Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil

In July 2020, scientists used 30-year time series of satellite images to reveal that palm oil producing areas certified as sustainable had replaced tropical forests of Sumatra and Borneo, including important habitat for endangered mammals.[11][12] The assessment relied on causal inference – i.e., that deforestation was explicitly linked to certified plantations. A counterfactual evaluation of forest loss in the same region found that certification significantly reduced deforestation, but clearance of peatland clearance or land fires, among participating plantations. Counterfactual evaluations also reveal subtle differences in oil palm impacts between regions, and important trade-offs between environment and development.[13] For example, an appraisal of more than 3000 villages in Indonesia with large-scale oil palm plantations found that compared with similar villages with non-certified plantations, those with RSPO certified plantations experienced an overall reduction in well-being.[14] However, this pattern masked considerable variation across oil palm producing villages - those that had long established plantation agriculture (primarily in Sumatra) experienced improvements in well-being following certification, while those that relied more on subsistence-based livelihoods (primarily in Kalimantan) did not. Those involved in counterfactual evaluations of oil palm and certification agree that more positive impacts of certification will follow recent improvements in standards [15][16][17]

The WWF released in 2009 a Palm Oil Buyer's Scorecard.[18] The website stated in 2010:[19]

Clearing for oil palm plantations threatens some of the world’s greatest forests, endangered species such as orangutans, and puts forest-dwelling people at risk. But with better management practices, the palm oil industry could provide benefits without threatening our some of our most breathtaking natural treasures...

Reaching those objectives requires a common language for industry, environmental and social groups to work together. Through the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), WWF has helped to establish a platform for these parties to collaborate towards the production of sustainable palm oil. Thanks to the RSPO, sustainable palm oil is now on the market. By applying stringent production criteria to all stages of palm oil manufacture, some companies are proving that oil palm plantations need not flourish at the expense of rainforests. But so much more remains to be done. Too many palm oil producers still ignore the destructive impacts of palm oil plantations, contributing to biodiversity loss and social unrest and more companies that buy palm oil need to switch to using certified sustainable palm oil in their products.

In 2018, the WWF updated its position to support the RSPO Updated Principles and Criteria, the outcome of an extensive multi-stakeholder consultation process on achieving sustainable palm oil production, stating that the RSPO "represents an essential tool that can help companies achieve their commitments to palm oil that is free of deforestation, expansion on peat, exploitation and the use of fire."[20]

WWF continues to monitor the palm oil industry.[21]