The Zoological Society of London (ZSL), a charity founded in 1826, is a world-renowned centre of excellence for conservation science and applied conservation. ZSL’s mission is to promote and achieve the worldwide conservation of animals and their habitats. This is realised by carrying out field conservation and research in over 50 countries across the globe and through education and awareness-raising at our two zoos, ZSL London Zoo and ZSL Whipsnade Zoo, inspiring people to take conservation action.
ZSL recognises the significant threat posed by irresponsible and unsustainable business practice to global biodiversity and the landscapes in which we work. The Business and Biodiversity programme works to address these threats and to deliver a ZSL mission target to ensure best practice is business-as-usual in at least 1 million km2 of priority production landscape. SPOTT is ZSL’s flagship initiative to deliver this, addressing the lack of corporate transparency and accountability that hinders progress towards sustainability.
Our vision for SPOTT is that companies report transparently on the implementation of best practice and can be held accountable to this. SPOTT currently monitors 50 oil palm producers representing half of oil palm landbank against a framework of best practice, and provides resources and guidance for the supply chain to monitor and manage risk. SPOTT has over 2000 subscribers, more than 300,000 website views and 6000 unique visitors per month. SPOTT is an established and proven model with a focus on engagement between financiers and producers.