CSR 21. CSR21.org Looking at land use and responsibility by the private sector commodity companies ARTICLE. EPO Interview part 1 Ebola response

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1 CSR21.org Looking at land use and responsibility by the private sector commodity companies ARTICLE EPO Interview part 1 Ebola response Friday, 12 September, 2014 Following up recent pieces on private sector reactions to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, we spoke recently with Equatorial Palm Oil (EPO and/or the Company) about operations in Liberia and the Company s response to the disease. Over the course of an informative hour with General Manager Commercial Sandy Barblett and (joining us by phone) Executive Director Geoff Brown, we also took the opportunity to ask about community and NGO relations surrounding EPO projects mindful that the Company has in the past been accused by NGOs of land grabs. It was a good chat, so we ve split the interview into two parts. Today, in Part 1, we look at the Company s work and general stance on community relations, and its specific responses to Ebola. Equatorial Palm Oil First, some context: EPO has been in Liberia since 2006 and is developing two estates there. The Company currently employs a workforce of 1,200 across its sites, and has a potential land position of 169,000 hectares and the number of employees will grow significantly over time. First production from newly planted palms will come in 2015,. EPO is listed on the AIM market of the LSE, and in 2013 entered into a joint venture with Malaysian palm

2 oil group Kuala Lumpur Kepong Berhad ( KLK ), securing funding for the medium term. (For more info see epoil.co.uk) Community relations initiatives Before discussing the Ebola crisis in Liberia, we wanted to get an idea of EPO s work and community relations up to this point. The Company will set up a structured CSR fund to oversee community work. It will be administered by EPO, but the Company is quick to point out that interaction with the local area is significant: We do everything on the ground with the consent of the communities in which we operate, says Barblett. We have community liaison officers as part of our team, and they talk to community leaders and tribal elders. Everything we do in Liberia is in accordance with the principles laid down by the Round Table for Sustainable Palm Oil (spo.org): that means we need free prior informed consent for what we do. That s how our operation works. Apart from twelve, Indonesian and Malaysian ex-pats, EPO s estates are operated and managed by Liberians. We put it to EPO that they ve been criticised in the past for dealing exclusively with local chiefs, and disenfranchising those whose social status denies them a voice. EPO argue this isn t the case, pointing for example to the fact that local women s organizations within the Jogbahn tribe which makes up the communities local to EPO s plantations on its Palm Bay estate have been instrumental in the Company s community strategy. They showed us a letter in support of the Company s work in Grand Bassa county signed by representatives from ten local villages, including the Youth Chairman, President [of] Affected Communities, and Women Chairperson. 50% of EPO s employees in its Liberian operations are women. We ll go into more depth on this

3 in Part 2. CSR 21 Infrastructure and education Priorities for EPO this year have been education and rebuilding or expanding infrastructure destroyed during the country s recent civil war creating sorely needed new roads and bridges, for instance. A lot of the places where we re now building roads have not had roads for over 20 years, says Barblett. They ve simply been cut off: people have had to walk between villages, and the bridges have fallen. Water infrastructure has also been installed, supplying clean drinking water to local villages. Two health clinics have been built on estate sites, catering not only to the EPO workforce, but also, in the absence of government health facilities, to anyone else within travelling distance. Around 1,600 patients per month pass through the clinics. Two schools have been built on the estates, catering for 720 pupils and 20 teachers. One interesting facet of EPO s work in Liberia is the adult literacy programme they run after working hours. This was established in response to high levels of illiteracy in the adult working community, due to civil war having deprived many young people of access to education during childhood. Tax and local industry In terms of EPO s wider economic contribution, the Company will pay up to 30% corporate tax rate on production in addition to payroll deductions. The Liberian Government is also keen to develop the domestic palm oil industry, and EPO is committed to paying into a government-mandated oil palm development fund

4 for that purpose. As the operations grow, both EPO and their backers KLK intend to create agri-development research stations in Liberia to advance the survivability of crops against local disease. Ebola The World Health Organization (WHO) recently predicted that the West African Ebola epidemic will infect 20,000 people before dying out, and parts of the region are beginning to buckle under the strain: at time of writing Sierra Leone is proposing what amounts to four-day national house arrest, and WHO is predicting thousands of new cases in Liberia within weeks. Under these extremely unusual conditions companies have reacted differently. Some international firms have evacuated their expatriate staff drawing justified barbs for leaving Liberian staff in post. Others have partially or completely suspended operations. At the time of our interview EPO estates were fortunate not to have been directly affected by the virus; but expecting that closer encounters are only likely to be a matter of time, the Company has taken the work of prevention seriously. Everyone on our estates is now fully aware of the steps to avoid infection, says Brown, who returned from Liberia a week before we spoke. A lot of work has also been done by our staff and by people who work in our clinics, performing outreach programmes into local villages and informing them of the steps they need to take. In isolation this can be a frustrating strategy - for example, when recommending sanitation and hand-washing measures to prevent infection in communities without access to running water but EPO are continuing to

5 upgrade critical infrastructure alongside these health interventions. In addition, says Brown, we keep in touch on a daily basis with the medical authorities in the counties in which we operate sharing outbreak information on any suspected [Ebola] cases with the county medical authorities. Requests for help In a national context characterised by weak or non-existent health systems, it s not uncommon for companies to step in to help fill the gaps. With government cash in short supply and the Caucus of Senators asking locally-active companies for medical supplies for Grand Bassa county, the Company responded with a donation of medical equipment to local health authorities worth USD 10,000. Anticipating similar requests from other nearby regions they decided not to wait, also supplying authorities in River Cess and Sinoe counties, including with isolation and protective equipment for health workers and crucial sanitation supplies. They ve also prepared their own clinics with isolation equipment, in anticipation of what currently seems like the inevitable confirmed cases of infection. More unusual equipment in their donations includes over thirty units of thermal flashes specially designed temperature gauges that can measure a patient s temperature from a distance, avoiding physical contact and reducing transmission risk. While relatively inexpensive, these hand held infra-red thermometers are valuable contributions: local authorities don t have this equipment or the money to get it. Public funding for outbreak control, even under such extreme circumstances, is very limited, and the Liberian government is openly looking to concessionaires to take the local lead on prevention and outbreak control where necessary.

6 What next CSR 21 WHO predictions for Liberia are a concern in the short term: "The number of new cases is moving far faster than the capacity to manage them in Ebola-specific treatment centres, said a recent press release with obvious implications for clinics like EPO s, offering primary health care in underserved regions: many thousands of new cases are expected over the coming weeks." Brown agrees: It s going to get worse before it gets better. In the meantime, though, EPO s activity has not been affected. Operations are going well, says Barblett. The Company is hopeful that with the steps they have taken, they re well-placed to keep it that way. Coming up in Part 2 The pre-existing EPO/NGO situation