According to a new report from the Bureau for Workers’ Activities (ACTRAV) at the International Labour Organization (ILO). About 80% of the world’s poor live in rural areas where they face a myriad of human rights problems which hamper their ability to survive.
Problems include inadequate safety at work, low pay, lack of stability and security of work, and excessive working hours, with women and young workers.
In an effort to combat India’s edible oil shortage, the Indian government has heavily promoted the cultivation of exotic palm oil trees. This is a decision mired in controversy due to the associated severe ecological repercussions witnessed in other nations. The thirst for high rainfall, crucial for palm oil’s yield, threatens India’s already dwindling groundwater reserves. Notably, proposals to introduce palm oil in the ecologically sensitive regions of Assam and the North East have sparked significant backlash. Bharat Dogra, a renowned writer and commentator, advocates for a shift in focus, suggesting that the solution may lie in harnessing the potential of indigenous trees capable of producing oilseeds for edible oil.
Renowned and prolific science communicator and author Julian Cribb writes this op-ed piece for Palm Oil Detectives. He addresses the world’s most pressing needs for survival as we descend into the pointy end of the Anthropocene era.
Julian outlines a dozen direct and actionable solutions for preserving a healthy and habitable earth. These are taken from his interviews with the world’s brightest minds. For a more in-depth analysis, be sure to grab a copy of his most recent book, published this year – ‘How to Fix a Broken Planet’
The recently released Global Slavery Index reveals that Australia risks importing goods amounting to US $17.4 billion, which are suspected to be produced via forced labour.
A ban of these goods from Australia was proposed by the Australian Greens, who along with several community organisations, are urging the Labor Party to prioritise this change following a report from the outgoing UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
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.
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
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.
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.
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
This incredible comic was created by Didier Kassai with research by Judith Verweijen and Dieudonne Botoko Kendewa of the University of Sussex and the University of Sheffield. The comic was originally posted by Cartoon Movement. The comic is based on field research conducted around the Feronia palm oil plantation in Tshopo province in north-east DR Congo.Continue reading “The people versus Feronia: Fighting palm oil agrocolonialism in the Congo”
Aviary Doert holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Biology and they have worked for a decade in medical and laboratory science. They are an amateur conservation scientist, with experience in field work and research. They are hoping to positively impact the environment and planet through education and increasing awareness of the consequences of people’s purchases and actions.
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
The RSPO is a global certification scheme for palm oil that certifies palm oil as ‘sustainable’. Yet this word means absolutely nothing, as RSPO members – the biggest supermarket brands in the world: (Unilever, Nestle, Colgate-Palmolive, L’Oreal, Avon, Mars, Mondelez, Cargill, Danone and more) continue with illegal indigenous landgrabbing, deforestation, human rights abuses, slavery andContinue reading “Research: Palm Oil Deforestation and its connection to RSPO members/supermarket brands”
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