The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) has announced that in Latin American, its members have reached 1.5 million tonnes of Certified Sustainable Palm Oil (CSPO). This milestone was reached this February, as four new grower companies received certification and pushed for the last 160 000 tonnes of CSPO into the region’s certified output.
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The 1.5 million tonne milestone comes from 31 certified growers in the region from Colombia, Guatemala, Ecuador, Brazil, Costa Rica, Honduras, and Mexico with a total of over 420 500 hectares (ha) of certified land. This means that 30 percent of the region’s palm oil is RSPO certified, making it the fastest-growing region in terms of certification.
It is a testament to the hard work of all of our RSPO staff and members in Latin America – from business and civil society – to achieve this milestone. Their collaboration has created an enabling environment to make the production of sustainable palm oil the norm in the region. Latin America can serve as a blueprint for other newer frontiers of palm oil production in how to balance the competing needs of development with the imperative for environmental and human rights protections, commented Beverley Postma, CEO of RSPO.
Schemed smallholders
Postma also noted that this significant milestone is also achieved through the hard work of schemed smallholders in the region. A total of 17 percent of the Latin America CSPO now comes from schemed smallholders in Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, and Honduras where more than 101 000 hectares are RSPO certified.
In turn, we would like to recognise the great effort of these smallholders and also the companies that have accompanied them and included them in their certification process. Latin America has once again achieved a new milestone in sustainable palm oil production globally, by reaching 1.5 million tonnes, which is equivalent to about 30 percent of its total crude palm oil production. It has been an amazing journey to get to this point, one that would not have been possible without a tremendous amount of support. I congratulate all of those involved in making this important achievement possible. However, we must continue our efforts, while also working on the downstream in the region, said Francisco Naranjo, RSPO Technical Director.
