Sustainable palm oil as a public responsibility? On the governance capacity of Indonesian Standard for Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO)

• Published in: Agriculture and human values Vol. 35; no. 1; pp. 223 - 242
• Main Authors: Hidayat, Nia Kurniawati, Offermans, Astrid, Glasbergen, Pieter
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01-03-2018; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Agricultural commodities; Agricultural Economics; Agricultural management; Agricultural production; Biodiversity; Biodiversity loss; Biofuels; Cocoa; Coffee; Commodities; Community; Component reliability; Deforestation; Economic sectors; Education; Emission standards; Ethics; Evolutionary Biology; Farm buildings; Farmers; Global marketing; Governance; Greenhouse effect; Greenhouse gases; History; Local communities; Natural gas; NGOs; Nongovernmental organizations; Palm oil; Petroleum; Philosophy; Plantations; Public sector; Regulation; Small farms; Social responsibility; Sustainability; Sustainable agriculture; Sustainable production; Vegetable oils; Veterinary Medicine/Veterinary Science; Indonesia; Palm oil; Sustainability standards; Public certification; ISPO; Governance capacity
• ISSN: 0889-048X; 1572-8366
• DOI: 10.1007/s10460-017-9816-6

This paper is motivated by the observation that Southern governments start to take responsibility for a more sustainable production of agricultural commodities as a response to earlier private initiatives by businesses and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Indonesia is one of the leading countries in this respect, with new public sustainability regulations on coffee, cocoa and palm oil. Based on the concept of governance capacity, the paper develops an evaluation tool to answer the question whether the new public regulation on sustainable palm oil (ISPO) may become a viable alternative to private regulation. ISPO embraces a tremendous governance challenge as thousands of companies and millions of smallholder farmers are expected to participate. It is concluded that, although ISPO has initiated a process of change, it has not yet developed its full potential. The main reason regards ISPO’s rather loose problem definition, weak authority of the implementing organization, and the fact that the reliability of ISPO is still too low to convince (parts) of the global market. ISPO may therefore face difficulties in meeting its own targets and solving palm-oil related problems, such as deforestation, biodiversity loss, greenhouse gas emissions, and social conflicts between big plantations and local communities. The main governance challenge regards combining a more authoritative implementation mechanism with a convincing balance between sustainability objectives and economic interests of the sector.