STATEMENT FROM RSPO

January 25, 2013

The Fourth and final Task Force meeting of the RSPO Principles and Criteria (P&C) Review took place from 22 to 25 January 2013 in Seremban, Malaysia. It is a significant milestone for RSPO as it is the first time the P&C is being reviewed since it was implemented in 2008. The Task Force is entrusted by the RSPO Executive Board to review and amend the P&C in accordance to present and future relevance.

The Task Force meeting had the full participation of representatives from the various constituents; Malaysian growers (3 substantive & 3 alternates), Indonesian growers (3 substantive & 3 alternates), Rest of the World growers (3 substantive & 2 alternates), Supply Chain i.e. Consumer Goods Manufacturers, Retailers, Processors and Traders (4 substantive), Social NGOs (4 substantive), Environmental NGOs (4 substantive & 2 alternates).

The participants were engaged in intense discussions over the four days, in both plenaries and breakout sessions with many informal discussions held around the meetings. The process involved considering the suggested issues raised during a second public consultation held in 2012 and deliberating on how and whether to include them in the P&Cs. Stakeholder group representatives sought compromise, but defended the needs and rights of their respective constituents and eventually came to a consensus accepted by all Task Force members.

A draft of all the improvements to the P&C document which were discussed and agreed during the review meeting will be shared with all participants before being submitted to the Executive Board for their endorsement, following which it will be shared with RSPO members and other stakeholders. An Extraordinary General Assembly will be organized for RSPO members to ratify the changes. Subsequent details of the General Assembly will be announced in due course.

For any enquiries: please send an email to Member Relations Manager at RSPO Secretariat, Ravin Trapshah at [email protected]