CLAIMS by western banks and supermarkets to be taking a tough line on landowners who trash Asia鈥檚 rainforests are little more than 鈥済reenwash鈥�, according to a report on oil palm plantations in the region.
Since 2004, food manufacturers and supermarkets have signed up to the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) standards, promising to report annually on how much of the palm oil in their products has been grown sustainably. Yet 鈥渄espite the publicity surrounding the standards, there is little apparent urgency in their application鈥�, the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), in Bogor, Indonesia, says in its report, .
The report concludes that there is an urgent need for legal and political reform to ensure that efforts to make palm oil sustainable are not 鈥渉ijacked by vested interests鈥�.
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