Wilmar’s Regenerative Agriculture Approach
Building ecosystem resilience. Supporting farmers. Sustaining productivity.
Why Regenerative Agriculture Matters
Agricultural systems face increasing pressure from climate change, resource constraints and stakeholder expectations. There is a growing need to reduce environmental impacts, strengthen ecosystem resilience and improve farmers’ livelihoods, while continuing to meet future demands.
What is Regenerative Agriculture
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)1 defines regenerative agriculture as a holistic farming system that among other benefits, improves water and air quality, enhances ecosystem biodiversity, produces nutrient-dense food and stores carbon to help mitigate climate change while maintaining and improving economic viability.
Similarly, the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative Platform (SAI Platform)2 describes regenerative agriculture as an approach that mitigates and adapts to climate change, improves soil health, enhances water retention while reducing its consumption, supports biodiversity, and improves farmers’ livelihoods through a just transition.
Additionally, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) in collaboration with the One Planet Business for Biodiversity (OP2B) coalition through its Regenerative Agriculture Metrics3 (RAM), defines regenerative agriculture as a holistic, outcome-based farming approach that delivers measurable net-positive impacts on soil health, biodiversity, climate, water resources and livelihoods at both farm and landscape levels.
Essentially, regenerative agriculture is a holistic approach that manages and maintains soil health, enhances biodiversity and climate resilience by reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and increasing carbon sequestration. Unlike conventional methods that often degrade land, regenerative practices improve water retention, optimise agriculture input and build natural crop resilience supporting long-term productivity and sustainability.
Our Vision
Wilmar’s vision is to drive positive change across our supply chain, creating resilient landscapes and communities for generations to come.
Our Mission
We aim to integrate regenerative agriculture principles into existing Best Management Practices (BMP) by enhancing soil health, safeguarding water resources, promoting biodiversity conservation, reducing emissions and improving livelihoods throughout our supply chain.
Alignment with Sustainability and Climate Commitments
Wilmar’s regenerative agriculture approach supports our broader commitment to sustainable agriculture and is implemented within existing policies and management practices, including Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) aligned climate targets and No Deforestation, No Peat, No Exploitation (NDPE) policy. These efforts contribute to United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 12, 13, 15, and 17, which are Wilmar’s priority goals.
Our Focus Areas
Wilmar’s regenerative agriculture approach is built on five interconnected pillars:
1. Soil Health
Protect soil structure and increase organic matter through practices such as composting, mulching, cover cropping and integrated nutrient management to support long-term productivity.
2. Biodiversity & Environmental Protection
Support habitat protection, enhance ecological connectivity (where feasible), promote efficient agriculture input and implement Integrated Pest Management (IPM).
3. Water & Ecosystem Protection
Promote water stewardship through riparian buffer management, monitoring and management of peat water tables, and enhancing ecosystem function through agroecological practices.
4. Climate Resilience
Reduce greenhouse gas emissions by improving operational efficiency and increasing carbon sequestration.
5. Smallholder Livelihoods & Awareness
Support sustainable productivity and income stability through training, certification pathways and field‑level transformation initiatives.
Regenerative Agriculture in the Context of Oil Palm
Many regenerative agriculture practices are already embedded in established plantations through recognised Best Management Practices (BMP), such as Integrated Pest Management4 (IPM) as well as soil and water conservation. These practices are further reinforced by sustainability certifications and policies.
However, the implementation of regenerative practices in oil palm systems is inherently shaped by local conditions, including diverse soil types, varying terrain and climate variability. As such, regenerative agriculture in oil palm does not follow a single prescriptive model but requires context‑specific approaches adapted to individual plantation and landscape conditions.
Within Wilmar, many of these practices have been implemented for decades. Therefore, current baselines reflect outcomes from existing BMPs. Moving forward, a more standardised use of key performance indicators (KPIs) will enable stakeholders to review outcomes and implementation effectiveness, while informing on strategies for continuous improvement.
Our near-term priority actions are:
- Identifying and documenting KPIs for soil health, biodiversity conservation, water stewardship, climate resilience and livelihoods;
- Working at the landscape level with multiple stakeholders to support adoption of compatible regenerative agriculture practices; and
- Investing in training, field trials and impact monitoring to drive continual improvement.
Soil health is usually assessed through three key components5, namely its chemical, physical and biological properties. Wilmar focuses on maintaining nutrient levels, moisture content and soil structure to support long-term productivity and optimal crop production. Soil assessments are conducted prior to planting, providing a baseline understanding of its health that enables informed management decisions and supports long term productivity. Ongoing observation of palm health further complements this approach, serving as a practical and reliable indicator of underlying soil conditions.
Many regenerative agriculture practices related to biodiversity conservation and environmental protection are covered under our NDPE policy including zero-burning practices and mandatory High Conservation Value-High Carbon Stock (HCV-HCS) assessments prior to new plantings.
Additional practices are embedded within Wilmar’s Agriculture Manual and Best Management Practices Manual6 and implemented in existing plantations such as:
- IPM;
- Fire prevention, monitoring and suppression;
- Peatland management; and
- Biodiversity management and monitoring.
The management and monitoring of water resources and ecosystems in Wilmar’s operations are ingrained into our sustainability policies. HCV-HCS assessments are conducted to identify areas of significant environment and social value, including critical water resources and sensitive ecosystems prior to any new plantings. This will inform the areas that require protection, management and ongoing monitoring.
Standard operating procedures (SOPs) involving Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and engineering assessments of terrain, topography and planting methods to design drainage and hydrological networks as well as roads that optimise water management and minimise erosion risks.
Additional procedures are also implemented for existing oil palm planted on peat areas to ensure that water table levels are appropriately managed and maintained to enable optimal production while reducing any potential adverse environmental impacts.
Wilmar has validated7 its targets under the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) Corporate Net-Zero Standard and the SBTi Forest, Land and Agriculture (FLAG) Guidance to reduce its Scope 1 and 2 emissions. Within plantation operations, one of the main contributors to GHG emissions was the conversion of forests and peatlands into oil palm plantations. This has been mitigated since 2013 through the implementation of Wilmar’s NDPE policy, which specifically prohibits new planting on forest and peatlands.
Another significant source of emissions is methane released from palm oil mill effluent (POME) treatment ponds, which is mitigated through the installation of methane capture plants at palm oil mills.
Additional strategies to strengthen climate resilience include reducing emissions associated with fertiliser use and other land use changes, maintaining and enhancing carbon stocks through the conservation of HCV-HCS areas, and increasing carbon removals through forest rehabilitation initiatives.
While BMPs have been widely implemented in large plantations since the early 2000s, adoption among smaller scale plantations and smallholders may not be consistent across the board. Wilmar supports smallholders and third-party suppliers to increase the adoption of these BMPs through capacity building and training, improved access to agricultural inputs, supporting alternative livelihoods, providing market access and value chain integration to further strengthen their resilience and productivity while improving long-term outcomes.
1 https://www.fao.org/family-farming/detail/en/c/1512632/#:~:text=Regenerative%20agriculture%20is%20a%20holistic%20farming%20system,change%20*%20Maintain%20and%20improve%20economic%20viability
2 https://saiplatform.org/regenerating-together-programme/
3 https://www.wbcsd.org/resources/implementing-outcome-based-metrics-to-scale-regenerative-agriculture/
4 Wilmar’s Annual Sustainability Report 2024. Pp61. https://www.wilmar-international.com/docs/default-source/default-document-library/sustainability/resource/wilmar-sustainability-reports/24_0151_wilmar_2024_sr-v7-27-may.pdf?sfvrsn=f6d89876_13
5 WBCSD. Business guidance for deeper regeneration. Regenerative Agriculture Metrics: soil chapter. https://www.wbcsd.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Business-guidance-for-deeper-regeneration_soil-chapter_executive-summary.pdf
6 https://www.wilmar-international.com/docs/default-source/default-document-library/sustainability/bmp-manual-for-growers-on-conservation-and-community-collaboration.pdf?sfvrsn=2b649c46_2
7 Wilmar Achieves SBTi Validation for Net Zero targets. http://www.wilmar-international.com/docs/default-source/default-document-library/sustainability/resource/202503271812441704271772_en.pdf?sfvrsn=bb966529_3
Conservation
Wilmar's conservation principles, programmes and partnerships.
Smallholder Programmes
Integrating smallholders into the global sustainable supply chain.
