We’re committed to the protection of forests and high conservation value areas such as primary forest, High Carbon Stock Forest (HCS), High Conservation Value (HCV) areas and peatlands.
We were the first company globally to meet the new HCV assessment requirements of the HCV Resource Network in 2015, and in 2011 we were the first company to meet the RSPO’s new plantings requirements in Africa.
Our plantations operate only in areas such as savannah, scrub, or logged-over forests with low carbon stocks, following third-party assessments which include stakeholder consultation, LIDAR mapping, biodiversity surveys, and forest inventories.
We don’t carry out planting in wetlands, including peat, and protect nearby water bodies through NPP site verification and soil studies.
In 2019, we received the RSPO Conservation Excellence Award for our commitment to sustainable oil palm plantations that generate net positive impacts through forest conservation, species protection, and emission reductions in Gabon.
Managing palm plantations in a biodiversity rich country like Gabon requires extensive efforts to support and safeguard the country’s natural heritage. OPG employs a 40-strong team dedicated to enforcing rigorous standards designed to protect the areas of High Conservation Value (HCV) and High Carbon Stock (HCS) that make up more than 50% of our palm concessions.
We conducted extensive biodiversity surveys during our Environmental and Social Impact Assessments, and supplementary surveys during the start-up phase of operations, to guide land use planning, zoning and management. These impacts are continuously monitored, tracked, and resurveyed every three to five years for better management of conservation objectives.
We partner with Gabon’s National Park Agency, Ministry of Forestry, and WWF-Gabon to monitor conservation areas. Using SMART (Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool), our HCV team collects data to track wildlife, movements, and poaching signs. This enables us to refine and adapt conservation efforts in priority areas effectively.
Gabon is home to more than half of the world’s remaining forest elephants. We’re working to protect these animals and to prevent animal-human conflicts in local communities. We’ve partnered with The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) to develop a highly effective and humane sensor that uses harmless light and noise to divert elephants back into conservation areas.
To date, 500 nodes have been deployed, of which 200 units are connected via a mobile network to enable real-time online monitoring within the large plantation area.
Olam Palm Gabon also partnered with the National Park Agency to conduct more than 1000 elephant DNA sampling and GPS-collared 15 elephants. This research activity is part of our overall elephant management strategy, to increase understanding of elephants’ movements, to design and develop innovative methods to prevent human-wildlife conflicts, and to increase efficiency of the wildlife corridors that we have created across our concessions.
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