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Unsustainable palm oil production plays a significant role in biodiversity loss in tropical forests, and this must be a focus area for both the industry and its stakeholders to remedy. In order to do this, palm oil companies and their…

Issues associated with labour rights (such as health and safety problems, low wages, lack of contracts, and high production targets that require long working days) are widespread in the palm oil sector. Meanwhile, the trade union culture is not very…

In April 2021, the World Resources Institute’s Open Timber Portal (OTP) launched its first transparency rankings of forestry producers in Gabon, aimed at incentivising companies to disclose evidence that they are operating in compliance with forest management legislation. ZSL attended…

Assessment summary: ZSL (Zoological Society of London) is calling on the world’s leading timber and pulp companies to overhaul their commitments to local and indigenous communities and biodiversity conservation, as they release their annual assessment of 100 of the…

How do different financial institutions approach non-financial information and ESG issues when considering tropical forestry companies and supply chains exposed to timber, pulp and paper products sourced from tropical regions? To illustrate the variety of approaches which are available to…

Following the virtual intergovernmental conference of ministers from Congo Basin countries, a communique was released, agreeing a log export ban covering seven of the member nations of the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC). This group includes Cameroon,…

Deforestation due to commodity production, most famously, palm oil, has gained increased public awareness over recent years. The commodity’s production has been a dominant force in wildlife declines seen in many countries, particularly in Southeast Asia. However, with the product’s…

SPOTT assesses the most impactful producers, processors and traders in the palm oil sector on their public disclosure regarding the organisation, policies and practices related to environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues. Assessed companies are reviewed on an annual basis…

Assessment summary Smallholder producers of natural rubber are seeing greater impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic than larger producers, according to latest analysis by ZSL (Zoological Society of London) of the world’s most significant natural rubber producers and processors. Despite…

Timber has been a vital resource for thousands of years and serves many functions. When produced at industrial scale, timber is harvested either through exploitation of areas of naturally occurring forest (natural forest management) or through forest areas expressly planted…