Palma Futuro

Toward an ethical global palm oil industry

Palma Futuro aims to build up robust social performance systems that improve conditions for workers at every level of the palm oil supply chain in Colombia and Ecuador—from industrial processing plants, to large-scale plantations, to thousands of smallholder farms—and disseminate best practices to other palm oil-producing countries.

Why Palm Oil?

Palm oil is the world’s most popular vegetable oil and can be found in up to half of all consumer goods and commercial food products. Palm oil production impacts millions of farmers, workers, and communities across the globe.

Rapid growth in the palm oil industry has created economic opportunity, but increases the risk for rights violations like forced labor, child labor, and poor working conditions.

Workers in the global palm oil industry face challenges like a lack of formalized contracts and social benefits, unfair wages, and unethical recruitment. Many are not aware of their rights, do not have access to grievance procedures, or are too intimidated to use them.

Program Goals

Improve social compliance systems at every level of the supply chain

Palma Futuro provides technical guidance to participating palm oil companies in Colombia and Ecuador to assist them in developing robust social compliance systems. The program will help the companies assess their risk of child labor, forced labor, and unacceptable working conditions and develop robust standards, monitoring procedures, and enforcement mechanisms.

Strengthen regulatory and civil society oversight

Beyond the private-sector palm oil industry actors, Palma Futuro will also train government inspectors on auditing skills and labor standards and work with local civil society organizations to establish and operate confidential grievance mechanisms.

Share lessons and best practices

Best practices and lessons learned from Palma Futuro will be shared with the larger South American and global palm oil industries. This is an exciting opportunity to raise expectations for social performance across an important global industry, and improve conditions for workers around the world.