Palm Policy
Olam’s palm business has the unique opportunity to be the front-runner in establishing sustainable palm plantations in Africa. We are using the Roundtable Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) Principles and Criteria as a baseline for our sustainability framework which we have bolstered with additional environmental and social measures.
We will play a proactive role in the RSPO to help broaden the application of the Principles and Criteria through our long-term knowledge in Africa, and our successful completion of the New Planting Procedure. We have outlined our upstream palm sustainability policy which was developed through an ongoing multi-stakeholder engagement process.
Olam’s upstream palm sustainability policy
- Enabling the implementation of RSPO in the countries where we operate
- Effective implementation of the RSPO standard in our own operations
- Playing a leadership role in the National Interpretation of RSPO in new origins
- Supporting the development of a responsible land use plan and sustainability framework
- Building local and national capacity to implement RSPO
- Making a positive contribution to biodiversity conservation on and off-site
Minimising the carbon footprint of oil palm operations
- No development in high conservation value forests and ecosystems
- No development in high carbon stock forests, determined through a multi-stakeholder process in key origins
- No development on peatlands
- Implementing zero waste and maximising greenhouse gas capture and renewable energy use
Improving the livelihood of rural communities
- Capacity building to help local communities be self-reliant and supporting local enterprise
- Contributing to community development, healthcare and education
- Supporting smallholders to build capacity, improve yields, apply good practice and avoid deforestation
- Engaging transparently to ensure Free Prior and Informed Consent of local communities and stakeholders
2011 Corporate Responsibility & Sustainability Report – addendum
We would like to revise inadvertent errors in the 2011 Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability Report regarding the progress against RSPO Certification of our palm plantations in the Republic of Gabon. We are currently members of the RSPO and have successfully completed the RSPO’s New Planting Procedure on sites identified thus far for development and will continue to complete the same prior to future plantation development. However, it was not accurate for us to state that our plantations are ‘RSPO Certified’ as we will only be eligible for certification once our plantations become productive and an independent third party certification audit has been completed. Once our plantations begin to produce oil, we will endeavour to achieve RSPO certification. Please check our progress at: http://www.rspo.org
