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Since its origin, the RSPO certification system for the sustainable production of palm oil is rooted in Europe. Indeed, as a business to business initiative, the RSPO roundtable gathered at its early beginning several Europe-based NGOs and multinational firms like Unilever. At the same time, Europe is also a market for palm oil and - even more - the almost unique market for Certified Sustainable Palm Oil (CSPO). Indeed even if Europe is not a key player in the global palm oil market - which is led by India and China - it has a key role to play in the public acceptance of RSPO as a norm and in the updating of RSPO Principles and Criteria (P&C) in order to fit with changes in expectations from stakeholders and progress in science and knowledge. The European paradox in oil palm lies in the fact that Europe and its institutions must play a dual role: i) pushing the concept of sustainability throughout the palm oil commodity chains and its actors, and ii) dealing with European farmers who are producers in a very competitive vegetable oils global market. Public opinions in Europe are more in favor of a "No palm oil" strategy - as reflected by the 2030 ban proposed by the European Parliament this year - rather than giving Europe a key role in the evolution of RSPO P&C towards more inclusivity and better alignment to national mandatory sustainability standards such as MSPO and ISPO. The present paper explores the status and trends of CSPO market in Europe and the role and response of EU markets (importers, traders, processors and end consumers). It proposes future avenues for collaborative research and development aimed at linking Europe -through Research Institutions, NGOs and the transformation industry- with key stakeholders in producing countries, including oil palm smallholders.

Opinionated and controversial debates currently dominate the public discourse on oil palm cultivation. The outstanding economic potential for the palm oil industry, from large plantations to small producers and for the development of poor countries stand in stark contrast to social and environmental impacts together with threat on sensitive tropical ecosystems. The present article focuses on the objectification of the sometimes ideological and irrational discussions on the cultivation of oil palm. Scientists are encouraged to participate in order to avoid the dissemination of simplified correlations and to promote a public discourse based on verified sources and evidence. The direct connection between oil palm plantations and deforestation belongs to this category of quick and simple statements. Various industrial and agricultural sectors, including palm oil, as well as several illegal activities share the responsibility for deforestation and environmental degradation in tropical areas. In order to ensure that the palm oil sector's share of deforestation is reduced to a minimum will be soon lowered to zero, several sustainability initiatives have been launched in recent years, most notably the RSPO (Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil) and national approaches by the two largest palm oil producing countries, namely Indonesia and Malaysia. An increasing number of stakeholders are taking part in these mostly voluntary initiatives and are pushing them further, based on even clearer and more stringent criteria. These are for example POIG (Palm Oil Innovation Group) and RSPO Next. To simply boycott palm oil will not solve any of the most urgent problems. First, this would promote the cultivation of alternative crops, which on the one hand provide less oil yield per hectare and on the other hand do not necessarily have a better ecological and social balance. And second, the demand for sustainably produced palm oil on the world would collapse, because only western markets actually demand certified sustainable palm oil. Indeed a boycott of palm oil would promote the emergence on non-certified palm oil thus having the opposite effect to what is actually urgent to be achieved.

Biotechnologies and sustainable development are now at a crossroad and there is increasing interest in applying such technology in the current efforts for ecological intensification of oil palm cultivation. Living organisms are supported by the genome (DNA) through the action of the transcriptome (RNAs), proteome, metabolome and ionome, the four basic pillars of functional genomics. They represent the sum of all the expressed genes, proteins, metabolites, and elements within an organism. The dynamic response and interaction of these biochemical "omes" defines how a living system functions, and its study, systems biology, is now one of the biggest challenges in life sciences. In oil palm, as in many major crops, functional genomics is still at its beginning, although there are no reasons why oil palm biology should not rapidly benefit from the fast progresses generated by automated and high-throughput technologies. The success of sequencing projects on several palm species has created a widespread interest in exploring the structure and expression patterns of the genome, paving the way for the rapid evolution of various genomics-based approaches. At the same time, agricultural scientists are requested to provide long term solutions for the mitigation and adaption of crop species to climate change. A specific focus has been set on carbon capitation in soils, which will certainly boost research efforts in metagenomics of underground living organisms. The present talk will focus on recent developments in various plant biotechnology areas in which applications for improving sustainability already exist or will be developed in the near future. (Texte intégral)

Since several decades, the oil palm has been able to transform tropical landscapes and livelihoods. The oil palm is an outstanding oil crop producing very high oil yields and showing an amazing agronomic plasticity: these are valuable assets in a context of food safety and ecological intensification. The palm oil production now constitutes a global commodity chain which is at the focus point of North/South challenges such as certification, traceability or environmental and sanitary impacts. Palm oil is playing an increasing part in the production of edible oils; such an expansion must now comply with sustainability criteria backed by robust and shared scientific results. The sustainable development of oil palm cultivation thus generates many questions to research, not only in the traditional domains of plant science, but also in the fields of socio-economy and social and human sciences.

La quatrième de couverture indique : " Un cap politique et diplomatique majeur a été franchi en 2015. Les trois sommets internationaux, organisés à Addis Abeba sur le financement du développement, à New York au siège des Nations unies avec l'adoption des objectifs du développement durable, à Paris avec un accord universel sur le climat, se complètent pour forger un cadre d'action rénové et ambitieux pour le développement durable. Les agricultures du monde sont au coeur des défis globaux. Dans un contexte de mondialisation portée par des flux commerciaux et financiers plus intenses, des risques sanitaires globalisés et une évolution rapide des comportements alimentaires, les filières tropicales - liens entre les agricultures et les autres secteurs économiques - connaissent de profondes transformations techniques, économiques et sociales. Face aux préoccupations environnementales et sociales que soulève leur expansion, les filières sont de plus en plus à l'initiative de démarches de développement durable. Les mutations liées aux filières s'opèrent de manière différenciée et cet ouvrage se propose d'en rendre compte. Fruit des recherches et de l'expérience de chercheurs et d'agents de développement, ces contributions examinent le rôle des filières et de leurs transformations au regard du développement durable, comme vecteurs de développement, espaces d'innovation, objets l'évaluation et arènes de régulation. Le Cirad et ses chercheurs, acteurs du système de recherche français agissant avec des partenaires au Sud, et l'AFD et ses agents sont les témoins et les accompagnateurs de ces changements techniques, biologiques et institutionnels qui traversent le monde agricole et les sociétés. Cet ouvrage est destiné aux chercheurs, aux enseignants et aux étudiants, ainsi qu'à la communauté internationale du développement et de l'environnement et au public intéressé par ces défis

International audience ; In Central Africa, industrial investments in agriculture have been increasing for the last ten years, constituting one of the many drivers of deforestation. If these investments are to contribute to socioeconomic development without harming the environment,they need to be more effectively monitored.Analysing successes and failures in four Central African countries helps to identify ways to increase the chances of success for projects: carrying out independent impact assessments before projects are launched; obtaining the free, prior and informed consent of the communities concerned; and encouraging companies to meet certification criteria. The host governments should be able to take advantage of actions by people- and environment-friendly companies in order to create a virtuous circle, and should build agro-industrial projects around national land use plans. ; En Afrique centrale, les investissements industriels dans l'agriculture augmentent depuis une décennie, constituant l'un des multiples vecteurs de la déforestation. Pour que ces investissements bénéficient au développement socio-économique sans nuire à l'environnement, il est nécessaire de mieux les encadrer. L'analyse des réussites et des échecs dans quatre pays d'Afrique centrale permet de dégager des pistes pour accroître les chances de succès des projets : réaliser des études d'impact indépendantes avant le début du projet ; obtenir le consentement libre, informé et préalable des populations concernées ; inciter les entreprises à répondre aux critères de certification. Les États pourront s'appuyer sur des entre-prises respectueuses des hommes et de l'environnement afin de créer une dynamique vertueuse, et pourront ancrer les projets agro-industriels dans des plans d'aménagement du territoire national.

In Central Africa, industrial investments in agriculture have been increasing for the last ten years, constituting one of the many drivers of deforestation. If these investments are to contribute to socioeconomic development without harming the environment,they need to be more effectively monitored.Analysing successes and failures in four Central African countries helps to identify ways to increase the chances of success for projects: carrying out independent impact assessments before projects are launched; obtaining the free, prior and informed consent of the communities concerned; and encouraging companies to meet certification criteria. The host governments should be able to take advantage of actions by people- and environment-friendly companies in order to create a virtuous circle, and should build agro-industrial projects around national land use plans.

International audience ; In Central Africa, industrial investments in agriculture have been increasing for the last ten years, constituting one of the many drivers of deforestation. If these investments are to contribute to socioeconomic development without harming the environment,they need to be more effectively monitored.Analysing successes and failures in four Central African countries helps to identify ways to increase the chances of success for projects: carrying out independent impact assessments before projects are launched; obtaining the free, prior and informed consent of the communities concerned; and encouraging companies to meet certification criteria. The host governments should be able to take advantage of actions by people- and environment-friendly companies in order to create a virtuous circle, and should build agro-industrial projects around national land use plans. ; En Afrique centrale, les investissements industriels dans l'agriculture augmentent depuis une décennie, constituant l'un des multiples vecteurs de la déforestation. Pour que ces investissements bénéficient au développement socio-économique sans nuire à l'environnement, il est nécessaire de mieux les encadrer. L'analyse des réussites et des échecs dans quatre pays d'Afrique centrale permet de dégager des pistes pour accroître les chances de succès des projets : réaliser des études d'impact indépendantes avant le début du projet ; obtenir le consentement libre, informé et préalable des populations concernées ; inciter les entreprises à répondre aux critères de certification. Les États pourront s'appuyer sur des entre-prises respectueuses des hommes et de l'environnement afin de créer une dynamique vertueuse, et pourront ancrer les projets agro-industriels dans des plans d'aménagement du territoire national.

En Afrique centrale, les investissements industriels dans l'agriculture augmentent depuis une décennie, constituant l'un des multiples vecteurs de la déforestation. Pour que ces investissements bénéficient au développement socio-économique sans nuire à l'environnement, il est nécessaire de mieux les encadrer. L'analyse des réussites et des échecs dans quatre pays d'Afrique centrale permet de dégager des pistes pour accroître les chances de succès des projets : réaliser des études d'impact indépendantes avant le début du projet ; obtenir le consentement libre, informé et préalable des populations concernées ; inciter les entreprises à répondre aux critères de certification. Les États pourront s'appuyer sur des entreprises respectueuses des hommes et de l'environnement afin de créer une dynamique vertueuse, et pourront ancrer les projets agro-industriels dans des plans d'aménagement du territoire national.

The cultivation of oil palm has become emblematic of the trade-off between development and conservation that agricultural commodities have to face: matching an increasing global demand while preserving the capacity of land to provide ecosystems services, and preserving natural forests. Towards the aim of providing solutions to such controversial issues, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) was created in 2004 as a business-to-business initiative bringing together NGOs and private stakeholders under a voluntary certification scheme. The forces and weaknesses of RSPO are related to its business-to-business origin and intrinsic nature. Principles and criteria were designed to provide a shared framework for stakeholders who are willing to voluntarily commit themselves towards a sustainable palm oil production but not as a detailed methodology and control points to actually assess the impacts. The RSPO principles and criteria thus need to be revisited and associated with complementary diagnosis steps integrating the broad diversity of oil palm-based cropping systems and the constraints these systems have to face. Our strategy is: . To provide science-based knowledge and tools to ensure the sustainability of production systems or to implement new sustainable systems . To involve stakeholders in the innovation process through multi-agent modeling or workshops . To identify obstacles and bottlenecks and analyze whether they are related to some inherent incapacity of oil palm cropping systems to adapt or/and to insufficient efforts in making knowledge and tools accessible to end-users The generation of multidisciplinary research networks which are able to deliver science-based products of direct interest for end-users is now of paramount importance.

Reprint Address: Rival, A (reprint author), Cirad BioS, UMR DIAPC, Ctr IRD, F-34394 Montpellier 15, France ; International audience ; The SudBiotech project is targeting PhD and Masters Programmes in Universities and Excellence Research Centres located in developing countries. It proposes an integrative and multidisciplinary approach under the form of a one-week discovery and training itinerary SudBiotech is aimed at addressing various different fields of Plant Biotechnology, under the specific socioeconomic context of scientific communities from these countries. Our main goal is to train students, research staff, deciders, professionals and journalists to the basic knowledge underlying applications of plant biotechnologies, in order to both update the amount of knowledge which is requested at Master's level and to acquire a solid body of in formation which is indispensable for any decision making, in a field of research which is often the target of political, social and media-related pressure. The team of Professors involved in the project shares a strong experience in teaching and training in overseas French Speaking Universities (AUPELF-UREF projects in Marocco, Tunisia, Togo, Cote d'Ivoire, TEMPUS Programme in Lebanon, AUF-Actions de Recherche en Restart in Benin). The team is composed of senior scientists acting in various complementary fields, namely Biochemistry/Physiology (A Nato), Plant Breeding/Molecular Biology (Y Henry), Tropical Agriculture/Epigenetics (A Rival). Thanks to these complementarities, SudBiotech is able to propose a training itinerary which is diversified and integrated, covering areas from the plant cell and its original potentialities to the most recent industrial applications of plant biotechnologies (GMOs), their public acceptance in developing and emerging nations and their applicability to tropical plant commodities. The training offer is amplified and enriched through the active role of local research and training staff; who are encouraged to actively participate in the ...

Reprint Address: Rival, A (reprint author), Cirad BioS, UMR DIAPC, Ctr IRD, F-34394 Montpellier 15, France ; International audience ; The SudBiotech project is targeting PhD and Masters Programmes in Universities and Excellence Research Centres located in developing countries. It proposes an integrative and multidisciplinary approach under the form of a one-week discovery and training itinerary SudBiotech is aimed at addressing various different fields of Plant Biotechnology, under the specific socioeconomic context of scientific communities from these countries. Our main goal is to train students, research staff, deciders, professionals and journalists to the basic knowledge underlying applications of plant biotechnologies, in order to both update the amount of knowledge which is requested at Master's level and to acquire a solid body of in formation which is indispensable for any decision making, in a field of research which is often the target of political, social and media-related pressure. The team of Professors involved in the project shares a strong experience in teaching and training in overseas French Speaking Universities (AUPELF-UREF projects in Marocco, Tunisia, Togo, Cote d'Ivoire, TEMPUS Programme in Lebanon, AUF-Actions de Recherche en Restart in Benin). The team is composed of senior scientists acting in various complementary fields, namely Biochemistry/Physiology (A Nato), Plant Breeding/Molecular Biology (Y Henry), Tropical Agriculture/Epigenetics (A Rival). Thanks to these complementarities, SudBiotech is able to propose a training itinerary which is diversified and integrated, covering areas from the plant cell and its original potentialities to the most recent industrial applications of plant biotechnologies (GMOs), their public acceptance in developing and emerging nations and their applicability to tropical plant commodities. The training offer is amplified and enriched through the active role of local research and training staff; who are encouraged to actively participate in the ...

Reprint Address: Rival, A (reprint author), Cirad BioS, UMR DIAPC, Ctr IRD, F-34394 Montpellier 15, France ; International audience ; The SudBiotech project is targeting PhD and Masters Programmes in Universities and Excellence Research Centres located in developing countries. It proposes an integrative and multidisciplinary approach under the form of a one-week discovery and training itinerary SudBiotech is aimed at addressing various different fields of Plant Biotechnology, under the specific socioeconomic context of scientific communities from these countries. Our main goal is to train students, research staff, deciders, professionals and journalists to the basic knowledge underlying applications of plant biotechnologies, in order to both update the amount of knowledge which is requested at Master's level and to acquire a solid body of in formation which is indispensable for any decision making, in a field of research which is often the target of political, social and media-related pressure. The team of Professors involved in the project shares a strong experience in teaching and training in overseas French Speaking Universities (AUPELF-UREF projects in Marocco, Tunisia, Togo, Cote d'Ivoire, TEMPUS Programme in Lebanon, AUF-Actions de Recherche en Restart in Benin). The team is composed of senior scientists acting in various complementary fields, namely Biochemistry/Physiology (A Nato), Plant Breeding/Molecular Biology (Y Henry), Tropical Agriculture/Epigenetics (A Rival). Thanks to these complementarities, SudBiotech is able to propose a training itinerary which is diversified and integrated, covering areas from the plant cell and its original potentialities to the most recent industrial applications of plant biotechnologies (GMOs), their public acceptance in developing and emerging nations and their applicability to tropical plant commodities. The training offer is amplified and enriched through the active role of local research and training staff; who are encouraged to actively participate in the ...