...We were sorry that the individuals that you spoke to felt there had been broken promises.

As a company, EPO believes it is fundamental that we respect human rights in everything we do. Our Sustainability Policy commits us to respecting, supporting and upholding fundamental human rights, and we encourage the application of our policy amongst our business partners including contractors, suppliers, trading and joint venture partners.

The issues discussed in your report date from 2013, and matters have evolved since then – as further described in the EPO Sustainability Reports from 2015, 2016 and 2017.

In 2016, after a year-long consultation process including the local Jogbahn clan communities on Palm Bay estate, Liberian government, SDI (local NGO), other international NGOs a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed such that EPO would seek to respect the customary rights of the local communities to their land and respect their wishes to develop, or not develop, as the case may be.

This was a significant milestone, and we were pleased to see that our MoU was widely reported as a showcase for the development of oil palm with local communities. To this day, we commit to the RSPO industry standard of free, prior and informed consent, and we do not develop on land that communities do not wish us to do so.