RSPO Certification
We are actively pursuing our ultimate goal of obtaining RSPO certification for all our 63 Strategic Operating Units (SOUs) in Malaysia and Indonesia by the end of 2011, an aggressive target that we intend to achieve despite all the inherent challenges faced when undoing the inherited practices and teachings of the past. To date, 21 of our SOUs – 18 in Malaysia and 3 in Indonesia - have been certified, meaning that approximately a third of our production is certified sustainable. This makes us the world’s largest producer of certified sustainable palm oil. A further 32 SOUs, all in Malaysia, have been audited by independent firms recognised by RSPO. This is no small achievement and is a testament to the fact that Sime Darby Plantation is extremely serious about ensuring the sustainability of the palm oil we produce.
In its quest to get RSPO certification, the Upstream Operations through the TQEM Department, is actively ensuring that all activities and initiatives connected to the Principles and Criteria of RSPO are pursued and implemented in total by all SOUs. Some of the activities and initiatives that have already been implemented include:
Good Agricultural Practices
Social Enhancement
Complaints & Grievances handling
Sustainability Initiatives
Sustainability Management Programmes
In addition to the SAFE project, projects undertaken by Sime Darby include:
Plain-pouched Hornbill Project Sime Darby Plantation collaborates with the Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) in this project to preserve the hornbills of the Belum-Temenggor forest in Perak. The Belum-Temenggor forest is in fact the world’s only forest that houses all 10 species of hornbills, two species more than those found in Sarawak.
In this three-year project, Sime Darby is contributing RM 740,000 and will collaborate with MNS to carry out research, tracking exercise and educational programmes for school children. With this project the Company hopes that these fascinating birds will continue to roost the forest and breed for years to come.
Heritage Park In this project, carried out as one of the Sustainable Palm Oil initiatives, Sime Darby Plantation plans to plant five million seedlings of various forest tree species including the indigenous and rare ones. These seedlings will later be transplanted at the natural corridors at our estates.
For this purpose, Sime Darby Plantation collaborates with Perniagaan Tunas Harapan that owns three nurseries in Ulu Behrang, Tanjung Malim in Perak. Sime Darby Plantation has started the ball rolling by donating RM2 million for this project on December 7, 2007.
Adopt-a-Reef Realising the importance of coral reef to the marine ecosystem, Sime Darby Plantation embarked on a RM 30,000 project to conserve the marine life via Reef Check Malaysia’s “Adopt-a-Reef Programme at Tanjung Besi, Pulau Perhentian in Terengganu.
Under this programme, reef surveys at the newly adopted reef site were conducted. For this, a team of scuba divers was trained and certified as "Reef Check EcoDivers".
Sime Darby Plantation’s EcoDivers’s first reef check survey in July 2007 revealed that the hard coral covered 30 per cent of the undersea surface hence giving the reef a “fair” rating in the Coral Reef Health Criteria.
Orang Utan Conservation
Sime Darby Plantation signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Sabah Forestry Department on January 29, 2008 with a pledge to contribute RM25 million for the conservation of the Ulu Segama Forest Reserve – home for 5,000 orang utans.
The contribution which will stretch over a period of 10 years will greatly help the Forestry Department to rehabilitate the forest reserve which has the highest concentration of orang utan in Borneo. The Ulu Segama Forest Reserve covers 250,000 hectares and 160,000 hectares of it is in need of restoration and rehabilitation due to logging activities that had been conducted in the area for a long time. At the end of 2007, the State government ordered for the logging activities in the area to stop.
Natural Corridor Initiative This project which comprises survey of wildlife and conservation of wild habitats was carried out on Sime Darby’s 4,500ha Tanah Merah Estate in Negeri Sembilan.
Carried out in collaboration with Wild Asia, the survey which started in November 2007 found 150 species of birds and other animals such as civet cat, owl, cobra, python, macaque and the rare masked finfoot - the winter migrating waterbird.
Tanah Merah Estate has some 300ha of land not cultivated with oil palm, consisting of a hill, waterlogged mangroves and riparian land (river reserves). Under the project, trees will be planted along the riverbanks of Sungai Janging, the major irrigation and drainage stream in the estate which has been kept weed free by the estate management.
In November 2007 Sime Darby employees and children planted over 50 trees at a plot by the riverbank and more plots will be added by mid of 2008. This project also includes environmental awareness programme involving children from the estate school and nearby communities.
Methane Abatement Through Composting This project which involves composting Empty Fruit Bunch (EFB) with Palm Oil Mill Effluent is currently implemented at Sime Darby Plantation’s Merotai and Melalap Oil Mills in Sabah, Lavang and Pekaka Oil Mills in Sarawak and Kerdau Oil Mill in Pahang.
This project is part of the Clean Mechanism Development (CDM) project under which Sime Darby Plantation trades the Certified Emission Reduction certificates or carbon credits obtained from the amount of methane abated through the composting projects with Denmark, an Annex 1 country under the Kyoto Protocol.
An Annex 1 country like Denmark is allowed to buy carbon credit from developing countries implementing CDM projects in order to meet the Greenhouse Gases emission reduction target required under the Kyoto Protocol.
