Renewable energy promotion is recognized as an important goal in international climate policies in order to reduce CO2‐emissions. Biodiesel can potentially be an important contributor in this respect, especially in Thailand with its large biomass production from oil palm cultivation. Palm oil is the main raw feedstock for biodiesel production. However, biodiesel production is also controversial in many respects, in particular considering its sustainability. This paper assesses the collaboration between different actors in the Thai biodiesel and oil palm networks in organizing biodiesel provision. Through qualitative interviews with key political, economic, and societal actors the structure and the dynamic of the biodiesel and oil palm industry, as well as the relevant policy dynamics, were investigated. We found that the implementation of biodiesel policy was dominated by the need to secure the production of palm oil‐based cooking oil leading to frequent adjustments. Sustainable improvement and environmental considerations hardly played a role in the interactions between the actors involved in the palm oil and biodiesel industries. Government agencies were dominant and steered the biodiesel and the oil palm industries both directly and indirectly via economic and societal actors. Nevertheless, the promotion of biodiesel continues to be the basis of the national renewable energy master plan with its clear target to balance and stabilize the economic, social and environmental issues. As the renewable energy master plan does not fit with the possible feedstock, the main challenges in achieving these sustainable targets are therefore how to maintain a stable and consistent policy, especially concerning balancing the palm oil used for biodiesel production on the one hand and palm oil‐based cooking oil on the other.
This paper investigates the factors that influence the adoption of RSPO and Thai-GAP certification by oil palm smallholder farmers in Thailand. A random sample of 77 RSPO certified, 108 non-certified RSPO, 87 Thai-GAP certified, and 67 non-certified Thai-GAP smallholder farmers were interviewed to investigate the factors explaining the RSPO and Thai-GAP scheme adoption, respectively. The logit model was used to analyse the relationships between the adoption and the decision-making factors of the farmers. The results show that membership of farmer groups, the goal of the scheme, and trust in the scheme are the most significant factors affecting the adoption of RSPO certification. Scheme payments have a negative influence on adoption. In case of Thai-GAP, the results show the scheme payment, the image, concerns about the quality of land and water, and trust in the scheme are the most significant factors affecting the adoption. Finally, these findings suggest new factors may be attributed to several issues, including trust in the scheme, membership of farmer groups, the scheme’s goal, and trust in the scheme are the most significant. Designing and extension in influencing factors may play multiple roles in driving smallholder farmers to adopt sustainable certification schemes. This finding repeats that the usability of sustainable certification schemes in developing countries needs to be mobilised around a particular socio-cultural context. Including, understanding the factors affecting smallholder farmers’ intention to adopt Thai-GAP or RSPO certification is very important to plan and promote these schemes among other farmers and transform the current cultivation practices into more sustainable palm oil production.
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