Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil / Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO/MSPO) ISPO and MSPO are national standards created by the Indonesian and Malaysian governments together with the palm oil industry. They are based on existing laws and regulations, with limited input from and involvement of civil society or NGOs. The standards, which are available only for purchase and not publicly, are reportedly relatively weak, lacking core requirements on no deforestation (such as via the HCSA), no expansion onto peatlands, implementation of HCV approach, comprehensive FPIC and respect for Indigenous and local community rights, protection of smallholders’ and workers’ rights or prohibition of the use of fire. ISPO does not have a functional chain of custody system for its certified products, nor does it require transparency. While both schemes are nominally mandatory, providing them with far greater reach than voluntary schemes, they have weak accreditation oversight for their certification bodies and weak implementation of systems for compliance with their standards. Governance and decision making
Standards
• ISPO and MSPO are national government
• ISPO standards are available only for purchase
and industry initiatives. They are based on national-level laws and regulations enabling palm oil processors and growers to claim ‘sustainability’, rather than comprehensive sets of standards and quality assurance systems.1
• The dominance of industry and government
in the structure and governance of the MSPO system leaves little room for meaningful input from and participation by recognized stakeholders and organisations.2 Nonetheless, MSPO standards-setting processes are stronger due to MSPO’s greater inclusivity and multi-stakeholder oversight committee,3 compared with ISPO’s very opaque and poor standards-setting governance.4
• Neither MSPO nor ISPO is a member of the ISEAL Alliance. 5
1
Aubert, P-M., Chakib, A., Laurans, Y. (2017) pp.29-30, Efeca (2016)
2 Aubert, P-M., Chakib, A., Laurans, Y. (2017) p.30, WWF Malaysia (2018)
and not publicly. These standards have been widely assessed as being weak, in particular due to the lack of core requirements on no deforestation (such as via the HCSA), no expansion onto peatlands, implementation of HCV approach, FPIC and respect for Indigenous and local community rights, protection of smallholders’ and workers’ rights and the use of fire.6 To make matters worse, the Indonesian government has recently proposed legislation that will weaken environmental impact assessment (EIA) requirements, a core component of ISPO standards.7
• MSPO standards (also available only for
purchase) are considered stronger than ISPO’s with regard to rights and FPIC.8 Requirements regarding deforestation and conversion on peatland for new planting are tied to national legislation.9
6 See eg Efeca (2016), Efeca (2020a) pp.2-3, EIA & Kaoem Telapak (2020), IUCN NL (2019), Kusumaningtyas, R. (2018) and McInnis, A. (2017). See also Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Indonesia et al. (2015). 7 Jong, H. N. (2020, 11 February)
4 EIA & Kaoem Telapak (2020)
8 Efeca (2016), McInnis, A. (2017). See also Malaysian Palm Oil Certification Council, Part 3: General principles for oil palm plantations and organised smallholders [Website].
5 ISEAL Alliance, ISEAL Community members [Website]
9 See eg (CSPO Watch 2019, 2020b). See also Malaysian
3 Efeca (2016) pp.1-2, WWF (2017) p.6
Greenpeace International - Destruction: Certified
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