World: RSPO faces challenges of post-pandemic palm oil

Published 2022년 12월 26일

Tridge summary

The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) meeting in Kuala Lumpur highlighted the role of palm oil in deforestation and its potential link to pandemics. Despite the pandemic's impact, RSPO members have seen successes, such as lower greenhouse gas emissions from certified plantations and increased certification, especially among smallholders. However, challenges remain, including the need to attract new growers and processors, financial rewards of certification not reaching smallholders, and the shift in production towards biofuels. The relevance of the RSPO is questioned with the mandatory palm oil regulations in Indonesia and Malaysia, and the EU's new deforestation legislation. The article also discusses the expansion of palm oil in Africa, Indonesia, Latin America, and India, and the efforts to make palm oil sustainability the norm. Additionally, the difficulty of setting robust targets for reducing emissions in the palm oil industry and the potential of new guidance to coordinate data was highlighted.

Disclaimer:The above summary was generated by Tridge's proprietary AI model for informational purposes.

Original content

“With the way the environment is being destroyed, the way climate change is happening, the way we travel, the way we consume, it’s just a matter of when the next pandemic will happen.” Dr Jemilah Mahmood’s sobering words echoed in the ears of almost 1,000 people attending the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia last month. Because of Covid-19, this was the first time in three years the annual meeting had been convened in person. Mahmood, professor of planetary health at Sunway University, Malaysia, and the event’s keynote speaker, acknowledged that the industry had suffered because of the pandemic. But strikingly, she also highlighted palm oil’s role in deforestation, now recognised as a potential driver of epidemics as it shakes zoonotic viruses loose from wild habitats. Her warning was clear: as palm oil continues pushing against forest frontiers, it not only endangers biodiversity and climate, but could be implicated in the next pandemic. Mahmood’s ...

Source: UkrAgroConsult