"Watchdogs lament palm oil giant Wilmar's exist from forest conservation alliance," 08 April 2020

Singapore-listed agribusiness giant Wilmar International resigned... from the steering group of the High Carbon Stock Approach (HCSA), a widely supported mechanism to distinguish forest areas that should be protected from degraded areas that can be developed. Wilmar was also the first company in the palm oil industry to pledge, in 2013, to end deforestation in its supply chains.

Aida Greenbury, the former head of sustainability head at Asia Pulp & Paper, another company on the steering group, said the timing of Wilmar’s exit was unfortunate. She said carbon-rich tropical forests continue to disappear at an alarming rate and major companies are poised to miss their 2020 deadline of eradicating tropical deforestation from their operations...

Wilmar’s exit could also deal a blow to small farmers, whom Aida represents on the HCSA Steering Group through the SPKS farmers’ union. She said smallholders are an integral part of the palm oil industry’s supply chain and yet they’re often overlooked and receive little to no support. She said the farmers she represented “are genuinely trying to implement no-deforestation. But they need support: capacity building, the implementation of HCSA, guidance from their buyers. They look up to the big companies and expect them to set an example, to do their bit to support HCSA.”

Wilmar said it chose to leave... because of its concerns over poor governance of the HCSA linked to decision-making and financial management.

HCSA executive director Judy Rodrigues refuted the allegation. “As a young initiative, [the HCSA] continues to strengthen its governance procedures including for grievances and membership, but [it] does not have any critical governance issues,”...

Wilmar took issue with the financial management of the HCSA’s budget, saying the organization had been running at deficit. It also specifically cited what it called the HCSA’s poor handling of an objection made by Greenpeace (also on the steering group) to Wilmar’s role as co-chair of the group, which it assumed in 2017. A 2018 Greenpeace report said Wilmar was still buying from 18 palm oil groups linked to deforestation, despite the company’s zero-deforestation commitment. Wilmar subsequently announced it was developing a supply chain monitoring platform with active involvement from Greenpeace.

Greenpeace also questioned Wilmar’s justification for dropping out. It said the company had failed to provide evidence to the HCSA that it was actively implementing the principle of “no deforestation, peat, exploitation” (NDPE) throughout its supply chains...

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Note from Business & Human Rights Resource Centre: Wilmar's Public Statement, A Matter of Principle: Concerns on Governance Issues with the HCSA as an organisation (02 April 2020), is on their website. 

The company also released a statement on 07 April 2020, Wilmar's Continued Commitment to Removing Deforestation from our Supply Chain.  Its progress update on their effort to remove deforestation from their supply chain is also on their website.