Case Study: Preliminary findings from a Review of the Jurisdictional Approach initiative in Sabah, Malaysia

This report aims to provide some inputs into the process of building RSPO Jurisdictional Certification from a rights-based perspective, based on the particular case of Sabah, Malaysia.

In 2015, Sabah announced its commitment to achieve jurisdictional certification by 2025 of all palm oil production in line with the RSPO standard.

• This case study (Google Chrome users may need to download this PDF in order to view it correctly) outlines the recommended actions necessary to ensure that the Sabah Jurisdictional Approach will recognise the full extent of indigenous peoples’ land rights, and is part of a series of detailed case studies, accompanying the report Upholding Human Rights in Jurisdictional Approaches: Some emerging lessons.

RSPO has developed a voluntary standard for the ‘sustainable’ production of palm oil (or fresh fruit bunches in the case of small and medium producers) that goes beyond what is required by law in many countries. RSPO member producers’ compliance with this standard is verified though 3rd party audit and the issuance of certificates by accredited Certification Bodies.

One of the main challenges for jurisdictional approaches to palm oil certification is to clarify how compliance with the RSPO standard will be incentivised and enforced for non-RSPO members within the jurisdiction. In effect, this is a process of translating a voluntary standard into mandatory requirements within the jurisdiction’s policy, legal and institutional systems.

In the Sabah context, this has been a topic of active consideration since the State Cabinet’s endorsement of the commitment in November 2015 made

it State policy. Discussions about how to address key issues such as FPIC in the State’s legal and institutional frameworks are taking place accordingly at the State level. At the time that Sabah and other jurisdictions - such as Indonesia’s district of Seruyan in Central Kalimantan and province of South Sumatra - first announced their plans to achieve jurisdictional certification, RSPO had not published any system for ensuring compliance, verification and certification of non-RSPO-member producers.

Consequently, the jurisdictional pilots such as that in Sabah have been seeking to develop their own systems without a template against which to measure progress and towards which to target their efforts. While the jurisdictional approach initiatives are home-grown affairs, the somewhat piecemeal nature of JA pilots to date can thus be, at least partly if not largely, explained by the lack of clear leadership from RSPO.

Note: Google Chrome users may need to download this PDF in order to view it correctly