At the same time, leading consumer companies in the Consumer Goods Forum (CGF) are meeting to discuss sustainability issues related to the palm oil sector while the fires continue to burn in Sumatra. Rather than pay lip service to sustainability, these companies should instead take decisive action to end deforestation.
Head of the Indonesia Forest Campaign, Bustar Maitar, said:
“The big RSPO palm oil companies are more interested in playing the blame game than finding long-term solutions to end deforestation. When companies try to absolve themselves of responsibility for the current disaster by pointing to their no burning policies – like Sime Darby has done – it shows they are trying to distract attention away from the true drivers of this choking haze wave. Decades of forest destruction and drainage of peatland by the palm oil sector – RSPO members included – has helped dry up Riau’s peatlands. This has created a ticking time bomb for the kind of environmental disaster we are experiencing at the moment.
“Major traders like Wilmar International routinely buy from other players in the sector that are involved in peatland destruction. These companies effectively have no policy to exclude any such company that may be implicated in the haze choking Southeast Asia. This dirty oil is then traded to major brands across the globe.”
On the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO):
“The CGF’s action plan on palm oil is about promoting the RSPO, but this so-called sustainability organisation still allows its members to clear rainforest and has failed to ban the clearance and drainage of peatland. Rather than giving dirty palm oil producers a green badge, it’s time for the RSPO to implement a complete ban on deforestation and peatland development.”