Forest-fire haze drifting from Indonesia to neighbouring countries every dry season has eluded efforts to curb it.
Land clearing by burning is prohibited in Indonesia and Malaysia. However, penalising foreign companies for palm oil and timber deforestation has been hampered by cronyism and corruption.
Under-explored legal avenues may provide new solutions to the decades-old problem.
Urgent call to action! 🌍 #UK’s heavy use of #palmoil #soy & #beef fuels global #deforestation. Demand stricter regulations & transparency. Make every purchase count and #Boycottmeat #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife, learn more: https://wp.me/pcFhgU-78V
“Sustainable” Aviation Fuel (SAF) is a biofuel alternative to using fossil fuels for powering planes and cars. SAF is being aggressively marketed by multiple industries as a greener alternative to burning fossil fuels in cars and airplanes.
However, SAF is produced from food crops such as rapeseed, palm oil, soy and sugar cane. This requires vast swathes of land to grow. This also means mass deforestation of land that is rich in biodiversity, putting at risk already threatened animals and plants and indigenous peoples all over the world. Emissions from palm oil-derived biodiesel are three times higher than fossil fuel diesel. According to Transport & Environment EU food-based biodiesel leads to around 80% higher emissions than the fossil fuel diesel that it replaces. Read on to find out how you can take action.
Newly published research from the University of Michigan reveals that despite the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) certification system being influential, its effectiveness in reducing deforestation is uncertain. The study used remote sensing to analyse deforestation caused by oil palm plantations in Guatemala, a major palm oil supplier to global markets.
The results of this paper show that these plantations were responsible for 28% of the region’s deforestation, and RSPO-certified plantations did not significantly reduce deforestation. The study links this deforestation to the supply chains of major brands: Pepsico, Mondelēz International, and Grupo Bimbo, who rely on RSPO-certified supplies.
As a consumer you can make a difference every time you shop, use your wallet as a weapon and #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife
Ecolabels like RSPO and FSC are involved in networks of extensive greenwashing. They exist to conceal corporations’ environmental damage rather than fighting it. With three decades dubious promises from environmental certifications, World Rainforest Movement calls for a swift end to this disgraceful palm oil, soy and timber industry greenwashing. You can help resist palm oil colonialism and ecocide #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife every time you shop!
According to a May 2023 report by Transparency International, the top 50 palm oil companies in Indonesia are beset by deep problems: a lack of transparency in company ownership and who are the ultimate beneficiaries of profits, conflicts of interest, revolving-door politics, and politically exposed persons within companies.
All of the above makes the palm oil industry in Indonesia seriously susceptible to corporate capture and corruption. Don’t trust palm oil. Instead #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife every time you shop
Last month UK Tory MP Kemi Badenoch announced that a new UK trade deal would cut tariffs on palm oil imports from 12% to zero.
This move will likely grease the way towards the UK importing palm oil deforestation and human rights abuses from Malaysia and Indonesia into the UK.
Environmental groups: CUT Campaign, Palm Oil Detectives, Bruno Manser Fond, Save Rivers, Extinction Rebellion and many others strongly object to this decision by the UK government. Read on below to watch the video, sign the petition and join the #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife movement to take action against palm oil greed and ecocide.
Curtailed press freedom in Asia makes the job of calling out greenwashing increasingly difficult – at a time when corporate accountability is critical in the fight against climate change. Experts think greenwashing is only just beginning as PR firms try to mislead regulators, investors and consumers writes Robin Hicks for Eco Business News.
Indonesia’s efforts to fight government corruption are being corrupted from within parliament and backed by big palm oil, timber and mining businesses. Story via 360Info. Fight back every time you shop, #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife
A 5-month investigation by Elfredah Kevin-Alerechi and Kevin Woke of Sahara Reporters reveals how RSPO member SIAT Nigeria Limited is involved in human rights abuses and land-grabbing on host communities’ lands. Journalists Elfredah Kevin-Alerechi and Kevin Woke also discovered that palm oil company SIAT who illegally took their land are leasing it for a mere 600 Naira (N600) per hectare annually – the equivalent of €1.23 Euros per year to lease it.
River pollution by pesticides and restriction by the company to land, where locals can grow food has meant that their food and water supply is contaminated – starvation is now an urgent problem.
All of this occurs under the guise of “sustainable” palm oil pushed by the RSPO to consumers. SIAT’s palm oil is used in consumer products by PZ Cussons (source), Nestle (source) and Danone (source). This is wh you should #Boycottpalmoil
Story via Sahara Reporters. Additional info: Chain Reaction Research
Forest-fire haze drifting from Indonesia to neighbouring countries every dry season has eluded efforts to curb it.
Land clearing by burning is prohibited in Indonesia and Malaysia. However, penalising foreign companies for palm oil and timber deforestation has been hampered by cronyism and corruption.
Under-explored legal avenues may provide new solutions to the decades-old problem.
With controversial law reform, an election and a ban on deforestation palm oil in EU – In 2023, Indonesia’s government is set to ratchet up greenwashing, propaganda and misinformation on social media.
But the biggest propagator of disinformation seems not to be political renegades, but the Widodo administration. Fuelled by a well-resourced propaganda machine, the government is ready to fight dirty to win over public opinion.
Story via 360Info.org.
Written by By Ika Idris, Monash University Indonesia, Laeeq Khan, Ohio University, and Nuurrianti Jalli, Northern State University in Tangerang. January 16 2023 for 360Info.org. Dr Ika Idris is an associate professor at Public Policy & Management, Monash University Indonesia. Her works focus on government communication, misinformation, and the internet’s impacts on society. Republished here with a Creative Commons Licence.
#Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife
Palm oil produced through the destruction of forestland is still being sold around the world with the blessing of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).
On November 30, 2022 EIA and along with 99 other organisations issued a joint statement calling time on the RSPO and its habitual greenwashing – the act of giving the public or investors misleading or false information about the environmental impacts of a company’s products and activities.
For nearly two decades now, the RSPO has failed in its mission to make the industrial palm oil sector “sustainable”. Instead, it has been used by the palm oil industry to greenwash environmental destruction, labour and human rights abuses and land grabbing.
Major international brands sourcing palm oil from Brazilian plantations linked to violence, torture and land fraud. Global supermarket brands Ferrero, ADM, Bunge, Cargill, Danone, Ferrero, Hershey’s, Kellogg, Mondelez, Nestlé, PepsiCo, Unilever and many others source palm oil from Agropalma and BBF.
These supermarket brands along with Agropalma and BBF claim to use “sustainable” palm oil from the RSPO. A story by Global Witness. #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife
C4ADS analysis shows that the food conglomerates that feed millions—including giants such as Nestlé, Cargill, Adani Wilmar, IOI, Olenex and more —continue to enable forced labor through their indiscriminate import of tainted palm oil associated with slavery, indigenous land-grabbing, deforestation and human misery in the developing world.
A corporate monopoly for control over land and resources for palm oil must be dismantled immediately to give humanity, animals and our natural world a fighting chance for survival and to reverse the climate crisis. In Asia, many indigenous peoples are now joining forces and rising up to resist this corruption and ecocide.
What does the $60 billion USD palm oil industry have in common with Big Tobacco? A lot according to this report by the World Health Organisation. Palm oil industry lobbying tactics are used to influence research into the health impacts of palm oil and also to influence consumer buying habits. The dire health and environmental impacts of palm oil are hidden from consumers by clever marketing. These lobbying, marketing and greenwashing tactics are reminiscent of tobacco and alcohol health lobbying.
The world’s forests are being destroyed against a background of corruption, illegality and apathy. This article was originally published in The Ecologist magazine, 28th March, 2022 A complex web of financial instruments allowing crime, corruption and wrong-doing, hidden behind shell corporations and offshore companies was exposed with the release of the Panama Papers. This shadow networkContinue reading “Treespiracy: Forests are being destroyed against a background of corruption, illegality and apathy”
In 2022, 71 environmental and human rights groups from around the world wrote to the EU Commission to warn that certification schemes and ecolabels were not sufficient to prevent human rights abuses and deforestation from entering the European Union. Thankfully in 2023 this has come to pass.
Fast forward to 2023, in the UK, industry lobbyists including Ferrero and serial greenwashing outfit Orangutan Land Trust have watered down the UK’s commitment to not importing deforestation into the UK. The new trade deal with Malaysia paves the way for mass importation of palm oil ecocide.
RSPO and FSC have been shown for decades to be ineffective and corrupt. They have failed in preventing human rights abuses, illegal land-grabbing, violence, deforestation, ecocide and species extinction.
So here are 10 reasons that UK should not rely on weak and ineffective certification schemes to enforce its zero deforestation mandate. Originally published by GRAIN
Palm Oil Detectives 