#huile_de_palme

Liberians ’pressured to sell land’ for palm oil plantations - BBC News
▻http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-33631848

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Global Witness says Liberians have been beaten and arrested for refusing, and wants a government investigation.

n 2010, the Liberian government agreed to lease #GVL 544,000 acres of land for over 60 years.

Global Witness says GVL dramatically expanded its operations in Liberia at the height of the Ebola outbreak last year, clearing thousands of acres of land while community support groups were busy dealing with the crisis.

#terres #Liberia #huile_de_palme

L’huile de palme rallume la mèche de la #déforestation en #Indonésie
▻http://www.lemonde.fr/biodiversite/article/2015/07/16/l-huile-de-palme-rallume-la-meche-de-la-deforestation-en-indonesie_4685436_1

L’île indonésienne de #Sumatra est de nouveau dans le brouillard. Comme chaque année à la saison sèche, des nuages de fumée se sont formés au-dessus de la province de Riau. En cause, la série d’incendies qui s’y est déclenchée depuis mai et qui touche particulièrement le parc national de Tesso Nilo, si l’on en croit les images satellites, mises en ligne par le think tank américain World Resources Institute (WRI) le 9 juillet.

Sauf que ces incendies n’ont rien à voir avec les fortes chaleurs enregistrées à la saison sèche dans la région. Ils sont en grande majorité d’origine criminelle. Alternatives moins coûteuses que le défrichement mécanique, les brûlis permettent de débroussailler la forêt pour y planter d’autres cultures. Le marché le plus florissant sur l’île indonésienne de Sumatra, c’est celui de l’#huile_de_palme, dont l’archipel asiatique est le premier producteur au monde. Cette huile, tirée de la pulpe du fruit du palmier, a particulièrement mauvaise réputation en Europe depuis quelques années. Dangereuse pour la santé à cause de sa forte teneur en acides gras saturés, connus pour affaiblir l’appareil cardio-vasculaire, elle est aussi dénoncée pour son impact environnemental.

▻http://www.wri.org/blog/2015/07/forest-fires-blaze-indonesia%E2%80%99s-tesso-nilo-national-park

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Primary rainforest cleared for massive palm oil plantations in Peru
▻http://news.mongabay.com/2015/0520-mrn-gfrn-cannon-amazon-forest-cleared-for-palm-oil.html

More than 9,400 hectares of closed-canopy Amazonian rainforest has been removed for two oil palm plantations in the Peruvian region of Ucayali since 2011, according to scientists working for MAAP, the Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project. The two plantations are linked to Czech entrepreneur Dennis Melka.

Melka is the CEO of United Cacao, a Cayman Islands-based company that has been accused by scientists and NGOs of clearing more than 2,000 hectares of primary forest for a cacao plantation in another part of Peru while claiming to espouse a “sustainable” approach. He is also the founder, director, chairman, and CEO of United Oils, headquartered in the Cayman Islands according to some associates, and is a Singapore-based “palm oil refiner” according to others. Based on the public statements of at least one American investor, it appears that United Oils has also claimed that its operations are also sustainable.

Based on an analysis of satellite images going back to 1990, a total of 12,188 total hectares of standing forest had been leveled through the end of April, MAAP reported on April 27. MAAP is an initiative by a group of scientific and conservation organizations to accessibly present technical information about threats to the Amazon.

http://mongabay-images.s3.amazonaws.com/15/0520-Nueva%20Requena%202%20Aerial-EIA-20150325-012.jpg

#déforestation #forêt #huile_de_palme

West Papua Oil Palm Atlas – The companies behind the plantation explosion.
▻https://awasmifee.potager.org

Indonesia’s oil palm industry is moving east. With large tracts of land increasingly difficult to find in Sumatra and Borneo, plantation companies are now focussing their attention on Indonesia’s eastern frontier: the small islands of the Maluku archipelago and especially the conflict-ridden land of West Papua.

In 2005 there were only five oil palm plantations operating in West Papua1. By the end of 2014 there were 21 operational plantations. This rapid expansion is set to continue with another 20 concessions at an advanced stage of the permit process, and many more companies that have been issued with an initial location permit. If all these plantations were developed, more than 2.6 million hectares of land would be used up, the vast majority of which is currently tropical forest.

Almost without exception, these plantations have caused conflict with the local indigenous communities who depend on the forest – lowland Papuans are mostly hunters and gatherers to some degree. The conflicts have centred around community’s refusal to hand over their land, demand for justice in the cases where they feel the land has been taken from them by deceit or intimidation, horizontal conflicts between neighbouring villages or clans, action by indigenous workers who feel they are exploited, or aggression by police or military working as security guards for the plantation companies.

http://awasmifee.potager.org/uploads/2015/04/boven-clip.jpg http://awasmifee.potager.org/uploads/2015/03/bokum.jpg

#Palawan: Stop blaming indigenous peoples’ farming practices for deforestation- look at oil palm plantations and mining
▻http://farmlandgrab.org/post/view/24842-palawan-stop-blaming-indigenous-peoples-farming-practices-for-de

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Recent years have seen an exponential increase in land deals across the Philippines with the conversion of large expanses of land with crops mainly intended for export while traditional upland farming implemented through swidden (‘slash-and-burn’) technology (kaingin) is demonized and antagonized through restrictive legislation. The latter, however, fosters local self-sufficiency and plays a fundamental role in the livelihood and worldviews of indigenous societies.

Palawan, known as the “Philippine last Frontier”, in spite of its unique recognition as a UNESCO Man & Biosphere Reserve, has not been spared from massive investments in extractive resources and industrial agriculture, especially oil palm and rubber development. And yet, indigenous people and upland dwellers continue to be blamed for massive deforestation and ecological disaster.Not surprisingly, the recent front cover of a well known Philippine Newspaper (the Daily Inquirer, May 9 issue) holds a headline post with a powerful image that easily conflates all upland peoples as criminal agriculturalists (▻http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/684378/summer-not-all-beach-in-palawan-it-is-the-season-to-burn-forests) “Images are powerful and can be damaging” says Wolfram Dressler a Research Fellow from the University of Melbourne (Australia) who has carried out extensive anthropological research in Palawan. ”They can direct blame without nuance and context. The masses (and government) absorb such images to reinforce centuries old narratives demonizing kaingin—a term that many farmers avoid because of its pejorative nature” adds Dressler.

The Inquirer’s article was triggered by an aerial survey carried out by the so called Center for Sustainability (CS), a nonprofit organization allegedly working for sustainable development in Palawan. The group spotted from the air key locations, previously covered by forest, and which have now been subject to clearing due to various external forces (mining, oil palm plantations and shifting agriculture (locally known as kaingin, or more appropriately ‘uma’). According to the group, in addition to clearing by ‘poor farmers’, forest burning in the south has been linked to the proliferation of palm oil and rubber plantations, and the main target of ‘slash-and-burn’ activities is the clearing of primary forests for development.

Ironically, for carrying out its photo survey CS conservationists have barrowed the private plane of multimillionaire Jose Alvarez, the present Governor of Palawan, a well-known supporter of large-scale agro-industry, especially rubber which accelerates deforestation and deprives more traditional indigenous communities of their resource-base.

#peuples_autochtones #Philippines #agriculture #agro-industrie #forêt #déforestation #huile_de_palme #caoutchouc

Who’s funding palm oil?
▻http://news.mongabay.com/2015/0319-shibao-mrn-palm-oil-financing.html
Part 1 of 5 of a series on palm oil financing

Estimates indicate that as much as 50 percent of the products used by the average Western consumer every day contain palm oil or its derivatives [3].

In 2013, the global market for palm oil was estimated at $44 billion [4]. This figure is likely to increase in the near future, as manufacturers look for alternatives to trans fats in processed food products, and consumers in rapidly industrializing economies such as China and India add to growing global demand.

#huile_de_palme #agrobusiness

#Déforestation : l’UE pas à l’aise dans ses biftecks - Libération
▻http://www.liberation.fr/terre/2015/03/17/deforestation-l-ue-pas-a-l-aise-dans-ses-biftecks_1222694

Et ses résultats donnent le vertige. « Toutes les deux minutes, entre 2000 et 2012, la superficie d’un terrain de football a été déboisée de manière illégale pour exporter ces matières premières vers l’UE », dénonce Fern (« fougère » en anglais). En 2012, l’UE « a importé l’équivalent de 6 milliards d’euros de #soja, #bœuf, #cuir et #huile_de_palme issus de cultures ou d’élevages pratiqués sur des #terres déboisées illégalement dans des zones tropicales ». Près d’un quart des matières premières agricoles issues de la déforestation illégale sur le marché mondial est destiné à l’#UE. A eux seuls, cinq pays (Pays-Bas, Royaume-Uni, Allemagne, Italie et France) « importent 75% et consomment 63% de ces produits entachés d’illégalité affluant vers l’UE ». Chacun ayant sa triste spécialité. Avec l’Allemagne, les Pays-Bas « sont les plus gros importateurs d’huile de palme destinée aux cosmétiques et aux produits alimentaires ». Au royaume italien des chaussures et des sacs de créateurs, le cuir domine. « Il n’est pas surprenant que, dans la principale puissance agricole de l’UE, la France, ce soit le soja, utilisé pour nourrir les animaux », ajoute le rapport. Outre-Manche, le bœuf est le produit estampillé « déforestation illégale » le plus importé.

Plus de la moitié de la superficie des terres déboisées illégalement pour approvisionner l’UE en denrées agricoles est située au Brésil. Et un quart en Indonésie, où les plantations de palmiers à huile et de bois sont les principales causes de déforestation et où « au moins 80% de ces exploitations sont illégales ». Mais ce phénomène touche aussi la Malaisie, le Paraguay, la Papouasie-Nouvelle-Guinée ou les bassins du Congo et du Mékong.

(j’en ai carrément ras le bol que le terrain de foot serve de mesure de référence)

▻http://www.theguardian.com/environment/andes-to-the-amazon/2015/mar/07/palm-oil-peru-23000-hectares-primary-forest?CMP=share_btn_tw

From Africa’s Palms - Al Jazeera English
▻http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/peopleandpower/2015/02/africa-palms-150223110509150.html

People & Power investigates the environmental consequences of palm oil plantations in equatorial Africa

▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nHetI7UDv0#t=67

High deforestation rates in Malaysian states hit by flooding
▻http://news.mongabay.com/2015/0119-flooding-malaysia-deforestation.html

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That data lends support to claims by local environmental groups that deforestation may have exacerbated flooding by accelerating runoff during heavy rainstorms. But the impacts may be even more widespread than indicated by deforestation data alone, since it doesn’t fully capture the extent of selective logging, which can degrade a forest’s ability to retain water, nor the reduced absorptive capacity of timber and oil palm plantations, which have less ground cover and root development than natural forests.

“Logging would usually result in erosion, causing mud to flow down from the highlands during rain, eroding hills and destroying water catchments and causing lowlands to become flooded,” Datuk Abdul Malek Yusof the president of Sahabat Alam Sekitar Malaysia (Friends of the Earth Malaysia), was quoted as saying by Malaysian state media.

http://mongabay-images.s3.amazonaws.com/15/0119-malaysia-forest-loss.jpg

Thaïlande : #Assassinat du défenseur du droit à la terre M. Chai Bunthonglek
▻http://farmlandgrab.org/post/view/24533-thailande-assassinat-du-defenseur-du-droit-a-la-terre-m-chai-bun

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Chai Bunthonglek était membre du Southern Peasants’ Federation of Thailand – SPFT (Fédération des paysans du sud de la Thaïlande), un réseau formé en 2008 pour militer pour le droit aux #terres agricoles dans la communauté de Khlong Sai Pattana dans le district de Chaiburi, province de Surat Thani, et dans d’autres zones de la région.

La SPFT soutient activement la communauté Premsub dans le cadre d’un conflit relatif à la terre impliquant l’entreprise Thai Boonthong, spécialisée dans l’#huile_de_palme. Les terres objets du conflit appartiennent à l’Office de réforme des terres agricoles (ARLO), qui en 2009 a autorisé les villageois à rester sur les terres jusqu’à la résolution du conflit, car la concession de l’entreprise sur ce territoire a pris fin 15 ans plus tôt. Toutefois, l’entreprise continuerait à occuper les terres et les villageois risquent à tout moment d’être expulsés.

Cancellation of flawed Papua New Guinea land leases halted | Pacific Beat | ABC Radio Australia
▻http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/international/radio/program/pacific-beat/cancellation-of-flawed-papua-new-guinea-land-leases-halted/1414719

In June last year, prime minister Peter O’Neill and his cabinet ordered the cancellation almost 30 leases identified by a commission of inquiry.

The leases cover millions of hectares of land, most of which has been leased without landowner consent.

Court action by leaseholders reluctant to relinquish their titles has left some landowers powerless as logging companies continue their activities.

#peuples_autochtones #papouasie_nouvelle_guinée #forêt #industrie_du_bois #terres

#Huile_de_palme « durable » : un outil de greenwashing pour berner le consommateur - le Plus
▻http://leplus.nouvelobs.com/contribution/1308464-huile-de-palme-durable-un-outil-de-greenwashing-pour-berne

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Un fait tout simple permet, en quelques secondes, de comprendre la supercherie qu’est la #RSPO. Pour l’année 2012/2103, Unilever, membre fondateur je vous le rappelle, n’utilisait que 3% d’huile de palme durable dont une (grande) partie en certificat #GreenPalm.

Ce dernier est un savant outil de #greenwashing inventé une fois de plus pour berner le consommateur. Un produit estampillé GreenPalm ne veut pas dire qu’il contient de l’huile de palme « durable » mais que l’industriel a acheté des certificats vendus par un producteur d’huile de palme « durable ». Ces certificats sont mis sur une plateforme de vente (système de la Bourse) et il est impossible pour l’acheteur de connaitre la provenance de l’huile qu’il a contractée et la façon dont elle a été produite.

Un détail important est à connaître également : une société peut être membre de la RSPO mais rien ne l’oblige à utiliser de l’huile de palme « durable » portant alors le sigle CSPO. Cette confusion est volontairement entretenue.

Le filon très rentable qu’est la culture industrielle de l’huile de palme, qu’elle soit conventionnelle, durable ou biologique, a balayé dès le départ les deux fondements pourtant indispensables pour que cet oléagineux devienne durable : absence de déforestation et respect des populations autochtones et des petits paysans.

#unilever #WWF

The Mock Ad That Doritos Doesn’t Want You to See
▻http://www.filmsforaction.org/watch/the-mock-ad-that-doritos-doesnt-want-you-to-see

You wouldn’t love it if you knew what it was made from. Tell Doritos and PepsiCo to adopt a responsible palm oil policy, and save our rainforests: ▻http://smarturl.it/Doritos

Some Doritos flavours...

Palm oil threatens community forest in Central Kalimantan
▻http://news.mongabay.com/2015/0107-gfrn-bell-nugraha-delang-community-manages-forest.html

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The conservation spirit is largely the result of two local traditional leaders, Repudi Sigun and Silpanus Yamaha. They aggressively educate their neighbors about the importance of community forests, and encourage them to reject mining and oil palm companies that would provide short-term compensation for long-term consequences. In response to their coordinating efforts, nine villages have united to keep the forests intact.

Repudi Sigun, now 64 years old, serves as the chairman of the Delang Alliance of Indigenous Peoples. Several years ago, he traveled to Thailand to study techniques for growing rubber trees. While there, he was impressed by the quality of the forests, and lack of oil palm.

“I didn’t see a single oil palm tree,” he remembers. “At the end of the trip, we met the king of Thailand, and I asked him why. He answered: because in 50 years, he doesn’t want Thailand [to] end up like Somalia—having to become pirates because the environment was destroyed and the land unable to support gardening.”

“Hopefully, once we have the map, there will be no question about who owns the land. Our land should not be disturbed,” Silpanus said. “There is old-growth forest which should not be disturbed. The areas near villages can be used for traditional agriculture, but not oil palm.”

#huile_de_palme #indonésie #peuples_autochtones

DRC: handing lands for industrial oil palm plantations, REDD and foreign investors
▻http://farmlandgrab.org/post/view/24300

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has the largest continuous rainforest area in Africa, which is one of the largest in the world. However, its high biological diversity, including humid, dry, wetlands, bamboo, mangrove and many other forests, which coexist for centuries with indigenous and forest dependent people, is under serious threat with the expansion of oil palm plantations and foreign investors in general. Moreover, climate policies related to forests in the DRC, such as REDD, pose further threats to forests and local communities by encouraging industrial oil palm cultivation.

Industrial oil palm expansion in DRC

#rdc #huile_de_palme #terres

Palm Oil and Extreme Violence in Honduras : The Inexorable Rise and Dubious Reform of Grupo Dinant
▻http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/27864-palm-oil-and-extreme-violence-in-honduras-the-inexorable-rise-and-d

A case in point is Grupo Dinant, a Honduran palm oil company that declared last month that it has been awarded international environmental certifications for its achievements in environmental management and occupational health and safety. Dinant has also been making overtures toward joining the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), including hosting the RSPO’s 4th Latin American conference in Honduras in 2013. But, Dinant, which produces about 60 percent of the palm oil in Honduras, is at the center of what has been called “the most serious situation in terms of violence against peasants in Central America in the last 15 years.”

Owned by Miguel Facussé, one of the wealthiest men in Honduras, Dinant has been associated with the killings of over 100 peasant farmers, and appears to be involved in a virtual terror campaign to ensure control of a large swath of land in the Lower Aguan Valley near the Caribbean coast of Honduras.

While credible human rights groups like Human Rights Watch denounce the killings and note that “virtually none of the crimes are properly investigated, let alone solved,” Dinant continues to enjoy financing from the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation, support from the United Nations Clean Development Mechanism, and brand relationships with multinational consumer goods companies such as Mazola Oils.

#honduras #huile_de_palme #crimes #impunité

#DRC: handing lands for industrial oil palm plantations, REDD and foreign investors
▻http://farmlandgrab.org/post/view/24300-drc-handing-lands-for-industrial-oil-palm-plantations-redd-and-f

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has the largest continuous rainforest area in Africa, which is one of the largest in the world. However, its high biological diversity, including humid, dry, wetlands, bamboo, mangrove and many other forests, which coexist for centuries with indigenous and forest dependent people, is under serious threat with the expansion of oil palm plantations and foreign investors in general. Moreover, climate policies related to forests in the DRC, such as #REDD, pose further threats to forests and local communities by encouraging industrial oil palm cultivation.

#rdc #déforestation #peuples_autochtones #palmier_à_huile

The #Philippines: stop the palm oil rush in Palawan
▻http://farmlandgrab.org/post/view/24176-the-philippines-stop-the-palm-oil-rush-in-palawan

The proposal to convert further 8 million hectares of Philippine soil into oil palm plantations made headlines across the country and shed a harsh light on how Philippine authorities imagine their country’s development.

Palm oil companies are planning to convert 20,000 hectares of land in the Philippines’ Palawan Man & Biosphere Reserve. 6,000 hectares have already been cleared, endangering biodiversity, water resources, topsoil quality and the livelihood of farmers and indigenous peoples, while exacerbating rural poverty. If oil palm expansion is allowed to continue, the environmental and ecological sustainability of the province and local food security will be severely compromised.

While Agumil Philippines, Inc. – the largest palm oil company in Palawan – freely exports palm oil to Malaysian buyers, local farmers have nothing to feed their families or anything to take to the local market. “Agumil does not even allow us to intercrop cassava on our land, which they have converted into oil palm plantations,” says Jerry Azucena of the newly established Coalition against Land Grabbing (CALG). “They have destroyed our lives, and sooner or later they will have to compensate us,” he adds.

#huile_de_palme #terres #faim #destruction

La Malaisie souhaite en finir avec la mention « sans huile de palme » - Economie - La Voix du Nord
▻http://www.lavoixdunord.fr/economie/la-malaisie-souhaite-en-finir-avec-la-mention-sans-huile-ia0b0n2436504

La #Malaisie, 2e producteur d’#huile_de_palme derrière l’Indonésie, veut en finir avec la mention « Sans huile de palme » qu’elle juge « discriminatoire et injuste » : elle en appelle aujourd’hui aux autorités françaises au nom des liens commerciaux entre les deux pays.

« Nous demandons au gouvernement français d’agir et de considérer l’impact potentiel de cette étiquette sur nos exportations d’huile de palme », a indiqué mardi à l’AFP le président du Conseil national des producteurs d’huile de palme de Malaisie, le Dr Yusof Basiron.

Selon lui seules la France et la Belgique francophone ont recours à cet étiquetage sur des produits (petits gâteaux, pâtes à tartiner, plats préparés...).

De passage à Paris, il rappelle que son pays et la France sont « des partenaires commerciaux ».

Pas de menace, assure-t-il derrière ces propos, même si la Malaisie est un acheteur régulier d’Airbus pour la compagnie nationale qui en compte actuellement 28 en opérations. Il n’est « pas question de représailles : mais c’est un élément qu’il est logique de rappeler puisque nous tirons 10% de nos revenus à l’exportation de l’huile de palme, et que cet argent est utilisé pour acheter ce que nous importons ».

#étiquetage #commerce #business

De plus en plus d’entreprises se convertissent à une #huile_de_palme durable
▻http://www.lemonde.fr/economie/article/2013/11/18/de-plus-en-plus-d-entreprises-se-convertissent-a-une-huile-de-palme-durable_

Unilever qui s’engage à faire en sorte que sa consommation d’huile de palme ne provoque pas de déforestation et à assurer la traçabilité de ses achats pour 2014.

Carrefour qui assure vouloir « aller plus loin » que l’actuelle certification de la Table ronde pour une huile de palme durable (RSPO) et préserver les tourbières et forêts à haute valeur de conservation menacées par l’extension de la culture du palmier. L’Oréal qui « a pris publiquement l’engagement d’atteindre l’objectif zéro déforestation » pour ses approvisionnements en dérivés d’huile de palme.

oui, on a compris que l’huile de palme allait durer, durer, durer... c’est #paywall alors je ne sais pas mais sans doute à suivre.

Planet palm oil: peasants pay the price for cheap vegetable oil
GRAIN — Home
▻http://www.grain.org

Expanding production of cheap palm oil comes at a high price. Destruction of rainforests, labour exploitation, and brutal land grabbing: these are just a few of the nasty consequences that come with today’s oil palm plantations.

With palm oil companies finding lands in Indonesia and Malaysia more difficult to acquire, attention is shifting to Africa. Over the past fifteen years, foreign companies have signed over 60 deals covering nearly 4 million hectares in central and western Africa for the development of oil palm plantations. The land grabs are already generating violent conflicts in several African countries.

Planet palm oil: peasants pay the price for cheap vegetable oil
Cheap oil
Cash crop
A scramble for lands
Communities lose out to oil palm plantations
New frontiers for oil palm
A long history and vast biodiversity
Oil palm production in West and Central Africa
Well oiled resistance
Land grabs for oil palm plantations in Africa and Papua

#huile_de_palme #déforestation #terres

Tropical forests illegally destroyed for commercial agriculture | Global development | theguardian.com
▻http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2014/sep/11/tropical-forests-illegally-destroyed-commercial-agriculture

Increasing international demand for palm oil, beef, soy and wood is fuelling the illegal destruction of tropical forests at an alarming rate, according to new analysis that suggests nearly half of all recent tropical deforestation is the result of unlawful clearing for commercial agriculture.

The report, by the Washington-based NGO Forest Trends, concludes that 71% of tropical deforestation between 2000 and 2012 was due to commercial cultivation. Of that deforestation, 49% was caused by illegal clearing to make way for agricultural products whose largest buyers include the EU, China, India, Russia and the US.

The global market for beef, leather, soy, palm oil, tropical timbers, pulp and paper – worth an estimated $61bn (£38bn) a year – resulted in the clearance of more than 200,000 square kilometres of tropical forest in the first decade of the 21st century, the report says. Put another way, an average of five football fields of tropical forest were lost every minute over that period.

#déforestation #forêt_tropicale #soja #élevage #huile_de_palme

Palm oil, poverty and ‘imperialism’: A reality check from Liberia
▻http://farmlandgrab.org/post/view/23929-palm-oil-poverty-and-imperialism-a-reality-check-from-liberia

Porritt’s notion is that poor countries like mine (Liberia) are being held hostage to what he calls ‘eco-imperialists’ - rich country environmentalists who put pressure on developing countries not to cut down their rainforests, thus keeping us poor. His Forum for the Future charity instead suggests that promoting palm oil, a primary driver of deforestation, is a possible solution to poverty.

As Director of Liberia’s Sustainable Development Institute I have seen up-close the true impact of palm oil, and I can tell you it is more often the problem, not the solution. When Liberia opened up to investment after a devastating civil war, the government struck land deals with companies without the consent of the people who lived on the land, and many communities received a pittance in return for it. In rural parts of Liberia, communities complain that their food is now scarcer than it was before the palm oil companies moved in, and that fertilisers have polluted their fishing ponds and drinking water.

So palm oil seems to be compounding, not alleviating poverty.

#Liberia #huile_de_palme #pauvreté #appauvrissement #agobusiness #pollution #eau #impérialisme

Peru : Monoculture sweeps Amazon Forests
▻http://farmlandgrab.org/post/view/23921-peru-monoculture-sweeps-amazon-forests

According to the Peruvian Eco-Development Society (SPDE), “companies with interests and investments in palm oil crops have been acquiring rural land through offers to small farmers to force them to sell their land, through land invasion and through direct negotiation with public employees.”

“The Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation (MINAGRI) and the regional governments of Loreto and Ucayali continue to promote deforestation to [cultivate] African oil palm by classifying forests as rural lands, by re-classifying forest land for agro-industrial purposes, by authorizing land use changes, and by approving environmental impact studies for agro-industrial projects,” pointed out the SPDE.

According to the MINAGRI, there are 600,000 hectares (1.5 million acres) of land in the Peruvian forest with the potential to grow oil palm crops. Currently, about 60,000 hectares (152,300 acres) are cultivated with this plant, mostly in the Amazonian departments of Huánuco, Loreto, San Martín and Ucayali.

However, Peruvian authorities are not taking into consideration the effects of this business on the environment.

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