On October 17, one of the world’s most influential environmental news websites Mongabay.com hosted an online debate on deforestation and sustainable palm oil featuring representatives from the RSPO, WWF and Greenpeace.
The debate was hosted and moderated by Rhett Butler, founder of Mongabay.com and featured panellists Bustar Maitar, head of the Indonesia Forest Campaign at Greenpeace, Adam Harrison, Senior Policy Advisor at WWF and Darrel Webber, Secretary General of the RSPO. During the debate, all panellists answered questions submitted by the public through Twitter and by email.
All panellists agreed that saying no to palm oil is not a solution – the only solution is to keep promoting sustainable and responsible palm oil with a view of making it the mainstream solution in all markets. The online debate touched on, among others, the forest fires in Indonesia in June 2013, robustness of the RSPO standards, and the role of companies and consumers in driving the market transformation.
