Wilmar Claims Significant Progress In Its No Deforestation Agenda

22 Jan 2016 --- Wilmar International Limited released a progress report on its No Deforestation, No Peat, No Exploitation Policy (Integrated Policy). This report summarises Wilmar’s progress towards the aspirations set out in its Integrated Policy, and identifies areas for improvement. Wilmar, the world’s largest processor and merchandiser of palm and lauric oils, committed to delinking its entire supply chain, including joint ventures and third-party suppliers, from deforestation, peatland development, and human rights abuses in December 2013; a first in the palm oil industry.

In the last two years, Wilmar has been working closely with its suppliers and partners in non-governmental organisations (NGO), local communities, and government agencies to implement this policy, in an effort to steer the palm oil industry towards responsible and sustainable practices. The progress report provides details about Wilmar’s performance in several key areas, including:

• Traceability: Wilmar’s approach to defining and calculating traceability, a supply chain overview, and traceability statistics.
• Supplier compliance: Progress on mill assessments, the Aggregator Refinery Transformation (ART) approach to provide a collaborative framework of solutions and shared best practices, and a proactive supplier monitoring programme.
• Support for smallholders: Incentivising smallholder su ppliers to pursue sustainable practices.
• Transparency and accountability: Sustainability dashboard and grievance procedure, to mitigate risks and drive change along the supply chain.
• New targets in 2016 and beyond: An overview of Wilmar’s plans to address ongoing challenges and bring the industry closer to its sustainability goals. 

“I am proud of the progress our team has achieved thus far, and heartened that Wilmar’s Integrated Policy has kick-started change in the palm oil industry with almost all our i ndustry peers having announced similar sustainability policy over the last two years. However, we recognise that much remains to be done, including the development of a clear means to measure and track the progress of sustainability commitments to assess its effectiveness in reducing actual deforestation , ” said Wilmar Chief Sustainability Officer, Mr Jeremy Goon. “In 2016, we will continue working with our partners and stakeholders in the endeavour to achieve our collective aspiration of a sustainable palm oil industry.” 

Glenn Hurowitz, Senior Fellow, Centre for International Policy wrote in the report: “Two years ago, I was privileged to stand with Wilmar CEO Kuok Khoon Hong, TFT’s Scott Poynton, and Unilever’s Marc Engel to launch the company’s groundbreaking “No Deforestation, No Peat, No Exploitation” policy. Since then, Wilmar has undertaken an impressive effort to work with plantations and smallholders alike to help them rapidly transition to deforestation-free production. Wilmar’s publication of their suppliers and mill locations for the first time brought a measure of transparency to an industry that had been synonymous with opacity.” 

“Wilmar has also helped bring environmental leadership to the soy industry, working with ADM to advance deforestation-free production across Latin America. While more information is needed, they have also begun environment and community initiatives in Africa and in Myanmar sugar operations. Nonetheless, global agriculture, including Wilmar, still has a long way to go. NGOs continue to find some suppliers clearing forests and abusing community rights. Wilmar deserves credit for responding quickly to most of these grievances.” 

“They have worked hard to improve supplier performance, and have been willing to cut off rogue companies when engagement just isn’t working. But there are still too many breaches, showing the need for more education or more rigorous sanction. In addition, no company is providing comprehensive information on supplier performance on reducing deforestation, the metric that ultimately matters. This transparency gap should be an area of major focus for the industry in 2016. Despite Wilmar’s progress, this was still a terrible year for Southeast Asia’s forests. On several days, Indonesia’s forest fires released more pollution than China’s entire economy.” 

“Palm oil alone is hardly to blame, but the industry should do its share to restore what has been lost, and work with government, other industries, and civil society to ensure that this disaster never repeats itself. There are some signs of hope in Indonesia, but the need for action remains great. A successful model is Brazil’s Amazon deforestation moratorium, where all companies together agreed not to buy from any district where forest destruction was occurring. The result: Brazil’s deforestation has declined by more than two thirds while increasing production.” 

“Despite the challenges, Wilmar’s actions make it the clear sustainability leader among large-scale agriculture companies. Because Wilmar is working to provide customers the responsibly grown products they demand, it has become much more attractive to customers and investors. While these initiatives have yet to fully realize their goal of ensuring a long-term future for forests and people, Wilmar is showing the world that responsible business and profitable business can indeed go hand in hand.”