"Wilmar's supplier mapping plan could be a 'breakthrough' for palm oil industry", 12 December 2018

The world's largest palm oil trader, Singapore-headquartered Wilmar International, has hatched a new plan to eliminate deforestation from its supply chain....

Wilmar is to map and monitor its suppliers using satellites, giving a clear picture of their activities on the ground for the first time. If suppliers are found to be clearing forest, they'll be immediately dropped from Wilmar's supply chain....

Wilmar...promised to be deforestation-free by 2020....

...Greenpeace scaled Wilmar's refineries in Indonesia...and slammed a commitment Wilmar made...saying the pledge did not go far enough to ensure its suppliers would comply.

But Greenpeace said Wilmar's new commitment is a "potential breakthrough"....

...Greenpeace said that Wilmar's commitment puts pressure on the rest of the sector, including other big palm oil companies such as Golden Agri Resources and Musim Mas....

The news emerges...after Norway became the first country to introduce a ban on palm oil.

...Darrel Webber, chief executive of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), told Eco-Business: "...However, we encourage Norway to avoid being blinded by emotion and instead to conduct objective analyses, so that their good intention to fix this problem does not get displaced, and in turn, cause bigger problems elsewhere."