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Companies that make top brands
including Kit Kat chocolate and Dove soap may face fines if they fail to buy
more green palm oil under new rules aimed at improving the controversial
industry’s environmental sustainability.
Green groups cautiously welcomed the move from the Roundtable on
Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), a watchdog that sets environmentally-friendly
standards and brings together a wide range of industry players, but were
sceptical the rules would be strictly enforced.
The world’s most widely used vegetable oil is found in everything from
biscuits to make-up, but has long drawn the ire of environmentalists who
blame it for fuelling widespread deforestation.
Swathes of jungle, particularly in the world’s top producers Indonesia and
Malaysia, continue to be cleared as plantations expand aggressively, laying
waste to the habitats of a kaleidoscope of rare animals, including endangered
orangutans and Borneo pygmy elephants.
Consumer pressure has increased in the West as activists mount strident
campaigns denouncing the destructive industry, leading some companies to cut
back on the commodity or stop using it entirely.
Public disgust was underlined last year when millions viewed a Christmas
advert from British supermarket chain Iceland, which has stopped using palm
oil in its own-brand products, featuring a cartoon orangutan telling a little
girl its jungle home had been destroyed.
Iceland’s managing director had previously criticised the “agonisingly
slow” progress in sustainable palm oil production.
The RSPO was established in 2004 to promote green palm oil, and developed
criteria for growers who want their product certified as “sustainable”.
These include a ban on logging virgin forests for plantations and reducing
use of fires — which sometimes burn out of control and spew toxic haze into
the air — to clear land, but activists regularly criticise the body for
failing to enforce its rules.
– Green credentials –
Joining the Kuala Lumpur-headquartered body is voluntary and it has
attracted over 4,000 members, including growers, consumer goods giants and
traders. Nineteen percent of palm oil globally is now RSPO-certified.
Major companies value membership as it boosts their green credentials and
losing it can bring a flood of negative publicity.
When Kit Kat maker Nestle was thrown out last year for breaching the rules,
they regained their membership within weeks after scrambling to meet
requirements.
Critics however say progress towards making the industry more
environmentally friendly has been hampered as major firms such as Nestle and
Unilever, which owns Dove, are not purchasing enough of the more expensive
sustainable oil, discouraging farmers from growing it.
In a bid to force them into action, the watchdog will require companies to
increase their purchases of sustainable palm oil by 15 percent every year or
potentially face fines or suspension from the body.
“The production of RSPO-certified palm oil has for years been well ahead of
the demand for sustainable palm oil,” Carl Bek-Nielsen, chief executive
director of Malaysia-based palm oil grower United Plantations, told AFP.
“However, there is now hope for change.”
But environmentalists voiced doubts over whether companies would accurately
report how much sustainable oil they were buying and noted that details on
fines and enforcement had not yet been made public.
“I am hopeful — but I am not that positive,” said Annisa Rahmawati, a
Greenpeace forests campaigner.
– ‘Keep to the rules’ –
The RSPO’s board of governors recently endorsed the measures and is
encouraging members to start working towards them next year, but precise
details of sanctions are still being worked out.
Nestle, whose products also include Smarties and Quality Street chocolates,
said it was committed to having 100 percent of its palm oil certified by the
green body by 2023.
Critics say the Swiss food giant has a long way to go.
Last year Nestle’s sustainable palm oil use reached 56 percent in Europe
but in China, where there is less consumer pressure, the figure was zero,
according to data the company provided to the RSPO.
Anglo-Dutch giant Unilever, which also makes Ben and Jerry’s ice cream,
welcomed the watchdog’s new rules.
“Our ambition is to make sustainable palm oil commonplace,” the company
said.
But some said the watchdog should in the first instance ensure growers were
complying with basic standards that ensure palm oil is sustainable.
“There is little point in all these companies buying more certified palm
oil, if the companies producing it are not keeping to the rules,” a
spokeswoman for the Environmental Investigation Agency, which has produced
reports critical of the green body, told AFP.
The RSPO has rebuffed claims in the EIA’s reports, and insists it is still
the best system to tackle issues in the industry.
(BSS)
