MSPO : A New Standard

MSPO CERTIFICATION SCHEME

The Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO) Certification Scheme is the national scheme in Malaysia for oil palm plantations, independent and organised smallholdings, and palm oil processing facilities to be certified against the requirements of the MSPO Standards.

The MSPO Scheme allows for oil palm management certification and supply chain certification and provides for:

• Development of certification standards
• Accreditation requirements and notification of certification bodies
• Application by potential clients for certification audits
• Supply chain traceability requirements
• Guidelines for auditing
• Peer reviewing of audit reports
• Issuance of logo usage licenses
• Procedures for handling of complaints.

The 7 Principles of the MSPO Standards

The MSPO Standards contains seven (7) principles which form the general requirements of a management system framework, based on the three pillars of sustainability, i.e. economically viable, socially acceptable, and environmentally sound. The general requirements for the MS2530:2013 are as follow:

Each of the seven (7) General Principles have specific Criteria and Indicators that the Certification Bodies (CBs) will use during audit to determine compliance. The management of the entity that meets the requirements of the MSPO will be able to obtain certification under the standard.

Similar to ISO standards, you can purchase the MSPO Standards from the Department of Standards Malaysia.

Principle 1: Management commitment and responsibility

Principle 2: Transparency

Principle 3: Compliance with legal requirements

Principle 4: Social responsibility, health, safety and employment conditions

Principle 5: Environment, natural resources, biodiversity and ecosystem services

Principle 6: Best practices

Principle 7: Development of new planting

The Aim

Malaysia's target is to send 5 million tonnes of certified oil to Europe by 2019.

The mandatory implementation of the Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil standard by December 2019 is a move towards branding the output as being sustainably-produced and safe.