RSPORoundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil

Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil

NEWSLETTERNEWSLETTER For RSPO Members

Issue #6January-March 2006

EXTENDED CALL FOR PARTICIPATION!

The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) cordially extends its invitation to individuals and organizations to participate in the following working groups: 1. Verification Working Group (VWG) 2. Two-year P&C trial implementation Details are provided in pages 07-10.

ContentsFeaturesPage 02President’s Welcome Message

Page 03Update: Principles & Criteria for Sustainable Palm Oil Production (P&C)

Pages 04-05Update: RSPO Working Groups- Verification Working Group (VWG)- Smallholder Task Force (STF): RSPO reaches out to smallholders by Marcus Colchester- Extended call for participation: Verification Working Group (VWG) and 2-year P&C implementation trials

Pages 06-07“Are we eating away the rainforest?” - Notes on a debate held at the Darwin Centre, Natural History Museum, London, by Dr Hereward Corley

ColumnsPage 07Secretary-General’s Report

Page 08Announcements:- RT4 and GA3 announcement- RSPO Position on conflict between Union SP KAHUTINDO and RSPO member PT Musim Mas- RSPO Code of Conduct- Invoicing for RSPO membership fees

News & Views from MembersPages 09-10 Sime Plantations Sdn Bhd Page 11 Dr Reza Azmi Pages 11-12 WWF-Malaysia & MPOAPages 13-15 Borneo Child Aid Society

Page 15Members of RSPO

The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) is a global multi-stakeholder initiative on sustain-able palm oil that was formally established under Article 60 of the Swiss Civil Code on 8 April 2004. The not-for-profit Association will have members representing major players along the palm oil supply chain. The RSPO is a unique platform for pragmatic co-operation to contribute to the expansion of sustainably produced palm oil and its uses.

President Jan Kees Vis - Unilever

Vice-President I Matthias Diemer - WWF Switzerland

Vice-President II Derom Bangun - GAPKI

Vice-President III Azizi Meor Ngah - MPOA

Vice-President IV Jens Mesa-Dishington - Fedepalma

Treasurer Fausta Borsani - Migros

Members Ian McIntosh - Aarhus UnitedTony Lass - Cadbury Schweppes plcLea Borkenhagen - Oxfam GBBachtiar Karim - PT Musim MasRudy Lumuru - Sawit WatchRikke Netterstrom - The Body ShopDian Kosasih - WWF-IndonesiaSimon Harris - HSBCMurtaza Ibrahim - FELDA

Vacant seatBanks/Investors - 1

SecretariatTeoh Cheng Hai - Advisor to Executive BoardAndrew Ng - Secretary-GeneralLim Si Siew - Secretary

RSPO Secretariat, Mont Kiara Business CentreSuite D-03-01, Plaza Mont Kiara2, Jalan Kiara, 50480 Kuala Lumpur, MALAYSIA

Telephone : +60 3 6411 8803Fax : +60 3 6411 8828Email : rspo@sustainable-palmoil.orgWebsite : www.sustainable-palmoil.org

RSPORoundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil

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President’s Welcome Message

causing this? Nobody seems to know for sure, but the interest politicians are taking in biofuels is understandable. The palm oil sector is well placed of course to respond to the demand for biofuel. Yet I feel urged to issue some words of caution. If we want to take global warming seriously, should we not first consider where we can save on consumption of fossil fuel? If we want to look for alternative energy sources, should we not first investigate the ones that do not compete with food production? If it is emission of carbon dioxide we are worried about, should we not compare alternatives on their net carbon balance, rather than on their energy balance? For all scenarios we look at, should we not ask what the most cost effective option is for reducing greenhouse gas emissions? I submit to you these questions should first and foremost be asked by politicians in the U.S.A. and Europe, being the most energy intensive economies of the world. But it seems to me that once these questions get the attention they deserve, a change in policy with regards to the support for biofuels could be the result.

The RSPO Criteria Working Group has met for a fourth time last month (see article). Two days were spent on finalising the draft guidance. Pend-ing comments on the final draft, we believe we are now ready to enter into the implementation period. Further on in this newsletter you will find more information about the approach we want to take. You will also be pleased to hear that the RSPO Executive Board have agreed on a Code of Conduct for all members. A draft text will be posted on the RSPO web site shortly; the General Assembly later this year will take a vote on it. A lot of hard work is ahead of it, on national interpretation, the Task Force Smallholders, the Verification Working Groups etc. Thanks to all of you who have volunteered to participate.

You will have noticed that several parties are calling on RSPO and on you, RSPO members, to take position in the dispute between workers union SP Kahutindo in Indonesia and plantation company PT Musim Mas. I feel it is unfortunate that the tone of these calls is antagonistic. It is clear that there are serious differences of opinions and that parties feel they have been wronged. I am convinced an agreement can be negotiated. But in order for that to happen, the tone of the debate needs to become more constructive. The RSPO EB has agreed on a position statement, which you can find on our web site. Please help solve this conflict, if you can.

On April 26-28, a Soy Technical Workshop will take place in Sao Paulo, Brazil. More than 20 experts from around the world have been invited to share their views on what the most important economic, environmental and social impacts of soy growing, production and trading are. Another 20 people, from influential positions in the world of food and agriculture, will attend to participate in the discussions. The outcomes of this work-shop will be used as input for a second Roundtable on Responsible Soy Conference, in August, in Paraguay.

I will keep you informed.

Jan Kees Vis

Dear sustainable palm oil supporters,

Droughts are hitting hard in East Africa, and famine is looming for millions of people. At the same time, heavy snow is hitting hard in Eastern and Central Europe, causing buildings to collapse. Is it global warming that is

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The Criteria Working Group (CWG) met for the 4th time during 21-22 February 2006 specifically to finalize the accompanying guidance for the Principles & Criteria for Sustainable Palm Oil Production (P&C), a document endorsed by RSPO members during the last General Assembly in November 2005. The guidance will be applied for an initial pilot implementation period up to November 2007. Then on, the results would go towards a review of the P&C at the end of this period. The objec-tive of the pilot implementation period is to enable field testing of the principles and criteria, and thereby allow refinement of that as well as the guidance and indica-tors. The development of more detailed guidance for application of the principles and criteria by smallholders will be an important aspect of this. The work of the newly formed Smallholder Task Force would include this aspect. During this initial period, national implementa-tion will also be developed. While testing occurs, national interpretation would also take place.

The guidance document defines indicators and guid-ance for each criterion. Indicators are specific pieces of objective evidence that must be in place to demon-strate or verify that the criterion is being met. Guidance consists of useful information to help the grower/miller and auditor understand what the criterion means in practice, including in some cases specific guidance for national interpretation of the criterion and for applica-

tion by smallholders. We expect the guidance to be finalized and released in mid-April 2006. The document is currently undergoing a final round of consultation amongst CWG members.

Linking the national interpretation and pilot imple-mentation is a crucial step in providing the final national level guidance to provide as much quantita-tive data and objective indicators. This would facilitate the development of strong guidance for verification. Therefore, it is in the interest of not just producers to ensure that national interpretation and implementa-tion is successful in each growing region and country. The entire supply-chain would be impacted by a poorly supported national document.

Update: Principles & Criteria for Sustainable Palm Oil Production (P&C)

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Verification Working Group (VWG)

The kick-off meeting held in Kuala Lumpur on 22 February was aimed at gathering input from stakeholders in order to prepare a draft Terms of Reference (ToR) and workplan for submission to the RSPO Executive Board (EB).

The following topics were discussed during the 2-hour meeting:

Scope of work: 1. RSPO rules for 3rd party verifiers 2. Options for funding verification 3. Rules for control of claims 4. Phased approaches for implementation (partial levels of compliance?)

Methodology: 1. Consensus, or 2. Identify various options to be submitted first to EB and eventually, to the RSPO General Assembly of members

Workplan: 1. November 2006 completion 2. Electronic communication with a slim possibility of a physical meeting, if necessary 3. ProForest to prepare an options paper to kick-off discussions, followed by a period for comments; detailed recommendations are then compiled and clarified through a possible physical meeting

In summary, suggested verification models are as follows: • RSPO relies totally on other forms of accreditation • RSPO carries out its own approvals of certification bodies • Combination of supplementing other accreditation with a specific RSPO approval

Currently, ProForest is preparing an options paper that describes the various verification options for discussion and consideration by VWG members.

Download minutes of the VWG kick-off meeting (PDF/45kb):http://www.rspo.org/PDF/Meetings/VWG%2001-06.pdf

Update: RSPO Working Groups

Smallholder Task Force (STF)

The kick-off meeting was held in Kuala Lumpur on 22 February. Dr Marcus Colchester, Director of Forest Peoples Programme and Co-Leader of the Smallholder Task Force (STF) with Sawit Watch, provides an insight of RSPO’s anticipated work on smallholders:

RSPO reaches out to smallholdersMarcus Colchester *

Since its inception, RSPO has been aware that setting standards for planters and millers producing Crude Palm Oil (CPO) is complicated by the huge diversity in their situations. Differences between countries constitute one challenge, to be met by the development of national inter-pretations of the RSPO standard, but the special needs of smallholders constitute an even greater challenge. Small-holders produce a significant proportion of the world’s palm oil. Some 30% of CPO in Indonesia comes from small-holdings, 10% in Malaysia, 50% in Papua New Guinea and as much as 90% in Nigeria. The Principles and Criteria adopted by the Members’ Assembly in November 2005 have been drafted mainly with large-scale holdings in mind and the Criteria Working Group has noted that the requirements for compliance with the standard are not well suited to smallholders. Certi-fication schemes for other sectors, like timber, have disad-vantaged small-scale producers, for three main reasons: standards have been written with large-scale production in mind; economies of scale have made it easier for large-scale producers to adopt appropriate management techniques and demonstrate compliance; the initial and recurrent costs of audits are prohibitively expensive for small-scale producers.

To date smallholders have not been well represented in the RSPO process and until 2006 they were not repre-sented on the Board.** They were not directly represented on the Criteria Working Group. Few smallholder organisa-tions are members of the RSPO. Very few representatives have attended the Roundtable discussions.

Complicating this further is the fact that there are so many kinds of smallholders, ranging from independent land-owners producing oil palm on parts of their lands, local communities working in cooperatives at medium-scale, and large-scale out-grower schemes tied to estates and mills. The management systems, capacities, and economic and tenurial realities of all these groups vary greatly and developing a standard and compliance procedures suited to all will be hard.

* Director, Forest Peoples Programme, marcus@forestpeoples.org** In February 2006, the State-run smallholder scheme in Peninsular Malaysia, FELDA, assumed the position on the Board reserved for smallholders.

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With these realities in mind, the second meeting of the Members’ Assembly also passed a resolution calling for the establishment of a ‘Task Force on Smallholders’ and an open-ing meeting of this Task Force was held on 22nd February 2006 in Kuala Lumpur attended by an encouragingly diverse group of about 25 people. The mandate of the Task Force is to ascertain the suitability of the RSPO Principles & Criteria for smallholders and make proposals on how best these can be adjusted to ensure favourable smallholder involvement in SPO production.

At the opening meeting it was agreed that the Task Force, would be led by the Indonesian NGO, SawitWatch, which is a member of the Executive Board of the RSPO and which has an active outreach programme in more than a dozen Indonesian provinces, supported by the Forest Peoples Programme. The Task Force is to work in an open and inclu-sive way with the aim of communicating widely, through dissemination of materials, workshops and field level consul-tations, what the RSPO is and what it seeks to achieve. The importance of direct and active engagement of smallhold-ers, awareness raising and – in the longer term – capacity building was stressed. This is itself a big challenge given the linguistic and cultural diversity of smallholders and the fact that, in many countries, smallholders do not have strong, independent, broadly representative organisations.

To these ends the Task Force, with the support of willing RSPO members and the RSPO Secretariats in Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta, will ensure that RSPO materials are translated into the major languages of countries with smallholders engaged in oil palm cultivation, will carry out diagnostic surveys of smallholder situations and views, and carry out and document trials of the application of the P&C with small-holders in order to test the suitability of the P&C and verification procedures. Based on this, the Task Force will draft proposals for modifications of the RSPO standard, guidance and procedures to suit smallholder realities, optimistically for presentation to the 5th Roundtable meet-ing in 2007. A two-year work plan was also agreed with a schedule of actions and a list of specific activities, but the hope was expressed that this work plan would flexibly expand to include other initiatives volunteered by other parties. Regional workshops are planned in Thailand, Ecuador and, less certainly, West Africa and pilot audits with smallholders in Indonesia and PNG and a scoping exercise in Malaysia were also proposed. All RSPO members and concerned parties are encouraged to join in this effort.

It should be remarked that RSPO Principles and Criteria do not ignore smallholders. Criterion 6.10 already requires that ‘growers and mills deal fairly and transparently with small-holders and other local businesses’ and Criterion 4.8 requires mills and growers to help train them, especially in the safe use of pesticides and managing the environment. The Task Force now has the job of clarifying what ‘fair’ means and how independent smallholders not contracted to specific estates and mills can get trained. More generally the Task Force will also need to clarify: how smallholders should demonstrate

compliance, when they often lack written business plans, management plans, formal dispute resolution procedures, impact assessments and so on; how they can resolve their often unclear tenure and ambiguous legality, which in some coun-tries has resulted from incomplete implementation of government-led out-grower schemes; and how they will afford things like the high costs of health and safety equipment, and land clearance without the use of fire. Those making decisions, about what should be the ‘units of verification’ for audits and what systems should be used to ensure secure ‘chains of custody’ of SPO, should take care to ensure that these provide incentives to RSPO members to address smallholder concerns. Generating the energy to carry out this task will require the engagement of all those committed to the RSPO and more - smallholders, companies, government agencies and NGOs. If there is enough enthusiasm and commitment, then there is a good chance that RSPO can become an engine to improve smallholder welfare. Without this, there is a risk that smallhold-ers may find it nigh impossible to comply with RSPO standards and procedures, leading to further social exclusion and immis-eration. The first meeting of the Task Force gives grounds for optimism and the need now is for all of us to follow up with concrete actions.

Download minutes of the STF kick-off meeting (PDF/54kb):http://www.rspo.org/PDF/Meetings/STF%2001-06.pdf

Extended call for participation: Verification Working Group (VWG) and 2-year P&C implementation trials

The RSPO would like to extend its earlier call for participation in the 1) Verification Working Group (VWG) and, 2) Two-year P&C implementation trials.

The initial VWG grouping convened for a kick-off meeting in Kuala Lumpur on 22 February 2006. Minutes from that meeting are currently available from www.rspo.org. A paper outlining several options for the verification of ‘sustainable palm oil’ is sched-uled to be distributed at the end of March 2006. For more information on the VWG, please read our update on working groups contained in this newsletter.

Volunteers for the 2-year P&C implementation trials have also recently been invited to a kick-off meeting at the end of April 2006. The date and venue of the kick-off meeting will be announced shortly. So far, 18 producers have volunteered to participate in the trials along with several research-based organizations and potential fund-providers.

To participate in the above working groups, please contact the RSPO Secretariat (rspo@sustainable-palmoil.org).

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“Are we eating away the rainforest?”

Notes on a debate held at the Darwin Centre, Natural History Museum, London, by Dr Hereward Corley

23rd February 2006

The announcement of this debate on the Natural History Museum website asked “When we reach for a snack, do we stop to think what effect that packet of crisps or chocolate bar is having on the environment? Does food production impact on the environment, and what can we do about it? Join us as we explore the issues surrounding the produc-tion of cash crops such as soy and palm oil, and the effect it is having on the rainforest.” The debate lasted about 3 hours, and was broadcast over the internet; a tape will be available by the end of March. There were about 100 people present in the Darwin Centre. After each presenta-tion there were some questions from the floor, and also a few which came in over the internet.

The first two presentations were by museum scientists, on different aspects of biodiversity in Indonesian rainforest; these emphasised the undoubted importance of Kaliman-tan as a centre of biodiversity. References to the oil palm industry were few, but negative.

The next presentation, by Ed Matthew of Friends of the Earth (FoE), was combined with a video from the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation; the video showed horrific pictures of maltreated animals, and put most of the blame for the situation on the expansion of the oil palm industry. Ed Matthew showed maps of Borneo, indicating the very rapid loss of forest cover over the last 15-20 years, from 95% cover in the 1970s to around 50% at present. The maps distinguished forest from ‘logged areas’ but in the presentation, ‘logged’ and ‘oil palm plantations’ were implicitly and misleadingly assumed to be the same thing. Although this presentation was strongly anti-palm oil, questions from the audience were not noticeably hostile to the crop, and the attitude of the audience as a whole was very reasonable. One questioner asked why FoE’s campaign was so negative, against an industry which has many positives. Ed Matthew admitted that negative campaigns were more noticeable, and therefore more successful; as FoE has persuaded several UK supermarkets to join RSPO, that is a valid point.

The huge expansion of the oil palm industry over the last 30 years was presented as a problem, but Prof. Tinker pointed out in discussion that it should be seen as an impressive success story; in the 1950s, most palm oil came from wild palms in Nigeria, yet now the crop produces a quarter of the world’s vegetable oil. He stressed the value of the oil palm industry to people in general, especially in the Developing World: how much better off the workers on a plantation are today than the wild-palm collectors of the past, and the benefit to the workers and employees for their livelihood, and to the population at large through cheap vegetable oil.

Ed Matthew also mentioned the Indonesian proposal for a 1.8 Mha project along the Sarawak border, noting that one objective was to get the timber, and pointing out that the land was mostly unsuitable for oil palm because the altitude is too high. In discussion, I said that the general view is that the project is unlikely to go ahead because the land is not suitable, but that my personal fear is that the logging may happen, even if the oil palm planting does not.

On a positive note, Ed Matthew ended his presentation by saying that FoE does not want a boycott of palm oil, but more responsible production, and is exhorting companies, particularly UK supermarkets, to join the RSPO. He men-tioned that several different supermarket groups have already joined, or are about to do so, but Tesco, which is much the largest, has not joined yet.

Finally, I spoke for a few minutes, and made the following points:

1. In answer to the question posed in the title - are we eating away the rainforest? - yes; to feed 6 billion people, rising to 8 billion or more this century, we must have intensive agriculture, which is unavoidably at the expense of the natural environment; over much of the tropics that means rainforest. The demand for economic develop-ment is the real driver, though: if oil palm planting were to be banned, the rate of forest clearing would not change; some other crop would simply take the place of oil palm.

2. A short video of interviews with museum visitors had shown that very few had any idea where palm oil comes from or what it is used for. FoE had implied that it all goes into crisps and chocolate bars, so I emphasised that current world production of around 30 million tons provides the WHO minimum dietary fat requirement for 2.5 billion people.

3. From the producers’ viewpoint, a small farmer, or a plantation employee, can make a good living from a much smaller land area by growing oil palm than by subsistence agriculture. One speaker had mentioned studies showing that under shifting cultivation with a 30–50 year cycle, forest biodiversity can be maintained, but I pointed out that population pressure means that the cycle now is often well below 10 years, and such a system is very destructive. Thus if development is properly managed, oil palm growing could help to protect the environment, by replacing shifting cultiva-tion.

4. I pointed out that the FoE presentation on forest loss in Borneo was misleading in implying that 50% of the island is now under oil palm, whereas the true figure is less than 5% (1.8 Mha in Sabah and Sarawak, 1.2 Mha in Kalimatan, compared to the total area of the island of about 72 Mha). If 50% of the forest has gone, we should be asking what has happened to the 45% which is not under oil palm.

5. I said that at least 29 members of RSPO are oil palm growers, representing an area of over 2.2 Mha, or more than 20% of the world’s oil palm plantings. Two subjects the RSPO will pay particular attention to are land rights (mentioned as a problem by FoE), and forest clearing. The RSPO will try to encourage planting on abandoned and degraded land, rather than forest, but the main problem with this is financial: I reiterated the point made by an earlier speaker, that the value of timber may offset 40% of the cost of planting, so that forest land gives a much better project cash flow than grassland. This might be tackled in at least two ways: persuading banks that the lower risk (of adverse PR) for a non-forest project would justify a lower interest rate, and using carbon credits (accrued when oil palm biomass replaces grassland) to offset some of the planting costs.

My presentation received an attentive hearing, and the environmentalists present did not seem disposed to argue with the points Prof. Tinker and I raised. One of the museum speakers supported my comment on finance; he said that after several decades the value of non-timber forest products, carefully exploited, may exceed the value of the timber, but as he put it, “would you prefer £20 pounds today or £50 in 40 years time?”

The subject of biodiesel came up, and I pointed out that even to meet the EU’s current target of 5.75% of diesel consumption will require 18% of EU arable land under rapeseed, or 4 Mha of oil palms. The huge land areas required to make any significant contribu-tion to reducing CO emissions rule out vegetable oil-based biodiesel as a sustainable option for energy supplies.

FoE mentioned the problem of oil palm projects which are approved, but are abandoned after the timber has been taken, and not actually planted. I argued that such projects are not part of the oil palm industry, so this is not something which the RSPO, or the industry as a whole, can control, but Ed Matthew claimed that often the same parent companies are involved. If this is correct, it is something which the RSPO will have to look at very carefully; members of the Roundtable should not be permitted to operate in such a duplicitous manner.

Hereward CorleyBedford28th February 2006

Secretary-General’s Report

In the last newsletter, we basked in the afterglow of championing of a successful RT3, significantly the adoption and public presen-tation of our Principles & Criteria. In 3 months, the world around our (now) not so small grouping has turned and we are faced with

new challenges to our Mission as stakeholders have basically challenged the RSPO’s willingness to act, or, our political-will.

From our most high point of the first years of our inception, we are now faced with the task of not just consolidating on the P&C to build up systems so we take RSPO to the next level – commercial impact, but we are now being asked to show if we are “walking the talk”, or, if RSPO is living by the lofty goals and rules we built up. Expect more scrutiny and criticism. Such intense scrutiny and growing interest is expected with RSPO gaining so much publicity over the past months.

The year ahead promises to be both challenging and poten-tially very rewarding as we take the next steps after complet-ing our P&C. As stated in the President’s Welcome Message (page 02), you will find that we have started working on verifi-cation, smallholders, a Code of Conduct and a final Criteria Working Group meeting took place too. Keep yourself up-to-date as we prepare to launch the 2-year pilot implementation period and national interpretation process. It looks like April will see us kick-off the pilot implementation.

The link between addressing stakeholder concerns and carry-ing out credible trials and national processes is simple. The more we are able to be transparent, clear and equitable in our work on delivering national indicators or testing the P&C, the more we are able to provide answers to criticism out there.

The participation and support of our members in turning this important period to a successful test phase cannot be under-scored enough. I would urge all of you members to take an active view of the various initiatives right now, and see how you can contribute and support these initiatives.

Lastly, I would like to take this opportunity to thank two people who are moving on from RSPO. Firstly, our Treasurer, Fausta Borsani will be leaving her post and EB seat, as she moves on in her career. We shall look forward to the next Migros representative. There is discussion to initiate a new Treasurer. Secondly, a fond farewell to Mr. Teoh Cheng Hai, former Sec-Gen and outgoing Advisor to the Executive Board for his tireless energy and effort in support of the RSPO. The Secretariat has been immensely enriched by his influence over the years. Personally, I wish to record my best to him as he embarks on a new path. Somehow, though I believe we have not heard of the last of him… and that is a good thing!

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AnnouncementsRT4 & GA3 announcement We are proud to announce that the 4th Roundtable Meeting (RT4) on Sustainable Palm Oil will be held from 21 to 22 November 2006 in Singapore. The 3rd annual RSPO General Assembly (GA3) is also scheduled to commence immediately after RT4 on 22 November 2006. Official announcements for both events will be distributed soon. Meanwhile, please keep the above dates free and we look forward to your active participation.

RSPO Position on conflict between Union SP KAHUTINDO and RSPO member PT Musim Mas The RSPO’s Executive Board (EB) has received documentation from IUF, BWI and MTUC in relation to the conflict between trade union SP KAHUTINDO and plantation company PT Musim Mas. SP Kahutindo accuses PT Musim Mas of serious violations of workers’ rights and refusal to negotiate with SP Kahutindo. PT Musim Mas alleges it has tried to negotiate with SP Kahutindo and has always acted within the applicable laws.

In September 2005, the conflict escalated in a number of strikes. Police intervened, and several leaders of the strike were arrested. All workers who participated in the strike on Septem-ber 15, which was illegal according to the company, were dismissed after refusing to resume work. The company claims the dismissals received industrial court endorsement, the union claims the dismissals need to be reversed.

The RSPO EB discussed the situation in meetings in November 2005 and February 2006. The RSPO EB have studied the mate-rial provided to them by IUF, BWI and MTUC, and have heard representatives of PT Musim Mas.

The two parties involved in this dispute claim very different versions of events. The RSPO does not have the resources or capabilities, at this point in time, to investigate such matters and thereby form an independent view. The RSPO cannot interfere in the legal process in any country, nor second-guess the outcome of legal procedures. We are convinced that this conflict can only be resolved between SP Kahutindo and PT Musim Mas. We sincerely hope both parties will find ways to reach a commonly acceptable and equitable solution.

It is in this spirit that we urge SP KAHUTINDO to bring clarity to what it is they demand of PT Musim Mas, and on what grounds. We urge PT Musim Mas, to take these requests into consider-ation, and act in the spirit of the RSPO’s P&C. We urge all parties involved to do everything in their power to arrive at a constructive solution and not to escalate the conflict.

The RSPO is a voluntary, membership organisation with mem-bers that span the entire supply chain and stakeholders. As a relatively young organisation (formed in April 2004), we have been working hard to build up our members’ capacity to implement the Principles & Criteria for Sustainable Palm Oil Production (P&C) as well as the verification of their application

by members. As a multi-stakeholder organisation, we are committed towards engaging in building constructive dialogue and take a solutions-oriented approach to challenges we are faced with.

RSPO Code of Conduct

During the 3rd Roundtable Meeting (RT3) on Sustainable Palm Oil and the 2nd General Assembly (GA2) in November 2005, an urgent call was made for promoting parallel commitments from the entire RSPO membership chain in light of the adoption of the Principles & Criteria for Sustain-able Palm Oil Production (P&C). In response, the RSPO Execu-tive Board (EB) made a firm commitment to provide just such guidance through the provision of a Code of Conduct for RSPO members. We are pleased to provide you with the RSPO Code of Conduct for members (distributed via email on 16 March). This document would be put forth to the entire RSPO membership for adoption under our next General Assembly and meanwhile, the Code is also posted on www.rspo.org.

The Code of Conduct is an essential part of RSPO’s move towards sustainability, and it has a holistic perspective, encompassing the actions, policies and behaviour of our entire membership base. This document would provide the key reference in articulating the expectations and standard of conduct required of RSPO members. As members of RSPO, your ownership to this Code specifies to stakeholders what can be expected of our membership.

It is the belief of the EB, as sponsors of this document, which it reflects not just high standards of conduct, but practical and realistic ones too – that can be met by all our member-ship. Members are urged to study this key document in light of its impending adoption by RSPO.

Invoicing for RSPO membership fees The latest round of invoices for membership has sent out to all members in March. For those members with RSPO for over a year, you will notice that the invoices have been back-dated. This is the only visible part of an on-going exercise by RSPO to improve our services to members. In this instance, the invoices issued this time round for your annual membership subscription are a result of the deployment of an automated accounting system at the Secretariat. In line with this, the Secretariat is now pursuing providing better accountability for our members subscription fees through ensuring updated accounts are easily traceable and (once the tough part of the deployment is done) convenient. This is the result of having to cater to a rapidly expanding membership base. The number of applicants continues to maintain a strong flow so this new system should start making an impact in the near future.

In the meantime, we hope that you have all received your latest invoices for membership subscription. Please let us know if you did not and we will send you another copy. The subscriptions to RSPO are the only source of funding to keep services like this newsletter, our website and communica-tions tools working. It maintains the Secretariat and keeps it manned. Ultimately, the funds contribute directly towards our common goal for sustainable palm oil.

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News & Views from Members

This column provides the platform for discourse among members to share experiences and ideas on the achievement of RSPO's objective of promoting the growth and use of sustainable palm oil.

Members could use this space to: - Communicate their views and experiences on sustainable palm oil - Critique on RSPO activities or decisions - Provide suggestions for new projects - Provide ideas for funding of new projects or activities - Solicit partners for collaborative projects or activities - Network, etc.

We invite contributions from all members, in any form they consider appropriate. Articles could include pictures, graphs, figures, etc. For inclusion in the next issue of the RSPO newsletter (Apr-Jun 2006), please submit your contributions to us by 15 June 2006.

Thumbs up for Plantations waste management Sime Plantations’ Segaliud palm oil mill received an affirmative nod from Sabah Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Chong Kah Kiat when he recently made surprise checks within the Segaliud area following findings of pollution of a serious level at Sungai Segaliud.

Located 70 kilometres from Sandakan, Sime Planta-tions’ palm oil mill is one of two mills operating in the area. He noted that Sime Darby’s mill discharged efflu-ents into an oxidation pond and not the river. This, he pointed out, was an alternative method other mills should emulate. Segaliud palm oil mill was commended by Tan Sri Chong for its effective waste management system. “Other plantations can emulate Sime Darby which discharges its effluents into specially-built trenches and the residue is later used as fertiliser”, he said. “This is one way to preserve the rivers,” stressed Tan Sri Chong. According to the findings of the Ministry’s study, the Segaliud river water is black in colour and not safe for consumption by the population of more than 1,000 people.

“The residents use the water for their daily consump-tion, including washing clothes and sometimes for drinking and cooking,” said Tan Sri Chong. Tan Sri Chong, who is also the Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister said that he would ask the State Government to issue a ban on the discharge of palm oil effluents (POME) by oil palm mills into rivers. He said that mills should look to ways of disposing their wastes within the plantations areas itself. Sime Plantations Managing Director Datuk Syed Tamin Mohamed in acknowledging the valued endorsement of the Sabah Deputy Chief Minister said, “It has always been the business philosophy of Sime Plantations to uphold socially-responsible behaviour in all aspects of our operations. Through the years, we have been driven by a tangible business strategy.

Sabah Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Chong Kah Kiat (white cap) being briefed by Mr Albert Damid (black hat), Manager of Segaliud estate, during his visit on 17 January 2006.

News & Views from Members

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This recreational feature in Kempas estate, Malacca, used to be an effluent pond.

“We do not wait for laws to be imposed upon us. We take stock of what the industry and stakeholders demand of responsible businesses and make adjust-ments accordingly. Our employees at all levels know that if we do not take cognizance of such trends and pay attention to the need for changes, what made us successful in the past will certainly hold us back in the future. “It is also relevant for me to add that our success in building a sustainable business operation does not always come from sophisticated, mind-boggling innovation. It is sheer discipline and dedication to the whole business of solving traditional issues and concerns that confront us on a day-to-day basis. “Our people are geared towards understanding and addressing the major trends in environmental health, food safety and any other aspects of making our business grow. Solutions are discussed and where applicable, a whole series of exercises are integrated into our operating and management systems, with one objective in mind – to derive a framework that can make things work for the overall development of our business. “I wish to congratulate my team at Segaliud palm oil mill for their effort in ensuring we maintain the lead in such a significant issue as Environmental Manage-ment. You have demonstrated a meaningful achieve-ment in the context of our Division’s recently-declared Campaign “Yes We Can; Yes We Care”. This accolade received from the Ministry should spur us all to do better as we forge ahead to nurture a sustainable business into the future,” said Datuk Syed Tamin Mohamed. What is clear to all operators in Sabah is that the Sabah State Government views the matter of pollu-

Treated effluent from the palm oil mill is fed into this oxidation pond before being channeled into longbeds.

tion of rivers very seriously, and will be seeking recommendations from its Federal counterpart, the Natural Resource and Environment Ministry, on the action to be taken against palm oil mills that are found to be polluting rivers. Currently, mills are allowed to discharge POME into the rivers provided their Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) levels are within the permissible limit. The activities of palm oil mills are under the control of the Department of Environment and are governed by the Environmental Quality Act 1974, a federal legislation.

Announcement – Sime Plantations Sdn Bhd

Sime Darby has streamlined its plantations operations when it consolidated the plantations activities and operations formerly carried out by Consolidated Plantations Berhad, Kempas Edible Oil Sdn Bhd – Plantations Division, Selatan Estates Sdn Bhd, Shari-kat Hadapan Berhad, under a new company – Sime Plantations Sdn Bhd (SPSB) with effect from January 1, 2006.

The consolidated of plantations activities under SPSB was approved by the Board of Directors of Sime Darby in the financial year ended 2004, with the objectives to reduce the duplication of plantations activities carried out by the respective companies so as to enhance synergies, improve operational efficiencies and productivity, and simplify administration and management.

News & Views from Members

Calling for potential project partners

Enhancing native biodiversity within the production landscape (oil palm) – demonstrating that the private sector can play a positive role in biodiversity conservation.

After several pilot projects in Malaysia, Wild Asia, has developed a proposal concept that aims to provide support to oil palm producers to implement meaningful biodiversity conservation activities within existing and future plantations.

The main project outputs proposed are basically:

(1) to provide an understanding of the key biodiversity issues within the plantation;

(2) plantation specific conservation plans that can help guide plantation managers implement biodiversity conservation; and

(3) communication and training material to ensure that these ideas can be taken up by other managers.

Wild Asia has secured co-funding for this pilot project to be run in Malaysia and would like to seek potential pilot plantations to implement the project.

If you would like to be involved, or if you would like to be briefed about the project, please contact the RSPO Secre-tariat or Wild Asia directly.

The closing date for enquiries will be the end-of-April 2006.

About Wild AsiaWild Asia is a Malaysian-based think-tank on current conservation issues founded by a member of RSPO, Dr. Reza Azmi. The team at Wild Asia has been assisting several major oil palm companies in Malaysia in their efforts towards biodiversity conservation. Wild Asia is better known for its website www.wildasia.net - an inter-net portal promoting the conservation of natural areas in Asia. The website has won several awards to date and continues to be read by over 6,000 visitors daily.

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WWF and MPOA join forces for sustainable palm oil production in Malaysia

Let growing worldwide demand for palm oil happen in an environmentally sound and socially responsible way that avoids clearance of high conservation value forests in Malaysia!

This was the call of WWF-Malaysia, the national conserva-tion trust, and the Malaysian Palm Oil Association (MPOA) when signing two Memoranda of Understandings to develop Better Management Practices for the Malaysian oil palm industry to safeguard high conservation value forests (HCVF) in Malaysia.

WWF-Malaysia National Programme Director Dr Diony-sius Sharma and MPOA Chief Executive Mr Azizi Meor Ngah signed the MoUs on 21 February 2006 in Kuala Lumpur (pictured below).

“WWF, through its Forest Conversion Initiative, aims to ensure that HCVFs and habitats of key species in Malaysia are no longer threatened by the expansion of oil palm plantations. WWF supports the implementation of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) Principles and Criteria because we believe that these criteria are crucial to set benchmarks for companies that aim to produce and use palm oil in a responsible manner. WWF believes that the industry-wide application of the RSPO criteria can conserve forests that are valuable for both people and endangered animals like elephants, tigers and orang-utans,” stressed Dr Dionysius.

Through these MoUs, WWF-Malaysia, with the support of MPOA, will facilitate a process to develop a toolkit to identify High Conservation Values for oil palm planta-tions in Malaysia based on Principles 5, 6 and 7 of the RSPO Principles and Criteria. This identification of High Conservation Values will be done through a multi-stakeholder process that is practical and applicable to the Malaysian oil palm plantation industry in evaluating potential land acquisition and land clearing.

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the eco-tourism business in Kinabatangan, of which its local communities will sustain their daily income through participat-ing in the eco-tourism business thus reducing any unsustainable use of the natural resources within the area.

With local communities understanding the significance of protecting wildlife and forest for the eco-tourism business in Kinabatangan, they will safeguard the forests and wildlife to ensure the sustainability of eco-tourism. This contributes to sustainable development in the Kinabatangan in the long term.

Read more on ‘Corridor of Life’ project athttp://www.wwfmalaysia.org/PFW/

Reported by:Lee, Mee Seemslee@wwf.org.my

About WWF-Malaysia

WWF-Malaysia, the national conservation trust, currently runs about 45 projects covering a diverse range of environmental protection and nature conservation work. Since 1972, WWF-Malaysia has worked on important conservation projects, from saving endan-gered species such as tigers and turtles, to protecting our highland forests, rivers and seas.

WWF’s mission is to stop the degradation of the planet’s natural environment and to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature, by: - Conserving the world’s biological diversity - Ensuring that the use of renewable natural resources is suitable - Promoting the reduction of pollution and wasteful consumption

About MPOA

In 1999, a rationalisation exercise of the various associations, advisory bodies, and councils of the plantation industry saw the birth of a single umbrella entity – the Malaysian Palm Oil Association (MPOA), recognized by the government and supported by more than 100 industry members. MPOA has been tasked with the important function of balancing the needs and interests of the various sectors for synergy and development of the plantation industry as a whole. Though a crop specific body that focus on oil palm, MPOA also serves the interests of other plantation crops such as rubber, cocoa, tea and non-crop issues relating to land, labour, trade and pricing.

MPOA’s mission is to ensure the long-term viability and growth of the Malaysian commodity industries, particularly palm oil. Towards this end, MPOA believes in taking a proactive approach in addressing the environmental concerns pertaining to the oil palm industry. As a founder member of the RSPO, MPOA firmly supports its objective on the production and use of sustainable palm oil. MPOA will endeavour to promote responsible production of sustainable palm oil by its members and also encourage responsible use of sustainable palm oil by the supply chain and end users.

WWF-Malaysia also formalises its technical support for MPOA to develop the “Guidelines to Better Management Practices” for the production of sustainable palm oil in Malay-sia. WWF-Malaysia will formally collaborate with MPOA and its members to develop the Code of Good Agricultural Practices as part of MPOA’s Better Management Practices project.

According to Mr Azizi, MPOA’s Environment Working Commit-tee (EWC) has developed an Environmental Charter (Charter) that aspires to depict MPOA’s over-arching declaration for its members in addressing the environmental issues pertaining to the oil palm industry. The Charter in brief declares that members of MPOA not only care for the well-being of the environment but also commit to sound management and development policies to preserve the natural resources in Malaysia, whilst striving to maintain good balance between environmental conservation and business objectives.

It is the belief of MPOA that more need to be done to pursue to goals of sustainable development and sustenance of the human race as per Principle 1 of the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992.

“On the part of MPOA, we shall continue our endeavour to achieve these noble objectives in our own small way. In this regard, we hope to further strengthen our collaboration with WWF-Malaysia, the State Government of Sabah and other relevant stakeholders in WWF-Malaysia’s ‘Corridor of Life Project’ in the Kinabatangan as it has garnered worldwide attention,” added Mr Azizi.

WWF, through its Partners of Wetlands Programme, launched the ‘Corridor of Life’ project in 2002 by the former Chief Minis-ter of Sabah Tan Sri Chong Kah Kiat. WWF’s Corridor of Life project works towards convincing and working with volun-tary oil palm plantation companies in the Kinabatangan to establish forest corridors connecting plantation areas that are vital as wildlife habitat and movement pathway, isolated Forest Reserves and the 26,000 hectare Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary.

When the Corridor of Life is established, wildlife, local commu-nities and economic development in the Kinabatangan will thrive and support each other:

Wildlife will be able to roam across the forest bottlenecks in Kinabatangan, which are currently caused by bad management practices of oil palm plantations, such as planting of oil palms up to the riverbank. When animals are free to move along the Corridor of Life in search of food and breeding partners, they will not intrude into oil palm plantations. This helps to reduce human-wildlife conflicts in Kinabatangan;

As the Corridor of Life serves as wildlife habitats, wildlife will survive and their existence becomes the biggest attraction for

Let growing worldwide demand for palm oil happen in an environmentally sound and socially responsible way that avoids clearance of high conservation value forests in Malaysia!

-- WWF and MPOA

News & Views from Members

Sabah’s forgotten plantation childrenA major challenge along the road towards sustainability in Palm Oil will be to make sure that a whole generation of kids, staying with their parents inside Sabah’s oil palm plantations, gets their basic education.

Humana Learning Centre placed in Labour Line, Baturong Estate, IOI.

It is a very big and important social task, which has somehow gone unnoticed by most people and companies involved in production of Palm Oil primarily. The lack of action on this matter has far reaching consequences, affecting tens of thou-sands of children’s chances towards a proper future.

Many companies have upgraded their standards tremen-dously in terms of housing for labourers and security measures and health. Many, especially among the members of RSPO are genuinely involved in facing the important environ-mental issues connected with planting oil palms.

But somehow the fact that the plantations in Sabah host a big population of children without any access to education during their entire childhood, has gone relatively unnoticed. For the big majority of these children action remains to be taken to provide education. The withholding for these tens of thou-sands of children of the right to education for each and every child, regardless of race, religion, national or legal status, clearly stated in the UN’s convention on the “Rights of the Child”, is arguably the biggest social problem within the palm oil production today!

The difference between receiving a basic education and receiving no education at all is a vast difference. It just needs a look at Malaysian history to be convinced of that. How many of Malaysia’s ethnic Indians, who today hold positions as profes-sionals, managers, lawyers, doctors and politicians, can trace their roots to grandfathers or great grandfathers working as rubber tappers in the British rubber plantations? The children of the workers then only had a very basic education, which was

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still enough to make social progress possible for many of them.

The Children of today’s plantation workers must have a similar chance! The question of how many children really live in the planta-tions has long been a difficult one to answer. If directly asked many companies might prefer to answer, that no children at all are in their plantation. Even when it is obvious, that every labourline has its group of kids, roaming around often without parental supervision, if not helping their parents picking loose fruits. The reason is that the foreign plantation workers are not supposed to have children according to Malaysian immigration laws. The children of these plantation workers, who are mostly born in Sabah for a large part remain unregistered and therefore unnoticed.

But the people enforcing the laws, especially the immigration laws are also good hearted human beings and in most cases realize the urgent need for the education of these children. A need the former Home Affairs Minister Datuk Azmi Khaled repeatedly stated, when he visited Sabah in October 2004.

We are in Humana Child Aid Society presently providing daily education to more than 3000 children at kinder and primary level in 51 Learning Centres along the East Coast of Sabah. The centres are run in cooperation with our partners’ in the oil palm plantation companies: IOI Corporation, Asiatic Develop-ment Berhad, Kwantas Plantations, Teck Guan Plantations, Hap Seng Plantations , Pontian United Plantations, Borneo Samudera S/B and Melangking Oil Palm Plantations, but these represent only a limited percentage of the total number of plantations in Sabah. We have made our own estimates, based on an estimated percentage of plantation areas, we were covering and found that we probably cover 5 to 10 % of the population of children in school age living in the plantations. This would put the total no. of plantation children at school age somewhere between 30,000 to 60,000 children and there would be a similar number below school age.

(One of the major plantation companies in Sabah has recently made a count of the total number of children inside their plantations. They have counted 4859 children in their Oil Palm estates in Sabah, which cover about 5 % of the total planted area at this time close to 1,500,000 hectares. If the number of children is multiplied relatively to the total area planted with oil palms in Sabah, we get a staggering figure of up to a hundred thousand children living inside the planta-tions, the majority of who have no access to education.)

The effects of these facts are grave. Tens of thousands of children growing up without any possibility of joining greater society, because they lack basic skills such as reading, writing and doing simple math. There are few child related problems, which have so long reaching consequences for a child as depriving the child of the right to a basic education. It carries a lifetime consequence.

This is a call for action among the members of the RSPO and later among the entire oil palm growing industry that things must be done, that we can do it, and that we have to take action, better today than tomorrow.

News & Views from Members

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Beautiful Graduation Ceremony in Pegagau Estate, Borneo Samudera

Our society’s 51 learning centres have been readily approved by the Ministry of Education, including by the head of the department for private schools Dr. Mohd Nor bin Mohd Taib, who along with 7 other officers joined us for several days traveling on gravel and mud roads to remote corners of Sabah to see and approve our learning centres. The department has been very helpful towards our efforts, and officers from the Education Ministry have expressed, that as long as children are staying in the plantations, the company should provide them with education.

It does not take much to put up a centre. Our centres are housed in both properly built small school houses, but also in converted fertilizer stores, labourlines, and balai rayas. All of these buildings can easily be converted into a useable classroom, where light, air and shelter are the keywords. Tables and chairs are easily produced, sometimes with the voluntary help of the eager parents. We provide a teacher, mostly Malaysian or in some cases from Indonesia or Philip-pines, who has undergone 3 months of training with one of our experienced instructors/teachers, and the children’s life can take a new turn with education in Bahasa Malaysia, English, Math and science as well as sports, culture, music, drama and dancing.

At this time we are doing our best to provide one set of second hand multimedia computer and printer for each learning centre for class demonstrations and for the teacher’s preparation of education materials. (Should your company be in the process of renewing your computer equipment, we will be happy receivers of the discarded sets. They will for sure gain new life, enriching the life of plantation children.)

The 51 centres are run according to the instructions we receive from the Education Department and our society’s principal Mr. Riduan Donald, a former government princi-pal and Education Department employee, help to train our teachers currently. The cost of running a unit with approximately 50 children is 1350 M$ per month. It gives an annual cost of 16,200 M$ per centre or 324 M$ per year per child. (This cost is about 1 % of the yearly cost of educating a child in USA or most Western European countries!).

As the present payments from the plantation companies, which we work with do not cover all our operational expenses, we invite other parties to contribute to our efforts. The Embassy of Finland has for the past two years given a major contribution to our society, and this year 2006 HSBC Bank Malaysia Berhad, which is also an execu-tive board member of RSPO, has given an important contribution to our society’s efforts of educating the underprivileged children.

Our society is based in Lahad Datu, which is right in the heart of the plantation areas.

We invite all companies willing to sponsor the children’s education to work with us in this matter. It usually would be in a model, where our society manages the new learn-ing centre including providing a suitable teacher, or in case a company is interested to take it upon themselves to run a learning centre, we would be available for consul-tation, training and partnership, based on our 14 years of experience in Sabah. We wish to emphasize that Borneo

Members of RSPOas of 22 March 2006

RSPO Ordinary Members (87) Oil Palm Growers (27)

Agropalma Group / Asiatic Development Berhad / Boustead Plantations Berhad / Consolidated Plantations Berhad (Malaysia) / FEDEPALMA - National Federation of Oil Palm Growers of Colombia * / FELDA * / Golden Hope Plantations Berhad / Hap Seng Consolidated Berhad / IJM Plantations Berhad / Indonesian Palm Oil Producers Association (GAPKI) * / JA Russell & Co Sdn Bhd / KL Kepong Berhad / Kulim (Malaysia) Berhad / Kumpulan Guthrie Berhad / Malaysian Palm Oil Association * / New Britain Palm Oil Ltd / Pacific Rim Palm Oil Ltd / PPB Oil Palms Berhad / PT Agro Indomas / PT Inti Indosawit Subur / PT PP London Sumatra Indonesia / PT SMART Tbk / SIAT SA / SIPEF Group / Socfin Group (PT Socfindo & Socfinco SA) / TH Plantations Sdn Bhd / United Plantations Bhd

Palm Oil Processors and/or Traders (26)

Aarhus United * / AB Fortum Värme samägt med Stockholm stad / Biofuels Corporation PLC / BioX / Cargill BV / China National Cereals, Oils and Foodstuffs Corp / Cognis Deutschland GmbH & Co KG / Daabon Organic CI Tequendama SA / Danisco Emulsifiers / Essent Energy Trading BV / Fuji Oil Group / Interconti-nental Specialty Fats Sdn Bhd / IOI Group (Malaysia / Netherlands) / Karlshamns AB / KOG Edible Oils BV / Kuok Oils & Grains Pte Ltd / Lipidos Santiga / Mitsubishi

RSPO Affiliate Members (37) Organizations (34)

Alterra (Wageningen - UR) / Applied Agricultural Resources Sdn Bhd / Bayer CropScience AG / Bayer CropScience (M) Sdn Bhd / Behn Meyer & Co (M) Sdn Bhd / Borneo Child Aid Society / Cirad Tree Crops Department / Control Union (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd / EcoOils Sdn Bhd / Environmental Management & Monitoring Pty Ltd / EPChem International Pte Ltd / FEDIOL (EC Seed Crushers' & Oil Processors Federation) / Grenidea Technolo-gies Pte Ltd / HIF TECH Sdn Bhd / International Association of Seed Crushers (IASC) / Malaysia Oleochemical Manufacturers Group (MOMG) / Malaysian Estate Owners’ Association / Marga-rine & Spreads Association / National Edible Oil Distributors’ Association / Oilpalmworld Sdn Bhd / PalmPool / Palm Oil Refiners Association of Malaysia / Papua New Guinea Oil Palm Research Association Inc / Product Board for Margarine, Fats and Oils / PT Syngenta Indonesia / qa plus asia-pacific Sdn Bhd / Renewable Fuel Supply Ltd / SAI Platform / Schutter International BV / Seattle Biofuels / Southeast Asia Program (SEAP) of PPI/PPIC and IPI / SGS (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd / Syngenta Crop Protection AG / Syngenta Crop Protection Sdn Bhd

Individuals (3)

Dr Reza Azmi / Dato' Henry S Barlow / Mr Fritz Moedinger

Read more: www.sustainable-palmoil.org/Members.htm

Corporation (KL Branch) / Natural Fuel Group / Nutriswiss AG / PT Musim Mas * / Safic-Alcan / Spychiger Oil Trading AG / Sumi Asih Oleochemical / Uniqema (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd / Wilmar Trading Pte Ltd

Consumer Goods Manufacturers (12)

Cadbury Schweppes plc * / Cloetta Fazer AB / CSM NV / Ferrero SPA / Goodman Fielder Ltd / Matthews Foods / Neste Oil Corporation / Northern Foods plc / Santa Maria AB / Saraya Co Ltd / Unilever */ Walter Rau Lebensmittelwerke GmbH & Co KG

Retailers (8)

Asda Coop / Co-operative Group / Federation of Migros Cooperatives * / RWE npower / The Body Shop International * / The Boots Group plc / Waitrose Limited

Banks/Investors (4)

Co-operative Insurance Society / International Finance Corporation (IFC) / HSBC Bank Malaysia Berhad * / Rabobank Environmental/Nature Conservation NGOs (6)

Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOS) / Global Environ-ment Centre / PanEco / WWF-Indonesia * / WWF-Malaysia / WWF Switzerland *

Social/Developmental NGOs (4)

Both ENDS / Oxfam GB/Novib * / Pesticide Action Network (PAN) Asia and the Pacific / Sawit Watch *

* RSPO Executive Board Member

News & Views from Members

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Child Aid /Humana Child Aid Society is local non-profit society, but to exist we need financial support to cover our extremely low cost of operation as stated above. Any partners in the efforts towards sustainable palm oil production, who wish to sponsor one or more schools or to give any kind of donation will be most welcome, and we will transform the funds received into quality education for the deserving children.

For further information, please contact us at our office no. 6089-866857, Fax: 603-21784113 or call direct to me on my handphone 6019-8084402.

Torben VenningProject Manager/Acting Director

Website : www.borneochildaid.org Email : info@borneochildaid.org