The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) is in the final stages of revising the Principles and Criteria (P&C). As part of the review process, the organisation is gathering a second round of comments from stakeholders before finalising and publishing the revised P&C. The Palm Oil Innovation Group (POIG) and its members have conducted a comparative analysis between the second draft of the RSPO P&C and the POIG Verification Indicators (v. March 2016). An Executive Summary of the comparison results, and a more detailed indicator level analysis document have been developed, and could be used to provide constructive feedback for incorporation in the final RSPO P&C. The Executive Summary also includes some initial observations on the draft of the RSPO Smallholder Standard, which is also currently open for public consultation.

Based on the analysis, the latest RSPO P&C Draft has made some improvement in meeting the standard of responsibility articulated in the POIG Verification Indicators. The analysis also shows that while many RSPO criteria and indicators could be improved to meet the POIG indicators with a few additions, there is still a serious concern around a set of specific issues. It is not known at this point whether the draft RSPO P&C will retain and/or add indicators in its final form that will be compatible with all of the POIG indicators.

To download the Executive Summary of the comparative analysis, click here.

To view the full indicator level analysis document, click here.