SUMMER INTERNSHIP REPORT

PEOPLE’S MOVEMENT TO STOP HAZE

PROJECT REPORT ON HOW THE ORGANISATION DEALT WITH

PALM OIL AND DEFORESTATION

14th JUNE 2021 - 23rd JULY 2021

SUBMITTED BY- JESSICA KAUR

20020515

BBA 2020
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I take this opportunity with pleasure to thank everyone who has helped me
throughout the course of my journey towards completing the project “on how
PM HAZE dealt with the problem of deforestation and palm oil.”

I sincerely thank my faculty mentor Ms. Aghila Sasidharan and my corporate

mentor Ms. Ruchi Jain, for having the faith in me for the completion of this
project and also for their guidance, help and constant review which has made
me a better person than before.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank “People’s Movement to Stop
Haze” for giving me this wonderful opportunity to gain experience in the field
of social work and in helping people in the best way I could.

I hope I can build upon the experience and knowledge that I have gained and
make a valuable contribution towards this industry in coming future.
DECLARATION

I, Jessica Kaur hereby declare that the report of summer internship project titled
“how PM HAZE dealt with the problem of deforestation and palm oil” is
submitted to O.P Jindal Global University as part of BBA hons. Course. This
piece of work is my original work and has not been submitted to any other
institution for any award. I declare that this is solely for the requirement of my
course and can be used for academic purposes and not anything else.

Date Signature
COMPLETION CERTIFICATE
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY (ABSTRACT)

This summer internship of 6 weeks with the company PM haze, Singapore was
amazing and astonishing. It added a lot to our resume and gave us a great
experience of how to deal with a great amount of work without losing hope and
gave the strength and motivation to do it. I also got an opportunity to interact
with an NGO which was based out of India and got an idea of how it functions.
The experience has increased my eagerness to grasp more knowledge and apply
it in real life scenarios.

We had an interaction with the SIIA outlook with the Singapore team which
gave us an overview on edible oil can lead to transboundary haze if it is
overused. The overall experience was knowledgeable and helped gain practical
and theoretical knowledge. I also gained experience through a webinar that was
organised by the better India which helped enrich our knowledge on the topic
that how to consume various type of products in our everyday life consciously.
This webinar also gave us a lot of experience on how we should consume the
products by checking whether they are of good brand name and we also
discussed on the various other factors on which it is based.

I was also able to be a part of various projects during my tenure of internship. I

designed various Instagram and twitter posts through Canva. I had also drafted
various news articles for their LinkedIn account and also did research work on
various products and found that whether those products are 100% sustainable or
not. Further in my report I will give an detailed overview of the tasks that I did
in my overall period of internship.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:

1. Company Profile………………………………………………….7
2. The organization position in the particular industry……………...8
3. The organizational structure of the company……………………..8
4. Job Profile………………………………………………………...9
5. Scope of the Project………………………………………………10
6. Methodology……………………………………………………...11

(i) Data Type……………………………………………………..12

(ii) Data Source……………………………………………………12
(iii) Data Collection Methods……………………………………...12
(iv) Data Analysis………………………………………………….13
(v) Results and Interpretation……………………………………..14

7. Suggestions and Recommendations……………………………….21

8. The overall learning of the student from the internship…………...22
9. Bibliography……………………………………………………….23
COMPANY PROFILE

PM Haze is the only non-profit organisation in Singapore whose centre of attention is to

prevent the transboundary haze pollution in the Southeast Asian region. They also bring
attention to the root causes of transboundary haze and find solutions for their everyday
citizens. Their advocacy programme encourage the responsible consumption of sustainable
(haze-free) palm oil products; and protect fragile tropical-peatland ecosystems. They also
work closely with Indonesian and Malaysian communities to protect the degraded tropical
peatlands. Their peatland restoration programme focuses on community development and on
taking a scientific yet people centric approach to restore community managed peatlands.

They are also rooted in the Singapore community where we engage youths in tertiary and
non-tertiary educational institutions. They also give them opportunities to develop practical
skills in advocacy as well as peatland restoration work. They also accept volunteers from all
backgrounds and expertise, co-creating a haze free future for all.

Since our conception in 2014, we have committed to solve the regional transboundary haze
crisis, driving sustainable consumption in Singapore and empowering overseas communities
whose lives depend on delicate peatland ecosystems.

Currently, we have 6 palm oil-based retail cooking oil brands that are certified sustainable in
Singapore from just 1 in 2016. As of 2019, 10 F&B brands, including one hotel, which house
about 200 outlets in Singapore serve food cooked with certified sustainable palm oil, an
increase from only 2 outlets in 2015. In 2019, we co-organised the world's first Asian Youths
for Sustainable Palm Oil Summit in Bangkok. We have organised the first trip from
Singapore to visit peatlands in Malaysia and have developed a peatland restoration
programme in Sungai Tohor, that is both community centric and founded on scientific basis.
THE ORGANIZATION’S POSITION IN THE PARTICULAR
INDUSTRY:

The position of PM Haze is among the top 5 NGO’s in Singapore. This particular industry
has only a few number of NGOs in the country. So, the organisation puts in its best efforts to
address the haze issue and is ranked in the top list. This is the only NGO that has initiated
various campaigns like “We Breathe What We Buy” in 2015 and “Go Haze Free” in 2016.

THE ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE OF THE COMPANY:

“Driven by passion. Rooted in the community.”

Here is the detailed company’s organisational structure:

Co-founder : Tan Yihan

Governing Body:-

 President : Low Ying Hui

 Treasurer : Chevon Low
 Director-At-Large : Zhang Wen
 Secretary : Yang Yang

Executive Team:-

 Executive Director : Benjamin Tay

 Programme Coordinator : Azhari Ahmad
 Outreach and Engagement Management : Atikah Kasim
 Research Associate : Yukie Yokoyama
JOB PROFILE

I was working as an intern at PM Haze. For the first 4 weeks I worked with the
social media department and for the last 2 weeks I helped the company with
some research work. The responsibilities that I took care of when I was working
with the social media department were that I drafted certain Canva posts on the
topics that were given, attended workshops and made notes on the same, made
twitter posts for the organisation, created news articles for Facebook, to
regularly update the NGOs with the work done and to get feedback on the same,
sharing the uploaded posts to our friends and relatives and to spread awareness
on the same by forwarding it to similar initiatives.

Certain responsibilities that were taken care of while working with the research
department were that I analysed the ACOP certificate report from RSPO
website to find out whether the products produced in Singapore were
sustainable or not, did research on the RSPO certified products, searched on the
reasons as to why transboundary haze occurs, reported the research work to the
team so that they could correct us and guide us well. Lastly researched about the
various reasons for the causes of transboundary haze and also did few surveys
on haze and palm oil.
SCOPE OF THE PROJECT

The main aim of this project is to find out that how many people are aware
about the causes of haze and deforestation. Also, it is also to make people aware
about how palm oil is extracted and how it is used in Singapore in
manufacturing food. It is also to make people aware about how to control the
haze in Singapore and how to protect people from the same. In the project we
are also going to conduct a survey as to how did the organisation “PM HAZE”
deal with the problem of deforestation and palm oil by analysing the answers
that are given by audience in the survey conducted.
METHODOLOGY

Objective of the study:

Objective of the survey conducted is to know whether people are aware about
how PM haze deals with both deforestation and palm oil. It also helps know
whether there is a linkage between both palm oil or deforestation. It also helps
understand that how palm oil is extracted and also how can the organisation
maximise the number of restaurants that are using sustainable palm oil.

Research design:

I firstly thought of using random sampling method in a specific country but the
company had provided data of 100 random people residing in Singapore, they
were sent this survey form to fill. It consisted of a mixture of questions of both
quantitative and qualitative analysis about the objective of the survey so that the
result could be interpreted reasonably.

Period of observation:

The period of observation was from 9th June 2021 to 18th July 2021.
DATA TYPE:
The data type used here is the primary data. The data was developed after I had
a discussion with the company. They had knowledge about basically how the
NGO works which helped me take the survey in a better format. The survey
contains questions of both quantitative and qualitative aspect. The question type
is MCQ based.

DATA SOURCE:

The source for collecting data were the company heads, mentors and certain
supervisors who helped me drafting the questions. I also referred to a certain
sites that are mentioned in the bibliography.

DATA COLLECTION METHODS:

The data was collected using the survey generated by an online platform
(attached is the survey link in the bibliography). A total of 60 people residing in
Singapore were sent the survey form link over an online mode, through which
they accessed and filled the form. The collection of the answers was done in
such a manner so that the individual can answer only once and all the questions
were made mandatory to attempt.
DATA ANALYSIS:

For conducting the research we approached nearly 60 people in Singapore, who

were aged between 19 years to 25 years. Out of this, 40 people have responded
to the survey conducted.

SURVEY QUESTIONS:

1. What can be the percentage of people using palm oil daily?

2. Is deforestation a problem in Singapore?
3. Are all products containing palm oil from a sustainable source?
4. How many percentage of trees are cut down for palm oil?
5. What percentage of forest is left in Singapore?
6. Are palm oil and deforestation linked?
7. If they are linked then by what percentage?
RESULTS AND INTERPRETATION

Question 1
Question 2
Question 3

Question 4
Question 5
Question 6
Question 7
SUGGESTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
In my opinion, this project doesn’t have any limitations but there is some scope
that it can improve upon.

Here are few pointers that show the limitations of the project:

 The project was only centrally focusing on the aspect of palm oil and
deforestation in Singapore rather it should focus in improving the same in
other neighbouring countries as well.
 Only experimented on random set of people and so we cannot distinguish
between who are aware about the problems and who aren’t.
 We have conducted this experiment on only a small segment of people in
comparison to the whole population of Singapore.

OVERALL LEARNING OF THE STUDENT FROM THE INTERNSHIP

The entire experience of interning at People’s Movement to Stop Haze (PM
Haze) provided me with the opportunity to enhance my skills. Firstly, I was a
part of the outreach and engagement department that helped to connect with a
lot of people from the organisation and from outside the organisation through
certain workshops and webinar. I learned how to tackle different real-life
situations. Then I was a part of the research department where we learned how
to initiate, critically analyse, interpret and conclude a survey or poll conducted
on a specific topic. Research work taught me the importance of the root cause of
a larger problem. Also, this internship taught me how to work in team and how
to be determined to finish the given task on time. Overall, this internship was
highly beneficial and very satisfactory as I got to work with an amazing who
didn’t make me feel left out or degraded at any point of time and were to help at
every step.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. https://www.google.com/search?

q=yes+or+no+questions+on+deforestation+in+singapore&biw=744&bih=740&sxsrf=

AOaemvJvGmTPon0f6TNG9VuTtHOWLhOh5w

%3A1630698272892&ei=IHsyYaD0NcT1juMPh4-

OqAQ&oq=&gs_lcp=Cgdnd3Mtd2l6EAEYBzIHCCMQ6gIQJzIHCCMQ6gIQJzIHC

CMQ6gIQJzIHCCMQ6gIQJzIHCCMQ6gIQJzIHCCMQ6gIQJzIHCCMQ6gIQJzIHC

CMQ6gIQJzIHCCMQ6gIQJzIHCCMQ6gIQJzoHCCMQsAMQJzoHCAAQRxCwAz

oECCMQJ0oECEEYAFCpKFiEQ2CLsgFoAnACeAGAAaEBiAHaJ5IBBDAuMzaY

AQCgAQGwAQrIAQnAAQE&sclient=gws-wiz

2. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe5MGnd-

qEu0oXciSCaFGF7AuaimySh1FSUksywSRSGKwXWtQ/viewform

3. https://www.pmhaze.org/

4. https://sg.linkedin.com/company/pm-haze