Should I stay or should I go? Understanding stakeholder dis/engagement for deforestation‐free palm oil

Abstract

Addressing tropical deforestation in the palm oil sector involves a diverse range of stakeholders who engage or disengage with each other. Palm oil global value chain (GVC) firms (plantation companies, traders and processors, and consumer goods manufacturers and retailers), as well as nongovernmental organisations, financial institutions, consultancies and certification bodies, pursue their respective organisations' agendas through engagement practices, including through coalitions, in a palm oil sustainability network (POSN). Building on interviews with different stakeholder groups, this qualitative study characterises and critically analyses ‘stakeholder engagement’ by examining (1) the priority targets for engagement among different POSN stakeholders, (2) how mechanisms and tools are used in POSN stakeholder engagement or disengagement for addressing deforestation, and (3) the implications of stakeholder engagement or disengagement for addressing deforestation. Engagement and disengagement practices are shaped by and reshape GVC governance, with powerful stakeholders emerging as knowledge brokers and norm setters, raising important challenges for how deforestation is addressed.

Brilliance in resilience: operations and supply chain management’s role in achieving a sustainable future

“…Research on sustainability in OSCM has already taken such a multi-stakeholder perspective (e.g. Liu et al ., 2017; Rosca et al ., 2022; Schleper et al ., 2022; Delabre et al ., 2023). Future research should continue to pursue this perspective and include resilience more systematically.…”

Why corporate sustainability initiatives fail to reduce deforestation and what to do about it

“…Traceability and transparency have indeed improved in recent years but because telecoupling results in complex interactions among global commodity traders, their suppliers, communities, home and host country governments, and local and global NGOs pursuing different notions of sustainability, the effectiveness of technological tools is drastically restricted. Delabre et al (2023) argue that third‐party certified sustainability programs need intricate tools and mechanisms for stakeholder engagement and disengagement. Based on a study of a sustainability network to address deforestation in the palm oil sector, the authors conclude that there are vastly different perspectives on the best way to address deforestation which considerably complicates engagement practices.…”

“…Global companies also face an intricate balancing act in using their supply‐chain power because it involves passing on the cost and responsibility for deforestation to suppliers (Delabre et al, 2023). Exerting too much supply‐chain power can lead to unintended consequences such as letting exporting countries shift sales to markets where concern about deforestation is less pronounced or pushing up production costs in exporting countries, thereby threatening the livelihoods of rural communities (Lambin et al, 2018).…”

“…Global companies also face an intricate balancing act in using their supply-chain power because it involves passing on the cost and responsibility for deforestation to suppliers (Delabre et al, 2023).…”