Ghana: Promoting biodiversity on palm oil plantations

Palm oil & biodiversity

Palm oil is used in soaps, vegetable oils and margarines. Unilever Ghana's Tema factory makes a wide range of palm oil based products for the West African market. About three quarters of the palm oil used by the factory comes from two plantations under Unilever control, the Benso Oil Palm Plantation (BOPP) and Twifo Oil Palm Plantation (TOPP).

Palm oil plantations are a monoculture but the land supports a variety of rare animal species. Mammals including monkeys and squirrels are found at BOPP and TOPP, along with snakes, lizards and several species of birds.

The protected Africa grey parrot roosts in both plantations. Hunting is banned making them a safe environment, and trapping for the red tail feathers is forbidden.

Limiting pesticide use

The plantations minimise pesticide use. Pesticides are mainly used in the plantation nursery but are necessary elsewhere to manage infestations and disease. Herbicides are used around the older palms creating weed free circles of 1.5m diameter per tree but this is alternated with hand weeding. For young plants weeds are normally controlled by hand weeding, slashing or smothering with empty bunches.

Encouraging forest growth

Unilever's Sustainable Agriculture guidelines recommend plantation managers identify areas where cultivation is uneconomic due to poor soil, low yields or difficulties collecting fruit. We encourage managers to take these areas out of production and allow them to revert to forest. At BOPP, this has resulted in 135 hectares being excluded from planting. Preliminary surveys at TOPP resulted in 28 hectares of rainforest being left in the plantation’s boundaries.

In the past neighbouring villages have encroached on these areas for agriculture and this remains an issue at both plantations. To deal with this, the plantations have procedures in place to manage such conflicts and replant affected areas. Tree planting schemes have focused on native species that are no longer present in local forests as well as medicinal and fruit trees.

Managing waste & effluent

Palm oil factory effluent is rich in nutrients which can lead to eutrophication and a loss of aquatic biodiversity if allowed to enter water systems. But it can help to nourish the soil. Treated effluent at BOPP and TOPP is pumped into ditches between palms. This reduces the risk to river systems and means inorganic fertiliser use can be reduced by up to 5%.

Working with others

Unilever Ghana is using its influence to encourage smallholders to use more sustainable practices. We have distributed guidelines for small-scale biodiversity management to local farmers.

Increasing palm oil production threatens biodiversity as plantations grow to meet demand. Unilever Ghana is involved in projects to find other areas to grow the crop. Possibilities include former open-cast mining areas and land where other crops have a low yield due to soil conditions like high acidity.

Looking ahead

Unilever Ghana has identified several areas for further work, these include:

• Researching ways to protect and encourage species that are currently found in plantations;
• Encouraging monitoring on a wider scale, including comprehensive wildlife surveys of BOPP and TOPP;
• Researching methods to manage pest and disease outbreaks that focus on biological control and benign pesticides;
• Improving the management and recycling of factory waste to further reduce risks to aquatic ecosystems;
• Improving links with National Government to advise on the use of palm oil for land rehabilitation schemes;
• Producing booklets, posters and educational materials to advise smallholders on ways to improve the sustainability of palm oil production, including biodiversity conservation.