KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 29): Malaysian palm oil concession maps have been left out by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) from public viewing, as it infringes the Official Secrets Act 1972 (OSA).

RSPO chief executive officer Datuk Darrel Webber said RSPO wants to stay on the right side of the law and has left it at that, with no intention of pursuing further.

The certification scheme body has just put up concession maps of its members from all over the world to enable public monitoring of hotspots in the event of peatland fires in oil palm plantations.

“We have been told by our lawyers that the Malaysian maps are under the OSA (and) we want to be on the right side of the law, so we will leave it at that.

“However, Sabah has told us categorically that it is absolutely okay with the maps being made public, because its land is a state matter. So for Sabah, members’ maps are published on our website,” he said.

Speaking in a live telecast media conference after the opening of RSPO’s 15th Annual Roundtable Meeting in Bali, Webber said the real test is to contain forest fires when there is a long drought season.

“The drought is now shortened with lots of rain, and there has been tremendous effort on the ground to do better every year. RSPO has put up concession maps of members. So if there are fires again, we will be able to monitor the website to see how it impacts surrounding areas,” he added.

On European Union’s single certification standard, he expressed hope that the bloc would consider RSPO based on its attributes as a rigorous standard, delivers on impacts on the ground, and addresses issues of cost and benefit.

“However, I think it is early days (to comment further). Everyone has own their own interpretation, we have ours. EU Parliament has asked the Commission to look into how to deliver on the resolution. As far as we are concerned, it is non-binding.

“We have communicated with the EU Commission. They are evaluating all the certification standards. We seem to be doing well for RSPO, but we continue to monitor the situation and provide facts to Europeans about the repercussions, if they went for their own options,” he added.

The roundtable meeting will be conducting the third review of the scheme’s principles and criteria, with a focus on zero deforestation, and finding local solutions to address problems including those affecting the less privileged groups.

To date, RSPO has 3,500 members from 90 countries, including a 40% increase in China, and 62% in North America, respectively.

“We are in 90 countries, which includes new markets and producer countries such as Liberia, Sierra Leone, Cote d’ivoire, El Salvador, and Nicaragua. We should hit 4,000 members mid next year,” he said.