SDG 17 - REVITALISE THE GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

The drivers of deforestation are complex global forces that are beyond any one industry or company to overcome. We believe that collective endeavour by businesses, governments, communities and civil society is required to effect a real and enduring change on the ground, therefore we contribute actively to partnerships and collaborations aimed to achieve transformation at the landscape level.

The state government of Sabah is one of the first in the world to make a commitment to sustainable palm oil within its entire jurisdiction. We are part of the Sabah Jurisdictional Approach Steering Committee helping the Sabah government achieve its vision of 100% RSPO-certified sustainable palm oil in Sabah by 2025. The steering committee comprises public, private and civil society organisations, such as the Sabah state government agencies, Sabah Environmental Protection Association, World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), Kinabatangan Orangutan Conservation Programme, UNICEF and Borneo Samudera, amongst others. Forever Sabah and RSPO are advisors to the process.

As Wilmar’s representatives are also co-chairs of RSPO’s Smallholder Working Group and Biodiversity and High Conservation Value (HCV) Working Group, we are leading the discussions on enabling smallholder certification and HCV compensation and remediation processes for the state.

In 2017, the Steering Committee gained the support of the High Carbon Stock (HCS) Approach Executive Committee in funding a pilot project to assist in the development of the HCS assessment at the jurisdictional level, in support of the Sabah jurisdictional certification initiative. The HCS assessment will propose a revised methodology that will fulfil the HCS decision tree and can be applied at the state level. The funds will also enable the HCV Resource Network to provide guidance on the newly launched Integrated HCV-HCS Assessment Manual, in support of the Sabah Jurisdictional process in producing a state-level HCV and HCS map.

Wilmar’s Chief Sustainability Officer is a member of the TFA 2020 Steering Committee, together with the Heads of Sustainability of various consumer business companies as well as government officials from forest countries.

We participated in TFA 2020’s Africa Palm Oil Initiative’s Country Implementation Dialogues in February 2017. The forum provided a platform for multi-stakeholder engagement in the implementation of the Marrakesh Declaration and identification of how public-private collaboration can help deforestation-free palm oil development in Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana and Liberia.

We also participated in the TFA 2020 Steering Committee meeting in November 2017.

The FFA is a voluntary multi-stakeholder platform which aims to aid in the solution to land and forest fires in Indonesia. As a founding member of the FFA, we have been actively socialising the Fire-Free Community programme to villages in the vicinity of our estates in Indonesia.

Wilmar Sugar Australia is a founding member of the BCAG, made up of sugarcane farmers, the government and providers of research, development and extension. Since 2016, BCAG has been monitoring the water quality of four Barratta Creek sub-catchments located in the Burdekin region of Queensland, Australia. BCAG captures baseline data about nutrient and pesticide loads in runoff water from sugarcane farms, and uses this data to influence on-farm activities to improve the quality of water flowing to the Great Barrier Reef.

In 2017, the project has provided advice to a number of sugarcane farmers in Burdekin region and has seen an improvement in the quality of water leaving these farms.

The APC is a sustainable packaging initiative that aims to encourage resource efficiency through sustainable design while reducing disposal wastages and increasing recycling. The APC brings government and industry together to find and fund solutions to packaging sustainability issues.

Wilmar, through Sugar Australia Pte Ltd, is a signatory to the APC since 2001 and actively works with key suppliers to identify opportunities in packaging and supply chain efficiencies and where those changes make good business sense, implement them. A review and trials of improved packaging were conducted for the CSR branded 15kg and 25kg industrial sacks. All packaging sacks were converted to the new specifications by March 2017, resulting in a 9% reduction in composite packaging material usage for the same sugar tonnage.