Mr Rasheed was speaking at the launching of the Edo State Forestry Commission in Udo, Ovia South West Local Government Area, on Thursday, June 8, 2023,
He stated that ESOPP and investors are partners in progress noting that the programme itself was borne out of the State Government’s desire to recover degraded forest areas and put them to good use such as oil palm development and environmental sustainability.
According to him “talking about the relationship between oil palm and forestry, there are so many ways the ESOPP programme can help drive and encourage reforestation.
“Firstly the concessions that have been issued are degraded forests, so planting oil palm is some sort of orderly recovery in a sustainable manner. Secondly, the oil palm investors are also working to ensure that five to ten per cent of the concession areas are put to reforestation.
“But more importantly, we also have part of the allocated areas that have been mapped out for High Carbon Stock (HCS) and High Conservative values (HCV), these areas are of socioeconomic, cultural and environmental importance to the people and the State, they are left untouched and respected.”
Mr Sarumi emphasised the collaboration between ESOPP investors and the ESOPP Independent Implementation Office (IIO) which has resulted in a diligently crafted, inclusive and sustainable strategy for getting access to land while also maintaining the highest possible welfare for local communities.
In his words, “In ESOPP we carry out the Participatory Boundary Establishment (PBE) Exercise which means all concessions have been demarcated by understanding with different communities.
“We also undertake the Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) exercise where we work with the communities to understand their social needs and address them through the development of the concession in partnership with the State Government.
“Another thing we have done is we have shared with the State Government our community action plans and those activities have direct social impacts on the different communities.
“Some of the companies such as Dufill, Saro Africa, and Fayus, have since commenced some of these activities which have been independently visited by the State Government and the ESOPP Independent Implementation Office”.
While ensuring the newly launched Forestry Commission of ESOPP’s continuous partnership the Chairman prayed for the commission’s irrevocable commitment to working with all partners and investors in ensuring that the reforestation programme is properly implemented.
