Dilmah Conservation – an effort to combat “an inconvenient truth”

(Excerpted from the Merrill. J. Fernando autobiography)

“There should be no greater priority than ensuring that the quality of the air we breathe, the rainfall that provides our sustenance, and the host of ecosystems that make human life possible are protected for our children and their generations.”

The bounty of nature is a gift from God that mankind, for centuries, has taken for granted and quite often abused. The evidence of such destruction is seen all over the world – in polluted beaches, dirty waterways, denuded forests, and the regular killing of wild animals, even those which are endangered and protected by law. Mankind’s refusal or inability to live in harmony with nature has resulted in damage to the environment which cannot be repaired…

A wake-up call

Like most people, I have been aware of environmental damage in a general way without having any idea of the real extent of the damage. But, one day, an in-flight movie titled ‘An Inconvenient Truth,’ in which a former Vice President of the USA, Al Gore, featured, the only film I have ever watched to the end during a flight, completely changed my perceptions of the subject.

Normally on a flight, half an hour into a movie I fall asleep. However, this film, though a documentary, compiled specifically to raise public awareness about global warming, engaged my total attention to the very end. In very simple terms Al Gore explained the damage we have collectively, inflicted on the planet and are continuing to do so by unregulated activities which create excessive carbon emission. He spoke passionately and convincingly of what he termed a “planetary emergency” and the inevitability of catastrophic consequences.

Having watched the movie, I realized that unless we all wake up and work on remedial measures, the worst case scenario of Gore’s prediction would eventually become a reality. However, no meaningful results can be achieved unless all the inhabitants of the planet, the nations, the governments, and public and private enterprise acknowledge the danger. Responsible entrepreneurs can no longer ignore the imperative of the symbiosis that must exist between enterprise, and environment. The latter is no longer an externality.

As in every other sphere of social responsibility, the rehabilitation and preventive programs set in place by governments must be supported by private business and individual initiatives. Unless each one of us assumes personal responsibility for preservation and restoration, there will be no meaningful impact. But does the private sector help the environment? Perhaps now there is activism, driven by peer pressure and the stark reality of environmental degradation confronting societies all over the world.

However, the truth is that historically, the private sector record globally in regard to environmental protection has been miserable. The global private sector, by and large, has always been exploitative of the environment and continues to be so.

Historical consequences

The main business of Dilmah is Ceylon Tea and I owe my success to the quality of that tea. Therefore, my enterprise has an enduring connection to tea and the land on which it is grown. Most of that land in our country, till the first quarter of the 19th century, was covered by both highland and lowland forest. According to environmental analysts, since 1830, Sri Lanka’s forest cover has declined from 80% of total land area, to around 20% today.

A significant proportion of this denudation, especially in the highlands, can be attributed to British entrepreneurs who were offered attractive inducements, by the then colonial Government of Ceylon, to grow coffee, tea, and rubber, for consumption in Western markets mainly. In an earlier chapter I have referred to this exploitative aspect of our colonial past.

Conservation and enrichment of our No-diversity; the mandate of Dilmah Conservation

Tea is the healthiest drink next to water but, in our country, and probably in most other countries where it is grown, it is a legacy of colonial exploitation of the natural resources of a conquered land. That historical association is unalterable but, as responsible entrepreneurs, we can do much to mitigate the undesirable consequences of that history. We cannot recreate the past, but we can palliate history by reversing some of its adverse consequences. That is where active environmental conservation in plantation areas comes in.

One can no longer talk about conservation without the subject of ‘climate change’ entering the discussion. Farmers and growers the world over are the worst hit by environmental damage and climate change. But the sad reality is that it is the farmers themselves, especially those involved in mono-crops, who contribute to such damage in various ways, often unwittingly, through lack of awareness of both environmental damage and climate change and also due to the lack of resources to make a difference.

The educated and empowered farmer can design his cultivation activities in such a manner that he will, whilst earning his livelihood from the land, also make a positive contribution to its protection. But he needs to first get a decent price for his product. Unless a surplus is created in the country of the grower and some of that finds its way back into his hands, the grower cannot contribute to the preservation of the environment that sustains his enterprise.

Exploitation and impact on environment

Having commented on the farmers’ contribution to environmental damage, let me voice my thoughts on the historical injustice of the farmers’ present predicament. I have commented on this issue elsewhere in this writing, but reiteration is relevant in the present context.

There was a period, many decades ago, when small- or medium sized companies controlled the export of many commodities from the growing countries. Farmers got a reasonable price for produce, plantation owners made decent profits, and the consumer bought quality product at a fair price. It was a well-managed supply chain. Then came the big multinationals, which acquired the small companies through attractive offers, or by forcing capitulation through undercutting of prices and discounting strategies.

‘What followed was the commodification of a decent product, through the debasement of quality and the lowering of selling price. The result was the enrichment of the middle man, the multinational brand owner, and the supermarket chain, at the expense of the farmer-producer. The depression in buying price meant the decline of the latter. How can the plantation owner or the individual farmer contribute to the preservation of the environment, when he is unable to get a decent price for his produce?

The exploitation of the grower and producer at the hands of multinational brand owners comes in a variety of forms. One of the commonest, and most effective, is the threat of removal of patronage, unless the producer agrees to the relentless selling price reduction demanded by the multinational. The sword that the multinational holds over the growers’ head is the warning, that unless the price is lowered, it will take the business elsewhere and source the product from a different country, which is prepared to compromise its responsibility to sustainable enterprise for the sake of capturing the business.

In my 70-year journey in tea, I have seen many such examples of this insidious business strategy all over the world and also been a victim of it myself. The creation of Dilmah, a brand which brings the profits back to the country of origin, was my response to that strategy.

Meaningful contribution

It is my firm conviction that enterprises linked to land-based operations are best placed to make significant contributions to the preservation of the ecosystem, to repair damage, and to educate all concerned on the importance of such actions. I have said this before and I will say it again: we cannot expect governments alone to achieve social and environmental rehabilitation and protection goals. Private enterprise has to take a lead and, by role model example, inspire the individual citizen to do his bit. We must all assume responsibility before it is imposed upon us.

It is for this reason that I decided that conservation should be a major component of my Charitable Foundation. Until about 2006 the main agenda of my Charitable Foundation was social justice; contributing to the correction of inequalities and inequities in our society. However, in various direct and indirect ways, the Foundation’s social justice remediation initiatives positively influenced environmental issues.

In marginalized communities, especially in rural areas with inadequate infrastructure, lives of people are directly connected to the immediate environment. In such spaces, poverty reduction and environmental care are concomitant. Applied across a global front, environmental conservation and the future of the human race are inclusive considerations; one is not possible without the other.

Dilmah had already been involved in a major Conservation Symposium when, in 2003, we sponsored the World Conservation Union’s Asia Regional Conservation Forum held in Colombo, in December that year. This convocation brought together representatives from governments, non-governmental organizations, research foundations, donors, independent researchers, and scientists from over 23 countries. It was an early demonstration of our commitment to conservation.

Birth of Dilmah Conservation

In 2007, Dilmah Conservation was inaugurated – perhaps a year after I watched Al Gore’s movie – and its mission defined as a key business objective of my group of companies. Its primary aim was to protect the environment by fostering harmony between man, his activities, and nature. Since its commencement, many of the conservation initiatives have been supported by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the global authority for conservation, providing technical and research support to environment management and rehabilitation initiatives worldwide.

Since its formal inception, Dilmah Conservation has been involved in a multitude of remedial and pioneering initiatives, both large and small, across the length and breadth of the island. The focus, of course, has been in rural farming communities and the plantation areas.