The Directors have sought to ensure that the acquisition and development of its estates are in full compliance with all applicable material Peruvian laws and appropriate best practice.
Selected examples of this approach are summarised below:
- The Group’s land titles were purchased from local farmers who had been cultivating the land since 1997;
- All of the parcels were zoned and allocated to the original farmers by authority of the Ministry of Agriculture;
- All of the parcels are governed by Legislative Decree 838 which specifically intends for the parcels to be fully developed for agricultural purposes;
- The site was heavily logged of all tropical hardwoods in the 1980s;
- The Group has not sold or removed any timber from its project sites; and
- There is no high value conservation forest area on any the Group’s titled lands.
Given the extensive agricultural activities previously underway, the government authorities have required the Group to complete a PAMA whilst current agricultural activities are underway. The Group has retained an experienced environmental consultancy to prepare and submit the report. The terms of reference of this PAMA were approved by the Ministry of Agriculture on 9 October 2013. The Community Participation Plan, a part of the PAMA, was submitted on 4 September 2014. The Group expects to submit the completed PAMA prior to year-end. Final approval is expected during the course of 2015.
The Group has produced a Community Impact Report 2013 which provides a detailed overview and is available on the Company’s website at www.unitedcacao.com