off with a palm oil firm whose forest clearing threatens the villagers’ entire way of life. Community member Petrus Asuy issued an impassioned plea, saying, “Because of the palm oil plantations, our water has become polluted and many of our springs have dried up. We took our case to the local government, but they ignored us. We are completely against these companies because they have compromised our way of life. What hope is there now for our grandchildren? We are pleading for help for our situation and for this activity to stop.”

It has become abundantly clear that wherever massive international commodity corporations are granted huge forest concessions and allowed free reign to manage them, community conflict and environmental devastation quickly follow.

It is more imperative than ever that companies like Cargill and Wilmar immediately address the serious problems of human rights abuses and rainforest destruction in their supply chains and become a part of the solution to this crisis instead of indiscriminately trafficking palm oil into North American and European markets. Please take a moment to ask Cargill CEO Greg Page to adopt safeguards to keep controversial palm oil out of American food products.

Kellogg’s:

Despite officially joining in 2008, Kellogg’s doesn’t appear to have ever completed the five basic questions in its membership application. We were unable to find their required annual progress reports, according to the minutes of last year’s General Assembly they did not vote on the resolutions, and weren’t sighted at last year’s RSPO conference at all. Again this year they were nowhere to be found. Kellogg’s told the public in its recent announcement:

“As a socially responsible company, Kellogg is committed to conducting our business in a way that reduces our environmental impact,” said Celeste A. Clark, Ph.D., Chief Sustainability Officer, Kellogg Company.

Apparently Kellogg’s commitment doesn’t extend to engaging with or verifying the effectiveness of the RSPO. Given that it sources palm oil from Cargill, a company with no safeguards on the palm oil it trades, this seems like a pretty flimsy guarantee to customers that the company takes its sustainability commitment seriously.

Girl Scouts:

Following extensive public concern about the use of palm oil in their iconic Girl Scout cookies, Girl Scouts USA recently made a “sustainable” palm oil commitment to cover its use of palm oil in dozens of popular Girl Scout cookie recipes. Despite having committed to the public the intent to “become affiliate members of the RSPO” and use the RSPO to guarantee that its products are not linked to rainforest destruction, representatives were nowhere to  be found.

In fact, Girl Scouts USA seems to have created a new category of “affiliate membership” that is not one of the 7 official categories of RSPO membership. Hmmm.Perhaps by affiliate membership they mean they are relying on cookie bakers to effectively use their membership in the RSPO to guarantee that palm oil is not connected to rainforest destruction and orangutan habitat loss. Unfortunately we couldn’t confirm RSPO membership for either ABC Bakers or Weston Foods Limited, and the only Girl Scout cookie baker we did find was Kellogg. Pity given the above.

McDonald’s:

The newest RSPO member missing in action joined in October with great fanfare but was nowhere to be found despite having said:

“Participating in multi-stakeholder engagements such as the RSPO is one way for us to put the power and leadership of McDonald’s behind commitments to continue to source sustainable ingredients such as palm oil,” said Francesca DeBiase, McDonald’s vice president, Worldwide Strategic Sourcing, in a statement. “Sustainability issues as they relate to food are often confusing to consumers, and we can help lead the way by educating our customers on how our food is sourced.”

Missing: McDonalds CEO Jim Skinner

Missing: Kellogg CEO John Bryant

Missing: GSUSA CEO Anna Maria Chavez

If we’re expecting these brands to assure that RSPO certified palm oil is truly responsible, perhaps next year we’ll have to put the photos of these missing companies on the back of milk boxes before the annual RSPO meeting.

Update 11/24/11 9:50am Whose Voices are Missing at the RSPO?

In concluding her plenary presentation yesterday, “A Preliminary consideration of workers and communities,” Toh su Mei from the organization Wild Asia, left participants of the 9^th Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil meeting pondering the lack of representation of workers and smallholders at the conference.

“We are the stakeholders of the palm oil economy, but where are the workers in the room?” Her question to the room brought to light a notable emptiness among RSPO members and RSPO board members: palm oil workers.

Workers at Ledo Lestari palm oil plantation in Borneo. Photo: David Gilbert

There are an estimated 2 million Indonesians working in Malaysia for a variety of industries. Indonesia placed a moratorium on sending workers to Malaysia following widely reported abuse of Indonesian workers in the neighboring country where many are undocumented and work in palm oil plantations, construction and as domestic workers. But after two years of tough negotiations, involving the top leaders of both countries, Indonesia and Malaysia eventually overcame the protracted deadlock on the sending of unskilled Indonesian workers to Malaysia.

Migrant workers from Indonesia working on palm oil plantations may have their passports held and may be subject to multi-year contracts that push the workers into debt and prevent escape. As I documented just over a year ago, slave and child labor on palm oil plantations is a severe reality in Indonesia and Malaysia. So sever, in fact, that recently the U.S. Department of Labor added palm oil cultivated in Indonesia to its List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor.

Toh su Mei explained that migrant workers often aren’t allowed to organize or join unions or risk getting terminated. She encouraged the RSPO to reach out to local and migrant workers upon which the oil palm industry relies and to engage them in decision making processes that ultimately affect them but currently are run behind closed doors.

According to a 2009 publication on the Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants, here is summary of the issues facing migrant workers in Malaysia.

If the RSPO fails to meaningfully involve the workers it relies on to address these issues, another weakness will be added to a system that is already missing key safeguards relating to the industry’s greenhouse gas emissions, one that still fails to adequately implement key elements of the principles and criteria relating to social conflict and the conversion of natural forests.

Orangutans, threatened with extinction by the palm oil industry, are humankinds closest relatives

Original Post: Malaysia Minister Slams NGOs for Using Science that Documents High Risk of Orangutan Extinction

On Tuesday, November 22, the Malaysian Minister of Plantation Industries and Commodities, a man named Tan Sri Bernard Giluk Dompok, delivered the Official Address in the Opening Ceremony of the Rountable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) conference. A significant portion of his comments expressed concern and disapproval of the style of campaigning RAN and other NGO’s use to draw attention to the social and environmental problems with palm oil.

But Mr. Dompok did more than simply acknowledge the campaigns of those concerned with deforestation, climate change, and declines in orangutan populations. He decided to snub science in front of 1,000 delegates from 34 countries, claiming that a 2007 report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), documenting the high risk of orangutan extinction due to deforestation, was baseless:

The development of the oil palm industry has never been without challenges. Environmental and consumer advocacy groups, particularly in Europe and US have stepped up claims that the oil palm sector is destroying large tracts of forests and encroaching on the natural habitats of endangered species. For example, a report entitled, “The Last Stand of the Orang Utan: State of Emergency,” claims that oil palm plantations are expanding so rapidly in the rainforests of Malaysia that almost no virgin forest will remain by 2022. It has been also claimed that an equivalent of 300 soccer fields are deforested every hour for oil palm plantations. I am of the view all these allegations are baseless and based on the premise of fear on the competitiveness of palm oil.

This statement comes just a week after the Malaysian Government announced its plans to spend $7.7 million (24 million ringgit) in 2011 and 2012 to counter criticism over the social and environmental impact of palm oil.

Directly after Mr. Dompok’s speech, I snuck into the Press Conference and sat in the front row. On camera, I asked Mr. Dompok why the Malaysian Government needed to spend over $7 million if the Malaysian palm oil industry was indeed so “sustainable.” His answer? That Malaysia needs to counter misleading NGO campaigns based on fear.

Indeed, the specter of the extinction of humankind’s closest relative, the orangutan, does elicit a sense of fear in many around the world. A comprehensive new study finds that orangutan populations in Indonesian Borneo are being diminished at unsustainable rates. The results indicate orangutans may be headed toward extinction. The study, published in PLoS One, is based on 18 months of interviews with nearly 7,000 people across 687 villages in areas where orangutans persist in East, Central, and West Kalimantan. The research involved 18 NGOs, including local and international organizations.

In a recent interview, Dr. Marc Ancrenanz of HUTAN notes that oil palm plantations cover a staggering 14,000 square kilometers of Sabah, one of the two states in Malaysian Borneo and the number one producer of Malaysian palm oil. This is equal to 20 Singapores planted solely with palm!

In the same interview, Dr. Marc Ancrenanz mentions that genetic studies in Sabah show that the orangutan population has declined by 50% to 90% over the past few decades. This severe decline is due to several causes, such as hunting and the illegal pet trade, but the foremost reason is forest loss as it is cut down and converted to agriculture.

So you be the judge. Do you trust the comments made by the Malaysian Minister following the government’s $7 million investment in a public relations campaign, or do you trust scientists working to save the endangered orangutan before it is too late? In my experience, when companies or governments spend $7,000,000 on public relations to counter science, it’s usually because they have something to cover up.

The 9th Annual RSPO Meeting is in Sabah (Malaysian Borneo)

In an interview, Dr. Marc Ancrenanz of HUTAN notes that oil palm plantations cover a staggering 14,000 square kilometers of Sabah, one of the two states in Malaysian Borneo and the number one producer of Malaysian palm oil. This is equal to 20 Singapores planted solely with palm!

In the same interview, Dr. Marc Ancrenanz mentions that genetic studies in Sabah show that the orangutan population has declined by 50% to 90% over the past few decades. This severe decline is due to several causes, such as hunting and the illegal pet trade, but the foremost reason is forest loss as it is cut down and converted to agriculture.

This final frontier — home of our globe’s oldest rainforests and last stands of orangutans — is the setting for this year’s RSPO conference, where strange bedfellows come together and debate the “sustainable” palm oil industry. Activists, industry heavy weights, and the Malaysian Palm Oil Association spend three days playing their respective hands in the struggle over the fate of  tropical forests. Major plantation companies like Sime Darby and Wilmar attend the conference to try and stop the RSPO from making it any more difficult for them to convert rainforest to palm oil plantations, while RAN brings a different set of values to the meeting.

Next week, when families across North America are celebrating Thanksgiving with their families, our team will be attending the 9^th annual Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) conference in Borneo.

Comprised of mostly Indonesia and Malaysia, Borneo is the third-largest island in the world and is known for being one of the most biologically and culturally rich landscapes in the world. Unfortunately, these incredible rainforests are in grave danger from Indonesia and Malaysia’s unchecked agricultural expansion.

Our goal is to advocate for human rights, demonstrate the need for companies to establish safeguards on their palm oil supply chains, and stop the RSPO from certifying forest conversion in the face of this industrial agriculture onslaught. We will gather stories from community members affected by Cargill suppliers, many of whom attend the conference as delegates of Sawit Watch and travel from several different regions impacted by the palm oil operations of Sime Darby, Tribakti Sari Mas, Cresna Duta Agrindo, & Asiatic Persada/Wilmar. The controversy-laden palm oil peddled by these companies is exported around the world by Cargill and ends up in half of the products in your grocery store — think Kellogg’s, Smucker’s, and Girl Scout cookies.

The RSPO has come a long way, but not far enough

Throughout the conference RAN will be advocating for several demands to ensure that human rights and the environment are respected by the palm oil industry: The RSPO must start protecting rainforests and the communities and species that depend on them, and must stop certifying palm oil as “sustainable” if it was grown using the horribly destructive practice of draining carbon rich peatlands and exacerbating climate change. The RSPO must also stop dragging its feet and adopt a greenhouse gas emissions standard if it wants its palm oil certification standard to have any level of credibility.

Lastly, the RSPO must implement an effective grievance process that actually addresses pending social conflict complaints and includes a dispute settlement facility that truly respects human rights.

ADM: Investing in Human Rights Abuses

Unlike 2008′s showdown, nobody from RAN attended this year’s Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) shareholder meeting to hold CEO Patricia Woertz’ ass to the fire. Nonetheless, ADM did not get away without responding to tough questions about the company’s irresponsible palm oil supply chain.

ADM, one of the world’s largest agricultural processors with operations in more than 75 countries, held its annual shareholder meeting on Thursday in it’s hometown of Decatur, Illinois. ADM CEO Patricia Woertz proudly announced that the company increased its quarterly cash dividend from 16 cents per share to 17.5 cents per share. Happy news for shareholders, right?

Well, probably not if they knew the dirty truth: they are invested in a company complicit in gross human rights violations in Indonesia.

The most significant part of this year’s meeting was that shareholders presented a powerful resolution on palm oil, resolving that the board of directors adopt and implement a comprehensive sustainable palm oil policy. Not surprisingly, and by way of shedding light on the true nature of this company, the Board of Directors recommended a vote AGAINST this stockholder proposal.

The resolution included:

• A target date for sourcing 100% certified sustainable palm oil and for segregating and tracing certified palm oil throughout the supply chain;

• Plans to verify suppliers’ compliance with the policy; and

• Supporting a moratorium on palm oil expansion in rainforests and peatlands.

It’s too bad ADM didn’t welcome this resolution — it could have been a positive step in the right direction for a laggard of a company. A concerned shareholder attended the meeting and raised a few of her concerns about palm oil, which I’ve summarized below:

- Indonesia is the 3rd largest producer of greenhouse gases behind china and the US thanks to deforestation linked to palm oil plantation expansion, exacerbating climate change.

- ADM sources palm oil from one of the most biodiverse areas in the world, the last remaining habitat for the critically endangered orangutan, meaning they will likely become extinct.

- Indigenous people are also losing their homes and livelihoods to plantations; when they resist, they are arrested, and their homes bulldozed. This violates the standards of the RSPO, of which ADM is a member.

These comments led to an important question. The shareholder asked Woertz what ADM was doing to address the fact that Wilmar, a massive palm oil plantation company with operations in Indonesia and Malaysia of which ADM is a major shareholder, violated the RSPO code of conduct by bulldozing an Indigenous community when it got in the way of the company’s operations. Ms. Woertz responded by saying that most of the charges by the community were found to be “without merit” but that there were some issues found to have validity regarding the land, and that those investigations are still ongoing.

The CEO also said that, “as far as committing to 100% sustainable palm oil, we believe this can be done most effectively through a group effort, not by acting alone.” I beg to disagree. As the three top importers of palm oil into the US, I believe ADM, Cargill and IOI all have a responsibility to commit to 100% RSPO certified palm oil as the bare minimum standard for their US customers.

Hopefully shareholders continue to challenge ADM on its misleading claims. Any claims by ADM that it is taking the environment into consideration are completely toothless without a palm oil policy in place to make even the most basic level of assurances to its customers by adopting supply chain safeguards. With these safeguards in place, palm oil produced by companies that think bulldozing a community is a viable dispute resolution mechanism will never end up in our homes.

It’s been a tumultuous few months for cheerleaders of Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil-certified “sustainable” palm oil, and now the ground just became even more unstable. In an interesting turn of events — what some alarmists are calling “the beginning of the end” for the RSPO —  Indonesia’s Palm Oil Association (GAPKI) has walked out on the RSPO.

Although I’m not exactly sure what this means, it raises interesting questions for the further evolution of the RSPO certification standard. Industry associations typically defend the lowest common denominator of their memberships, making them unlikely allies when pushing for changes to business as usual. I witnessed firsthand GAPKI’s aggressive obstructionist tactics at the last RSPO annual meeting in 2010.

GAPKI has jumped ship in the hopes that the Indonesian government-sponsored palm oil certification scheme, Indonesia Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO), will rubberstamp existing practices as “sustainable.” Malaysia is also setting up its own palm oil industry controlled certification scheme as an alternative to the RSPO.

Does this mark the beginning of the end for the RSPO? Or the beginning of a new era of credible RSPO certification standards that actually embody strong zero deforestation criteria without GAPKI blocking progress at every step of the way?

In my mind, the most important question here is how big consumer facing brands are going to make meaningful commitments to their customers. Both Malaysia’s Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO) scheme and Indonesia’s ISPO are deep greenwash, essentially government-led, industry-controlled schemes to enable larger exports of falsely labelled “sustainable” palm oil to countries around the world without addressing the huge negative environmental and social impacts of its production.

More and more large companies around the world are adopting zero deforestation policies for their palm oil supply chains, creating markets for growers willing to meet the higher standards of high value markets. The Consumer Goods Forum, with over 600 hundred large companies in 70 countries and $2.9 trillion in annual revenues, has passed a resolution to eliminate tropical deforestation from their collective supply chains by 2020. With GAPKI gone, they will be looking to the RSPO to embrace this opportunity.

The weaker governance and standards of the ISPO and MSPO and the clumsy attempt by provincial palm oil grower interests to ice out their customers from decision-making means they will never be trusted in the marketplace for any sort of quality assurance around environmental or social safeguards.

Daisy Troop #42, Seacliff, NY. Photo: Diana Lenkler

After four years of savvy campaigning by Girl Scout activists Madison Vorva and Rhiannon Tomtishen, Girl Scouts USA (GSUSA) has finally acknowledged its role in rainforest destruction by releasing a commitment regarding its use of palm oil in its iconic cookies.

Unfortunately, the statement on palm oil just released is a small step in the right direction at a time when we need leaps forward to prevent the imminent extinction of orangutans and the wholesale destruction of some of the world’s most biologically diverse and carbon rich forests.

The bottom line remains: Girl Scouts USA cannot guarantee that the box of Thin Mints you buy doesn’t contain palm oil from rainforest destruction.

Rainforest Action Network, the Union of Concerned Scientists, and Madi and Rhiannon remain concerned and have issued a joint press statement explaining why the announcement by GSUSA, while a good start, is insufficient to sever the unacceptable connection between beloved Girl Scout cookies and tropical deforestation.

Rainforest Action Network asks Girl Scouts USA to instruct their suppliers, especially agribusiness giant Cargill, to adopt basic safeguards around greenhouse gas emissions, human rights and biodiversity loss, and not outsource their values by relying on the inadequate standards of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil.

Troop #9045 in Central Texas. Photo: Troop Leader Jennifer McNichols

We believe Girl Scouts USA must do more than simply “work with its bakers.” In its statement, GSUSA acknowledges that while the quantity of palm oil they use is relatively small, “their voice is big.” We believe the organization has a responsibility to use that voice to help convince Cargill and other suppliers to offer guarantees to American consumers that abuses such as slave labor will no longer end up in Girl Scout cookies, or any other product. Cargill is buying its oil from the likes of Wilmar, KLK and IOI, companies connected to some of the very worst examples of corporate environmental destruction and human rights abuses. And this means Girl Scout cookies are implicated too.

Girl Scouts USA’s palm oil announcement states:

Beginning with the 2012-13 cookie season, each cookie box will include a GreenPalm logo as a symbol of Girl Scouts’ commitment to address concerns about the deforestation of sensitive lands currently caused by the production of palm oil.

Green Palm Certificates are sold to companies by the plantation that grew the palm oil. The company then goes and buys palm oil from anyone at the cheapest price. For this reason, Green Palm Certificates are a step in the right direction because they reward growers for following basic safeguards, but they do not ensure that the palm oil used in products is not linked to controversy or is driving up demand for palm oil connected to rainforest destruction and human rights violations.

As great as it is that Girl Scouts USA will be addressing the issue of palm oil in the coming cookie season, we strongly urge GSUSA to refrain from simply using its purchase of Green Palm Certificates to greenwash its image, and instead to consider implementing a plan of action to ensure its cookies are truly free of ingredients sourced from rainforest destruction. It would be very misleading for young girls across the country selling Girl Scout cookies to make claims of “sustainable palm oil” in Thin Mints when in actuality the cookies are continuing to drive deforestation and orangutan extinction.

A man imprisoned for protesting palm oil expansion on his native customary land. Photo by Hendrikus Adam of Walhi Kalbar (Friends of the Earth West Kalimantan).

Much like the story with palm oil suppliers IOI and KLK, Cargill is again implicated in serious human rights abuses through it’s palm oil supplier Wilmar.

News of yet another case of heated social conflict on an oil palm plantation is breaking in Indonesia, and meanwhile Cargill continues to traffic this controversial palm oil into the US and sell it to most major brand companies throughout North America.

Today RAN released a press statement exposing these damning links and expressing our concern that the palm oil Cargill supplies and trades to the world is tied to intensifying community violence in Indonesia.

Cargill Supplier Linked to Violence and Home Demolition in Indonesia

San Francisco, CA – Newly uncovered customs data unearthed by Rainforest Action Network links agriculture trading giant Cargill to recent acts of violence, intimidation and home demolition against Indigenous villagers on the Indonesian island of Sumatra.

The security forces of Cargill palm oil supplier Wilmar have been documented using armed violence and heavy machinery to destroy homes in the village of Sungai Beruang. This attack is an escalation of a long simmering tension over land rights between the native community and Wilmar affiliate “Asiatic Persada.” Another wholly owned Wilmar subsidiary, PGEO Edible Oils, has been a frequent supplier of palm oil to Cargill.

The most recent conflicts began August 8, after Wilmar’s security forces apprehended a villager because he attempted to sell palm oil fruits that the company claimed it owned. This resulted in an altercation between community members and police forces. On August 10, Wilmar security forces, together with the Indonesian special police brigade Brimob, entered the village and began demolishing homes with bulldozers. Brimob fired live ammunition and reports from the scene say that over 100 men, women and children were evicted from their homes. A coalition of organizations has submitted a letter of complaint to the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) but no response has been received at this time.

Cargill's supply chain is leaving a trail of community destruction. Photo: Rainforest Rescue

Rainforest Action Network Forest Program Director Lindsey Allen issued the following statement in response to this latest controversy:

“This outrageous act of violence against community members is yet another in a series of examples that starkly illustrate why Cargill must adopt crucial safeguards on its supply chains. This is the only way Cargill will be able to guarantee these kinds of gross human rights violations do not continue to be imported into the American food supply.

“Rainforest Action Network has been warning Cargill for years that the company’s supply chain is vulnerable to serious human rights abuses, including slave labor and violence against Indigenous villagers. Rainforest Action Network deeply regrets that homes and livelihoods have been destroyed in this latest conflict and we hope this is a wake up call for Cargill to change the way it does business.

“Rainforest Action Network demands that Cargill implement meaningful safeguards to prevent anything of this sort from happening again. Cargill should also pressure the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) to set in motion a process to resolve the situation amicably and address the underlying land dispute, in line with RSPO Principles 2 and 6.”

Rivani Noor, a human rights and environmental advocate with the Indonesian NGO Cappa, said “This is a crime against humanity. Wilmar has blood on its hands. The assertion that this company produces sustainable palm oil is a lie.”

Photos of the destroyed village can be found at: www.robinwood.de/palmoel

For more photos and information on longstanding conflict resolution efforts with Wilmar, contact Rivani Noor with the contact information listed above.

For background on the campaign to convince Cargill to institute supply chain safeguards, and the company’s history of ties to environmental and human rights scandals, please contact Laurel Sutherlin at RAN with the contact information listed above.

A Mountain of Palm Oil Being Delivered to a Malaysian Mill. Photo: New York Times

This post was written by Andrew Ng, a RAN ally and committed activist who has spent more than a decade working on forest issues.

What is the future of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO)? Clearly the Malaysian palm oil sector — including both industry and government — wants to challenge it with the announcement of its own Malaysian sustainable palm oil scheme.

At face value, the notion of a Malaysian and Indonesian sustainable palm oil initiative appears positive. A national standard for any sector should represent progress, right? Especially since it’s being spearheaded by government.

But given the track record, can we believe that Malaysia’s government will ensure their scheme is as credible as the RSPO?

Let’s look for clues in the only other national standard created by Malaysia: the Malaysian Timber Certification Council (MTCC). Born of similar circumstances, Malaysia introduced MTCC to shut up the pesky environmental and social NGOs critical of Malaysia’s unsustainable forestry policy that was displacing Indigenous communities.

The response? It was greeted with great NGO scepticism. The NGOs that were critical of the MTCC essentially shut the door on the process out of frustration that land rights issues weren’t even recognized. Today the MTCC remains without any credible NGO support and is still challenged by stakeholders on the same issues brought to light with the recently announced Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO) certification scheme.

Right now, NGOs from Malaysia and the Netherlands continue to challenge the claims of the MTCC at the Dutch timber procurement body. The evidence compiled by the NGOs reveals the truth on the ground, exposing the bogus claims of the MTCC.

Now, in an almost identical scenario, the Malaysian government and palm oil industry is launching its own sustainable palm oil scheme. It gives me little confidence that this story will be any different.

A Malaysian standard will be adopted, but we can’t expect stakeholder participation. Facing critical NGOs through consultation and dialogue will not be part of the industry or government’s due diligence process. After all, P. Gunasegaran of The Star decried the democratic arrangements of RSPO’s Board. His central argument was that it’s unfortunate producers do not have total control over the RSPO process.

Malaysia Palm Oil Council Greenwash

Given Malaysia’s shoddy track record, should we deem its looming palm oil certification scheme credible?

Malaysia’s palm oil bloc has managed to build up quite a reputation for itself through a series of embarrassing censures in the media. From the recent BBC/NBC/CNN scandal involving PR firm FBC back to the 2007 criticism of MPOC by the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), the recurring theme is grossly misleading claims.

Interestingly enough, none of this has stopped industry apologists from continuing to take shots across the bow at NGOs. Case in point: the Minister of Primary Commodities Bernard Dompok, whose allegations that the RSPO “moves the goalposts” to purposely disadvantage producers is ridiculous. I fail to see how the deferment of RSPO’s 2005 deforestation deadline to producers’ advantage fits into the Minister’s reckoning.

P. Gunasegaran wildly claims: “Malaysia has officially stopped clearing virgin forests.” FALSE! While there is little natural forest remaining in Malaysia, the rest of its forests are under severe threat of conversion to palm oil plantations, as has been well-documented by NGOs, especially in Sarawak. Gunasegaran also asserts that Greenpeace’s claims that orang utan habitat is being cleared is “not entirely correct.” He fails to substantiate and rebut the Greenpeace reports but tries to play up the nationalist card.

These recent developments, on the heels of IOI Group’s defiance of the RSPO, means that the announcement of a Malaysian scheme certainly raises an eyebrow.

Andrew Ng

About the author:

As half of Grassroots, a socially conscious consulting firm, Andrew has been involved in the IOI Corp–Long Teran Kanan conflict working with NGOs and community members to engage stakeholders and campaign in order to find a resolution. Andrew has 13 years of experience working with WWF and the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) on policy work, research, campaigning and engaging the agribusiness sector. With experience on RSPO and forest certification issues, some of his recent work includes efforts to highlight Indigenous peoples’ rights problems in the forestry sector. Andrew believes that we need a strong NGO sector to balance society and ensure social justice.

Malaysia Sustainable Palm Oil. Photo: astromediashop

As I reported on Monday, the Malaysian government—hand in hand with the country’s largest palm oil companies—is attempting to undermine the RSPO’s “sustainable palm oil” certification standard by creating its own certification. Problem is—the Malaysian palm oil industry’s version of “sustainable palm oil” is pure greenwash which is extremely problematic for the companies and consumers demanding real standards of sustainability that are based on sound science. The entire notion of determining a baseline of “sustainability” for forest preservation will be lost.

Yesterday’s Malaysian paper StarBiz update on the process does not bode well for the species, communities and forests of Indonesia that are most threatened by the expansion of palm oil plantations. It reported that the “draft on the Malaysia Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO) certification scheme is currently being formulated with the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) earmarked as the main moderator.” Does it seems strange to anyone else that Malaysia’s Palm Oil Board – in charge of advocating for palm oil expansion at any cost – is formulating a certification scheme for sustainable palm oil? Where are the scientists, agronomists and ecologists?

The article continues:

“the [Malaysian] Government is serious about introducing its national green palm oil certification scheme as an alternative to the current voluntary Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) certification…this is an opportunity for Malaysia to tell the world that its oil palms are grown in a sustainable manner and do not involve the clearing of virgin forest.”

Malaysia wants to tell the world that land conversion for its oil palm “doesn’t involve the clearing of virgin forest?” Clearly the preservation of natural forests is important, but what about the Free, Prior, Informed Consent (FPIC) of its Indigenous peoples and forest communities? What about its critical habitat for endangered species like the orangutan? What about its other forested areas that are not natural forest land anymore but secondary forests—key habitat for endangered species and diverse forest peoples? I think Malaysia has more at stake that it cares to admit. Watering down criteria for the “sustainability” of its palm oil plantations could turn out to be nothing short of devastating for the people and wildlife of Malaysia.

Malaysia's Commodities Minister Bernard Dompok

If a massive palm oil company decides that getting its plantations certified by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) is, well, just too hard, what do you think happens?

The Malaysian government comes to the rescue, of course, and comes up with a solution that will allow IOI — the largest palm oil plantation company in Malaysia — and a concerned Australian food industry to cover their asses by obtaining the green stamp of sustainability with more ease and efficiency.

Like a bad movie that just keeps getting worse, the Malaysian government recently decided to prioritize the expansion of palm oil at any cost by creating its own “sustainable palm oil” certification scheme that is much weaker than even the RSPO.

It seems that in an interesting chain of events, IOI may have found a way to continue undermining Indigenous rights by disregarding the native customary land rights of Long Teran Kenan (LTK). Backed by the Malaysian government, IOI will in effect be able to skirt a severe case of social conflict, and in the process completely undermine the RSPO grievance process, while at the same time managing to sell its palm oil to Australia as “sustainable.” Troubling.

A monoculture palm oil plantation

According to BusinessGreen.com, Bernard Dompok, Malaysia’s commodities minister, said the country’s plan to create its own sustainable palm oil certification scheme “is moving forward after the NGO and industry-backed RSPO reportedly accused Malaysian palm oil producer IOI Corp of violating its certification standards, and suspended plans to certify its plantations. ‘We will go ahead [with plans for a new certification scheme] because the RSPO keeps on changing its goal posts on how to produce sustainable palm oil,’ said Dompok.”

Wait a minute, let me get this straight: the RSPO — widely criticized for failing to enforce key social and environmental safeguards — is being too tough on IOI Group? In reality, as we’ve seen with the IOI case, the RSPO is just starting to flex its enforcement muscle, which has been quite welcomed by social and environmental NGOs. When the RSPO grievance panel swiftly responded to the grievance letter submitted by a dozen concerned NGOs in May and ruled that IOI was in breach of the RSPO Code of Conduct, suspending IOI’s plans to certify its plantations, RAN applauded the RSPO’s action. IOI’s illegal activity continues to drag on as the community of LTK struggles to regain possession of its native land.

Malaysia Under Pressure: Australia's Palm Oil Labeling Bill

Clearly IOI is looking for a free ride. Is the Aussie food industry doing the same thing? According to the Australian food industry, “The best way for Malaysia to counter the rising negative sentiment in Australia towards palm oil is to quickly increase the production of sustainable palm oil. One suggestion is to set a deadline for growers to fully adopt sustainable practices.” With mounting pressure from Australian consumers to label products that contain palm oil, manufacturers are swiftly looking into certified sustainable palm oil.

In Australia’s race to populate its grocery stores with products labeled with “sustainable palm oil,” will it use any discretion or simply lose sight of key social and environmental criteria? To keep Australia from watering down certification schemes for sustainable palm oil, consumers must not fall for Malaysia’s greenwash and demand real standards that are based on sound science.

Concerned that the emergence of competitive standards could make it harder to ensure that palm oil has been sourced from plantations that adhere to demanding environmental standards, RAN will continue working to improve both the standards of RSPO Certification as well as push for increased enforcement of RSPO members. Clearly, the RSPO still has major gaps, but unless we remain committed to improving it we may end up with far weaker and less legitimate certification schemes.

What's At Stake: The Rainforest in Borneo. Photo by Frans Lanting.

This is the third and final installment in a series of posts that endeavors to answer a simple question: What is sustainable palm oil?

The answer, of course, is anything but simple.

The first blog post in this series explored the weaknesses of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), the dominant certification standard for palm oil companies. The second post examined the colorful spectrum of positions on “sustainable” palm oil from environmental advocacy groups to scientists and industry.

The real question still remains to be answered: Can an agricultural commodity like palm oil, which displaces rainforests and peatlands and has heavy ties to slave labor and human rights abuses, ever be considered sustainable?

According to the US Department of Agriculture’s website, the word “sustain” implies long-term support or permanence. As it pertains to agriculture, sustainable describes farming systems that are “capable of maintaining their productivity and usefulness to society indefinitely. Such systems… must be resource-conserving, socially supportive, commercially competitive, and environmentally sound.”

Currently, trying to find palm oil that meet’s the USDA’s own definition of sustainability is about as hard as finding a list of Alan Oxley and World Growth Institute’s donors.

Palm oil is the most traded edible oil in the world due to its high yields and cheap prices. But the many environmental and social costs of “cheap” palm oil — rainforest destruction, alienation of local communities from their customary lands and livelihoods — are externalized, meaning that while the market price of palm oil may be low, we’re still paying far too high a price for it. The rainforests of Indonesia and Malaysia, which is where 85 percent of palm oil is grown, contain some of the oldest (older even than the Amazon) and culturally and biologically rich forested ecosystems in the world.

The cost of destroying these natural treasures is not included in the price of palm oil-laden products like Girl Scout cookies or Keebler Grasshoppers — but aren’t these products costing us far too dearly all the same?

Monoculture palm oil plantation.Photo: Treehugger

As corporations and governments struggle to meet sky-rocketing demand for cheap vegetable oil, where do we look? Are industrial palm oil plantations the answer?

Plain and simple, the industrial palm oil now flooding global markets will likely never be a model of sustainability. In fact, it is the exact opposite — a model of irresponsible and short-sighted agriculture.

However, that does not mean the current system shouldn’t be transformed to create meaningful changes for people and ecosystems already planted with oil palm. By continuing to run effective corporate campaigns we can slowly chip away at this destructive system and the status quo of business as usual. We’re working to tip the scales by creating enough public pressure that our corporate targets embrace solutions in which environmental justice outweighs profit.

For example, imagine an agricultural system that prioritized transparency, accountability, and a diversification of food crops to support a robust local economy rather than an export-based industrial monocrop that strips the local communities of their native lands and food security. Imagine if biodiverse tropical rainforest land was not dished out by corrupt governments for mere pennies, just so they can be turned into desert wasteland. Imagine if, our world’s last remaining rainforests were protected as havens of biodiversity.

There could be strictly enforced and widely respected criteria around agribusiness expansion to ensure that endangered species and Indigenous peoples don’t get displaced. But there aren’t.

Working within this dysfunctional system on near term solutions, even if they may not make the system perfectly sustainable, is essential if we want to protect what’s left. Here are some immediate steps to help mitigate the negative impacts of this destructive industry:

1. Stop deforestation. Moving forward we need to figure out how to improve production standards on existing plantations, particularly by resourcing smallholders, and only expand on degraded lands with the free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) of the local forest communities that rely on them. There is no need to expand palm oil plantations on primary forest. Should the Indonesian government prioritize its forest protection and halt all expansion, RAN would clearly be supportive of that. We strongly support a moratorium on expansion of palm oil on primary forest and designating “no go” areas for the industry.
2. Companies must demand that the palm oil they buy goes beyond existing RSPO certification. Read the second recommendation in this blog post to learn more about this.
3. The RSPO should deny certification certificates to companies that fail to put in place dispute resolution mechanisms. In addition to the many unresolved land disputes from the palm oil industry in Indonesia and Malaysia, agribusiness giants like Malaysian Sime Darby are swiftly moving into Cameroon, Ghana and Liberia creating yet additional widespread land conflicts and natural forest conversion. Sime Darby is a Cargill supplier.
4. The RSPO standard must be strengthened. RSPO membership and even RSPO certification is not enough to protect rainforests. According to the advocacy coordinator for the SPKS, an independent union of oil palm farmers, “What I see in discussions is very different than what happens in reality on the ground in RSPO certified plantations and an even bigger gap in non RSPO certified plantations. The number of land disputes is growing by the day. The RSPO is a way for companies to legalize their crime through smallholder schemes.”

While the limits of large-scale industrial agriculture likely can never yield “sustainable” palm oil, we must continue to push the limits of our current system, because doing so means the protection of real acres, the defense of diverse forest communities, and the only hope of creating a future for critically endangered species like Sumatran orangutans and tigers.

“Whether we like it or not it is very largely our industry which is providing the economic incentives for individuals and companies to chop down trees… Between us, we spend billions of dollars buying these commodities. We can make a difference if we buy them differently and better.” – A senior Unilever executive in a speech to the Consumer Goods Forum to persuade the 300 Forum members to work together to end deforestation

While it is without question significant that Cargill just publicly committed to supplying Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO)-certified palm oil to all of its customers around the world by 2020, the announcement doesn’t mean that Cargill’s customers should stop pushing Cargill to deliver  responsibly sourced palm oil as soon as possible.

Cargill is not off the hook just yet, so Cargill customers — it’s not time to wipe that sweat from your brow.

General Mills, Girl Scouts USA, Kellogg’s, Safeway, Wal-Mart, Proctor & Gamble, Nestle, Unilever, Ventura Foods, McDonald’s and Green Earth Fuels, to name a few: your palm oil purchasing expectations still aren’t being met by Cargill. Cargill has not yet put in place the palm oil supply chain safeguard requirements that leading corporations are demanding.

Why does this matter? These popular brand names are still at risk as long as Cargill can’t assure its customers that its palm oil is not tainted with ties to rainforest destruction and/or slave labor.

For companies that already have a palm oil policy in place and/or agree that Cargill’s tacit commitments aren’t enough to protect their consumer brands from the heated controversy associated with palm oil, here are a couple of things you can do:

1. Demand that Cargill adopt basic supply chain safeguards. Reason: Until RSPO certification takes into account greenhouse gas emissions and can assure the respect of native land rights and elimination of slave labor, we recommend you push Cargill to adopt push Cargill to adopt key environmental, social and transparency safeguards for its global supply chain.
2. Demand that Cargill go beyond mass balance and provide fully segregated palm oil for all your supply chains. Reason: Mass balance refers to a system that allows for mixing certified, fully segregated palm oil with non-certified oil at any stage of the supply chain. This system supports the production of RSPO-certified palm oil but does not ensure customers like you that the palm oil you’re purchasing is not driving up demand for palm oil that is connected to rainforest destruction and human rights violations. Demand that Cargill improves the palm oil industry by moving quickly to fully segregated palm oil, which essentially means that you would be able to trace the palm oil you buy back to responsible sources.
3. Demand RSPO Plus. Reason: In addressing the severe problems with the current palm oil industry, Cargill is putting all its eggs in one basket, the RSPO. Unfortunately, that basket is riddled with holes. RSPO standards are weak in a number of areas. As an example, RSPO certification in its current form does nothing to address and reduce climate change impacts from palm oil production, particularly on peat lands, which science tells us is contributing to record greenhouse gas emissions. RSPO Plus means starting with RSPO Certification and putting in place the additional environmental, social and transparency safeguards needed for a credible certification standard that will eliminate controversy in your supply chain.
4. Push Cargill to accelerate implementation of its certified oil commitments. Reason: Action is needed now to ensure that critical forests and endangered species habitat is not lost before Cargill’s 2015 and 2020 commitments take effect. Palm oil is a leading cause of Indonesia’s deforestation, greenhouse gas emissions, and loss of critical orangutan habitat. The next five years are crucial. The sad reality is that the world can’t wait until 2015, let alone 2020, for greater corporate leadership.

If you’re a U.S. company with palm oil in your supply chain, it’s now quite clear that action is needed urgently. The importance of ensuring an ethical supply chain is growing by the day as companies are becoming increasingly vulnerable to internal and external scrutiny from customers, NGOs, and even CEOs risking brand damage and profits. Cargill won’t make bold moves unless you, as its customers, demand it.

Cargill’s palm oil is pervasive in U.S. household brands. Click here to tell Cargill to stop destroying rainforests for palm oil.

Today, Cargill updated its palm oil commitments. While it’s significant that Cargill has committed to a global baseline of RSPO certification, the RSPO in its current form does not guarantee that certified palm oil entering U.S. consumer brands is free of ties to deforestation, climate change, species extinction, human or Indigenous rights violations, and/or slave labor.

Here is the official statement that RAN just released:

Rainforest Action Network Statement on Cargill’s Commitment to Supply RSPO Certified Palm Oil by 2015

SAN FRANCISCO (July 12, 2011) – Today, Cargill announced new commitments covering palm oil products that it supplies to its customers in Europe, the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, indicating that they should be certified by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) and/or originate from smallholder growers by 2015. This goal excludes palm kernel oil products. The company will also extend its commitment to cover 100% of its palm oil products and all customers worldwide by 2020.

Lindsey Allen, Forest Program Director for the Rainforest Action Network, which has been pressuring Cargill to adopt safeguards for its global palm oil supply chain since 2007, issued the following statement in response to Cargill’s announcement.

“Cargill’s move to phase out controversial palm oil from its supply chain is a good first step toward protecting our most endangered rainforests and the climate, but it comes at a time when we need leaps. Palm oil is a leading cause of Indonesia’s deforestation, greenhouse gas emissions and loss of critical orangutan habitat, and the next five years are crucial. The sad reality is that we can’t wait until 2015, let alone 2020, for greater corporate leadership.

“Currently in addressing the severe problems with palm oil, Cargill is putting all its eggs in one basket, the RSPO, and that basket is riddled with holes. As an example, RSPO certification in its current form does nothing to address climate change from palm oil production, which science tells us is contributing to record greenhouse gas emissions.

“Cargill’s commitment comes in response to rising demand from its customers and the public for palm oil that is free from controversy. RAN is discouraged that Cargill has chosen to exclude a significant portion of palm oil products consumed in North American and European markets derived from palm kernel oil (PKO) in its commitment. By excluding PKO, Cargill will fail to supply certified palm oil for many of the products we buy in supermarkets every day and fail to meet the rising demand of it customers.

“As an influential member of the RSPO and a company than touches one quarter of the world’s palm oil, Cargill has the potential to transform the global palm oil marketplace. RAN is demanding that Cargill move the dates of its commitment up, fully segregate its supply chain, and adopt basic safeguards around greenhouse gas emissions, human rights and biodiversity loss, which is not currently ensured by the RSPO.”

For more information on RAN’s Cargill and palm oil campaign, please visit: www.ran.org/cargill

Organizations like Rainforest Action Network (RAN), Greenpeace and the World Resource Movement (WRM) represent one side of the palm oil debate. In March 2010, WRM released a damning report on the palm oil industry with a particular focus on the RSPO and its ability to let companies greenwash their practices. Greenpeace has echoed WRM’s position, and has released a handful of reports focused on companies that, despite RSPO membership, have been found to destroy rainforests and compromise social standards in producing palm oil.

RAN believes that palm oil certified by the RSPO can provide a certain level of assurance that non-certified/conventional palm oil can’t, but remains cautious about relying solely on the RSPO certification stamp of approval given several critical omissions, such as permissible standards around greenhouse gas emissions. The bottom line is that palm oil needs social, environmental and transparency safeguards, the RSPO can’t guarantee that these safeguards are consistently met, and therefore we believe corporations need to require these basic assurances on their own.

In the middle of the spectrum of this debate are groups like WWF, which advocates on behalf of the RSPO and certified palm oil while still sharing some of the same concerns as organizations with a stronger stance. WWF has worked within the RSPO since 2003 to ensure that compliance is monitored, and that standards contain robust social and environmental criteria, including a prohibition on the conversion of valuable forests. However, in reference to the RSPO WWF warned in May 2009: “One of the major solutions to halting deforestation of tropical forests is not catching on fast enough.” Some people remain so critical of the RSPO’s effectiveness that they have re-branded it as “Really Slow Progress Overall.”

I can’t help but wonder: will the efforts of the RSPO to make palm oil rainforest-friendly ever move fast enough to protect rainforests in Indonesia before it’s too late? Just last week, UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee decided to place the remaining rainforests of Sumatra, Indonesia on  the “List of World Heritage in Danger” to help overcome threats posed by illegal logging and agricultural encroachment.

Scientists such as William F. Laurence of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute think palm oil can only be “sustainable” if the RSPO makes badly needed changes to its certification system, such as fixing its pro-industry bias, developing a system to monitor members that has accountability mechanisms, and taking a stronger stand against peatland destruction. According to the Conservation Biology Journal, expansion of palm oil has greater impacts than acknowledged by the RSPO.

Then all the way at the farthest reaches of the spectrum from groups like RAN and Greenpeace there is the palm oil industry itself, which is represented by groups like Malaysia’s and Indonesia’s Palm Oil Associations (MPOC and GAPKI, respectively), whose interests are driven almost solely by the pursuit of profit. Somewhere on this end of the spectrum are global palm oil traders like Cargill. It appears that many of these groups hide behind the green veneer of their RSPO membership while continuing business-as-usual practices of expanding palm oil plantations and markets at any cost.

The RSPO attracted widespread criticism in November 2009 when it opted not to include greenhouse gas emissions standards as part of its criteria for ‘sustainable’ palm oil. There was a process to deal with this serious omission, but palm oil industry groups GAPKI and MPOC have continued to sideline that process, continuing to kill the Green House Gas Emissions Working Group every year at the RSPO. It’s becoming increasingly clear that their bottom line is expansion at any cost.

It is very clear that there are vast differences in opinion on the effectiveness of the RSPO as well as the question of sustainable palm oil. RAN seriously questions whether an oil that displaces rainforests and peatlands, with heavy ties to human rights abuses and slave labor, can ever be sustainable, but remains committed to working within this unsustainable global food system to protect our planet’s remaining imperiled forests, as well as the people and species who depend on them.

We’re working to reduce the impacts of climate change by taking action for one of the last great stands of tropical forests in the world — Indonesia’s forests — and we need your help.

RSPO Certified: "Sustainable" Palm Oil?

What is Sustainable Palm Oil? Part one of a three-part series.

Palm oil has become an increasingly hot topic over the last year. This thick, long-lasting oil is found in almost half of all consumer goods sold in grocery stores and it is also a main driver of rainforest destruction in Indonesia and Malaysia.

As controversy over the oil and its role in deforestation increases, so do calls for the oil to be made more sustainably. The real question, however, is: Can palm oil ever be made sustainably? This series is dedicated to exploring just that question.

Both businesses and consumers who are concerned about palm oil often look to the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) as the answer to the problem with palm oil. The RSPO is a voluntary initiative that aims to create a certification standard for “sustainable” oil palm. Nine percent of the world’s palm oil production is now certified according to the RSPO’s latest figures. Those who have some or all of their plantations certified under the RSPO include IOI, Kuala Lumpur Kepong (KLK) and Cargill.

But is RSPO-certified palm oil truly sustainable? The trick with most certification standards is that it they can either help businesses to improve their practices in a systematic way or they can systematically greenwash business-as-usual practices. The RSPO is a little of both.

As our allies at Greenpeace put it: “The aim of the [RSPO] is to create clear standards for producing sustainable palm oil but at present these standards are far too weak to ensure that forests and peatlands are not destroyed to meet growing demand for palm oil.”

As I’ve written in previous blog posts, sourcing RSPO-certified palm oil is a major step forward from sourcing from suppliers who are just RSPO members. But even with certification, there are major concerns. A few of the weaknesses of RSPO-certified palm oil include:

1. Lack of Environmental Safeguards: Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions standards are not included in RSPO’s certification process. This means that draining and clearing peatlands — the largest single source of our planet’s stored carbon and one of the most powerful defense mechanisms against climate change — is permissible.
2. Lack of Social Safeguards: Although the social safeguards in RSPO’s certification criteria look good on paper, they are seldom followed. This was evidenced recently by one of the RSPO’s founding members, IOI Group, which is currently under major global scrutiny for breaching RSPO Code of Conduct with serious human rights abuses.
3. Lack of Transparency and Enforcement: In the case of IOI, the RSPO announced in April 2011 that IOI would face sanctions if the company didn’t resolve its social conflict by May 2, 2011. It is now more than a month past that deadline and the RSPO has not done anything to reprimand IOI. Meanwhile the social conflict has escalated.

If companies like Cargill are going to rely on the RSPO then they need to actively work to improve it — and that means more than simply continuing “to work with the Indonesian Palm Oil Association (GAPKI) and the Indonesian government to advocate for sustainable palm oil development,” as stated in its 2010 and 2011 Palm Oil Commitments. If you want to know more about these industry groups whose mandate is to expand palm oil at any cost, stay tuned for the next part of our three-part series.

A Group of activists deliver a powerful message to IOI Group at its Chicago HQ on Monday morning

Last Monday, IOI Group received an unexpected visit from a group of activists who delivered a large photo of the community of Long Teran Kanan, a community whose traditional lands have been converted to plantations by IOI Group. Along with this powerful photo, the group also delivered the following statement from Rainforest Action Network to IOI:

We support the community of Long Teran Kanan and its re-occupation of two IOI palm oil plots that are planted on native customary lands. Please drop your court appeal and begin to negotiate with the community of Long Teran Kanan (LTK) in good faith.

The Monday delivery came one week before IOI’s May 2nd deadline to meet certain requirements laid out by the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). If IOI group does not find acceptable solutions to the social conflict associated with its palm oil operations in Sarawak, Malaysia, by May 2nd, the company will face further sanctions.

Please stand in solidarity with the growing international coalition of environmental and social groups supporting Indigenous rights and the community of Long Teran Kanan.

Cargill — the largest importer of palm oil into the United States — buys significant amounts of palm oil from IOI Group. IOI Group’s ongoing refusal to address its conflict with the community of Long Teran in good faith reinforces RAN’s demand that Cargill institute basic safeguards on its supply chain to ensure it is not selling palm oil from stolen indigenous lands to American consumers.

Sadie, a Girl Scout from northeast Ohio, at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo Borneo Orangutan Exhibit. Photo: Kerrie Aman Carfagno

Though GSUSA has decided to ignore scouts Madi & Rhiannon as well as RAN and thousands of activists, the organization is well aware of the issues we’ve raised. One article quotes Michelle Tompkins, a spokeswoman for Girl Scouts USA, saying:

We all want the girls to stand up for what they believe in. They’re trying to make changes, and we applaud them for that.

But this was the only comment from Girl Scouts in the piece. Do you feel like you’ve been left hanging here too? If the Girl Scouts applauds the two activists for standing up for what they believe in (which also happens to be consistent with the science), and what the activists want is to align Girl Scouts’ official policy with the values of the organization, isn’t the next step to show leadership and protect orangutans from being pushed to extinction by palm oil?

If over 10,000 petitions and dozens of media calls to their headquarters hasn’t swayed GSUSA’s top brass yet, perhaps Girl Scout leader Jennifer McNichols of Troop #9045 in Central Texas can get through to them. She makes a strong case in her open letter to the Girl Scouts of USA Board. Here is an excerpt:

The way the Girl Scouts USA leadership — you, the board — have handled our girls’ concerns about the environmental impact of Girl Scout Cookies under the tenure of board president Connie Lindsey and CEO Kathy Cloninger — is starting to make me feel like a hypocrite. And given the choice between my girls and the organization that purports to support them, I’ll choose the girls every time.

Next year’s curriculum is “It’s Your Planet — Love It!” and I’m not making excuses for you any longer. Those voices you heard over the past few months telling people not to buy Girl Scout cookies are going to be louder next year, and you’re going to have fewer allies ready to argue against them. Those who took the bait this year and let themselves believe that your RSPO membership represented a meaningful change in direction will experience nagging doubts. And as for my girls — Troop 9045 — we are going to hold ourselves responsible for what we say and do, and we are going to practice what you preach. We’re going to discuss, evaluate, and decide as a troop how to address the issue of Girl Scout cookies’ role in the deforestation of Indonesia and the likely extinction of one of the most amazing species on our planet. And we’re going to do it whether you’re on board or not.

Though they so far refuse to take these concerns seriously, Girl Scouts USA found time to send out a notice last week, the final week of sales, to the thousands of volunteers who coordinate Girl Scout troop cookie sales. The point of the notice was to reassure girls and their families that:

Girl Scouts of Northern California and our cookie supplier, Little Brownie Bakers, takes our shared commitment to the environment very seriously. Girl Scouts and Little Brownie Bakers continue to conduct our business in ways that protect the environment and demonstrate good stewardship of our world’s natural resources. Our baker is continuing to work toward the best combination of ingredients that are environmentally responsible and provide the taste Girl Scout Cookie customers expect.

The palm oil that is used in very limited amounts by our baker for Girl Scout cookies comes from palm oil suppliers that are part of the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil… In other words, Girl Scouts and Little Brownie Bakers uses suppliers of palm oil that have committed to using palm oil without exhausting natural resources or causing ecological damage.

Hmmm, they only use suppliers that have committed to using palm oil without exhausting natural resources or causing ecological damage? Last time I checked, one of Girl Scout USA’s key suppliers of palm oil, Cargill, hadn’t even adopted the most basic safeguards in their global supply chain to guarantee they weren’t buying palm oil grown in cleared rainforests. And call me crazy, but I’m pretty sure that leading scientists and even RSPO member companies admit that most palm oil cultivation, from the forest-clearing and burning to the agro toxins, can cause major ecological damage without appropriate safeguards.

Girl Scouts from across the country are taking a stand for orangutans while working toward their Rainforest Hero badge. Please join us today, without your help endangered orangutans inch closer to extinction!

“Companies buying palm oil need to be aware that the only way to ensure sustainable sourcing is to buy certified sustainable palm oil from companies that have been assessed against the RSPO standards. Buying from RSPO members is not enough.” – WWF, August 2010

Thin Mints Contain Rainforest Destroying-Palm Oil

Girl Scouts USA (GSUSA) has actively resisted getting rainforest-destroying palm oil out of their cookies for years now. Instead, they tout the fact that their two cookie bakers are members of the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).

But Girl Scouts USA and anyone else touting RSPO membership as a green seal of approval — or anyone who even claims that RSPO membership makes a company’s products “orangutan friendly” — are gravely misleading the public with false claims.

Girl Scouts of America sold roughly 198 million boxes of Girl Scout cookies in 2009. One of the two cookie manufacturers, Little Brownie Bakers, bakes over 4,500,000 Thin Mints per day during peak baking times. And guess what’s going into every single one of those cookies? Palm oil, a controversial commodity closely connected to widespread deforestation and social conflicts in Indonesia.

RSPO Members Have Been Documented Destroying Orangutan Habitat

For a cookie business raking in $714 million a year with a presence in all 50 states and 2.7 million young sales women, one would think that Girl Scouts USA would make sure that the ingredients they’re using are in line with the Girl Scout values and mission to make the world a better place and use resources wisely.

The RSPO is a body of stakeholders including palm oil producers, processors, traders, retailers, banks and NGOs working to promote the growth, production, distribution and use of sustainable palm oil. There is a very important distinction between RSPO membership and RSPO certification. RSPO certification is a seal of approval that is given to palm oil grown on a plantation that has been certified through a verification of the production process by accredited certifying agencies. In theory, the “certified sustainable” palm oil (RSPO oil) is traceable through the supply chain by certification of each facility along the supply chain that processes or uses the certified oil.

RSPO membership, on the other hand, is much different. As we recently advised Girl Scouts USA CEO Kathy Cloninger in a letter of concern about the palm oil in Girl Scout cookies:

Although Girl Scout cookie bakers have RSPO membership, RSPO membership does not provide any assurance that palm oil supplied by member companies is sustainable. Member companies have been documented clearing forest, peatland and critical wildlife habitat while ignoring human rights — all of which are prohibited in the RSPO principles and criteria. In essence RSPO membership does not ensure that deforestation, orangutan extinction, and climate change are not found in Girl Scout cookies.

According to an independent audit commissioned by Unilever, RSPO member Sinar Mas has contributed to the opening up of deep peatland, deforestation of orangutan habitat, and occurrences of fire hot spots.

Mongabay reports, “The [RSPO] has been battered over the past year with revelations that some members have continued to destroy ecologically sensitive habitats. Prominent members, including Unilever and Nestle, have had to act outside the RSPO process to address misconduct by RSPO-member suppliers.”

Sinar Mas is not the only RSPO member that has been caught red-handed. There are many cases that illustrate the fact that RSPO members regularly violate the principles and criteria they have agreed to respect with their membership. Take the example of RSPO Member IOI Group. While it has some RSPO-certified plantations, the same company has others that are the source of major social conflict.

Conservation scientists report critical habitat protection weaknesses in the RSPO system. William Laurance of James Cook University and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute argues that the initiative’s objectives are undermined by the composition of its membership, which is dominated by palm oil industry growers, processors, and traders. He says:

[T]his conflict of interest results in lax requirements for membership, a cumbersome complaints process for reporting violations, and lack of oversight and enforcement. It needs to get tougher with member companies that are destroying large swaths of primary forest. Otherwise, it risks becoming an apologist for an environmentally destructive industry.

Until RSPO membership means more than simply paying a few thousand dollars a year in membership fees, any company or organization that claims any product made by an RSPO member is orangutan or forest friendly is grossly misleading the public. Orangutans and forests will only be truly protected in Sumatra and Borneo once expansion of palm oil in fragile tropical forests ceases and a moratorium on deforestation for palm oil is both adopted and implemented.

According to news sources, the oil “will be offered to the market as certified, mass balance oil with first deliveries of certified oil to customers” beginning next month.

This is significant because until last week, there was no RSPO-certified, segregated palm oil available anywhere in the North American market. It wasn’t until November 2008 that the first batch of ec0-stamped palm oil became available in Europe, which marked the first time ever, anywhere, that palm oil was planted, grown, harvested, processed and transported “responsibly.”

What on Earth is Sustainable Palm Oil?

But before we pull out our party hats and the palm oil-laden Newman O’s, let’s look deeper into what this actually means. IOI is the company responsible for the above-mentioned task of getting an RSPO certified batch of palm oil all the way from one of its many plantations (this one in Sabah, Malaysia) through their supply chain and to North America. But even though this particular batch may have received the green stamp of certification from the RSPO, IOI has been the target of community pressure and claims by NGOs that the company should not be able to use the RSPO’s certification stamp for any of their palm oil until they can resolve the social conflict going on in their palm oil concessions.

Indonesia Village Children. Photo Andras Jancsik

Other than IOI’s claim to fame for RSPO certification, the company has not received any gold stars for being a sustainable company. According to a damning report released by Grassroots in November 2010, investigators discovered the company was occupying and encroaching on traditional community-owned land, jeopardizing nearby village water with weed killers and agrochemicals, and providing unsafe housing conditions. The discovery of an important village grave site being used by foreign workers to bury deceased on community land is also troubling, as are the instances of land clearance without community consultation, and the absence of a Social Impact Assessment or a High Conservation Value assessment.

IOI-Loders Croklaan was also the first company to offer RSPO certified segregated palm oil in Europe on a large scale in April, 2010. In response to the first small shipment of palm oil certified under the RSPO to Europe in 2008, Wetlands International criticized the RSPO’s credentials, warning that the batch of certified palm oil originated from a plantation which grew palm oil on peatlands, a carbon-rich ecosystem that releases massive amounts of C02 when cleared, drained, and converted for agricultural use according to Mongabay. They astutely point out that the RSPO fails to account for greenhouse gas emissions in its certification process.

This largely brings into question the true significance of the first RSPO-certified palm oil brought into both Europe and North America. Can palm oil be certified “sustainable” when the RSPO refuses to limit greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) released when peatlands are drained to plant palm oil?

In taking a deeper look at the extent of IOI’s documented land and social conflicts, can we really trust the green stamp on IOI’s “certified sustainable” palm oil? And can we really support such a certification mechanism that has blatant omissions of criteria such as those necessary to monitor climate change?