Under the Community Outreach and Engagement Initiative, investors in oil palm estate farming in Edo State have educated communities on methods to ensure sustainable oil palm production (COEP).
The Community Outreach and Engagement Programme (COEP), according to Fatai Afolabi, managing consultant and chief executive officer of Foremost Development Services Limited, aims to involve stakeholders from all spheres of society in palm oil-producing countries.
Afolabi also mentioned that the program would be organised in six of the state’s oil palm-producing local government areas. He described the six local government areas as Ikpoba Okha, Ovia South-West, Ovia North-East, Ovia South-West, Uhunmwonde, Owan West, and Orhionmwon.
According to him, more than 80 smallholder oil palm farmers, elders, children, women, and community-based organizations (CBO) were trained on the principles and criteria of Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).
He said the program focuses on the three impact goals of prosperity, people, and planet and assures a level playing field for all participants in the palm oil business.
He also said that the participants were drawn from Madagbayo, Gbelebu, Udo and Maroghionba (AT&P) communities in the Ovia South-West local government area.
“Through this workshop, RSPO hopes to raise awareness of the requirements to be adopted for sustainable palm oil production among the communities and other stakeholders in the palm oil supply chain. It also aims to increase public understanding of the responsibilities placed on communities and businesses that produce sustainable palm oil in relation to their rights, means of subsistence, social and environmental management, and protection of both communities and workers.
The RSPO’s overarching goal, according to him, is to make sustainable palm oil the norm.
Afolabi clarified that the choice of Edo State for the COEP was due to it being the nation’s top producer of sustainable palm oil.
He continued by saying that the Edo State Government had adopted the RSPO guidelines in order to produce sustainable palm oil.
According to him, the state government has also ordered investors to follow suit through the Edo State Oil Palm Programme (ESOPP) in order to create a sustainable palm oil industry.