Long-time Slashdot reader chicksdaddy writes:
A group of U.S. consumer advocacy groups on Wednesday proposed legislation to address the growing epidemic of "zombie" Internet of Things (IoT) devices that have had software support cut off by their manu…
A delivery driver has won $50 million in a lawsuit after being seriously burned when a Starbucks drink spilled in his lap at a California drive-through. Court records show a Los Angeles County jury found Friday for Michael Garcia.
'This lawsuit about to be real entertaining': Woman drops her Range Rover off with valet at Embassy Suites. She can't believe the condition she got it back in
Delayed flight? It could soon be harder for you to claim compensation from airlines.
Proposals to water down passenger flight delay compensation rules are being discussed in Brussels, risking the EU's claim to having the most passenger-friendly skies in the world.
A revision to the current compensation rules, EU261, has been debated since 2013, but resurfaced this week under pressure from airlines and lobbying groups.
Struggling live music sector needs watchdog to crack down on anti-competitive practices, inquiry says theguardian.com/australia-news… Report urges changes to Australia’s consumer law to stamp out extreme dynamic pricing and improve transparency of fees and charges #musicbiz #consumerrights #competition #auslaw #auspol
Hey there! Have you noticed your Microsoft 365 bill looking a little heftier lately? If so, you’re not alone. Let’s chat about what’s been going on with Microsoft, why people are upset, and what it all means. I’ll keep it simple, like we’re grabbing a coffee and catching up. Ready? Let’s dive in!
What Happened? The Price Jump Surprise
Picture this: one day, you’re happily using Microsoft 365—maybe typing up a grocery list or sharing pics with family—and the next day, bam, the price shoots up. For personal plans, it’s gone up by a whopping 46%! Family plans got hit too, with increases over 20%. That’s a big jump, right?
But here’s the kicker: Microsoft only gave folks 24 hours’ notice before the change kicked in. Imagine finding out your favorite coffee shop doubled their prices overnight with barely a heads-up! On top of that, they didn’t really explain why—like, what’s so special about these new AI features they’re adding? Customers were l
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Hey there! Have you noticed your Microsoft 365 bill looking a little heftier lately? If so, you’re not alone. Let’s chat about what’s been going on with Microsoft, why people are upset, and what it all means. I’ll keep it simple, like we’re grabbing a coffee and catching up. Ready? Let’s dive in!
What Happened? The Price Jump Surprise
Picture this: one day, you’re happily using Microsoft 365—maybe typing up a grocery list or sharing pics with family—and the next day, bam, the price shoots up. For personal plans, it’s gone up by a whopping 46%! Family plans got hit too, with increases over 20%. That’s a big jump, right?
But here’s the kicker: Microsoft only gave folks 24 hours’ notice before the change kicked in. Imagine finding out your favorite coffee shop doubled their prices overnight with barely a heads-up! On top of that, they didn’t really explain why—like, what’s so special about these new AI features they’re adding? Customers were left scratching their heads and feeling a bit blindsided. You can read more about the details in this report from The Verge.
Why Are People Mad? It Feels a Bit Sneaky
So, Microsoft says these price hikes are because of “amazing new AI features.” Cool, but… what features? They didn’t exactly send out a memo saying, “Hey, here’s what you’re getting, and you can choose if you want it!” Nope, it just happened, and that’s rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. It’s like ordering a plain burger and getting charged for fancy toppings you didn’t ask for.
This sneaky vibe has even caught the eye of Australia’s consumer watchdog, the ACCC. They’re wondering if Microsoft broke some rules about being honest with customers—you know, basic stuff like not tricking people or hiding the fine print. There’s talk of an investigation, which could mean legal headaches for Microsoft. Want the full scoop? Check out this article from ABC News Australia.
What’s it like where you are? Have you ever felt tricked by a price change like this?
The Backlash and Microsoft’s “Oops” Moment
Oh boy, people are not happy. Social media’s buzzing with complaints—folks saying they feel ripped off or stuck with a service they can’t easily ditch. Imagine telling your friends, “Yeah, I’m paying way more now, and I’m not even sure why!” That’s the vibe.
Microsoft’s response? They’ve said, “Don’t worry, it’s all legal, and you’re getting tons of benefits!” But that hasn’t calmed the storm. People want answers, not just a pat on the back. This whole mess is turning into a bit of a PR headache for them—nobody likes feeling like a company’s taking advantage of them, right? There’s more on the customer reactions in this TechRadar piece.
Wrapping It Up: What’s Next?
So, here we are. Microsoft bumped up prices, didn’t give much warning, and now they’ve got a bunch of grumpy customers and maybe even some legal trouble brewing. It’s a reminder that even big companies can stumble when they forget to keep things clear and fair with us everyday folks.
What do you think—would you stick with Microsoft 365 after this, or start shopping around? I’m curious! For now, they’ve got some explaining to do if they want to win back the trust. Keep an eye out—this story’s not over yet.
WordPress Tags: Microsoft 365, price hike, customer backlash, transparency, AI features, ACCC investigation, consumer rights, tech news, Microsoft response, subscription costs
Greenpeace Report Slams MSC and RSPO as ‘Absolutely Untrustworthy’ for Seafood and Palm Oil
A landmark Greenpeace report reveals that more than 25% of food labels fail to meet trustworthy sustainability standards. Clear and severe failures in ecolabel effectiveness were awarded to Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (#RSPO) which certifies palm oil as “sustainable” and Marine Stewardship Council which certifies seafood as “sustainable”. Consumers are increasingly sceptical, with 62% expressing concerns that these labels are a form of #
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Greenpeace Report Slams MSC and RSPO as ‘Absolutely Untrustworthy’ for Seafood and Palm Oil
Greenwashing Exposed: MSC and RSPO mislead consumers on seafood and palm oil
Environmental organisation Greenpeace Austria has analysed 42 of the most widely used food labels and found that over 25% of them are unreliable. The findings highlight growing consumer concerns over greenwashing in the food industry.
Consumers Losing Trust
A representative survey by the research institute Integral found:
Importance of Food Labels: 64% of respondents consider food labels important when shopping.
Greenpeace has singled out certain labels, such as the MSC certification for fish and the RSPO label for palm oil, as potentially harmful to environmental goals. Meanwhile, some labels remain credible, including Demeter, “Prüf nach!” and Bio Austria.
Call for Stricter Regulations
Greenpeace is demanding that terms like “sustainable” or “climate-friendly” only be used when backed by scientific evidence and transparent certification standards. The upcoming EU Green Claims Directive aims to prevent companies from making false or exaggerated environmental claims without scientific proof.
Time for Real Change
Consumers are calling for honest and transparent labelling, while environmental advocates warn that without stricter regulations, greenwashing will continue to deceive shoppers.
The report itself is in German and can be read here. The RSPO and MSC sections have been machine translated below for your convenience. Greenpeace considers both MSC and RSPO ecolabels to be “absolutely untrustworthy” for consumers in 2025.
Which quality labels and organic brands can I trust?
Austria has a jungle of quality seals, certification labels, and brand or quality marks. Hundreds of them appear on products when shopping in supermarkets. But which ones are truly trustworthy?
Greenpeace has examined the quality labels in the food sector. The alarming result: more than a quarter of the 42 certification labels are not or only moderately trustworthy. Some are even detrimental to achieving environmental goals – such as the MSC fish label or the RSPO palm oil label.
Quality Seals, Certification Labels, and Organic Brands
The analysis of quality labels and brands, particularly those relevant to climate and the environment, focused on four key areas:
Standards and scope of requirements
Labelling and distinguishability
Traceability, transparency, and control
Trustworthiness and credibility
Based on these criteria, the labels were categorised into:
Highly trustworthy and particularly environmentally friendly
Trustworthy and environmentally friendly
Conditionally trustworthy with moderate environmental benefits
Barely trustworthy with little or no environmental benefits
Absolutely untrustworthy and contributing to environmental destruction
Labels and Certifications for Other Areas
For certification labels that do not primarily focus on environmental standards but instead prioritise animal welfare, social standards, or other aspects, a broader classification was used. This evaluation focused on:
Environmentally relevant standards and the scope of requirements
Transparency and control mechanisms
Trustworthiness and credibility
The categories for these labels were:
Trustworthy and environmentally friendly
Moderately trustworthy with limited environmental benefits
Not trustworthy, contributing to environmental destruction
Although there is now a ban on new plantations on peatlands and a prohibition on slash-and-burn clearing for new plantations, the standard does not require the restoration of the millions of hectares of already drained peatlands where oil palm plantations currently stand. However, in the face of the climate crisis, this restoration would be crucial.
Over the years, numerous reports have surfaced detailing human rights violations, including child labour, forced labour, and breaches of RSPO’s minimum standards.
Many food products carry labels such as “certified palm oil” or “sustainable palm oil,” which are often RSPO-certified. However, from an environmental perspective, the term “sustainable” is misleading in this context. Greenpeace considers this to be greenwashing.
MSC:
The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) was founded in 1997 by Unilever and WWF as an initiative for responsible fishing. However, little remains of its once ambitious goals.
NEGATIVE ASPECTS:
• Even fisheries that use bottom trawling, which causes long-term destruction of the seafloor ecosystem, can receive MSC certification.
• MSC certification is still granted even when fisheries target species that are scientifically recognised as endangered. For example in Australia, the endangered orange roughie was certified as “sustainable” by MSC despite their population that is in grave peril.
NOT TRUSTWORTHY
Neither MSC nor other certification schemes apply the precautionary principle, which is essential for protecting marine life. Instead of addressing the real issues in global fisheries, MSC gives the destructive fishing industry a greenwashed image.
This is particularly alarming given that MSC’s own website acknowledges that fishing is the greatest threat to endangered marine species. Greenpeace considers this label to be untrustworthy.
WARNING: GREENWASHING
The MSC label is widely used and serves primarily as a marketing tool to boost fish product sales, claiming to be an “eco-label for wild-caught fish” and a seal of approval for sustainable fisheries. However, our oceans are already severely overfished. The only truly sustainable choice is to stop buying and consuming seafood and predatory fish altogether.
Greenpeace. (2025, February 13). Greenwashing & Co.: Ein Viertel der Gütesiegel ist nicht vertrauenswürdig. Kronen Zeitung. Retrieved February 24, 2025, from krone.at/3688558.
Greenpeace. (2025, February). Greenpeace quality label guide: Food products 2025. Greenpeace Austria. Retrieved February 24, 2025, from greenpeace.at/uploads/2025/02/….
The world may be facing a devastating “hidden” collapse in insect species due to the twin threats of climate change and habitat loss. #Palmoil 🪔 #soy #meat 🥩 and #cocoa 🍫 #agriculture along…
This article highlights the significant role that banks and investors play in fuelling a global biodiversity crisis – particularly in relation to palm oil, meat, soy and timber deforestation.
For decades, the palm oil industry, backed by the RSPO, has misled consumers with the false promise of “sustainable” palm oil. Behind this green façade lies a brutal reality of deforestation, human rights…
Although #WorldOrangutanDay falls on the 19th of August, in our opinion, every day deserves to be World Orangutan Day! So here is an infographic that you can download, print and share however you…
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Take Action in Five Ways
1. Join the #Boycott4Wildlife on social media and subscribe to stay in the loop: Share posts from this website to your own network on Twitter, Mastadon, Instagram, Facebook and Youtube using the hashtags #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife.
2. Contribute stories: Academics, conservationists, scientists, indigenous rights advocates and animal rights advocates working to expose the corruption of the palm oil industry or to save animals can contribute stories to the website.
3. Supermarket sleuthing: Next time you’re in the supermarket, take photos of products containing palm oil. Share these to social media along with the hashtags to call out the greenwashing and ecocide of the brands who use palm oil. You can also take photos of palm oil free products and congratulate brands when they go palm oil free.
4. Take to the streets: Get in touch with Palm Oil Detectives to find out more.
5. Donate: Make a one-off or monthly donation to Palm Oil Detectives as a way of saying thank you and to help pay for ongoing running costs of the website and social media campaigns. Donate here
RSPO’s Dubious “Sustainability”: 30 Years of Deceit
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!
#Ecolabels like #RSPO and #FSC are accused of greenwashing, hiding corporations’ environmental damage from consumers, rather than fighting against this #corruption. Fight back with your wallet and #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife
World Rainforest Movement and Palm Oil Detectives call for an end to #palm oil #greenwashing from #RSPO “sustainable” palm oil. Resist the greenwash and #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife in the supermarket!
The shelves in supermarkets and stores are full of certified products. The packaging displays different labels indicating products were made with “sustainable” paper or wood, food or cosmetic products made with “sustainable” palm oil, “responsible” soybeans and so on and so forth.
Even when it comes to buying an airplane ticket, consumers can pay a little more to ensure that their carbon emissions are (supposedly) “neutralised”, so as to guarantee that much touted “sustainability”. Read more: WHO Bulletin Report: Palm Oil and Human Health Impacts
So why is there this need for so many labels and forms of certification? What is actually being certified? And who is benefiting from this?
After 30 years of certification schemes with environmental and social bias, what is clear is that the only “sustainability” that they guarantee is that of corporations’ lucrative business.
The first environmental certification mechanism for a specific product (wood) and its production chain emerged in the early 1990s, with the creation of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). Although its origin is connected with civil society pressure on corporations, FSC has been fully incorporated into the production logic of logging companies operating in forests, of giant paper and pulp corporations using tree monoculture plantations, as well as of producers and distributors of consumer goods.
Over time, having shown that it did not constitute any threat – on the contrary: an opportunity – to the accumulation strategy of the corporations involved, other sectors started creating similar mechanisms. Hence, starting in the 2000s, initiatives and so-called roundtables for “sustainable” or “responsible” production of palm oil, soybeans, cocoa, sugarcane, among others, proliferated. Greenwashing ecocide – Agropalma & Orangutan Land Trust Read more: Greenwashing Ecocide: Agropalma and Orangutan Land Trust
100 NGOS signed a public statement denouncing the RSPO in late 2022
Read more
These “sustainable” initiatives have various aspects in common
1. They are dominated, compromised and funded by corporate interests
They are schemes that present themselves as non-profit associations including many apparently diverse actors and interests (companies, NGOs, governments etc.) However, in practice, the business sector participants andtheir allies, like the big conservationist NGOs, dominate these initiatives and impose their interests in a highly unequal power relation between the members.
2. They promote toothless and unenforceable guidelines
They are mechanisms that establish operational guidelines and directives for companies to adhere to on a voluntary bases, leaving no possibility of legal consequences when rules are broken – rules formulated and judged by the companies themselves, it should be noted.
3. They promote an endless growth model of capitalism in spite of our limited and finite natural world
They are initiatives submitted to the logic of the market and its expansion, that is to say, certification labels have become important both to obtain funding for companies’ expansion projects and to win over consumers, mainly urban consumers and those from the global North. Read more about the limits of the Endless growth model.
4. The mechanism for conflict resolution is set and decided upon by the certification label itself – amplifying racial and gender inequities
They are mechanisms headquartered in countries of the North, and with management boards mainly composed of men and white people, leaving the rural communities of the South that have to face the certified plantations, to play the role of mere receivers of determinations imposed from outside about the use of the space where they live. And if they want to question the actions of any of the certified companies, they must submit to the protocol created by the certification system itself on how to proceed.
5. They use greenwashing language and false promises even though this does not reflect reality
Certification schemes are used by companies as defence mechanisms whenever they are faced with criticism over the impacts of their activities:
“Our products are certified…”, “The project has certification…”, as if this has guaranteed that there is no cause for concern.
One way or another, such certification mechanisms have not stopped the destructive expansion of industrial tree plantations, oil palms, soy, etc. Read more about using Design and Words as a greenwashing tool.
6. The predatory nature of corporate land-grabbing and expansionism cannot ever work in favour of indigenous peoples
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqYoRh1aApg" title="A still from the documentary: by Mama Malind su Hilang (Our Land Has Gone) Nanang Sujana Watch on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqYoRh1aApg" class="has-alt-description">A still from the documentary: by Mama Malind su Hilang (Our Land Has Gone) Nanang Sujana Watch on Youtube: youtube.com/watch?v=RqYoRh1aAp… Certification labels have not been able to resolve the conflicts generated with traditional communities and Indigenous Peoples. Nor do they have the potential to do so, since they are designed to allow the continuity and expansion of corporate accumulation patterns that are intrinsically dependent on a predatory dynamic.
In fact, the main common denominator of such certification schemes is that they guarantee a green label to the companies involved, thus contributing to their primary objective, i.e., the maximisation of profit.
7. Certification labels like FSC and RSPO are vital to for companies gain consumer buy-in and greenwash away harms
Certifiers have hence become a key element through which companies seek to legitimize their territorial and economic expansion in the global South, deceiving consumers with the “sustainability” discourse.
In other words, these destructive corporations need certification labels to obtain some legitimacy in the eyes of consumers and investors, bearing in mind the vast number of reports, news and studies showing their harmful effects, such as:
Violent corporate land-grabbing aided by private enforcement or military/police intervention
Problematic, deceptive or non-existent community consultation processes
Contamination by agro-chemicals and its human health and environmental impacts
Soil degradation
Dangerous and humiliating jobs
Sexual abuse and other forms of violence against women
Child slavery and indentured slavery
among many other impacts related to extensive monoculture plantations.
This permits one to affirm without reservation that certification itself has become an underlying cause of deforestation.
When a brand makes token changes while continuing with deforestation, ecocide or human rights abuses in another part of their business – this is ‘Hidden Trade Off’
For example, Nestle talks up satellite monitoring to stop palm oil deforestation. Yet…
Claiming a brand or commodity is green without any supporting evidence The RSPO promises to deliver this with their certification: 1. Improves the livelihoods of small holder farmers 2. Stops illegal indigenous land-grabbing and human rights abuses 3. Stops deforestation…
Claiming a brand or commodity is ‘green’ or ‘sustainable’ based on broad generalisations, unclear language or vague statements Jump to section Greenwashing: Vagueness in Language Greenwashing: Vagueness in certification standards Reality: Auditing of RSPO a failure Quote: EIA: Who Watches…
Claiming a brand or commodity is green based on unreliable, ineffective endorsements or eco-labels such as the RSPO, Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) or FairTrade coffee and cocoa. Greenwashing: Fake Labels and fake certifications Ecolabels are designed to reassure consumers that…
Claiming a brand, commodity or industry is green based on irrelevant information Jump to section Greenwashing: Irrelevant Topics Greenwashing: Colonial Racism Research: Palm oil greenwashing and its link to climate denialism Reality: RSPO Certification Doesn’t Stop Deforestation, Human Rights Abuses…
Claiming that a brand, commodity or industry is greener than others in the same category, in order to excuse ecocide, deforestation, human rights and animal rights abuses. Jump to section Greenwashing: Lesser of Two Evils: Palm Oil Uses Less Land…
Telling outright lies over and over again to consumers until they are believed as truth Jump to section Greenwashing: Endangered species Reality: Endangered species Greenwashing: Human rights, land-grabbing and livelihoods for workers Reality: Human rights, land-grabbing and livelihoods for workers…
Using design principles and greenwashing language in order to trigger emotional and unconscious responses in consumers Jump to section Greenwashing: Design Principles Greenwashing Design Example: Palm Done Right Greenwashing Design Example: WWF Palm Oil Scorecard 2021 Greenwashing with Words: Vegan…
Jump to section Orangutan Land Trust funded by rainforest destroying palm oil co. Kulim Malaysia Berhad Orangutan Land Trust funded by Agropalma: during decades-long destruction of the Amazon for palm oil Orangutan Land Trust and New Britain Palm Oil (NBPOL):…
Attempting to humiliate, gaslight, discredit, harass and stalk any vocal critics of a brand, commodity or industry certification in order to scare individuals into silence and stop them from revealing corruption Greenwashing’s most insidious and darkest form is the attempt…
There has never been a more urgent time for consumers to wake up to the devastation wrought by global supermarket brands for palm oil Jump to section 1. Greenwashing with Hidden Trade-Off 2. Greenwashing with No Proof 3. Greenwashing with…
New forms of greenwashing: Carbon Credits and Biodiversity Credits
Furthermore, it is important to mention that the idea of certification has been taking on new shapes. With the creation of offset mechanisms for carbon emissions and biodiversity loss, new commodities have emerged already linked to certification mechanisms. In this new market, carbon credits and biodiversity credits – issued by certification schemes – represent a supposed guarantee that greenhouse gas emissions or the destruction of biodiversity are being duly offset elsewhere.
Differently from wood, paper, palm oil or soybeans, where the certification is “added” to the product by means of a label, in the carbon or biodiversity markets it is the certification itself that makes it feasible for the product to be consumed.
In other words, the commodity in itself is supposedly a guarantee – though a virtual guarantee, obtained through dubious methodologies and permeated by openly suspect interests.
This compilation of articles from the WRM Bulletin aims to underscore the damaging role played by companies and organisations involved in certification schemes. WRM considers it important to highlight that after three decades with ever more environmental certification labels on the market, it is urgent to put an end to this greenwashing.
Ultimately, instead of combating environmental devastation and the social ills linked to corporations’ and other players’ operations, these labels cover up and sustain their destructive logic.
The industrial plantation model is intrinsically linked with patriarchal oppression, serving as a cornerstone for corporate profitability. Companies often exploit women, recognizing their integral role within community dynamics, as a means to augment their bottom line. The intersection of gender and economic exploitation exemplifies the profound social implications of this oppressive system.
The RSPO certification, cleverly turning the palm oil industry’s legitimacy crisis to its favor, uses it as a stepping stone to further strengthen the industry’s position. It provides certificates claiming to meet sustainability standards—a clear advantage to the industry. However, it’s important to note that these standards are largely controlled by and designed to benefit companies operating within the palm oil sector itself.
Implementing gender policies in oil palm companies and the RSPO certification scheme is a start. But do they truly tackle the violence, patriarchy, and racism in the plantation model, or merely mask them? It’s crucial to examine how these policies are enacted and if they genuinely drive substantial change, or just scratch the surface of these systemic issues.
The harsh realities of violence, mass killings, and forced relocations amid the armed conflict in Colombia have disturbingly paved the way for the expansion of industrial oil palm cultivation. The palm oil company and RSPO member Poligrow, has been significantly implicated in these issues, with credible allegations of land seizure and intimidation tactics within the region of Mapiripán.
Language never operates in a vacuum. Historically, specific terms have been leveraged as tools for exercising control over populations and territories. This article throws light on certain terms which, while seemingly positive, often shield economic interests detrimental to forests, forest animals and forest peoples.
The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) is a widely used certification system promising environmental, safety, and human rights standards in the palm oil industry. However, Friends of the Earth Africa groups contest its effectiveness, citing ongoing environmental degradation, human rights breaches, biodiversity loss, and increased poverty in Africa linked to the activities of palm oil companies.
The palm industry in Ecuador, encompassing 270,000 hectares of plantations, has been using the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) certification to project an image of sustainability, setting itself apart from Asian palm oil. However, critics argue that this certification merely muffles community objections. Resistance from communities such as La Chiquita, Guadualito, and Barranquilla de San Javier in the Esmeraldas region continues to fuel discontent and foster international solidarity.
Nearly 1,500 members of MALOA in Sierra Leone are challenging RSPO’s certification of a SOCFIN subsidiary. They cite a string of conflicts and grievances tied to land use. This move follows controversial certifications of SOCFIN group’s operations in Nigeria, Cameroon, and Ivory Coast. Critics question if RSPO, perceived as industry-biased, can truly guarantee sustainability and human rights in the palm oil sector.
The Palmas del Ixcán company in Guatemala is accused of implementing systematic dispossession of land from indigenous communities for oil palm cultivation, using tactics such as deceptive RSPO certification and independent producers. The company’s strategic approach replaced the traditional collective land management by indigenous people in the Municipality of Ixcán, which had been disrupted by development plans since the 1960s. Despite filing a complaint to the RSPO and participating in consultations, the communities found their concerns disregarded, leading them to criticize the RSPO and label it a sham, asserting that its true intention is to facilitate palm planting at any cost.
A landmark #Greenpeace study reveals that more than 25% of food labels fail to meet trustworthy sustainability standards. Clear and severe failures in #ecolabel effectiveness were awarded to Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil…
For decades, the palm oil industry, backed by the RSPO, has misled consumers with the false promise of “sustainable” palm oil. Behind this green façade lies a brutal reality of deforestation, human rights…
Although #WorldOrangutanDay falls on the 19th of August, in our opinion, every day deserves to be World Orangutan Day! So here is an infographic that you can download, print and share however you…
Situated on Mexico’s lush and biodiverse Pacific coast is La Encrucijada Biosphere Reserve – One of Mexico’s most spectacular natural treasures. Now the government and palm oil businesses are trying to sieze vast…
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Take Action in Five Ways
1. Join the #Boycott4Wildlife on social media and subscribe to stay in the loop: Share posts from this website to your own network on Twitter, Mastadon, Instagram, Facebook and Youtube using the hashtags #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife.
2. Contribute stories: Academics, conservationists, scientists, indigenous rights advocates and animal rights advocates working to expose the corruption of the palm oil industry or to save animals can contribute stories to the website.
3. Supermarket sleuthing: Next time you’re in the supermarket, take photos of products containing palm oil. Share these to social media along with the hashtags to call out the greenwashing and ecocide of the brands who use palm oil. You can also take photos of palm oil free products and congratulate brands when they go palm oil free.
4. Take to the streets: Get in touch with Palm Oil Detectives to find out more.
5. Donate: Make a one-off or monthly donation to Palm Oil Detectives as a way of saying thank you and to help pay for ongoing running costs of the website and social media campaigns. Donate here
This compilation of articles from the WRM Bulletin aims to underscore the damaging role played by companies and organizations involved in certification schemes.
Want to avoid palm oil? You need a ‘palm oil free’ label
The most important factor determining whether consumers avoid purchasing a product containing palm oil is not how they feel about orangutans, the environment, or anything else for that matter. It’s whether they know what’s in the product.
When consumers are told about palm oil being in products – they will avoid them according to this important study. It is time for a #palmoilfree label. #Boycottpalmoil
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Want to avoid palm oil? You need a ‘palm oil free’ label
The most important factor determining whether consumers avoid purchasing a product containing palm oil is not how they feel about orangutans, the environment, or anything else for that matter. It’s whether they know what’s in the product.
When consumers are told about palm oil being in products – they will avoid them according to this important study. It is time for a #palmoilfree label. #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife
Research reveals that consumers’ ability to diagnose whether a product is made with palm oil is the leading driver of whether they choose a palm-oil free product over a similar product that is, or could be, made with palm oil.
Educate people about the risks to beautiful animals – they will go palm oil free
According to the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), a consortium of stakeholders from various sectors of the palm oil industry, the last 20 years have witnessed a growth of 43% in the amount of land being used to cultivate palm oil.
The vast majority of this area – over 85% – is in Malaysia and Indonesia, in zones inhabited by wild orangutans. By some estimates, the deforestation resulting from palm oil production leads to the loss of as many as 2,500 orangutans a year.
Current FSANZ regulations do not require that palm oil be labeled as such on food product packaging, but instead may be included on the list of ingredients under the broader term “vegetable oil”. There is no way of knowing whether a product that is made with “vegetable oil” specifically contains palm oil.
Explicit palm oil labeling on product packaging could let consumers make an informed choice about how their purchases affect the welfare of orangutans and their environment.
Product labelling really does make a difference
In a series of experiments in 2010, visitors to the Melbourne Zoo were asked to select between various packets of chips that did not contain palm oil, and close alternatives that contained vegetable oil.
Participants were asked what they thought about ethical consumption, wildlife preservation, political activism, and human-like characteristics of primates to see if these affected which products were selected.
One group chose from products that had no labelling about palm oil.
The second group’s products included a packet of chips with a large sticker on it. The sticker had a baby orangutan’s face, along with the words “Orangutan-friendly – No Palm Oil”.
A third group had no stickers on their packaging, but did see an information sheet listing which foods (including potato chips) were made with and without palm oil.
Visitors who saw the sticker or the information sheet were significantly more likely to choose the palm-oil free chips.
Product packaging labeling or point-of-sale information can have a real influence on whether people purchase ethically-made foods.
A follow-up study found that giving people the feeling they could figure out if a product had palm oil also affected their choices.
There is an easy way to tell if a product likely has palm oil in it
When it’s not clearly labelled as #Palmoil you can identify it on product packaging with these ingredient prefixes:
There is no legislation to stop this vague product labelling of palm oil Despite the lobbying and activism of various environmental groups and those concerned with consumer rights, palm oil remains labelled in a vague unclear way. It’s hidden in plain sight, an ingredient in everything from ice-cream to lipstick, biscuits to toothpaste. Part of…
If we want people to choose ethically produced foods, there are two things we should do:
Give consumers the information they need about whether palm oil is in the product.
Raise awareness of the issues about palm oil.
Perhaps the most striking finding from the research was what factors aren’t relevant.
How consumers felt about whether ethically-produced goods should be purchased, or whether we should save the animals, or whether primates can love or feel hope just like we humans can, made no difference.
None of those things will save the orangutans nearly as much as whether we can spot and process what’s in what we eat.
Palm oil is contained in around 60% of food items, cleaning products and toiletries. It is obscured by changing the ingredient name.
There is no legislation to stop this vague product labelling of palm oil
Despite the lobbying and activism of various environmental groups and those concerned with consumer rights, palm oil remains labelled in a vague unclear way. It’s hidden in plain sight, an ingredient in everything from ice-cream to lipstick, biscuits to toothpaste.
Part of the mission of this website is to educate people on the products that A. contain palm oil and B. decipher whether or not this palm oil is from a sustainable source.
When it’s not clearly labelled as #Palmoil you can identify it on product packaging with these ingredient prefixes:STEAR, GLYC, PALM, LAUR. That’s all you need to remember 💚 to #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife
Here’s an abbreviated list of other names for palm oil
To help you navigate these confusing waters and avoid unwittingly voting for rainforest destruction with your dollars, here is a partial list of other names for palm oil-derived ingredients:*
Palmitate – Vitamin A or Asorbyl Palmitate (NOTE: Vitamin A Palmitate is a very common ingredient in breakfast cereals and we have confirmed 100% of the samples we’ve investigated to be derived from palm oil)
Palmate
Sodium Laureth Sulphate (Can also be from coconut)
Sodium Lauryl Sulphates (can also be from ricinus oil)
Sodium dodecyl Sulphate (SDS or NaDS)
Elaeis Guineensis
Glyceryl Stearate
Stearic Acid
Chemicals which contain palm oil
Steareth -2
Steareth -20
Sodium Lauryl Sulphate
Sodium lauryl sulfoacetate (coconut and/or palm)
Hydrated palm glycerides
Sodium isostearoyl lactylaye (derived from vegetable stearic acid)
Cetyl palmitate and octyl palmitate (names with palmitate at the end are usually derived from palm oil, but as in the case of Vitamin A Palmitate, very rarely a company will use a different vegetable oil)
Here’s the full list for your reference
It’s a disgusting indictment on democracy when something as simple as ingredients on the products we consume cannot be standarised and simplified at consumers’ request. The entire world’s forests are at stake! Skip to the end to sign the most recent petitions to standardise palm oil on product labels in Australia and New Zealand.
1,2-OCLanediol
1,2-Octyleneglycol
2-Ethyl Hexyl Stearate
100 Cetyl/stearyl ether
304
α-hydroxy-N-stearoylphytosphingosine
acetylated glycol stearate
Acetylated monoglycerides
Acetic and fatty acid esters of glycerol (472a/E472a)
Acrylated Palm Oil
APO
Acrylates/Palmeth-25
AHCOHOL 0810 (Octyl Decyl Alcohol)
AHCOHOL 0898 (Octyl Alcohol)
AHCOHOL 1098 (Decyl Alcohol)
AHCOHOL 1216 (Lauryl/Myristyl Alcohol)
AHCOHOL 1299 (Lauryl Alcohol)
AHCOHOL 1498 (Myristyl Alcohol NF)
AHCOHOL 1618 (Cetyl Stearyl/Cetearyl Alcohol)
AHCOHOL 1698 (Cetyl Alcohol NF)
AHCOHOL 1898 (Stearyl Alcohol NF)
AHCOHOL® Fatty Alcohols
Alkyl alcohol Aluminium stearate
Alkyl polyglucoside
Aluminium, calcium, sodium, magnesium salts of fatty acids (470/E470a; E470b)
Aluminum dimyristate
Aluminum Isostearates
Aluminium myristate
Aluminium palmitate
Aluminium stearate
Ammonium laureth sulphate
Ammonium lauryl sulphate
Anionic & Non Anionic Surfactants (too generic an ingredient, need more info on)
Arachamide mea
Ascorbyl palmitate
Ascorbyl palmitate (304)
Ascorbyl stearate
Azelaic acid
Behenic acid 85% (C22)
Behentrimonium methosulphate
BTMS
beta Carotene
Biodiesal
Butyl myristate
Butyl stearate
Butyl Stearate IPM (Isopropyl Myristate)
C16
C17
C18
CAB
Calcium lactylate
Calcium oleyl lactylate
Calcium myristate
Calcium stearate
Calcium stearoyl lactylate (482/E482)
CAPB
CAPB-KG30
CAPB-KG45 Capric Acid (C10)
Capric triglyceride
Capryl Glucoside
Caprylamine
Caprylic acid
Caprylic acid (C8))
Caprylic triglyceride
Caprylic/capric acid (C810)
Caprylic-capric triglycerides
Caprylic-capric-stearic triglyceride
Capryloyl glycine
Caprylyl glycol
Carboxylic acid
Carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) (can come from PKC cellulose)
CDE
CDE K85
CDE K90
CDE-K85
CDE-K90
Ceteareth (2-100)
Cetearyl alcohol
Cetearyl ethylhexanote
Cetearyl glucoside
Cetearyl isononanoate
Cetearyl olivate
Ceteth-20
Ceteth-24
Cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB)
CTAB
Cetyltrimethylammonium chloride (CTAC)
CTAC
Cetrimonium bromide
Cetrimonium chloride
Cetostearyl alcohol
Cetyl acetate
Cetyl alcohol
Cetyl ethylhexanoate
Cetyl hydroxyethylcellulose
Cetyl lactate
Cetyl myristate
Cetyl octanoate
Cetyl palmitate
Cetyl ricinoleate
Cetyl-PG Hydroxyethyl Palmitamide
Cetyl/stearyl ether
Citric and fatty acid esters of glycerol (472c/E472c)
Citris seed extract
CMEA
CME-K85
CME-K95
Coco – Caprylate
Coco – polyglucose
Cocoyl sarcosine
Coco – DEA
Coco – Glucoside
Coco Alkyl Betaine
Coco MEA
Cocoa butter equivalent (CBE)
Cocoa butter substitute (CBS)
Cocoamidopropyl Amine Oxide
Cocodiethanolamide
Cocomide – DEA
cocomide – MEA
Cocomidopropyl – Betaine
Cocomonoethanolamide
Coconut Fatty Acid
Decal – Glucosde
Decyl Myristate
Decyl oleate
Diacetyltartaric and fatty acid esters of glycerol (472e/E472e)
Currently, the EU and the UK mandates that all products must clearly label palm oil on their products. It wasn’t that hard, and it resulted in greater consumer choice so that consumers could support and save the animals they love, rather than harming them. Let’s demand the same in Australia and New Zealand now!
1. Join the #Boycott4Wildlife on social media and subscribe to stay in the loop: Share posts from this website to your own network on Twitter, Mastadon, Instagram, Facebook and Youtube using the hashtags #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife.
2. Contribute stories: Academics, conservationists, scientists, indigenous rights advocates and animal rights advocates working to expose the corruption of the palm oil industry or to save animals can contribute stories to the website.
3. Supermarket sleuthing: Next time you’re in the supermarket, take photos of products containing palm oil. Share these to social media along with the hashtags to call out the greenwashing and ecocide of the brands who use palm oil. You can also take photos of palm oil free products and congratulate brands when they go palm oil free.
4. Take to the streets: Get in touch with Palm Oil Detectives to find out more.
5. Donate: Make a one-off or monthly donation to Palm Oil Detectives as a way of saying thank you and to help pay for ongoing running costs of the website and social media campaigns. Donate here
New research: Indirect sourcing of up to 90% of palm oil from Cargill, Wilmar, Musim Mas cannot be traced and is linked to deforestation
A handful of commodities cause a third of all deforestation. This is sending thousands of rare, endangered species of animals and plants towards extinction and leads to the violent displacement of indigenous peoples. The loss of carbon sinks from deforestation plays a significant role in global warming and the climate emergency.
New research: Indirect sourcing of up to 90% of palm oil from Cargill, Wilmar, Musim Mas cannot be traced and is linked to deforestation
A handful of commodities cause a third of all deforestation. This is sending thousands of rare, endangered species of animals and plants towards extinction and leads to the violent displacement of indigenous peoples. The loss of carbon sinks from deforestation plays a significant role in global warming and the climate emergency.
New research by Erasmus zu Ermgassen and colleagues and published in Science Advances in May 2022 shows that between 15-90% of palm oil processed by global palm oil traders is unable to be adequately traced, due to opaque indirect sourcing.
When downstream companies (manufacturers, retailers) make sustainability commitments, they rely on the traders who supply them to implement these commitments.
This is the same for Due Diligence legislation, which bans the import of products linked to deforestation or human rights abuses.
Yet how much visibility do traders actually have over where their supplies come from?
In a new study in @ScienceAdvances, researchers checked how often traders buy directly from farmers vs how often do they buy *indirectly* from other kinds of middlemen – local traders, aggregators, and cooperatives. Image via Twitter Erasmus Zu Ermgassen
This distinction – direct or indirect matters, because it’s inevitably harder to identify the source of products, and check for deforestation or forced labour when your suppliers are removed from the product’s origin.
Researchers used customs records, corporate disclosures, animal movements, farm production data to estimate direct/indirect volumes for 4 commodities where deforestation is a big issue: soy from South America, cocoa from Côte d’Ivoire, palm oil from Indonesia and cattle exports from Brazil
Three main insights
1. Indirect sourcing via local intermediaries is fundamental to commodity trading:
Soy: 12-44% Palm oil: 15-90% Live cattle: 94-99% Cocoa: 100%
Commodities often change hands several times before traders take ownership of them.
2. Lots of sustainability risks arise among indirect suppliers
Indirect sourcing poses substantial deforestation risk across all commodities, if nothing else because of its position of low oversight (compared with direct sourcing) and the sheer volumes sourced indirectly.
Deforestation & other reputational risks are often higher in precisely those parts of the supply chain over which companies have the least visibility. Pulling together the data/evidence is demanding, but we show this using new data for cocoa and cattle supply chains.
3. Indirect sourcing is a major blind spot for sustainable procurement efforts
Companies are waking up to the challenge of monitoring indirect suppliers (e.g. they were included in commitments made at the COP), but progress is far from certain!
In the soy sector: Bunge currently monitors only 30% of its indirect sourcing (vs 100% for direct).
In the cattle sector: meatpackers promise to monitor indirects in 2025 or 2030, but plans are still fuzzy.
The main sustainability initiative for cocoa, the Cocoa & Forests Initiative: sets targets for traceability of cocoa sourced via cooperatives (which they call ‘direct sourcing’), but is completely silent about other indirect sourcing, though its up to 70% each trader’s sourcing.
A definition of Greenwashing: companies putting an emphasis on ‘observable aspects and negligence of the unobservable aspects’.
The trade in agricultural commodities is a backbone of the global economy but is a major cause of negative social and environmental impacts, not least deforestation. Commodity traders are key actors in efforts to eliminate deforestation—they are active in the regions where commodities are produced and represent a “pinch point” in global trade that provides a powerful lever for change. However, the procurement strategies of traders remain opaque. Here, we catalog traders’ sourcing across four sectors with high rates of commodity-driven deforestation: South American soy, cocoa from Côte d’Ivoire, Indonesian palm oil, and Brazilian live cattle exports. We show that traders often source more than 40% of commodities “indirectly” via local intermediaries and that indirect sourcing is a major blind spot for sustainable sourcing initiatives. To eliminate deforestation, indirect sourcing must be included in sectoral initiatives, and landscape or jurisdictional approaches, which internalize indirect sourcing, must be scaled up.
Indonesian palm oil
Indonesia produces 60% of the world’s oil palm fruit, fueled through recent rapid expansion: Between 1995 and 2015, 450,000 ha of new plantations were established each year, driving more than 100,000 ha year−1 of deforestation (18). In 2018, four companies (Sinar Mas, Musim Mas, Wilmar, and Royal Golden Eagle) handled 64% of exports. Palm oil flows from plantations (which may be smallholder or industry-owned production) to local mills, refineries, and traders. Thirty-four percent of oil palm fruit in Indonesia is produced by smallholder farmers (19). Smallholders may contract their land to plantation companies, or they may produce palm fruits as part of a company scheme (also known as “plasma schemes”) selling to a specific company’s mills. Smallholders may operate independently or organize themselves into cooperatives. Independent smallholders can themselves sell to local mills, although most sell via local aggregators who then sell to mills (20). Traders may operate mills and refineries themselves, although most of the mills are independent—also known as “third-party” mills.
EK Zu Ermgassen et. al. ‘Addressing indirect sourcing in zero deforestation commodity supply chains’ SCIENCE ADVANCES • 29 Apr 2022 • Vol 8, Issue 17 • DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abn3132
Even the lead auditor for FSC and RSPO admits that the goal of certification is not to stop deforestation
Tweet from Bart Van Assen, former lead auditor for the RSPO and HCV admitting that the main goal of the RSPO, FSC and other certification initiatives is not to prevent deforestation. (Bart has formerly used @palmoiltruther on Twitter but now changes between @Forest4Apes or @Apes4Forests depending on times when he attempts to conceal his identity).
Boycott the brands causing deforestation for palm oil, soy and meat by joining the #Boycott4Wildlife
@erasmuszu: A handful of commodities (🐮🌴🍫☕️) cause a third of all #deforestation, harming millions of forest-dependent people, the climate & biodiversity A few commodity traders (Cargill, Wilmar, Olam, etc) handle t...…
South America: Species Endangered by Palm Oil Deforestation
As the lush equatorial rainforests of South East Asia are exhausted, increasingly focus is being placed on parts of Central and South America. Oil Palm is a growing commodity there and is found in Colombia, Brazil, Ecuador, Guatemala and Mexico.
South America: Species Endangered by Palm Oil Deforestation
A model of rainforest loss in the Amazon 2010 – 2260
The fertile rainforests of Latin America are home to some of the most exotic and unusual species of animals in the world. These animals must be protected at all costs. These animals have a IUCN Red List status of Critically Endangered, Endangered or Vulnerable and face a threat to their existence from palm oil deforestation, and deforestation from other commodities. Yet there is hope and there are a number of ways you can Take Action to Protect Them.
Palm Oil Detectives is completely self-funded by its creator. All hosting and website fees and investigations into brands are self-funded by the creator of this online movement. If you like what I am doing, you and would like me to help meet costs, please send Palm Oil Detectives a thanks on Ko-Fi.
PUERTO CONCORDIA, Colombia — Councilman Ricardo Vargas* sits at the bus depot in the riverside hamlet of Puerto Concordia where narco-inspired corridos play on the radio and a sea of oil palm expands outside town in all directions.
Hand-drawn or vintage and nostalgic animals and children illustrations in packaging and advertising design that bring to mind children’s books.
Happy, uplifting and nostalgic music.
Visual storytelling involving nature.
Green clothing, natural ambient noise and reassuring happy colours set the scene for storytelling by Palm Done Right
Dr Jennifer Lucy’s research, which is funded by the RSPO and industry sets out the minimum amount of rainforest that can be left over for endangered species by the palm oil industry.
Forest-inspired pie charts and hand-drawn icons tell the story of RSPO members in the 2021 WWF Palm Oil Scorecard
The WWF scorecard ranks RSPO member supermarket brands according to whether or not they have stopped with deforestation or other corrupt practices.
The WWF scorecard uses phrases like:
“9% of respondents have a deforestation and conversion free commitment.”
“88% of respondents have a human rights commitment”
What this means in reality…is absolutely nothing.
The most critical information is not included on the WWF Palm Oil Scorecard
That NONE of these supermarket brands (RSPO members) have ceased deforestation, land-grabbing, human rights abuses for palm oil. Instead, consumers are lulled into reassurances to purchase by the green, forest-inspired pie charts and positive, reassuring phrases.
Global brands are now claiming ‘eco-friendly’ status by saying that their products are vegan. This is despite these same brands causing global ecocide for palm oil, putting at risk thousands of endangered species
This hijacking of the vegan label is deeply problematic for many vegans. They are all too aware of the devastation of palm oil on rainforest ecosystems and endangered forest species.Most environmentally aware vegans DO NOT agree that palm oil is vegan. The definition of veganism is not only if an ingredient is ‘plant-based.’
Veganism is the strong rejection of all cruelty, death and slavery of animals. Palm oil is a global scourge to all tropical animal species – it is therefore NOT VEGAN.
The Body Shop: An RSPO member that uses so-called ‘sustainable’ palm oil, the Body Shop is able to persuade consumers of its green eco-friendly nature with the aid of forest-themed hand-drawn illustrations. Via Twitter
Nestle’s Vegan Kitkat: The world’s biggest consumer food brand has not suddenly become ‘green’. They continue with human rights abuses, deforestation, illegal landgrabbing for palm oil. However, claiming ‘Vegan’ status is a way to label themselves as green.
L’Oreal: is another brand cashing in on the vegan trend. By filling their cosmetics, hair care and skincare ranges with palm oil they claim vegan status. Via Twitter
Nestle Wunda drink: Nestle, one of the world’s most notorious brands linked to global ecocide and destruction, can now claim vegan status, despite causing ecocide for palm oil, soy and other ingredients. Via Twitter
Endorsement of palm oil as a vegan ingredient is both lazy and greedy on behalf of vegan organisations like Peta and the Vegan Society. These animal organisations receive sponsorship funding from corporates to endorse products containing palm oil. This ignores the immense global damage of palm oil. For any serious animal activist and vegan – veganism means more than a product being simply plant-based.
Veganism is:
A philosophy and a consumer lifestyle of avoidance of brands and products where these brands or products cause harm to animals. This harm could be:
Animal murder for human consumption.
The enslavement of animals for the benefit of humans.
Cruelty, violence or murder of animals for human entertainment or sport.
Animal testing or experimentation that benefits humans.
The destruction of rainforests where the highest concentration of endangered species live, for palm oil, meat, soy or other commodities in order to create consumer products.
True veganism is a philosophy that respects and appreciates all ecosystems and the lives of non-human beings within them. It does not make excuses for ecocide and animal extinction, just for the sake of cheap supermarket goods.
These words trigger automatic, emotional and unconscious responses in consumers. Language works effortlessly in conjunction with greenwashing design to hit the right emotional buttons and to have a positive and rewarding emotional effect on consumers’ minds
Vector natural, organic food, bio, eco labels and shapes on white background. Hand drawn stains set.
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Carlson, K. M., Heilmayr, R., Gibbs, H. K., Noojipady, P., et al. (2018). Effect of oil palm sustainability certification on deforestation and fire in Indonesia. PNAS, 115(1), 121-126. doi.org/10.1073/pnas.170472811…
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Palm Oil Detectives is completely self-funded by its creator. All hosting and website fees and investigations into brands are self-funded by the creator of this online movement. If you like what I am doing, you and would like me to help meet costs, please send Palm Oil Detectives a thanks on Ko-Fi.
A visual investigation by the NZZ shows the standards for certifying palm oil production as sustainable are often ignored. The consequences for millions of hectares of vulnerable rainforest could be catastrophic as the industry expands.
Claiming that a brand, commodity or industry is greener than others in the same category, in order to excuse ecocide, deforestation, human rights and animal rights abuses.
The Lesser of Two Evils
The main argument by palm oil lobbyists is that palm oil is better than other crops because it has a higher yield. This argument of a ‘lesser of two evils’ is used to justify and excuse the ecocide, deforestation and human rights abuses associated with ‘sustainable’ palm oil.
Claiming that a brand, commodity or industry is greener than others in the same category, in order to excuse ecocide, deforestation, human rights and animal rights abuses.
The Lesser of Two Evils
The main argument by palm oil lobbyists is that palm oil is better than other crops because it has a higher yield. This argument of a ‘lesser of two evils’ is used to justify and excuse the ecocide, deforestation and human rights abuses associated with ‘sustainable’ palm oil.
“Palm oil uses less land than other oil crops. Therefore, even though palm oil causes indigenous landgrabbing, deforestation, fires, species extinction and causing air and water pollution – it’s still better than other oils”
This ‘Lesser of Two Evils’ argument is supported by WWF and scientists who are part of the IUCN’s Palm Oil Task Force such as Dr Eric Meijaard and Mathew Streubig who are paid by RSPO members to produce favourable palm oil industry research. This argument for higher crop yield is used to maintain the status quo and dominance of palm oil over other oil crops, and also excuses the ecocide, deforestation, human rights abuses and tropical extinction that is ongoing for palm oil, and for so-called ‘sustainable’ palm oil.
Founding members of the RSPO along with WWF talking about why sustainable palm oil is important
Global demand for vegetable oils is projected to increase by 46% by 2050. Meeting this demand through additional expansion of oil palm versus other vegetable oil crops will lead to substantial differential effects on biodiversity, food security, climate change, land degradation and livelihoods.
At it’s core, it is an economic argument, not an environmental one
Source: WWF
RSPO certified sustainable palm oil is only better than other oils if it stops deforestation, improves the income of workers, stops violence and human rights abuses and stops the extinction of animals. These problems are still ongoing after 17 years since the RSPO began. In fact, NO RSPO member can be 100% certain that their palm oil is free of deforestation and human rights abuses.
The IUCN Palm Oil Taskforcer features the same scientists who are paid by the RSPO to produce favourable research
Greenwashing by researchers, lobbyists and ‘partner NGOs’ who are paid by RSPO members (supermarket brands) to convince the public of the merits of ‘sustainable’ palm oil – using the ‘Lesser of Two Evils’ argument
No significant difference was found between certified and non-certified plantations for any of the sustainability metrics investigated, however positive economic trends including greater fresh fruit bunch yields were revealed. To achieve intended outcomes, RSPO principles and criteria are in need of substantial improvement and rigorous enforcement.
The Neue Zuercher Zeitung used several cases to highlight where slash-and-burn techniques continue on RSPO-certified land, and where new plantations are threatening important ecosystems. These examples are representative of the huge gap between the need for environmental protection and the ever-increasing global demand for palm oil.
Global Witness October 2021 Report: Violence and death for palm oil connected to household supermarket brands (RSPO members)
“One palm oil firm, Rimbunan Hijau, [Papua New Guinea] negligently ignored repeated and avoidable worker deaths and injuries on palm oil plantations, with at least 11 workers and the child of one worker losing their lives over an eight-year period.
“Tainted palm oil from Papua New Guinea plantations was sold to household name brands, all of them RSPO members including Kellogg’s, Nestlé, Colgate, Danone, Hershey’s and PZ Cussons and Reckitt Benckiser”
Palm oil industry lobbyists refuse to endorse or support this new technology. Instead they provide weak excuses for the continuation of the destruction of rainforests including: a synthetic version is expensive to make, a synthetic version won’t contain the same vitamins as palm oil made from dead rainforests.
Ahmad Parveez said the synthetic palm oil could cause harm to the environment due to the required fermentation processes.
“The question is whether synthetic palm oil is more environmentally friendly and sustainable because the production of synthetic materials requires chemicals and microbes.
“How much energy and chemicals are used in the fermentation process and how can the synthetic product be claimed to be more sustainable than the original product?” he said.
Aggarwal, P. (2011). Greenwashing: The darker side of CSR. Indian Journal of Applied Research, 4(3), 61-66. worldwidejournals.com/indian-j…
Anti-Corporate Activism and Collusion: The Contentious Politics of Palm Oil Expansion in Indonesia, (2022). Ward Berenschot, et. al., Geoforum, Volume 131, 2022, doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.202…
Balanced Growth (2020), In: Leal Filho W., Azul A.M., Brandli L., özuyar P.G., Wall T. (eds) Responsible Consumption and Production. Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Springer, Cham
Berenschot, W., Hospes, O., & Afrizal, A. (2023). Unequal access to justice: An evaluation of RSPO’s capacity to resolve palm oil conflicts in Indonesia. Agriculture and Human Values, 40, 291-304. doi.org/10.1007/s10460-022-103…
Carlson, K. M., Heilmayr, R., Gibbs, H. K., Noojipady, P., et al. (2018). Effect of oil palm sustainability certification on deforestation and fire in Indonesia. PNAS, 115(1), 121-126. doi.org/10.1073/pnas.170472811…
Cazzolla Gatti, R., Liang, J., Velichevskaya, A., & Zhou, M. (2018). Sustainable palm oil may not be so sustainable. Science of The Total Environment, 652, 48-51. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/303598…
Changing Times Media. (2019). Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil is ‘greenwashing’ labelled products, environmental investigation agency says. Changing Times Media. changingtimes.media/2019/11/03…
Commodifying sustainability: Development, nature and politics in the palm oil industry (2019). World Development, Volume 121, September 2019, Pages 218-228. ideas.repec.org/a/eee/wdevel/v…
Contrasting communications of sustainability science in the media coverage of palm oil agriculture on tropical peatlands in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore (2020). Liu, F. H. M., Ganesan, V., Smith, T. E. L. Environmental Science & Policy, 114. researchgate.net/publication/3…
Cosimo, L. H. E., Masiero, M., Mammadova, A., & Pettenella, D. (2024). Voluntary sustainability standards to cope with the new European Union regulation on deforestation-free products: A gap analysis. Forest Policy and Economics, 164, 103235. doi.org/10.1016/j.forpol.2024.…
Dalton, J. (2018). No such thing as sustainable palm oil – ‘certified’ can destroy even more wildlife, say scientists. The Independent. independent.co.uk/climate-chan…
Davis, S. J., Alexander, K., Moreno-Cruz, J., et al. (2023). Food without agriculture. Nature Sustainability. nature.com/articles/s41893-023…
EIA International. (2022). Will palm oil watchdog rid itself of deforestation or continue to pretend its products are sustainable? EIA International. eia-international.org/news/wil…
Environmental Investigation Agency. (2019). Palm oil watchdog’s sustainability guarantee is still a destructive con. EIA International. eia-international.org/news/pal…
Fifteen environmental NGOs demand that sustainable palm oil watchdog does its job (2019). Rainforest Action Network. ran.org/press-releases/fifteen…
Friends of the Earth International. (2018). RSPO: 14 years of failure to eliminate violence and destruction from the industrial palm oil sector. Friends of the Earth International. foei.org/rspo-14-years-of-fail…
Lang, Chris and REDD Monitor. Sustainable palm oil? RSPO’s greenwashing and fraudulent audits exposed. The Ecologist. theecologist.org/2015/nov/19/s…
Gatti, L., Pizzetti, M., & Seele, P. (2021). Green lies and their effect on intention to invest. Journal of Business Research, 127, 376-387. doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2021…
Group Challenges Rainforest Alliance Earth-Friendly Seal of Approval (2015). Truth in Advertising. truthinadvertising.org/group-c…
Helan, A. (2011). Greenwash and spin: palm oil lobby targets its critics. Ecologist: Informed by Nature. theecologist.org/2011/feb/15/g…
Hewlett Packard. (2021). What is Greenwashing and How to Tell Which Companies are Truly Environmentally Responsible. Hewlett Packard. hp.com/us-en/shop/tech-takes/w…
Holzner, A., Rameli, N. I. A. M., Ruppert, N., & Widdig, A. (2024). Agricultural habitat use affects infant survivorship in an endangered macaque species. Current Biology. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/381949…
Jauernig, J., Uhl, M., & Valentinov, V. (2021). The ethics of corporate hypocrisy: An experimental approach. Futures, 129, 102757. doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2021…
Li, T. M., & Semedi, P. (2021). Plantation life: Corporate occupation in Indonesia’s oil palm zone. Duke University Press. dukeupress.edu/plantation-life
Liu, F. H. M., Ganesan, V., & Smith, T. E. L. (2020). Contrasting communications of sustainability science in the media coverage of palm oil agriculture on tropical peatlands in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. Environmental Science & Policy, 114. researchgate.net/publication/3…
Meemken, E. M., Barrett, C. B., Michelson, H. C., et al. (2021). Sustainability standards in global agrifood supply chains. Nature Food. doi.org/10.1038/s43016-021-002…
Miles, T. (2019). Study in WHO journal likens palm oil lobbying to tobacco and alcohol industries. Reuters. reuters.com/article/idUSKCN1P2…
Nygaard, A. (2023). Is sustainable certification’s ability to combat greenwashing trustworthy? Frontiers in Sustainability, 4, Article 1188069. doi.org/10.3389/frsus.2023.118…
Oppong-Tawiah D, Webster J. Corporate Sustainability Communication as ‘Fake News’: Firms’ Greenwashing on Twitter. Sustainability. 2023; 15(8):6683. mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/8/6683
Pabon, J. (2024). The great greenwashing: How brands, governments, and influencers are lying to you. Anansi International. vitalsource.com/products/the-g…
Podnar, K., & Golob, U. (2024). Brands and activism: Ecosystem and paradoxes. Journal of Brand Management, 31, 95–107. link.springer.com/article/10.1…
Rainforest Action Network. (2019). Fifteen environmental NGOs demand that sustainable palm oil watchdog does its job. RAN. ran.org/press-releases/fifteen…
Renner, A., Zellweger, C., & Skinner, B. (2021). ‘Is there such a thing as sustainable palm oil? Satellite images show protected rainforest on fire’. Neue Zürcher Zeitung. nzz.ch/english/palm-oil-boom-t…
Saager, E. S., Iwamura, T., Jucker, T., & Murray, K. A. (2023). Deforestation for oil palm increases microclimate suitability for the development of the disease vector Aedes albopictus. Scientific Reports, 13(1), 9514. nature.com/articles/s41598-023…
Southey, F. (2021). What do Millennials think of palm oil? Nestlé investigates. Food Navigator. foodnavigator.com/Article/2021…
Transparency International. (2023). Transparency international report: Corruption and corporate capture in Indonesia’s top 50 palm oil companies. Transparency International. palmoildetectives.com/2023/05/…
Tybout, A. M., & Calkins, T. (Eds.). (2019). Kellogg on Branding in a Hyper-Connected World. Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. wiley.com/en-au/Kellogg+on+Bra…
Wicke, J. (2019). Sustainable palm oil or certified dispossession? NGOs within scalar struggles over the RSPO private governance standard. Bioeconomy & Inequalities: Working Paper No. 8. bioinequalities.uni-jena.de/so…
World Health Organisation. (2019). The palm oil industry and noncommunicable diseases. World Health Organisation Bulletin, 97, 118-128. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/307286…
World Rainforest Movement. (2021, November 22). Why the RSPO facilitates land grabs for palm oil. wrm.org.uy/articles-from-the-w…
Zuckerman, J. (2021). The Time Has Come to Rein In the Global Scourge of Palm Oil. Yale Environment 360, Yale School of Environment. e360.yale.edu/features/the-tim…
Palm Oil Detectives is completely self-funded by its creator. All hosting and website fees and investigations into brands are self-funded by the creator of this online movement. If you like what I am doing, you and would like me to help meet costs, please send Palm Oil Detectives a thanks on Ko-Fi.
Infant survival is a major determinant of individual fitness and constitutes a crucial factor in shaping species' ability to maintain viable populations in changing environments.
Papua New Guinea & West Papua: Species Endangered by Palm Oil Deforestation
As rainforest habitats are destroyed for palm oil in Indonesia and Malaysia, Indonesian and Chinese oil palm processing companies are switching focus towards Papua New Guinea, West Papua, Africa and South America to keep up with demand for palm oil.
Papua New Guinea and West Papua were divided up and taken by Indonesian colonial forces in the middle of last century. Yet for the ancestral indigenous owners of the islands of Papua and Melanesia, the Papuans who have lived the region for thousands of years -they simply call this region – home. Read more about this at the bottom of this page.
“When our forests are damaged, there will be a massive climate crisis, species like the birds of paradise will become extinct and not just our Namblong Indigenous culture will be destroyed, but that of all peoples everywhere,”
Orpha Yoshua, an Indigenous Namblong woman from West Papua told Greenpeace.
Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again. Papua New Guinea & West Papua: Species Endangered by Palm Oil Deforestation youtu.be/eESMGraMlKM
Rainforest animals and rainforest peoples in Papua are under attack from global palm oil plantations and industrial-military actions on their illegally taken land
Indigenous Melanesian peoples of West Papua and Papua New Guinea are the rightful and original custodians of Papuan rainforests. Their voices deserve to be heard in environmental campaigns.
Yet Indonesia has embarked on an extensive greenwashing campaign to make these people invisible. Papuans never ceded sovreignty of their land and they have a right to have it back. Palm Oil Detectives works in solidarity with Melanesian and West Papuan support networks to raise the voices of Papuan indigenous activists.
There are many ways you can join the fight too. Become a Palm Oil Detective and Take Action today!
On Twitter, a South East Asian couple cosplay as Papuan indigenous traditional clothing in an obvious effort to erase Melanesian ethnicity and to normalise Indonesian rule – Spoiler: Papuans never ceded their sovereignty
More stories about Papua’s indigenous peoples and rare animals
Papua harbours uniquely beautiful animals including rare marsupials and birds not found anywhere else on the planet. In the lush and fertile forests of Papua live thinking, feeling and intelligent beings that love their children. Just like us, they just want to survive and have their animal families and communities left in peace. These animals live in Papua New Guinea and have a IUCN Red List status of Critically Endangered, Endangered or Vulnerable. Although animal conservation is still relatively new in Papua New Guinea, there is hope, with conservation foundations working to protect these species and the rainforest they live in.
1. Join the #Boycott4Wildlife on social media and subscribe to stay in the loop: Share posts from this website to your own network on Twitter, Mastadon, Instagram, Facebook and Youtube using the hashtags #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife.
2. Contribute stories: Academics, conservationists, scientists, indigenous rights advocates and animal rights advocates working to expose the corruption of the palm oil industry or to save animals can contribute stories to the website.
3. Supermarket sleuthing: Next time you’re in the supermarket, take photos of products containing palm oil. Share these to social media along with the hashtags to call out the greenwashing and ecocide of the brands who use palm oil. You can also take photos of palm oil free products and congratulate brands when they go palm oil free.
4. Take to the streets: Get in touch with Palm Oil Detectives to find out more.
5. Donate: Make a one-off or monthly donation to Palm Oil Detectives as a way of saying thank you and to help pay for ongoing running costs of the website and social media campaigns. Donate here
Indigenous knowledge can help us better adapt to and mitigate climate change. More than 190 nations at COP15 — the United Nations biodiversity summit — have reached a historic deal to protect a third of the Earth’s land and water by the end of the de…
Greenwashing Tactic #5: Irrelevance and Deflection
Claiming a brand, commodity or industry is green based on irrelevant information
Irrelevance and Deflection
A common greenwashing tactic is to shift the conversation towards an irrelevant issue that deflects from the environmental issue at hand
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#Greenwashing Tactic #5: Irrelevance and Deflection: A common greenwashing tactic is to shift the conversation away from criticising sustainable #palmoil towards an irrelevant topic #Boycott4Wildlife #
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Greenwashing Tactic #5: Irrelevance and Deflection
Claiming a brand, commodity or industry is green based on irrelevant information
Irrelevance and Deflection
A common greenwashing tactic is to shift the conversation towards an irrelevant issue that deflects from the environmental issue at hand
Palm oil lobbyists steer people’s online conversations away from criticising sustainable palm oil or calling for a boycott of palm oil, towards other topics that are irrelevant
RSPO Lobbyists such as Bart Van Assen, Michelle Desilets and Jane Griffiths of Orangutan Land Trust often combine this tactic with abuse and harassment. This is done to intimidate individuals and stop them spreading awareness about the corruption of so-called ‘sustainable’ palm oil.
Palm oil lobbyists divert consumers’ attention away from exposing the corruption of ‘sustainable’ palm oil.
They do this by claiming that people from wealthy nations want to halt the growth of palm oil in developing nations and that this is unfair and a form of ‘colonial racism’
The gist of this argument is:
‘Europeans have destroyed their forests for agriculture, so why can’t we do the same in the tropics? Stopping our economic development is hypocrisy and colonialism’
Research analysing media and social media messages around palm oil in Malaysia and Indonesia finds that palm oil lobbyists use an ‘Us’ Versus ‘Them’ narrative, in other words, they invoke colonial racism.
Four mutually complementary narratives were used by Indonesian and Malaysian media to construe denialism, which closely resemble the four climate denialist narratives identified by Elsasser and Dunlap (2013). These denialist narratives draw heavily upon information advocated by divergent knowledge communities (Goldstein 2016) and appeal to a nationalist sentiment of ‘us’ – palm oil-producing developing countries – and ‘them’ – western developed countries producing research critical of the industry.
We had the luck to be born into a developed country, I believe we need to acknowledge the right of lesser-developed countries to develop. We simply have no right to tell a country like Indonesia to forgo economic development, but we can help to steer that development in a sustainable direction.
RSPO palm oil certification has not improved worker’s incomes and has not stopped human rights abuses, violence, slavery or illegal indigenous land-grabbing, since the RSPO’s inception 17 years ago
Global Witness October 2021 Report: Violence and death for palm oil connected to household supermarket brands (RSPO members)
“One palm oil firm, Rimbunan Hijau, [Papua New Guinea] negligently ignored repeated and avoidable worker deaths and injuries on palm oil plantations, with at least 11 workers and the child of one worker losing their lives over an eight-year period.
“Tainted palm oil from Papua New Guinea plantations was sold to household name brands, all of them RSPO members including Kellogg’s, Nestlé, Colgate, Danone, Hershey’s and PZ Cussons and Reckitt Benckiser”
During its 14 years of existence, RSPO – the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil – has failed to live up to its claim of “transforming” the industrial palm oil production sector into a so-called “sustainable” one. In reality, the RSPO has been used by the palm oil industry to greenwash corporate destruction and human rights abuses, while it continues to expand business, forest destruction and profits.
RSPO presents itself to the public with the slogan “transforming the markets to make sustainable palm oil the norm”. Palm oil has become the cheapest vegetable oil available on the global market, making it a popular choice among the group that dominates RSPO membership, big palm oil buyers.
They will do everything to secure a steady flow of cheap palm oil. They also know that the key to the corporate success story of producing “cheap” palm oil is a particular model of industrial production, with ever-increasing efficiency and productivity which in turn is achieved by:
Planting on a large-scale and in monoculture, frequently through conversion of tropical biodiverse forests
Using “high yielding” seedlings that demand large amounts of agrotoxics and abundant water.
Squeezing cheap labour out of the smallest possible work force, employed in precarious conditions so that company costs are cut to a minimum
Making significant up-front money from the tropical timber extracted from concessions, which is then used to finance plantation development or increase corporate profits.
Grabbing land violently from local communities or by means of other arrangements with governments (including favourable tax regimes) to access land at the lowest possible cost.
Those living on the fertile land that the corporations choose to apply their industrial palm oil production model, pay a very high price.
Violence is intrinsic to this model:
violence and repression when communities resist the corporate take over of their land because they know that once their land is turned into monoculture oil palm plantations, their livelihoods will be destroyed, their land and forests invaded. In countless cases, deforestation caused by the expansion of this industry, has displaced communities or destroyed community livelihoods where
companies violate customary rights and take control of community land;
sexual violence and harassment against women in and around the plantations which often stays invisible because women find themselves without possibilities to demand that the perpetrators be prosecuted;
Child labour and precarious working conditions that go hand-in-hand with violation of workers’ rights;
working conditions can even be so bad as to amount to contemporary forms of slavery. This exploitative model of work grants companies more economic profits while allowing palm oil to remain a cheap product. That is why, neither them or their shareholders do anything to stop it.
exposure of workers, entire communities and forests, rivers, water springs, agricultural land and soils to the excessive application of agrotoxics;
depriving communities surrounded by industrial oil palm plantations of their food sovereignty when industrial oil palm plantations occupy land that communities need to grow food crops.
RSPO’s proclaimed vision of transforming the industrial oil palm sector is doomed to fail because the Roundtable’s certification principles promote this structural violent and destructive model.
The RSPO also fails to address the industry’s reliance on exclusive control of large and contingent areas of fertile land, as well as the industry’s growth paradigm which demands a continued expansion of corporate control over community land and violent land grabs.
None of RPSO’s eight certification principles suggests transforming this industry reliance on exclusive control over vast areas of land or the growth paradigm inherent to the model.
Industrial use of vegetable oils has doubled in the past 15 years, with palm oil being the cheapest. This massive increase of palm oil use in part explains the current expansion of industrial oil palm plantations, especially in Africa and Latin America, from the year 2000 onward, in addition to the existing vast plantations areas in Malaysia and Indonesia that also continue expanding.
On the ground, countless examples show that industrial oil palm plantations continue to be synonymous to violence and destruction for communities and forests. Communities’ experiences in the new industrial oil palm plantation frontiers, such as Gabon, Nigeria, Cameroon, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Peru, Honduras, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, are similar to past and ongoing community experiences in Indonesia and Malaysia.
RSPO creates a smokescreen that makes this violence invisible for consumers and financiers. Governments often fail to take regulatory action to stop the expansion of plantations and increasing demand of palm oil; they rely on RSPO to deliver an apparently sustainable flow of palm oil.
For example, in its public propaganda, RSPO claims it supports more than 100,000 small holders. But the profit from palm oil production is still disproportionally appropriated by the oil palm companies: in 2016, 88% of all certified palm oil came from corporate plantations and 99,6% of the production is corporate-controlled.
RSPO also claims that the principle of Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) is key among its own Principles and Criteria. The right to FPIC implies, among others, that if a community denies the establishment of this monoculture in its territory, operations cannot be carried out. Reality shows us, however, that despite this, many projects go ahead.
Concessions are often guaranteed long before the company reaches out to the affected communities. Under these circumstances, to say that FPIC is central to RSPO is bluntly false and disrespectful.
RSPO also argues that where conflicts with the plantation companies arise, communities can always use its complaint mechanism. However, the mechanism is complex and it rarely solves the problems that communities face and want to resolve.
This becomes particularly apparent in relation to land legacy conflicts where the mechanism is biased against communities. It allows companies to continue exploiting community land until courts have come to a decision. This approach encourages companies to sit out such conflicts and count on court proceedings dragging on, often over decades.
Another argument used by RSPO is that industrial oil palm plantations have lifted millions of people out of poverty. That claim is certainly questionable, even more so considering that there is also an important number of people who have been displaced over the past decades to make space for plantations.
Indigenous communities have in fact lost their fertile land, forests and rivers to oil palm plantations, adversely affecting their food, culture and local economies.
The RSPO promise of “transformation” has turned into a powerful greenwashing tool for corporations in the palm oil industry. RSPO grants this industry, which remains responsible for violent land grabbing, environmental destruction, pollution through excessive use of agrotoxics and destruction of peasant and indigenous livelihoods, a “sustainable” image.
What’s more, RSPO membership seems to suffice for investors and companies to be able to claim that they are “responsible” actors. This greenwash is particularly stunning, since being a member does not guarantee much change on the ground. Only recently, a company became RSPO member after it was found to deforest over 27.000 hectares of rainforest in Papua, Indonesia.
Certification is structurally dependent on the very same policies and regulation that have given rise to the host of environmental devastation and community land rights violations associated with oil palm plantations. These systemic governance issues are part of the destructive economic model, and embedded in state power.
For this reason, voluntary certification schemes cannot provide adequate protection for forests, community rights, food sovereignty and guarantee sustainability. Governments and financiers need to take responsibility to stop the destructive palm oil expansion that violates the rights of local communities and Indigenous Peoples.
As immediate steps, governments need to:
Put in place a moratorium on palm oil plantations expansion and use that as a breathing space to fix the policy frameworks;
Drastically reduce demand for palm oil: stop using food for fuel;
Strengthen and respect the rights of local communities and Indigenous Peoples to amongst others, self-determination and territorial control.
Promote agro-ecology and community control of their forests, which strengthens local incomes, livelihoods and food sovereignty, instead of advancing industrial agro-businesses.
Signatures
Aalamaram-NGOAcción Ecológica, Ecuador
ActionAid, France
AGAPAN Amics arbres
Arbres amics
Amis de la Terre France
ARAARBA (Asociación para la Recuperación del Bosque Autóctono)
Asociación Conservacionista YISKI, Costa Rica Asociación Gaia El Salvador
Association Congo Actif, Paris
Association Les Gens du Partage, Carrières-sous-Poissy
Association pour le développement des aires protégées, Swizterland
BASE IS
Bézu St Eloi
Boxberg OT Uhyst
Bread for all
Bruno Manser Fund
CADDECAE, Ecuador
Campaign to STOP GE Trees
CAP, Center for Advocacy Practices
Centar za životnu sredinu/ Friends of the Earth Bosnia and Herzegovina
CESTA – FOE El Salvador
CETRI – Centre tricontinental
Climate Change Kenya
Coalición de Tendencia Clasista. (CTC-VZLA)
Colectivo de Investigación y Acompañmiento Comunitario
Collectif pour la défense des terres malgaches – TANY, Madagascar
Community Forest Watch, Nigeria
Consumers Association of Penang
Corporate Europe Observatory
Cuttington University
Down to Earth Consult
El Campello
Environmental Resources Management and Social Issue Centre (ERMSIC) Cameroon
Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria
Certification is a weak tool to address global forest and ecosystem destruction. By improving the image of forest and ecosystem risk commodities and so stimulating demand, certification risks actually increasing the harm caused by the expansion of commodity production. Certification schemes end up greenwashing products linked to deforestation, ecosystem destruction and rights abuses.
We find positive effects on prices and income from sale of certified products. However, we find no change in overall household income and assets for workers. The wages for workers are not higher in certified production.
We find that, while sustainability standards can help improve the sustainability of production processes in certain situations, they are insufficient to ensure food system sustainability at scale, nor do they advance equity objectives in agrifood supply chains.
Aggarwal, P. (2011). Greenwashing: The darker side of CSR. Indian Journal of Applied Research, 4(3), 61-66. worldwidejournals.com/indian-j…
Anti-Corporate Activism and Collusion: The Contentious Politics of Palm Oil Expansion in Indonesia, (2022). Ward Berenschot, et. al., Geoforum, Volume 131, 2022, doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.202…
Balanced Growth (2020), In: Leal Filho W., Azul A.M., Brandli L., özuyar P.G., Wall T. (eds) Responsible Consumption and Production. Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Springer, Cham
Berenschot, W., Hospes, O., & Afrizal, A. (2023). Unequal access to justice: An evaluation of RSPO’s capacity to resolve palm oil conflicts in Indonesia. Agriculture and Human Values, 40, 291-304. doi.org/10.1007/s10460-022-103…
Carlson, K. M., Heilmayr, R., Gibbs, H. K., Noojipady, P., et al. (2018). Effect of oil palm sustainability certification on deforestation and fire in Indonesia. PNAS, 115(1), 121-126. doi.org/10.1073/pnas.170472811…
Cazzolla Gatti, R., Liang, J., Velichevskaya, A., & Zhou, M. (2018). Sustainable palm oil may not be so sustainable. Science of The Total Environment, 652, 48-51. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/303598…
Changing Times Media. (2019). Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil is ‘greenwashing’ labelled products, environmental investigation agency says. Changing Times Media. changingtimes.media/2019/11/03…
Commodifying sustainability: Development, nature and politics in the palm oil industry (2019). World Development, Volume 121, September 2019, Pages 218-228. ideas.repec.org/a/eee/wdevel/v…
Contrasting communications of sustainability science in the media coverage of palm oil agriculture on tropical peatlands in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore (2020). Liu, F. H. M., Ganesan, V., Smith, T. E. L. Environmental Science & Policy, 114. researchgate.net/publication/3…
Cosimo, L. H. E., Masiero, M., Mammadova, A., & Pettenella, D. (2024). Voluntary sustainability standards to cope with the new European Union regulation on deforestation-free products: A gap analysis. Forest Policy and Economics, 164, 103235. doi.org/10.1016/j.forpol.2024.…
Dalton, J. (2018). No such thing as sustainable palm oil – ‘certified’ can destroy even more wildlife, say scientists. The Independent. independent.co.uk/climate-chan…
Davis, S. J., Alexander, K., Moreno-Cruz, J., et al. (2023). Food without agriculture. Nature Sustainability. nature.com/articles/s41893-023…
EIA International. (2022). Will palm oil watchdog rid itself of deforestation or continue to pretend its products are sustainable? EIA International. eia-international.org/news/wil…
Environmental Investigation Agency. (2019). Palm oil watchdog’s sustainability guarantee is still a destructive con. EIA International. eia-international.org/news/pal…
Fifteen environmental NGOs demand that sustainable palm oil watchdog does its job (2019). Rainforest Action Network. ran.org/press-releases/fifteen…
Friends of the Earth International. (2018). RSPO: 14 years of failure to eliminate violence and destruction from the industrial palm oil sector. Friends of the Earth International. foei.org/rspo-14-years-of-fail…
Lang, Chris and REDD Monitor. Sustainable palm oil? RSPO’s greenwashing and fraudulent audits exposed. The Ecologist. theecologist.org/2015/nov/19/s…
Gatti, L., Pizzetti, M., & Seele, P. (2021). Green lies and their effect on intention to invest. Journal of Business Research, 127, 376-387. doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2021…
Group Challenges Rainforest Alliance Earth-Friendly Seal of Approval (2015). Truth in Advertising. truthinadvertising.org/group-c…
Helan, A. (2011). Greenwash and spin: palm oil lobby targets its critics. Ecologist: Informed by Nature. theecologist.org/2011/feb/15/g…
Hewlett Packard. (2021). What is Greenwashing and How to Tell Which Companies are Truly Environmentally Responsible. Hewlett Packard. hp.com/us-en/shop/tech-takes/w…
Holzner, A., Rameli, N. I. A. M., Ruppert, N., & Widdig, A. (2024). Agricultural habitat use affects infant survivorship in an endangered macaque species. Current Biology. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/381949…
Jauernig, J., Uhl, M., & Valentinov, V. (2021). The ethics of corporate hypocrisy: An experimental approach. Futures, 129, 102757. doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2021…
Li, T. M., & Semedi, P. (2021). Plantation life: Corporate occupation in Indonesia’s oil palm zone. Duke University Press. dukeupress.edu/plantation-life
Liu, F. H. M., Ganesan, V., & Smith, T. E. L. (2020). Contrasting communications of sustainability science in the media coverage of palm oil agriculture on tropical peatlands in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. Environmental Science & Policy, 114. researchgate.net/publication/3…
Meemken, E. M., Barrett, C. B., Michelson, H. C., et al. (2021). Sustainability standards in global agrifood supply chains. Nature Food. doi.org/10.1038/s43016-021-002…
Miles, T. (2019). Study in WHO journal likens palm oil lobbying to tobacco and alcohol industries. Reuters. reuters.com/article/idUSKCN1P2…
Nygaard, A. (2023). Is sustainable certification’s ability to combat greenwashing trustworthy? Frontiers in Sustainability, 4, Article 1188069. doi.org/10.3389/frsus.2023.118…
Oppong-Tawiah D, Webster J. Corporate Sustainability Communication as ‘Fake News’: Firms’ Greenwashing on Twitter. Sustainability. 2023; 15(8):6683. mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/8/6683
Pabon, J. (2024). The great greenwashing: How brands, governments, and influencers are lying to you. Anansi International. vitalsource.com/products/the-g…
Podnar, K., & Golob, U. (2024). Brands and activism: Ecosystem and paradoxes. Journal of Brand Management, 31, 95–107. link.springer.com/article/10.1…
Rainforest Action Network. (2019). Fifteen environmental NGOs demand that sustainable palm oil watchdog does its job. RAN. ran.org/press-releases/fifteen…
Renner, A., Zellweger, C., & Skinner, B. (2021). ‘Is there such a thing as sustainable palm oil? Satellite images show protected rainforest on fire’. Neue Zürcher Zeitung. nzz.ch/english/palm-oil-boom-t…
Saager, E. S., Iwamura, T., Jucker, T., & Murray, K. A. (2023). Deforestation for oil palm increases microclimate suitability for the development of the disease vector Aedes albopictus. Scientific Reports, 13(1), 9514. nature.com/articles/s41598-023…
Southey, F. (2021). What do Millennials think of palm oil? Nestlé investigates. Food Navigator. foodnavigator.com/Article/2021…
Transparency International. (2023). Transparency international report: Corruption and corporate capture in Indonesia’s top 50 palm oil companies. Transparency International. palmoildetectives.com/2023/05/…
Tybout, A. M., & Calkins, T. (Eds.). (2019). Kellogg on Branding in a Hyper-Connected World. Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. wiley.com/en-au/Kellogg+on+Bra…
Wicke, J. (2019). Sustainable palm oil or certified dispossession? NGOs within scalar struggles over the RSPO private governance standard. Bioeconomy & Inequalities: Working Paper No. 8. bioinequalities.uni-jena.de/so…
World Health Organisation. (2019). The palm oil industry and noncommunicable diseases. World Health Organisation Bulletin, 97, 118-128. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/307286…
World Rainforest Movement. (2021, November 22). Why the RSPO facilitates land grabs for palm oil. wrm.org.uy/articles-from-the-w…
Zuckerman, J. (2021). The Time Has Come to Rein In the Global Scourge of Palm Oil. Yale Environment 360, Yale School of Environment. e360.yale.edu/features/the-tim…
Palm Oil Detectives is completely self-funded by its creator. All hosting and website fees and investigations into brands are self-funded by the creator of this online movement. If you like what I am doing, you and would like me to help meet costs, please send Palm Oil Detectives a thanks on Ko-Fi.
A visual investigation by the NZZ shows the standards for certifying palm oil production as sustainable are often ignored. The consequences for millions of hectares of vulnerable rainforest could be catastrophic as the industry expands.
Papua New Guinea & West Papua: Species Endangered by Palm Oil Deforestation
As rainforest habitats are destroyed for palm oil in Indonesia and Malaysia, Indonesian and Chinese oil palm processing companies are switching focus towards Papua New Guinea, West Papua, Africa and South America to keep up with demand for palm oil.
Papua New Guinea and West Papua were divided up and taken by Indonesian colonial forces in the middle of last century. Yet for the ancestral indigenous owners of the islands of Papua and Melanesia, the Papuans who have lived the region for thousands of years -they simply call this region – home. Read more about this at the bottom of this page.
“When our forests are damaged, there will be a massive climate crisis, species like the birds of paradise will become extinct and not just our Namblong Indigenous culture will be destroyed, but that of all peoples everywhere,”
Orpha Yoshua, an Indigenous Namblong woman from West Papua told Greenpeace.
Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again. Papua New Guinea & West Papua: Species Endangered by Palm Oil Deforestation youtu.be/eESMGraMlKM
Rainforest animals and rainforest peoples in Papua are under attack from global palm oil plantations and industrial-military actions on their illegally taken land
Indigenous Melanesian peoples of West Papua and Papua New Guinea are the rightful and original custodians of Papuan rainforests. Their voices deserve to be heard in environmental campaigns.
Yet Indonesia has embarked on an extensive greenwashing campaign to make these people invisible. Papuans never ceded sovreignty of their land and they have a right to have it back. Palm Oil Detectives works in solidarity with Melanesian and West Papuan support networks to raise the voices of Papuan indigenous activists.
There are many ways you can join the fight too. Become a Palm Oil Detective and Take Action today!
On Twitter, a South East Asian couple cosplay as Papuan indigenous traditional clothing in an obvious effort to erase Melanesian ethnicity and to normalise Indonesian rule – Spoiler: Papuans never ceded their sovereignty
More stories about Papua’s indigenous peoples and rare animals
Papua harbours uniquely beautiful animals including rare marsupials and birds not found anywhere else on the planet. In the lush and fertile forests of Papua live thinking, feeling and intelligent beings that love their children. Just like us, they just want to survive and have their animal families and communities left in peace. These animals live in Papua New Guinea and have a IUCN Red List status of Critically Endangered, Endangered or Vulnerable. Although animal conservation is still relatively new in Papua New Guinea, there is hope, with conservation foundations working to protect these species and the rainforest they live in.
1. Join the #Boycott4Wildlife on social media and subscribe to stay in the loop: Share posts from this website to your own network on Twitter, Mastadon, Instagram, Facebook and Youtube using the hashtags #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife.
2. Contribute stories: Academics, conservationists, scientists, indigenous rights advocates and animal rights advocates working to expose the corruption of the palm oil industry or to save animals can contribute stories to the website.
3. Supermarket sleuthing: Next time you’re in the supermarket, take photos of products containing palm oil. Share these to social media along with the hashtags to call out the greenwashing and ecocide of the brands who use palm oil. You can also take photos of palm oil free products and congratulate brands when they go palm oil free.
4. Take to the streets: Get in touch with Palm Oil Detectives to find out more.
5. Donate: Make a one-off or monthly donation to Palm Oil Detectives as a way of saying thank you and to help pay for ongoing running costs of the website and social media campaigns. Donate here
Indigenous knowledge can help us better adapt to and mitigate climate change. More than 190 nations at COP15 — the United Nations biodiversity summit — have reached a historic deal to protect a third of the Earth’s land and water by the end of the de…
Claiming a brand or commodity is ‘green’ or ‘sustainable’ based on broad generalisations, unclear language or vague statements
Vagueness
For example having vague requirements for certification schemes like the RSPO that are easily manipulated or exploited.
Share this insight on Twitter…
Greenwashing Tactic #3: Vagueness: Claiming a brand or commodity is green by using vague generalisations or by having vague guiding principles which are subject to corruption. We #Boycott4Wildlife #Boycottpalmoil #ResistGreenwashing
Claiming a brand or commodity is ‘green’ or ‘sustainable’ based on broad generalisations, unclear language or vague statements
Vagueness
For example having vague requirements for certification schemes like the RSPO that are easily manipulated or exploited.
Share this insight on Twitter…
Greenwashing Tactic #3: Vagueness: Claiming a brand or commodity is green by using vague generalisations or by having vague guiding principles which are subject to corruption. We #Boycott4Wildlife #Boycottpalmoil #ResistGreenwashing
The RSPO fails to audit its own members adequately or to uphold their own vague and ill-defined voluntary standards, 17 years after the RSPO began
Reports, peer-reviewed research, OSINT, investigative journalism and books below from the past two decades have shown how the RSPO has failed to hold its members to account for human rights abuses, illegal indigenous landgrabbing, ecocide, violence and death, extinction, slavery and rape on certified sustainable palm oil plantations.
“Non-adherence to the RSPO’s standards is systemic and widespread, and has led to ongoing land conflicts, labour abuses and destruction of forests.
“As the world approaches 2020 targets to halt deforestation, the RSPO needs to rapidly implement radical solutions to restore its credibility. We question whether the RSPO is willing and able to rectify its systemic failures – ultimately, voluntary certification is too limited by its voluntary nature.”
“While RSPO is often referred to as the best scheme in the sector, it has several shortcomings; most notably it has not prevented human rights violations and it does not require GHG emissions reductions.”
“Implementation of [the RSPO’s] standards is often weak, with serious audit failures being reported, many members failing to meet the full range of membership requirements and grievances slow to be addressed.”
“Without assurance mechanisms that properly function, the RSPO has little credibility and its claims are hollow.
“RSPO companies have continued to be beset by assurance issues in 2020. Associated Press notably reported on labour violations in Malaysia, including by RSPO members. These allegations included forced labour, the abuse of women and child labour, among others.”
A 2019 World Health Organisation (WHO) report into the palm oil industry and RSPO finds extensive greenwashing of palm oil deforestation and the murder of endangered animals (i.e. biodiversity loss)
Adina Renner, Conradin Zellweger, Barnaby Skinner. ‘Is there such a thing as sustainable palm oil? Satellite images show protected rainforest on fire’. (May 2021) nzz.ch/english/palm-oil-boom-t… Read report
The True Price of Palm Oil: How global finance and household brands are fuelling deforestation, violence and human rights abuses in Papua New Guinea Read Report
Aggarwal, P. (2011). Greenwashing: The darker side of CSR. Indian Journal of Applied Research, 4(3), 61-66. worldwidejournals.com/indian-j…
Anti-Corporate Activism and Collusion: The Contentious Politics of Palm Oil Expansion in Indonesia, (2022). Ward Berenschot, et. al., Geoforum, Volume 131, 2022, doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.202…
Balanced Growth (2020), In: Leal Filho W., Azul A.M., Brandli L., özuyar P.G., Wall T. (eds) Responsible Consumption and Production. Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Springer, Cham
Berenschot, W., Hospes, O., & Afrizal, A. (2023). Unequal access to justice: An evaluation of RSPO’s capacity to resolve palm oil conflicts in Indonesia. Agriculture and Human Values, 40, 291-304. doi.org/10.1007/s10460-022-103…
Carlson, K. M., Heilmayr, R., Gibbs, H. K., Noojipady, P., et al. (2018). Effect of oil palm sustainability certification on deforestation and fire in Indonesia. PNAS, 115(1), 121-126. doi.org/10.1073/pnas.170472811…
Cazzolla Gatti, R., Liang, J., Velichevskaya, A., & Zhou, M. (2018). Sustainable palm oil may not be so sustainable. Science of The Total Environment, 652, 48-51. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/303598…
Changing Times Media. (2019). Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil is ‘greenwashing’ labelled products, environmental investigation agency says. Changing Times Media. changingtimes.media/2019/11/03…
Commodifying sustainability: Development, nature and politics in the palm oil industry (2019). World Development, Volume 121, September 2019, Pages 218-228. ideas.repec.org/a/eee/wdevel/v…
Contrasting communications of sustainability science in the media coverage of palm oil agriculture on tropical peatlands in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore (2020). Liu, F. H. M., Ganesan, V., Smith, T. E. L. Environmental Science & Policy, 114. researchgate.net/publication/3…
Cosimo, L. H. E., Masiero, M., Mammadova, A., & Pettenella, D. (2024). Voluntary sustainability standards to cope with the new European Union regulation on deforestation-free products: A gap analysis. Forest Policy and Economics, 164, 103235. doi.org/10.1016/j.forpol.2024.…
Dalton, J. (2018). No such thing as sustainable palm oil – ‘certified’ can destroy even more wildlife, say scientists. The Independent. independent.co.uk/climate-chan…
Davis, S. J., Alexander, K., Moreno-Cruz, J., et al. (2023). Food without agriculture. Nature Sustainability. nature.com/articles/s41893-023…
EIA International. (2022). Will palm oil watchdog rid itself of deforestation or continue to pretend its products are sustainable? EIA International. eia-international.org/news/wil…
Environmental Investigation Agency. (2019). Palm oil watchdog’s sustainability guarantee is still a destructive con. EIA International. eia-international.org/news/pal…
Fifteen environmental NGOs demand that sustainable palm oil watchdog does its job (2019). Rainforest Action Network. ran.org/press-releases/fifteen…
Friends of the Earth International. (2018). RSPO: 14 years of failure to eliminate violence and destruction from the industrial palm oil sector. Friends of the Earth International. foei.org/rspo-14-years-of-fail…
Lang, Chris and REDD Monitor. Sustainable palm oil? RSPO’s greenwashing and fraudulent audits exposed. The Ecologist. theecologist.org/2015/nov/19/s…
Gatti, L., Pizzetti, M., & Seele, P. (2021). Green lies and their effect on intention to invest. Journal of Business Research, 127, 376-387. doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2021…
Group Challenges Rainforest Alliance Earth-Friendly Seal of Approval (2015). Truth in Advertising. truthinadvertising.org/group-c…
Helan, A. (2011). Greenwash and spin: palm oil lobby targets its critics. Ecologist: Informed by Nature. theecologist.org/2011/feb/15/g…
Hewlett Packard. (2021). What is Greenwashing and How to Tell Which Companies are Truly Environmentally Responsible. Hewlett Packard. hp.com/us-en/shop/tech-takes/w…
Holzner, A., Rameli, N. I. A. M., Ruppert, N., & Widdig, A. (2024). Agricultural habitat use affects infant survivorship in an endangered macaque species. Current Biology. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/381949…
Jauernig, J., Uhl, M., & Valentinov, V. (2021). The ethics of corporate hypocrisy: An experimental approach. Futures, 129, 102757. doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2021…
Li, T. M., & Semedi, P. (2021). Plantation life: Corporate occupation in Indonesia’s oil palm zone. Duke University Press. dukeupress.edu/plantation-life
Liu, F. H. M., Ganesan, V., & Smith, T. E. L. (2020). Contrasting communications of sustainability science in the media coverage of palm oil agriculture on tropical peatlands in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. Environmental Science & Policy, 114. researchgate.net/publication/3…
Meemken, E. M., Barrett, C. B., Michelson, H. C., et al. (2021). Sustainability standards in global agrifood supply chains. Nature Food. doi.org/10.1038/s43016-021-002…
Miles, T. (2019). Study in WHO journal likens palm oil lobbying to tobacco and alcohol industries. Reuters. reuters.com/article/idUSKCN1P2…
Nygaard, A. (2023). Is sustainable certification’s ability to combat greenwashing trustworthy? Frontiers in Sustainability, 4, Article 1188069. doi.org/10.3389/frsus.2023.118…
Oppong-Tawiah D, Webster J. Corporate Sustainability Communication as ‘Fake News’: Firms’ Greenwashing on Twitter. Sustainability. 2023; 15(8):6683. mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/8/6683
Pabon, J. (2024). The great greenwashing: How brands, governments, and influencers are lying to you. Anansi International. vitalsource.com/products/the-g…
Podnar, K., & Golob, U. (2024). Brands and activism: Ecosystem and paradoxes. Journal of Brand Management, 31, 95–107. link.springer.com/article/10.1…
Rainforest Action Network. (2019). Fifteen environmental NGOs demand that sustainable palm oil watchdog does its job. RAN. ran.org/press-releases/fifteen…
Renner, A., Zellweger, C., & Skinner, B. (2021). ‘Is there such a thing as sustainable palm oil? Satellite images show protected rainforest on fire’. Neue Zürcher Zeitung. nzz.ch/english/palm-oil-boom-t…
Saager, E. S., Iwamura, T., Jucker, T., & Murray, K. A. (2023). Deforestation for oil palm increases microclimate suitability for the development of the disease vector Aedes albopictus. Scientific Reports, 13(1), 9514. nature.com/articles/s41598-023…
Southey, F. (2021). What do Millennials think of palm oil? Nestlé investigates. Food Navigator. foodnavigator.com/Article/2021…
Transparency International. (2023). Transparency international report: Corruption and corporate capture in Indonesia’s top 50 palm oil companies. Transparency International. palmoildetectives.com/2023/05/…
Tybout, A. M., & Calkins, T. (Eds.). (2019). Kellogg on Branding in a Hyper-Connected World. Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. wiley.com/en-au/Kellogg+on+Bra…
Wicke, J. (2019). Sustainable palm oil or certified dispossession? NGOs within scalar struggles over the RSPO private governance standard. Bioeconomy & Inequalities: Working Paper No. 8. bioinequalities.uni-jena.de/so…
World Health Organisation. (2019). The palm oil industry and noncommunicable diseases. World Health Organisation Bulletin, 97, 118-128. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/307286…
World Rainforest Movement. (2021, November 22). Why the RSPO facilitates land grabs for palm oil. wrm.org.uy/articles-from-the-w…
Zuckerman, J. (2021). The Time Has Come to Rein In the Global Scourge of Palm Oil. Yale Environment 360, Yale School of Environment. e360.yale.edu/features/the-tim…
Palm Oil Detectives is completely self-funded by its creator. All hosting and website fees and investigations into brands are self-funded by the creator of this online movement. If you like what I am doing, you and would like me to help meet costs, please send Palm Oil Detectives a thanks on Ko-Fi.
The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) is one of the world’s most well-known certification schemes. Its environmental and social standards are often ranked highly and yet it continues to face criticism, eroding trust in its brand.
Hand-drawn or vintage and nostalgic animals and children illustrations in packaging and advertising design that bring to mind children’s books.
Happy, uplifting and nostalgic music.
Visual storytelling involving nature.
Green clothing, natural ambient noise and reassuring happy colours set the scene for storytelling by Palm Done Right
Dr Jennifer Lucy’s research, which is funded by the RSPO and industry sets out the minimum amount of rainforest that can be left over for endangered species by the palm oil industry.
Forest-inspired pie charts and hand-drawn icons tell the story of RSPO members in the 2021 WWF Palm Oil Scorecard
The WWF scorecard ranks RSPO member supermarket brands according to whether or not they have stopped with deforestation or other corrupt practices.
The WWF scorecard uses phrases like:
“9% of respondents have a deforestation and conversion free commitment.”
“88% of respondents have a human rights commitment”
What this means in reality…is absolutely nothing.
The most critical information is not included on the WWF Palm Oil Scorecard
That NONE of these supermarket brands (RSPO members) have ceased deforestation, land-grabbing, human rights abuses for palm oil. Instead, consumers are lulled into reassurances to purchase by the green, forest-inspired pie charts and positive, reassuring phrases.
Global brands are now claiming ‘eco-friendly’ status by saying that their products are vegan. This is despite these same brands causing global ecocide for palm oil, putting at risk thousands of endangered species
This hijacking of the vegan label is deeply problematic for many vegans. They are all too aware of the devastation of palm oil on rainforest ecosystems and endangered forest species.Most environmentally aware vegans DO NOT agree that palm oil is vegan. The definition of veganism is not only if an ingredient is ‘plant-based.’
Veganism is the strong rejection of all cruelty, death and slavery of animals. Palm oil is a global scourge to all tropical animal species – it is therefore NOT VEGAN.
The Body Shop: An RSPO member that uses so-called ‘sustainable’ palm oil, the Body Shop is able to persuade consumers of its green eco-friendly nature with the aid of forest-themed hand-drawn illustrations. Via Twitter
Nestle’s Vegan Kitkat: The world’s biggest consumer food brand has not suddenly become ‘green’. They continue with human rights abuses, deforestation, illegal landgrabbing for palm oil. However, claiming ‘Vegan’ status is a way to label themselves as green.
L’Oreal: is another brand cashing in on the vegan trend. By filling their cosmetics, hair care and skincare ranges with palm oil they claim vegan status. Via Twitter
Nestle Wunda drink: Nestle, one of the world’s most notorious brands linked to global ecocide and destruction, can now claim vegan status, despite causing ecocide for palm oil, soy and other ingredients. Via Twitter
Endorsement of palm oil as a vegan ingredient is both lazy and greedy on behalf of vegan organisations like Peta and the Vegan Society. These animal organisations receive sponsorship funding from corporates to endorse products containing palm oil. This ignores the immense global damage of palm oil. For any serious animal activist and vegan – veganism means more than a product being simply plant-based.
Veganism is:
A philosophy and a consumer lifestyle of avoidance of brands and products where these brands or products cause harm to animals. This harm could be:
Animal murder for human consumption.
The enslavement of animals for the benefit of humans.
Cruelty, violence or murder of animals for human entertainment or sport.
Animal testing or experimentation that benefits humans.
The destruction of rainforests where the highest concentration of endangered species live, for palm oil, meat, soy or other commodities in order to create consumer products.
True veganism is a philosophy that respects and appreciates all ecosystems and the lives of non-human beings within them. It does not make excuses for ecocide and animal extinction, just for the sake of cheap supermarket goods.
These words trigger automatic, emotional and unconscious responses in consumers. Language works effortlessly in conjunction with greenwashing design to hit the right emotional buttons and to have a positive and rewarding emotional effect on consumers’ minds
Vector natural, organic food, bio, eco labels and shapes on white background. Hand drawn stains set.
Aggarwal, P. (2011). Greenwashing: The darker side of CSR. Indian Journal of Applied Research, 4(3), 61-66. worldwidejournals.com/indian-j…
Anti-Corporate Activism and Collusion: The Contentious Politics of Palm Oil Expansion in Indonesia, (2022). Ward Berenschot, et. al., Geoforum, Volume 131, 2022, doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.202…
Balanced Growth (2020), In: Leal Filho W., Azul A.M., Brandli L., özuyar P.G., Wall T. (eds) Responsible Consumption and Production. Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Springer, Cham
Berenschot, W., Hospes, O., & Afrizal, A. (2023). Unequal access to justice: An evaluation of RSPO’s capacity to resolve palm oil conflicts in Indonesia. Agriculture and Human Values, 40, 291-304. doi.org/10.1007/s10460-022-103…
Carlson, K. M., Heilmayr, R., Gibbs, H. K., Noojipady, P., et al. (2018). Effect of oil palm sustainability certification on deforestation and fire in Indonesia. PNAS, 115(1), 121-126. doi.org/10.1073/pnas.170472811…
Cazzolla Gatti, R., Liang, J., Velichevskaya, A., & Zhou, M. (2018). Sustainable palm oil may not be so sustainable. Science of The Total Environment, 652, 48-51. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/303598…
Changing Times Media. (2019). Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil is ‘greenwashing’ labelled products, environmental investigation agency says. Changing Times Media. changingtimes.media/2019/11/03…
Commodifying sustainability: Development, nature and politics in the palm oil industry (2019). World Development, Volume 121, September 2019, Pages 218-228. ideas.repec.org/a/eee/wdevel/v…
Contrasting communications of sustainability science in the media coverage of palm oil agriculture on tropical peatlands in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore (2020). Liu, F. H. M., Ganesan, V., Smith, T. E. L. Environmental Science & Policy, 114. researchgate.net/publication/3…
Cosimo, L. H. E., Masiero, M., Mammadova, A., & Pettenella, D. (2024). Voluntary sustainability standards to cope with the new European Union regulation on deforestation-free products: A gap analysis. Forest Policy and Economics, 164, 103235. doi.org/10.1016/j.forpol.2024.…
Dalton, J. (2018). No such thing as sustainable palm oil – ‘certified’ can destroy even more wildlife, say scientists. The Independent. independent.co.uk/climate-chan…
Davis, S. J., Alexander, K., Moreno-Cruz, J., et al. (2023). Food without agriculture. Nature Sustainability. nature.com/articles/s41893-023…
EIA International. (2022). Will palm oil watchdog rid itself of deforestation or continue to pretend its products are sustainable? EIA International. eia-international.org/news/wil…
Environmental Investigation Agency. (2019). Palm oil watchdog’s sustainability guarantee is still a destructive con. EIA International. eia-international.org/news/pal…
Fifteen environmental NGOs demand that sustainable palm oil watchdog does its job (2019). Rainforest Action Network. ran.org/press-releases/fifteen…
Friends of the Earth International. (2018). RSPO: 14 years of failure to eliminate violence and destruction from the industrial palm oil sector. Friends of the Earth International. foei.org/rspo-14-years-of-fail…
Lang, Chris and REDD Monitor. Sustainable palm oil? RSPO’s greenwashing and fraudulent audits exposed. The Ecologist. theecologist.org/2015/nov/19/s…
Gatti, L., Pizzetti, M., & Seele, P. (2021). Green lies and their effect on intention to invest. Journal of Business Research, 127, 376-387. doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2021…
Group Challenges Rainforest Alliance Earth-Friendly Seal of Approval (2015). Truth in Advertising. truthinadvertising.org/group-c…
Helan, A. (2011). Greenwash and spin: palm oil lobby targets its critics. Ecologist: Informed by Nature. theecologist.org/2011/feb/15/g…
Hewlett Packard. (2021). What is Greenwashing and How to Tell Which Companies are Truly Environmentally Responsible. Hewlett Packard. hp.com/us-en/shop/tech-takes/w…
Holzner, A., Rameli, N. I. A. M., Ruppert, N., & Widdig, A. (2024). Agricultural habitat use affects infant survivorship in an endangered macaque species. Current Biology. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/381949…
Jauernig, J., Uhl, M., & Valentinov, V. (2021). The ethics of corporate hypocrisy: An experimental approach. Futures, 129, 102757. doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2021…
Li, T. M., & Semedi, P. (2021). Plantation life: Corporate occupation in Indonesia’s oil palm zone. Duke University Press. dukeupress.edu/plantation-life
Liu, F. H. M., Ganesan, V., & Smith, T. E. L. (2020). Contrasting communications of sustainability science in the media coverage of palm oil agriculture on tropical peatlands in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. Environmental Science & Policy, 114. researchgate.net/publication/3…
Meemken, E. M., Barrett, C. B., Michelson, H. C., et al. (2021). Sustainability standards in global agrifood supply chains. Nature Food. doi.org/10.1038/s43016-021-002…
Miles, T. (2019). Study in WHO journal likens palm oil lobbying to tobacco and alcohol industries. Reuters. reuters.com/article/idUSKCN1P2…
Nygaard, A. (2023). Is sustainable certification’s ability to combat greenwashing trustworthy? Frontiers in Sustainability, 4, Article 1188069. doi.org/10.3389/frsus.2023.118…
Oppong-Tawiah D, Webster J. Corporate Sustainability Communication as ‘Fake News’: Firms’ Greenwashing on Twitter. Sustainability. 2023; 15(8):6683. mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/8/6683
Pabon, J. (2024). The great greenwashing: How brands, governments, and influencers are lying to you. Anansi International. vitalsource.com/products/the-g…
Podnar, K., & Golob, U. (2024). Brands and activism: Ecosystem and paradoxes. Journal of Brand Management, 31, 95–107. link.springer.com/article/10.1…
Rainforest Action Network. (2019). Fifteen environmental NGOs demand that sustainable palm oil watchdog does its job. RAN. ran.org/press-releases/fifteen…
Renner, A., Zellweger, C., & Skinner, B. (2021). ‘Is there such a thing as sustainable palm oil? Satellite images show protected rainforest on fire’. Neue Zürcher Zeitung. nzz.ch/english/palm-oil-boom-t…
Saager, E. S., Iwamura, T., Jucker, T., & Murray, K. A. (2023). Deforestation for oil palm increases microclimate suitability for the development of the disease vector Aedes albopictus. Scientific Reports, 13(1), 9514. nature.com/articles/s41598-023…
Southey, F. (2021). What do Millennials think of palm oil? Nestlé investigates. Food Navigator. foodnavigator.com/Article/2021…
Transparency International. (2023). Transparency international report: Corruption and corporate capture in Indonesia’s top 50 palm oil companies. Transparency International. palmoildetectives.com/2023/05/…
Tybout, A. M., & Calkins, T. (Eds.). (2019). Kellogg on Branding in a Hyper-Connected World. Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. wiley.com/en-au/Kellogg+on+Bra…
Wicke, J. (2019). Sustainable palm oil or certified dispossession? NGOs within scalar struggles over the RSPO private governance standard. Bioeconomy & Inequalities: Working Paper No. 8. bioinequalities.uni-jena.de/so…
World Health Organisation. (2019). The palm oil industry and noncommunicable diseases. World Health Organisation Bulletin, 97, 118-128. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/307286…
World Rainforest Movement. (2021, November 22). Why the RSPO facilitates land grabs for palm oil. wrm.org.uy/articles-from-the-w…
Zuckerman, J. (2021). The Time Has Come to Rein In the Global Scourge of Palm Oil. Yale Environment 360, Yale School of Environment. e360.yale.edu/features/the-tim…
Palm Oil Detectives is completely self-funded by its creator. All hosting and website fees and investigations into brands are self-funded by the creator of this online movement. If you like what I am doing, you and would like me to help meet costs, please send Palm Oil Detectives a thanks on Ko-Fi.
A visual investigation by the NZZ shows the standards for certifying palm oil production as sustainable are often ignored. The consequences for millions of hectares of vulnerable rainforest could be catastrophic as the industry expands.
Greenwashing Tactic #9: Partnerships, Sponsorships & Research Funding
Greenwashing Tactic:
Partnerships, Sponsorships & Research Funding
Definition: Using corporate and NGO partnerships, sponsorships and research funding to give a commodity, an industry, ecolabel or company a ‘green’ and ‘eco-friendly’ reputation
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Greenwashing Tactic #9: Partnerships, Sponsorships & Research Funding
Greenwashing Tactic:
Partnerships, Sponsorships & Research Funding
Definition: Using corporate and NGO partnerships, sponsorships and research funding to give a commodity, an industry, ecolabel or company a ‘green’ and ‘eco-friendly’ reputation
Commercial and NGO partnerships, sponsorships and research funding to give a commodity, an industry, ecolabel or company a ‘green’ and ‘eco-friendly’ reputation
Orangutan Land Trust funded by rainforest destroying palm oil co. Kulim Malaysia Berhad
Orangutan Land Trust accepts a cheque for $500,000 for ‘worthy organisations on the ground’ from Kulim Malaysia Berhad, a palm oil company that is a corporate partner of Orangutan Land Trust as well and that has deforestation in their supply chain.
Kulim Malaysia Berhad provides Orangutan Land Trust with a $500,000 USD cheque.
BSI, a company that conducts audits for the RSPO is a corporate partner of Orangutan Land Trust. BSI approved the certification of another one of Orangutan Land Trust’s partners Kulim Malaysia Berhad recognising them as being ‘sustainable’ according to the RSPO
In 2015, Orangutan Land Trust listed Kulim Malaysia Berhad, a palm oil company as one of their corporate partners on their website. Orangutan Land Trust Corporate Sponsors Partrners Oct 2015
“Responsible and committed companies like Kulim ensure that no orangutan habitat is affected by their operations while also supporting conservation efforts outside their concession areas,” said Michelle Desilets, Executive Director, Orangutan Land Trust.
A Facebook group called the HAZE Action Team posted this about Orangutan Land Trust accepting the cheque for 500K from Kulim, a palm oil company that was disgraced in the same year for deforestation.
Again in 2019 on Twitter, Michelle Desilets was asked who received the money in Kalimantan. She did not answer. She has since been asked many times and only ever provided evasive answers about who exactly received the 500K from Kulim Malaysia Berhad
Orangutan Land Trust funded by Agropalma: during their decades-long destruction of the Amazon for palm oil
Orangutan Land Trust mentions fellow RSPO member Agropalma as being a sponsor and funder on their website and annual ACOP ( a report given to the RSPO) in 2014. Agropalma are listed on the OLT website until 2019.
“With Agropalma’s generous support, we can enable conservation activities in Indonesia and Malaysia that will not only help to protect the orangutan, but also all the biodiversity that shares its rainforest habitat”.
A report by the Palm Oil Innovation Group (POIG) on their website between 2014-2020 reveals that Agropalma have been paying Orangutan Land Trust 10,000 GBP per quarter. Read report
In 2022, Agropalma were the subject of a 2022 Global Witness report into the destruction of the Amazon rainforest and violence against indigenous land defenders. Read report
Orangutan Land Trust and New Britain Palm Oil (NBPOL): Deep financial links
There are deep financial and management links between the NGO Orangutan Land Trust, the RSPO, and palm oil company New Britain Palm Oil.
In 2012, in addition to receiving funds from Agropalma – Orangutan Land Trust received funds from palm oil company New Britain Palm Oil, while Michelle Desilets (and others) made decisions on the RSPO’s Complaints Panel about human rights cases related to New Britain Palm Oil. Read original document
In 2012 Michelle Desilets and Simon Lord went onto TV to spruik the benefits of the RSPO and sustainable palm oil together. See original
Concurrently from 2012-2017 Simon Lord was the Sustainability Manager for New Britain Palm Oil as well as being the registered Director of Orangutan Land Trust during the period where cash donations were made from New Britain Palm Oil to Orangutan Land Trust.
Global brands and RSPO members Ferrero and Wilmar (linked to extensive human rights abuses and deforestation) work together with Chester Zoo, Orangutan Land Trust and the RSPO to promote sustainable palm oil
WWF provides an annual Palm Oil Scorecard which ranks supermarket brands (RSPO members) providing consumers with baseless reassurances of palm oil sustainability.
WWF’s Palm Oil Scorecard ranks RSPO members (supermarket brands) such as: Tesco, Nestle, Ferrero, Unilever, Pepsi, CocaCola, Hersheys, Colgate-Palmolive, L’Oreal, Avon, Johnson&Johnson, Mondelez, PZ Cussons, Mars. This score card omits deforestation, fires, human rights abuses, illegal landgrabbing, violence and ecocide caused by these same RSPO members, by using ‘green’ words and design.
A founding member of the RSPO, WWF adds legitimacy and is a well-known global conservation brand. Their mission of saving animals has been overtaken by corporate interests and the need for corporate funding.
Chester Zoo provides educational and marketing resources to the Zoo network. The RSPO members (supermarket brands) provide sponsorship and funding in exchange for the promotion of sustainable palm oil.
This term, Year 6 have been studying deforestation and the need for sustainable palm oil in our everyday items. Our research of products, sustainable sources and the effect on wildlife culminated in a group being invited to deliver a presentation at @chesterzoo for @LearnatCZ
Mobile apps are promoted by zoos and the RSPO to push sustainable palm oil
The Giki Earth, Cheyenne Mountain Zoo app and Impact Score App promote ‘sustainable’ palm oil to consumers, giving them the reassurances of ‘orangutan safe’ and ‘sustainable’ choices in the supermarket
‘Orangutan Friendly’ recommendations in the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo app include all RSPO ‘certified sustainable’ members linked to deforestation, ecocode and human rights abuses for palm oil
SEnSOR (Socially and Environmentally Sustainable Oil palm Research) is a research programme set-up to examine the environmental and social impact of the RSPO. However, as this photo from Twitter reveals, it is funded by the RSPO, along with the industry – meaning global supermarket brands and palm oil companies that are part of the RSPO. No specific mention of industry funding is present on any research papers, the university websites, the SEnSOR website or anywhere else.
The SEnSOR project receives funding from the RSPO but is still apparently able to release findings that are independent and critical of the certification scheme. Funding relationships with the RSPO are left off the University of York’s website. There is no mention at all of palm oil research or of SEnSOR project on the University of Oxford’s website either.
The results of SEnSOR’s research studies reveal that RSPO certification is ineffective at stopping deforestation, loss of biodiversity and improving livelihoods of smallholder farmers. Read more.
Wilmar and SEARRP have worked together since 2006 where the collaboration between both parties to support academic research has shed light on the impact and role of sustainably managed palm oil plantations in supporting and maintaining forest biodiversity in and around the plantations.
Among the key findings of the research were a proposed forest patch size that is viable for biodiversity conservation, the importance of forest quality to increase viability for conservation and the position of a conservation area in relation to other intact forest areas in the landscape.
The partnership had also culminated in a workshop organised in 2015 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, entitled “Enhancing biodiversity conservation in the oil palm industry: Translating science into action”. Read more
To be successful in avoiding biodiversity losses RSPO plantations need to demonstrate avoided deforestation, and reduced fragmentation with higher forest cover and connectivity within their concession areas.
Dr Jennifer Lucey’s research, which is funded by the RSPO and industry sets out the minimum amount of rainforest that can be left over for endangered species by the palm oil industry.
Dr Eric Meijaard is the Chair of the IUCN Palm Oil Taskforce
He produces research about sustainable palm oil that is either ambiguous and inconclusive or positive about the effect that ‘sustainable’ palm oil plantations have on biodiversity and ecology. He publicly promotes the idea of sustainable palm oil, despite its links to ecocide, deforestation and human rights abuses associated with RSPO members (supermarket brands, palm oil traders and producers).
We find positive effects on prices and income from sale of certified products. However, we find no change in overall household income and assets for workers. The wages for workers are not higher in certified production.
We find that, while sustainability standards can help improve the sustainability of production processes in certain situations, they are insufficient to ensure food system sustainability at scale, nor do they advance equity objectives in agrifood supply chains.
Chester Zoo: promoting “sustainable” palm oil and connected to slavery
Chester Zoo has a ‘Modern Slavery’ act on their website which prohibits slavery in their suppliers and partners. Yet they are a public partner of the RSPO, an industry certification scheme deeply embedded in ecocide, corruption, deforestation, human rights abuses. They also partner with Ferrero and receive funding from them – a global food company and RSPO member involved in slavery, deforestation and human rights abuses.
Yet Chester Zoo partners with and promotes RSPO members and receives funding from Ferrero, a global food company and RSPO member with links to child slavery and deforestation.
A 2021 Investigation by Global Witness finds that palm oil companies in Papua New Guinea are alleged to have been involved in corruption, child labour, apparent tax evasion, deforestation, worker deaths and paying police to assault villagers.
The palm oil from these mills is used by RSPO members Colgate-Palmolive, Kelloggs, General Mills, Nestle, Hersheys, Danone, PZ Cussons – finds its way into our weekly supermarket shop.
A 2021 campaign by Sum of Us delivers 260,000 signatures on a petition to the US government to order Ferrero to stop sourcing palm oil.
Ferrero’s palm oil used in products like Ferrero Rocher and Nutella. Their palm oil is linked to child slavery, violence, human rights abuses and deforestation.
During its 14 years of existence, RSPO – the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil – has failed to live up to its claim of “transforming” the industrial palm oil production sector into a so-called “sustainable” one. In reality, the RSPO has been used by the palm oil industry to greenwash corporate destruction and human rights abuses, while it continues to expand business, forest destruction and profits.
RSPO presents itself to the public with the slogan “transforming the markets to make sustainable palm oil the norm”. Palm oil has become the cheapest vegetable oil available on the global market, making it a popular choice among the group that dominates RSPO membership, big palm oil buyers.
They will do everything to secure a steady flow of cheap palm oil. They also know that the key to the corporate success story of producing “cheap” palm oil is a particular model of industrial production, with ever-increasing efficiency and productivity which in turn is achieved by:
Planting on a large-scale and in monoculture, frequently through conversion of tropical biodiverse forests
Using “high yielding” seedlings that demand large amounts of agrotoxics and abundant water.
Squeezing cheap labour out of the smallest possible work force, employed in precarious conditions so that company costs are cut to a minimum
Making significant up-front money from the tropical timber extracted from concessions, which is then used to finance plantation development or increase corporate profits.
Grabbing land violently from local communities or by means of other arrangements with governments (including favourable tax regimes) to access land at the lowest possible cost.
Those living on the fertile land that the corporations choose to apply their industrial palm oil production model, pay a very high price.
Violence is intrinsic to this model:
violence and repression when communities resist the corporate take over of their land because they know that once their land is turned into monoculture oil palm plantations, their livelihoods will be destroyed, their land and forests invaded. In countless cases, deforestation caused by the expansion of this industry, has displaced communities or destroyed community livelihoods where
companies violate customary rights and take control of community land;
sexual violence and harassment against women in and around the plantations which often stays invisible because women find themselves without possibilities to demand that the perpetrators be prosecuted;
Child labour and precarious working conditions that go hand-in-hand with violation of workers’ rights;
working conditions can even be so bad as to amount to contemporary forms of slavery. This exploitative model of work grants companies more economic profits while allowing palm oil to remain a cheap product. That is why, neither them or their shareholders do anything to stop it.
exposure of workers, entire communities and forests, rivers, water springs, agricultural land and soils to the excessive application of agrotoxics;
depriving communities surrounded by industrial oil palm plantations of their food sovereignty when industrial oil palm plantations occupy land that communities need to grow food crops.
RSPO’s proclaimed vision of transforming the industrial oil palm sector is doomed to fail because the Roundtable’s certification principles promote this structural violent and destructive model.
The RSPO also fails to address the industry’s reliance on exclusive control of large and contingent areas of fertile land, as well as the industry’s growth paradigm which demands a continued expansion of corporate control over community land and violent land grabs.
None of RPSO’s eight certification principles suggests transforming this industry reliance on exclusive control over vast areas of land or the growth paradigm inherent to the model.
Industrial use of vegetable oils has doubled in the past 15 years, with palm oil being the cheapest. This massive increase of palm oil use in part explains the current expansion of industrial oil palm plantations, especially in Africa and Latin America, from the year 2000 onward, in addition to the existing vast plantations areas in Malaysia and Indonesia that also continue expanding.
On the ground, countless examples show that industrial oil palm plantations continue to be synonymous to violence and destruction for communities and forests. Communities’ experiences in the new industrial oil palm plantation frontiers, such as Gabon, Nigeria, Cameroon, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Peru, Honduras, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, are similar to past and ongoing community experiences in Indonesia and Malaysia.
RSPO creates a smokescreen that makes this violence invisible for consumers and financiers. Governments often fail to take regulatory action to stop the expansion of plantations and increasing demand of palm oil; they rely on RSPO to deliver an apparently sustainable flow of palm oil.
For example, in its public propaganda, RSPO claims it supports more than 100,000 small holders. But the profit from palm oil production is still disproportionally appropriated by the oil palm companies: in 2016, 88% of all certified palm oil came from corporate plantations and 99,6% of the production is corporate-controlled.
RSPO also claims that the principle of Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) is key among its own Principles and Criteria. The right to FPIC implies, among others, that if a community denies the establishment of this monoculture in its territory, operations cannot be carried out. Reality shows us, however, that despite this, many projects go ahead.
Concessions are often guaranteed long before the company reaches out to the affected communities. Under these circumstances, to say that FPIC is central to RSPO is bluntly false and disrespectful.
RSPO also argues that where conflicts with the plantation companies arise, communities can always use its complaint mechanism. However, the mechanism is complex and it rarely solves the problems that communities face and want to resolve.
This becomes particularly apparent in relation to land legacy conflicts where the mechanism is biased against communities. It allows companies to continue exploiting community land until courts have come to a decision. This approach encourages companies to sit out such conflicts and count on court proceedings dragging on, often over decades.
Another argument used by RSPO is that industrial oil palm plantations have lifted millions of people out of poverty. That claim is certainly questionable, even more so considering that there is also an important number of people who have been displaced over the past decades to make space for plantations.
Indigenous communities have in fact lost their fertile land, forests and rivers to oil palm plantations, adversely affecting their food, culture and local economies.
The RSPO promise of “transformation” has turned into a powerful greenwashing tool for corporations in the palm oil industry. RSPO grants this industry, which remains responsible for violent land grabbing, environmental destruction, pollution through excessive use of agrotoxics and destruction of peasant and indigenous livelihoods, a “sustainable” image.
What’s more, RSPO membership seems to suffice for investors and companies to be able to claim that they are “responsible” actors. This greenwash is particularly stunning, since being a member does not guarantee much change on the ground. Only recently, a company became RSPO member after it was found to deforest over 27.000 hectares of rainforest in Papua, Indonesia.
Certification is structurally dependent on the very same policies and regulation that have given rise to the host of environmental devastation and community land rights violations associated with oil palm plantations. These systemic governance issues are part of the destructive economic model, and embedded in state power.
For this reason, voluntary certification schemes cannot provide adequate protection for forests, community rights, food sovereignty and guarantee sustainability. Governments and financiers need to take responsibility to stop the destructive palm oil expansion that violates the rights of local communities and Indigenous Peoples.
As immediate steps, governments need to:
Put in place a moratorium on palm oil plantations expansion and use that as a breathing space to fix the policy frameworks;
Drastically reduce demand for palm oil: stop using food for fuel;
Strengthen and respect the rights of local communities and Indigenous Peoples to amongst others, self-determination and territorial control.
Promote agro-ecology and community control of their forests, which strengthens local incomes, livelihoods and food sovereignty, instead of advancing industrial agro-businesses.
Signatures
Aalamaram-NGOAcción Ecológica, Ecuador
ActionAid, France
AGAPAN Amics arbres
Arbres amics
Amis de la Terre France
ARAARBA (Asociación para la Recuperación del Bosque Autóctono)
Asociación Conservacionista YISKI, Costa Rica Asociación Gaia El Salvador
Association Congo Actif, Paris
Association Les Gens du Partage, Carrières-sous-Poissy
Association pour le développement des aires protégées, Swizterland
BASE IS
Bézu St Eloi
Boxberg OT Uhyst
Bread for all
Bruno Manser Fund
CADDECAE, Ecuador
Campaign to STOP GE Trees
CAP, Center for Advocacy Practices
Centar za životnu sredinu/ Friends of the Earth Bosnia and Herzegovina
CESTA – FOE El Salvador
CETRI – Centre tricontinental
Climate Change Kenya
Coalición de Tendencia Clasista. (CTC-VZLA)
Colectivo de Investigación y Acompañmiento Comunitario
Collectif pour la défense des terres malgaches – TANY, Madagascar
Community Forest Watch, Nigeria
Consumers Association of Penang
Corporate Europe Observatory
Cuttington University
Down to Earth Consult
El Campello
Environmental Resources Management and Social Issue Centre (ERMSIC) Cameroon
Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria
Associated Press investigation (2020) finds widespread violence, rape and slavery of women by RSPO members: Colgate-Palmolive, L’Oreal, Avon, Unilever, Johnson&Johnson, for palm oil that ends up in beauty brands
Dayak Indigenous Ethnographer Dr Setia Budhi: In His Own Words
“The expansion of oil palm plantations has created many detrimental environmental impacts, such as deforestation, loss of biodiversity, land conflicts, labour conflicts, and social conflicts around plantations.
“Environmental damage and social injustice were reasons why the global palm oil certification, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) was established.
“In practice, requirements for oil palm certifications are easily violated. Lots of things are problematic.”
Global corporates are responsible for the majority of palm oil production and deforestation risk, not smallholder farmers
The three biggest palm oil traders: Sinar Mas, Wilmar and Musim Mas – all RSPO members, also have the biggest deforestation risk. Deforestation goes against the RSPO’s rules.
Adina Renner, Conradin Zellweger, Barnaby Skinner. ‘Is there such a thing as sustainable palm oil? Satellite images show protected rainforest on fire’. (May 2021) nzz.ch/english/palm-oil-boom-t… Read report
The True Price of Palm Oil: How global finance and household brands are fuelling deforestation, violence and human rights abuses in Papua New Guinea Read Report
No significant difference was found between certified and non-certified plantations for any of the sustainability metrics investigated, however positive economic trends including greater fresh fruit bunch yields were revealed. To achieve intended outcomes, RSPO principles and criteria are in need of substantial improvement and rigorous enforcement.
The Neue Zuercher Zeitung used several cases to highlight where slash-and-burn techniques continue on RSPO-certified land, and where new plantations are threatening important ecosystems. These examples are representative of the huge gap between the need for environmental protection and the ever-increasing global demand for palm oil.
Aggarwal, P. (2011). Greenwashing: The darker side of CSR. Indian Journal of Applied Research, 4(3), 61-66. worldwidejournals.com/indian-j…
Anti-Corporate Activism and Collusion: The Contentious Politics of Palm Oil Expansion in Indonesia, (2022). Ward Berenschot, et. al., Geoforum, Volume 131, 2022, doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.202…
Balanced Growth (2020), In: Leal Filho W., Azul A.M., Brandli L., özuyar P.G., Wall T. (eds) Responsible Consumption and Production. Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Springer, Cham
Berenschot, W., Hospes, O., & Afrizal, A. (2023). Unequal access to justice: An evaluation of RSPO’s capacity to resolve palm oil conflicts in Indonesia. Agriculture and Human Values, 40, 291-304. doi.org/10.1007/s10460-022-103…
Carlson, K. M., Heilmayr, R., Gibbs, H. K., Noojipady, P., et al. (2018). Effect of oil palm sustainability certification on deforestation and fire in Indonesia. PNAS, 115(1), 121-126. doi.org/10.1073/pnas.170472811…
Cazzolla Gatti, R., Liang, J., Velichevskaya, A., & Zhou, M. (2018). Sustainable palm oil may not be so sustainable. Science of The Total Environment, 652, 48-51. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/303598…
Changing Times Media. (2019). Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil is ‘greenwashing’ labelled products, environmental investigation agency says. Changing Times Media. changingtimes.media/2019/11/03…
Commodifying sustainability: Development, nature and politics in the palm oil industry (2019). World Development, Volume 121, September 2019, Pages 218-228. ideas.repec.org/a/eee/wdevel/v…
Contrasting communications of sustainability science in the media coverage of palm oil agriculture on tropical peatlands in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore (2020). Liu, F. H. M., Ganesan, V., Smith, T. E. L. Environmental Science & Policy, 114. researchgate.net/publication/3…
Cosimo, L. H. E., Masiero, M., Mammadova, A., & Pettenella, D. (2024). Voluntary sustainability standards to cope with the new European Union regulation on deforestation-free products: A gap analysis. Forest Policy and Economics, 164, 103235. doi.org/10.1016/j.forpol.2024.…
Dalton, J. (2018). No such thing as sustainable palm oil – ‘certified’ can destroy even more wildlife, say scientists. The Independent. independent.co.uk/climate-chan…
Davis, S. J., Alexander, K., Moreno-Cruz, J., et al. (2023). Food without agriculture. Nature Sustainability. nature.com/articles/s41893-023…
EIA International. (2022). Will palm oil watchdog rid itself of deforestation or continue to pretend its products are sustainable? EIA International. eia-international.org/news/wil…
Environmental Investigation Agency. (2019). Palm oil watchdog’s sustainability guarantee is still a destructive con. EIA International. eia-international.org/news/pal…
Fifteen environmental NGOs demand that sustainable palm oil watchdog does its job (2019). Rainforest Action Network. ran.org/press-releases/fifteen…
Friends of the Earth International. (2018). RSPO: 14 years of failure to eliminate violence and destruction from the industrial palm oil sector. Friends of the Earth International. foei.org/rspo-14-years-of-fail…
Lang, Chris and REDD Monitor. Sustainable palm oil? RSPO’s greenwashing and fraudulent audits exposed. The Ecologist. theecologist.org/2015/nov/19/s…
Gatti, L., Pizzetti, M., & Seele, P. (2021). Green lies and their effect on intention to invest. Journal of Business Research, 127, 376-387. doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2021…
Group Challenges Rainforest Alliance Earth-Friendly Seal of Approval (2015). Truth in Advertising. truthinadvertising.org/group-c…
Helan, A. (2011). Greenwash and spin: palm oil lobby targets its critics. Ecologist: Informed by Nature. theecologist.org/2011/feb/15/g…
Hewlett Packard. (2021). What is Greenwashing and How to Tell Which Companies are Truly Environmentally Responsible. Hewlett Packard. hp.com/us-en/shop/tech-takes/w…
Holzner, A., Rameli, N. I. A. M., Ruppert, N., & Widdig, A. (2024). Agricultural habitat use affects infant survivorship in an endangered macaque species. Current Biology. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/381949…
Jauernig, J., Uhl, M., & Valentinov, V. (2021). The ethics of corporate hypocrisy: An experimental approach. Futures, 129, 102757. doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2021…
Li, T. M., & Semedi, P. (2021). Plantation life: Corporate occupation in Indonesia’s oil palm zone. Duke University Press. dukeupress.edu/plantation-life
Liu, F. H. M., Ganesan, V., & Smith, T. E. L. (2020). Contrasting communications of sustainability science in the media coverage of palm oil agriculture on tropical peatlands in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. Environmental Science & Policy, 114. researchgate.net/publication/3…
Meemken, E. M., Barrett, C. B., Michelson, H. C., et al. (2021). Sustainability standards in global agrifood supply chains. Nature Food. doi.org/10.1038/s43016-021-002…
Miles, T. (2019). Study in WHO journal likens palm oil lobbying to tobacco and alcohol industries. Reuters. reuters.com/article/idUSKCN1P2…
Nygaard, A. (2023). Is sustainable certification’s ability to combat greenwashing trustworthy? Frontiers in Sustainability, 4, Article 1188069. doi.org/10.3389/frsus.2023.118…
Oppong-Tawiah D, Webster J. Corporate Sustainability Communication as ‘Fake News’: Firms’ Greenwashing on Twitter. Sustainability. 2023; 15(8):6683. mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/8/6683
Pabon, J. (2024). The great greenwashing: How brands, governments, and influencers are lying to you. Anansi International. vitalsource.com/products/the-g…
Podnar, K., & Golob, U. (2024). Brands and activism: Ecosystem and paradoxes. Journal of Brand Management, 31, 95–107. link.springer.com/article/10.1…
Rainforest Action Network. (2019). Fifteen environmental NGOs demand that sustainable palm oil watchdog does its job. RAN. ran.org/press-releases/fifteen…
Renner, A., Zellweger, C., & Skinner, B. (2021). ‘Is there such a thing as sustainable palm oil? Satellite images show protected rainforest on fire’. Neue Zürcher Zeitung. nzz.ch/english/palm-oil-boom-t…
Saager, E. S., Iwamura, T., Jucker, T., & Murray, K. A. (2023). Deforestation for oil palm increases microclimate suitability for the development of the disease vector Aedes albopictus. Scientific Reports, 13(1), 9514. nature.com/articles/s41598-023…
Southey, F. (2021). What do Millennials think of palm oil? Nestlé investigates. Food Navigator. foodnavigator.com/Article/2021…
Transparency International. (2023). Transparency international report: Corruption and corporate capture in Indonesia’s top 50 palm oil companies. Transparency International. palmoildetectives.com/2023/05/…
Tybout, A. M., & Calkins, T. (Eds.). (2019). Kellogg on Branding in a Hyper-Connected World. Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. wiley.com/en-au/Kellogg+on+Bra…
Wicke, J. (2019). Sustainable palm oil or certified dispossession? NGOs within scalar struggles over the RSPO private governance standard. Bioeconomy & Inequalities: Working Paper No. 8. bioinequalities.uni-jena.de/so…
World Health Organisation. (2019). The palm oil industry and noncommunicable diseases. World Health Organisation Bulletin, 97, 118-128. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/307286…
World Rainforest Movement. (2021, November 22). Why the RSPO facilitates land grabs for palm oil. wrm.org.uy/articles-from-the-w…
Zuckerman, J. (2021). The Time Has Come to Rein In the Global Scourge of Palm Oil. Yale Environment 360, Yale School of Environment. e360.yale.edu/features/the-tim…
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Palm oil lobbyists steer people’s online conversations away from criticising sustainable palm oil or calling for a boycott of palm oil, towards other topics that are irrelevant
RSPO Lobbyists such as Bart Van Assen, Michelle Desilets and Jane Griffiths of Orangutan Land Trust often combine this tactic with abuse and harassment. This is done to intimidate individuals and stop them spreading awareness about the corruption of so-called ‘sustainable’ palm oil.
Palm oil lobbyists divert consumers’ attention away from exposing the corruption of ‘sustainable’ palm oil.
They do this by claiming that people from wealthy nations want to halt the growth of palm oil in developing nations and that this is unfair and a form of ‘colonial racism’
The gist of this argument is:
‘Europeans have destroyed their forests for agriculture, so why can’t we do the same in the tropics? Stopping our economic development is hypocrisy and colonialism’
Research analysing media and social media messages around palm oil in Malaysia and Indonesia finds that palm oil lobbyists use an ‘Us’ Versus ‘Them’ narrative, in other words, they invoke colonial racism.
Four mutually complementary narratives were used by Indonesian and Malaysian media to construe denialism, which closely resemble the four climate denialist narratives identified by Elsasser and Dunlap (2013). These denialist narratives draw heavily upon information advocated by divergent knowledge communities (Goldstein 2016) and appeal to a nationalist sentiment of ‘us’ – palm oil-producing developing countries – and ‘them’ – western developed countries producing research critical of the industry.
We had the luck to be born into a developed country, I believe we need to acknowledge the right of lesser-developed countries to develop. We simply have no right to tell a country like Indonesia to forgo economic development, but we can help to steer that development in a sustainable direction.
RSPO palm oil certification has not improved worker’s incomes and has not stopped human rights abuses, violence, slavery or illegal indigenous land-grabbing, since the RSPO’s inception 17 years ago
Global Witness October 2021 Report: Violence and death for palm oil connected to household supermarket brands (RSPO members)
“One palm oil firm, Rimbunan Hijau, [Papua New Guinea] negligently ignored repeated and avoidable worker deaths and injuries on palm oil plantations, with at least 11 workers and the child of one worker losing their lives over an eight-year period.
“Tainted palm oil from Papua New Guinea plantations was sold to household name brands, all of them RSPO members including Kellogg’s, Nestlé, Colgate, Danone, Hershey’s and PZ Cussons and Reckitt Benckiser”
During its 14 years of existence, RSPO – the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil – has failed to live up to its claim of “transforming” the industrial palm oil production sector into a so-called “sustainable” one. In reality, the RSPO has been used by the palm oil industry to greenwash corporate destruction and human rights abuses, while it continues to expand business, forest destruction and profits.
RSPO presents itself to the public with the slogan “transforming the markets to make sustainable palm oil the norm”. Palm oil has become the cheapest vegetable oil available on the global market, making it a popular choice among the group that dominates RSPO membership, big palm oil buyers.
They will do everything to secure a steady flow of cheap palm oil. They also know that the key to the corporate success story of producing “cheap” palm oil is a particular model of industrial production, with ever-increasing efficiency and productivity which in turn is achieved by:
Planting on a large-scale and in monoculture, frequently through conversion of tropical biodiverse forests
Using “high yielding” seedlings that demand large amounts of agrotoxics and abundant water.
Squeezing cheap labour out of the smallest possible work force, employed in precarious conditions so that company costs are cut to a minimum
Making significant up-front money from the tropical timber extracted from concessions, which is then used to finance plantation development or increase corporate profits.
Grabbing land violently from local communities or by means of other arrangements with governments (including favourable tax regimes) to access land at the lowest possible cost.
Those living on the fertile land that the corporations choose to apply their industrial palm oil production model, pay a very high price.
Violence is intrinsic to this model:
violence and repression when communities resist the corporate take over of their land because they know that once their land is turned into monoculture oil palm plantations, their livelihoods will be destroyed, their land and forests invaded. In countless cases, deforestation caused by the expansion of this industry, has displaced communities or destroyed community livelihoods where
companies violate customary rights and take control of community land;
sexual violence and harassment against women in and around the plantations which often stays invisible because women find themselves without possibilities to demand that the perpetrators be prosecuted;
Child labour and precarious working conditions that go hand-in-hand with violation of workers’ rights;
working conditions can even be so bad as to amount to contemporary forms of slavery. This exploitative model of work grants companies more economic profits while allowing palm oil to remain a cheap product. That is why, neither them or their shareholders do anything to stop it.
exposure of workers, entire communities and forests, rivers, water springs, agricultural land and soils to the excessive application of agrotoxics;
depriving communities surrounded by industrial oil palm plantations of their food sovereignty when industrial oil palm plantations occupy land that communities need to grow food crops.
RSPO’s proclaimed vision of transforming the industrial oil palm sector is doomed to fail because the Roundtable’s certification principles promote this structural violent and destructive model.
The RSPO also fails to address the industry’s reliance on exclusive control of large and contingent areas of fertile land, as well as the industry’s growth paradigm which demands a continued expansion of corporate control over community land and violent land grabs.
None of RPSO’s eight certification principles suggests transforming this industry reliance on exclusive control over vast areas of land or the growth paradigm inherent to the model.
Industrial use of vegetable oils has doubled in the past 15 years, with palm oil being the cheapest. This massive increase of palm oil use in part explains the current expansion of industrial oil palm plantations, especially in Africa and Latin America, from the year 2000 onward, in addition to the existing vast plantations areas in Malaysia and Indonesia that also continue expanding.
On the ground, countless examples show that industrial oil palm plantations continue to be synonymous to violence and destruction for communities and forests. Communities’ experiences in the new industrial oil palm plantation frontiers, such as Gabon, Nigeria, Cameroon, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Peru, Honduras, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, are similar to past and ongoing community experiences in Indonesia and Malaysia.
RSPO creates a smokescreen that makes this violence invisible for consumers and financiers. Governments often fail to take regulatory action to stop the expansion of plantations and increasing demand of palm oil; they rely on RSPO to deliver an apparently sustainable flow of palm oil.
For example, in its public propaganda, RSPO claims it supports more than 100,000 small holders. But the profit from palm oil production is still disproportionally appropriated by the oil palm companies: in 2016, 88% of all certified palm oil came from corporate plantations and 99,6% of the production is corporate-controlled.
RSPO also claims that the principle of Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) is key among its own Principles and Criteria. The right to FPIC implies, among others, that if a community denies the establishment of this monoculture in its territory, operations cannot be carried out. Reality shows us, however, that despite this, many projects go ahead.
Concessions are often guaranteed long before the company reaches out to the affected communities. Under these circumstances, to say that FPIC is central to RSPO is bluntly false and disrespectful.
RSPO also argues that where conflicts with the plantation companies arise, communities can always use its complaint mechanism. However, the mechanism is complex and it rarely solves the problems that communities face and want to resolve.
This becomes particularly apparent in relation to land legacy conflicts where the mechanism is biased against communities. It allows companies to continue exploiting community land until courts have come to a decision. This approach encourages companies to sit out such conflicts and count on court proceedings dragging on, often over decades.
Another argument used by RSPO is that industrial oil palm plantations have lifted millions of people out of poverty. That claim is certainly questionable, even more so considering that there is also an important number of people who have been displaced over the past decades to make space for plantations.
Indigenous communities have in fact lost their fertile land, forests and rivers to oil palm plantations, adversely affecting their food, culture and local economies.
The RSPO promise of “transformation” has turned into a powerful greenwashing tool for corporations in the palm oil industry. RSPO grants this industry, which remains responsible for violent land grabbing, environmental destruction, pollution through excessive use of agrotoxics and destruction of peasant and indigenous livelihoods, a “sustainable” image.
What’s more, RSPO membership seems to suffice for investors and companies to be able to claim that they are “responsible” actors. This greenwash is particularly stunning, since being a member does not guarantee much change on the ground. Only recently, a company became RSPO member after it was found to deforest over 27.000 hectares of rainforest in Papua, Indonesia.
Certification is structurally dependent on the very same policies and regulation that have given rise to the host of environmental devastation and community land rights violations associated with oil palm plantations. These systemic governance issues are part of the destructive economic model, and embedded in state power.
For this reason, voluntary certification schemes cannot provide adequate protection for forests, community rights, food sovereignty and guarantee sustainability. Governments and financiers need to take responsibility to stop the destructive palm oil expansion that violates the rights of local communities and Indigenous Peoples.
As immediate steps, governments need to:
Put in place a moratorium on palm oil plantations expansion and use that as a breathing space to fix the policy frameworks;
Drastically reduce demand for palm oil: stop using food for fuel;
Strengthen and respect the rights of local communities and Indigenous Peoples to amongst others, self-determination and territorial control.
Promote agro-ecology and community control of their forests, which strengthens local incomes, livelihoods and food sovereignty, instead of advancing industrial agro-businesses.
Signatures
Aalamaram-NGOAcción Ecológica, Ecuador
ActionAid, France
AGAPAN Amics arbres
Arbres amics
Amis de la Terre France
ARAARBA (Asociación para la Recuperación del Bosque Autóctono)
Asociación Conservacionista YISKI, Costa Rica Asociación Gaia El Salvador
Association Congo Actif, Paris
Association Les Gens du Partage, Carrières-sous-Poissy
Association pour le développement des aires protégées, Swizterland
BASE IS
Bézu St Eloi
Boxberg OT Uhyst
Bread for all
Bruno Manser Fund
CADDECAE, Ecuador
Campaign to STOP GE Trees
CAP, Center for Advocacy Practices
Centar za životnu sredinu/ Friends of the Earth Bosnia and Herzegovina
CESTA – FOE El Salvador
CETRI – Centre tricontinental
Climate Change Kenya
Coalición de Tendencia Clasista. (CTC-VZLA)
Colectivo de Investigación y Acompañmiento Comunitario
Collectif pour la défense des terres malgaches – TANY, Madagascar
Community Forest Watch, Nigeria
Consumers Association of Penang
Corporate Europe Observatory
Cuttington University
Down to Earth Consult
El Campello
Environmental Resources Management and Social Issue Centre (ERMSIC) Cameroon
Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria
Certification is a weak tool to address global forest and ecosystem destruction. By improving the image of forest and ecosystem risk commodities and so stimulating demand, certification risks actually increasing the harm caused by the expansion of commodity production. Certification schemes end up greenwashing products linked to deforestation, ecosystem destruction and rights abuses.
We find positive effects on prices and income from sale of certified products. However, we find no change in overall household income and assets for workers. The wages for workers are not higher in certified production.
We find that, while sustainability standards can help improve the sustainability of production processes in certain situations, they are insufficient to ensure food system sustainability at scale, nor do they advance equity objectives in agrifood supply chains.
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Palm Oil Detectives is completely self-funded by its creator. All hosting and website fees and investigations into brands are self-funded by the creator of this online movement. If you like what I am doing, you and would like me to help meet costs, please send Palm Oil Detectives a thanks on Ko-Fi.
A visual investigation by the NZZ shows the standards for certifying palm oil production as sustainable are often ignored. The consequences for millions of hectares of vulnerable rainforest could be catastrophic as the industry expands.
Greenwashing Tactic #10: Gaslighting, Harassment, Stalking and Attempting to Discredit Critics
Attempting to humiliate, gaslight, discredit, harass and stalk any vocal critics of a brand, commodity or industry certification in order to scare individuals into silence and stop them from revealing corruption
Gaslighting, harassment, stalking and attempting to discredit critics
This direct, aggressive and intimidating form of greenwashing can scare individuals into silence and stop them participating in online conversations or in exposing corruption.
Greenwashing Tactic #10: Gaslighting, Harassment, Stalking and Attempting to Discredit Critics
Attempting to humiliate, gaslight, discredit, harass and stalk any vocal critics of a brand, commodity or industry certification in order to scare individuals into silence and stop them from revealing corruption
Gaslighting, harassment, stalking and attempting to discredit critics
This direct, aggressive and intimidating form of greenwashing can scare individuals into silence and stop them participating in online conversations or in exposing corruption.
Greenwashing’s most insidious and darkest form is the attempt to discredit, humiliate, harass, abuse and stalk individuals in order to silence individuals and stop them from sharing research and reports with others about corporate corruption, greenwashing and ecocide.
Targets of Greenwashing by Gaslighting, Abuse, Stalking and Harassment
Targets of this kind of greenwashing could be researchers, conservationists, activists, investigative journalists, whistle-blowers, concerned consumers or brands (both big and small) who have taken a stand against palm oil and refuse to use it in their products.
Anybody who delves too deeply into the inconsistencies, misinformation and corruption in the palm oil industry is a target for this.
This form of greenwashing is not isolated to the palm oil lobby, many other industries apply these dark tactics to cool down criticism online about the environmental damage and ecocide caused by fossil fuels, meat, dairy, timber and extractive open-cut mining.
Harassment and abuse has the ability to intimidate and scare some individuals into silence and stop them participating in online conversations or from asking too many questions.
Abusive, gaslighting and greenwashing Pro Palm Oil Lobbyists on Twitter:
It is recommend to block all of these people to make your Twitter experience more enjoyable with less palm oil greenwashing, abuse, harassment and hate in your life
Bart Van Assen is the most vile and abusive troll of all. He has harassed me and stalked me in two successive workplaces and has been banned several times from Mastadon and Twitter for harassment and abuse. You can also find him doing the same to other people on Instagram
Ray Whitley: @RayWhitley13 (Fake vegan/lobbyist who does not advocate for animals on Twitter but instead simply foments divisiveness and hate on Twitter)
Gaslighting is a powerful tool for greenwashing and psychological manipulation. The gaslighter sows seeds of doubt in online conversations from questioning and doubtful researchers and consumers.
A gaslighter will tell individuals that they are wrong and misinformed about the corruption, deforestation, human rights abuses of brands and certification schemes.
That they know far less about an issue than so-called ‘experts’. However, on closer examination, these ‘experts’ are a series of researchers, Zoos or conservation NGOs that are paid by the industry. They produce positive research or ambiguous and inconclusive research that supports their spurious claims of green sustainability.
Discrediting people (especially researchers) who produce evidence of corruption, deforestation, and human rights abuses associated with so-called ‘sustainable’ palm oil.
Targets of this form of harassment: researchers, whistleblowers, journalists, activists. Any person (particularly a public figure) who takes a clear and strong stance palm oil, who calls out the corruption of the RSPO and advocates for a palm oil boycott will receive online abuse.
Below: Serial online abuser and greenwasher Michelle Desilets of Orangutan Land Trust cuts and pastes the same response underneath of all tweets calling for a palm oil boycott to attempt to discredit the #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife movement.
Pictured: Serial online abuser and greenwasher Michelle Desilets of Orangutan Land Trust cuts and pastes the same response underneath of all tweets calling for a palm oil boycott to attempt to discredit the evidence I’ve gathered about the RSPO’s corruption.
Other targets of greenwashing by discrediting on social media:
Dr Roberto Gatti: Lead author of peer-reviewed research showing that “sustainable” palm oil is not sustainable.
Aurora Sustainability Group: A group of researchers who produced peer-reviewed research showing that “sustainable” palm oil is not sustainable.
Dr Setia Budhi: Dayak ethnographer who refuses to be cowed or silenced about the immense corruption and indigenous landgrabbing associated with “sustainable” RSPO plantations in Borneo. Read interview and update.
Craig Jones: Independent photographer who visited an RSPO “sustainable” palm oil plantation in Sumatra (PT Sisirau) and witnessed a mother and baby being rescued from a location of total ecocide – an area illegally destroyed for palm oil – yet “sustainable”. Read this story and the report about the biodiversity of PT Sisirau.
Isabella Guerrini de Clare: Author of peer-reviewed research showing that “sustainable” palm oil is not sustainable.
Neue Zurcher Zeitung: Media outlet in Germany that published OSINT satellite data showing incontrovertible and clear evidence of destruction of protected rainforests and within RSPO palm oil plantations.
Dr Birute Galdikas – the most respected orangutan researcher in the world, who has spent 50 years of her life in the field helping orangutans. She has for decades been a vocal critic against the palm oil industry. One of the few researchers who is brave enough to stand up to large corporations and the RSPO.
Orangutan Land Trust is known by critics of the industry and whistle-blowers of ‘sustainable’ palm oil corruption as the Palm Oil Lies Trust
This charity’s three ‘volunteers’ Bart W Van Assen, Michelle Desilets and Jane Griffiths are responsible for most of the misinformation and greenwashing about the sustainable palm oil on social media.
They confuse unaware consumers and harass critics calling them trolls, sustainability deniers, psychopaths, morons and conspiracy theorists – they behave very professionally. For nearly 20 years they have greenwashed the RSPO’s atrocious record on deforestation, human rights violations and illegal land-grabbing.
Bart Van Assen
Former auditor trainer for the RSPO and FSC, Bart Van Assen juggles various account names on Twitter before getting them banned for abusing people.
Bart has had 3 accounts banned from Twitter: @thewicorman @wildingrocks @bartwvanassen for harassment, abuse and stalking people. As a result of this behaviour, he has also had several police cases opened against him. He even talks in detail about how he stalked palm oil corruption whistleblower @ExposeLies2 on his website: Wilding Rocks. He has abused and harassed countless other people.
He currently uses: @palmoiltruther, @Apes4Forests @Forests4Apes @BartWVanAssen @eachtreematters @vliegerholland on Twitter. In the past, Bart has trained people to undertake audits in order to verify that palm oil plantations adhere to RSPO certified sustainable standards. The RSPO’s audits have been independently verified by different organisations to be fraudulent.
Bart’s now permanently suspended account on Twitter with the same name
A tweet from Bart Van Assen, former lead auditor for the RSPO and HCV admitting that the main goal of the RSPO, FSC and other certification initiatives is not to prevent deforestation. (Bart has formerly used @palmoiltruther on Twitter but now changes between @Forest4Apes or @Apes4Forests depending on times when he attempts to conceal his identity).
Bart Van Assen: Former RSPO and FSC Auditor and vile troll on Twitter and Mastadon
Bart Van Assen AKA @palmoiltruther and 3 other banned Twitter accounts @wildingrocks @thewicorman @bartwvanassen, banned for abuse and harassment of people exposing corruption of RSPO so-called ‘sustainable’ palm oil Bart Van Assen Palm Oil Truther Orangutan Land Trust – Harassment and Abuse, getting banned from Twitter Bart Van Assen AKA Wilding Rocks AKA The Wicorman AKA PalmOilTruther harassing people and getting banned from Twitter Bart Van Assen AKA Wilding Rocks AKA The Wicorman AKA PalmOilTruther harassing people and getting banned from Twitter Bart Van Assen AKA Wilding Rocks AKA The Wicorman AKA PalmOilTruther harassing people and getting banned from Twitter Bart Van Assen AKA Wilding Rocks AKA The Wicorman AKA and stalking people from Twitter and getting banned from Twitter Bart Van Assen and Michelle Desilets harass, abuse and attempt to discredit anyone who exposes corruption of the so-called ‘sustainable’ palm oil industry Michelle Desilets threatening and harassing people
Bart Van Assen: Lead Auditor Trainer for the RSPO
and full time greenwasher and online abuser of any person who declares that they want to boycott palm oil
Many of these reports cite extremely poor auditing is a major reason for the failure of the RSPO. In other words, the auditing process is not, nor has ever been robust enough to prevent human rights abuses, deforestation and illegal indigenous land-grabbing from taking place.
“Non-adherence to the RSPO’s standards is systemic and widespread, and has led to ongoing land conflicts, labour abuses and destruction of forests.
“As the world approaches 2020 targets to halt deforestation, the RSPO needs to rapidly implement radical solutions to restore its credibility. We question whether the RSPO is willing and able to rectify its systemic failures – ultimately, voluntary certification is too limited by its voluntary nature.”
“While RSPO is often referred to as the best scheme in the sector, it has several shortcomings; most notably it has not prevented human rights violations and it does not require GHG emissions reductions.”
“Implementation of [the RSPO’s] standards is often weak, with serious audit failures being reported, many members failing to meet the full range of membership requirements and grievances slow to be addressed.”
“Without assurance mechanisms that properly function, the RSPO has little credibility and its claims are hollow.
“RSPO companies have continued to be beset by assurance issues in 2020. Associated Press notably reported on labour violations in Malaysia, including by RSPO members. These allegations included forced labour, the abuse of women and child labour, among others.”
A 2019 World Health Organisation (WHO) report into the palm oil industry and RSPO finds extensive greenwashing of palm oil deforestation and the murder of endangered animals (i.e. biodiversity loss)
It was also acknowledged that the taskforce did not have the capacity to handle the responsibilities that it had set itself, and that besides training, a new model where the work was outsourced might be needed.
In ending the session, the panelists identified the most important things that would kickstart better assurance, namely: obtaining feedback to improve the assurance system, formulating better social policy, improved communications, rigour in meeting deadlines, and maintaining credible audits.
Jane is a ‘volunteer’ for Orangutan Land Trust, rarely does she openly harass or abuse people, however she does jump to most conversations about palm oil and gaslights and generates doubt. She casts doubt by citing the partnership of the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA) and the RSPO and an approval of the RSPO from David Attenborough in the form of a handwritten letter.
Example: Greenwashing with lies, abuse, discrediting whistleblowers
Craig Jones, one of the most respected photojournalists in Britain recorded a mother and baby close to death on an RSPO palm oil plantation – PT Sisirau in 2012
He was later told that he needed to hold off on releasing the photos of this hellish scene until after the RSPO conference.
Bart and Michelle claim that Craig was lying about this, that PT Sisirau was not an RSPO member palm oil plantation. The problem with that accusation is that there is public evidence from the RSPO’s own website which shows that this is a blatant lie.
A complaint was made to the RSPO by Helen Buckland, personal friend of Michelle Desilets and Director of OrangutanSOS. She attempted to prevent Craig from publishing the deeply horrific images until after the RSPO conference that year. The RSPO took a full year to send investigators to the plantation to examine the situation. The complaint, meeting minutes and report is below.
Michelle Desilets who conducts greenwashing for the RSPO in her ‘volunteer’ role for Orangutan Land Trust is also on the Complaints Panel for the RSPO. She investigates complaints of human rights and labour abuses, illegal land-grabbing, ecocide and illegal deforestation on RSPO palm oil plantations. She was part of the decision-making on PT Sisirau, so her tweets are a blatant lie that has been caught out.
A letter advising of the cancellation of PT Sisrau’s RSPO membership following the incident of illegal deforestation and orangutan harm, documented by Craig Jones. Meeting minutes from a Complaints Panel for the RSPO – which features Michelle Desilets on the panel.
Despite the presence of some threatened species, the area has an impoverished animal community. It is useful to look at the families that are missing. There were no tracks of: scavenging viverrids, arboreal squirrels and tupaiids and tragulids. All these would be expected in scrub and agricultural areas.
There were no overflying ardeids and other water birds from the nearby coastal wetland areas. No overflying hornbills from the adjacent from the nearby protected forests. In the scrub and secondary areas there were no drongos, flowerpeckers, starlings, flycatchers and babblers living off the local insects and fruit. There was a single cuckoo calling and no calls from barbets. And despite being a palm growing area, there were no parrots and no aerial feeding swifts.
The area within the project site and beyond in the Gunung Leuser Ecosystem area was extensively disturbed and clearance removed most of the low mobility, forest dependent species in the project site and beyond.
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Palm Oil Detectives is completely self-funded by its creator. All hosting and website fees and investigations into brands are self-funded by the creator of this online movement. If you like what I am doing, you and would like me to help meet costs, please send Palm Oil Detectives a thanks on Ko-Fi.
A visual investigation by the NZZ shows the standards for certifying palm oil production as sustainable are often ignored. The consequences for millions of hectares of vulnerable rainforest could be catastrophic as the industry expands.
Eyewitness Story: The Last Village by Dr Setia Budhi
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.
Pictured: The Barito River, the largest river in South Kalimantan Borneo by Aditya Perdana, Getty Images
“#Dayaks DO NOT want their lands turned to #palmoil. 1. They depend on rainforests for food/weaving. 2. They don’t want their roaming area disturbed 3. They don’t want to lose their land.” Dr Setia Budhi #Boycottpalmoil 🤬🌴🚫 palmoildetectives.com/2022/11/… @palmoildetect.bsky.social
Recently, I stayed a Ngaju Dayak village for 15 days
During my visit I wrote a lot, chatted with villagers and visited palm oil farmers.
This remote village is 125 km from downtown Banjarmasin. It’s a distance of about two hours by motorbike to arrive in a neighboring village and from then there, three hours by boat.
Located on the banks of the Barito river, the people who live here are the Ngaju Dayak.
Pictured: Dayak long house in Kalimantan, PxFuel.
The first time I visited this village was 14 years ago in 2008
Since then, I’ve always followed its development by reading the news. Especially interesting is the development that the villagers have refused the presence of palm oil plantations. They have refused to give up their lands to global corporate palm oil companies.
Fourteen years ago, I thought that this village would eventually be besieged by the expansion of oil palm plantations. My suspicions were based on what happened in neighbouring villages. They had given up and accepted the omnipresence of palm oil. Many residents sold their land to the plantations.
In these other towns, some residents work with palm oil companies in a cooperative way. Their land is planted with palm oil and they, as owners, work for the company for wages. Their activities include land-clearing, planting palm oil, along with fertilising and liming the soil.
So these people work on their own land. At that time, their daily wages are around 50,000 rupiahs ($3.30 USD) per day.
Pictured: Klotok traditional river boat on a river in Borneo by Guenterguni Getty Images
There are three reasons why the villagers do not want their ancestral lands to become a palm oil plantation:
1. They depend on the rainforest and peatlands for natural resources such as fisheries, agriculture and rattan weaving.
2. They don’t want their roaming area to be disturbed.
3. They don’t want to lose their land.
By roaming area‟ you probably think of a suburban area near you. For Dayaks, their roaming area is vastly different.
Clockwise: The Barito River: The largest river in South Kalimantan Borneo by Aditya Perdana Getty Images; Wooden Dayak village – Long Iram on the riverbank Mahakam river East Kalimantan, Indonesia. Getty Images; Nature in Annah Rais Sarawak, Malaysia by Nyiragongo Getty Images; Barito River -The largest river in South Kalimantan, Indonesia by Aditya Perdana Getty Images; Borneo’s spectacular rivers and rainforests; Getty Images; A group of beautiful Dayak Fruit Bats Dyacopterus spadiceus perched inside a hut at the Way Kambas National Park in Sumatra via Getty Images Signature collection.
The Dayak people need a roaming area for hunting, fishing and foraging for herbs, building materials and medicines
Pictured: Dayak family, Central Kalimantan by IndoMet licensed under CC BY 2.0 The palm oil industry is an unstoppable global corporate juggernaut that has become increasingly greedy for land in the past ten years.
When you hear about even a tiny piece of land that is about to be sold, global palm oil companies immediately and aggressively go after the land as buyers. They bargain and negotiate, driving the price down that they pay for the land – so the traditional landowners do not get paid what the land is really worth.
Pictured: Plasma Poverty, a joint investigation by Gecko Project and the BBC into major supermarket brands like Mondelez and Nestle (RSPO members) who are stripping smallholder farmers of their share of profitfor palm oil.
To read the news in Indonesia and Malaysia is to read brazen lies and greenwashing about palm oil
Reading news about palm oil is an astonishing experience that will fill you with confusion and incredulity. Your newsfeed will be brimming with stories about the greatness of oil palm and the welfare of farmers.
Palm oil is considered “good” in a neoliberal sense of the financial and economic growth that it brings here as a country. Also palm oil is considered “good” as an environmentally-friendly and healthy ingredient for all to buy and consume.
There is a flood of greenwashing news across all media channels: TV, online media, and social media channels celebrating the virtues of this enormously destructive ingredient. This false narrative emphasises palm oil as a method of “care for the environment‟.
For this reason, nowadays I choose to distance myself from social media, as this content is dishonest about what palm oil is in reality.
“Many of us grow rice, fruits and vegetables on our indigenous lands for survival and depend on the cash sales from oil palm fruits to buy what we cannot grow. Our oil palm trees empower us as indigenous peoples.”
The reality of palm oil is vastly different for Dayak peoples
Reports carried out by news media in Borneo simulate the facts about the real events and the detrimental impact of palm oil on Dayak communities.
We as the audience must remain constantly vigilant and aware that this is bad news.
“An assistant manager came to my home. On that day my oldest son had fever. He said to my husband, “Your five hectares of land here is gone and two hectares here is gone. Go to the company and get your money.” My husband told them he doesn’t want to sell. Months later, while I was at my mother’s new house [in the plantation] and my husband was away in Malaysia, we heard a loud noise and could see smoke. I went to see, and it was crazy. My house was already burned. Everything was in there, my son’s bicycle, clothes, and all the wood we planned to build a house, all was gone.”
~ Francesca, a 28-year-old Iban Dayak mother of two, told Human Rights Watch about how she and her husband refused relocation. She said that company representatives torched her home, rendering them homeless. Story via Human Rights Watch
Pictured: Rainforest on fire, Getty Images
Pollution run-off in an RSPO member palm oil plantation in Sumatra. Craig Jones Wildlife PhotographyDeforestation for palm oil at ground level – Getty Images videoDeforestation for palm oil waste reservoirs- Getty Images
The difficulty of addressing and resolving oil palm conflicts is due not only to the inadequacies of Indonesia’s legal framework regarding land and plantations but also to the way in which Indonesia’s informalized state institutions foster collusion between local power holders and palm oil companies. This collusion enables companies to evade regulation, suppress community protests and avoid engaging in constructive efforts to resolve conflicts. Furthermore, this collusion has made the available conflict resolution mechanisms largely ineffective.
With the palm oil narrative in Indonesia – many people can no longer distinguish the real from the fake, the fact from the simulation
The media presents a seemingly diverse chorus of voices that all seem to be singing from the same songbook – all of them praising palm oil.
Interviews with field officers, researchers, seminar recordings, podcasts, PR and advertising campaigns are backed financially by the palm oil industry to glaze over and greenwash the immense environmental and social impact of palm oil.
Instead we are presented with a positive narrative about palm oil that offers improved living conditions for farmers. This is not the lived reality for Dayak people. We are told that palm oil is a lucrative crop that benefits the farmers. This is not the lived reality for Dayak people.
Pictured: A Dayak woman weaves pandan in a traditional longhouse, PxFuel
The greenwashing of palm oil deforestation intensifies as time goes on
News articles and reports talk about how this country is preparing to deal with climate change, so as not to damage forests and also to save forests from deforestation.
News about customary Dayak lands that are seized for palm oil illegally or by force is online only momentarily and quickly disappears. These violations human rights are rendered invisible by the media in here.
In our news hungry and busy world, most people don’t read beyond the headlines. The messy, corrupt and invisible world of massive land-clearing for palm oil goes on without the world knowing about it through the media. In the meantime, tropical rainforests of Indonesia and Malaysia are silently disappearing. https://seanweston.co.uk" title="Deforestation by Sean Weston https://seanweston.co.uk" class="has-alt-description">Deforestation by Sean Westonseanweston.co.uk
The current era of fake news was predicted by Jean Baudrillard several decades ago
When we can no longer distinguish the truth, the facts and the real from a news. This is Hyperreality.
“The real has died and been replaced by Simulation”
~ Jean Baudrillard.
This is what Jean Baudrillard called the era of Simulacra, Simulation, and Hyperreality. When the news plays with symbols, and the public who consume or read the news only see and know about the simulation, we are existing in Hyperreality, in a Simulacra.
People who consume the news only know the simulation/ hyperreality in a Simulacra – Jean Baudrillard
A Simulacra is a combination of values, facts, signs, images and codes. In this reality we no longer find references or representations except the simulacra itself. People who consume the news only know the simulation/ hyperreality in a Simulacra – Jean Baudrillard Image, originally tweeted by lookcaitlin (@lookcaitlin) on September 17, 2022.
Greenwashing and denialism in the media about the environmental impact of palm oil
A recent report by the World Health Organisation (WHO) found that the palm oil industry used the same aggressive tactics for greenwashing akin to the tobacco and alcohol industries. Read more
Research studies of SE Asian media reporting on palm oil show a denialist and greenwashing narrative that is similar to climate change denialism i.e. climate change greenwashing.
“We found that media reporting of the denialist narrative is more prevalent than that of the peer-reviewed science consensus-view that palm oil plantations on tropical peat could cause excessive greenhouse gas emissions and enhance the risk of fires. “Our article alerts to the continuation of unsustainable practices as justified by the media to the public, and that the prevalence of these denialist narratives constitute a significant obstacle in resolving pressing issues such as transboundary haze, biodiversity loss, and land-use change related greenhouse gas emissions in Southeast Asia.”
~ Liu, Felicia & Ganesan, Vignaa & Smith, Thomas. (2020). Contrasting communications of sustainability science in the media coverage of palm oil agriculture on tropical peatlands in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. Environmental Science & Policy. 114. 162-169. 10.1016/j.envsci.2020.07.004.
Deforestation – Craig Jones Wildlife Photography Pictured clockwise: An orangutan grips helplessly onto a broken and destroyed tree, Craig Jones Wildlife Photography; River pollution, PxFuel; A freshly destroyed rainforest in Indonesia, Craig Jones Wildlife Photography; A vast and lifeless palm oil plantation, Greenpeace.
Impact of the media Simulacrum on Dayak people
Media coverage about the “goodness of palm oil” has a deep psychological impact on Dayak communities. In the news, this is where the simulation or simulacra begins to occur.
Pictured: Dayak men in Kalimantan, Pxfuel.
Some people cannot sort and distinguish the truth of the news content from the actual facts. Meanwhile, the village that I visited is still holding on to their traditional way of life – not to palm oil. This is the Last Village.
Dayak people in the neighbouring village tell them how they have lost their fishing resources. That now, because of the palm oil run-off and pollution there are no more fish to catch. Their roaming area has become too narrow.
They say: “Oh you are right! Keep on resisting the palm oil siege! For we are now labourers toiling for little money on our ancestral land.”
Liu, Felicia & Ganesan, Vignaa & Smith, Thomas. (2020). Contrasting communications of sustainability science in the media coverage of palm oil agriculture on tropical peatlands in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. Environmental Science & Policy. 114. 162-169. 10.1016/j.envsci.2020.07.004.
Manzo, Kate & Padfield, Rory. (2016). Palm oil not polar bears: Climate change and development in Malaysian media. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers. 41. 10.1111/tran.12129.
Morris J. Simulacra in the Age of Social Media: Baudrillard as the Prophet of Fake News. Journal of Communication Inquiry. 2021;45(4):319-336. doi:10.1177/0196859920977154
Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing (1998). Under the Shadows of the Queen of Diamonds: The Process of Marginalization in Isolated Communities. Indonesian Torch Foundation, Jakarta.
“The Forest is the father, land is the mother and rivers are blood
“That’s the spirituality of most Dayak people in Kalimantan. They understand the interdependent nature of everything in nature.”
Palm Oil Detectives is completely self-funded by its creator. All hosting and website fees and investigations into brands are self-funded by the creator of this online movement. If you like what I am doing, you and would like me to help meet costs, please send Palm Oil Detectives a thanks on Ko-Fi.
Palm Oil Detectives is completely self-funded by its creator. All hosting and website fees and investigations into brands are self-funded by the creator of this online movement. If you like what I am doing, you and would like me to help meet costs, please send Palm Oil Detectives a thanks on Ko-Fi.
This is "WHO Report - palm oil greenwashing and lobbying video" by Palm Oil Detectives on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love…
As the global population has doubled to 7.8 billion in about 50 years, industrial agriculture has increased the output from fields and farms to feed humanity. One of the negative outcomes of this transformation has been the extreme simplification of ecological systems, with complex multi-functional landscapes converted to vast swaths of monocultures. What is driving species to extinction?
As the global population has doubled to 7.8 billion in about 50 years, industrial agriculture has increased the output from fields and farms to feed humanity. One of the negative outcomes of this transformation has been the extreme simplification of ecological systems, with complex multi-functional landscapes converted to vast swaths of monocultures. What is driving species to extinction?
The permanent transformation of forested landscapes for commodity crops currently drives more than a quarter of all global deforestation. This includes soy, palm oil, beef cattle, coffee, cocoa, sugar and other key ingredients of our increasingly simplified and highly processed diets.
We need to examine our global food system: Is it doing its job, or is it contributing to forest destruction and biodiversity loss — and putting human life at risk? Animal extinction visual
What are we eating?
The food most associated with biodiversity loss also tends to also be connected to unhealthy diets across the globe. Fifty years after the Green Revolution — the transition to intensive, high yielding food production reliant on a limited number of crop and livestock species — nearly 800 million people still go to bed hungry; one in three is malnourished; and up to two billion people suffer some sort of micronutrient deficiency and associated health impacts, such as stunting or wasting. A large soy field cuts into the forest in Brazil. (Shutterstock) The environmental impacts of our agricultural systems are also severe. The agricultural sector is responsible for up to 30 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions, soil erosion, excessive water use, the loss of important pollinators and chemical pollution, among other impacts. It is pushing planetary boundaries even further.
In short, modern agriculture is failing to sustain the people and the ecological resources on which they rely. The incidence of infectious diseases correlates with the current loss of biodiversity.
Deforestation and disease
Few viruses have generated more global response than the SARS-CoV-2 virus responsible for the current pandemic. Yet in the past 20 years, humanity has also faced SARS, MERS, H1N1, Chikungunya, Zika and numerous local outbreaks of Ebola. All of them are zoonotic diseases and at least one, Ebola, has been linked to deforestation.
Farming large numbers of genetically similar livestock along the forest frontier may provide a route for pathogens to mutate and become transmissible to humans. Forest loss and landscape change bring humans and wildlife into ever-increasing proximity, heightening the risk of an infectious disease spillover.
Zoonoses may be more prevalent in simplified systems with lower levels of biodiversity. In contrast, more diverse communities lower the risk of spillover into human populations. This form of natural control is known as the “dilution effect” and illustrates why biodiversity is an important regulatory mechanism.
The pandemic is further heightening pressures on forests. Increased unemployment, poverty and food insecurity in urban areas is forcing internal migration, as people return to their rural homes, particularly in the tropics. This trend will no doubt increase demands on remaining forest resources for fuel wood, timber and further conversion for small-scale agriculture.
Wet markets under scrutiny
The links between zoonoses and wildlife has led to many calls during the current pandemic to ban the harvest and sale of wild meat and other forms of animal source foods. Vendors sell vegetables at a wet market in Bangkok, Thailand. (AP Photo/ Gemunu Amarasinghe) Even before the COVID-19 pandemic took hold, international agencies, including the Committee on World Food Security, have been concerned about the long-term viability of our current food system: could it provide diverse and nutritious diets while maintaining environmental sustainability and landscape diversity? The current pandemic has highlighted major shortfalls in our environmental stewardship.
We must harness the interconnected nature of our forests and food systems more effectively if we are to avoid future crises. Better integration of forests, agroforests (the incorporation of trees into agricultural systems) at the broader landscape scale, breaking down the institutional, economic, political and spatial separation of forestry and agriculture, can provide the key to a more sustainable, food secure and healthier future.
[em]Claiming a brand or commodity is green based on unreliable, ineffective endorsements or eco-labels such as the RSPO, Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) or FairTrade coffee and cocoa.[/em]
Fake Labels
Most certifications and eco-lavels add a ‘green sheen’ to brands. Yet according to Greenpeace – even the most respected certifications in the world rarely have a positive environmental and social impact
[em]Claiming a brand or commodity is green based on unreliable, ineffective endorsements or eco-labels such as the RSPO, Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) or FairTrade coffee and cocoa.[/em]
Fake Labels
Most certifications and eco-lavels add a ‘green sheen’ to brands. Yet according to Greenpeace – even the most respected certifications in the world rarely have a positive environmental and social impact
In 2022 Unilever put its money where it’s mouth is. Given the failings of so-called “sustainable” palm oil, they have decided to collaborate with biotech company Genomatica on as lab-based alternative to palm oil and fossil fuel derived cleaning and cosmetic ingredients.
The Vice President of the European Parliament Heidi Hautala does not trust the RSPO’s false and weak promise of “sustainable” palm oil
She replies to my conversation on Twitter to advise of this…
Heidi Hautala, Vice-President of the European Parliament and part of the the Human Rights and Democracy panel and Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS)
“No voluntary standards or industry schemes have done the job fully [of eliminating deforestation or human rights abuses]. That is why the game-changing EU CSDDD [Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive] is mandatory. Certification is a useful tool but will not liberate the company from its duty of due diligence”
~ Heidi Hautala, Vice-President of the European Parliament and part of the the Human Rights and Democracy panel and Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS)
A 2019 World Health Organisation (WHO) report into the palm oil industry finds extensive greenwashing of human rights abuses, deforestation, air pollution and human health impacts
“While RSPO is often referred to as the best scheme in the sector, it has several shortcomings; most notably, it allows the conversion of secondary forests and the draining of peatlands, it has not prevented human rights violations and it does not require GHG emissions reductions.
“In light of this, we call for action to reduce demand for palm oil, such as ditching biofuels targets, as well as channelling new plantations into non-forested areas by putting in place a strong moratorium on palm oil expansion to forests and peatlands. Most schemes in this sector should be abolished in light of their failures on multiple fronts.”
MSI Insight Report on Standards and Scope for Multistakeholder Initiatives (MSIs) like the RSPO
“Rather than transforming the underlying conditions or practices that lead to abuse, Multi-Stakeholder Initiatives (MSI’s) risk embedding certain business-as-usual practices and creating a misperception that they are effectively addressing human rights concerns when they are not.
“Both Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) and Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO) schemes are failing to ensure that palm oil is being produced and traded legally, let alone sustainably. They cannot be relied upon by overseas consumers concerned about their role in the global chain that leads to deforestation.”
Instead of guaranteeing that deforestation and other harms are excluded from supply chains, certification with inadequate governance, standards and/or enforcement enables destructive businesses to continue operating as usual.
More broadly, by improving the image of forest and ecosystem risk commodities and so stimulating demand, certification risks actually increasing the harm caused by the expansion of commodity production.
Instead of being an effective forest protection tool, certification schemes thus end up greenwashing products linked to deforestation, ecosystem destruction and rights abuses.
The analyses conducted in the study indicate that while certifications can help prevent greenwashing, they can also contribute to eco-opportunism. The theory of eco-opportunism warns that this can lead to free riding and greenwashing, where products are falsely advertised as sustainable but fail to meet certified standards.
Nygaard, A. (2023). Is sustainable certification’s ability to combat greenwashing trustworthy? Frontiers in Sustainability, 4, Article 1188069. doi.org/10.3389/frsus.2023.118…
RSPO’s complaint procedures are lengthy and ineffective; the high incidence of substandard audits (up to 60%) indicates a lack of quality control in the system. Even if complaints are brought to the complaints mechanism, the RSPO member can decide to leave the RPSO scheme without negative con- sequences. This could disincentivize the RSPO scheme from sanctioning members over complaints in order to minimize its risk of losing members.
In some cases, the same auditors investigated complaints against companies that they had previously audited themselves. This represents a clear conflict of interest and therefore compromises the complaints mechanism.
There is also a lack of transparency in the awarding of contracts, certification processes, audit reports or the withdrawal of a contract or certification or accreditation. This lack of transparency largely shields the actors from scrutiny by civil society.
Attempting to humiliate, gaslight, discredit, harass and stalk any vocal critics of a brand, commodity or industry certification in order to scare individuals into silence and stop them from revealing…
Jump to section Orangutan Land Trust funded by rainforest destroying palm oil co. Kulim Malaysia Berhad Orangutan Land Trust funded by Agropalma: during decades-long destruction of the Amazon for palm…
Tweet from Bart Van Assen, former lead auditor for the RSPO and HCV admitting that the main goal of the RSPO, FSC and other certification initiatives is not to prevent deforestation. (Bart has formerly used @palmoiltruther on Twitter but now changes between @vliegerholland @Forest4Apes or @Apes4Forests depending on times when he attempts to conceal his identity).
Destruction Certified by Greenpeace 2021
“The RSPO complaints system receives and resolves few cases. Out of 64 RSPO member companies, only 17 grievances were reported and only 3 resolved”
Attempting to humiliate, gaslight, discredit, harass and stalk any vocal critics of a brand, commodity or industry certification in order to scare individuals into silence and stop them from revealing…
Jump to section Orangutan Land Trust funded by rainforest destroying palm oil co. Kulim Malaysia Berhad Orangutan Land Trust funded by Agropalma: during decades-long destruction of the Amazon for palm…
“Non-adherence to the RSPO’s standards is systemic and widespread, and has led to ongoing land conflicts, labour abuses and destruction of forests.
“As the world approaches 2020 targets to halt deforestation, the RSPO needs to rapidly implement radical solutions to restore its credibility. We question whether the RSPO is willing and able to rectify its systemic failures – ultimately, voluntary certification is too limited by its voluntary nature.”
“While RSPO is often referred to as the best scheme in the sector, it has several shortcomings; most notably it has not prevented human rights violations and it does not require GHG emissions reductions.”
“Implementation of [the RSPO’s] standards is often weak, with serious audit failures being reported, many members failing to meet the full range of membership requirements and grievances slow to be addressed.”
“Without assurance mechanisms that properly function, the RSPO has little credibility and its claims are hollow.
“RSPO companies have continued to be beset by assurance issues in 2020. Associated Press notably reported on labour violations in Malaysia, including by RSPO members. These allegations included forced labour, the abuse of women and child labour, among others.”
A 2019 World Health Organisation (WHO) report into the palm oil industry and RSPO finds extensive greenwashing of palm oil deforestation and the murder of endangered animals (i.e. biodiversity loss)
It was also acknowledged that the taskforce did not have the capacity to handle the responsibilities that it had set itself, and that besides training, a new model where the work was outsourced might be needed.
In ending the session, the panelists identified the most important things that would kickstart better assurance, namely: obtaining feedback to improve the assurance system, formulating better social policy, improved communications, rigour in meeting deadlines, and maintaining credible audits.
No significant difference was found between certified and non-certified plantations for any of the sustainability metrics investigated, however positive economic trends including greater fresh fruit bunch yields were revealed. To achieve intended outcomes, RSPO principles and criteria are in need of substantial improvement and rigorous enforcement.
RSPO members continue to be exposed for violations of the body’s own standard and this ongoing trend makes the RSPO’s claims of sustainability unreliable.
We identified 64 conflicts that involved RSPO member companies, of which 17 prompted communities to convey their grievances to the RSPO’s conflict resolution mechanism…We conclude that—on all counts—the conflict resolution mechanism is biased in favor of companies. The result of these biases is that the actual capacity of the RSPO’s mechanism to provide a meaningful remedy for rural communities’ grievances remains very limited. This unequal access to justice sustains conflicts between companies and communities over land.
Afrizal, A., Hospes, O., Berenschot, W. et al. Unequal access to justice: an evaluation of RSPO’s capacity to resolve palm oil conflicts in Indonesia. Agric Hum Values40, 291–304 (2023). doi.org/10.1007/s10460-022-103…
Certification schemes too weak to uphold the European Union Deforestation Regulation
[Voluntary Sustainability Standards] fell short in providing a comprehensive prohibition of deforestation and forest degradation. They also presented variable coverage of the relevant legislation outlined in the EUDR, as well as deficiencies in their systems to assure compliance with the standards. Overall, this study indicates that VSS schemes can be incorporated as elements of due diligence systems but are insufficient to demonstrate compliance with the EUDR.
Cosimo, L. H. E., Masiero, M., Mammadova, A., & Pettenella, D. (2024). Voluntary sustainability standards to cope with the new European Union regulation on deforestation-free products: A gap analysis. Forest Policy and Economics, 164, 103235. doi.org/10.1016/j.forpol.2024.…
Eco-labels and certifications for agricultural crops have yet to halt land use change. Sparse and uneven market uptake only partially explain this outcome. Loopholes in certification standards and enforcement mechanisms also play a role.
We find that, while sustainability standards can help improve the sustainability of production processes in certain situations, they are insufficient to ensure food system sustainability at scale, nor do they advance equity objectives in agrifood supply chains.
Big brand sustainability, while important, will not on its own resolve the problems of global environmental change. In conclusion, the article highlights the importance of a co-regulatory governance approach that includes stronger state regulations, sustained advocacy, more responsible individual consumerism, and tougher international legal constraints to go beyond the business gains from big brand sustainability to achieve more transformational, ‘absolute’ global environmental progress.
Product packaging cues are a means of communication to consumers. This study reflects on use and effectiveness of sustainability cues on packaging. The conversion of cue recognition to driving purchasing behavior is low.
This article argues that the form of sustainability offered by certification schemes such as the RSPO fetishes the commodity palm oil in order to assuage critical consumer initiatives in the North. This technical-managerial solution is part of a larger project: the “post-political” climate politics regime (Swyngedouw) that attempts to “green” the status quo.
Aggarwal, P. (2011). Greenwashing: The darker side of CSR. Indian Journal of Applied Research, 4(3), 61-66. worldwidejournals.com/indian-j…
Anti-Corporate Activism and Collusion: The Contentious Politics of Palm Oil Expansion in Indonesia, (2022). Ward Berenschot, et. al., Geoforum, Volume 131, 2022, doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.202…
Balanced Growth (2020), In: Leal Filho W., Azul A.M., Brandli L., özuyar P.G., Wall T. (eds) Responsible Consumption and Production. Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Springer, Cham
Berenschot, W., Hospes, O., & Afrizal, A. (2023). Unequal access to justice: An evaluation of RSPO’s capacity to resolve palm oil conflicts in Indonesia. Agriculture and Human Values, 40, 291-304. doi.org/10.1007/s10460-022-103…
Carlson, K. M., Heilmayr, R., Gibbs, H. K., Noojipady, P., et al. (2018). Effect of oil palm sustainability certification on deforestation and fire in Indonesia. PNAS, 115(1), 121-126. doi.org/10.1073/pnas.170472811…
Cazzolla Gatti, R., Liang, J., Velichevskaya, A., & Zhou, M. (2018). Sustainable palm oil may not be so sustainable. Science of The Total Environment, 652, 48-51. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/303598…
Changing Times Media. (2019). Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil is ‘greenwashing’ labelled products, environmental investigation agency says. Changing Times Media. changingtimes.media/2019/11/03…
Commodifying sustainability: Development, nature and politics in the palm oil industry (2019). World Development, Volume 121, September 2019, Pages 218-228. ideas.repec.org/a/eee/wdevel/v…
Contrasting communications of sustainability science in the media coverage of palm oil agriculture on tropical peatlands in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore (2020). Liu, F. H. M., Ganesan, V., Smith, T. E. L. Environmental Science & Policy, 114. researchgate.net/publication/3…
Cosimo, L. H. E., Masiero, M., Mammadova, A., & Pettenella, D. (2024). Voluntary sustainability standards to cope with the new European Union regulation on deforestation-free products: A gap analysis. Forest Policy and Economics, 164, 103235. doi.org/10.1016/j.forpol.2024.…
Dalton, J. (2018). No such thing as sustainable palm oil – ‘certified’ can destroy even more wildlife, say scientists. The Independent. independent.co.uk/climate-chan…
Davis, S. J., Alexander, K., Moreno-Cruz, J., et al. (2023). Food without agriculture. Nature Sustainability. nature.com/articles/s41893-023…
EIA International. (2022). Will palm oil watchdog rid itself of deforestation or continue to pretend its products are sustainable? EIA International. eia-international.org/news/wil…
Environmental Investigation Agency. (2019). Palm oil watchdog’s sustainability guarantee is still a destructive con. EIA International. eia-international.org/news/pal…
Fifteen environmental NGOs demand that sustainable palm oil watchdog does its job (2019). Rainforest Action Network. ran.org/press-releases/fifteen…
Friends of the Earth International. (2018). RSPO: 14 years of failure to eliminate violence and destruction from the industrial palm oil sector. Friends of the Earth International. foei.org/rspo-14-years-of-fail…
Lang, Chris and REDD Monitor. Sustainable palm oil? RSPO’s greenwashing and fraudulent audits exposed. The Ecologist. theecologist.org/2015/nov/19/s…
Gatti, L., Pizzetti, M., & Seele, P. (2021). Green lies and their effect on intention to invest. Journal of Business Research, 127, 376-387. doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2021…
Group Challenges Rainforest Alliance Earth-Friendly Seal of Approval (2015). Truth in Advertising. truthinadvertising.org/group-c…
Helan, A. (2011). Greenwash and spin: palm oil lobby targets its critics. Ecologist: Informed by Nature. theecologist.org/2011/feb/15/g…
Hewlett Packard. (2021). What is Greenwashing and How to Tell Which Companies are Truly Environmentally Responsible. Hewlett Packard. hp.com/us-en/shop/tech-takes/w…
Holzner, A., Rameli, N. I. A. M., Ruppert, N., & Widdig, A. (2024). Agricultural habitat use affects infant survivorship in an endangered macaque species. Current Biology. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/381949…
Jauernig, J., Uhl, M., & Valentinov, V. (2021). The ethics of corporate hypocrisy: An experimental approach. Futures, 129, 102757. doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2021…
Li, T. M., & Semedi, P. (2021). Plantation life: Corporate occupation in Indonesia’s oil palm zone. Duke University Press. dukeupress.edu/plantation-life
Liu, F. H. M., Ganesan, V., & Smith, T. E. L. (2020). Contrasting communications of sustainability science in the media coverage of palm oil agriculture on tropical peatlands in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. Environmental Science & Policy, 114. researchgate.net/publication/3…
Meemken, E. M., Barrett, C. B., Michelson, H. C., et al. (2021). Sustainability standards in global agrifood supply chains. Nature Food. doi.org/10.1038/s43016-021-002…
Miles, T. (2019). Study in WHO journal likens palm oil lobbying to tobacco and alcohol industries. Reuters. reuters.com/article/idUSKCN1P2…
Nygaard, A. (2023). Is sustainable certification’s ability to combat greenwashing trustworthy? Frontiers in Sustainability, 4, Article 1188069. doi.org/10.3389/frsus.2023.118…
Oppong-Tawiah D, Webster J. Corporate Sustainability Communication as ‘Fake News’: Firms’ Greenwashing on Twitter. Sustainability. 2023; 15(8):6683. mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/8/6683
Pabon, J. (2024). The great greenwashing: How brands, governments, and influencers are lying to you. Anansi International. vitalsource.com/products/the-g…
Podnar, K., & Golob, U. (2024). Brands and activism: Ecosystem and paradoxes. Journal of Brand Management, 31, 95–107. link.springer.com/article/10.1…
Rainforest Action Network. (2019). Fifteen environmental NGOs demand that sustainable palm oil watchdog does its job. RAN. ran.org/press-releases/fifteen…
Renner, A., Zellweger, C., & Skinner, B. (2021). ‘Is there such a thing as sustainable palm oil? Satellite images show protected rainforest on fire’. Neue Zürcher Zeitung. nzz.ch/english/palm-oil-boom-t…
Saager, E. S., Iwamura, T., Jucker, T., & Murray, K. A. (2023). Deforestation for oil palm increases microclimate suitability for the development of the disease vector Aedes albopictus. Scientific Reports, 13(1), 9514. nature.com/articles/s41598-023…
Southey, F. (2021). What do Millennials think of palm oil? Nestlé investigates. Food Navigator. foodnavigator.com/Article/2021…
Transparency International. (2023). Transparency international report: Corruption and corporate capture in Indonesia’s top 50 palm oil companies. Transparency International. palmoildetectives.com/2023/05/…
Tybout, A. M., & Calkins, T. (Eds.). (2019). Kellogg on Branding in a Hyper-Connected World. Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. wiley.com/en-au/Kellogg+on+Bra…
Wicke, J. (2019). Sustainable palm oil or certified dispossession? NGOs within scalar struggles over the RSPO private governance standard. Bioeconomy & Inequalities: Working Paper No. 8. bioinequalities.uni-jena.de/so…
World Health Organisation. (2019). The palm oil industry and noncommunicable diseases. World Health Organisation Bulletin, 97, 118-128. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/307286…
World Rainforest Movement. (2021, November 22). Why the RSPO facilitates land grabs for palm oil. wrm.org.uy/articles-from-the-w…
Zuckerman, J. (2021). The Time Has Come to Rein In the Global Scourge of Palm Oil. Yale Environment 360, Yale School of Environment. e360.yale.edu/features/the-tim…
Palm Oil Detectives is completely self-funded by its creator. All hosting and website fees and investigations into brands are self-funded by the creator of this online movement. If you like what I am doing, you and would like me to help meet costs, please send Palm Oil Detectives a thanks on Ko-Fi.
The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) is one of the world’s most well-known certification schemes. Its environmental and social standards are often ranked highly and yet it continues to face criticism, eroding trust in its brand.
When a brand makes token changes while continuing with deforestation, ecocide or human rights abuses in another part of their business – this is ‘Hidden Trade Off’
Hidden Trade-Off
When a brand makes token changes while continuing with deforestation, ecocide or human rights abuses in another part of their business – this is ‘Hidden Trade Off’
For example, Nestle talks up satellite monitoring to stop palm oil deforestation. Yet their deforestation continues to accelerate in spite of this – this is ‘Hidden Trade-Off”
“Nestlé pledged to ensure the palm oil it uses would be sourced in an environmentally friendly and socially responsible manner within ten years. It has not succeeded – despite the very long time it gave itself. While the Swiss-based multinational is pacifying consumers with PR promises, its business with cheap palm oil from obscure sources is booming. The price for this is being paid by people and nature in tropical countries. Rainforest Rescue therefore recommends consumers avoiding products that contain palm oil.“
At the same time, they purchase palm oil linked to violence, and the deaths of palm oil workers in Papua New Guinea including children. This palm oil finds its way into our homes.
“One palm oil firm, Rimbunan Hijau, [Papua New Guinea] negligently ignored repeated and avoidable worker deaths and injuries on palm oil plantations, with at least 11 workers and the child of one worker losing their lives over an eight-year period.
“Tainted palm oil from Papua New Guinea plantations was sold to household name brands including Kellogg’s, Nestlé, Colgate, Danone, Hershey’s and PZ Cussons and Reckitt Benckiser”
Global beauty brands virtue-signal and greenwash about how they promote gender equality or care about people in the developing world. Yet at the same time, the palm oil they source is harvested by women and children who experience sexual violence, rape and slavery working on palm oil plantations.
Women on plantations often face sexual abuse, ranging from verbal harassment and threats to rape, and victims rarely speak out. When they do, companies often don’t take action or police charges are either dropped or not filed because it comes down to the accuser’s word against the man’s.
Palm oil was found in the supply chains of some of the biggest names in the $530 billion beauty business, including L’Oréal, Unilever, Procter & Gamble, Avon and Johnson & Johnson. A wide range of abuses also were linked to mills and plantations that have been certified by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).
Aggarwal, P. (2011). Greenwashing: The darker side of CSR. Indian Journal of Applied Research, 4(3), 61-66. worldwidejournals.com/indian-j…
Anti-Corporate Activism and Collusion: The Contentious Politics of Palm Oil Expansion in Indonesia, (2022). Ward Berenschot, et. al., Geoforum, Volume 131, 2022, doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.202…
Balanced Growth (2020), In: Leal Filho W., Azul A.M., Brandli L., özuyar P.G., Wall T. (eds) Responsible Consumption and Production. Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Springer, Cham
Berenschot, W., Hospes, O., & Afrizal, A. (2023). Unequal access to justice: An evaluation of RSPO’s capacity to resolve palm oil conflicts in Indonesia. Agriculture and Human Values, 40, 291-304. doi.org/10.1007/s10460-022-103…
Carlson, K. M., Heilmayr, R., Gibbs, H. K., Noojipady, P., et al. (2018). Effect of oil palm sustainability certification on deforestation and fire in Indonesia. PNAS, 115(1), 121-126. doi.org/10.1073/pnas.170472811…
Cazzolla Gatti, R., Liang, J., Velichevskaya, A., & Zhou, M. (2018). Sustainable palm oil may not be so sustainable. Science of The Total Environment, 652, 48-51. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/303598…
Changing Times Media. (2019). Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil is ‘greenwashing’ labelled products, environmental investigation agency says. Changing Times Media. changingtimes.media/2019/11/03…
Commodifying sustainability: Development, nature and politics in the palm oil industry (2019). World Development, Volume 121, September 2019, Pages 218-228. ideas.repec.org/a/eee/wdevel/v…
Contrasting communications of sustainability science in the media coverage of palm oil agriculture on tropical peatlands in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore (2020). Liu, F. H. M., Ganesan, V., Smith, T. E. L. Environmental Science & Policy, 114. researchgate.net/publication/3…
Cosimo, L. H. E., Masiero, M., Mammadova, A., & Pettenella, D. (2024). Voluntary sustainability standards to cope with the new European Union regulation on deforestation-free products: A gap analysis. Forest Policy and Economics, 164, 103235. doi.org/10.1016/j.forpol.2024.…
Dalton, J. (2018). No such thing as sustainable palm oil – ‘certified’ can destroy even more wildlife, say scientists. The Independent. independent.co.uk/climate-chan…
Davis, S. J., Alexander, K., Moreno-Cruz, J., et al. (2023). Food without agriculture. Nature Sustainability. nature.com/articles/s41893-023…
EIA International. (2022). Will palm oil watchdog rid itself of deforestation or continue to pretend its products are sustainable? EIA International. eia-international.org/news/wil…
Environmental Investigation Agency. (2019). Palm oil watchdog’s sustainability guarantee is still a destructive con. EIA International. eia-international.org/news/pal…
Fifteen environmental NGOs demand that sustainable palm oil watchdog does its job (2019). Rainforest Action Network. ran.org/press-releases/fifteen…
Friends of the Earth International. (2018). RSPO: 14 years of failure to eliminate violence and destruction from the industrial palm oil sector. Friends of the Earth International. foei.org/rspo-14-years-of-fail…
Lang, Chris and REDD Monitor. Sustainable palm oil? RSPO’s greenwashing and fraudulent audits exposed. The Ecologist. theecologist.org/2015/nov/19/s…
Gatti, L., Pizzetti, M., & Seele, P. (2021). Green lies and their effect on intention to invest. Journal of Business Research, 127, 376-387. doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2021…
Group Challenges Rainforest Alliance Earth-Friendly Seal of Approval (2015). Truth in Advertising. truthinadvertising.org/group-c…
Helan, A. (2011). Greenwash and spin: palm oil lobby targets its critics. Ecologist: Informed by Nature. theecologist.org/2011/feb/15/g…
Hewlett Packard. (2021). What is Greenwashing and How to Tell Which Companies are Truly Environmentally Responsible. Hewlett Packard. hp.com/us-en/shop/tech-takes/w…
Holzner, A., Rameli, N. I. A. M., Ruppert, N., & Widdig, A. (2024). Agricultural habitat use affects infant survivorship in an endangered macaque species. Current Biology. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/381949…
Jauernig, J., Uhl, M., & Valentinov, V. (2021). The ethics of corporate hypocrisy: An experimental approach. Futures, 129, 102757. doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2021…
Li, T. M., & Semedi, P. (2021). Plantation life: Corporate occupation in Indonesia’s oil palm zone. Duke University Press. dukeupress.edu/plantation-life
Liu, F. H. M., Ganesan, V., & Smith, T. E. L. (2020). Contrasting communications of sustainability science in the media coverage of palm oil agriculture on tropical peatlands in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. Environmental Science & Policy, 114. researchgate.net/publication/3…
Meemken, E. M., Barrett, C. B., Michelson, H. C., et al. (2021). Sustainability standards in global agrifood supply chains. Nature Food. doi.org/10.1038/s43016-021-002…
Miles, T. (2019). Study in WHO journal likens palm oil lobbying to tobacco and alcohol industries. Reuters. reuters.com/article/idUSKCN1P2…
Nygaard, A. (2023). Is sustainable certification’s ability to combat greenwashing trustworthy? Frontiers in Sustainability, 4, Article 1188069. doi.org/10.3389/frsus.2023.118…
Oppong-Tawiah D, Webster J. Corporate Sustainability Communication as ‘Fake News’: Firms’ Greenwashing on Twitter. Sustainability. 2023; 15(8):6683. mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/8/6683
Pabon, J. (2024). The great greenwashing: How brands, governments, and influencers are lying to you. Anansi International. vitalsource.com/products/the-g…
Podnar, K., & Golob, U. (2024). Brands and activism: Ecosystem and paradoxes. Journal of Brand Management, 31, 95–107. link.springer.com/article/10.1…
Rainforest Action Network. (2019). Fifteen environmental NGOs demand that sustainable palm oil watchdog does its job. RAN. ran.org/press-releases/fifteen…
Renner, A., Zellweger, C., & Skinner, B. (2021). ‘Is there such a thing as sustainable palm oil? Satellite images show protected rainforest on fire’. Neue Zürcher Zeitung. nzz.ch/english/palm-oil-boom-t…
Saager, E. S., Iwamura, T., Jucker, T., & Murray, K. A. (2023). Deforestation for oil palm increases microclimate suitability for the development of the disease vector Aedes albopictus. Scientific Reports, 13(1), 9514. nature.com/articles/s41598-023…
Southey, F. (2021). What do Millennials think of palm oil? Nestlé investigates. Food Navigator. foodnavigator.com/Article/2021…
Transparency International. (2023). Transparency international report: Corruption and corporate capture in Indonesia’s top 50 palm oil companies. Transparency International. palmoildetectives.com/2023/05/…
Tybout, A. M., & Calkins, T. (Eds.). (2019). Kellogg on Branding in a Hyper-Connected World. Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. wiley.com/en-au/Kellogg+on+Bra…
Wicke, J. (2019). Sustainable palm oil or certified dispossession? NGOs within scalar struggles over the RSPO private governance standard. Bioeconomy & Inequalities: Working Paper No. 8. bioinequalities.uni-jena.de/so…
World Health Organisation. (2019). The palm oil industry and noncommunicable diseases. World Health Organisation Bulletin, 97, 118-128. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/307286…
World Rainforest Movement. (2021, November 22). Why the RSPO facilitates land grabs for palm oil. wrm.org.uy/articles-from-the-w…
Zuckerman, J. (2021). The Time Has Come to Rein In the Global Scourge of Palm Oil. Yale Environment 360, Yale School of Environment. e360.yale.edu/features/the-tim…
A visual investigation by the NZZ shows the standards for certifying palm oil production as sustainable are often ignored. The consequences for millions of hectares of vulnerable rainforest could be catastrophic as the industry expands.
Claiming a brand or commodity is green without any supporting evidence
No Proof
Making baseless claims is one of the easiest greenwashing tactics. For example when an advertisement claims that a product has several environmental benefits, but the company can’t back up these claims with any scientific data or evidence.
Share this insight on Twitter…
Greenwashing Tactic #2: No Proof: Claiming a #brand or #commodity is sustainable without any evidence. We’ve had enough of #greenwashing lies to sell so-called ‘
Claiming a brand or commodity is green without any supporting evidence
No Proof
Making baseless claims is one of the easiest greenwashing tactics. For example when an advertisement claims that a product has several environmental benefits, but the company can’t back up these claims with any scientific data or evidence.
The RSPO promises to deliver this with their certification:
1. Improves the livelihoods of small holder farmers
2. Stops illegal indigenous land-grabbing and human rights abuses
3. Stops deforestation
They sell the idea of ‘sustainable’ palm oil to consumers so that they will continue to buy it from brands using it.
10 Tactics of Sustainable Palm Oil Greenwashing Tactic 2 No Proof
Greenwashing with No Proof
The reassurances of certified sustainable palm oil are based on promises, not real world outcomes.
Consumers are offered the reassuring lie of sustainable palm oil with little proof or evidence that it actually works.
The Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) ads
Each of these claims by the Roundtable of Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) are not supported by OSINT and peer-reviewed research, by investigative reports from journalists or environmental and human rights NGOs. These are examples of ‘Greenwashing with No Proof’.
In this TVC, the Malaysian Palm Oil Council called the destructive crop ‘The Tree of Life that helps our planet to breathe, and gives a home to hundreds of species of flora and fauna’.
Much to the council’s embarrassment, the TV advertisement, along with the amended version from the following year were both banned by the British Advertising Standards Authority because they were deemed misleading.
The sustainability standards of the RSPO haven’t managed to stop deforestation, human rights abuses, violence, illegal indigenous land-grabbing and endangered species protection.
RSPO: 14 years of failure to eliminate violence and destruction from the industrial palm oil sector
Friends of the Earth and 100 other human rights and environmental NGOS co-signed this letter in 2018
During its 14 years of existence, RSPO – the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil – has failed to live up to its claim of “transforming” the industrial palm oil production sector into a so-called “sustainable” one. In reality, the RSPO has been used by the palm oil industry to greenwash corporate destruction and human rights abuses, while it continues to expand business, forest destruction and profits.
RSPO presents itself to the public with the slogan “transforming the markets to make sustainable palm oil the norm”. Palm oil has become the cheapest vegetable oil available on the global market, making it a popular choice among the group that dominates RSPO membership, big palm oil buyers.
They will do everything to secure a steady flow of cheap palm oil. They also know that the key to the corporate success story of producing “cheap” palm oil is a particular model of industrial production, with ever-increasing efficiency and productivity which in turn is achieved by:
Planting on a large-scale and in monoculture, frequently through conversion of tropical biodiverse forests
Using “high yielding” seedlings that demand large amounts of agrotoxics and abundant water.
Squeezing cheap labour out of the smallest possible work force, employed in precarious conditions so that company costs are cut to a minimum
Making significant up-front money from the tropical timber extracted from concessions, which is then used to finance plantation development or increase corporate profits.
Grabbing land violently from local communities or by means of other arrangements with governments (including favourable tax regimes) to access land at the lowest possible cost.
Those living on the fertile land that the corporations choose to apply their industrial palm oil production model, pay a very high price.
Violence is intrinsic to this model:
violence and repression when communities resist the corporate take over of their land because they know that once their land is turned into monoculture oil palm plantations, their livelihoods will be destroyed, their land and forests invaded. In countless cases, deforestation caused by the expansion of this industry, has displaced communities or destroyed community livelihoods where
companies violate customary rights and take control of community land;
sexual violence and harassment against women in and around the plantations which often stays invisible because women find themselves without possibilities to demand that the perpetrators be prosecuted;
Child labour and precarious working conditions that go hand-in-hand with violation of workers’ rights;
working conditions can even be so bad as to amount to contemporary forms of slavery. This exploitative model of work grants companies more economic profits while allowing palm oil to remain a cheap product. That is why, neither them or their shareholders do anything to stop it.
exposure of workers, entire communities and forests, rivers, water springs, agricultural land and soils to the excessive application of agrotoxics;
depriving communities surrounded by industrial oil palm plantations of their food sovereignty when industrial oil palm plantations occupy land that communities need to grow food crops.
RSPO’s proclaimed vision of transforming the industrial oil palm sector is doomed to fail because the Roundtable’s certification principles promote this structural violent and destructive model.
The RSPO also fails to address the industry’s reliance on exclusive control of large and contingent areas of fertile land, as well as the industry’s growth paradigm which demands a continued expansion of corporate control over community land and violent land grabs.
None of RPSO’s eight certification principles suggests transforming this industry reliance on exclusive control over vast areas of land or the growth paradigm inherent to the model.
Industrial use of vegetable oils has doubled in the past 15 years, with palm oil being the cheapest. This massive increase of palm oil use in part explains the current expansion of industrial oil palm plantations, especially in Africa and Latin America, from the year 2000 onward, in addition to the existing vast plantations areas in Malaysia and Indonesia that also continue expanding.
On the ground, countless examples show that industrial oil palm plantations continue to be synonymous to violence and destruction for communities and forests. Communities’ experiences in the new industrial oil palm plantation frontiers, such as Gabon, Nigeria, Cameroon, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Peru, Honduras, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, are similar to past and ongoing community experiences in Indonesia and Malaysia.
RSPO creates a smokescreen that makes this violence invisible for consumers and financiers. Governments often fail to take regulatory action to stop the expansion of plantations and increasing demand of palm oil; they rely on RSPO to deliver an apparently sustainable flow of palm oil.
For example, in its public propaganda, RSPO claims it supports more than 100,000 small holders. But the profit from palm oil production is still disproportionally appropriated by the oil palm companies: in 2016, 88% of all certified palm oil came from corporate plantations and 99,6% of the production is corporate-controlled.
RSPO also claims that the principle of Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) is key among its own Principles and Criteria. The right to FPIC implies, among others, that if a community denies the establishment of this monoculture in its territory, operations cannot be carried out. Reality shows us, however, that despite this, many projects go ahead.
Concessions are often guaranteed long before the company reaches out to the affected communities. Under these circumstances, to say that FPIC is central to RSPO is bluntly false and disrespectful.
RSPO also argues that where conflicts with the plantation companies arise, communities can always use its complaint mechanism. However, the mechanism is complex and it rarely solves the problems that communities face and want to resolve.
This becomes particularly apparent in relation to land legacy conflicts where the mechanism is biased against communities. It allows companies to continue exploiting community land until courts have come to a decision. This approach encourages companies to sit out such conflicts and count on court proceedings dragging on, often over decades.
Another argument used by RSPO is that industrial oil palm plantations have lifted millions of people out of poverty. That claim is certainly questionable, even more so considering that there is also an important number of people who have been displaced over the past decades to make space for plantations.
Indigenous communities have in fact lost their fertile land, forests and rivers to oil palm plantations, adversely affecting their food, culture and local economies.
The RSPO promise of “transformation” has turned into a powerful greenwashing tool for corporations in the palm oil industry. RSPO grants this industry, which remains responsible for violent land grabbing, environmental destruction, pollution through excessive use of agrotoxics and destruction of peasant and indigenous livelihoods, a “sustainable” image.
What’s more, RSPO membership seems to suffice for investors and companies to be able to claim that they are “responsible” actors. This greenwash is particularly stunning, since being a member does not guarantee much change on the ground. Only recently, a company became RSPO member after it was found to deforest over 27.000 hectares of rainforest in Papua, Indonesia.
Certification is structurally dependent on the very same policies and regulation that have given rise to the host of environmental devastation and community land rights violations associated with oil palm plantations. These systemic governance issues are part of the destructive economic model, and embedded in state power.
For this reason, voluntary certification schemes cannot provide adequate protection for forests, community rights, food sovereignty and guarantee sustainability. Governments and financiers need to take responsibility to stop the destructive palm oil expansion that violates the rights of local communities and Indigenous Peoples.
As immediate steps, governments need to:
Put in place a moratorium on palm oil plantations expansion and use that as a breathing space to fix the policy frameworks;
Drastically reduce demand for palm oil: stop using food for fuel;
Strengthen and respect the rights of local communities and Indigenous Peoples to amongst others, self-determination and territorial control.
Promote agro-ecology and community control of their forests, which strengthens local incomes, livelihoods and food sovereignty, instead of advancing industrial agro-businesses.
Signatures
Aalamaram-NGOAcción Ecológica, Ecuador
ActionAid, France
AGAPAN Amics arbres
Arbres amics
Amis de la Terre France
ARAARBA (Asociación para la Recuperación del Bosque Autóctono)
Asociación Conservacionista YISKI, Costa Rica Asociación Gaia El Salvador
Association Congo Actif, Paris
Association Les Gens du Partage, Carrières-sous-Poissy
Association pour le développement des aires protégées, Swizterland
BASE IS
Bézu St Eloi
Boxberg OT Uhyst
Bread for all
Bruno Manser Fund
CADDECAE, Ecuador
Campaign to STOP GE Trees
CAP, Center for Advocacy Practices
Centar za životnu sredinu/ Friends of the Earth Bosnia and Herzegovina
CESTA – FOE El Salvador
CETRI – Centre tricontinental
Climate Change Kenya
Coalición de Tendencia Clasista. (CTC-VZLA)
Colectivo de Investigación y Acompañmiento Comunitario
Collectif pour la défense des terres malgaches – TANY, Madagascar
Community Forest Watch, Nigeria
Consumers Association of Penang
Corporate Europe Observatory
Cuttington University
Down to Earth Consult
El Campello
Environmental Resources Management and Social Issue Centre (ERMSIC) Cameroon
Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria
“Environmental damage and social injustice were reasons why the global palm oil certification, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) was established. In practice, requirements for oil palm certifications are easily violated. Lots of things are problematic. Often location permits are issued by the central and local governments and they neglect important social responsibilities to indigenous peoples.
Research shows that RSPO certified sustainable palm oil does not:
Improve farmer livelihoods.
Provide protection for endangered species.
Prevent deforestation and fires.
We find that, while sustainability standards can help improve the sustainability of production processes in certain situations, they are insufficient to ensure food system sustainability at scale, nor do they advance equity objectives in agrifood supply chains.
There was no significant difference was found between certified and non-certified plantations for any of the sustainability metrics investigated, however positive economic trends including greater fresh fruit bunch yields were revealed. To achieve intended outcomes, RSPO principles and criteria are in need of substantial improvement and rigorous enforcement.
Oil palm plantations support much fewer species than do forests and often also fewer than other tree crops. Further negative impacts include habitat fragmentation and pollution, including greenhouse gas emissions.
Aggarwal, P. (2011). Greenwashing: The darker side of CSR. Indian Journal of Applied Research, 4(3), 61-66. worldwidejournals.com/indian-j…
Anti-Corporate Activism and Collusion: The Contentious Politics of Palm Oil Expansion in Indonesia, (2022). Ward Berenschot, et. al., Geoforum, Volume 131, 2022, doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.202…
Balanced Growth (2020), In: Leal Filho W., Azul A.M., Brandli L., özuyar P.G., Wall T. (eds) Responsible Consumption and Production. Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Springer, Cham
Berenschot, W., Hospes, O., & Afrizal, A. (2023). Unequal access to justice: An evaluation of RSPO’s capacity to resolve palm oil conflicts in Indonesia. Agriculture and Human Values, 40, 291-304. doi.org/10.1007/s10460-022-103…
Carlson, K. M., Heilmayr, R., Gibbs, H. K., Noojipady, P., et al. (2018). Effect of oil palm sustainability certification on deforestation and fire in Indonesia. PNAS, 115(1), 121-126. doi.org/10.1073/pnas.170472811…
Cazzolla Gatti, R., Liang, J., Velichevskaya, A., & Zhou, M. (2018). Sustainable palm oil may not be so sustainable. Science of The Total Environment, 652, 48-51. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/303598…
Changing Times Media. (2019). Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil is ‘greenwashing’ labelled products, environmental investigation agency says. Changing Times Media. changingtimes.media/2019/11/03…
Commodifying sustainability: Development, nature and politics in the palm oil industry (2019). World Development, Volume 121, September 2019, Pages 218-228. ideas.repec.org/a/eee/wdevel/v…
Contrasting communications of sustainability science in the media coverage of palm oil agriculture on tropical peatlands in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore (2020). Liu, F. H. M., Ganesan, V., Smith, T. E. L. Environmental Science & Policy, 114. researchgate.net/publication/3…
Cosimo, L. H. E., Masiero, M., Mammadova, A., & Pettenella, D. (2024). Voluntary sustainability standards to cope with the new European Union regulation on deforestation-free products: A gap analysis. Forest Policy and Economics, 164, 103235. doi.org/10.1016/j.forpol.2024.…
Dalton, J. (2018). No such thing as sustainable palm oil – ‘certified’ can destroy even more wildlife, say scientists. The Independent. independent.co.uk/climate-chan…
Davis, S. J., Alexander, K., Moreno-Cruz, J., et al. (2023). Food without agriculture. Nature Sustainability. nature.com/articles/s41893-023…
EIA International. (2022). Will palm oil watchdog rid itself of deforestation or continue to pretend its products are sustainable? EIA International. eia-international.org/news/wil…
Environmental Investigation Agency. (2019). Palm oil watchdog’s sustainability guarantee is still a destructive con. EIA International. eia-international.org/news/pal…
Fifteen environmental NGOs demand that sustainable palm oil watchdog does its job (2019). Rainforest Action Network. ran.org/press-releases/fifteen…
Friends of the Earth International. (2018). RSPO: 14 years of failure to eliminate violence and destruction from the industrial palm oil sector. Friends of the Earth International. foei.org/rspo-14-years-of-fail…
Lang, Chris and REDD Monitor. Sustainable palm oil? RSPO’s greenwashing and fraudulent audits exposed. The Ecologist. theecologist.org/2015/nov/19/s…
Gatti, L., Pizzetti, M., & Seele, P. (2021). Green lies and their effect on intention to invest. Journal of Business Research, 127, 376-387. doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2021…
Group Challenges Rainforest Alliance Earth-Friendly Seal of Approval (2015). Truth in Advertising. truthinadvertising.org/group-c…
Helan, A. (2011). Greenwash and spin: palm oil lobby targets its critics. Ecologist: Informed by Nature. theecologist.org/2011/feb/15/g…
Hewlett Packard. (2021). What is Greenwashing and How to Tell Which Companies are Truly Environmentally Responsible. Hewlett Packard. hp.com/us-en/shop/tech-takes/w…
Holzner, A., Rameli, N. I. A. M., Ruppert, N., & Widdig, A. (2024). Agricultural habitat use affects infant survivorship in an endangered macaque species. Current Biology. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/381949…
Jauernig, J., Uhl, M., & Valentinov, V. (2021). The ethics of corporate hypocrisy: An experimental approach. Futures, 129, 102757. doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2021…
Li, T. M., & Semedi, P. (2021). Plantation life: Corporate occupation in Indonesia’s oil palm zone. Duke University Press. dukeupress.edu/plantation-life
Liu, F. H. M., Ganesan, V., & Smith, T. E. L. (2020). Contrasting communications of sustainability science in the media coverage of palm oil agriculture on tropical peatlands in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. Environmental Science & Policy, 114. researchgate.net/publication/3…
Meemken, E. M., Barrett, C. B., Michelson, H. C., et al. (2021). Sustainability standards in global agrifood supply chains. Nature Food. doi.org/10.1038/s43016-021-002…
Miles, T. (2019). Study in WHO journal likens palm oil lobbying to tobacco and alcohol industries. Reuters. reuters.com/article/idUSKCN1P2…
Nygaard, A. (2023). Is sustainable certification’s ability to combat greenwashing trustworthy? Frontiers in Sustainability, 4, Article 1188069. doi.org/10.3389/frsus.2023.118…
Oppong-Tawiah D, Webster J. Corporate Sustainability Communication as ‘Fake News’: Firms’ Greenwashing on Twitter. Sustainability. 2023; 15(8):6683. mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/8/6683
Pabon, J. (2024). The great greenwashing: How brands, governments, and influencers are lying to you. Anansi International. vitalsource.com/products/the-g…
Podnar, K., & Golob, U. (2024). Brands and activism: Ecosystem and paradoxes. Journal of Brand Management, 31, 95–107. link.springer.com/article/10.1…
Rainforest Action Network. (2019). Fifteen environmental NGOs demand that sustainable palm oil watchdog does its job. RAN. ran.org/press-releases/fifteen…
Renner, A., Zellweger, C., & Skinner, B. (2021). ‘Is there such a thing as sustainable palm oil? Satellite images show protected rainforest on fire’. Neue Zürcher Zeitung. nzz.ch/english/palm-oil-boom-t…
Saager, E. S., Iwamura, T., Jucker, T., & Murray, K. A. (2023). Deforestation for oil palm increases microclimate suitability for the development of the disease vector Aedes albopictus. Scientific Reports, 13(1), 9514. nature.com/articles/s41598-023…
Southey, F. (2021). What do Millennials think of palm oil? Nestlé investigates. Food Navigator. foodnavigator.com/Article/2021…
Transparency International. (2023). Transparency international report: Corruption and corporate capture in Indonesia’s top 50 palm oil companies. Transparency International. palmoildetectives.com/2023/05/…
Tybout, A. M., & Calkins, T. (Eds.). (2019). Kellogg on Branding in a Hyper-Connected World. Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. wiley.com/en-au/Kellogg+on+Bra…
Wicke, J. (2019). Sustainable palm oil or certified dispossession? NGOs within scalar struggles over the RSPO private governance standard. Bioeconomy & Inequalities: Working Paper No. 8. bioinequalities.uni-jena.de/so…
World Health Organisation. (2019). The palm oil industry and noncommunicable diseases. World Health Organisation Bulletin, 97, 118-128. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/307286…
World Rainforest Movement. (2021, November 22). Why the RSPO facilitates land grabs for palm oil. wrm.org.uy/articles-from-the-w…
Zuckerman, J. (2021). The Time Has Come to Rein In the Global Scourge of Palm Oil. Yale Environment 360, Yale School of Environment. e360.yale.edu/features/the-tim…
More than 100 organizations from five continents signed on to this open statement from Friends of the Earth International and the World Rainforest Movement,
When a brand makes token changes while continuing with deforestation, ecocide or human rights abuses in another part of their business – this is ‘Hidden Trade Off’
Hidden Trade-Off
When a brand makes token changes while continuing with deforestation, ecocide or human rights abuses in another part of their business – this is ‘Hidden Trade Off’
For example, Nestle talks up satellite monitoring to stop palm oil deforestation. Yet their deforestation continues to accelerate in spite of this – this is ‘Hidden Trade-Off”
“Nestlé pledged to ensure the palm oil it uses would be sourced in an environmentally friendly and socially responsible manner within ten years. It has not succeeded – despite the very long time it gave itself. While the Swiss-based multinational is pacifying consumers with PR promises, its business with cheap palm oil from obscure sources is booming. The price for this is being paid by people and nature in tropical countries. Rainforest Rescue therefore recommends consumers avoiding products that contain palm oil.“
At the same time, they purchase palm oil linked to violence, and the deaths of palm oil workers in Papua New Guinea including children. This palm oil finds its way into our homes.
“One palm oil firm, Rimbunan Hijau, [Papua New Guinea] negligently ignored repeated and avoidable worker deaths and injuries on palm oil plantations, with at least 11 workers and the child of one worker losing their lives over an eight-year period.
“Tainted palm oil from Papua New Guinea plantations was sold to household name brands including Kellogg’s, Nestlé, Colgate, Danone, Hershey’s and PZ Cussons and Reckitt Benckiser”
Global beauty brands virtue-signal and greenwash about how they promote gender equality or care about people in the developing world. Yet at the same time, the palm oil they source is harvested by women and children who experience sexual violence, rape and slavery working on palm oil plantations.
Women on plantations often face sexual abuse, ranging from verbal harassment and threats to rape, and victims rarely speak out. When they do, companies often don’t take action or police charges are either dropped or not filed because it comes down to the accuser’s word against the man’s.
Palm oil was found in the supply chains of some of the biggest names in the $530 billion beauty business, including L’Oréal, Unilever, Procter & Gamble, Avon and Johnson & Johnson. A wide range of abuses also were linked to mills and plantations that have been certified by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).
Aggarwal, P. (2011). Greenwashing: The darker side of CSR. Indian Journal of Applied Research, 4(3), 61-66. worldwidejournals.com/indian-j…
Anti-Corporate Activism and Collusion: The Contentious Politics of Palm Oil Expansion in Indonesia, (2022). Ward Berenschot, et. al., Geoforum, Volume 131, 2022, doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.202…
Balanced Growth (2020), In: Leal Filho W., Azul A.M., Brandli L., özuyar P.G., Wall T. (eds) Responsible Consumption and Production. Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Springer, Cham
Berenschot, W., Hospes, O., & Afrizal, A. (2023). Unequal access to justice: An evaluation of RSPO’s capacity to resolve palm oil conflicts in Indonesia. Agriculture and Human Values, 40, 291-304. doi.org/10.1007/s10460-022-103…
Carlson, K. M., Heilmayr, R., Gibbs, H. K., Noojipady, P., et al. (2018). Effect of oil palm sustainability certification on deforestation and fire in Indonesia. PNAS, 115(1), 121-126. doi.org/10.1073/pnas.170472811…
Cazzolla Gatti, R., Liang, J., Velichevskaya, A., & Zhou, M. (2018). Sustainable palm oil may not be so sustainable. Science of The Total Environment, 652, 48-51. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/303598…
Changing Times Media. (2019). Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil is ‘greenwashing’ labelled products, environmental investigation agency says. Changing Times Media. changingtimes.media/2019/11/03…
Commodifying sustainability: Development, nature and politics in the palm oil industry (2019). World Development, Volume 121, September 2019, Pages 218-228. ideas.repec.org/a/eee/wdevel/v…
Contrasting communications of sustainability science in the media coverage of palm oil agriculture on tropical peatlands in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore (2020). Liu, F. H. M., Ganesan, V., Smith, T. E. L. Environmental Science & Policy, 114. researchgate.net/publication/3…
Cosimo, L. H. E., Masiero, M., Mammadova, A., & Pettenella, D. (2024). Voluntary sustainability standards to cope with the new European Union regulation on deforestation-free products: A gap analysis. Forest Policy and Economics, 164, 103235. doi.org/10.1016/j.forpol.2024.…
Dalton, J. (2018). No such thing as sustainable palm oil – ‘certified’ can destroy even more wildlife, say scientists. The Independent. independent.co.uk/climate-chan…
Davis, S. J., Alexander, K., Moreno-Cruz, J., et al. (2023). Food without agriculture. Nature Sustainability. nature.com/articles/s41893-023…
EIA International. (2022). Will palm oil watchdog rid itself of deforestation or continue to pretend its products are sustainable? EIA International. eia-international.org/news/wil…
Environmental Investigation Agency. (2019). Palm oil watchdog’s sustainability guarantee is still a destructive con. EIA International. eia-international.org/news/pal…
Fifteen environmental NGOs demand that sustainable palm oil watchdog does its job (2019). Rainforest Action Network. ran.org/press-releases/fifteen…
Friends of the Earth International. (2018). RSPO: 14 years of failure to eliminate violence and destruction from the industrial palm oil sector. Friends of the Earth International. foei.org/rspo-14-years-of-fail…
Lang, Chris and REDD Monitor. Sustainable palm oil? RSPO’s greenwashing and fraudulent audits exposed. The Ecologist. theecologist.org/2015/nov/19/s…
Gatti, L., Pizzetti, M., & Seele, P. (2021). Green lies and their effect on intention to invest. Journal of Business Research, 127, 376-387. doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2021…
Group Challenges Rainforest Alliance Earth-Friendly Seal of Approval (2015). Truth in Advertising. truthinadvertising.org/group-c…
Helan, A. (2011). Greenwash and spin: palm oil lobby targets its critics. Ecologist: Informed by Nature. theecologist.org/2011/feb/15/g…
Hewlett Packard. (2021). What is Greenwashing and How to Tell Which Companies are Truly Environmentally Responsible. Hewlett Packard. hp.com/us-en/shop/tech-takes/w…
Holzner, A., Rameli, N. I. A. M., Ruppert, N., & Widdig, A. (2024). Agricultural habitat use affects infant survivorship in an endangered macaque species. Current Biology. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/381949…
Jauernig, J., Uhl, M., & Valentinov, V. (2021). The ethics of corporate hypocrisy: An experimental approach. Futures, 129, 102757. doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2021…
Li, T. M., & Semedi, P. (2021). Plantation life: Corporate occupation in Indonesia’s oil palm zone. Duke University Press. dukeupress.edu/plantation-life
Liu, F. H. M., Ganesan, V., & Smith, T. E. L. (2020). Contrasting communications of sustainability science in the media coverage of palm oil agriculture on tropical peatlands in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. Environmental Science & Policy, 114. researchgate.net/publication/3…
Meemken, E. M., Barrett, C. B., Michelson, H. C., et al. (2021). Sustainability standards in global agrifood supply chains. Nature Food. doi.org/10.1038/s43016-021-002…
Miles, T. (2019). Study in WHO journal likens palm oil lobbying to tobacco and alcohol industries. Reuters. reuters.com/article/idUSKCN1P2…
Nygaard, A. (2023). Is sustainable certification’s ability to combat greenwashing trustworthy? Frontiers in Sustainability, 4, Article 1188069. doi.org/10.3389/frsus.2023.118…
Oppong-Tawiah D, Webster J. Corporate Sustainability Communication as ‘Fake News’: Firms’ Greenwashing on Twitter. Sustainability. 2023; 15(8):6683. mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/8/6683
Pabon, J. (2024). The great greenwashing: How brands, governments, and influencers are lying to you. Anansi International. vitalsource.com/products/the-g…
Podnar, K., & Golob, U. (2024). Brands and activism: Ecosystem and paradoxes. Journal of Brand Management, 31, 95–107. link.springer.com/article/10.1…
Rainforest Action Network. (2019). Fifteen environmental NGOs demand that sustainable palm oil watchdog does its job. RAN. ran.org/press-releases/fifteen…
Renner, A., Zellweger, C., & Skinner, B. (2021). ‘Is there such a thing as sustainable palm oil? Satellite images show protected rainforest on fire’. Neue Zürcher Zeitung. nzz.ch/english/palm-oil-boom-t…
Saager, E. S., Iwamura, T., Jucker, T., & Murray, K. A. (2023). Deforestation for oil palm increases microclimate suitability for the development of the disease vector Aedes albopictus. Scientific Reports, 13(1), 9514. nature.com/articles/s41598-023…
Southey, F. (2021). What do Millennials think of palm oil? Nestlé investigates. Food Navigator. foodnavigator.com/Article/2021…
Transparency International. (2023). Transparency international report: Corruption and corporate capture in Indonesia’s top 50 palm oil companies. Transparency International. palmoildetectives.com/2023/05/…
Tybout, A. M., & Calkins, T. (Eds.). (2019). Kellogg on Branding in a Hyper-Connected World. Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. wiley.com/en-au/Kellogg+on+Bra…
Wicke, J. (2019). Sustainable palm oil or certified dispossession? NGOs within scalar struggles over the RSPO private governance standard. Bioeconomy & Inequalities: Working Paper No. 8. bioinequalities.uni-jena.de/so…
World Health Organisation. (2019). The palm oil industry and noncommunicable diseases. World Health Organisation Bulletin, 97, 118-128. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/307286…
World Rainforest Movement. (2021, November 22). Why the RSPO facilitates land grabs for palm oil. wrm.org.uy/articles-from-the-w…
Zuckerman, J. (2021). The Time Has Come to Rein In the Global Scourge of Palm Oil. Yale Environment 360, Yale School of Environment. e360.yale.edu/features/the-tim…
A visual investigation by the NZZ shows the standards for certifying palm oil production as sustainable are often ignored. The consequences for millions of hectares of vulnerable rainforest could be catastrophic as the industry expands.
When a brand makes token changes while continuing with deforestation, ecocide or human rights abuses in another part of their business – this is ‘Hidden Trade Off’
Hidden Trade-Off
When a brand makes token changes while continuing with deforestation, ecocide or human rights abuses in another part of their business – this is ‘Hidden Trade Off’
For example, Nestle talks up satellite monitoring to stop palm oil deforestation. Yet their deforestation continues to accelerate in spite of this – this is ‘Hidden Trade-Off”
When a brand makes token changes while continuing with deforestation, ecocide or human rights abuses in another part of their business – this is ‘Hidden Trade Off’
Hidden Trade-Off
When a brand makes token changes while continuing with deforestation, ecocide or human rights abuses in another part of their business – this is ‘Hidden Trade Off’
For example, Nestle talks up satellite monitoring to stop palm oil deforestation. Yet their deforestation continues to accelerate in spite of this – this is ‘Hidden Trade-Off”
“Nestlé pledged to ensure the palm oil it uses would be sourced in an environmentally friendly and socially responsible manner within ten years. It has not succeeded – despite the very long time it gave itself. While the Swiss-based multinational is pacifying consumers with PR promises, its business with cheap palm oil from obscure sources is booming. The price for this is being paid by people and nature in tropical countries. Rainforest Rescue therefore recommends consumers avoiding products that contain palm oil.“
At the same time, they purchase palm oil linked to violence, and the deaths of palm oil workers in Papua New Guinea including children. This palm oil finds its way into our homes.
“One palm oil firm, Rimbunan Hijau, [Papua New Guinea] negligently ignored repeated and avoidable worker deaths and injuries on palm oil plantations, with at least 11 workers and the child of one worker losing their lives over an eight-year period.
“Tainted palm oil from Papua New Guinea plantations was sold to household name brands including Kellogg’s, Nestlé, Colgate, Danone, Hershey’s and PZ Cussons and Reckitt Benckiser”
Global beauty brands virtue-signal and greenwash about how they promote gender equality or care about people in the developing world. Yet at the same time, the palm oil they source is harvested by women and children who experience sexual violence, rape and slavery working on palm oil plantations.
Women on plantations often face sexual abuse, ranging from verbal harassment and threats to rape, and victims rarely speak out. When they do, companies often don’t take action or police charges are either dropped or not filed because it comes down to the accuser’s word against the man’s.
Palm oil was found in the supply chains of some of the biggest names in the $530 billion beauty business, including L’Oréal, Unilever, Procter & Gamble, Avon and Johnson & Johnson. A wide range of abuses also were linked to mills and plantations that have been certified by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).
Aggarwal, P. (2011). Greenwashing: The darker side of CSR. Indian Journal of Applied Research, 4(3), 61-66. worldwidejournals.com/indian-j…
Anti-Corporate Activism and Collusion: The Contentious Politics of Palm Oil Expansion in Indonesia, (2022). Ward Berenschot, et. al., Geoforum, Volume 131, 2022, doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.202…
Balanced Growth (2020), In: Leal Filho W., Azul A.M., Brandli L., özuyar P.G., Wall T. (eds) Responsible Consumption and Production. Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Springer, Cham
Berenschot, W., Hospes, O., & Afrizal, A. (2023). Unequal access to justice: An evaluation of RSPO’s capacity to resolve palm oil conflicts in Indonesia. Agriculture and Human Values, 40, 291-304. doi.org/10.1007/s10460-022-103…
Carlson, K. M., Heilmayr, R., Gibbs, H. K., Noojipady, P., et al. (2018). Effect of oil palm sustainability certification on deforestation and fire in Indonesia. PNAS, 115(1), 121-126. doi.org/10.1073/pnas.170472811…
Cazzolla Gatti, R., Liang, J., Velichevskaya, A., & Zhou, M. (2018). Sustainable palm oil may not be so sustainable. Science of The Total Environment, 652, 48-51. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/303598…
Changing Times Media. (2019). Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil is ‘greenwashing’ labelled products, environmental investigation agency says. Changing Times Media. changingtimes.media/2019/11/03…
Commodifying sustainability: Development, nature and politics in the palm oil industry (2019). World Development, Volume 121, September 2019, Pages 218-228. ideas.repec.org/a/eee/wdevel/v…
Contrasting communications of sustainability science in the media coverage of palm oil agriculture on tropical peatlands in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore (2020). Liu, F. H. M., Ganesan, V., Smith, T. E. L. Environmental Science & Policy, 114. researchgate.net/publication/3…
Cosimo, L. H. E., Masiero, M., Mammadova, A., & Pettenella, D. (2024). Voluntary sustainability standards to cope with the new European Union regulation on deforestation-free products: A gap analysis. Forest Policy and Economics, 164, 103235. doi.org/10.1016/j.forpol.2024.…
Dalton, J. (2018). No such thing as sustainable palm oil – ‘certified’ can destroy even more wildlife, say scientists. The Independent. independent.co.uk/climate-chan…
Davis, S. J., Alexander, K., Moreno-Cruz, J., et al. (2023). Food without agriculture. Nature Sustainability. nature.com/articles/s41893-023…
EIA International. (2022). Will palm oil watchdog rid itself of deforestation or continue to pretend its products are sustainable? EIA International. eia-international.org/news/wil…
Environmental Investigation Agency. (2019). Palm oil watchdog’s sustainability guarantee is still a destructive con. EIA International. eia-international.org/news/pal…
Fifteen environmental NGOs demand that sustainable palm oil watchdog does its job (2019). Rainforest Action Network. ran.org/press-releases/fifteen…
Friends of the Earth International. (2018). RSPO: 14 years of failure to eliminate violence and destruction from the industrial palm oil sector. Friends of the Earth International. foei.org/rspo-14-years-of-fail…
Lang, Chris and REDD Monitor. Sustainable palm oil? RSPO’s greenwashing and fraudulent audits exposed. The Ecologist. theecologist.org/2015/nov/19/s…
Gatti, L., Pizzetti, M., & Seele, P. (2021). Green lies and their effect on intention to invest. Journal of Business Research, 127, 376-387. doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2021…
Group Challenges Rainforest Alliance Earth-Friendly Seal of Approval (2015). Truth in Advertising. truthinadvertising.org/group-c…
Helan, A. (2011). Greenwash and spin: palm oil lobby targets its critics. Ecologist: Informed by Nature. theecologist.org/2011/feb/15/g…
Hewlett Packard. (2021). What is Greenwashing and How to Tell Which Companies are Truly Environmentally Responsible. Hewlett Packard. hp.com/us-en/shop/tech-takes/w…
Holzner, A., Rameli, N. I. A. M., Ruppert, N., & Widdig, A. (2024). Agricultural habitat use affects infant survivorship in an endangered macaque species. Current Biology. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/381949…
Jauernig, J., Uhl, M., & Valentinov, V. (2021). The ethics of corporate hypocrisy: An experimental approach. Futures, 129, 102757. doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2021…
Li, T. M., & Semedi, P. (2021). Plantation life: Corporate occupation in Indonesia’s oil palm zone. Duke University Press. dukeupress.edu/plantation-life
Liu, F. H. M., Ganesan, V., & Smith, T. E. L. (2020). Contrasting communications of sustainability science in the media coverage of palm oil agriculture on tropical peatlands in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. Environmental Science & Policy, 114. researchgate.net/publication/3…
Meemken, E. M., Barrett, C. B., Michelson, H. C., et al. (2021). Sustainability standards in global agrifood supply chains. Nature Food. doi.org/10.1038/s43016-021-002…
Miles, T. (2019). Study in WHO journal likens palm oil lobbying to tobacco and alcohol industries. Reuters. reuters.com/article/idUSKCN1P2…
Nygaard, A. (2023). Is sustainable certification’s ability to combat greenwashing trustworthy? Frontiers in Sustainability, 4, Article 1188069. doi.org/10.3389/frsus.2023.118…
Oppong-Tawiah D, Webster J. Corporate Sustainability Communication as ‘Fake News’: Firms’ Greenwashing on Twitter. Sustainability. 2023; 15(8):6683. mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/8/6683
Pabon, J. (2024). The great greenwashing: How brands, governments, and influencers are lying to you. Anansi International. vitalsource.com/products/the-g…
Podnar, K., & Golob, U. (2024). Brands and activism: Ecosystem and paradoxes. Journal of Brand Management, 31, 95–107. link.springer.com/article/10.1…
Rainforest Action Network. (2019). Fifteen environmental NGOs demand that sustainable palm oil watchdog does its job. RAN. ran.org/press-releases/fifteen…
Renner, A., Zellweger, C., & Skinner, B. (2021). ‘Is there such a thing as sustainable palm oil? Satellite images show protected rainforest on fire’. Neue Zürcher Zeitung. nzz.ch/english/palm-oil-boom-t…
Saager, E. S., Iwamura, T., Jucker, T., & Murray, K. A. (2023). Deforestation for oil palm increases microclimate suitability for the development of the disease vector Aedes albopictus. Scientific Reports, 13(1), 9514. nature.com/articles/s41598-023…
Southey, F. (2021). What do Millennials think of palm oil? Nestlé investigates. Food Navigator. foodnavigator.com/Article/2021…
Transparency International. (2023). Transparency international report: Corruption and corporate capture in Indonesia’s top 50 palm oil companies. Transparency International. palmoildetectives.com/2023/05/…
Tybout, A. M., & Calkins, T. (Eds.). (2019). Kellogg on Branding in a Hyper-Connected World. Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. wiley.com/en-au/Kellogg+on+Bra…
Wicke, J. (2019). Sustainable palm oil or certified dispossession? NGOs within scalar struggles over the RSPO private governance standard. Bioeconomy & Inequalities: Working Paper No. 8. bioinequalities.uni-jena.de/so…
World Health Organisation. (2019). The palm oil industry and noncommunicable diseases. World Health Organisation Bulletin, 97, 118-128. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/307286…
World Rainforest Movement. (2021, November 22). Why the RSPO facilitates land grabs for palm oil. wrm.org.uy/articles-from-the-w…
Zuckerman, J. (2021). The Time Has Come to Rein In the Global Scourge of Palm Oil. Yale Environment 360, Yale School of Environment. e360.yale.edu/features/the-tim…
A visual investigation by the NZZ shows the standards for certifying palm oil production as sustainable are often ignored. The consequences for millions of hectares of vulnerable rainforest could be catastrophic as the industry expands.
Global Witness October 2021 Report: Violence and death for palm oil connected to household supermarket brands (RSPO members)
“One palm oil firm, Rimbunan Hijau, [Papua New Guinea] negligently ignored repeated and avoidable worker deaths and injuries on palm oil plantations, with at least 11 workers and the child of one worker losing their lives over an eight-year period.
“Tainted palm oil from Papua New Guinea plantations was sold to household name brands, all of them RSPO members including Kellogg’s, Nestlé, Colgate, Danone, Hershey’s and PZ Cussons and Reckitt Benckiser”
Nestlé makes claims of sustainability including a ‘promise’ to stop deforestation. Promises mean nothing – action is what matters. Nestlé has a high ranking on the WWF Scorecard and an RSPO certification. However this high ranking is greenwashing and this mega-brand is purchasing huge amounts of palm oil from six mills that are responsible for deforestation: Jhonlin, Mulia Sawit, Tunas Baru Lampung, Peputra Group, Musirawas
Based on evidence from many different corruption whistleblower organisations – it is best to boycott all Nestlé-owned brands until it has been proven that they have ceased with human rights abuses, slavery, deforestation and indigenous land-grabbing for palm oil and other commodities.
Nestlé own a vast global stable of food and beverage brands and products
Greenwashing ecocide – Agropalma & Orangutan Land Trust
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqYoRh1aApg" title="A still from the documentary: by Mama Malind su Hilang (Our Land Has Gone) Nanang Sujana Watch on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqYoRh1aApg" class="has-alt-description">A still from the documentary: by Mama Malind su Hilang (Our Land Has Gone) Nanang Sujana Watch on Youtube: youtube.com/watch?v=RqYoRh1aAp…
“Water is life. Stop planting oil palms”. Photo: Movimiento Social Intercultural del Pueblo de Ixcán, Guatemala
Other names for palm oil
South America: Species Endangered by Palm Oil Deforestation
Greenwashing example – Lesser of two evils
The IUCN Palm Oil Taskforcer features the same scientists who are paid by the RSPO to produce favourable research
Papua New Guinea & West Papua: Species Endangered by Palm Oil Deforestation
Vector natural, organic food, bio, eco labels and shapes on white background. Hand drawn stains set.
Destruction Certified by Greenpeace 2021
We find positive effects on prices and income from sale of certified products. However, we find no change in overall household income and assets for workers. The wages for workers are not higher in certified production.
Michelle Desilets threatening and harassing people
Michelle Desilets threatening and harassing people
Michelle Desilets threatening and harassing people
Michelle Desilets threatening and harassing people
Bart Van Assen AKA Wilding Rocks AKA The Wicorman AKA PalmOilTruther harassing people and getting banned from Twitter
Michelle Desilets at the RSPO conference
View thread on Twitter
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Pictured: Klotok traditional river boat on a river in Borneo by Guenterguni Getty Images
Pictured: Dayak family, Central Kalimantan by IndoMet licensed under CC BY 2.0
Pollution run-off in an RSPO member palm oil plantation in Sumatra. Craig Jones Wildlife Photography
Deforestation for palm oil at ground level – Getty Images video
Deforestation for palm oil waste reservoirs- Getty Images
The difficulty of addressing and resolving oil palm conflicts is due not only to the inadequacies of Indonesia’s legal framework regarding land and plantations but also to the way in which Indonesia’s informalized state institutions foster collusion between local power holders and palm oil companies. This collusion enables companies to evade regulation, suppress community protests and avoid engaging in constructive efforts to resolve conflicts. Furthermore, this collusion has made the available conflict resolution mechanisms largely ineffective.Pictured: A Dayak woman weaves pandan in a traditional longhouse, PxFuel
https://seanweston.co.uk" title="Deforestation by Sean Weston https://seanweston.co.uk" class="has-alt-description">Deforestation by Sean Weston seanweston.co.uk
People who consume the news only know the simulation/ hyperreality in a Simulacra – Jean Baudrillard
Deforestation – Craig Jones Wildlife Photography
Pictured clockwise: An orangutan grips helplessly onto a broken and destroyed tree, Craig Jones Wildlife Photography; River pollution, PxFuel; A freshly destroyed rainforest in Indonesia, Craig Jones Wildlife Photography; A vast and lifeless palm oil plantation, Greenpeace.
Pictured: Dayak men in Kalimantan, Pxfuel.
Nestle brand bottled water throughout the world
