The Politics of Environmental Certification Surrounding the Indonesia’s Palm Oil Industry: Emergence of the Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO)

This thesis analyses the emergence of environmental governance in palm oil sector in Indonesia, the world’s largest producer. Focusing on the establishment of Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO) in 2011, this study is the first systematic examination of Indonesian palm oil producers and regulators to the emergence and increasing influence of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). Indonesian producers’ perceptions, attitudes and actions are analysed within a unique theoretical and conceptual framework that views ISPO as a form of state-centred environmental governance that flourished in the fertile soil of Indonesia’s historical legacy of sovereignty and corporatism.