The revision of RaCP began in May 2015 and the Compensation Task Force (CTF) had since met three times in May, August and November to finalise the mechanism. A draft procedure was made available for a 60-day public consultation period on RSPO website from 2nd September to 31st October 2015 to seek constructive feedback to improve the procedures. Physical public consultations were also held in palm oil producing countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Colombia and Ghana in September 2015 to improve public understanding on the contents of the procedures and its implication on affected stakeholders.
Inputs received during public consultations were addressed by the CTF early November 2015 in Kuala Lumpur and the final draft was presented to the Board of Governors for endorsement on 16th of November 2015. All new submissions of disclosure and also Land Use Change Analysis (LUCA) will be subjected to the new requirements in the endorsed RaCP.
The endorsed procedure improves the understanding and requirements of compensating social liability as well as emphasising on the submission of new planting Standard Operating Procedures (SOP). Therefore, RSPO will be contacting companies which have submitted disclosure to provide guidance on how to comply with social liability and SOP submission.
Identifying Social Liability for the Loss of HCVs 4, 5, & 6
Companies that have cleared land without prior High Conservation Values (HCV) assessment are reminded not to overlook their obligation to maintain and enhance social HCVs (HCV 4, 5 & 6). The guidance for addressing social liability has been improved in the endorsed RaCP. Therefore, RSPO will be contacting companies which have submitted disclosures to demonstrate that they do not have outstanding social liability. The deadline to submit evidence is by 1st of April 2016 (4 months).
Submission of SOPs
RSPO received minimal submission of SOPs relevant to new planting during one year staged implementation of compensation procedures (May 9th, 2014 to May 9th, 2015). The SOPs are required as evidence to demonstrate to the RSPO Compensation Panel that companies have taken appropriate measures to avoid further non-compliant land clearing. Companies have the options of;
- submitting these SOPs to the RSPO for public disclosure or
- submitting a declaration of SOP verification by an accredited Certification Body
Companies are given a total of 4 months to submit relevant SOPs to RSPO by 1st of April 2016.
The final draft procedures can be downloaded below (Note: Annex 3, Annex 4, and Annex 9 are not available for download at the moment.):
