Partners for the Next 20: Proforest at RSPO RT2024

In supporting the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) continued drive for transformative and systemic change of the oil palm sector, Proforest participated in the Annual Roundtable Conference on Sustainable Palm Oil (RT2024) in Bangkok, Thailand.  

Themed “Partners for the Next 20: Innovating for Impact”, the event calls for the industry’s attention to mobilise strategic, concerted action over the coming years, namely in building a more resilient, responsive and responsible palm oil ecosystem. 

Among the key highlights of RT2024 is the announcement of the revised 2024 RSPO Principles & Criteria (P&C) and the 2024 RSPO Independent Smallholder (ISH) Standard which brought greater clarity, auditability and implementability, and addresses market and regulatory relevance, with a strong focus on addressing deforestation, human rights due diligence, and smallholder inclusion in global supply chains. 

Proforest’s Stephen Doso Jnr, Deputy Director spoke on the panel session titled ‘Sustainable Palm Oil: Ensuring Food Security in a Growing Global Market’. He shared examples of measures in West and Central Africa that integrate food security and sustainability in oil palm production, which have been driven by the Africa Sustainable Commodities Initiative (ASCI).

ASCI is a multi-stakeholder platform created to enable food systems transformation through commitments to the responsible production of agricultural commodities. Stakeholders from the participating producer countries in Africa including Cameroon, Central African Republic, Côte d'Ivoire, Republic of Congo, Edo State (Nigeria), Gabon, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Democratic Republic of Congo come together through the platform to define the principles for the sustainable development of cocoa, rubber, palm oil, coffee, and other commodities.

The guiding principles include protecting forests, good governance, and transparency, while ensuring social benefits for farmers, communities, indigenous peoples and their human rights.

Stephen added that there is a growing need to move beyond supply chains to landscape and jurisdictional approaches, multistakeholder partnerships and collaborations, and working more with governments as the way forward in addressing sustainable food production and security.