Can Malaysia sustain the Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil standards?
Malaysia may not be able to uphold its standards for producing palm oil sustainably. The reasons why have little to do with whether the MSPO is sustainable under globally accepted definitions of sustainability.
Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO)
Malaysia has received many plaudits for its sustainable palm oil standards that “made it a first mover, setting standards for others” under the MSPO certification standards.
The “others” refer to voluntary certification schemes like the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) which has been criticized endlessly for failing its mission to produce palm oil sustainably.
Fairtrade and cocoa certification schemes created by corporate interests have fared no better as this scathing review of certifications by Allie Brudney and Reynolds Taylor at Corporate Accountability Lab ripped into certification schemes, calling them a “marketing scheme.”
“Across the board – from Rainforest Alliance to Fair Trade USA to Fair For Life – certifications do not deliver on their promises of sustainability and ethical production. These certification schemes represent themselves as helping workers and the environment, yet those producing the goods – whether it’s coffee, milk, or strawberries – often see little or no difference in income or working conditions.
There are countless examples of this failure. In 2022, we documented instances of hazardous child labor on Fairtrade International and Rainforest Alliance/UTZ certified cocoa farms in Cote d’Ivoire. In November 2021, the Washington Post published a story on the failure of certifications in the Brazilian açaí industry. In September 2021, Mongabay reported that a Rainforest Alliance certified coffee plantation in Brazil had their wages illegally cut to pay for equipment. And Fair Trade USA (separate from Fairtrade International) has been certifying dairy farms in the United States that sell to Chobani, despite workers’ rights groups advocating against it and demanding a worker-centered program. Wage theft, child labor, hazardous working conditions, and workers’ and farmers’ lack of knowledge about whether the farms and plantations they work on are even certified are common issues across industries, countries, and certification schemes.”
There are lessons to be learned from the RSPO’s experience which in the sum of its parts reads like Aesop’s Fable "The Miller, His Son, and the Donkey.”
Is Malaysia Too Ambitious with the MSPO Standards?
The lesson for Malaysia is that it cannot afford to please everyone all the time.
The RSPO’s experience should serve as a stark reminder of Malaysia’s previous complaints about changing goalposts in the RSPO’s standards which led to the creation of the MSPO.
Having undergone a major uphaul of its standards in MSPO 2.0 Malaysia should take a break from further raising standards and wait for its competitors to catch up. To further improve on the MSPO when no one is asking for it is not only unsustainable financially but it also invites unwarranted criticism.
Take labor standards as an example. Malaysia is proposing a new national action plan that is supposed to help Malaysia reach its goal of eliminating forced labour according to a summary of a workshop supported by the International Labour Organization (ILO).
Will the new standards acknowledge the real situations on the ground or be written up as nice sounding policies?
Labour abuse is a common problem for agricultural sectors globally. The European Union and US agricultural industries are no different and are frequently reported as guilty of labor abuse.
‘A lot of abuse for little pay’: how US farming profits from exploitation and brutality, pervasive forced labor and Migrant farm worker deaths show cost of the 'American Dream' are good examples on how pervasive labour abuse in the US’s agricultural sector is.
Other reports like “Egypt’s child farmworkers: the human cost of feeding Europe” written by Benjamin Adam or “Unprotected Youth Workers in US Agriculture” by Lisa Iannacci-Manasia provide good insights for the Malaysian palm oil industry where farm workers are needed as sorely as European or US agricultural sectors.
The lesson is not to create standards that are strong on paper but weak in practice as this creates more excuses for the EU or the US to impose new trade restrictions.
Solutions exist and as a first mover, Malaysia should continue its pioneering efforts to produce a commodity sustainably based on its unique position as a mecca for impoverished workers from neighboring countries.
Where poverty creates conflicts, an analysis of migrant labour among Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia by Pafun Nilsawas Duhamel on migrant labour suggested that the Malaysian palm oil industry could contribute to peacebuilding in conflict affected regions with better paying work.
This is entirely possible as a study on remittance outflows by Fauziana Fauzi shows that:
Among the ASEAN-5 countries, Malaysia has recorded the highest remittance outflows, surpassing inflows.
As for the Malaysian palm oil industry's impacts on biodiversity and conservation, the EU which makes the loudest demands of its trade partners on biodiversity should be called to task by Malaysia as the EU continues to fail its own commitments.
The European Environment Agency’s latest flagship report [2] warns that Europe remains far off track on its environmental and climate targets – from soil to water to biodiversity – posing serious risks to Europe’s stability and security.
This is not exactly news. Andrea Rinaldi wrote years ago that the EU’s Biodiversity 2030 was a road paved with good intentions which remains an empty husk without proper implementation.
Her criticism of the EU has been justified as the Guardian reports Once a champion of initiatives to protect nature, the EU is now giving in to pressure from farmers and the far right
The news gets worse for biodiversity in Europe as Florent Servia wrote for Euractiv:
"The EU is on track to miss well over half of its biodiversity targets to reverse ecological destruction, according to a new report published on Thursday by the European Commission."
In comparison, conservation programs under the Malaysian government’s goal to produce palm oil sustainability are making bold statements that:
"The presence of oil palm plantations in Malaysia does not threaten orangutan populations, as the species has shown a clear ability to adapt and survive within plantation landscapes."
To be fair, the EU has every right to insist that trade partner countries do not contribute any more to the ecological impact of EU consumption but Malaysia should note that the EU is more than willing to close an eye and accept questionable quality imports through concessions made in trade deals like EU-CEPA and EU-MERCOSUR.
The concessions offered by the EU to its competitors should be a warning to Malaysia that first movers may earn words of praise but these words mean little when it comes down to producing a quality product that nobody wants because it's too expensive.
But all these warm cosy facts on conservation and happy migrant workers in Malaysia will become moot if Malaysia does not tackle the problem of its ageing palm oil plantations.
About 35 per cent of Malaysian oil palm plantations will be 19 years or older by 2027, compared to around 30 per cent in 2026, said Datuk Carl Bek-Nielsen, chairman of the Malaysian Palm Oil Council, during an industry conference in Kuala Lumpur.
Against this backdrop, Bek-Nielsen believes the target to increase the country’s CPO per hectare by one tonne to 4.5 tonnes per hectare by 2035 is realistic if replanting and good agricultural practices are properly implemented.
He noted that Malaysia’s record CPO output of 20.28 million tonnes in 2025 was largely driven by the resolution of acute labour shortages, which allowed estates to harvest crops more effectively.
An extra 6 million tonnes of palm oil produced with zero deforestation and a shining beacon for migrant works in Southeast Asia would go a long way towards making Malaysian palm oil sustainable financially.
Published March 2026 CSPO Watch
The “others” refer to voluntary certification schemes like the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) which has been criticized endlessly for failing its mission to produce palm oil sustainably.
Fairtrade and cocoa certification schemes created by corporate interests have fared no better as this scathing review of certifications by Allie Brudney and Reynolds Taylor at Corporate Accountability Lab ripped into certification schemes, calling them a “marketing scheme.”
“Across the board – from Rainforest Alliance to Fair Trade USA to Fair For Life – certifications do not deliver on their promises of sustainability and ethical production. These certification schemes represent themselves as helping workers and the environment, yet those producing the goods – whether it’s coffee, milk, or strawberries – often see little or no difference in income or working conditions.
There are countless examples of this failure. In 2022, we documented instances of hazardous child labor on Fairtrade International and Rainforest Alliance/UTZ certified cocoa farms in Cote d’Ivoire. In November 2021, the Washington Post published a story on the failure of certifications in the Brazilian açaí industry. In September 2021, Mongabay reported that a Rainforest Alliance certified coffee plantation in Brazil had their wages illegally cut to pay for equipment. And Fair Trade USA (separate from Fairtrade International) has been certifying dairy farms in the United States that sell to Chobani, despite workers’ rights groups advocating against it and demanding a worker-centered program. Wage theft, child labor, hazardous working conditions, and workers’ and farmers’ lack of knowledge about whether the farms and plantations they work on are even certified are common issues across industries, countries, and certification schemes.”
There are lessons to be learned from the RSPO’s experience which in the sum of its parts reads like Aesop’s Fable "The Miller, His Son, and the Donkey.”
Is Malaysia Too Ambitious with the MSPO Standards?
The lesson for Malaysia is that it cannot afford to please everyone all the time.
The RSPO’s experience should serve as a stark reminder of Malaysia’s previous complaints about changing goalposts in the RSPO’s standards which led to the creation of the MSPO.
Having undergone a major uphaul of its standards in MSPO 2.0 Malaysia should take a break from further raising standards and wait for its competitors to catch up. To further improve on the MSPO when no one is asking for it is not only unsustainable financially but it also invites unwarranted criticism.
Take labor standards as an example. Malaysia is proposing a new national action plan that is supposed to help Malaysia reach its goal of eliminating forced labour according to a summary of a workshop supported by the International Labour Organization (ILO).
Will the new standards acknowledge the real situations on the ground or be written up as nice sounding policies?
Labour abuse is a common problem for agricultural sectors globally. The European Union and US agricultural industries are no different and are frequently reported as guilty of labor abuse.
‘A lot of abuse for little pay’: how US farming profits from exploitation and brutality, pervasive forced labor and Migrant farm worker deaths show cost of the 'American Dream' are good examples on how pervasive labour abuse in the US’s agricultural sector is.
Other reports like “Egypt’s child farmworkers: the human cost of feeding Europe” written by Benjamin Adam or “Unprotected Youth Workers in US Agriculture” by Lisa Iannacci-Manasia provide good insights for the Malaysian palm oil industry where farm workers are needed as sorely as European or US agricultural sectors.
The lesson is not to create standards that are strong on paper but weak in practice as this creates more excuses for the EU or the US to impose new trade restrictions.
Solutions exist and as a first mover, Malaysia should continue its pioneering efforts to produce a commodity sustainably based on its unique position as a mecca for impoverished workers from neighboring countries.
Where poverty creates conflicts, an analysis of migrant labour among Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia by Pafun Nilsawas Duhamel on migrant labour suggested that the Malaysian palm oil industry could contribute to peacebuilding in conflict affected regions with better paying work.
This is entirely possible as a study on remittance outflows by Fauziana Fauzi shows that:
Among the ASEAN-5 countries, Malaysia has recorded the highest remittance outflows, surpassing inflows.
As for the Malaysian palm oil industry's impacts on biodiversity and conservation, the EU which makes the loudest demands of its trade partners on biodiversity should be called to task by Malaysia as the EU continues to fail its own commitments.
The European Environment Agency’s latest flagship report [2] warns that Europe remains far off track on its environmental and climate targets – from soil to water to biodiversity – posing serious risks to Europe’s stability and security.
This is not exactly news. Andrea Rinaldi wrote years ago that the EU’s Biodiversity 2030 was a road paved with good intentions which remains an empty husk without proper implementation.
Her criticism of the EU has been justified as the Guardian reports Once a champion of initiatives to protect nature, the EU is now giving in to pressure from farmers and the far right
The news gets worse for biodiversity in Europe as Florent Servia wrote for Euractiv:
"The EU is on track to miss well over half of its biodiversity targets to reverse ecological destruction, according to a new report published on Thursday by the European Commission."
In comparison, conservation programs under the Malaysian government’s goal to produce palm oil sustainability are making bold statements that:
"The presence of oil palm plantations in Malaysia does not threaten orangutan populations, as the species has shown a clear ability to adapt and survive within plantation landscapes."
To be fair, the EU has every right to insist that trade partner countries do not contribute any more to the ecological impact of EU consumption but Malaysia should note that the EU is more than willing to close an eye and accept questionable quality imports through concessions made in trade deals like EU-CEPA and EU-MERCOSUR.
The concessions offered by the EU to its competitors should be a warning to Malaysia that first movers may earn words of praise but these words mean little when it comes down to producing a quality product that nobody wants because it's too expensive.
But all these warm cosy facts on conservation and happy migrant workers in Malaysia will become moot if Malaysia does not tackle the problem of its ageing palm oil plantations.
About 35 per cent of Malaysian oil palm plantations will be 19 years or older by 2027, compared to around 30 per cent in 2026, said Datuk Carl Bek-Nielsen, chairman of the Malaysian Palm Oil Council, during an industry conference in Kuala Lumpur.
Against this backdrop, Bek-Nielsen believes the target to increase the country’s CPO per hectare by one tonne to 4.5 tonnes per hectare by 2035 is realistic if replanting and good agricultural practices are properly implemented.
He noted that Malaysia’s record CPO output of 20.28 million tonnes in 2025 was largely driven by the resolution of acute labour shortages, which allowed estates to harvest crops more effectively.
An extra 6 million tonnes of palm oil produced with zero deforestation and a shining beacon for migrant works in Southeast Asia would go a long way towards making Malaysian palm oil sustainable financially.
Published March 2026 CSPO Watch