Local Development
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20 000
Local development
We are putting in place key initiatives to help create a real local economic network.
Since most of our activities take place in remote areas, some of which highly underdeveloped, rubber and oil palm cultivation are effective ways to promote local and long-term regional development.
We adopt an approach that integrates the development needs of local populations while promoting environmentally friendly agricultural practices. An approach that rebuilds local agriculture on a respectful basis, both economically, socially, and environmentally.
It is important to remember that our presence in these countries is often at the request of local governments, as in Cameroon and Sierra Leone, or of the World Bank, as in Liberia. In most cases, our Group has taken over former plantation companies to modernize and relaunch agro-industrial activities, after they fell into disuse due to a lack of investment capacity in the 1990s. Entire regions were gradually revived.
€ 50 million injected into local economies each year
through the purchase of rubber from smallholders
Our initiatives are based, among other things, on the implementation of partnerships that promote the development of smallholder plantations and thus reduce poverty in these regions. The plantations maintain close, region-specific relationships with rubber and oil palm smallholders. They encourage their inclusion and buy from them. Some have even set up support and supervision projects on their own initiative or as part of a government program.
We also support local entrepreneurship by using local SMEs and VSEs and by maintaining the access roads in these regions as much as possible.
Furthermore, we launch training initiatives to encourage the development of the local economic network/fabric, such as the opening of Agricultural Family Schools to train young people in rural trades, and training in soap making, sewing, etc. We also launch projects with and for the communities to improve their food security, such as fish farming and rice farming.
Latest news
RSPO Secretariat and the Impact and Monitoring, Learning and Evaluation (IMEL) team visited Socfindo Conservation
The member of RSPO Secretariat and the Impact and Monitoring, Learning and Evaluation (IMEL) team visited Socfindo. The purpose of the visit is to understand how existing data needed in the metrics template are being collected on the ground and to understand the...
New graduates at Socfin Cambodia’s tapping school
Congratulations to the latest graduates from Socfin Cambodia’s tapping school in the plantation of Coviphama! After successfully completing their one-month training they will join their new colleagues from the tapping teams on the field. Do you also want to join our...
Tea Blending Workshop for Socfindo Conservation Team
The Socfindo Conservation team held a workshop to improve their knowledge and skills in tea blending techniques for various herbal tea.