Crops we work with
Elaeis guineensis
Rethinking palm oil — oil palm grown inside diverse, forest-like Dynamic Agroforestry: deforestation-free, biodiverse, and rebuilding soil, water and income instead of eroding them.
Palm oil is one of the world’s most productive oil crops — and one of its most criticised, because it is usually grown as deforesting monoculture. ECOTOP takes the opposite path: we grow oil palm inside Dynamic Agroforestry, as the top layer of a diverse, living system.
Beneath and between the palms grow cocoa, timber, fruit, food and fast-growing biomass trees. Managed by pruning rather than chemicals, these systems rebuild soil and water, recover biodiversity, and turn ageing plantations back into forest-like landscapes — while diversifying farmer income.
From a first assessment to farmer-led systems that scale on their own — a proven, hands-on path, adapted to oil palm.
We assess plantations, palm age, soils, light and water, and run an introductory Dynamic Agroforestry workshop with teams and farmers.
We design the layered system with oil palm on top, interplant cocoa, timber, fruit, food and biomass trees, and manage light by pruning.
Recurring missions train teams in frond and shade-tree pruning, biomass management, and keeping the oil palm in the highest stratum.
We help build local pruning and agroforestry service teams and scale proven practices farmer-to-farmer.
In Asuom, Ghana, ECOTOP’s founder Joachim Milz introduced Dynamic Agroforestry to Serendipalm — Dr. Bronner’s organic, fair-trade palm oil operation — in 2016. Demonstration farms followed in 2017, and trained service teams now plant and maintain agroforestry oil palm with a network of more than 700 smallholders.
Oil palm holds the top stratum above cocoa, timber and food crops, with around 1,000 trees per hectare in total, oil palm and cocoa included. In 2020 Serendipalm became the world’s first Regenerative Organic Certified palm oil project, and its model is featured by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. We are now extending the approach to Sabah, Malaysia, with Forever Sabah.
Oil palm is integrated into diverse agroforestry, not cleared monoculture.
Multi-layered canopies rebuild habitat and turn plantations into living landscapes.
Continuous biomass and soil cover restore fertility, hold water and store carbon.
Cocoa, timber, fruit and food crops earn alongside the oil palm.
The world’s first Regenerative Organic Certified palm oil, in Asuom, Ghana. ECOTOP has advised its Dynamic Agroforestry transition since 2016.
ProjectA large-scale Dynamic Agroforestry plantation integrating oil palm with cocoa and timber on former degraded land.
A 2025 field assessment evaluating Dynamic Agroforestry pilots for oil palm smallholders in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo.
Serendipalm’s regenerative model is featured by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation as a circular-economy alternative for palm oil.
Research · 10 min
A long-term trial shows agroforestry can match conventional yields with far greater resilience.
Article · 6 min
Why diverse, managed systems out-yield single-crop maximization.
Article · 6 min
How Dynamic Agroforestry stores carbon and rebuilds landscapes.
ECOTOP helps buyers and producers move oil palm out of monoculture and into biodiverse, deforestation-free Dynamic Agroforestry. Let’s talk about your supply.
Talk to our team
