The United Nations is urging intense restoration of nature to address climate and biodiversity crises. In launching the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, the UN called on countries to meet commitments to restore 1 billion hectares of land.

The world needs “a major breakthrough” to slow the pace of climate change and build resilience to protect the most vulnerable from increasingly severe and frequent climate impacts, the deputy UN chief told a crucial high-level meeting on Wednesday, looking ahead to November’s COP26.

Multiple certification schemes have existed to manage the sustainable production of Malaysian exports including timber, cocoa and rubber. The certification of palm oil under the Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil scheme (MSPO) is a late addition by comparison as Malaysia recognized a need to prove that its palm oil production was sustainably managed.

The warnings are urgent. Business as usual cannot continue. The hard question is how do we reduce the impact of human activities while meeting the needs of a rising human population?

Malaysia allocated MYR50 million into the certification of its palm oil production under the Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO) scheme.

This investment has yielded the highest level of certification for any vegetable globally as 89% of Malaysian palm oil production has been audited and certified by independent certification bodies.