Netherlands to continue supporting Malaysian oil palm smallholders
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, at the end of his two-day working visit to Malaysia yesterday, said the country would maintain its involvement in the National Initiatives for Sustainable Climate Smart Oil Palm Smallholders programme in Malaysia for the next five years. NI-SCOPS is a Dutch government-supported public-private partnership programme,... KUALA LUMPUR: The Netherlands yesterday announced its commitment to extend its support for the development of Malaysian oil palm smallholders.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, at the end of his two-day working visit to Malaysia yesterday, said the country would maintain its involvement in the National Initiatives for Sustainable Climate Smart Oil Palm Smallholders (NI-SCOPS) programme in Malaysia for the next five years.
"This programme helps Malay-sian oil palm smallholders overcome challenges related to sustainable palm oil," he said at the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia here.
NI-SCOPS is a Dutch government-supported public-private partnership programme, initiated in 2019 and focuses on Indonesia, Malaysia, Nigeria and Ghana.
Delivering on the Amsterdam Declaration commitments, the aim of NI-SCOPS is to demonstrate that the palm oil sector can contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals and Paris Agreement climate ambitions, while improving the livelihoods of smallholder farmers and workers.
Rutte said the Netherlands was a key trading partner and was the largest importer of Malaysian palm oil among European Union (EU) countries.
He said 35 per cent of the country's imported palm oil was from Malaysia.
However, he said there had been concerns that the European Union's Deforestation Regulations (EUDR) would be detrimental to small-farming businesses and exclude them from the global supply chain.
"I don't want to pretend that we are not in support of the EUDR." Rutte added: "We are pleading for an 18-month implementation phase.
"We need accompanying measures and there is a joint task force between the EU, Indonesia and Malaysia." Rutte said: "This task force will discuss the implementation of the EUDR so that it would have a minimum impact on smallholders.
"I also told the deputy prime minister (Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof) that we will do everything we can in their (Malaysia's) talks with the EU." Earlier yesterday, Fadillah, who is also plantation and commodities minister, said the Netherlands had agreed to extend the programmes signed under the memorandum of understanding between the Malaysian Palm Oil Board and two Dutch non-governmental organisations for another five years.
"The Netherlands is the largest importer of palm oil among European countries and is also one of the countries that has supported Malaysia in issues related to palm oil over the years.
"They (the Dutch) have established NGOs that help small farmers such as IDH The Sustainable Trade Initiative, an organisation in the Netherlands that promotes trade." Fadillah said they also discussed how the Netherlands could provide support in the context of providing rationales and the best solutions to the issue.
"This includes how they (the EU) can recognise the Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO) Certification Scheme that we had developed and made mandatory for our entire palm oil production sector.
"We hope the EU will also agree to recognise the MPSO as an EUDR audit process at the meeting, which would help the palm oil industry." Recently, Fadillah said the MSPO scheme aimed to ensure that oil palm cultivation in the country did not affect the environment and conformed with good and sustainable agricultural practices.
He said Malaysia would host the second meeting on the EUDR next month, which will determine whether the MSPO will be accepted as part of the audit process under the EUDR.
He said that the first meeting held in Jakarta, Indonesia, last year had yielded positive results for Malaysia. Reporting by Azanis Shahila Aman