The Future of Palm Oil and the Sus­tain­abil­ity of Palm Oil Pro­duc­ing Land­scapes and Societies

Dar­rel Webber

RAEL Lab Meeting

12:00 pm, 15 April 2015

310 Bar­rows Hall, Room 323

—Wednes­day—

In 2008 global pro­duc­tion of palm oil stood at 48 mil­lion tonnes. More than three quar­ters of this comes from two coun­tries: Indone­sia and Malaysia. Accord­ing to the FAO by 2020 the global demand for palm oil will dou­ble, and triple by 2050. This growth rate causes major con­cern for envi­ron­men­tal groups as the indus­try is linked to major issues such as defor­esta­tion, habi­tat degra­da­tion, cli­mate change, bio­di­ver­sity loss and indige­nous rights abuses. The Round Table on Sus­tain­able Palm Oil (RSPO) is a non-​​profit orga­ni­za­tion estab­lished in 2004 that aims to increase the sus­tain­abil­ity of the indus­try. While the oppor­tu­ni­ties to impact for­est health are great, this com­plex process presents a num­ber of chal­lenges from set­ting stan­dards to enforce­ment, ver­i­fi­ca­tion, engage­ment and cre­at­ing aware­ness. Dar­rel will be shar­ing insight on the process of man­ag­ing the sus­tain­abil­ity of a global commodity.

Dar­rel Web­ber has been the Sec­re­tary Gen­eral of the RSPO since 2011. Prior to this he was Senior Man­ager Palm Oil Sec­tor Engage­ment at WWF-​​International and was actively involved in the ini­tial dis­cus­sions and devel­op­ment of the RSPO Prin­ci­ples & Criteria.