Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) and Group of Innovators in Palm Oil (POIG)
With the purpose of advancing in discussions about the environmental and social aspects related to palm, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil – RSPO was created in the end of the first decade of 2000.
It is an international forum which reunites representatives of the whole producer chain of palm oil, besides NGOs and specialists interested in the topic. RSPO developed a series of environmental and social criteria to be met by companies, a condition that makes them able to receive the Sustainable Oil Palm Certificate (CSPO). When they are properly applied, these criteria help to reduce the negative impact of culture of palm oil in the environment and local communities.
Within these criteria are the reduction of usage of agro-toxins and fires, fair treatment to workers, among others.
In turn, the Group of Innovators in Palm Oil (POIG) seeks to harmonize its criteria and principles with the ones of RSPO, but it goes beyond, directing the implementation of initiatives that already exist as a way of responding to the market’s critics. The group acts from the environmental responsibility, partnerships with communities and corporative and product integrity.
The group’s goal is to share positive experiences and bring innovation to the market. POIG wants to show that it is possible to untie the production of palm oil and deforesting and, consequently, its violations of the land and labor rights.