The RSPO and “sustainable” palm oil: 19 years of deception is enough!

Collage with the RSPO logo and the tagline "19 years of deceit" over a cleared rainforest Yesterday: rainforest. Tomorrow: “sustainable” palm oil. (© GRAIN)

Dec 1, 2022

For 19 years, the RSPO palm oil label has been deceiving the public with allegedly sustainably produced palm oil. At the annual meeting of the seal association, 100 environmental and human rights organizations – including Rainforest Rescue – are calling on the palm oil industry to stop greenwashing with certified palm oil.

The cultivation of oil palm on vast industrial monocultures is a major driver of rainforest destruction. In Indonesia and Malaysia, where the majority of palm oil plantations are expanding, endangered species such as the orangutan, Sumatran tiger and forest rhino are being pushed to the brink of extinction.

To counter this, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) was founded in Switzerland in 2004 with great fanfare. Its goal was to protect nature and its inhabitants with sustainably produced palm oil.

But after 19 years, the RSPO’s record is a disaster: not only in Southeast Asia, but also in Africa and Latin America, palm oil companies certified with the RSPO seal continue to destroy rainforests and biodiversity, displace people from their land and violate human rights. They include European companies such as the Luxembourg-based SOCFIN Group.

Instead of stopping the destruction, the RSPO serves the palm oil industry and its clients as a shield and marketing tool to deflect criticism and complaints and to deceive the public.

100 environmental and human rights organizations from around the world, led by the smallholder farmers’ association GRAIN, declare that 19 years of deception and label fraud by the RSPO are enough. Greenwashing with “sustainable” palm oil must end.

The GRAIN statement in full: 

This year's general assembly of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), which begins on 1 December 2022 in Malaysia, marks the alliance’s 19th anniversary. For nearly two decades now, the RSPO has failed in its mission to make the industrial palm oil sector “sustainable”. Instead, it has been used by the palm oil industry to greenwash environmental destruction, labour and human rights abuses and land grabbing.

We, and other organisations working with communities affected by industrial oil palm plantations, have repeatedly denounced the RSPO for its failure to address the grievances of communities whose lands were taken by palm oil companies. The fundamental problems with the institution and its certification scheme are described in detail in international statements signed by organisations from around the world in 2008 and in 2018, and recently in reports published in 2021 on the failure of RSPO to prevent deforestation, consult affected communities and address their grievances (here and here).

Today, we find that nothing has changed. While the area of land under RSPO-certified oil palm plantations has continued to grow, the RSPO has continued to be a great deception.

Since 2020, the RSPO certified several industrial oil palm concessions in Cameroon, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Sao Tome, Ghana, DRC, Nigeria and Ivory Coast belonging to the Luxembourg-based company Socfin. The certifications were provided in complete disregard of community grievances related to lack of living space, land conflicts, deforestation, pollution, labour rights, harassment and violence. Communities in Sierra Leone, Cameroon and Ivory Coast have demanded the suspension of these certificates. After articles appeared in the media about Socfin's Cameroon plantations, the RSPO secretariat sent a verification mission to assess the allegations made. While community leaders say the RSPO assessment team avoided talking with people critical of the company, and ignored evidence provided by community leaders, the verification assessment still documented numerous violations of RSPO standards at the Cameroon plantations. Despite these findings, the RSPO continues to issue certifications to more plantations of the Socfin group.

In Sierra Leone, 1,475 local community members affected by Socfin’s plantation signed a petition denouncing the RSPO's certification decision in January 2022. They claimed the RSPO process was flawed and had failed to consider issues related to land grabbing, human rights violations and violent repression. As noted in an international press release signed by numerous organisations: “The RSPO consultation process was riddled with missteps. Relevant stakeholders, including affected landowners, were not consulted. A crucial government report that orders revocation of the principal lease and a participative process to solve the current land disputes was rejected as evidence. The audits were not independent from the company and a safe space for consultation was not provided despite the huge risks of reprisals for people.”

The recent certification of Socfin in Africa shows how the RSPO not only fails to help communities but can undermine their defence of life. Communities and their NGO allies have to waste valuable time and resources engaging with multiple and complex RSPO processes. Leaders who speak out during these processes are vulnerable to intimidation and harassment.

In another recent case, members of the Commune of Barranquilla de San Javier in Ecuador held a peaceful protest in 2019 to demand that the RSPO member company Energy & Palma withdraw from their lands, stop polluting their water sources and stop deforestation. The protests were violently crushed by the police and then, in a clear act of intimidation, the company took seven community leaders to court, seeking US$320,000 in damages. The court already issued one of two rulings and sentenced the community members to pay US$151,000, which the defenders appealed. The company also appealed and insisted on the payment of US$320,000. The second ruling is still pending. As of today, the RSPO has taken no action to sanction Energy & Palma.

Meanwhile, communities in Liberia are still waiting for a solution to a complaint they lodged with the RSPO over a decade ago against member company Golden Agri-Resources. Their experience and others show how the RSPO complaint system is in tatters and has never been effective.

We now have 19 years of ongoing evidence that the RSPO is not a credible instrument for holding companies in the palm oil industry to account for environmental, social and labour violations. This means that RSPO fails to uphold its own principles and criteria towards its members. It has proved to not be a trusted venue for communities to address their complaints against palm oil companies. Instead, it undermines communities’ efforts and enables palm oil companies to grab more lands.

At a moment when the area of land under RSPO certification is growing and when the RSPO is being promoted as a standard for sustainability within national, regional and international regulations and policies, we reiterate our denunciation of the RSPO and our commitment to actions that can truly serve the interests of communities and put an end to the colonialist model of industrial oil palm plantations.

Signed by:

Greenpeace Africa Africa
Labour Resource Center (LRC) Bangladesh
Solsoc Belgium
Entraide et Fraternité Belgium
Fern Belgium
FIAN Belgium Belgium
MIJARC Europe Belgium
Struggle to Economize Future Environment (SEFE) Cameroon
SYNAPARCAM Cameroon
RADD Cameroun
JVE Côte d'Ivoire Côte d'Ivoire
REFEB ci Côte d'Ivoire
NOAH - Friends of the Earth Denmark Denmark
Fundación pro Defensa de la Naturaleza y sus Derechos Ecuador
Red Ecuatoriana de Alternativas a la Palma Aceitera Ecuador
European Coordination Via Campesina (ECVC) Europe
Association Française d'Amitié et de Solidarité avec les Peuples d'Afrique France
ReAct Transnational France
Sherpa France
Confédération Paysanne France
Muyissi Environnement Gabon
Down to Earth Consult Germany
Forum Ökologie & Papier Germany
Rettet den Regenwald e.V. Germany
Red Mesoamericana contra la Palma de Aceite Honduras
Indigenous Perspectives India
Mahila Kisan Adhikaar Manch (MAKAAM) India
Palm Oil Concerns India
REACH-M India
Sustainable Development Forum Nagaland India
Aceh Wetland Foundation Indonesia
Betang Bagawi Indonesia
FBTPI Indonesia
FNPF Indonesia
Forum Penjaga Hutan dan Sungai Harimau Pining Indonesia
Greenpeace Indonesia Indonesia
Jaringan Advokasi Tambang Sulawesi Tengah Indonesia
JASOIL TANAH PAPUA Indonesia
Kaoem Telapak Indonesia
Lingkungan hidup URAI UNI Indonesia
LITORAL Indonesia
Pantau Gambut Indonesia
Save Our Borneo Indonesia
SBPI Indonesia
Selamatkan Hutan Hujan Indonesia Indonesia
Transnational Palm Oil Labour Solidarity Network Indonesia
Wahana Lingkungan Hidup Indonesia (WALHI)/Friends of the Earth Indonesia Indonesia
WALHI East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesian Indonesia
WALHI Kalimantan Barat Indonesia
WALHI Sulawesi Selatan Indonesia
Yayasan Pusaka Bentala Rakyat Indonesia
Gabungan Serikat Buruh Indonesia (DPP. GSBI) Indonesia
KRuHA (People's Coalition for the Right to Water) Indonesia
CADTM International
Friends of the Earth International International
GRAIN International
World Rainforest Movement International
Red Latinoamericana contra los monocultivos de árboles (RECOMA) Latin America
Alliance for Rural Democracy (ARD) Liberia
Green Advocates International Liberia
Natural Resource Women Platform (NRWP) Liberia
Malaysian Food Sovereignty Forum (FKMM) Malaysia
Tenaganita’ Malaysia
Reentramados para la vida, Defendiendo Territorios México
Otros Mundos Chiapas México
Women Engage for a Common Future (WECF) Netherlands
Milieudefensie - Friends of the Earth Netherlands Netherlands
Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria Nigeria
Pakistan Kissan Rabita Committee - PKRC Pakistan
Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA) Philippines
asa-cadecvim coops RD Congo
Association Paysannes des Jeunes Entrepreneurs Agricoles RD Congo
COPACO-PRP RD Congo
Confédération Paysanne du Congo -Principal Regroupement Paysan COPACO -PRP/ASBL RD Congo
Coopérative des Paysans de Lonzo, COPACLO en sigle RD Congo
Alliance Paysanne pour la Souveraineté Alimentaire, ASA/OP RD Congo
Consortium Asa-CADECVIM RD Congo
Réseau d'information et d'appui aux ONG en République Démocratique du Congo RD Congo
Réseau National des Organisations des femmes Paysanne RD Congo
GREEN SCENERY Sierra Leone
Women's Network Against Rural Plantations Injustice (WoNARPI) Sierra Leone
Salva la Selva Spain
Agrarinfo.ch Switzerland
Bruno Manser Fonds Switzerland
Agroecological Transitions Research Group Switzerland
GREEN BOOTS Switzerland
HEKS Swiss Church Aid Switzerland
Pro Natura / Friends of the Earth Switzerland Switzerland
Public Eye Switzerland
Solidar Suisse Switzerland
SOLIFONDS Switzerland
Uniterre Switzerland
Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) UK
Friends of the Earth England, Wales & Northern Ireland UK
Biofuelwatch UK/USA
Earthsight UK
Friends of the Earth United States USA
A Growing Culture USA
The Oakland Institute USA

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