Minister calls for sustainable palm oil development

Dr. Ahmed Yakubu Alhassan, Deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture, has asked stakeholders to work assiduously to develop the palm oil sector in a sustainable manner to help increase its benefits.

Dr. Alhassan made this known at the Africa Palm Oil Initiative workshop organized in Accra by Proforest on behalf of Tropical Forest Alliance (TFA) 2020 in collaboration with the government through the Ministry of Food and Agriculture.

He said producing palm oil sustainably would require concerted effort by governments, regional bodies, research institutions, private financiers, investors and technocrats to ensure the proper understanding and utilization of palm oil.

“It is important that palm oil refiners, manufacturers and other actors, who influence the sector directly and indirectly come together to find ways of reducing the likely negative impacts and increase its benefits.

“We believe this can be done by joining forces with allies who share the same vision and who are ready to forge strategic, mutually beneficial partnerships to work towards set goals,” Dr. Alhassan said.

He said, “Oil palm development is about our people, our livelihood, heritage, our economy and ultimately our legacy. We don’t owe its sustainable growth only to the over six million people whose livelihood depend on it or the consumers all over the world whose lives are better because of the oil palm but to posterity,” he added.

Palm Oil Initiative Workshop

The Africa Palm Oil Initiative workshop brought together representatives from nine African countries to discuss and agree on a shared regional framework for the responsible production of palm oil in the sub-region.

The workshop brought together representatives from the public and private sector, civil society and local groups to plan the regional initiative process that will lead to the signing of a regional accord at the ministerial level on responsible palm oil production later in 2016.

The TFA 2020 is a public–private partnership that brings together companies, governments and civil society to reduce deforestation across the globe.

Six leading palm oil producing countries in Africa- Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Gabon, Liberia, Nigeria and Ghana- are engaged in the initiative.