Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil – RSPO. The second RSPO meeting in Jakarta in October 2004

CIRAD Tree Crops Department, TA 80 / PS3, 34398 Montpellier Cedex 5, France

^* hubert.omont@cirad.fr

Abstract

In a context of discord between producers and environmental conservationists, RSPO is an initiative by stakeholders in the “Oil Palm” commodity chain to promote sustainable palm oil production. RSPO, using a multiple-stakeholder process, based its approach on drawing up a set of credible criteria that define the sustainability of palm oil production and which are acceptable to the different categories of stakeholders. The purpose of the second meeting (RT2) was to: i) propose a platform for exchanging views and experience between stakeholders from industrialized and emergent countries, to seek a clear definition of the “sustainable palm oil” concept; ii) identify practical projects for facilitating the implementation of good practices and for proceeding with their introduction; and: iii) strengthen cooperation and mutual assistance between stakeholders and international agencies to promote the production and use of “sustainable palm oil”.