The role of third-party audits in ensuring producer compliance with the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) certification system
Certification systems for sustainable agricultural commodities typically rely on auditors to verify that producers comply with environmental, social, and legal standards. In the oil palm industry, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) certification system promises to address core sectoral su...
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| Veröffentlicht in: | Environmental research letters 2022-09, Vol.17 (9), p.94038 |
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| creator | Bishop, K J Carlson, K M |
| description | Certification systems for sustainable agricultural commodities typically rely on auditors to verify that producers comply with environmental, social, and legal standards. In the oil palm industry, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) certification system promises to address core sectoral sustainability concerns—including deforestation, fire, biodiversity loss, peatland drainage, forced labor, and land tenure conflict—by applying third-party audits to large-scale oil palm growers. Audits are designed to detect noncompliances with the standard, and to ensure that growers resolve these nonconformities. Yet, the role of RSPO audits in generating additionality across key sustainability issues remains unclear. Here, we compiled and analyzed data from a timeseries of annual audit reports for two-thirds of all certified oil palm growers in Indonesia as of December 2015 (
n
= 114 certified growers and 262 reports). We found that certified growers were required to address a median of four noncompliances per audit (range 0–37), with more noncompliances detected at initial certification than during subsequent audits. Certification demanded the most changes under our thematic areas of Waste & Pollution (9% of all noncompliances) and Employment (7%) and the least changes in Fire ( |
| doi_str_mv | 10.1088/1748-9326/ac8b96 |
| format | Article |
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n
= 114 certified growers and 262 reports). We found that certified growers were required to address a median of four noncompliances per audit (range 0–37), with more noncompliances detected at initial certification than during subsequent audits. Certification demanded the most changes under our thematic areas of Waste & Pollution (9% of all noncompliances) and Employment (7%) and the least changes in Fire (<1%) and Corporate Social Responsibility programs (<1%). Thus, while many RSPO certified growers make real changes to achieve certification, these changes do not always address core sectoral performance concerns. Regression analysis indicated that RSPO member and certification body were significantly correlated with noncompliance frequency. This suggests that each member has a different cost of compliance and indicates heterogeneous stringency of standard application by certification bodies. We recommend that future research evaluate how post-2015 changes in RSPO assurance processes have interacted with a more robust and comprehensive certification standard to alter the additionality from third-party audits.</description><identifier>ISSN: 1748-9326</identifier><identifier>EISSN: 1748-9326</identifier><identifier>DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/ac8b96</identifier><identifier>CODEN: ERLNAL</identifier><language>eng</language><publisher>Bristol: IOP Publishing</publisher><subject>Agricultural commodities ; Biodiversity ; Biodiversity loss ; Certification ; corporate social responsibility ; Deforestation ; Employment ; governance ; Indonesia ; Land tenure ; Palm oil ; Peatlands ; private voluntary regulation ; Regression analysis ; Social responsibility ; Sustainability ; Sustainable agriculture ; transparency ; Vegetable oils</subject><ispartof>Environmental research letters, 2022-09, Vol.17 (9), p.94038</ispartof><rights>2022 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd</rights><rights>2022 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.</rights><lds50>peer_reviewed</lds50><oa>free_for_read</oa><woscitedreferencessubscribed>false</woscitedreferencessubscribed><citedby>FETCH-LOGICAL-c378t-23c4347bc5996b52915ad1b5214d7119d1bfcfbb65c212f865b32095108e7f313</citedby><cites>FETCH-LOGICAL-c378t-23c4347bc5996b52915ad1b5214d7119d1bfcfbb65c212f865b32095108e7f313</cites><orcidid>0000-0003-2162-1378</orcidid></display><links><openurl>$$Topenurl_article</openurl><openurlfulltext>$$Topenurlfull_article</openurlfulltext><thumbnail>$$Tsyndetics_thumb_exl</thumbnail><linktopdf>$$Uhttps://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ac8b96/pdf$$EPDF$$P50$$Giop$$Hfree_for_read</linktopdf><link.rule.ids>314,780,784,864,2102,27924,27925,38868,38890,53840,53867</link.rule.ids></links><search><creatorcontrib>Bishop, K J</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Carlson, K M</creatorcontrib><title>The role of third-party audits in ensuring producer compliance with the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) certification system</title><title>Environmental research letters</title><addtitle>ERL</addtitle><addtitle>Environ. Res. Lett</addtitle><description>Certification systems for sustainable agricultural commodities typically rely on auditors to verify that producers comply with environmental, social, and legal standards. In the oil palm industry, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) certification system promises to address core sectoral sustainability concerns—including deforestation, fire, biodiversity loss, peatland drainage, forced labor, and land tenure conflict—by applying third-party audits to large-scale oil palm growers. Audits are designed to detect noncompliances with the standard, and to ensure that growers resolve these nonconformities. Yet, the role of RSPO audits in generating additionality across key sustainability issues remains unclear. Here, we compiled and analyzed data from a timeseries of annual audit reports for two-thirds of all certified oil palm growers in Indonesia as of December 2015 (
n
= 114 certified growers and 262 reports). We found that certified growers were required to address a median of four noncompliances per audit (range 0–37), with more noncompliances detected at initial certification than during subsequent audits. Certification demanded the most changes under our thematic areas of Waste & Pollution (9% of all noncompliances) and Employment (7%) and the least changes in Fire (<1%) and Corporate Social Responsibility programs (<1%). Thus, while many RSPO certified growers make real changes to achieve certification, these changes do not always address core sectoral performance concerns. Regression analysis indicated that RSPO member and certification body were significantly correlated with noncompliance frequency. This suggests that each member has a different cost of compliance and indicates heterogeneous stringency of standard application by certification bodies. We recommend that future research evaluate how post-2015 changes in RSPO assurance processes have interacted with a more robust and comprehensive certification standard to alter the additionality from third-party audits.</description><subject>Agricultural commodities</subject><subject>Biodiversity</subject><subject>Biodiversity loss</subject><subject>Certification</subject><subject>corporate social responsibility</subject><subject>Deforestation</subject><subject>Employment</subject><subject>governance</subject><subject>Indonesia</subject><subject>Land tenure</subject><subject>Palm oil</subject><subject>Peatlands</subject><subject>private voluntary regulation</subject><subject>Regression analysis</subject><subject>Social responsibility</subject><subject>Sustainability</subject><subject>Sustainable agriculture</subject><subject>transparency</subject><subject>Vegetable oils</subject><issn>1748-9326</issn><issn>1748-9326</issn><fulltext>true</fulltext><rsrctype>article</rsrctype><creationdate>2022</creationdate><recordtype>article</recordtype><sourceid>O3W</sourceid><sourceid>ABUWG</sourceid><sourceid>AFKRA</sourceid><sourceid>AZQEC</sourceid><sourceid>BENPR</sourceid><sourceid>CCPQU</sourceid><sourceid>DWQXO</sourceid><sourceid>GNUQQ</sourceid><sourceid>DOA</sourceid><recordid>eNp1kUtP3DAUhaOKSgXafZeWuoBKTfEjTuwlQn0gIQ0CurZu_GA8ysTBdoTmD_R310Mq6IKufH117nftc6rqI8FfCRbijHSNqCWj7Rlo0cv2TXX43Dr4p35XHaW0wZg3vBOH1e-7tUUxDBYFh_LaR1NPEPMOwWx8TsiPyI5pjn68R1MMZtY2Ih220-Bh1BY9-rwucxbdhHk0Gfo9aUS3c8rgx6frNQxbtPIDOr25vV59RoWQvfMasi_KtEvZbt9Xbx0MyX74ex5Xv75_u7v4WV-tflxenF_VmnUi15TphjVdr7mUbc-pJBwMKQVpTEeILLXTru9brimhTrS8ZxRLXhyynWOEHVeXC9cE2Kgp-i3EnQrg1VMjxHtVfu_1YJVpBKGSOgkMF684YCs1JrwB6TD0srA-Laziy8NsU1abMMexPF_RjlAusexoUeFFpWNIKVr3vJVgtU9O7aNR-2jUklwZOVlGfJhemDYORaqkwrLBTKjJuKL88oryv-A_6i2nFw</recordid><startdate>20220901</startdate><enddate>20220901</enddate><creator>Bishop, K J</creator><creator>Carlson, K M</creator><general>IOP Publishing</general><scope>O3W</scope><scope>TSCCA</scope><scope>AAYXX</scope><scope>CITATION</scope><scope>8FE</scope><scope>8FG</scope><scope>ABJCF</scope><scope>ABUWG</scope><scope>AFKRA</scope><scope>ATCPS</scope><scope>AZQEC</scope><scope>BENPR</scope><scope>BGLVJ</scope><scope>BHPHI</scope><scope>CCPQU</scope><scope>DWQXO</scope><scope>GNUQQ</scope><scope>HCIFZ</scope><scope>L6V</scope><scope>M7S</scope><scope>PATMY</scope><scope>PIMPY</scope><scope>PQEST</scope><scope>PQQKQ</scope><scope>PQUKI</scope><scope>PRINS</scope><scope>PTHSS</scope><scope>PYCSY</scope><scope>DOA</scope><orcidid>https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2162-1378</orcidid></search><sort><creationdate>20220901</creationdate><title>The role of third-party audits in ensuring producer compliance with the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) certification system</title><author>Bishop, K J ; Carlson, K M</author></sort><facets><frbrtype>5</frbrtype><frbrgroupid>cdi_FETCH-LOGICAL-c378t-23c4347bc5996b52915ad1b5214d7119d1bfcfbb65c212f865b32095108e7f313</frbrgroupid><rsrctype>articles</rsrctype><prefilter>articles</prefilter><language>eng</language><creationdate>2022</creationdate><topic>Agricultural commodities</topic><topic>Biodiversity</topic><topic>Biodiversity loss</topic><topic>Certification</topic><topic>corporate social responsibility</topic><topic>Deforestation</topic><topic>Employment</topic><topic>governance</topic><topic>Indonesia</topic><topic>Land tenure</topic><topic>Palm oil</topic><topic>Peatlands</topic><topic>private voluntary regulation</topic><topic>Regression analysis</topic><topic>Social responsibility</topic><topic>Sustainability</topic><topic>Sustainable agriculture</topic><topic>transparency</topic><topic>Vegetable oils</topic><toplevel>peer_reviewed</toplevel><toplevel>online_resources</toplevel><creatorcontrib>Bishop, K J</creatorcontrib><creatorcontrib>Carlson, K M</creatorcontrib><collection>Institute of Physics Open Access Journal Titles</collection><collection>IOPscience (Open Access)</collection><collection>CrossRef</collection><collection>ProQuest SciTech Collection</collection><collection>ProQuest Technology Collection</collection><collection>Materials Science & Engineering Collection</collection><collection>ProQuest Central (Alumni Edition)</collection><collection>ProQuest Central UK/Ireland</collection><collection>Agricultural & Environmental Science Collection</collection><collection>ProQuest Central Essentials</collection><collection>ProQuest Central</collection><collection>Technology Collection</collection><collection>Natural Science Collection</collection><collection>ProQuest One Community College</collection><collection>ProQuest Central Korea</collection><collection>ProQuest Central Student</collection><collection>SciTech Premium Collection</collection><collection>ProQuest Engineering Collection</collection><collection>Engineering Database</collection><collection>Environmental Science Database</collection><collection>Publicly Available Content Database</collection><collection>ProQuest One Academic Eastern Edition (DO NOT USE)</collection><collection>ProQuest One Academic</collection><collection>ProQuest One Academic UKI Edition</collection><collection>ProQuest Central China</collection><collection>Engineering Collection</collection><collection>Environmental Science Collection</collection><collection>DOAJ Directory of Open Access Journals</collection><jtitle>Environmental research letters</jtitle></facets><delivery><delcategory>Remote Search Resource</delcategory><fulltext>fulltext</fulltext></delivery><addata><au>Bishop, K J</au><au>Carlson, K M</au><format>journal</format><genre>article</genre><ristype>JOUR</ristype><atitle>The role of third-party audits in ensuring producer compliance with the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) certification system</atitle><jtitle>Environmental research letters</jtitle><stitle>ERL</stitle><addtitle>Environ. Res. Lett</addtitle><date>2022-09-01</date><risdate>2022</risdate><volume>17</volume><issue>9</issue><spage>94038</spage><pages>94038-</pages><issn>1748-9326</issn><eissn>1748-9326</eissn><coden>ERLNAL</coden><abstract>Certification systems for sustainable agricultural commodities typically rely on auditors to verify that producers comply with environmental, social, and legal standards. In the oil palm industry, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) certification system promises to address core sectoral sustainability concerns—including deforestation, fire, biodiversity loss, peatland drainage, forced labor, and land tenure conflict—by applying third-party audits to large-scale oil palm growers. Audits are designed to detect noncompliances with the standard, and to ensure that growers resolve these nonconformities. Yet, the role of RSPO audits in generating additionality across key sustainability issues remains unclear. 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n
= 114 certified growers and 262 reports). We found that certified growers were required to address a median of four noncompliances per audit (range 0–37), with more noncompliances detected at initial certification than during subsequent audits. Certification demanded the most changes under our thematic areas of Waste & Pollution (9% of all noncompliances) and Employment (7%) and the least changes in Fire (<1%) and Corporate Social Responsibility programs (<1%). Thus, while many RSPO certified growers make real changes to achieve certification, these changes do not always address core sectoral performance concerns. Regression analysis indicated that RSPO member and certification body were significantly correlated with noncompliance frequency. This suggests that each member has a different cost of compliance and indicates heterogeneous stringency of standard application by certification bodies. We recommend that future research evaluate how post-2015 changes in RSPO assurance processes have interacted with a more robust and comprehensive certification standard to alter the additionality from third-party audits.</abstract><cop>Bristol</cop><pub>IOP Publishing</pub><doi>10.1088/1748-9326/ac8b96</doi><tpages>16</tpages><orcidid>https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2162-1378</orcidid><oa>free_for_read</oa></addata></record> |
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| source | DOAJ Directory of Open Access Journals; Institute of Physics Open Access Journal Titles; EZB-FREE-00999 freely available EZB journals; IOPscience extra; Free Full-Text Journals in Chemistry |
| subjects | Agricultural commodities Biodiversity Biodiversity loss Certification corporate social responsibility Deforestation Employment governance Indonesia Land tenure Palm oil Peatlands private voluntary regulation Regression analysis Social responsibility Sustainability Sustainable agriculture transparency Vegetable oils |
| title | The role of third-party audits in ensuring producer compliance with the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) certification system |
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