New report highlights success of sustainable palm oil initiative in Africa

Since its inception in 2014, the Africa Palm Oil Initiative (APOI) has featured regularly in our news, from announcements of upcoming national workshops, highlights from regional meetings, reporting the successful delivery of training programmes, or celebrating landmark moments such as the signing of the Marrakesh Declaration for the Sustainable Development of the Oil Palm Sector in Africa. These examples alone give an idea of the considerable achievements of the initiative to date.

Now, to mark the culmination of the initiative’s first phase, a new report has been published to share the achievements of the APOI so far and to outline the next steps to be taken.

Coordinated by Proforest on behalf of the Tropical Forest Alliance, the APOI’s first phase began by bringing together diverse partners from key stakeholder groups across the ten palm-oil producing countries, including members from governments, companies, civil society groups, farmers, and indigenous and community groups.

Through a series of national workshops and regional meetings, understandings were shared and alliances were forged between these groups to create the principles which would underpin sustainable palm oil production in each country.

Despite some progress already being made on the implementation of these principles, there is much more work to be done in order to achieve real change on the ground. Nevertheless, the progress made already has laid the foundations for meaningful and sustainably shifts in the way that palm oil is produced in West and Central Africa, to ensure that the APOI’s vision is fulfilled – a prosperous palm oil industry that truly protects the remaining tropical forests of West and Central Africa.

The full report is available online: www.proforest.net/APOIimpactreport