... Over the past year, the RSPO has made steady progress on the restructuring and resourcing of its global assurance system and the establishment of the Assurance Standing Committee (ASC). A comprehensive gap analysis has already yielded many areas for systemic improvement and the ASC is in the process of prioritising and resourcing these system-wide enhancements. To adequately address the capacity challenges that exist both within the RSPO Secretariat and in the wider audit ecosystem, especially in developing countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, the Board of Governors and the ASC are working as swiftly as possible to review the long-term direction of the organisation, its staffing levels and the resources required to meet the expectations of all stakeholders and civil society.

The RSPO has a detailed list of requirements in regard to Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) under Principle 4 of 2018 RSPO P&C. We acknowledge that multiple factors on the ground need to be considered across Malaysia, Indonesia, West Africa and Latin America in which our certified members primarily conduct their business operations...

Despite the challenges, we believe that RSPO certification, with its accredited independent third-party auditing, offers the best global system for surveillance of the agricultural sector where regulatory governance is still developing...