Lionheart Farms named runner-up for Best CSR Program at 2026 COINS Awards

Lionheart Farms Philippines Corporation was named runner-up for Best Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Program for Coconut at the 2026 Coconut Industry Sustainability (COINS) Awards, recognizing its Regenerative Coconut Communities Program (RCCP) across its coconut-growing operations in Palawan.

The Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) presented the award as part of the 40th National Coconut Week Celebration, themed “Regenerating the Coconut Economy, Future-Proofing the Coconut Value Chain.”

“The COINS Awards celebrate more than accomplishments. They celebrate the people who choose to make a difference,” PCA Administrator Dexter R. Buted said at the ceremony. “Every farmer, entrepreneur, organization, government partner, and industry stakeholder we recognize today contributes to a stronger coconut industry and creates greater opportunities for our farmers.”

Photo courtesy of Philippine Coconut Authority

For Lionheart Farms, the recognition reflects work built since 2016, when the company began operations on a 3,500-hectare coconut farm in Rizal, Palawan, and later expanded to Brooke’s Point, Bataraza, Quezon, and Sofronio Española. It adds to the company’s growing list of honors, including the 2024 ASEAN Business Award for Agriculture and Agri-Food and the 2022 Asia CEO Sustainability Company of the Year award.

“To be recognized among the country’s top CSR programs in coconut is meaningful, but the credit belongs to the tappers, farmers, and communities of Southern Palawan who make this program real every day,” said Christian Eyde Moeller, CEO and Co-Founder of Lionheart Farms Philippines Corporation. “This nomination reflects work that PCA, our development partners, and our people have built together since 2016.”

A farm-to-community model

The RCCP combines three elements: Lionheart’s Hybrid Nucleus Estate Model, which brings tappers, farmers, and cooperatives into an organic-certified value chain; the “More With Less in the Philippine Coconut Industry” project, run with the Philippine Coconut Authority and Philippine Business for Social Progress under DANIDA funding, which builds farmer capacity, nurseries, and biochar enterprises; and the company’s Gabay Kalinga Foundation (GKF), which runs Educate, Elevate, and Engage programs across education, healthcare, and livelihood.

Lionheart Farms holds BRCGS Grade A, Organic, Halal, Kosher, Gluten-Free, and FDA CPR certifications, and its “Our Farm to You” approach links certified, traceable coconut sourcing to direct investment in the communities that grow it. In 2025, the program reached 5,330 people: roughly 3,395 across Lionheart Farms’ direct, project-based, and ancillary workforce, and 1,935 through GKF’s community programs.

Among the year’s results:

• 862 coconut sap tappers trained in 2025, with a Training of Trainers program producing 293 farmer-leader graduates in Good Agricultural Practices, cover-cropping, and resource management
• Tappers earn an average of USD 412.76 a month, roughly double the regional minimum wage, with formal workers covered by SSS, PhilHealth, and Pag-IBIG.
• Zero recorded government compliance violations.
• GKF’s “Mission from the Heart” medical missions served 1,370 people across seven barangays; its Book Caravan reached 397 students; and its backyard-gardening program supported food security in 21 communities
• Three coconut nurseries and biochar enterprises established with partner cooperatives, converting farm waste into a marketable soil input while cutting open burning.
• Hybrid coconut agroforestry with 600,000 of a targeted 750,000 trees planted, projected to remove up to 200,000 tons of net CO2 annually by 2030

Development partners, including the Philippine Coconut Authority, PBSP, DSWD, DTI, DENR, DOLE, local government units across Southern Palawan, and Western Philippine University, have worked alongside Lionheart Farms to validate these programs on the ground and connect them to broader funding networks.

“Our commitment to these communities isn’t a program we run alongside the business. It’s part of the business itself,” Moeller said. “Every tapper we train, every hectare we help restore, and every peso we reinvest in Gabay Kalinga’s education and health programs is part of the same promise: that a coconut farm can also be the foundation of a thriving community.”

Impact in Rizal, Palawan

Poverty incidence in Rizal, Palawan, was high before Lionheart Farms began operations there. Since then, the company has extended formal employment, at-least-minimum-wage pay, health insurance, and social services to virtually the entire host community, contributing to a measurable reduction in poverty in the municipality.

Lionheart Farms’ operations in Rizal run in partnership with the Indigenous Peoples community on whose ancestral domain it operates. The company has signed Memoranda of Agreement with IP communities and carried out a Free, Prior and Informed Consent process referencing IFC Performance Standard 7, which is the international benchmark for ancestral domain operations used by major development finance institutions. About 60 percent of the company’s Palawan tappers are members of Indigenous Peoples communities, and GKF’s tutorial program specifically serves Indigenous children in the remote sitios of Pinagar and Tagbalugo.

“We operate on ancestral land, and we don’t take that responsibility lightly,” Moeller said. “Our partnership with the Indigenous Peoples of Rizal was built on free, prior, and informed consent, and it continues through the employment, healthcare, and education programs we’ve extended to virtually every household in the host community, Indigenous and non-Indigenous alike.”

The 2026 COINS Awards ceremony was held on September 11, 2026, at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) in Pasay City, bringing together coconut farmers, farmer organizations, government agencies, private enterprises, academe, and development partners from across the coconut value chain.

About Lionheart Farms
Lionheart Farms is a sustainable agricultural company in the Philippines focused on coconut flower sap and its potential to create better opportunities for farmers, communities, and the wider food industry. Through regenerative organic farming, community development, and product innovation, Lionheart Farms works toward a more sustainable and inclusive coconut industry.