To meet the world’s needs for palm oil not just for now but for the long term, oil palm development has to be a sustainable business. One Malaysian plantation company formulated and rigorously followed a set of initiatives that can be best described as Implanting Best Practice.

Golden Hope’s oil palm business manages 30 million trees, and throughout its operations, this company is cognizant of integrating environmental health, economic profitability and social responsibility. 

In place and consistently practised are strategies that reduce emissions, fuel and water consumption, waste and noise from the production alongside land management and agricultural practices that support biodiversity and forest, soil and water conservation. These include:

• establishment of green lungs, riparian borders and forests
• zero burning in replanting
• construction of land terraces and leguminous or Vertiver and Guatemala grass land cover
• generation of biogas for use as fuel from palm oil mill effluent (POME)
• composting of POME using bacteria
• use of shells and fibre for boiler fuel
• land application of POME as fertiliser and irrigation instead of releasing into water course
• integrated pest management to reduce use of chemical substances
• R&D programmes related to environmental conservation

On the people level, Golden Hope has socio-economic programmes that range from providing housing, utility supplies, medical facilities and welfare for its plantation employees, to promoting, heritage preservation, education and sports.

Indeed, Golden Hope walks the talk of sustainable agriculture.