"PepsiCo to probe deforestation in palm oil supplier’s Leuser Ecosystem concession," 27 June 2018

...PepsiCo has launched an investigation into reports of deforestation carried out by one of its suppliers in a key Indonesian habitat that’s home to critically endangered tigers, orangutans and rhinos.

The company said it was acting on a complaint by the Rainforest Action Network (RAN), a U.S.-based advocacy group, alleging ongoing deforestation within a concession owned by palm oil firm PT Surya Panen Subur II (SPS II), which is included in PepsiCo’s 2017 mill list.

That willingness to take action...comes nearly four years after RAN began reporting on the alleged deforestation inside SPS II’s concession in 2014...

RAN has also taken PepsiCo to task for its recently updated sustainable palm oil policy, which the group says fails to entirely cut out labor rights violations or rainforest destruction from the supply chain.

When it first rolled out its sustainable palm oil policy in 2015, PepsiCo stated that the palm oil it sourced through its suppliers would be produced with no further development of high carbon stock (HCS) forests or high conservation value (HCV) areas, and no new conversion of peatlands.

In its recent update, PepsiCo aims to achieve that by the end of 2020. It also sets a conversion cut-off date for forest and peatlands, meaning it will not buy any palm oil sourced from land cleared since the end of 2015.

“We believe we are the first company in our sector to make such a commitment,” PepsiCo said.