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Second Submission of RSPO Peat Inventory

Following the passing of Resolution 6A16-6E on 6 November 2019, all RSPO Grower and Processor & Trader members are required to submit their peat inventory to report the status of planting and conservation on peat to the RSPO Secretariat. 

Requirements for the submission are as follows:

  • Members who had previously submitted their peat inventory (in May 2020) are required to submit the second report to update the peat inventory if there are any significant changes within their concessions via the Google Form.

  • Members who have not submitted their peat inventory or had an incomplete submission during the first submission must re-submit in the form as a first time submission.

  • Members who had no changes in terms of its status of planting and conservation on peat since the last submission are still required to fill in the form for internal documentation purposes.

  • Members who joined after November 2019 with peat areas (planted, unplanted and rehabilitated) within their concessions, are required to declare and submit their peat inventory.

  • Members who joined after November 2019 with no peat present in their concessions are also required to complete the form for internal documentation purposes.

  • Members with non-planted peat areas (conservation, etc.) are required to complete the form and encouraged to provide an indicative map and shapefiles for internal documentation purposes.

The reporting period is from 6 November 2022 to 5 November 2023 [twelve (12) months]. Failure to submit the complete peat inventory (including peat maps and shapefiles of peat boundaries) by 5 November 2023 will result in non-compliance against Indicator 7.7.2 of the P&C 2018.

Guidance for Peat Inventory Reporting 

  • The submission shall reflect the status of planting and conservation on peat as in November 2022.

  • The peat inventory shall be submitted to the RSPO Secretariat through this Google Form. (Note: Members need to sign into Google before they can upload files). 

  • Members who had previously submitted their peat inventory (in May 2020) are required to submit a second report if there are any significant changes affecting the hectarage of areas with oil palm planted on peat. The significant changes may include, but are not limited to the following scenarios:

  • Acquisition or divestment of plantations/companies with oil palm planted on peat.

  • Rehabilitation of areas previously planted on peat as per result of drainability assessment.

  • New development through RSPO’s New Planting Procedure (NPP), which has large areas (cumulative area >100 ha) of peatlands set aside as conservation.

Additional Documentation Requirements

A few minor changes have been made to the documentation requirements from the previous announcement. The changes are reflected in the underlined texts below.

Additional documents that need to be included in the peat inventory submission to the RSPO Secretariat include:

  1. Maps of the peat area, minimum specification as below:

    • Map scale of 1:50,000

    • Minimum resolution of 300 dpi

    • Includes orientation of north (and/or south, east and west)

  2. Map credits to include:

    • Source of data (especially on thematic maps)

    • Name of cartographer

    • Date of the map

    • Projection of the map (especially small-scale maps) that shall follow GCS WCS 1984 standard

  3. Shapefiles of the peat area only, in ZIP or RAR file that shall contain the six types of shapefiles i.e.: .cpg, .dbf, .prj, .sbn, .sbx, and .shp

    • Indicates planted area

    • Conservation (if any)

    • Indicative depth (optional)

    • Type of peat (optional)

Note: The maps and shapefiles submitted to the RSPO Secretariat are for internal use only and are a mix of consolidated peat planting and conservation areas.

Updated peat inventory template and the template guidance documents can be downloaded through the link below:

For the Peat Audit Guidance (P&C 2018), please refer here from the previous announcement.

In addition to this announcement, to support RSPO grower members with additional insight into this requirement, the RSPO Secretariat will be hosting a webinar that includes a step-by-step guide about how to fill in the RSPO peat inventory template, as well as additional information on requirements and deadlines for submission. The date will be announced later.

For more information, please contact the RSPO Secretariat Climate Change (GHG/Peat) Unit at [email protected].