Sharing Responsibility and Success: Companies Collaborate to Support Palm Oil Landscapes

This report explores how and why downstream and midstream companies have taken landscape-scale action in palm oil producing areas. The research found that these companies are collaborating with each other as well as with local governments and communities, mainly through landscape initiative implementers, to meet their No Deforestation, No Peat, and No Exploitation commitments and ensure smallholders’ inclusion in sustainable palm oil supply chains.

The study found that 62 downstream and midstream companies are taking landscape-scale action across 37 landscape and jurisdictional initiatives in palm oil producing regions – the list is provided in the report. The majority of initiatives identified are in Indonesia and Malaysia; several others are found in countries including Mexico, Colombia and Côte d’Ivoire.

Recommendations for companies are:

This report is part of a global study that aims to understand how midstream and downstream companies have been using landscape and jurisdictional approaches to address commodity-driven deforestation.

• Increase support and bring other companies into landscape and jurisdictional initiatives;
• Prioritise action in committed and progressive jurisdictions; and
• Integrate landscape-scale action into sustainability and business strategy.

The report contains five other recommendations for the wider community of landscape and jurisdictional approaches. These recommendations are drawn upon data collected through desktop research, interviews with key palm oil stakeholders and an analysis of company responses to CDP’s forest questionnaire in 2022. This study is a collaboration between the Tropical Forest Alliance, Proforest, and CDP.

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This report is part of a global study that aims to understand how midstream and downstream companies have been using landscape and jurisdictional approaches to address commodity-driven deforestation. The first two papers on cocoa and pulp, paper and packaging landscape-scale action have been published. This paper will be followed by other briefs on company landscape-scale action in soy and beef and will delve deeper into other possible uses of these approaches, including meeting corporate climate, nature and people goals.

If you would like to stay informed on the progress of this study, subscribe to the Jurisdictional Action Network here.