"Upgrade of Indonesian palm oil certification falls short, observers say", 29 July 2020

The Indonesian government's planned update to its palm oil sustainability certification programme does not do enough to protect Indigenous communities from land grabs or prevent the destruction of forests, find observers.

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The government is currently drafting the implementing regulations for the Indonesia Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO) scheme, which should have been issued in mid-April but have been delayed because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

But even that delay hasn't been sufficient to address the various shortcomings of the ISPO and the values at its core — the principles and criteria, or P&C — according to an analysis of the drafts by the UK-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) and its Indonesian partner, Kaoem Telapak.

Among their key findings: that social safeguards, especially for Indigenous peoples' rights, have been omitted; and that secondary forest continues to be overlooked as a type of natural landscape that warrants protection.

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