industryterm:palm oil production

Mangrove deforestation may be releasing more CO2 than Poland, study finds
▻https://news.mongabay.com/2018/03/mangrove-deforestation-releases-more-co2-than-poland-study-finds

https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2018/03/02195116/australia_daintree_168.jpg

Seemingly nondescript messes of tangled branches and exposed roots, mangrove forests cling to the coasts of many tropical countries. However, mangroves are far from unexceptional, providing critical ecosystem services like erosion control, flood mitigation and nurseries for fish. Mangroves also store a lot of carbon, with a hectare of mangrove forest sequestering up to four times as much carbon as a similarly sized tract of rainforest.

But mangroves are in trouble. Studies estimate between 30 and 50 percent of the world’s mangroves have been lost over the past 50 years as they are deforested for shrimp, rice and palm oil production, drowned by rising seas, and starved of freshwater by dam-building. And as mangroves disappear, so do their wildlife communities and carbon stores.

#mangrove #écosystème #destruction

Ecocide and modern slavery in the land of the Maya: the impact of oil palm cultivation in Guatemala - Equal Times
▻https://www.equaltimes.org/ecocide-and-modern-slavery-in-the?lang=en

It looks clean and exuberantly beautiful, but the lake is contaminated. And the lives of 700 people depend on this lake, all residents of the Manos Unidas (United Hands) Cooperative, a community that is part of the municipality of Sayaxché, in the Petén department, northern Guatemala.

Manos Unidas has become the last frontier of resistance to the advance of palm oil production in the region, as the only community that has hung on to its land; and that, say its residents, is because the lands are common property.

#Guatemala #industrie_palmiste #esclavage_moderne

Documenting the consequences of palm oil production beyond Southeast Asia
▻https://news.mongabay.com/2017/02/documenting-the-consequences-of-palm-oil-production-beyond-southeast-

https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2017/02/05183031/Gorilla-an-animal-threatened-by-palm-oil-in-C-and-W-Africa.jpg

Oil palm plantations are rapidly mushrooming throughout the tropics.
A new film, Appetite for Destruction: The Palm Oil Diaries, looks at some of the consequences of that expansion.
This is an interview with the film’s director, #Michael_Dorgan.

Most of the attention around palm oil production has focused on where the crop has the largest footprint: Southeast Asia. Yet oil palm plantations are rapidly mushrooming throughout the tropics, from the species’ ancestral home in West and Central Africa to Pacific islands to Latin America. A new film, Appetite for Destruction: The Palm Oil Diaries, looks at some of the social and environmental impacts of that expansion, by visiting communities, forests, and plantations in Cameroon, #Guatemala, and Colombia.

#industrie_palmiste #documentaire #Cameroun #Colombie

The human cost of palm oil production in Myanmar | Myanmar | Al Jazeera
▻http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/inpictures/2016/11/human-cost-palm-oil-production-myanmar-161120085639460.html

http://www.aljazeera.com/mritems/Images/2016/11/20/4abf34f58ea44a65908142df05e88f20_18.jpg

In 1999, when Myanmar was ruled by a repressive military regime, the government laid out a plan for development which included an aggressive expansion of palm oil in its southern provinces.

Since then, 44 large-scale palm oil companies have transformed 350,000 hectares of pristine jungle into a series of plantations.

Although the inception of the palm oil sector in Myanmar has provided regular jobs to unskilled labourers seeking regular employment and is increasing the internal supply of cooking oil within the country, the industry at large is being criticised on a number of fronts.

Environmentalists decry the ecological devastation and habitat loss associated with clear cutting rainforest and implementing a monoculture system of palm oil.

#industrie_palmiste #plantations #Birmanie #main–d'œuvre_migrante

Indonesia: Biofuels from palm oil and power from tree plantations? | CIFOR Forests News Blog
▻http://blog.cifor.org/43268/indonesia-biofuels-from-palm-oil-and-power-from-tree-plantations?fnl

http://i0.wp.com/blog.cifor.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/12184399846_a2e8e61bab_z.jpg?fit=640%2C425

Indonesia possesses an extraordinarily large reservoir of oil palm plantations that span more than 10 million hectares and account for half of the world’s palm oil production. To ensure that this resource contributes to the national energy plan, the national government has worked out a Biodiesel Mandate that is among the most ambitious in the world.

#indonésie #industrie_palmiste #agrocarburants

One in five of world’s plant species at risk of extinction | Environment | The Guardian
▻http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/may/10/one-in-five-of-worlds-plant-species-at-risk-of-extinction?CMP=twt_gu

https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/50aea65443568fb57cf84ef97c57c9cf74a7f45e/0_0_5760_3456/5760.jpg?w=1200&q=55&auto=format&usm=12&fit=max&s=77c0913ba2bae04de0a410b4e7649b01

One in five of the world’s plant species is threatened with extinction, according to the first global assessment of flora, putting supplies of food and medicines at risk.

But the report also found that 2,000 new species of plant are discovered every year, raising hopes of new sources of food that are resilient to disease and climate change. New finds in 2015 included a giant insect-eating plant first spotted on Facebook and a 100-tonne tree hidden in an African forest.

The State of the World’s Plants report, by experts at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, reveals that there are currently 390,000 species of known plants, with more than 30,000 used by people. However, more than 5,000 species have invaded foreign countries and are causing billions of dollars of damage every year.

▻http://www.kew.org/discover/news/state-worlds-plants-report-released-kew

#botanique #biodiversité #alimentation #forêt #déforestation #industrie_palmiste

The Scramble for Africa Lives on in the 21st Century | Afrikan Post
▻http://afrikanpost.com/?p=2303

The food price spikes of 2007/8 showed just vulnerability of food importing nations in supporting its population. The Fluctuating fuel prices in the period 2007–09, urged companies to acquire land for the production of agro fuel or biofuel crops. The meltdown in international financial markets in late 2009 and subsequent recession caused investors to seek to invest in the more tangible asset of farmland, with the aim of having secure investment considering the rising demand for food and fuel.

Another reason why Africa’s land is being prone to grabbing is because the land is considered as cheap and almost free with governments willingly signing off these lands to buyers at highly insignificant commercial rates; again, with disregard to communities and individuals who own these lands.

Many of these land deals involve renewable leases for periods ranging from twenty-five to ninety-nine years, in return for small payments made to national, provincial or local government authorities. Sometimes once-off compensation for locals is included with promises of jobs. Yet after the land is acquired, enforcement of promises made remain a challenge, especially as investors’ choices about how and how much to invest are framed by factors far outside the control of host governments. A good example is the situation in Cameroon where Herackles Farms, a New York based investment firm is said to have acquired 73,000 hectares of land for palm oil production in the South West region of Cameroon in 2012 (according to a report by the Oakland Institute). However, according to the presidential decree granting Herackles this land, the company was expected to develop social facilities such as community schools, hospitals, health clinics, conduct environmental and social impact assessments in the new concession and pay land rents as stated in the presidential decree of November 2013. None of these were ever done as confirmed by SEFE (Struggle to Economize Future Environment) an organisation which has been investigating Herackles closely. Yet Herackles has still been operating in the area in clear violation of the laid down conditions in the presidential decree. Unfortunately, no significant action has been taken to address these outstanding issues.

#terres #Afrique