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The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) unites thousands of stakeholders from across the palm oil industry to develop and implement global standards for sustainable palm oil. Each year, Ordinary and Affiliate members are required to submit…

Palm oil, along with other soft commodities such as soy, timber, and beef, is a key driver of tropical forest degradation and loss. Deforestation of carbon-rich peatlands releases large quantities of greenhouse gases and is a significant contributor to the…

A new report from ZSL (Zoological Society of London) examines deforestation risk through the palm oil supply chain bottleneck of companies with crushing and/or refining facilities. Palm oil crushers and refiners are key nodes in a complex…

The SPOTT Dashboard, an area of the SPOTT website where users can view and download SPOTT data, has a new weighting feature which enables users to view data according to their specific preferences. The feature can be used to increase or decrease the weight of indicator themes or audited versus self-reported disclosures in the most recent SPOTT timber and pulp, natural…

Despite international agreements, analysis reveals widespread failure of timber companies to guarantee environmental protections for at least 11.7 million hectares of tropical forest. A new analysis of 100 of the most significant tropical timber and pulp companies, published by conservation charity ZSL, shows that: Over half (54%) do not…

As part of SPOTT’s ongoing work to help address illegal logging and unsustainable forestry practices in tropical forests, SPOTT held the second Forestry Transparency Forums in Douala, Cameroon and Jakarta, Indonesia in February and March 2020. Building on the 2019 series of Forums, the workshops…

One year after the first edition of the Forum, the event gathered twenty-five forestry sector participants, including seven SPOTT-assessed companies, and industry bodies such as the Groupement de la Filière Bois au Cameroun, (GFBC) and…

Tropical timber markets are increasingly regulated at all stages of the supply chain. Forest codes in producer countries frame the way lands are allocated for timber production, define the requirements for management plans, and set harvesting rules. At the other…

To date, arguments used to persuade the palm oil industry to improve its practices have focused, quite rightly, on the ecological and moral cases for change. However, these arguments have not yet been enough to convince all…

Used in everyday products, such as tyres, yoga mats, shoes and condoms – global natural rubber production is lacking the transparency and subsequent sustainability commitments to protect both people and wildlife. That is the finding of the world’s…