Calling for Participation and Nomination of Jurisdictional Approach Working Group Members
The RSPO aims to leverage its impact in making sustainable palm oil the norm. Alongside the conventional approach to certification, where the focus is on the mill and its supply based, RSPO looking to upscale this approach to a jurisdictional level. In the context of sustainable oil palm products, this will involve the certification of the production and processing of oil palm products at the jurisdictional level, that uses a particular model of jurisdictional landscape development.
Due to the scale and the complexity of a jurisdictional approach, the proposed system shall be credible and robust enough to enable the whole jurisdiction to comply with all RSPO standards & requirements. Hence, the establishment of a Jurisdictional Approach Working Group (JAWG) was endorsed by the Board of Governors in March 2018.
The JAWG has a mandate to support the development of a Jurisdictional Approach to RSPO certification,from here on referred to as ‘JA’, in terms of technical development and stakeholder alignment.
The scope of work of the JAWG is:
- To provide high-level guidance on all the work related to a JA to RSPO certification, focused on the development of an approach centered around local applicability, acceptance by the market, and pragmatic development over time;
- To ensure alignment and information exchange with current JA initiatives to identify best and worst practices;
- To engage JA pilots (existing and potential) to provide feedback and, as much as possible, implement the guidance developed by the JAWG.
It is proposed that the group comprises of approximately 12 representatives in the following composition*:
|
Category
|
Division
|
Total
|
|
Growers
|
Malaysia
|
1
|
|
Indonesia
|
1
|
|
ROW
|
1
|
|
Social NGO
|
|
1
|
|
Environmental NGO
|
|
1
|
|
Supply Chain
|
Consumer Goods Manufacturer
|
1
|
|
Bank/Investor
|
1
|
|
Retailer
|
1
|
|
Processor/Trader
|
1
|
|
Smallholders
|
Malaysia
|
1
|
|
Indonesia
|
1
|
|
ROW
|
1
|
*Composition may change once the JAWG has been formed, if the Working Group decides that this is necessary to reach its goals effectively.
Following best practices, independent experts and other key stakeholders may be invited to provide input.
Members are expected to have knowledge of at least one or more of the following topics:
- The palm oil supply chain, and main barriers to sustainable production at each step;
- Added value and cost of RSPO certification and main barriers to certification;
- High Conservation Value, High Carbon Stock, Greenhouse Gas, Free Prior and Informed Consent, and Social and Environmental Impact Assessment;
- Transparency and traceability in the palm oil supply chain.
We wish to invite interested individuals representing the above-mentioned categories to join the Working Group. The Terms of Reference (ToR) for envisioned members of the JAWG is provided below.
The call for participation and/or nomination closes 5pm (GMT+8), 25 April, 2018.
The first JAWG meeting is tentatively planned for 3 & 4 May, 2018.
Kindly contact Javin Tan at j[email protected] if you would like to participate or submit a nomination, or if you require further information.
