Tag Archives: indigenous rights

Transparency International report: corruption and corporate capture in Indonesia’s Top 50 palm oil companies

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

The CUT Campaign and its partners ask MP Kemi Badenoch to keep UK tariffs palm oil to prevent ecocide

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.

Dwindling tropical rainforests mean lost medicines yet to be discovered in their plants

About 80% of the world population relies on compounds derived from plants for medicines to treat various ailments, such as malaria and cancer, and to suppress pain. Our future medicines are likely to come from plants, but how effectively are we protecting these plants from extinction? We aren’t doing enough and we must do more!

The right for nature to simply exist is clear – the movement to enshrine this into law is growing

The idea that nature — forests , rivers, mountains — could have rights, in the same way that human rights, or corporate rights exist has been building momentum.

The dying days of 2022 saw a historic global agreement reached to try to protect the plants and animals of this world from further demise.

‘Just the beginning’: dawn of greenwash era for journalism in Asia?

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.

Oligarchs weaken Indonesia’s fight against corruption

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

RSPO member SIAT leaves Nigerian farmers without food. Leases their illegally taken land for €1.23 Euros per hectare, per year

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

India’s oil palm goals raise fears of deforestation and extinction

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.

Indonesia’s misinformation army ready for war in 2023

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

Will palm oil watchdog RSPO rid itself of deforestation or continue to pretend its products are sustainable? – EIA

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.

Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil: 19 years is enough

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.

Spoiled Fruit: Land-grabbing, violence and slavery for “sustainable” palm oil

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.

Land-grabbing and the climate crisis are strongly linked to palm oil

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.

Eyewitness Story by Dr Setia Budhi: The Last Village

A lone Dayak village in Borneo surrounded by palm oil plantations has held out for 14 years and resisted
corporate infiltration by global palm oil giants. My name is Dr Setia Budhi, I am a Dayak ethnographer and human rights advocate. I visited this village recently to see how they were going.

Mel Lumby: The beautiful begonias of Borneo and beyond deserve our love and protection

Begonias, along with orangutans and many other rainforest inhabitants are in danger now. Will these precious jewels of the jungle be located by scientists, described, eventually named and shared, so that people can love and marvel at their incredible beauty? Or will the bulldozer get there first, destroying where they live, making way to plant oil palm plantations for cheap palm oil? Retired horticulturalist and animal advocate Mel Lumby will keep fighting for as long as she lives.

September 21st: International Day of Struggle Against Monoculture Plantations

Today is ‘International Day of Struggle Against Monoculture Tree Plantations. World Rainforest Movement have produced a powerful video to highlight the Ugandan people’s struggle against BIDCO an international company partly owned by global palm oil giant Wilmar, who are taking land by force from locals by making false promises and using coercion and violence. They do so under the greenwashing protection of the RSPO

Anthropologist and author of ‘In the Shadow of the Palms’ Dr Sophie Chao: In Her Own Words

Dr Sophie Chao is an environmental anthropologist and environmental humanities scholar interested in the intersections of capitalism, ecology, Indigeneity, health, and justice in the Pacific.

Palm Oil Detectives is honoured to interview to Dr Sophie Chao about her research into the impacts of palm oil on the daily lives of Marind people and other sentient beings in West Papua.

​I wrote In the Shadow of the Palms because I wanted the world to understand how deforestation and industrial oil palm expansion are undermining Indigenous ways of being in West Papua.

Indigenous and local communities key to successful nature conservation

Indigenous and local communities are key to successful nature conservation and for protecting animals from extinction. Story via Eureka Alert and the University of East Anglia. Indigenous Peoples and local communities provide the best long-term outcomes for conservation, according to new research from the University of East Anglia (UEA) and partners in France. Lead author,Continue reading “Indigenous and local communities key to successful nature conservation”

Barbara Crane Navarro: Artist & Activist In Her Own Words

Barbara Crane Navarro is a French-American artist, writer, Indigenous and animal activist who lives near Paris. From 1968 to 1973 she studied at Rhode Island School of Design, then she went on to study at the San Francisco Art Institute in San Francisco, California, for a BFA.

Her work over many decades has been informed and inspired by time spent with indigenous communities. She took various study trips devoted to the exploration of techniques and natural pigments of different indigenous communities including the Dogon of Mali, West Africa, and the Yanomami communities in Venezuela and Brazil. Learn more about why she supports the #Boycott4Wildlife

13 Reasons Why You Should Boycott Gold For The Yanomami People

Hunger for Gold in the Global North is fueling a living hell in the Global South. Here are 20 reasons why you should #BoycottGold4Yanomami