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 Metrics[3] (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, promoting biodiversity conservation, safeguarding water resources, reducing emissions and improving livelihoods throughout our supply chain.
Alignment with Sustainability and Climate Commitments
Wilmar’s regenerative agriculture approach supports our broader sustainability commitments 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 use, implementation of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) practices, fire prevention, monitoring and suppression practices.
3. Water Stewardship
Promote water stewardship through riparian buffer management, monitoring and management of peat water tables.
4. Climate Resilience
Monitoring of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) and improving operational efficiency to reduce GHG emissions, where possible.
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 Management[4] (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 selected indicators 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 indicators 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.
Regenerative Agriculture in the Context of Sugar
In the sugar cane industry, many regenerative agriculture principles are similarly included as part of general BMP practices. Some examples are IPM, cover cropping, sustainable nutrient management, water management, and in some cases restoration activities beyond the cultivated area.
With our NDPE Sugar programme, we assist our suppliers by focussing on activities which support regenerative agriculture particularly on maintaining soil health, preventing deforestation, protecting natural ecosystems and safeguarding water resources. Other requirements include the responsible use of inputs for soil conservation, protection of High Conservation Value (HCV) areas and climate mitigation also contributes towards regenerative agricultural approaches. In this way, regenerative agriculture largely builds on and strengthens practices that are already embedded in the NDPE framework, rather than introducing entirely new requirements.
For more information, please visit NDPESugar
Soil health is usually assessed through three key components[5], namely its chemical, physical and biological properties. Wilmar focuses on maintaining nutrient levels 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. Additionally, standard operating practices (SOPs) involve Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and engineering assessments of terrain, topography and planting methods to design drainage and hydrological networks as well as roads that identify suitable plantable areas while reducing erosion risks.
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 Manual[6] and implemented in existing plantations such as:
IPM;
Fire prevention, monitoring and suppression; and
Biodiversity management and monitoring.
The management and monitoring of water resources in Wilmar’s operations are ingrained into its sustainability policies. Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) and/or Analisis Mengenai Dampak Lingkungan (AMDAL) along with HCV-HCS assessments are conducted to identify areas of significant environment and social value, including critical water resources prior to any new plantings. This will inform the areas that require protection, management and ongoing monitoring.
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 validated[7] 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.
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.
[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
[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.
