Palm oil farmers find themselves in EU law conundrum

CAREY ISLAND, Malaysia — After a yearlong journey to join a global program to navigate a new European Union law to curb deforestation, Malaysian palm oil farmer Reta Lajah is one of only a few in her village to be certified.

Yet, while Reta's farm in Sungai Judah village on Malaysia's Carey Island will protect wildlife and forests, there is no guarantee that she will be able to sell to Europe's premium-paying buyers in the future.

Agreed in December and due to take effect within two years, the EU law will force global suppliers of commodities like palm oil, soy and cocoa to prove that their supply chains are not fueling forest destruction.

Green groups warn it could leave many small-scale farmers out in the cold because of requirements for detailed tracing of a product's source, fire controls and land mapping, which many will struggle to meet with limited resources.

That could push risk-averse palm oil buyers in Europe to switch to larger plantations with deeper pockets.

But Reta, who belongs to the Orang Asli, or "original people", indigenous to peninsular Malaysia, hopes she will be one of the lucky ones, as she has already earned green certification for her 8.5-hectare plot.

"It is like the birth certificate of a child," said Reta, as chickens and dogs roamed lazily — helping warn off monkeys in the palm trees overhead — on the farm where she lives with her fisherman husband, daughter and five grandchildren.

Palm oil is the world's most widely used edible oil, found in everything from margarine to soap, but it has faced scrutiny from green activists and consumers, who have blamed its production for rainforest loss, fires and worker exploitation.

In response, many larger growers in Indonesia and Malaysia — the world's top two palm oil producers — have sought certification from the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, a body of plantation firms, consumer groups and environmental organizations.

Smallholders left behind

But smallholders, who produce about 40 percent of palm oil from those two countries, have so far been largely left behind in that green push, industry officials said.

The new EU law requires companies to provide a due diligence statement showing when and where their commodities were produced and to give "verifiable" information that they were not grown on land deforested after 2020, or risk hefty fines.

"Large-scale oil palm plantations and smallholders working with them are the biggest winners because they have the financial means to trace where their palm oil was grown," said Danny Marks, assistant professor of environmental politics and policy at Dublin City University in Ireland.

"The biggest losers will be smallholder farmers unless they are provided assistance."

Only 18 out of 70 small farms in Reta's village are RSPO-certified, with many unaware of the upcoming EU law, she said.

Agencies via Xinhua