Forest 500

The Sustainable Palm Oil Manifesto (SPOM) is an initiative of five palm oil producers, which together produce around nine percent (9%) of the world’s palm oil: Sime Darby, Kuala Lumpour Kepong Berhad, IOI Corporation Berhad, Musim Mas and Asian Agri. Other signatories include global palm oil trader Cargill and Apical. The initiative, announced in July 2014, does not currently have the support or participation of NGOs and has been heavily criticized for trying to weaken the existing threshold for no-deforestation. SPOM claims to go beyond the sustainability standards established by the RSPO but rather than stopping forest clearance, reportedly will allow for continued deforestation during the time in which members of the Manifesto study tools to determine what forests to develop or protect under the high carbon stock (HCS) approach Institutional investors representing over half a trillion dollars in assets under management have called on the group to adopt an immediate moratorium on deforestation and to support the industry in establishing traceable, deforestation-free palm oil supply chains. Greenpeace has also criticized the SPOM commitments because they do not cover all traded oil, or minority shareholdings. Following this pressure, SPOM members announced in September 2014 an immediate moratorium on the clearance of high carbon stock (HCS) forests, whilst they carry out a year-long study that aims to establish a threshold for defining what constitutes HCS forests.