Roundtable On Sustainable Palm Oil Certification Research Articles

What are the Major Barriers and Challenges Faced by Independent Oil Palm Smallholder Farmers in RSPO Certification?

The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) certification is essential for promoting sustainable palm oil production; however, smallholder farmers face significant obstacles in meeting its standards, hindering their growth. This study aims to identify the main barriers and challenges for independent oil palm smallholders in the RSPO certification process and to propose strategies for overcoming these issues. Using a mixed-methods approach, researchers collected data from 60 smallholders through a snowball sampling method and analyzed it using descriptive statistical techniques such as frequency counts and cross-tabulations. Critical barriers identified include high certification costs, lack of knowledge, limited resources, difficulties tracking production yields, and challenges meeting social requirements. Furthermore, smallholders struggle with adapting cultivation practices, accessing markets, maintaining commitment, building capacity, and navigating bureaucratic hurdles. Organizations are urged to adopt market development strategies, enhance their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives, and facilitate better access to sustainable technologies to tackle these challenges. Additionally, enhancing green skills, simplifying record-keeping, reinforcing farmer groups, and offering financial incentives, including soft loans and tailored training, are critical. Streamlining certification procedures will also alleviate administrative burdens, enabling smallholders to adopt sustainable practices more effectively.

IMPACT OF MSPO CERTIFICATION ON PROFIT AMONG PALM OIL GROWERS IN MALAYSIA

Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO) certification is a regulatory requirement for all oil palm growers and processing facilities in Malaysia. However, unlike the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), MSPO does not offer any monetary benefits. Growers have concerns about the increased costs of implementing MSPO. The objective of this research was to identify whether there was a cost increase in terms of overall cost per tonne of oil palm bunch, cost per area, and any changes in production. Similar methods to those used in numerous articles on RSPO were employed, utilising the Population, Intervention, Comparison, and Outcome (PICO) Framework coupled with a questionnaire to collect data. The data were then analysed using a paired t-test. Samples were collected from MSPO-certified estates with the assistance of the Incorporated Society of Planters (ISP) and Malaysian Estate Owners’ Association (MEOA) network. While we initially aimed to collect 72 samples, we managed to obtain 76 respondents. The findings revealed a significant cost increase per tonne of oil palm bunch, as well as an increase in cost per area after the estates adopted MSPO. However, there was also a significant recorded increase in yield production. When compared to current data, the yield increase, coupled with the oil palm price from the previous year, could not justify the increase in cost and resulted in lower profits. It would be ideal for MSPO-certified estates to obtain RSPO certification to increase their revenue, as RSPO has an impact on the selling price of the oil palm. It is recommended that future studies include an in-depth analysis to gain a more holistic and detailed understanding of the impact of sustainability certification on oil palm plantations. Furthermore, a separate study focusing solely on smallholders would be beneficial as it may reveal a different picture. Keywords: MSPO, RSPO, sustainability, oil palm.

Jurisdictional approaches to High Conservation Value area designation using regulatory instruments: an Indonesian pilot project

Agricultural expansion is the primary driver of tropical deforestation and ecological degradation. Certification schemes for sustainable agricultural supply chains, such that of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), seek to address this issue by identifying and protecting High Conservation Value (HCV) areas within concessions. Although RSPO certification of individual concessions has been beneficial, it has had limited efficacy in arresting systemic ecological degradation at larger scales. In response, certification at a regional, ‘jurisdictional’ scale concordant with local environmental regulation has been proposed as an alternative to conventional, piecemeal certification. Jurisdictional certification schemes require alignment with local legislation to ensure integration with governmental environmental and land-use planning; yet, questions of which legislation, and at which level of government, have remained unaddressed. Here, we report on a pilot jurisdictional RSPO certification scheme implemented by an Indonesian district, based on environmental carrying capacity assessments (ECCA) as legislated by the district government. Using the ECCA, we identified likely HCV areas across the district and considered their distributions with respect to three factors of feasible HCV management: (a) similarity with alternative HCV areas identified by a conventional HCV Screening method, (b) sensitivity to aspects of underlying legislation, and (c) scope for unilateral district-wide management. Likely HCV areas were generally similar between the ECCA and HCV Screening method, as each set spanned ∼90% of the district. However, higher-confidence HCV areas according to the ECCA were much less extensive, at 51% of the district, and uniquely extensive across oil-palm concessions. HCV area designation was highly sensitive to the legislated parameters of the ECCA, namely, the selection and estimation of key ecosystem services. Potentially, subtle variations to ECCA implementation, such as those proposed by agro-industrial lobbyists, would significantly affect jurisdictional HCV designations. Finally, some three-quarters of all HCV areas and higher-confidence HCV areas designated by the ECCA fell outside of the exclusive administrative authority of the district government, being confined to agricultural zones. In politically-decentralised Indonesia, jurisdictional HCV area management would therefore be narrowly confined to agricultural areas, or cooperation between district, provincial, and central governments would be essential to the protection of HCV areas generally across districts.

Pre-certification conditions of independent oil palm smallholders in Indonesia. Assessing prospects for RSPO certification

Smallholders, who cultivate ±30% of the global palm oil land, are critical to the realization of a sustainable palm oil sector. However, particularly independent smallholders, untied to mills, lag behind in yields and experience challenges to market their produce. Sustainability certification, such as by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), is proposed as a way to improve smallholder livelihoods, while protecting the environment. However, independent smallholders experience barriers to obtain certification. Through interviews with 18 RSPO certified independent smallholder groups in Indonesia and 9 certification facilitators, this study examines how pre-certification conditions regarding smallholders’ socio-economic backgrounds, legality, group organization, planation management practices, and local supply chain conditions impact prospects for RSPO certification, and how groups who successfully achieved certification have dealt with challenges during the certification process. We found that the majority (77%) of RSPO certified independent smallholders in Indonesia consists of ‘former scheme’ smallholders. These smallholders often have clear land legality and are organized in groups prior to certification, which increases their eligibility for RSPO certification. However, due to upfront and recurrent costs for certification, as well as complexities in meeting RSPO standards, access to certification is strongly dependent on external facilitators. To up-scale certification for independent oil palm smallholders, and include more non-scheme smallholders, certification projects should involve more local actors including local governments and certified smallholder groups. In addition, certification should focus on core social and environmental concerns for smallholders, while being flexible with regards to the forms of proof needed to fulfil legality requirements.

The role of third-party audits in ensuring producer compliance with the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) certification system

Certification systems for sustainable agricultural commodities typically rely on auditors to verify that producers comply with environmental, social, and legal standards. In the oil palm industry, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) certification system promises to address core sectoral sustainability concerns—including deforestation, fire, biodiversity loss, peatland drainage, forced labor, and land tenure conflict—by applying third-party audits to large-scale oil palm growers. Audits are designed to detect noncompliances with the standard, and to ensure that growers resolve these nonconformities. Yet, the role of RSPO audits in generating additionality across key sustainability issues remains unclear. Here, we compiled and analyzed data from a timeseries of annual audit reports for two-thirds of all certified oil palm growers in Indonesia as of December 2015 (n = 114 certified growers and 262 reports). We found that certified growers were required to address a median of four noncompliances per audit (range 0–37), with more noncompliances detected at initial certification than during subsequent audits. Certification demanded the most changes under our thematic areas of Waste & Pollution (9% of all noncompliances) and Employment (7%) and the least changes in Fire (<1%) and Corporate Social Responsibility programs (<1%). Thus, while many RSPO certified growers make real changes to achieve certification, these changes do not always address core sectoral performance concerns. Regression analysis indicated that RSPO member and certification body were significantly correlated with noncompliance frequency. This suggests that each member has a different cost of compliance and indicates heterogeneous stringency of standard application by certification bodies. We recommend that future research evaluate how post-2015 changes in RSPO assurance processes have interacted with a more robust and comprehensive certification standard to alter the additionality from third-party audits.

A review of the financial costs and benefits of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil certification: Implications for future research

In light of growing social and transnational activism against palm oil, governmental, non-government and private sector organizations have begun to advocate a package of sustainable management practices through the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) standard. Since its adoption involves voluntary compliance, understanding the financial costs and benefits is critical. This study reviews the existing literature to identify the financial outcomes associated with RSPO certification. Seventeen analyses qualified. However, only three were considered robust: two revealed positive returns, one negative. While the quality of past research has limited our understanding of the profitability issue, it has provided insights into issues such as incentive and knowledge deficiencies. Comparative research using a standard data template and analytical method is recommended. Given that the standard modifies management practices and that business dynamics affect financial outcomes, it is concluded that research efforts will have to be better tailored for local management.

Does oil palm certification create trade-offs between environment and development in Indonesia?

Environmental and social problems triggered by rapid palm oil expansion in the tropics have spurred the proliferation of sustainability certification systems such as the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). While the RSPO aims to improve the impact of oil palm production on people and environments, its effect on local development, environmental quality, and, especially, potential trade-offs between these outcomes remain unclear. Here, we evaluate whether RSPO certification of large-scale industrial concessions has promoted village development and supported environmental quality in Indonesia, the top global palm oil producer. Using a panel dataset with observations from 11 000 villages in Kalimantan and Sumatra from 2003 to 2014, we apply rigorous quasi-experimental methods to quantify the RSPO’s impacts on village development and environmental outcomes. In the short-run, RSPO contributed to environmental conservation, but had limited development outcomes. On average, relative to villages with non-certified concessions, RSPO certification reduced deforestation and protected primary forests in Sumatra and lowered the incidence of village-reported land pollution in Kalimantan. RSPO certification also increased the number of private educational facilities in Kalimantan, but had no statistically significant impacts on other development indicators. However, the trade-offs and complementarities between conservation and development vary by slope, a proxy for ecosystem fragility and oil palm profitability. On gentler slopes, we generally find complementarities between conservation and development outcomes. In Kalimantan, certification increased the number of private educational facilities and reduced deforestation and the incidence of land pollution on slopes < 2°. In Sumatra, certification retained more primary forests, decreased deforestation and the incidence of water pollution on slopes < 1°, along with a decrease in population density. Higher slopes in both locations were associated with environment and development trade-offs. We highlight the need to better understand the mechanisms behind the impacts of RSPO and emphasized how the outcomes of certification depend on the communities’ bargaining power and the profitability of the land for oil palm production. Thus, we provide insights into understanding these mechanisms behind the impacts of RSPO, which is a prerequisite for improving the design of certification systems and their impacts on the ground.

Non-state certification of smallholders for sustainable palm oil in Sumatra, Indonesia

Rapid expansion of oil palm plantations is one of the leading causes of Indonesia’s continued deforestation over the past decades. To reverse this trend against the wave of increasing global demand for palm oil, non-state certification programs, such as the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), have been promoted to ensure sustainable palm oil production. However, limited empirical studies exist for understanding how RSPO is perceived and practiced by various stakeholders along the palm oil supply chain, especially at the source by small-scale farmers. We surveyed 181 certified independent smallholders in two sites in Jambi, Sumatra to understand: (1) the challenges and benefits of participating in RSPO; (2) the willingness of independent smallholders to continue their participation; and 3) the factors affecting their willingness. We found that most of the challenges of RSPO certification are not well understood by smallholders, except the need for organizational support. In both sites, extensive external support from a local NGO was the key factor that facilitated RSPO certification. Most of the respondents recognize both non-financial (e.g. knowledge, market access, and social recognition) and financial benefits (e.g. sales from RSPO credits) of certification. Although overall, direct financial benefits may be small, they can be a motivator for farmers to continue with certification and for others to consider joining the group when disbursed equitably in non-monetary and communal form, such as in shared food. In contrast, indirect and long-term benefits were not enough to motivate smallholders to maintain RSPO certification. This study provides important insights about the characteristics of the leaders (governing members) and factors affecting RSPO participation from actual experiences of certified smallholders. The information can be used to target early adopters to initiate the RSPO process in farmers’ groups and to develop appropriate facilitation strategies at different stages of certification development for independent smallholders.

Impact of Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) Certification on The Indonesian CPO Exports to The Destination Countries

Palm oil is one of the commodities of plantation products that has an important role in economic activities in Indonesia because of its ability to produce vegetable oil which is much needed by the industrial sector. The potential development of Indonesia's palm oil exports is very high considering the many benefits derived from these products. Therefore, there is a need to ensure that CPO products have a sustainable nature, one of which is that CPO products must be RSPO certified. This study analyzes how the influence of various factors that can affect Indonesia's CPO exports, one of which is RSPO certification using panel regression with the basic gravity model. The data which is used in this research is panel data in the form of time series for 20 years with cross sections from five major importing during 1999-2018. The analysis shows that importer’s GDP and exchange rate significantly and positively affect Indonesia's CPO exports, while the population of the importing country has a significant and negative effect. The RSPO dummy variable shows a significant and positive value, meaning that there was a significant difference between CPO exports when the RSPO certification took effect before and after 2008. Although the RSPO has an effect on Indonesia's CPO exports, there are still a number of indicators from the RSPO that Indonesia has not been able to fulfill. That indicator can be used as a material for consideration to be adopted in national certifications such as ISPO so that Indonesian CPO products can be said to be sustainable so that they can reach wider export markets.

Certified palm oil reduces greenhouse gas emissions compared to non-certified

Consumers are increasingly demanding products containing palm oil produced without harm to the environment. The industry response to this demand has been the creation of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) and the development of a certification system to ensure sustainable palm oil production. However, currently there is no scientific evidence of the benefit gained through the RSPO certification schema. This paper quantifies the environmental impacts of RSPO certified and non-certified through a detailed Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of 1 kg of RBD palm oil to factory gate, produced in Indonesia and Malaysia in 2016, to identify potential benefits and trade-offs of RSPO certification. The ISO 14040/14044 compliant LCA is carried out following both a consequential and an attributional LCA approach. The inventory model presents a high level of detail. Primary inventory data describing the certified production system are obtained from RSPO assessment reports, covering 73% (634 estates) of the certified estate, including 111 smallholders, and 58% (165 oil mills) of the certified mills. Data for the total industrial production are drawn from national statistics and scientific literature. The non-certified flows are derived by subtracting the certified flows from the total industry flows. The consequential results show that RSPO certified oil reduces GHG emission by 35% compared to non-certified i.e. 3.41 (2.61–4.48) kg CO2 eq./kg for certified vs 5.34 (3.34–8.16) kg CO2 eq./kg for non-certified. Based on a thorough data quality assessment and uncertainty analysis, this result is deemed sufficiently robust and thus conclusive. Certified production achieves the largest GHG emissions reduction because of higher yields, i.e. less land use per unit of product, less oil palm cultivated on peat soil and higher share of palm oil mill effluents treated with biogas capture technologies. We also found that nature occupation is reduced by 20% in certified production while respiratory inorganic is slightly higher (3%) in certified production, due to the larger use of fertilisers. For other impact categories, results are associated with a larger uncertainty and therefore shall be considered as indicative. Similar results are found in attributional modelling.

Deforestation spillovers from oil palm sustainability certification

Environmental policies that impose restrictions within one location may be undermined or reinforced by ‘spillover effects,’ the movement of actors, processes, or knowledge to other locations. Such spillovers are an important consideration in the design of interventions seeking to reduce commodity driven deforestation. In these settings, global markets and mobile actors can move deforestation and conservation behaviors over large distances, complicating efforts to measure and manage spillovers. Here we quantify forest loss and conservation spillovers from the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) certification system in Indonesian Borneo (Kalimantan). We examine whether spillovers from certification are transmitted through corporate groups (i.e. to non-certified, RSPO member-held plantations) or local agricultural markets (i.e. to lands near certified mills). We find that, from 2009 to 2016, spillovers from RSPO certification reduced deforestation within Indonesia’s forest estate, but increased deforestation in areas zoned for agricultural use. The private RSPO certification system has complemented public conservation by aligning de facto land cover with central government land zoning policy. Despite these benefits, aggregate avoided deforestation attributed to direct and spillover effects was statistically and substantively insignificant when compared to the total deforestation occurring inside all of Kalimantan’s oil palm concessions. While certification has reduced illegal deforestation, stronger sector-wide action appears necessary to ensure that oil palm production is no longer a driver of forest loss.

The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil's national interpretation process in Ecuador: ‘Fitting’ global standards into local contexts

Abstract National Interpretation (NI) procedures as linked to roundtable environmental governance mechanisms play important roles in the local substantiation and adoption of global standards. In the case of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), these under-examined processes of diffusion which I term, ‘proto-institutional’ procedures', are significant because they introduce global norms to local contexts and assist local actors in making the standards legible. Additionally, they enable local actors to attach meaning to the norms while helping to generate the transformative capacity of the standards. Successful institutionalization is dependent on an appropriate ‘institutional fit’ between the standards and locality, and more importantly, the social processes that facilitate the local legitimation of the standards. However, uneven power dynamics of the institutionalizing processes may cause NI procedures to be organized in such a way where only a few powerful interests are represented. Using the case of the NI process in Ecuador as its focus, this paper examines the extent to which technical, cultural, and political aspects of the RSPO's NI process connect or ‘fit’ with the local context. It argues that proto-institutional procedures can create uneven consensus within adopting contexts, and can thereby reinforce and perpetuate existing patterns of exclusion through their domestic uptake and implementation. Furthermore, the paper argues that more attention should be directed to NI processes as more palm-oil producing countries engage in RSPO certification. The paper concludes with suggestions on how the RSPO's NI process can be improved in order to forge more participative and representative procedures.

Costs and benefits of certification of independent oil palm smallholders in Indonesia

Sustainable certification schemes have surged in recent years. The introduction of these schemes poses serious challenges to smallholders. One such certification scheme is the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), which uses certification to increase equitable and sustainable production of palm oil. This study calculates upfront and recurrent costs and monetary benefits of RSPO certification for the Amanah Independent Oil Palm Smallholders Association in Ukui District, Indonesia. Survey and interview data was collected between 2013 and 2015. Results show that upfront costs of certification were 86 euro per hectare. Furthermore, despite generating up to 21% higher revenues from sales, certification created up to an 8% loss of net income per hectare on average per smallholder in the first year after certification, compared to the situation prior to certification. To motivate smallholders for RSPO certification, the economic performance of certified oil palm smallholders should be improved. This can result from further yield increases, a guaranteed premium price or the sales of GreenPalm certificates to provide additional income.

Effect of oil palm sustainability certification on deforestation and fire in Indonesia

Many major corporations and countries have made commitments to purchase or produce only "sustainable" palm oil, a commodity responsible for substantial tropical forest loss. Sustainability certification is the tool most used to fulfill these procurement policies, and around 20% of global palm oil production was certified by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) in 2017. However, the effect of certification on deforestation in oil palm plantations remains unclear. Here, we use a comprehensive dataset of RSPO-certified and noncertified oil palm plantations (∼188,000 km2) in Indonesia, the leading producer of palm oil, as well as annual remotely sensed metrics of tree cover loss and fire occurrence, to evaluate the impact of certification on deforestation and fire from 2001 to 2015. While forest loss and fire continued after RSPO certification, certified palm oil was associated with reduced deforestation. Certification lowered deforestation by 33% from a counterfactual of 9.8 to 6.6% y-1 Nevertheless, most plantations contained little residual forest when they received certification. As a result, by 2015, certified areas held less than 1% of forests remaining within Indonesian oil palm plantations. Moreover, certification had no causal impact on forest loss in peatlands or active fire detection rates. Broader adoption of certification in forested regions, strict requirements to avoid all peat, and routine monitoring of clearly defined forest cover loss in certified and RSPO member-held plantations appear necessary if the RSPO is to yield conservation and climate benefits from reductions in tropical deforestation.

Managing fire risk during drought: the influence of certification and El Niño on fire-driven forest conversion for oil palm in Southeast Asia

Abstract. Indonesia and Malaysia have emerged as leading producers of palm oil in the past several decades, expanding production through the conversion of tropical forests to industrial plantations. Efforts to produce sustainable palm oil, including certification by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), include guidelines designed to reduce the environmental impact of palm oil production. Fire-driven deforestation is prohibited by law in both countries and a stipulation of RSPO certification, yet the degree of environmental compliance is unclear, especially during El Niño events when drought conditions increase fire risk. Here, we used time series of satellite data to estimate the spatial and temporal patterns of fire-driven deforestation on and around oil palm plantations. In Indonesia, fire-driven deforestation accounted for one-quarter of total forest losses on both certified and noncertified plantations. After the first plantations in Indonesia received RSPO certification in 2009, forest loss and fire-driven deforestation declined on certified plantations but did not stop altogether. Oil palm expansion in Malaysia rarely involved fire; only 5 % of forest loss on certified plantations had coincident active fire detections. Interannual variability in fire detections was strongly influenced by El Niño and the timing of certification. Fire activity during the 2002, 2004, and 2006 El Niño events was similar among oil palm plantations in Indonesia that would later become certified, noncertified plantations, and surrounding areas. However, total fire activity was 75 % and 66 % lower on certified plantations than noncertified plantations during the 2009 and 2015 El Niño events, respectively. The decline in fire activity on certified plantations, including during drought periods, highlights the potential for RSPO certification to safeguard carbon stocks in peatlands and remaining forests in accordance with legislation banning fires. However, aligning certification standards with satellite monitoring capabilities will be critical to realize sustainable palm oil production and meet industry commitments to zero deforestation.

Assessing the environmental impact of palm oil produced in Thailand

There are several concerns related to the increasing production of palm oil in Southeast Asia, including pollution, greenhouse gas emissions and land conversion. The RSPO (Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil) certification standard provides an incentive for reducing environmental impacts of palm oil production but to date, only few producers have been certified and studies on environmental implications of RSPO certification in Thailand are scarce. The objective of this study is to assess environmental impacts of palm oil production in Thailand. A case study is conducted in the Tapi River basin, accounting for 60% of palm oil production in Thailand. We developed a model to quantify effects of different management practices in plantations and mills producing Crude-Palm-Oil (CPO) – including non-RSPO, potential RSPO, and RSPO certified producers.Our study shows that five activities contribute most to environmental impacts of CPO production; 1) burning fibers in boilers,2) use of fertilizers, 3) wastewater treatment and empty-fruit-bunch disposal, 4) gasoline use in weed cutters and 5) glyphosate use for weed control. Together these activities cause environmental impacts associated with global warming, ozone formation, acidification, and human toxicity problems. RSPO certified producers cause the lowest environmental impacts due to better waste management such as biogas production from wastewater. We found that environmental performance of the most environmental friendly mills considerably exceeds the RSPO standards, which may be related to the interventions of an environmental project in the Tapi basin.Currently, only 11% of CPO in the Tapi River basin is produced by RSPO certified mills, and non-CPO certified mills produce around 60% of CPO. Most of environmental impacts of palm oil production in the basin are therefore caused by non-RSPO certified palm oil mills. We explored two alternative scenarios illustrating that if more mills in the basin would adopt best-practice CPO production processes in line with those group named “RSPO certified”, environmental impacts generated in the basin will be considerably lower.

Promoting landscape heterogeneity to improve the biodiversity benefits of certified palm oil production: Evidence from Peninsular Malaysia

The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) is responsible for the certification of palm oil producers that comply with sustainability standards. However, it is not known whether RSPO-certified plantations are effective in maintaining biodiversity. Focusing on Peninsular Malaysia, we show that both RSPO-certified plantations and uncertified large-scale plantations are characterized by very low levels of landscape heterogeneity. By contrast, heterogeneity measures were many times higher in palm oil producing smallholdings, despite their lack of RSPO certification. The low heterogeneity of large-scale oil palm plantations, including those certified by the RSPO, is likely to severely limit their value for biodiversity conservation. Uncertified smallholdings, in contrast, are much more heterogeneous and therefore hold substantially greater promise for the integration of palm oil production and biodiversity conservation than large-scale plantations. With oil palm agriculture further expanding, certification schemes should mandate producers to improve biodiversity conservation through landscape management that promotes greater landscape heterogeneity.

Support vector machine to map oil palm in a heterogeneous environment

Support vector machines (SVMs) have been frequently shown to result in more accurate classification than other image classification methods. However, few studies have successfully quantified their performance for mapping oil palm plantations. Various sustainability criteria developed by the Round Table on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) have a spatial component but they provide little guidance on mapping oil-palm-related cover changes. SVM and maximum likelihood classifier (MLC) classification approaches in classifying oil palm plantations with Landsat ETM+ were compared. The best combination of three bands from the satellite image was selected based on Bhattacharyya distance. SVM and MLC performance was evaluated using overall accuracy assessment and kappa statistics. Bands 4, 5, and 3 provided the best spectral separability indices based on Bhattacharyya distance. SVM classification resulted in an overall accuracy of 78.3% (kappa statistic 0.73) compared with MLC, with an overall accuracy of 71.9% (kappa statistic 0.65). The performance of the SVM method is mainly affected by the accurate setting of parameters involved in the algorithm. The radial basis function parameter setting in SVM was an important variable in the classification process, and SVM improved the classification of oil palm mapping. Although the classification accuracy is still insufficient for large-scale implementation of the technique, further refinements may provide a way forward towards producing baseline information useful for RSPO certification.

Food security, the palm oil–land conflict nexus, and sustainability: a governance role for a private multi-stakeholder regime like the RSPO?

This paper examines the nexus between food security and sustainability governance through a case study of palm oil. Palm oil's advocates claim that campaigns against palm oil and actions to halt its expansion due to sustainability concerns can undermine its food security role. However, palm oil expansion more directly undermines the food and livelihood security of rural and indigenous communities when land that rightfully belongs to, or has been used by, these communities is alienated to firms for oil palm cultivation with little or no consultation or compensation provided or alternatives considered. It is in this context that the paper examines whether the multi-stakeholder Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) is able to ensure that this commodity is cultivated in ways that minimise environmental damage and livelihood disruption, thereby safeguarding palm oil's contribution to food security. The findings are mixed. RSPO certification provides fairly comprehensive and progressive socio-environmental regulation that has enhanced sustainable production practises in this industry especially by the larger transnational plantation companies mindful of their global reputation. The RSPO is also far more responsive than governments have been to the land rights of rural and indigenous communities, providing due process for land claimants as well as recognising that these communities may have legitimate rights to land even if companies were awarded legal title by governments. However, multi-stakeholder regimes can be fragile, requiring a great deal of internal accommodation and trade-offs to work. Already, different interests in the RSPO are pulling in different directions while national certification systems have emerged that are less onerous compared to the RSPO even as the latter seeks to further enhance its sustainability credentials.

SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE: A CASE STUDY ON THE PALM OIL INDUSTRY

The palm oil industry has long suffered criticism for destroying forest, wildlife and denying rightful ownership of land. To avert these persisting criticisms, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) was formed by a diverse group of stakeholders in the palm oil industry, to promote sustainable agriculture and address environment impact. Sustainability efforts begin from good environmental, social and agricultural practices: where the oil palm is first planted and grown to it final destination, the plate of a consumer or other products. The palm oil industry is the first to have certified sustainable produce, through the RSPO certification. The sustainability measurements are based on RSPO‟s 8 principles, 39 criteria, 126 indicators and guidance. The formation of the RSPO has not been without criticism from various sectors, especially the environmental NGOs. Sustainability in agricultural practises is no more an option, and agriculture need to feed the growing billions in the earth‟s population. The ever degrading environment needs protection and restoration. But, we can afford to fail with or without RSPO and other efforts by the industry similar to Malaysian Palm and Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil should be given encouragement and support. (Key Words: Agriculture, Palm Oil, Sustainable, Small Farmers, Life Cycle)