Update October 03. 2023
Sabah state in Malaysia continues to use the approach towards marketing palm oil.
Mongabay reported that:
In May, 25 members of a growers’ cooperative in the Tawau region of Sabah became the first in Malaysia to receive certification as a group from the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil.
Though a small step, it was an important milestone in realizing Sabah’s ambitions for statewide certification.
Sabah state in Malaysia continues to use the approach towards marketing palm oil.
Mongabay reported that:
In May, 25 members of a growers’ cooperative in the Tawau region of Sabah became the first in Malaysia to receive certification as a group from the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil.
Though a small step, it was an important milestone in realizing Sabah’s ambitions for statewide certification.
Sabah State Wants to Spearhead a Green Palm Oil Revolution
Sabah state in Malaysia, one of the country’s biggest palm oil producers by volume, wants to lead a green palm oil revolution
Sabah state in Malaysia wants to become a pioneer model in sustainable palm oil. According to a press statement that was picked up by Reuters and other media, the Malaysian state plans to pursue a ‘jurisdictional approach’ towards achieving this goal.
Industry experts are questioning this public statement in support of jurisdictional certification. According to an expert in the palm oil industry:
“The Sabah ambition to lead the world in sustainable palm oil production via a voluntary scheme is tantamount to kicking a horse that has been dead for a long time.
Whoever approved this stale statement should be aware that the export markets for certified palm oil have since 2015, condemned voluntary certification as an ineffective measure to produce palm oil sustainably.
We have seen this in the public statements from the EU. Not just the trade associations who work with vegetable oils but indeed from conservation groups and EU officials that a G2G position on producing sustainable palm oil will bear the desired impacts.”
Jurisdictional Approach Unacceptable For Global Markets
The "jurisdictional" approach which the WWF is touting as a "globally recognised pioneering model" to tackle deforestation and improve labour rights in the supply chain according to Robecca Jumin, head of conservation in Sabah for WWF-Malaysia will fail to gain acceptance in global markets.
According to resources on the RSPO’s website, jurisdictional certification is defined as:
“The RSPO Jurisdictional Approach (JA) to Certification is an approach to minimise the negative impact of oil palm cultivation on the environment and on society, at the scale of government administrative areas (Jurisdictions), which involves a stepwise certification of the production and processing of sustainable oil palm products.”
The RPSO has been testing jurisdictional certification in different regions. It should be noted that the test project in Seruyan district of Kalimantan has only served to create more questions on sustainable palm oil as raised by the NGO Forest Peoples.
In Ecuador, another site for jurisdictional certification under the RSPO, recent coverage of the industry’s negative impacts reported that:
These are serious problems that will put an end to the credibility of jurisdictional certification as the problems are obviously out of the control of a certification scheme.
Palm oil critics have largely ignored jurisdictional certification as it has all the semblance of a Mass Balance certified palm oil supply where uncertified supplies that may have caused mayhem is blessed by a certification scheme as ‘sustainable.’
Jurisdictionally Certified Palm Oil = Mass Balance Palm Oil?
For all intents and purposes, jurisdictionally certified palm is the same thing as Mass Balance palm oil. The label is different but the product is the same in that a portion of the product is certified. For example, under the definition of Mass Balance, up to 95% of the certified product could contain supply that is not certified.
This is pretty much the same case with jurisdictional certification of palm oil where a few percent of palm oil operations are certified by third parties like the RSPO but the entire supply chain from the region gets a ‘certified sustainable’ stamp.
This would be the case in Sabah where only about 20% of its palm oil production is certified by the RSPO. Yet under jurisdictional certification or the Mass Balance supply chain, 100% of its production could be stamped 'certified sustainable' even if the operations have not been audited against sustainability standards.
In terms of public perception, Mass Balance is problematic as the inclusion of uncertified palm oil in a ‘certified sustainable supply chain’ includes too much product of unknown sources.
This is evident in the European Union’s import of palm oil which has been declared as 90% certified sustainable but with a troubling 69% of that being Mass Balance certified palm oil.
It is no wonder that there is so much resistance from EU consumers against certified sustainable palm oil. No one can blame them for rejecting a certified product that contains supplies from sources unknown.
This is likely a problem that the Sabah state government is not aware of when it echoed the WWF wish of leading a green revolution in palm oil production.
Will the MSPO trump the RSPO?
Malaysia which has a national standard for sustainable palm oil under Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO) certification hopes it can overturn anti palm oil sentiment by creating its own ‘green palm oil revolution.’
The core difference between the MSPO and the RSPO is that the former is a national mandate for all palm oil operations.
This has resulted in a remarkable difference between the two certifications in that while RSPO certification has stagnated at 20% of Malaysian palm oil operations, the MSPO has managed to certify over 90% of Malaysia’s palm oil operations.
ithin the short few years from 2017 when it was made mandatory, the MSPO has managed to include small and medium sized growers which the RSPO could not reach.
Will the MSPO as an initiative from the Malaysian government find favour with premium markets like the EU? The odds seem stacked against the MSPO when the RSPO with its ‘stronger’ standards have failed to win over consumers and policy makers in the EU.
Substance Over Form
This is where the Sabah government along with critics of palm oil certification schemes need to recognize that substance matters more than form.
In other words, ‘form’ in the way of strong standards may open doors but what keeps those doors open is ‘substance.’
For the green palm revolution in Sabah state to succeed, it has to side with the MSPO in order to lean on the credibility that only a national certification scheme can provide.
Published February 2022. CSPO Watch
- The statement which appears to be driven by the WWF caught industry experts by surprise as the initiative as driven by the WWF, a co-founder of the RSPO has achieved little since the initiative was first announced in 2015
- The repeated public statement from the WWF/ RSPO is now being seen as a litmus test of voluntary certification schemes like the RSPO versus mandatory schemes like the MSPO
Sabah state in Malaysia wants to become a pioneer model in sustainable palm oil. According to a press statement that was picked up by Reuters and other media, the Malaysian state plans to pursue a ‘jurisdictional approach’ towards achieving this goal.
Industry experts are questioning this public statement in support of jurisdictional certification. According to an expert in the palm oil industry:
“The Sabah ambition to lead the world in sustainable palm oil production via a voluntary scheme is tantamount to kicking a horse that has been dead for a long time.
Whoever approved this stale statement should be aware that the export markets for certified palm oil have since 2015, condemned voluntary certification as an ineffective measure to produce palm oil sustainably.
We have seen this in the public statements from the EU. Not just the trade associations who work with vegetable oils but indeed from conservation groups and EU officials that a G2G position on producing sustainable palm oil will bear the desired impacts.”
Jurisdictional Approach Unacceptable For Global Markets
The "jurisdictional" approach which the WWF is touting as a "globally recognised pioneering model" to tackle deforestation and improve labour rights in the supply chain according to Robecca Jumin, head of conservation in Sabah for WWF-Malaysia will fail to gain acceptance in global markets.
According to resources on the RSPO’s website, jurisdictional certification is defined as:
“The RSPO Jurisdictional Approach (JA) to Certification is an approach to minimise the negative impact of oil palm cultivation on the environment and on society, at the scale of government administrative areas (Jurisdictions), which involves a stepwise certification of the production and processing of sustainable oil palm products.”
The RPSO has been testing jurisdictional certification in different regions. It should be noted that the test project in Seruyan district of Kalimantan has only served to create more questions on sustainable palm oil as raised by the NGO Forest Peoples.
In Ecuador, another site for jurisdictional certification under the RSPO, recent coverage of the industry’s negative impacts reported that:
- In July 2020, Ecuador’s government passed a law to strengthen and develop the production, commercialization, extraction, export and industrialization of palm oil and its derivatives.
- The law also prohibits oil palm plantations from being established within zones where communities’ water sources are located, and requires the existence of native vegetation buffers between plantations and water bodies.
- But critics say the regulatory portion of the law has been largely toothless and that the government has turned a blind eye to the social and environmental costs of the country’s rapid plantation expansion.
These are serious problems that will put an end to the credibility of jurisdictional certification as the problems are obviously out of the control of a certification scheme.
Palm oil critics have largely ignored jurisdictional certification as it has all the semblance of a Mass Balance certified palm oil supply where uncertified supplies that may have caused mayhem is blessed by a certification scheme as ‘sustainable.’
Jurisdictionally Certified Palm Oil = Mass Balance Palm Oil?
For all intents and purposes, jurisdictionally certified palm is the same thing as Mass Balance palm oil. The label is different but the product is the same in that a portion of the product is certified. For example, under the definition of Mass Balance, up to 95% of the certified product could contain supply that is not certified.
This is pretty much the same case with jurisdictional certification of palm oil where a few percent of palm oil operations are certified by third parties like the RSPO but the entire supply chain from the region gets a ‘certified sustainable’ stamp.
This would be the case in Sabah where only about 20% of its palm oil production is certified by the RSPO. Yet under jurisdictional certification or the Mass Balance supply chain, 100% of its production could be stamped 'certified sustainable' even if the operations have not been audited against sustainability standards.
In terms of public perception, Mass Balance is problematic as the inclusion of uncertified palm oil in a ‘certified sustainable supply chain’ includes too much product of unknown sources.
This is evident in the European Union’s import of palm oil which has been declared as 90% certified sustainable but with a troubling 69% of that being Mass Balance certified palm oil.
It is no wonder that there is so much resistance from EU consumers against certified sustainable palm oil. No one can blame them for rejecting a certified product that contains supplies from sources unknown.
This is likely a problem that the Sabah state government is not aware of when it echoed the WWF wish of leading a green revolution in palm oil production.
Will the MSPO trump the RSPO?
Malaysia which has a national standard for sustainable palm oil under Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO) certification hopes it can overturn anti palm oil sentiment by creating its own ‘green palm oil revolution.’
The core difference between the MSPO and the RSPO is that the former is a national mandate for all palm oil operations.
This has resulted in a remarkable difference between the two certifications in that while RSPO certification has stagnated at 20% of Malaysian palm oil operations, the MSPO has managed to certify over 90% of Malaysia’s palm oil operations.
ithin the short few years from 2017 when it was made mandatory, the MSPO has managed to include small and medium sized growers which the RSPO could not reach.
Will the MSPO as an initiative from the Malaysian government find favour with premium markets like the EU? The odds seem stacked against the MSPO when the RSPO with its ‘stronger’ standards have failed to win over consumers and policy makers in the EU.
Substance Over Form
This is where the Sabah government along with critics of palm oil certification schemes need to recognize that substance matters more than form.
In other words, ‘form’ in the way of strong standards may open doors but what keeps those doors open is ‘substance.’
For the green palm revolution in Sabah state to succeed, it has to side with the MSPO in order to lean on the credibility that only a national certification scheme can provide.
Published February 2022. CSPO Watch