JAKARTA, Indonesia, Nov. 4, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — The Annual Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RT2026) brought together global stakeholders to mobilise action for a more sustainable palm oil industry, ensuring that RSPO’s foundational mandate continues to deliver real environmental and social progress amid shifting geopolitical and market conditions.
Indonesia’s wildfires: Data shows RSPO Certified concessions impacted by fires at a far lower rate than industry average
RSPO’s flagship conference took place at a challenging period for Indonesia. Amidst one of the strongest El Niño events on record, land and forest fires have burned more than 1.9 million hectares across the archipelago between January and September 2026, according to satellite analysis by Nusantara Atlas.
During his keynote address, RSPO CEO Joseph D’Cruz addressed the public criticism towards the sector, while recognising the efforts of RSPO members in fighting the fires on the frontlines in Sumatera and Kalimantan. “We are not an industry hiding from scrutiny. We are a partnership that monitors ourselves more closely than anyone else monitors us.”
Presenting preliminary satellite monitoring data from Nusantara Atlas for January to September 2026, Dr. David Gaveau, founder of TheTreeMap, said, “When we look at fires within RSPO Certified concessions and cross-check those numbers with RSPO, we find 14,500 hectares of land burned or affected by fire in these concessions. This represents roughly 0.8% of the 1.9 million hectares burned across Indonesia in 2026.”
D’Cruz added, “If specific concessions show unusual burning, we will identify them and investigate. Furthermore, analysis shows that there has been no land burned in RSPO Certified independent smallholder plots. There is no data or evidence so far that any RSPO Certified unit deliberately lit fires.”
D’Cruz urged RSPO Members to leverage the data, facts, and evidence available: “We must all show willingness to stand on what we have built. When we stay silent, we let the worst actors define our industry and undermine two decades of hard work, and let a system that millions of livelihoods depend on be devalued by people who never understood it.”
Connecting Independent Smallholders with Buyers
Nowhere are rural livelihoods more visible than among the smallholders who produce nearly half of Indonesia’s palm oil. The country is home to 77% of the world’s RSPO Certified smallholders. RT2026 recognised 45 new independent smallholder groups from Colombia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Peru, and Thailand who have completed their initial RSPO Certification.
Additionally, the RSPO Independent Smallholder Business Matching event connected potential Credits buyers with independent smallholders from around the world. RSPO recognised outstanding members for their smallholder support through RSPO Credit purchases made from November 2025 to September 2026: Kao Corporation, Nestlé S.A., and Unilever PLC alongside leading first-time buyer Lakeland Dairies Co-operative Society Limited and Pitak Palm Oil Company Limited.
What Indonesia’s Export Gate Means for Sustainable Palm Oil
Indonesia’s Single Export Gate is one of the most significant developments in the sector, reshaping the export landscape for Indonesian palm oil globally. In 2026, Danantara Indonesia, the state investment agency, established PT Danantara Sumberdaya Indonesia (DSI) to oversee and process exports of strategic commodities. Within this framework, Luke Mahony, CEO of DSI explained in a Special Dialogue how the new system and sustainable palm oil can work as complementary levers to build trust in global markets.
“We welcome this dialogue with RSPO because sustainability and market access must go hand in hand. DSI’s mandate is clear: we facilitate, we do not obstruct. We are here to uphold industry standards, simplify compliance, and strengthen global confidence in Indonesian palm oil,” remarked Mahony.
DSI aims to bring transparency and credibility to Indonesia’s commodity markets, drawing on existing data in the ecosystem and combining it with market realities, including sustainability from the RSPO perspective, supply, price, and production. Under the DSI’s intermediary model launching in January 2027, buyers and sellers maintain their relationship, while DSI protects export continuity and preserves the traceability chain.
About RSPO:
The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) is a global partnership to make palm oil sustainable. Formed in 2004, the RSPO is a multi-stakeholder non-profit organisation that unites members from across the palm oil value chain, including oil palm producers, palm oil processors and traders, consumer goods manufacturers, retailers, banks and investors, environmental or nature conservation non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and social or developmental NGOs.
As a partnership for progress and positive impact, the RSPO facilitates global change to make the production and consumption of palm oil sustainable. To inspire change, we communicate the environmental and social benefits. To make progress, we catalyse collaboration. To provide assurance, we set the standards of certification.
The RSPO is registered as an international association in Zurich, Switzerland, with main offices in Malaysia and Indonesia, and offices in China, Colombia, Netherlands, United Kingdom and the United States.
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