RSPO No deforestation consultancy: high forest cover countries Consultancy report on definitions and recommendations to the RSPO June 2018 RSPO No deforestation consultancy: High Forest Cover Countries About The Proforest Initiative The Proforest Initiative supports governments, companies, civil society organisations and other stakeholders with responsible production and sourcing of forest products and agricultural commodities such as timber, palm oil, soy, beef and sugar. The Proforest Initiative is part of the not-for-profit Proforest Group, whose mission is to help people produce and source natural resources sustainably. We work with others to transform commodity supply chains and sectors through developing awareness about sustainability, helping to generate commitment to better practice, supporting implementation of these commitments in practice and working across sectors and scales to increase the positive impact. The Proforest Initiative was established to use our expertise and experience to contribute to this goal more effectively through long-term programmes. We support multistakeholder initiatives, build local capacity to deliver improved practices and develop mechanisms to accelerate the practical implementation of sustainability in agricultural and forest landscapes. We develop tools, guidance and practices that can be adopted by producers, supply chain organisations, governments and civil society, and build long-term programmes in partnership with other organisations. The Proforest Initiative team is international and multilingual and comes from a wide variety of backgrounds, including industry, academia and civil society. This allows us to work comfortably with diverse organisations in a range of cultures. We have in-house knowledge of more than 15 languages, including English, Bahasa Indonesia, French, Mandarin, Portuguese and Spanish. The Proforest Initiative is a registered charity (non-profit organisation) and is overseen by an independent board of trustees. For this report, your contact person is: Mike Senior [email protected] The Proforest Initiative South Suite, Frewin Chambers, Frewin Court, Oxford OX1 3HZ United Kingdom E: [email protected] T: +44 (0) 1865 243439 W: www.proforest.net The Proforest Initiative is a registered charity in England and Wales (Charity no. 1137523) and a company registered in England and Wales (Company no. 7293440). 2 RSPO No deforestation consultancy: High Forest Cover Countries Table of contents 1 Introduction & background ------------------------------------------------ 6 1.1 Consultancy objectives --------------------------------------------------------------- 6 2 Methodology ------------------------------------------------------------------- 7 3 Framing RSPO’s vision on deforestation ------------------------------- 10 3.1 RSPO’s vision and goals-------------------------------------------------------------- 10 3.2 No deforestation and palm oil’s image ------------------------------------------ 12 3.3 Implementing ND in practice ------------------------------------------------------ 13 3.4 The high forest cover debate ------------------------------------------------------ 13 3.5 RSPO’s role in tackling deforestation -------------------------------------------- 19 4 Definitions---------------------------------------------------------------------- 20 4.1 Forest ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 20 4.2 Carbon and GHGs --------------------------------------------------------------------- 25 4.3 High forest cover ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 27 4.4 Spatial scale ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 35 4.5 Development status and poverty ------------------------------------------------- 39 4.6 Statistics on potential high forest cover countries --------------------------- 41 5 Approaches and interventions ------------------------------------------- 44 5.1 Lessons from Forest Stewardship Council -------------------------------------- 44 5.2 Defining which areas to protect --------------------------------------------------- 45 5.3 Assessment requirements ---------------------------------------------------------- 47 5.4 Analysis of options discussed by RSPO P&C TF -------------------------------- 47 6 Scenarios/options ------------------------------------------------------------ 48 6.1 Guiding principles --------------------------------------------------------------------- 48 6.2 Defining HFC countries -------------------------------------------------------------- 49 6.3 HFC approaches ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 51 Annex 1: RSPO TF5 HFC approach justification --------------------------- 54 Annex 2. Profiles of selected HFC countries ------------------------------- 61 Annex 3: High Forest Cover case studies synthesis ---------------------- 63 3 RSPO No deforestation consultancy: High Forest Cover Countries List of Acronyms BAU Business-As-Usual CDM CLEAN DEVELOPMENT MECHANISM CGF Consumer Goods Forum CPO Crude Palm Oil CSPO Certified Sustainable Palm Oil ESIA Environmental & Social Impact Assessment FMU Forest Management Unit FPIC Free, prior and informed consent FSC Forest Stewardship Council GHG Greenhouse Gas HCSA High Carbon Stock Approach HCS High Carbon Stock HCV High Conservation Value HCVRN HCV Resource Network HCVNI HCV National Interpretation HFC High Forest Cover HFCC High Forest Cover Country HFCL High Forest Cover Landscape HFLD High-Forest, Low-Deforestation IFL Intact Forest Landscape LCA Life Cycle Analysis LDF Low Density Forest LULUCF Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry MDF Medium Density Forest ND No Deforestation NGO Non-governmental organisation NDPE No deforestation, no Peat, no Exploitation NPP RSPO’s New Planting Procedure P&C RSPO’s Principles & Criteria for the production of sustainable palm oil 4 RSPO No deforestation consultancy: High Forest Cover Countries PNG Papua New Guinea REDD+ Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation RSPO Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil RSPO ND RSPO P&C Review Task Force’s “No deforestation” sub-group SiHA Simple Historical Approach SpHA Spatial Historical Approach TF RSPO’s P&C Review Task Force UNFCCC United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change VCS Voluntary Carbon Standard WIA Welfare Impact Assessment WRI World Resources Institute YRF Young Regenerating Forest ZND Zero Net Deforestation 5 RSPO No deforestation consultancy: High Forest Cover Countries 1 Introduction & background The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) Principles and Criteria Review Task Force is currently reviewing the P&C with the aim of finalising the new P&C by November 2018. A critical issue for RSPO and its stakeholders in the P&C review is the issue of “No deforestation”, and the P&C Review Task Force has agreed to include requirements for “No deforestation” under Criterion 7.3. In the draft of the revised P&C for the first public consultation in August 2017, it was stated that “there is clear intent from the RSPO P&C Review Task Force to include in addition, requirements for “no deforestation” potentially using the HCSA [High Carbon Stock Approach] toolkit and methodology as a reference point.” At present the P&C Review Task Force has not reached consensus on the methodology or wording that will be included in the new standard to implement “No deforestation”. In particular, the Task Force recognises the following: - The current HCSA methodology and toolkit applies to fragmented tropical moist forest landscapes, and could be adopted for these contexts in the RSPO P&C, - The need to look at how inclusion of a “no deforestation” requirement would be applied in “High Forest Cover Landscapes or Nations, that are at high risk of deforestation”, and - “Preventing responsible oil palm development in such areas may result in the development of other crops instead, defeating the purpose of RSPO.” To try and address the above challenges the RSPO released a call for tender for two consultancy projects on “Input to development of No Deforestation element of RSPO P&C Criterion 7.3”. The proposed objective of these consultancy projects was to provide technical support to the RSPO Principles and Criteria Review Task Force on the No Deforestation (ND) element of Criterion 7.3. The call for tender was divided into two parts: A) High Forest Cover Countries, and B) Application to small and medium growers. This report is the output for Part A: High Forest Cover Countries. 1.1 Consultancy objectives The Terms of Reference for the consultancy specified that the work will include the following: • Desk study, to include review of relevant peer-reviewed scientific literature around High Forest Cover (HFC) countries and landscapes; • Collate information, case studies and experience relevant to HFC countries incorporating information from HCSA studies, (e.g. Olam, New Britain Palm Oil, and other companies that have conducted HCSA studies); • Propose definitions of High Forest Cover and identify the countries where HFC process might be applied based on different methodology approaches (carbon thresholds, % forest cover, % forest cover vs arable land, poverty index); • Map out a possible country level process; and • Suggest how this links to support the development of NI processes. 6 RSPO No deforestation consultancy: High Forest Cover Countries 2 Methodology This work was conducted in the following four phases. The methodology was developed based on the