Welcome to the latest news from SHARP, a multi-stakeholder partnership that works with the private sector towards sustainable smallholder development and minimising deforestation.
SHARP UPDATES
HIGH CONSERVATION VALUES
Meet Mwajuma Hemedi

Mwajuma Hemedi is one of the farmers taking part in trials of the HCV approach for smallholders in Tanzania. We got the opportunity to interview Mwajuma about her cultivation of oil palm and her thoughts on High Conservation Values:

What made you start growing oil palm?
We are subsistence farmers but by growing palm oil I can make some money which can be used to buy extra food and to pay school fees for my children.

What do High Conservation Values mean to you?
HCVs mean life - by having a good environment the people will be happy, disease will be reduced and we will have enough water. Managing HCVs will be the way to maintain our forests and for the land to be regenerated. We will experience land that is more fertile and better harvests. We will enjoy the land of our childhood.

In what ways have your farmers group agreed to manage the HCVs in your area?
We have all agreed to stop burning crop residue and vegetation, stop washing clothing in the stream, not to kill animals and not to plant near the stream. 
 
Read the full interview with Mwajuma here.

TOWARDS CERTIFICATION
SHARP report from RT13: Linking and learning with smallholders
 
Smallholders and practitioners from around the world gathered to share insights into how small-scale oil palm growers get organized and achieve certification, at a linking and learning session held in Kuala Lumpur in November. It was held one day before the annual meeting of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil. During the session, SHARP presented the experience of working in Honduras to implement the HCV approach for smallholders (click here to read more). 

The SHARP secretariat was one of 800 attendees from 44 countries to attend the RSPO's RT13 event. Many of the sessions mentioned the challenge faced by smallholders to achieve certification and access market benefits. Attendees said public and private actors must work together in defining policies, developing capacity and getting the voices of smallholders heard. A full report is available on the SHARP website. 
Jakarta workshop
SHARP's focal point in Asia, SNV, hosted key NGOs and palm oil industry stakeholders at a workshop in Jakarta in November to share experiences from the field trials of the HCV approach for smallholders. The group provided input on how NGOs can be engaged in raising awareness of the approach and helping smallholders to implement it, such as by supporting farmers to identify measures to protect focal species.

RSS in Ghana
Good news from Ghana, where the palm oil company Norpalm has started to use SHARP's Responsible Sourcing from Smallholders (RSS) framework to work with its smallholder suppliers (see full story here). Also Twifo Oil Palm Plantations has expressed a readiness to introduce RSS and a recent field exercise with Volta Red indicated further potential for using the framework.
Updates from the field
As for ongoing trials: in Honduras, members of the UNPALA farmers' association have finished developing an action plan as the latest step of their RSS field test. The smallholders will be working on protecting HCVs, organisational development and proving legal land ownership. Palm oil company Jaremar is supporting.

In Air Putih, Indonesia, SNV has also been supporting farmers to acquire legal documents as part of RSS. In October a workshop was held to identify likely HCVs in the area, as Air Putih's oil-palm growers are trialling the HCV for smallholders approach together with RSS.
UPCOMING SHARP ACTIVITIES
RESPONSIBLE SUPPLY CHAINS
SHARP partnership begins work with small-scale rubber growers

 Photo by Rainforest Alliance
SHARP is extending the RSS framework to natural rubber supply chains. Our regional focal point, Rainforest Alliance, has just begun RSS assessments with the outgrowers unit of Ghana Rubber Estates Limited (GREL), which is responsible for the Rubber Outgrower Plantation Project (ROPP).
 
ROPP has been running for over 20 years and involves around 8,500 smallholders in western and central Ghana. ROPP has developed systems for scoping, assessment, implementation and monitoring, all of which can be validated under the RSS framework. The ROPP project director, Mr. Emmanuel Akwasi Owusu, explains that RSS offers the company an opportunity to assess its systems while helping to systematize data collection and analysis and strengthen its engagements with outgrower farmers.

Work on rubber is also under way in Indonesia. SNV has recently competed the RSS farmer needs assessment for smallholder rubber producers in Jambi Province. They are now preparing for the risk assessment, which should be finalised before the new year. For more information, contact tony@sharp-partnership.org.
New RSS guidelines coming soon
The SHARP secretariat is preparing revised guidance documents for the five steps of the RSS framework. The documents will be published soon in English and Spanish on the SHARP website. 
In the meantime, a new leaflet on RSS is available here.

IDH pledges support for SHARP tools and approaches
IDH has committed €75,000 for the further development of the RSS framework and HCV approach for smallholders. This will enable the SHARP secretariat to work with the growing number of companies that are looking to integrate these tools into responsible sourcing, and to document and disseminate lessons from their application in the field.
NEWS FROM FARTHER AFIELD
MINIMISING DEFORESTATION
Haze prompts review of Indonesia's smallholder slash and burn laws
 
The Indonesian government is reviewing laws on smallholder slash and burn amid international calls for tougher action on the use of fires in oil palm production, which have created the devastating air pollution haze across Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore during 2015.
Land clearing in Kalimantan. Photo by CIFOR
Indonesian law prohibits land clearance by burning but makes an exception for farmers to slash and burn up to 2 hectares following customary laws or "local wisdom". A representative of the Indonesian Oil Palm Smallholder Union says farmers need better access to credit so that they can clear land with methods other than burning. Read more here.

The Environment and Forestry Ministry is now expected to revise the 2 hectare exception. In early November the government also introduced stricter rules for plantations on peatland clearing. For a live map of fires in the region, visit Global Forest Watch, or read this CIFOR blog for an overview.
FSC and Fairtrade in Latin America
FSC has published a summary of its experiment with Fairtrade to develop dual certification for small-scale forestry. Trials took place with smallholders in Honduras, Bolivia and Chile to adopt both FSC and Fairtrade standards. The lessons learned are useful for SHARP, whose partners often use the RSS framework and HCV for smallholders approach in conjunction with certification standards. The summary is online in English and Spanish.

Scenarios for Africa's farming and forests

Will agricultural expansion in Africa inevitably lead to deforestation? A briefing note from IIED (click here) presents possible solutions using the new Sustainable Development Goals to support smallholder production while respecting forest protection policies.

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