World’s largest palm oil trader shares its progress implementing its No Deforestation and No Exploitation Policy
As of January 2019, The Forest Trust has become Earthworm Foundation.
Here are some key points from Wilmar’s latest update report, detailing progress from July to September 2014.
Supply chain engagement and mapping
The ongoing process of engaging Wilmar’s suppliers with its policy has seen meetings take place with suppliers across Malaysia and Indonesia. To build wider understanding, meetings have also been held with NGOs, mainly to discuss and explore human and land rights issues.
Work to build traceability of Wilmar’s global supply chain continues. Traceability is key to understanding practices on the ground and if improvements need to be made to meet Wilmar’s policy and therefore bring about transformation.
The report includes data for Wilmar’s refineries in Malaysia, Indonesia, Europe and India, with the emphasis on identifying details of the mills. In some areas, we have been able to map back to plantation.
This includes the Sandakan refinery catchment area in Malaysia, where visits have been made to 13 plantation estates. Mills are encouraged to share results with their fresh fruit bunch suppliers in order to accelerate the transformation process.
Progress on No Deforestation is also being made in Africa, with assessments taking place at Wilmar concessions to identify land for development and conservation. Tackling exploitation
Wilmar staff attended a two-day training on ethical recruitment and fair labour. The focus was on the Wilmar policy and practices and what might need to be enhanced or developed.
It explored how to identify exploitation and how to avoid and address it. It included a visit to a Wilmar plantation, where staff spoke to plantation workers about their experiences.
Next steps
A High Carbon Stock (HCS) toolkit is being prepared for launch in Q4, with input from other stakeholders. Wilmar’s next report will include new traceability information on China and Wilmar joint ventures.
