KOTA KINABALU: Sabah has embarked on an initiative to protect the resilience of the palm oil sector so it can become the foundation of the state's economic sustainability.
This initiative will be done through the implementation of the Jurisdictional Certification of Sustainable Palm Oil (JCSPO) and Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO) certification in Sabah.
World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)-Malaysia executive director and chief executive officer, Sophia Lim said the Sabah JCSPO has been globally recognised as a pioneering model to tackle deforestation due to the palm oil supply chain.
"It's implementation would help the state government address deforestation by putting in place strategies, policies and measures to safeguard them.
"This is a crucial step in positioning Sabah and laying the foundation for the state as the global leader in sustainable palm oil," she said in a statement today.
In this initiative, the Sabah JCSPO will remain the ultimate goal while pursuing the MSPO certification to achieve an internationally-accepted standard under the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).
The 10-year plan aims to produce 100 per cent RSPO-certified sustainable palm oil by 2025.
To date, about 26 per cent of palm oil produced in Sabah is RSPO-certified.
Lim said the Jurisdictional Certification Steering Committee (JCSC) was established in 2016 to lead and implement the JCSPO process.
The committee seeks to align interests and coordinate activities between governments, companies, local communities and non-governmental organisations towards shared conservation, sustainability supply chains and green growth objectives.
The JCSC is co-chaired by the Sabah Forestry Department and Natural Resources Office.
The other steering committee members are representatives from the government, private sector and civil society, including WWF-Malaysia.
"One of WWF-Malaysia's contributions towards the realisation of the JCSPO in Sabah is through the Sabah Landscapes Programme, supporting the certification of 70,000 hectares of middle-sized and small-holders in Tawau, Tabin and Lower Sugut landscapes.
"WWF-Malaysia has set up a dedicated Sustainable Palm Oil Team to provide technical support to growers located within the landscapes to form growers' groups and subsequently guide them to undergo the group certification process under the RSPO.
"Through the living landscapes approach, we also work on advancing sustainable palm oil to include elements of conserving the orangutan and Bornean elephants as well supporting the management of protected areas and forest reserves within our landscapes," said Lim.
Meanwhile, Sabah Forestry Department chief conservator of forests Frederick Kugan said the jurisdictional approach would also be able to address environmental and social issues faced by the palm oil sector.
"The JCSPO is a very important initiative to balance out conservation and sustainable development. The certification of palm oil production is necessary, especially in addressing issues such as chemical use and labour standards"
He said that having a jurisdictional approach is very important.
He said it is not sufficient to merely safeguard the wildlife population, forest resources or ecosystem just by themselves.
"We need a larger perspective, and I think we have done much to achieve great conservation efforts in Sabah that could in fact benefit other sectors, especially palm oil," he said.
In the aspect of wildlife conservation issues, the orangutan and Bornean elephants often face problems due to the development of palm oil plantations because such activities often lead to human-elephant conflicts.
Sabah Wildlife Department director Augustine Tuuga said the JCSPO, which encompasses a more holistic approach, would give some hope and ensure a brighter future for these wildlife species in Sabah.
He said the holistic approach offered by JCSPO provides a platform for plantation companies and local communities to find solutions together, and this allows the 'gentle giants' to co-exist with humans and development.