Pardee Center Director Presents Keynote at Latin American RSPO in Brazil

The Director of the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future and Boston University Professor of International Relations and Geography and Environment, Prof. Adil Najam, presented the keynote address to the 2nd Latin American Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (II RSPO) held in Belem, Brazil (Aug. 25-26). With over 300 palm growers, business executives, environmental and social activists and government functionaries from all across Latin America and the rest of the world in attendance, Prof. Najam’s keynote remarks focussed on the need for creating alternative governance structures, which are truly global in outlook and involve a multitude of stakeholders. The meeting was opened by leading officials from the host state of Belem.

In his address, Prof. Najam highlighted the importance of developing new multi-stakeholder governance systems at the local as well as international levels to deal with a new set of problems, including problems of development and of environment.

The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) was formed in 2004 with the objective of promoting the growth and use of sustainable oil palm products through credible global standards and engagement of stakeholders. RSPO is a not-for-profit association that unites stakeholders from seven sectors of the palm oil industry – oil palm producers, palm oil processors or traders, consumer goods manufacturers, retailers, banks and investors, environmental or nature conservation NGOs and social or developmental NGOs – to develop and implement global standards for sustainable palm oil. The seat of the association is in Zurich, Switzerland, while the secretariat is currently based in Kuala Lumpur with a satellite office in Jakarta.

Earlier, in November 2009, Prof. Najam had been invited to present the keynote address at the global RSPO meeting held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.