The Better Sugarcane Initiative

1
The Better Sugarcane Initiative Impacts and
Benefits on the Global Sugarcane Industry

• R Quirk, H Morar, R Perkins,
• G Kingston, W Burnquist

2
Why interest in the initiative?

• Interest by consumers and marketers in
  environmental social provenance of food
  ingredients.
• WWF IFC initiate multi-stake holder programs to
  link market preference for products from endorsed
  BMP environments.
• Work in progress for cotton, soy, palm oil,
  sugar, salmon aqua-culture.
• Best or Better Management?

3
Better Sugarcane or Better Sugar?

• Sugar commodity
• Little value adding at production source.
• Most sugar consumed in processed food in
  developed nations.
• Thus little opportunity for consumer to make
  choices about source.
• Sugarcane the base resource
• Sugar.
• Ethanol, Electricity, Paper, Chemicals,
  by-products etc.

4
Working group meeting 6th June 2005

• Initial group sectors
• Finance 7
• Market /buyer 9
• Prodn Tech. 10 (55)
• Social Labour 4
• WWF 3
• Agreed need for prodn processing in environ.,
  socially economically sustainable manner.
• Goal to be met through BSI.

• Stakeholders will be engaged to develop relevant,
  performance based verifiable criteria to
  describe sustainable practices in value chain.
• BSI also foster implementation of BMP as these
  often more profitable.

5
Working group process

• Background
• Sugarcane
• semi-perennial grass, replant 4-6 yrs
• grown latitudes 30
• producer scale n x 106 t to lt1 ha
• large biomass
• high nutrient water use chemicals
• central processing at mills
• products sugar, syrups, ethanol, filter mud,
  bagasse, ash, vinasse, chemicals, paper

6
Working group process

• Background
• Mills may provide important social services to
  remote communities.
• Most of worlds sugar production (70) consumed
  in domestic markets.
• Sugar production marketing regulated by complex
  of public private policies institutions.
• Opportunity for BMP initiative with support of
  financiers sugar buyers.

7
Working group process

• Background
• Setting the scene (presentations on WWF web site)
• Global overview of sugar markets policies.
• The practices of growing sugarcane.
• Global overview of environmental impacts of
  sugarcane production.
• Global overview of social impacts of sugarcane
  production.
• Field issues - water use, effluents, soil health
  degradation.
• Habitat loss and protecting ecosystem function.
• Occupational health safety.
• Transgenic sugarcane.
• Mill issues co-products.
• Groups prioritized issues / impacts

8
Key global impacts priority issues

• Field environmental impacts
• Soil health (chemical physical fertility,
  organic matter, biodiversity
• Water use (water demand, water use efficiency)
• Generation of effluents (soil erosion, chemicals
  nutrients in run-off / drainage)
• Loss of habitat

9
Key global impacts priority issues

• Labour issues
• Work place health safety
• Child labour
• Casualisation of labour 18M sugar workers
• Wage levels

10
Key global impacts priority issues

• Community impacts
• Access to water
• Health
• Education

11
Key global impacts priority issues

• Processing impacts
• Food safety
• Worker safety
• Mill environmental issues
• Dust
• Noise
• Smoke ash
• Effluents (BOD, vinasse)
• Water use

12
The way forward

• Elements to BMPs in key areas will have global
  perspective local refinement for
  implementation.
• Some thought that the mill might provide a focus
  for implementation / verification of BMPs.
• Public policy support important for BMPs
  incentives.
• Blend of public private finance.
• Equatorial principles for IFC finance not
  currently relevant to BMP issues.
• Process for incentives, other than improved
  profit not clear.

13
The way forward

• Working Group agreed
• To maintain open, honest, respectful
  communications
• To develop protocol for external communications
• To form steering committee reflecting interests
  of stakeholders
• On the previous key global impacts.

14
Goals (re-stated)

• To define better sugarcane production and
  processing practices to benefit the production
  system, its value chain economics as well as
  ecological and social environments.
• To develop performance-based and verifiable
  standards, and
• To foster their implementation for measurable
  reduction in key impacts.

15
A possible structure

• Legal Entity
• Contracts, receive ,
• payments

• Steering Committee
• 8-10 members
• Coordinator
• Financial sponsors

• Multi-stakeholder forums
• lt100 institutions experts
• Bi-annual regional meetings
• Funded by participant

• Technical working groups
• 6-8 experts leader
• Develop BMPs
• assessment criteria

Cane production
Cane processing
Social / community
Other?
16
Impacts benefits

• Concerns (to be managed)
• Uncertainty about process implications.
• Cost finance of management change.
• Degree of control of agenda.
• Access to technology.
• Loss of un-sustainable production areas.
• Benefits
• Quadruple bottom line sustainabilty
• Improved profits, maintenance of resources, no or
  reduced off-site impacts social equity.
• Progress with Better Management Practices
• Australia, South Africa, Florida, Brazil
• Build on current initiatives.