The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil has used its 14th Annual Roundtable Meeting (RT14) to call for a unified front in order to create ‘an effective and sustainable palm oil ecosystem.’

Calling on corporate leaders, NGOs, policy makers and academics, the RSPO made this year’s meeting theme ‘Learning to live together: From Vision to Transformation’ in order to emphasise social issues within the palm oil producing regions.

Datuk Darrel Webber, Chief Executive Officer at RSPO, said, “Inclusive partnership is more crucial than ever at this stage as we embrace the concept of market transformation in committing of not leaving anyone behind. Stakeholders must increase their participation to improve effectiveness. Now comes the hard question. How do we ensure these certification schemes are benefitting sustainability? Only through strong collaboration and collective action, we will be able to achieve this vision.”

The social issues within the palm oil producing regions relate to ‘contract labour, gender, migration and occupational health and safety.’ The RSPO is looking at ways in which the whole supply chain and invested stakeholders ‘can contribute in addressing these issues, and move towards a truly sustainable future for the industry.’