Environmental
Herakles Farms respects the biodiversity in the region in which it operates and strives to preserve and enhance the surrounding ecosystem. To this end, the company has committed to:
- not planting on any primary forest, high conservation value forest (HCVF) or peat lands, and is taking measures to enhance and protect any such areas in or bordering its concession
- creating buffer zones between its planted area and HCVF
- a no burning land policy
- a zero-discharge oil extraction mill design that will
- include methane capture and / or effluent treatment for utilization as a nutrient-enriched source of water and organic fertilizer for the trees
- be energy self-sufficient, so as not to place extra demand requirements on the power grid
- planting leguminous crops and beneficial flora to reduce use of non-organic herbicides and to enhance water retention
- not use chemicals classified by the World Health Organization (WHO) as Type 1A or 1B, nor use the International Finance Corporation (IFC)-sanctioned paraquat
- adopting an integrated pest management system (IPM) to reduce the need for pesticides
- prohibiting hunting within its concession, and among its employees, in the neighboring protected areas
Please click on the below links for further detail on company policies, initiatives and best practices:
Environmental & Social Impact Assessment
Cameroon (please note that additional studies are currently being conducted) (PDF)
Cameroon ESIA Annexes (PDF)
Ghana (PDF)
HCV Report
Cameroon (under construction)
Ghana (PDF)
Environmental Programs
Herakles Farms is developing programs to preserve and enhance biodiversity hotspots in the regions in which it operates. For instance, in Cameroon, in addition to the support of social programming to reduce bush meat hunting, the company is strongly considering the funding of a larger and better trained group of park rangers to help enforce the ban on illegal hunting, poaching and logging within the Korup National Park.
Already through employment generation alone, the company has had a positive impact on the issue of bush meat hunting. George Akotry, the 48 year old Chief Counselor and Chief Hunter of Lipenja village who has been hunting for the past 25 years, reported that all the men and young men of the village have been employed by SGSOC, thereby precluding all active hunting practices. He added that because of SGSOC, he has hunted only twice since January this year and that the last time was four months ago. Hunting was an activity he used to practice at least thrice a month before SGSOC.