Weak management and governance continue to allow industry participants to operate businesses that in many people’s opinion and observation cause considerable harm to humans, wildlife and environment. But opinion and observation do not yet seem to be enough to be persuasive.

It is then important that investors and stakeholders share in the risk of the vulnerable desperately seeking work (should they carry the burden solely?) so it is also in their interests to want to protect the vulnerable. Or as the essayist and former risk analyst Nassim Taleb8 describes it, to rebalance the hidden asymmetries in the system of society.

In this document, we examine underlying harmful means of supplying labour to plantations and failings of the industry to provide proper internal controls and effective governance and management that would lead to the eventual elimination of actual and potential abuse of vulnerable workers. These weaknesses may have increasing impact on investor and stakeholder interests as the extent of the abuse becomes better understood and risks can then be priced more accurately.