Generally plantation companies are proactive as far as corporate social responsibility is concerned. In her address she mentioned that on environment, companies whose core businesses had direct impact on environment scored better overall. She said that these companies had environment management systems, benchmarks and targets to reduce emissions and also many companies were also pursuing energy efficiency measures, water and waste reductions and also recycling efforts.

She also noted that many companies did not understand how their operations or geographical location can affect biodiversity and had poor awareness of the importance of environmental impact assessments and energy conservation. On community, she noted that while most companies had some form of community initiatives, these were in the form of ad-hoc activities which were in the form of donations, disaster relief and scholarships. She stressed the need to align community development efforts towards goals to ensure sustainable development by identifying community issues, allocating resources for implementation and measuring the impact to ensure sustainable benefits to the beneficiaries.

As far as the plantation companies are concerned, they have been in the forefront as far as corporate
responsibility is concerned. Most of them are in one way or another directly or indirectly involved in their contribution towards corporate responsibility. For example, Sime Darby announced recently that it would be contributing RM 100 million (US$30 million)  towards corporate responsibility and a big portion of the amount would go towards the environment. Similarly other companies have also contributed towards that direction.

Generally when corporate responsibility is discussed, they are more related to contribution of organisations in terms of carrying out philanthropic activities such as supporting charitable organisations. However there are other organisations who feel that corporate responsibility is something like giving back to the community from the profits earned by the organisations.  They are of the opinion that they too have a
responsibility for contributing towards development of the community in particular and welfare of the society in general. Such organisations try to study the needs of a particular community and support the delinquent
factors that are found in the community.

The essential characteristic of corporate responsibility is the willingness of an organisation to take responsibility and be accountable for its activities which may directly or indirectly affect society and the environment we live in. The organisation in whatever environment it operates in is directly responsible to the stakeholders who are involved with the organisation.  A stakeholder is defined as “any group or individual who can affect or is affected by the achievement of the firms objectives (Freeman, 1984) An organisation should understand how its decisions and activities affect others, particularly the stakeholders and the environment. Stakeholders could be organisations or individuals who have direct or indirect interest in the activities of the organisations and they could be affected or likely to be affected by the activities of the organisation.

In the case of plantation companies, it could be the neighbours who are residing in the villages and kampongs near the plantations, the workers who work in the plantation, the suppliers, the customers who deal with the plantations and many more. However while others do not play an important role as stakeholders, the immediate people who stay around the area are important stakeholders whom the plantation companies cannot ignore. There are plantation managers who have a hostile attitude towards their neighbours and generally accuse them of trespassing into their property, steal their crops and in certain cases have destroyed their crops.  However they fail to realise that they too are partly to be blamed for the community’s attitude towards them. For example thorough arbitrary usage of chemicals, the plantation may be directly responsible for the pollution of the drinking water of the neighbouring communities and this may result in confrontation between the plantation companies and its neighbour. Similarly the plantation company may own the land adjoining the community and in the process prevent a common road to be used by blockading the road belonging to the plantation company and denying them access to their villages. This may result in hardship to the community and create ill feelings between the community and the plantation companies. This could result in plantation crops being destroyed or set on fire by the disgruntled community members which could bring losses to the plantation companies in the long run.

No company can exist in isolation from other groups and organisations (Wood, 1990). How should the organisation engage with its stakeholders so that it does not create an environment of hostility between both parties. In the case of plantation companies, they should first and foremost recognise the existence of such stakeholders who are affected by their operations. For example, by allowing neighbouring communities to use plantation roads as access should not be seen as a threat to the plantation and its crops. Many plantations allow dwellers who live beyond the boundaries of the plantations to use the roads of the plantations. They are given special passes by the plantation companies to be shown at the check points for passages to their villages. By doing so, the villages themselves become obliged to the plantations and offer help by supplying contract workers when the need arises. In fact most of the workers employed in some states in Peninsula Malaysia come from the villages nearby the estates. They live in the villages but work in the plantations for a living. It all depends what type of relationship the plantation manager has with the penghulu or headman of the village or the tuai rumah of the long house.  Conflicts that arise between the village dwellers/long house inhabitants could be resolved by holding discussions between the penghulu/tuai rumah and the plantation manager. The writer personally has seen plantation managers who could speak the local language and communicate effectively with the long house/village dwellers. In fact there are plantation companies that invite the local communities on special occasions.

The other factor that had been emphasised during the presentation of the Award was the factors related to the environment and sustainable development in tandem with the preservation of the environment. Most plantation companies are fully aware of their responsibilities towards environment and have taken positive steps to prevent detoriation of the environment and have taken various measures to preserve it.

Deforestation Watch is pleased to note Sime Darby’s corporate responsibility programs include the provision of support to the Ulu Segama Rehabilitation Program with the Forestry Department in Sabah, Malaysia, the Planting of Endangered, Rare and Threatened Tree Species with Tunas Harapan, a Malaysian based Conservation organization and the Conservation of the Hornbill at the Belum Temmengor Forest together with the Malaysian Nature Society as well as a Gender Development Policy Program with TEGANITA, a women’s development and protection program in Malaysia.

One common step that has been taken by all plantation companies is to implement zero burning when planting or replanting is carried out. Most plantation companies are aware of the problems associated with slash and burn policies which results in the emission of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Various steps have been implemented to practice zero burning and the subsequent chipping off or shredding the trunks of the old stand and disposing them in a proper way. Various measures have also been carried out during planting where the environmental factors are taken into consideration such as minimum disruption to the surrounding ecology so that the preservation of the flora and fauna within the plantation is carried out. The plantations are encouraged to use chemicals for weeding and treatment of pest and diseases as sparingly as possible to prevent leaching of the chemicals into the ground and also polluting the rivers which could result in the destruction of the habitat found in the rivers. 

Various biological methods using birds, fungi and plants have been tried as alternatives to the use of chemicals.  In the case of controlling rodents in the plantations,barn owls have been successfully reared to control and eliminate the population of rodents in the plantations.  This becomes a necessary substitute from the chemically laced rat bait which could prove fatal if accidentally consumed. The plantation companies are also aware of the need to reduce the consumption of fossil fuel in their operations, particularly in the running of the oil palm mills and while the use of bio-diesel is in its infancy, various other options have been tried and have been successfully applied. Palm Oil Mill Effluent, a waste treated during the pressing and extraction of the palm oil fruit used to pollute the rivers at one time. Now the POME could be treated and recaptured as methane and used as alternative fuel. The empty fruit bunches (EFB) and other wastes could be used as an alternative to petroleum based fertilizers. All the examples lead to the plantation companies fulfilling their corporate responsibilities particularly to those related to the environment.

REFERENCES:
The Star
Donna J. Wood (1990) Business and Society, Harper Collins College Publisher, University of Pittsburgh
Freeman R. Edward (1984) Strategic Management: A Stakeholder’s approach, Boston, Ballinger