ProForest in collaboration with Wildasia have conducted three training courses as part of a project part funded by RSPO and DOEN with the objective of building local audit capacity within the major palm oil producing countries.  The final training course in this series has just concluded in Sumatra, Indonesia on the 7 - 11 July 2008.

The training courses have covered interpretations for the RSPO Generic Principles & Criteria, the Malaysian National Interpretation and the Indonesian National Interpretation respectively, with special focus on Principles 4 (plantation best management practices), 5 (EIA and biodiversity),6 (Free Prior Informed Consent and key labour issues) and 7 (HCVF).

The three courses were each hosted by a local oil palm plantation company, where each host company opened up their estates to the participants in order for them to conduct a mock-audit as part of the training. Here, lessons learnt in the classroom were applied in a "live" audit situation.  

In total, over 60 participants attended with representation from Indonesia, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea.  Participants were a mix of RSPO approved Certification Body auditors, internal auditors from plantation companies, local experts and NGO representatives.