RSPO certification not solution to climate crisis, FoEA insists

AN environment pressure group, Friends of the Earth Africa (FoEA), at a two-day strategy meeting on Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) and industrial plantation expansion in Africa concluded that the certification of industrial oil palm plantation companies by the RSPO is a false solution to the climate crisis.

At the conclusion of the meeting, the FoEA said that the certification scheme licenses forest destruction and biodiversity destruction in the African continent.

In a statement issued December 7, 2019, the body explained that the growing rate of land grabbing and deforestation for agro commodities expansion, especially oil palm plantations in Africa, is unacceptable and that the RSPO is green wash.

‘’We reject certification that promotes profits over people. We believe that putting the management of forests in the hands of communities through a sustainable method of community forest management is a solution to reducing the greenhouse gas emission which industrial plantation expansion fails to address,’’ said Rita Uwaka, Coordinator, Forest & Biodiversity Program, FoEA.

‘’RSPO is actually a tool for greenwashing. These companies use RSPO to operate their activities, destroy forests, take over land and above all make big profits at the expense of communities deprived of their resources,’’ said Ekue Assem, Media Coordinator, FoEA.

The FoEA statement reads: “RSPO has failed to ensure adequate compliance with its standard despite adopting a new higher standard for palm oil production.

“We denounce the claim that RSPO is halting the deforestation footprint of their certified oil palm companies in Africa and beyond as large areas of forest and communal farmlands continue to be stolen by the private corporations for oil palm plantation expansion. This poses grave danger to people and planet.”

“We denounce the increased repression, coercion, intimidation and violence against human rights defenders, community rights activists and women in different communities and landscapes hosting these oil palm plantation companies and other agro commodities corporations in Africa.

“We reject the current capitalist agribusiness model  that flourishes on patriarchy and gender injustice.

“RSPO certification has led to more scramble for land and resources in Africa with failure to address the root causes of deforestation and landgrabbing associated with oil palm plantation expansion  across the continent.

“RSPOs principle of prosperity is focused on making profits over people and communities that play host to them without strict compliance for human and environmental rights in countries of operation.”

They added that: “We want concrete commitment backed with strict legislations that cannot be corrupted, not voluntary market based mechanisms that lacks political will to regulate the oil palm commodity market and companies.

“As the world gathers in Madrid to discuss the climate emergencies, we see the need to call for the rejection of this misleading certification scheme that poses more danger to forest and biological diversity, food and energy crises.”