Second draft of the RSPO Principles & Criteria now open for comments

The Principles and Criteria (P&C) Review process – which started in April 2017 – has already undergone the first public consultation phase last autumn, during which comments from over 10,000 stakeholders were collected through online surveys and during consultation workshops around the world. Details from this can be seen in our video: Around the world in 60 days: the RSPO P&C Review.

Since then, the Task Force (TF) – a dedicated multi-stakeholder group appointed to oversee the review process – has reviewed and discussed these comments one by one and incorporated them into the text to form the second draft of the P&C, which was finalized at the fifth TF meeting in Kuala Lumpur 14-16 May.

Key elements of the second draft include:

 

• Restructuring of the P&Cs: During the first public consultation, stakeholders requested to make the P&C more logical, less repetitive and clearer to apply. To achieve this – and to align the P&C with RSPO's new Theory of Change – the TF has restructured the P&C.
• New ‘No Deforestation’ Requirement:  The second draft P&C contains new proposed requirements on deforestation in the new criterion 7.13. Read more about this criterion on the RSPO website. 
• Integration of the mill modules of the RSPO Supply Chain Certification Standard (SCCS): In order to consolidate into one standard for production level for ease of implementation by growers and millers. Please note the text for this was directly taken from the RSPO SCC standard to illustrate what this would look like and not revised.

In recognition of the importance of inclusiveness for smallholders in achieving their desired impacts, a separate and new RSPO Smallholder Standard has also been developed as part of the wider RSPO Smallholder Strategy. This Standard applies exclusively to independent smallholders, taking into account the reality of the smallholder context and their needs and reducing the burden for entry into the RSPO system – previously determined by the generic principles and criteria for large growers and mills. This offers smallholders a simpler process for reaching and verifying compliance against the RSPO Smallholder Standard P&Cs whilst maintaining core sustainability requirements.

Public consultation workshops

You can download the second draft of the P&C text and access the online survey (for the Smallholder Standard also) on the RSPO website to submit your comments. The revised draft is available in a total of 6 languages: English; Bahasa Indonesia; French; Spanish; Thai and Portuguese. All comments must be submitted by 2 August.

A series of public consultation workshops will also be held at different locations around the globe, for stakeholders interested in discussing the P&C review in person. Please note that pre-registration is required for these workshops. See below for full list of dates and locations.

• 14 June | Bogotá, Colombia | Spanish
• 25 June | Paris, France 25.06.2018 | English
• 9 July | Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia | English
• 11 July | Jakarta, Indonesia | Bahasa Indonesia
• 12 July | Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire | French
• 17 July | New York | English
• 20 July | Accra, Ghana | English
• 23 July | Krabi, Thailand |
• Webinar | 16 July | Portuguese. 
  Sign up for the webinar here.

Once the new Principles and Criteria have been finalised, they will be presented to the General Assembly in November 2018.