Summary
The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) has developed a set of environmental criteria which
companies must comply with in order to produce Certified Sustainable Palm Oil (CSPO). The thinking in
RSPO is that when these criteria are properly applied, they can help minimize the negative impacts of palm
oil cultivation on the environment. These links are pretty well established for the benefits of certification on
reducing deforestation or fires, but the impacts of certification on biodiversity remain poorly understood.
Even if RSPO certification reduced loss of natural habitats, other effects, such as hunting, unsustainable
harvest of animals and plants and loss of key resources that sustain wildlife, could still decrease the
abundance and diversity of wildlife. To better understand how RSPO certification has impacted biodiversity,
the RSPO requested a study to determine whether its certification processes had benefited tropical wildlife
and especially species of conservation importance.