The Project
Since 2015, Satelligence and Bunge Loders Croklaan B.V. have successfully implemented a near real-time vegetation change alert system in Malaysia, and more recently also in Indonesia.
Bunge Loders Croklaan B.V. are leaders in agribusiness, food and ingredients.BLC is a global producer and supplier of sustainable premium quality vegetable oils and fats for the food manufacturing industry. Their products, such as oils and milled grains, are key ingredients for consumer and restaurant brands – and in home kitchens around the world.
The Challenge
Bunge Loders Croklaan B.V. required a system that would allow them to be the first to know information regarding forest change in order to instantly take action and engage with suppliers to tackle issues when they happen on the ground.
The Solution
We implemented a near real-time vegetation change alert system in Malaysia and Indonesia. The system is able to detect important vegetation changes for the sustainability team to take immediate action.
We provide a near real-time satellite-based vegetation change alert system using a sensor-independent integrated approach at 10-30m resolution, providing alert bulletins at least every two weeks. The system detects vegetation cover changes such as plantation development, road development, encroachment, and fire damage in natural forests, riparian areas, peatland areas, conservation areas and other areas of special interest potentially posing a high risk.
Moreover, the monitoring service provides information on what is currently happening and what has happened in the past. Thanks to this service, BLC is able to use this information to immediately send it to responsible organizations on the ground that can follow up in order to assess and mitigate the situation before any third parties are able to do so.
The Impact
Our system has been able to detect important vegetation changes at the exact moment it has happened, in order for the sustainability team to take immediate action.
This system is valuable for showing third parties (campaigning NGOs, financial institutions, etc) that BLC is keeping track of any change happening in its estates, providing timely, independent, and objective information to guide discussions with key stakeholders to resolve conflicts.
In 2020 a total of 5,872 alerts were delivered for Bunge Loaders Croklaan, of which 2,065 were deforestation alerts.
We continue monitoring BLC areas such as selected districts in Honduras, Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah in Malaysia, and Sumatra, Kalimantan and Sulawesi in Indonesia.
We monitor over 250,000 km2 of forest, peatland and their surrounding areas.
Bunge is committed to building responsible supply chains. Since 2015, the company has developed and implemented an industry-leading commitment to eliminate deforestation from all their supply chains by 2025.
We look forward to continuing working with Bunge to help them achieve their goal and mitigate environmental issues.
