Benchmark for Sabah oil palm sustainability
Published on: Thursday, January 25, 2024
From top to bottom, left to right: Dr Reuben Nilus from Sabah Forest Department, Rizlan Morsit and Mohammad Shahrul Shahpuan from (Sawit Kinabalu) Zulmaliza Zulkifli and Joan Faydrie Frederick from Sabah Jaspo Secretariat, Ms Elyrice Alim from WWF-Malaysia, Muhammad Haris bin Abdullah from MPOCC, Nazlan Mohammad from Sawit Kinabalu, Ms Shamala Thevi a/p Raja Gopal from Ministry of Plantations and Commidities and Julia Majail from Sabah Jaspo Secretariat.
Kota Kinabalu: The Sabah Jurisdictional Approach for Sustainable Palm Oil (Jaspo) Initiative is developing a system to monitor the progress and impacts of jurisdictional approach to Sabah.
According to Sabah Jaspo Secretariat Tuesday, this system is to objectively measure people, planet and prosperity of Sabah in relation to palm oil.
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It said the Monitoring and Evaluation Working Group comprising experts from industry, civil societies, the State and Federal Governments began developing indicators for these measures in February 2023.
On January 18, 2024, the indicators were finalised at the MEWG Indicator Workshop at The Palace Hotel, Kota Kinabalu, attended by members from Sawit Kinabalu, WWF-Malaysia, Ministry of Plantation and Commodities (MPIC), Malaysian Palm Oil Certification Council (MPOCC), Sabah Forestry Department, and the Sabah Jaspo Secretariat.
These indicators are crucial in steering JASPO to achieve jurisdictional certification for Sabah using Roundtable in Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) and the most recognised sustainability certification in the world.
Moreover, it supports the strongly-enforced nation-wide regulation for all growers to be Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO) certified.
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“With a commitment to advancing transparency, accountability, and effectiveness in governance, the working group has dedicated months of rigorous collaboration to recommend a comprehensive system that will serve as a benchmark for measuring Sabah’s performance as sustainable palm oil producers in this region,” said Nazlan Mohamad, Sustainability General Manager of Sawit Kinabalu and co-chair of the MEWG.
“The vision is to then develop a streamlined process of reporting and evaluating the results of the assessments, as part of reporting requirements for JA certification audits, and Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) reporting by the State,” he added.
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Elyrice Alim, Manager of Forest Areas of WWF-Malaysia and co-chair of the MEWG, said this feat required broad support from more stakeholders to set this [system] up.
“We welcome collaboration as we begin assessing our baseline status this year to show where we are currently. After that, we can then monitor progress of the jurisdictional approach in Sabah’s landscape,” states.”
For more information about Sabah Jaspo Initiative, please contact Sabah JASPO Secretariat at [email protected].
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