Sustainable palm oil: Sabah eyes global leader status
Published on: Monday, February 08, 2021
‘The JCSPO initiative will help the State Government address deforestation in the oil palm supply chain.’ (Pic: Benjamin Drummond)
Kota Kinabalu: As Sabah strives to be a global leader in sustainable palm oil production, the State has embarked on a policy initiative to protect the sector’s resilience as the foundation for Sabah’s economy and sustainable development.As such, the World Wide Fund for Nature-Malaysia (WWF-Malaysia) said both the Jurisdictional Certification of Sustainable Palm Oil (JCSPO) and the Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO) certification had been implemented concurrently within Sabah.
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Its Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer Sophia Lim said the JCSPO initiative will help the State Government address deforestation in the oil palm supply chain by putting in place strategies, policies and measures to safeguard them.
“This is a crucial step in positioning Sabah and laying the foundation for the State as the global leader in sustainable palm oil,” she said.
She said the JCSPO remains the ultimate goal, while also pursuing the MSPO certification as an essential first step towards achieving the internationally-recognised Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) standard.
The JCSPO’s jurisdictional approach would provide structure in establishing wider commitments from stakeholders to sustainable palm oil practices across the State.
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It would align interests and coordinate actions among governments, businesses, local communities, and NGOs toward shared conservation, supply chain sustainability, and green development goals.
In the context of palm oil production, it will be the jurisdiction that obtains certification, and palm oil that is produced within its boundaries.
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The multi-stakeholder initiative aims to achieve no loss of High Conservation Value (HCV) and High Carbon Stock (HCS) forests for all oil palm in Sabah, enable zero-conflict in oil palm production landscapes and strengthen smallholder sustainability and uplift local livelihoods by 2025.
The 10-year initiative aims to produce 100 per cent RSPO certified sustainable palm oil by 2025. To date, about 26 per cent of palm oil produced in Sabah are RSPO-certified.
In order to facilitate the JCSPO process, the Jurisdictional Certification Steering Committee (JCSC) was established in 2016, co-chaired by the Sabah Forestry Department and the Natural Resources Office.
Other steering committee members are representatives from the Government, private sector and civil society, including WWF-Malaysia.
Sophia said one of WWF-Malaysia’s contributions to the JCSPO initiative is the Sabah Landscapes Programme, supporting the certification of 70,000 hectares of middle-sized and small-holders in Tawau, Tabin and Lower Sugut landscapes.
“WWF-Malaysia has set up a dedicated Sustainable Palm Oil Team to provide technical support to growers located within the landscapes to form growers’ groups and subsequently guide them to undergo the group certification process of RSPO.
“Through the living landscapes approach, we also work on advancing sustainable palm oil to include elements of conserving orangutan and Bornean elephants as well supporting the management of protected areas and forest reserves within our landscapes,” said Sophia.
The Sabah Forestry Department Chief Conservator of Forests Frederick Kugan stressed that the jurisdictional approach will not only support the palm oil industry’s sustainability, but also address environmental and social issues faced by the sector.
“The JCSPO is a very important initiative to balance out conservation and sustainable development, and certification of palm oil production is necessary, especially in addressing issues like chemical use and labour standards.
“Having a jurisdictional approach is very important. It is not sufficient to safeguard the wildlife population, forest resources, or ecosystem services by themselves.
“So we need a larger perspective, and I think we have done much to achieve great conservation efforts in Sabah that could in fact benefit other sectors, especially palm oil,” said Frederick.
Additionally, the monoculture nature of oil palm plantations poses a threat to species that are dependent on forest environments, such as the orangutan.
Sabah Wildlife Department Director Augustin Tuuga said the jurisdictional approach would create a shared vision around balancing production with conservation.
He said this is achieved by analysing a landscape holistically and determining which areas would be most suitable for production, protection or restoration.
“The orangutans need good forest habitat to survive. However, some of them are found in isolated forest patches scattered within oil palm plantations.
“Connectivity, through wildlife corridors that link forest patches to a wider forest habitat is key to orangutan survival at oil palm plantation landscapes, especially in the lowlands of Sabah.
“The JCSPO which encompasses a more holistic approach is a real hope to ensure a brighter future for the species in Sabah,” said Augustine.
Apart from the orangutan, Bornean elephants often face problems from the palm oil plantations where human-elephant conflicts exist.
The holistic approach offered by JCSPO provides the platform for plantation companies and local communities to find solutions together and therefore allows the gentle giants to co-exist with humans and development.
It is when the giants are squeezed into small areas without food and water that they will rampage on crops for their needs, he said.
Towards this end, the Sabah JCSPO has been globally recognised as a pioneering model to address deforestation from the palm oil supply chain. Sabah’s jurisdictional programme would create a new wave and pave the path for sustainable practices, which will become the industry standard.
Frederick hoped that through this initiative, it will provide industry players a valuable roadmap toward sustainable change and inspire other regions to follow suit.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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