Singapore, 05 May 2021 – Musim Mas launches its first social impact report today, detailing the impact of its programs that support community development, education, healthcare, infrastructure, disaster relief, and conservation. The report debuts a social impact framework that will strengthen Musim Mas’ social investment strategy to maximize the impact on improving livelihoods in the palm oil industry.
The framework lists the indicators that track improved livelihoods through four selected programs: enabling access to quality education, enhancing skills and promoting work opportunities, providing decent wages, health, and well-being, protecting the environment and quality of life. The report outlines substantial positive impacts towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) specifically no poverty (1.1), quality education (4.1), clean water and sanitation (6.1 and 6.B), affordable and clean energy (7.2), decent work and economic growth(8.2 and 8.5), and life on land(15).
“We want to collect, analyze and report meaningful information to internal and external stakeholders. A robust reporting process is critical to achieving our strategic goals: increasing positive impacts on livelihoods and the environment, while maintaining a sustained, profitable growth,” said Olivier Tichit, Director of Sustainable Supply Chain at Musim Mas.
Our scheme smallholders earn on average 60% more than the minimum wage in Riau Province. Access to quality education for female and male children of our workers living in plantations is reflected through our funding of 20 schools, upskilling teachers who earn a 88% higher income than the regional teacher wages in Riau Province.
The scheme smallholders we support achieved an average yield of 22.9 MT FFB (Fresh Fruit Bunches)/ha, higher than the average smallholder yield of 18.8 MT FFB/ha in Indonesia.
Infrastructure investment by Musim Mas has continued to support an improvement in quality of life. More than 13,000 households on our plantations have access to safe drinking water. Each person receives over 120 liters of water per day, beyond the recommendations of the World Health Organization and the Indonesian government. Improvements in food security, access to electricity, healthcare, roads, mosques, and religious centers are also detailed in the report.
Through the Fire-Free village program, fire incidences within Musim Mas concessions have dropped by 85% from 2015 to 2019. We have also doubled our investment in our Fire-Free Village programs in 2019 to train more villages and equip them with the necessary knowledge and tools.
Read more on the impact of our programs here.
As part of wild fires prevention and management, Musim Mas holds fire drills to maintain a high level of readiness among our staff.
Olivier added: “As a leading palm oil company, we have an immense responsibility and also an opportunity to transform the sector. Palm oil is, above all, a people business. We see the investment we make in smallholders, workers, and communities as a key component of our business strategy, and of our legacy.”
The social impact framework guides our social investment strategy and informs our plans to scale up and enhance our existing programs.
The report can be downloaded here.
