Women Transforming Sustainability: Iveth and Nuri, Leading Community Engagement in Southeastern Mexico

Women in palm oil embody resilience, courage, and the heart of communities that struggle and reinvent themselves every day. With steady hands and unbreakable spirit, they turn palm into well-being, hope, and opportunity. They are visionary, hardworking, and supportive women who, with dignity and dedication, sustain not only the local economy but also the dreams of future generations.

This spirit finds a living example in Uumbal, a Mexican company dedicated to the sustainable production of palm oil, where sustainability is not just about agricultural practices, it is, above all, a story of human and community impact. Here, community engagement places people at the center of every action, fully aligned with the RSPO Principles & Criteria, which promote transparent and mutually beneficial relationships between companies and local communities, respecting their rights and contributing to improved livelihoods.

This commitment comes to life in the collaboration between two women leaders in palm oil: Iveth Hernández Rincón, Head of Community Relations at Uumbal, and Nuri Vázquez Pérez, delegate of the ejido (a communal landholding system in which land is managed and used collectively by its members) El Barrial in Jonuta, Tabasco, Mexico.

The alliance between Iveth and Nuri, built over seven years of friendship, is the driving force behind the success of Uumbal’s programs in El Barrial. Thanks to this trust, initiatives focused on education, health, and the local economy have transformed realities. Nuri, re-elected six times by her community, attests to how Uumbal’s presence has brought jobs, training, and new opportunities for families.

Their relationship has also been essential in managing vital resources, such as support for the government’s Liconsa milk program. More recently, this synergy materialized in an innovation workshop on value-added products, where 38 women from the ejido learned to make soaps derived from palm oil. For Iveth, it is not only about accompanying the community, but about empowering it to harness its socio-environmental and economic context.

Stories like those of Iveth and Nuri show that sustainability has a human face: it is communities who turn it into a life project. And under this same spirit, companies committed to sustainable palm oil, such as Uumbal, build every day a fairer, more equitable, and hopeful future for their people.