Prairies reporter Drew Anderson’s dogged coverage of Alberta’s pause on renewable energy projects was recognized for investigative storytelling ‘in service of the common good’
🏆🏆🏆 Woot woot! We’re thrilled to tell you we’ve been named to @FastCompany’s list of Most Innovative Companies of 2025. Many thanks to the magazine and to our entire IJF team for helping us get this honour. Read more in our story.
🏆🏆🏆 Woot woot! We’re thrilled to tell you we’ve been named to @FastCompany’s list of Most Innovative Companies of 2025. Many thanks to the magazine and to our entire IJF team for helping us get this honour. Read more in our story.
A Canadian company — Zimar — is at the heart of a mysterious deal in #Niger. The company has won a huge contract to build an oil refinery in the West African country, but an IJF investigation has found no evidence the company has ever built a refinery or any record of its work in that industry. Read the story.
Phase II of Accountable.US’s Trump Accountability Campaign exposes how Trump, Musk, and their administration are abusing power for personal gain—driving up costs, slashing essential programs, and rigging the system against hardworking Americans.
A Canadian company — Zimar — is at the heart of a mysterious deal in #Niger. The company has won a huge contract to build an oil refinery in the West African country, but an IJF investigation has found no evidence the company has ever built a refinery or any record of its work in that industry. Read the story.
1) when you see Sarah Betencourt's track record of #investigativejournalism, you know this is solid reporting wgbh.org/people/sarah-betancou… 2) if you bear in mind there's now been multiple reports of WHITE Westerners getting illegally & secretly detained by #ICE (i can think of the case of that Canadian woman from LA), you can imagine the scale of illegal #detention and #deportation of #Latinx and brown people in the US. The top of the iceberg!
Sarah Betancourt is a bilingual reporter for GBH News, and longtime Boston muckraker. Feedback? Questions? Story ideas? Reach out to Sarah at sarah_betancourt@wgbh.org.
The Scottish Beacon is excited to announce The Power Shift – a major new collaborative journalism project that will investigate how Scotland’s green energy transition is reshaping land, communities, and power dynamics across the country.
When our reporters prompted a large language model to help identify “woke” themes in a database of grants, AI helped them tell a vital accountability story about science funding and Ted Cruz.
President Donald Trump’s growing trade war against other countries is wreaking havoc on financial markets, upending the global trade system and angering long-standing U.S. allies.
After NYPD officials warned about a unit’s aggressive policing, the mayor boosted the team led by his allies. “The unit effectively reported directly to City Hall,” a former police official said.
Important! [NYTimes - gifted]: Can the Media’s Right to Pursue the Powerful Survive Trump’s Second Term? By David Enrich, March 3, 2025
New York Times v. Sullivan and other landmark Supreme Court decisions protect the press’s ability to investigate public figures. But a growing right-wing movement seeks to overturn them.
We know you’re buying Canadian and we want to make it easier for you to read Canadian too. For a limited time, you’ll get a 25% discount in response to Donald Trump’s 25% on again, off again tariffs. Other prices may go up, but a yearly IJF subscription is now much more affordable. Subscribe now.
In January, Distributed Denial of Secrets published over 200 gigabytes of chat logs and recordings from paramilitary groups and militias, including American Patriots Three Percent (APIIII) and the Oath Keepers.
"She weighed less than 30 kg": Ukrainian journalist Roshchina was brutally tortured in Russian captivity
Ukrainian journalist Viktoriya Roshchina, who was captured by Russian forces in the summer of 2023, was brutally tortured - there were knife wounds on her body, the journalist weighed less than 30 kilograms, and the employees of the Russian colony hid her from checks.
Dr George McGavin FLSFRGS Hon. FSB Hon. FRES studied Zoology at Edinburgh University, followed by a PhD in entomology at Imperial College and the Natural History Museum in London. After 25 years as an academic at Oxford University he became an award-winning television presenter. George is an Honorary Research Associate of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History and an Honorary Principal Research Fellow at Imperial College. George is also a Fellow of the Linnean Society and the Royal Geographical Society, an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology and an Honorary Life Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society. As well as his many TV documentaries, George has written numerous books on insects and other animals. In 2019 he became the President of the Dorset Wildlife Trust.
In his downtime, he enjoys walking in the windswept coasts of Dorset. He dearly hopes that the insects named after him will survive him.
Palm Oil Detectives is honoured to interview to Dr George McGavin about his fascinating work, environmental activism, the devastation of deforestation and why we should all boycott palm oil.
Photo credits: Claire Thompson, BBC, Rupert Soskin, Mark McEwen, Johnny Rogers.
Royal Television Society (Scotland Awards): Winner Best Science and Natural History Documentary 2019
“Ask yourself what’s more important, cheap biscuits and face cream? Or the survival of the most diverse, complex habitat on earth? I support the #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife movement” Broadcaster/ Entomologist @georgemcgavin.bsky.social palmoildetectives.com/2021/10/…
“I want everyone to stop buying products containing #palmoil. The whole industry, and many others like it, driven solely by desire to make money #Boycottpalmoil and #Boycott4Wildlife” @BBC presenter/Entomologist Dr George McGavin @Georgecmcgavin
“The bleating about sustainable growth is an absurdity. It’s not possible. We have a fixed pot of resources. Any degree of growth is ultimately unsustainable” @BBC presenter/entomologist @Georgecmcgavin #degrowth #Boycott4Wildlife
“Ask yourself what’s more important, cheap biscuits and face cream? Or the survival of the most diverse and complex habitat on earth? I support the #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife movement” @BBC presenter/entomologist @Georgecmcgavin
“If we keep treating the world like a factory – churning out cheap food we will destroy natural habitats, wild places, destroy magnificent #animals. We will head for the ultimate disaster” @georgecmcgavin @BBC Presenter #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife
“Local people are often victims, as they defend their territory so as not to be displaced by #palmoil. This is #Illegal #Indigenous #landgrabbing for so-called ‘sustainable’ #palmoil” @BBC presenter/entomologist @georgecmcgavin
My favourite documentary to present was The Lost Land of the Volcano series
It was the most remote and the most challenging shoot I’ve ever faced. Myself and the team filmed around Mount Bosavi in Papua New Guinea, a volcano that last erupted when early humans were leaving Africa to colonise the rest of the planet.
We recorded rare biodiversity and also uncovered new species. At the time of filming, logging was taking place 30 km away from the volcano. One of the expedition’s aims was to find evidence to support the case to protect the area.
If you had of told me as a 14 year old boy that I would be doing what I’m doing now, I would never have believed you
I had a very bad stammer as a kid. It’s not something that can just be cured. You just get better at dealing with it. I still had difficulties with fluency into my 40’s. However, age, knowledge and confidence are wonderful things.
It’s about sharing the beauty and importance of the natural world with an audience.
My need to do this was strong enough to overcome the considerable difficulties I faced as a young person having a stammer.
TV presenting and teaching are very similar
It’s all about captivating the audience and getting information across to them in a compelling way. The only difference is simply that TV audiences are far bigger. I want all people to care about the natural world. After 25 years of ‘preaching to the converted’ at the university, I jumped at the chance to try and reach an audience perhaps less interested in animals and natural history.
Insects are vital to the survival of all other species of Earth, ourselves included.
Insects are the powerhouse and engine room behind the entire planet
Insects are far more diverse and interesting than any vertebrate. Vertebrate animals make up less than 3% of all known species. The vast majority of species on Earth are invertebrates, largely unseen by humans and mistakenly considered to be less important. Most of these are arthropods: the insects, spiders and crustaceans. They are the major pollinators, predators, herbivores and recyclers, the food source for most species
I am always rather puzzled as to why big animals seem to hog the limelight in the press and in the popular imagination.
I returned from a forest expedition in and around Mount Bosavi, an extinct volcano in the Southern Highland Province of Papua New Guinea. It is hard to estimate how many of the insects and spiders we collected will be new species!
Our group discovered at least 16 new species of frogs; 2 new species of lizards; 3 new species of fish; and one undescribed, endemic woolly giant rat.
Needless to say, it was the rat that caused quite a stir; on my return, the media were lining up to ask about it.
No interest in the wondrous jumping spiders, the weird beetles, or the funky flies we had gathered. All right, if pushed, I have to agree that the woolly giant rat was a pretty impressive beast and quite tame, having never seen human beings before, but what really excited me were the smaller creatures we encountered.
While filming the BBC series Monkey Planet in 2008, I fell in love with an orphaned orangutan named Dora
Photo credit: Claire Thompson
Her mother had been killed and Dora had been a pet. She spent several years in a cage before she was rescued. When I met her, she was in the process of being rehabilitated.
In the wild, she would have learned how to live in the rainforest from her mother over many years. However, in the sanctuary she was taught by humans what to eat and how to survive in a few short years. After the experience of meeting Dora, she was destined to be relocated and released into an area of safe habitat.
Photo credit: Claire Thompson
I asked what Dora’s chances of survival might be. I was shocked to learn that it was a well under 50%. I hope she made it.
I’ve seen some fabulous species in the wild. Tigers, jaguars, sloths, anacondas. However, I don’t need to see them anymore. I just need to know that they’re all safe and that they will survive into the future.
~ Dr George McGavin
75% of terrestrial species (mostly insects) live in rainforests
What was 12-14% of tropical rainforests has been destroyed and now covers less than 6% of the Earth’s land surface. This deforestation is catastrophic and must be ended
Dr George McGavin – private collection, insects. Dr George McGavin – private collection Photo credit: Rupert Soskin, BBC
At the rate they are being destroyed, most of the world’s rainforests will be lost or seriously degraded by the end of this century. We are on course to lose more than half of all extant species. It’s basic arithmetic.
I want everyone to stop buying products containing palm oil
The whole industry (and many others like it) is driven solely by the desire to make money
“I want everyone to stop buying products containing #palmoil. The whole industry, and many others like it, is driven solely by the desire to make money. #Boycottpalmoil and #Boycott4Wildlife” @BBC presenter/Entomologist Dr George McGavin @Georgecmcgavin
Ask yourself what is more important…cheap biscuits and yet another type of face cream? Or the survival of the most diverse and complex habitat on Earth?
I don’t believe palm oil can ever be sustainable. There is an enormous amount of greenwashing around this issue.
~ Dr George McGavin
‘I don’t believe palm oil can ever be sustainable. There is an enormous amount of greenwashing around this issue. I support the #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife movement’ @Georgecmcgavin
‘Ask yourself what’s more important, cheap biscuits and facecream or the survival of the most diverse and complex habitat on earth? I support the #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife movement’ @Georgecmcgavin
Saving tropical forest is the one thing we should be doing do right now. Countries with tropical forest should be paid by the rest of the world for keeping it intact.
Dr George McGavin
Before: A virgin tropical rainforest. After: a lifeless monoculture of palm oil as far as the eye can see.
Here are a few of the 1000’s of animals disappearing forever due to out-of-control agriculture: palm oil, soy, timber, meat, cocoa, coffee…
Proper legislation would avoid the issue of consumers being fooled. I do not knowingly buy things with palm oil; however, manufacturers can use 200 or so names for palm oil to confuse consumers. This needs to change.
The constant bleating about sustainable growth is an absurdity. It is not possible. It never was. We have a fixed pot of resources, a finite amount of stuff, any degree of growth is ultimately unsustainable.
Dr George McGavin
“The constant bleating about sustainable growth is an absurdity. It’s not possible. It never was. We have a fixed pot of resources. Any degree of growth is ultimately unsustainable” @Georgecmcgavin #degrowth #Boycott4Wildlife
There are insane practices going on in agriculture that are destroying the earth
~ Dr George McGavin
I think out-of-control capitalism has a lot to answer for
Practices such as growing soy bean or palm kernel to ship half way around the world to feed cattle somewhere else. Or a 6,000 mile round journey in order to process and then sell fruit back to the region where it was grown. Or insecticides that are marketed as being “bee-friendly.” The greenwashing around these practices is just madness.
All global brands seem to be doing is churning out endless stuff that consumers don’t really need
We have overcome all manner of diseases. We have glimpsed into the far reaches of the universe. We have delved deeply into the sub-atomic structures of matter.
We can rearrange the code of life, even make new forms of life. We have avoided wars recently. Yet what we now face is very different. Pollution from clothing waste shipped from the EU, Australia and the USA to Ghana. Source: ABC Four Corners Australia Pollution from clothing waste shipped from the EU, Australia and the USA to Ghana. Source: ABC Four Corners Australia Our plan to stop forest fires – Spelling Mistakes Cost Lives
As long as we continue to treat the world like a factory – churning out cheaper and cheaper food – we will destroy natural habitats, destroy wild places and destroy magnificent animals. We will head for the ultimate disaster.
Dr George McGavin
“As long as we continue to treat the world like a factory – churning out cheap food – we will destroy natural habitats, wild places and destroy magnificent #animals. We will head for the ultimate disaster” @georgecmcgavin @BBC #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife
Measuring success according to GDP and economic growth is no longer a sensible plan at all
We are very smart animals, but we cannot see that there are limits to growth. Pollution run-off in an RSPO member palm oil plantation in Sumatra. Craig Jones Wildlife PhotographyImages: BBC, Craig Jones Wildlife Photography.
Politicians focus on short term solutions rather than long-term repercussions of what they are doing now
These law-makers and politicians know it all already. They just can’t bring themselves to do anything about it. They should be being proactive, but instead they are being reactive.
The bottom line is, the people in charge and also the majority of people out there, do not value the natural world enough – we love to take from it, but we do not give anything back. This has been the case for the past century since the industrial revolution and now we are going to reap the absolutely devastating storm.
The ecological and climate threat is now bigger than anything that humans have ever faced in history
This cannot be emphasised enough. For politicians, it’s bigger than they can imagine. What will it take before we realise that we face a really huge existential threat? Politicians, industry lobby groups and the media need to stop being complicit in the greenwashing, focusing on ‘feel good fluff’ and ignoring of what is going on in our world. All of us need to stop burying our head in the sand and look, really look at what is going on. Yes it’s terrifying, but it’s reality.
“No western economy wants to jump in first to intervene. No country wants their economy to take the hit first.
“The fact is that the entire global economy will take a massive hit very soon, if we do not do something quickly.”
Jo Frederiks is a passionate animal rights advocate, speaking through her art to create awareness and inspire change to a vegan way of life. She is a full-time practising artist, exposing the well-hidden plight of animals we enslave, exploit and needlessly use for food, clothing, entertainment and research. Working in varying mediums, Frederiks favours graphite and oil paint. She has previously studied at The Arts Academy in Brisbane, graduating with Honours.
She has had many solo, joint, and group exhibitions throughout the years, and her work is in private collections in numerous countries across the world. Her drawings are sensitive, exquisite and beautifully detailed, portraying the unique character of each individual being.
Frederiks grew up on a million-acre cattle station in central Queensland, Australia. It was this environment that not only nurtured her connection to nonhuman animals but highlighted their immense vulnerability at the hands of humankind.
Jo Frederiks @JoFrederiks is a passionate animal rights advocate and vegan #artivist from #Australia making provocative and haunting #art about animals endangered by meat #agriculture See more #art on my website #Boycott4Wildlife
Applications for our Ottawa-based investigative reporter role close Feb 28 at 5 pm EST. Sound like you? Know someone? We are a nonprofit newsroom focused on public interest journalism. The role pays $73,500 - $85,600 a year. Apply now.
Dan Bongino, the right-wing podcast host tapped by FBI Director Kash Patel to serve as deputy director of the agency, has a history of downplaying white supremacist extremism, the violence committed by Trump supporters at the U.S. Capitol on Jan.
Barbara Crane Navarro is a French-American artist, writer, Indigenous and animal activist who lives near Paris. From 1968 to 1973 she studied at Rhode Island School of Design, then she went on to study at the San Francisco Art Institute in San Francisco, California, for a BFA.
Her work over many decades has been informed and inspired by time spent with indigenous communities. She took various study trips devoted to the exploration of techniques and natural pigments of different indigenous communities including the Dogon of Mali, West Africa, and the Yanomami communities in Venezuela and Brazil.
Over many years, during the winters, she studied the techniques of traditional Bogolan painting. Hand woven fabric is dyed with boiled bark from the Wolo tree or crushed leaves from other trees, then painted with mud from the Niger river which oxidizes in contact with the dye. Through the Dogon and the Yanomami, her interest in the multiplicity of techniques and supports for aesthetic expression influenced her artistic practice.
Her voyages to the Amazon Rainforest have informed several series of paintings created while living among the Yanomami. The support used is roughly woven canvas prepared with acrylic medium then textured with a mixture of sand from the river bank and lava. This supple canvas is then rolled and transported on expeditions into the forest. These are then painted using a mixture of acrylic colors and Achiote and Genipap, the vegetal pigments used by the Yanomami for their ritual body paintings and on practical and shamanic implements. Barbara is deeply concerned about the ongoing devastation of the Amazon Rainforest and this has inspired many of her films, installation projects and children’s books.
Palm Oil Detectives is honoured to interview to Barbara Crane Navarro about her fascinating work, indigenous activism, the devastation of deforestation and land-grabbing from gold mining on the Indigenous Yanomami people
2. By following the #BoycottGold4Yanomami hashtag on Twitter and share out other people’s tweets
My name is Barbara Crane Navarro, I’ve dedicated my life to helping the #Yanomami people of #Venezuela and #Brazil, I’m an Artist, Writer, Indigenous Activist here is my story. #BoycottGold4Yanomami @BarbaraNavarro
In #Venezuela and #Brazil’s Amazon rainforest I’ve seen the destruction of forests and rivers for #gold #mining worsen every year. If you want to help stop this evil industry, you should #BoycottGold4Yanomami @BarbaraNavarro
Did you know that #gold #mining poisons rivers kills all animals and trees and gives local indigenous people brain damage? This is why you should NOT buy gold for #Christmas #Valentine’s Day. Instead #BoycottGold4Yanomami @BarbaraNavarro
Did you know #gold #mining in the #Amazon is run by drug cartels that enslave indigenous #Yanomami? Gold is ‘washed’ and sold as a luxury #jewellery by @Bulgariofficial @Cartier @chopard and others. #BoycottGold4Yanomami @BarbaraNavarro
“I wrote Rainforest Magic, children’s stories about Yanomami children Namowë and Meromi to honour the Yanomami families I love and to raise awareness of the disappearing Amazon” #BoycottGold4Yanomami @BarbaraNavarro
#Yanomami children as young as 12 are forced into prostitution for illegal miners that take over their rainforest home for gold mining. Fight back against this with your wallet and refuse to buy gold! #BoycottGold4Yanomami @BarbaraNavarro
“When you cut down the trees, you assault the spirits of our ancestors. When you dig for minerals you impale the heart of the Earth” Cacique Raoni Metuktire Illegal gold mining is why we #BoycottGold4Yanomami #Boycott4Wildlife @BarbaraNavarro @ScarpullaA barbara-navarro.com/2020/06/27…
“In the Venezuelan and Brazilian Amazon, I witnessed the destruction of nature from deforestation and gold mining worsen as I returned year after year”
Barbara Crane Navarro
The Yanomami communities I spent time with were very worried about this situation and the shamans worked to fight against it, but this has been in vain so far.
Since my birth, I was always an artist and spent my childhood drawing and painting
I want to understand why people in indigenous societies spend so much time and effort creating art and with such an incredible variety of supports and substances.
“Since 2005, I’ve created a performance and film project: Fire Sculpture, to bring urgent attention to rainforest destruction. And to protest against the continuing destruction of the Yanomami’s territory. I’ve publicly set fire to my totemic sculptures. These burning sculptures symbolise the degradation of nature and the annihilation of indigenous cultures that depend on the forest for their survival.”
~ Barbara Crane Navarro
The idea of burning the sculptures was to make a symbolic point about how Yanomami and other indigenous communities are endangered by our consumerism which creates chaos and destruction where they live, in their ancestral home.
I wrote Amazon Rainforest Magic, two stories of Yanomami children Namowë, a Yanomami boy and Meromi, a Yanomami girl in honour of the families I know and love
Several of the Yanomami children and their families I know well are among the characters in the two books of the series.
I self-published my books with CreateSpace years ago which was subsequently bought by Amazon’s KDP. Now my books are only available on Amazon or here at my gallery near Paris, where my artwork is also available.
“Amazon Rainforest Magic” presents a world that at first might seem whimsical, where people, animals, and plants joke, conspire, and argue with each other. The serious point is that humans are no more important than any of the other creatures – all are mutually dependent, some are just more aware of it than others.
The plants and the animals, each with special knowledge, accompany the hero, Namowë, as he embarks on a life-saving quest for a cure for his ailing youngest sister. When he embarks on this exciting journey through the jungle, he has already taken a big step toward maturity.
Behind the charming artwork and story is a clear message that we humans are not separate from our environment and that to put ourselves above nature is arbitrary and ultimately counter-productive.
“I discovered that much of the Yanomami’s art is about venerating nature and the spirits of the forests, sky, water and the animals.”
~ Barbara Crane-Navarro
Tundra project/Nature Morte
The repercussions of the 2019 fires in the Amazon and Arctic regions continue to impact forests, water, the atmosphere and indigenous communities. This art is an artistic dialogue between two territories and two geomorphologies. Each have a planetary resonance.
It’s important consumers know that every shopping choice we make has repercussions on the lives of people in other parts of the world
I try to eat only local and in-season vegetables grown nearby. What I grow myself I keep as jam and conserve to eat in the winter months.
Many different indigenous communities in the nine countries of the Amazon region are devastated by gold mining with its resulting deforestation, violence against indigenous peoples, mercury poisoning and Covid-19 propagated by gold miners.
Behind the insatiable appetite for #gold is a dark secret of money laundering, illegal #mining, environmental damage and human misery. #BoycottGold4Yanomami @BarbaraNavarro
Forests and rivers are a spiritual and practical necessity for Indigenous people
However their access to food and water is removed by palm oil and soy plantations, cattle grazing and gold mining, which contaminates the water and kills the fish. Forest wildfires are happening in the Amazon due to degraded and destroyed forests and rivers.
Deforestation by fire for palm oilDeforestation by Sean Weston seanweston.co.uk
Dirty Gold War: A documentary about gold mining
The gold industry is overflowing with corruption:
If there’s a crackdown in Peru, you just smuggle the gold across the border to Chile. Or if there’s a crackdown all across Latin America, then you can simply sell your gold through the Emirates, where there are very few controls. It’s a very difficult industry to completely eliminate the opportunities for money laundering, because it’s so global and you can just keep shifting your business.
Nobody needs to use gold jewelry or watches to decorate themselves. There are so many less destructive and non-destructive options. Small elements of gold are in phones and other electronic items. We should replace them as seldom as possible.
Barbara Crane Navarro
We all need to boycott palm oil, soy, meat, exotic wood, gold and any other product of deforestation.
Indigenous peoples know that their well-being depends on healthy forests and ecosystems. They see the evidence of that truth around them every day.
Mining incursions in the Amazon jungle. Maned Three-toed Sloth Bradypus torquatusThe Dolphin and the gold miners’ boat at twilight, from my children’s book series- Amazon Rainforest Magic, the adventures of Meromi, a Yanomami girl
The future well-being of people in the West will be determined by how soon we realise that we must respect nature and not take more than we need, just as indigenous peoples do.
“If we continue to treat nature as a commodity, all the living world, including us, will suffer”
~ Barbara Crane Navarro
Every effort, even the smallest effort, is important
I can’t predict the outcome, but I believe that we have to fight every day in order to mitigate the damage we’re doing.
“I was born in 1950 and we are no longer living in the world that I knew when I was young”
I was 20 when humans began using more resources every year than the earth could replenish.
~ Barbara Crane Navarro
“It has been heart wrenching to witness the decline of nature and to grieve for what has disappeared.”
Barbara Crane Navarro
[Before] The pristine Amazon rainforest. [After] Absolute devastation following gold mining in the Yanomami territory at the border of Venezuela and Brazil.
There are many rainforest animals that I love that make the Amazon rainforest absolutely enchanting. The monkeys, pink river dolphins, giant river otters, capybaras, tapirs, macaws and so many birds and butterflies are some of my favourites.
Here are a few of the 1000’s of animals disappearing forever due to out-of-control extractive mining, palm oil and meat deforestation in the Amazon jungle
If you want to make a difference to the lives of Indigenous people in the Amazon, there are some NGOs to avoid, and others that are really making a difference…
Some NGOS such as Survival claim to be helping indigenous people are great pretenders. They spread awareness but don’t offer practical on the ground support for people like the Yanomami.
These NGOS that allegedly work for Indigenous Rights simply lobby to governments to recognise indigenous land rights. They write and talk about issues affecting Indigenous peoples without having any real, tangible impact.
APIB on the other hand are taking the Brazilian government to court! They have an emergency campaign now concerning gold mining, deforestation and Covid.
Please donate to APIB:
With the funds they will take the Brazilian government to court for this disgraceful ecocide and genocide!
Brazilian gold exporter BP Trading accounted for 10% of the country’s exports of the precious metal in 2019 and 2020, having purchased it from companies prosecuted for buying illegal gold.
Hunger for Gold in the Global North is fueling a living hell in the Global South
Hunger for gold in the Global North is fueling a living hell for Indigenous people in the Global South. Here’s reasons why you should #BoycottGold4Yanomami @barbaranavarro
Behind the insatiable appetite for #gold is a dark secret of money laundering, illegal #mining, environmental damage and human misery. #BoycottGold4Yanomami @BarbaraNavarro
Switzerland, one of the world’s biggest gold-buying nations has weak and pathetic policies for monitoring the origin of gold
The message is loud and clear: the current system to prevent the importation and refining in Switzerland of illegal gold has been found lacking. The country’s financial watchdog reports that Customs data is not sufficiently transparent to differentiate between mined gold, bank gold and recycled gold, all of which are imported under the same code (HS 710812). This absence of identification means bars of dubious origin can easily slip through the net. The report also pinpoints inadequate legislation, compounded by underwhelming penalties: at worst, a CHF 2,000 fine.
Since there is no way to measure whether any given land could feasibly produce the reported amount of gold, illegal miners can co-opt owners of illegal permits to ‘wash’ gold for a fee – estimated by the public prosecutor’s office at 10% of the value of the gold transaction
If there’s a crackdown in Peru, you just smuggle the gold across the border to Chile. Or if there’s a crackdown all across Latin America, then you can simply sell your gold through the Emirates, where there are very few controls. It’s a very difficult industry to completely eliminate the opportunities for money laundering, because it’s so global and you can just keep shifting your business.
Drug-cartel associates posing as precious-metals traders buy and mine gold in Latin America. Cocaine profits are their seed money. They sell the metal through front companies — hiding its criminal taint — to refineries in the United States and other major gold-buying nations like Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates.
Once the deal is made, the cocaine kingpins have successfully turned their dirty gold into clean cash. To the outside world, they’re not drug dealers anymore; they’re gold traders. That’s money laundering.
Mining in Indigenous territories of the Amazon is responsible for 23% of deforestation, up from 4% in 2017
“Over the past decade, illegal mining incursions — mostly small-scale gold extraction operations — have increased fivefold on Indigenous lands and threefold in other protected areas of Brazil”
“The Amazon Rainforest does not burn by itself. Behind every fire that is lit is corporate greed, like agribusiness. And behind them are the largest banks and corporations in the world. They are the ones who profit from this destruction. They profit from every centimeter of land invaded, from every tree cut and burned. In the flames, they see money.”
Venezuela’s illegitimate Maduro regime has rolled back Indigenous rights to stop Yanomami from protesting against gold mining
Venezuela’s constitution recognises its indigenous populations, yet their rights are trampled by the illegitimate Maduro criminal regime. The land is also occupied by armed Colombian groups and others working for the Maduro regime, which seeks to profit from selling the illegally mined minerals.
Far Right president Jair Bolsonaro’s racist policies in Brazil call for an increase in gold mining, palm oil and cattle grazing and the ‘integration’ of Indigenous people
More than 15% of the national territory is demarcated as indigenous land and quilombolas. Less than a million people live in these truly isolated places in Brazil, exploited and manipulated by NGOs. Let’s together integrate these citizens and value all Brazilians.
“We are experiencing an emergency to defend indigenous lives and our territories. We need the world to know this, and to do its part. Indigenous land: not an inch less. Indigenous blood: not a single drop more.”
Sex trafficking is common by women and children, as indigenous people’s traditional means of survival on the land is taken from them
The scale of sex trafficking and paedophilia around illegal gold mines in parts of Latin America is staggering. Thousands of people working there fall prey to labor exploitation by organised crime groups, simply because they have to survive. Girls as young as 12 working in the brothels and bars around illegal gold mines.
Mining regions in the rainforest have become epicenters of human trafficking, disease and environmental destruction, according to government officials and human rights investigators. Miners are forced into slavery. Prostitutes set up camps near the miners, fueling the spread of sexually transmitted infections. One human rights group found that 2,000 sex workers, 60 percent of them children, were employed in a single mining area in Peru. Meanwhile, strip mining and the indiscriminate use of mercury to ferret out gold are turning swaths of the world’s most biodiverse ecosystems into a nightmarish moonscape. In 2016, Peru declared a temporary state of emergency over widespread mercury poisoning in Madre de Dios, a jungle province rife with illegal mining. Nearly four in five adults in the area’s capital city tested positive for dangerous levels of mercury…”
Gold miners are controlled by fear of having their fingers cut off or of being executed
The illegitimate Maduro regime both controls the illegal gold mining and turns a blind eye to environmental and human rights abuses. Human Rights Watch report collected testimonials from Venezuelan gold miners. The report revealed that miners are kept under tight control by syndicates of armed criminals, such as the guerilla organisation FARC, also known as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, and the ELN, also known as the National Liberation Army. If miners or other members of the public are caught stealing they have their fingers publicly cut off or are killed.
Deadly mercury is used to extract gold out of the sludge. This poisons and kills everything in its path
Firstly, water cannons blast away river banks. After this, toxic mercury is used by miners to extract gold from the sediment. After the process, the dumping of mercury contaminates the soil and seeps into the air and water. This permanently destroys the water table, dispersing mercury 100’s of miles away, contaminating fishing stocks, animals and humans. Both people and animals in gold mining regions have high levels of mercury present in their bodies, leading to chronic illnesses and problems with brain function.
“Gold mining significantly limits the regrowth of Amazonian forests, and greatly reduces their ability to accumulate carbon. Recovery rates on abandoned mining pits and tailing ponds were among the lowest ever recorded for tropical forests, compared to recovery from agriculture and pasture.”
Venezuelan gold from Yanomami territories is laundered and ends up in global brands of jewellery and electronics
An investigation of mercury trafficking networks in the Amazon reveals how Venezuelan gold is laundered into legitimate supply chains and could end up in products made by the world’s biggest corporations.
The tainted gold leaves the refineries in glittering bars stamped with their logos, and is sold to international corporations that incorporate the precious metal in our phones, computers, cars, and other technologies.
There are more than 1 million children working in goldmines around the world. Some of this gold ends up in our mobile telephones. This is the conclusion of the study conducted by SOMO Centre for Research in recent months, which was commissioned by Stop Child Labour.
Every year, the electronics industry uses 279,000 kg of gold with a value of more than 10 billion euros. Making it the third largest buyer of gold after the jewellery industry and the financial sector. Even though nearly all electronics companies state that they do not accept child labour, they are almost doing nothing to actively eradicate child labour in goldmines.
This makes a unique and special gift for the one you love. It also does not require more mining to get the gold jewellery. This is the ONLY form of sustainable gold jewellery.
5. Fix and repair old mobile phones and laptops rather than buying new ones containing gold
This can be hard with the planned obsolescence of a lot of technology (in other words the short lifespan). However all we can do is do our best. Also you can pressure tech brands to make their goods more long-lasting and repairable and cite this as a critical reason why their industry is corrupt, greedy and needs to change.
6. Support Indigenous Rights NGOs that actually stop landgrabbing in the Amazon, Africa and elsewhere like Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB)
APIB recently successfully took the Brazilian government and Bolsonaro to court for ecocide and deforestation. Avoid supporting NGO’s that do very little other than virtue-signalling, like Survival.
Dr Setia Budhi is a senior lecturer in Anthropology and Sociology at Universitas Lambung Mangkurat. He is an indigenous advocate, forest conservationist and a research specialist in Dayak ethnography in South, Central and East Kalimantan. He completed his PhD in 2010 at UKM Malaysia under the supervision of Prof. Awang Hasmadi Awang Moeis and Prof. Ais
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Dayak Indigenous Ethnographer Dr Setia Budhi
Dr Setia Budhi: In His Own Words
Dayak Ethnographer, Senior Lecturer, Indigenous Advocate, Rainforest Conservationist in Borneo
Dr Setia Budhi is a senior lecturer in Anthropology and Sociology at Universitas Lambung Mangkurat. He is an indigenous advocate, forest conservationist and a research specialist in Dayak ethnography in South, Central and East Kalimantan. He completed his PhD in 2010 at UKM Malaysia under the supervision of Prof. Awang Hasmadi Awang Moeis and Prof. Aishah Bt Mohamed. He now serves as Head of the Sociology Department and a member of the Indonesian Anthropology Association of South Kalimantan-Indonesia.
His research relates to the Dayak people and impact of socio-cultural changes, exploitation of natural resources and modernisation on their lives. In particular, he investigates how the depletion of the forest affects the availability of food sources for Indigenous Dayak peoples.
Helmeted hornbillUlap Doyo weaving Dr Setia Budhi Rhinoceros Hornbill
‘I support the #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife because so far, all brands in the @RSPOtweets have been linked to #deforestation. We should replace those brands with ones that have nothing to do with #palmoil’ @setiabudhi18
‘So far, indigenous peoples have not benefited from the development of the palmoil industry’ Dr Setia Budhi @setiabudhi18 Dayak Ethnographer #Boycott4wildlife #Boycottpalmoil
‘#Palmoil causes the loss of forests where indigenous people obtain food via hunting and medicine. I support the #Boycott4wildlife #Boycottpalmoil movement’ @setiabudhi18 Dayak Ethnographer
I’ve been doing ethnographic field research since early 2013, by visiting several villages of the Dayak Siang, Dayak Bakumpai and Dayak Oot Danum tribes. My field research is related to the Dayak peoples. How the exploitation of natural resources, modernisation and the depleted forests affects their ability to find food.
dr setia budhi
“I wanted to know if the younger Dayak generation were still familiar with Dayak cultural life”
In particular, how the Dayak people of the Upper Barito River responded to the extinction of animal species, depletion of forests and the impact of mining and oil palm companies. Were they still connected to the ancestral tradition of using rainforest herbs for medicine? I interviewed the traditional head known as the Damang.
[Pictured] Dr Setia Budhi
“I have watched the forests here thin out and for some time, the logs in the Barito River are pulled to the river’s mouth in South Kalimantan by large timber companies, does it include Barito Pacific Timber?”
~ Dr Setia Budhi
Dayak communities make beautiful rattan and Ayaman Purun handicrafts and have been farming peatland rice for hundreds of years and fishing along the Barito river.
“The forest is where our rattan grows and propagates. If the trees in the forest are cut down, our rattan will be exhausted. If there is no rattan, we don’t know how we will make a living to make a living, our children need to go to school.
“We have a well where we keep fish. In the dry season, we take fish from the well. Now the wells where fish are stored have been evicted by oil palm plantations”
Respondents to Dr Budhi’s research.
The Barito river
This is inland from Kalimantan with dozens of different ethnicities and languages. For the journey during Ramadan in 2021, I recorded many events, one of them was the Sovereignty of Indigenous Peoples.
The Batang Garing symbol means to live in harmony with life
The Batang Garing Tree or the Tree of Life in Central Kalimantan is a symbol of collective identity, togetherness and is used in rituals by the Ngaju Dayak community. It’s also part of the spirituality of the Kaharingan religion.
Human beings are not fragments. Our deepest identity and social status is to be as one with the rhythm of nature
~ Dr Setia Budhi
Photo: Wrinkled Hornbill of Borneo by Steve Wilson. CC Licence
In the forest gaps, indigenous Dayak farmers plant rice;
If there is no rice, then there is no ceremony;
if there is no ceremony, then they lose their religion.
A Banjarese woman, grows beans, pumpkins and spinach and later sells them to buy sugar, tea and soap, She is a farmer on peatland. (ethnographic study in a peat village July 2021).
Local people are often often victims, as they defend their territory so as not to be displaced by oil palm
The expansion of oil palm has a massive impact on the lives of indigenous peoples
Before the existence of oil palm, there was almost never any conflict over land…
Since the palm oil industry expanded, in two decades there have been 345 conflicts between local people and palm oil companies in Borneo around the development and management of palm oil plantations. From an economic and individual perspective, this conflict is detrimental to local communities.
Apakah akhir dari sebuah skenario bahwa Hutan dan Masayarakat Adat di Kalimantan ini akan dijadikan tempat berwisata ? dan jikalau itu maka orang Dayak akan menjadi “transmigran” di tanahnya sendiri?
Will this be used as a tourist spot? and if so, then will the Dayaks become “transmigrants” in their own land?
The most common complaint, according to reports relate to the way the company obtained (or did not obtain) approval from local communities of land acquisition
Palm oil causes the loss of forests where indigenous people obtain food via hunting and medicine. It is the loss of sacred places that have immense cultural value for indigenous Papuans. Pollution run-off in an RSPO member palm oil plantation in Sumatra. Craig Jones Wildlife Photography“Dayak family, Central Kalimantan” by IndoMet in the Heart of Borneo is licensed under CC BY 2.0
There is an erosion of customary values of kinship and mutual cooperation, because nowadays everything is measured by money
Women don’t want their land to be sold, they know once their land is gone, their children won’t live tomorrow
I asked these students to draw what they thought of the earth. So they drew trees, houses, ricefields, mountains and the sea. Originally tweeted by Dr.Setia Budhi @BerukHutan @Ethnographer (@setiabudhi18) on August 22, 2021.
The weaving culture of women is fading and is being replaced by the cultural influence of oil palm plantations
Ulap Doyo is a weaving art by the Benuaq in Tanjung Isuy East Kalimantan. It’s called Doyo because the main ingredients are strong Doyo leaves that are woven together as a yarn. When the forest changed to palm oil, the Dayak lost their weaving culture.
Originally tweeted by Dr.Setia Budhi @BerukHutan @Ethnographer (@setiabudhi18) on August 27, 2021. Ulap Doyo weaving Dr Setia Budhi Ulap Doyo weaving Dr Setia Budhi The women have lost their forest where they take daily necessities for cultural purposes. For weaving from leaves, tree bark, rattan, bamboo and other swamp plants.
“So far, indigenous peoples have not benefited from the development of the palm oil industry”
~ Dr Setia Budhi
There was a promise by the palm oil industry to improve the lives of indigenous peoples through plasma plantations. However, in practice plasma plantations have not had a positive impact on their lives.
The expansion of industrial land in the long term overrides Indigenous land
Field studies show that in the beginning, the community benefits from the development of the oil palm industry in terms of employment, the formation of cooperatives, and plasma schemes. However, later on, once the indigenous community become aware of the threat, they do not get anything from the palm oil companies.
I don’t believe the RSPO has a positive impact on deforestation or land-grabbing
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.
Dr Setia Budhi
Environmental damage and social injustice were reasons why the global palm oil certification, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) was established. There was also a rival certificate established in Indonesia in 2009: Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO).
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.
Many methods have been tried before, yet deforestation continues to get more and more massive problem. I think brand boycotts send a very clear message to big food companies
So far, all brands that are members of the RSPO have been linked to deforestation. The important thing is, we actually replace those brands with ones that have nothing to do with palm oil.
Dr Setia Budhi
There must be a stronger way to voice the interests of indigenous peoples and the dangers of rainforest threats for them!
‘I support the #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife because so far, all brands in the @RSPOtweets have been linked to #deforestation. We should replace those brands with ones that have nothing to do with #palmoil’ @setiabudhi18
Fire and destruction of orangutan habitat in RSPO palm oil plantations in Sumatra (May 2021)
The growing demand for #PalmOil threatens Indonesia’s rainforests – with #satellite images & data @ConradinZ, @BarJack and I analysed plantations with the RSPO label to see if they hold their promise of sustainability. We looked at three common issues 👇🛰️
The problem & potential of #ecolabels in 3 images: The left concession detains fires from outside thanks to mandatory fire management. On the right concession, the fire starts within and destroys orang-utan habitats. The fire was not investigated by RPSO. #SWIR #satellite 🛰️
The rainforests of Kalimantan and Papua rank 3rd largest in the world – we are very proud of this. This region’s rainforests are decreasing by millions of hectares per year for investment purposes…
Oil palm plants need pesticides. And the effect of pesticides kills fireflies Photuris lucicrescens
We have lost the light and the story of romantic night…
When “forest” is defined solely on the basis of tree cover – this puts rainforests, animals and indigenous peoples in jeopardy
We use the word “forest” to describe a wide variety of situations
This leads to excuses for the environment being destroyed. These practices give rise to a false sense of accomplishment when the forests that are reported to cover substantial parts of the tropical landscape hardly resemble “old growth”.
A winged seed sower of the rainforest: Megabat Acerodon jubatus, a giant flying fox. Originally tweeted by Dr.Setia Budhi @BerukHutan @Ethnographer (@setiabudhi18) on August 24, 2021.
Hornbill species are present in every traditional Dayak ritual
They are a regional symbol in Balinese Dayak dances. Almost all places in Borneo, Malaysia and Brunei revere the hornbill as a special bird. Even the logo at my university where I teach is a hornbill!
As they fly around, these hornbills disperse seeds of the fruit they eat around 100 kilometres away.
There are many species of hornbill found only in Borneo
They are a regional symbol in Balinese Dayak dances. Almost all places in Borneo, Malaysia and Brunei revere the hornbill as a special bird. Even the logo at my university where I teach is a hornbill!
As they fly around, these hornbills disperse seeds of the fruit they eat around 100 kilometres away.
Hornbills are underappreciated workers and unpaid farmers helping to expand the majestic forests of Kalimantan!
I’m deeply sad that these Hornbills are likely to go extinct from deforestation
Their breeding grounds in the forest are getting thinner by the day! Hunting for hornbills is still happening despite them being declared as protected species. We should all love hornbills as forest farmers who work voluntarily and unpaid.
The Sulawesi hornbill (Rhabdotorrhinus exarhatus) is a striking and large yellow and black bird endemic to Sulawesi, Indonesia. Known for their unique vocalisations and social nature, including communal shared…
Knobbed Hornbill Rhyticeros cassidix Sulawesi, Indonesia Vulnerable Recent analysis has suggested that the Knobbed Hornbill may be declining at a rate approaching 40% over three generations based on recent…
I like seeing Proboscis monkeys because it’s a sign that the rainforest is still in a good condition
The proboscis monkey is in danger of extinction
I’m head of the proboscis monkey community on Sebuku, a small island in Southeast Kalimantan. The Proboscis Monkey Nasalis larvatus is endemic to coastal areas of rivers and mangroves. They have many names in different regions and are known as Bangkatan in Brunei.
Proboscis monkeys give birth only once per season and this gestation lasts about 166 days. Newborns have a blue face and sparse almost black fur. At the age of 3 to 4 months there is a change in colour which indicates their maturity to adulthood.
Their peat forest home is starting to narrow as the mangroves are being cut down, causing the proboscis monkey colonies to be pushed out.
The Proboscis Monkey, distinguished by their large, pendulous noses and pot-bellied appearance, is an arboreal primate endemic to the island of Borneo. Inhabiting mangrove forests, swamps, and riverine areas, they are exceptional swimmers,…
A new study has found that fragmentation of forests in Malaysian Borneo due to palm oil and mining has pressured two species of monkey (the Proboscis Monkey and Silvered Leaf Monkey/Silvery Lutung) to…
Most woodpecker species live in forests or woodland habitats, but I’ve never seen them in palm oil plantations
Woodpeckers are part of the family Picidae, that also includes the piculets, wrynecks, and sapsuckers. Members of this family are found worldwide. Originally tweeted by Dr.Setia Budhi @BerukHutan @Ethnographer (@setiabudhi18) on August 27, 2021.
It is the people who live in the tropics who will determine the fate of rainforests
Global campaigns may go a long way in slowing the rate of loss of natural tropical forests, but in the end it is the people living in the tropics who will determine the fate of these forests.
In Indonesia, a forest functions simply as a mode of investment and production
Together we can gain insights from people working in economics, geography, sociology and political science. Tropical forest conservation should remain an interdisciplinary and multi-scale endeavour.
Indonesia is rich with natural foods such as sago and tubers. However the government’s food security program: indigenous food sources continue to be destroyed.
Dr Setia Budhi
The full range of forest users must be considered in the policy-making process, which should be developed and implemented with the involvement of indigenous activists.
Cempedak Artocarpus integer is a rainforest fruit in Borneo
The supermarket should provide natural foods for indigenous peoples
Sago, cinnamon, palm sugar, and root foods. Not preservative filled, unhealthy convenience foods.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs by palm oil companies are not just about distributing rice, sugar, coffee, cooking oil, instant noodles to indigenous people
Existing CSR programs were generally conceived to centralise the community around an oil palm area, not to empower the community with cultural knowledge.
Dr Setia Budhi
Palm oil companies should instead study the knowledge and culture of local people, their local wisdom. Companies should not ignore social hierarchies. Instead they should invite indigenous peoples to sit together to build agency and autonomy in their own ways and for their own environmental and cultural priorities.
A great CSR program should empower the indigenous community to enrich their indigenous traditions
Here are some examples:
Establishing forest areas to restore important cultural functions with endemic plants.
Mobilising and educating indigenous youth to protect against the extinction of traditional medicine.
The promotion of natural forest-based jobs.
Programs that protect local people’s food so that they can obtain this from the forest and rivers, in a sustained, long-term manner.
In my observation, there are phases to conflicts between Indigenous people and palm oil companies…
The permit issued by the central government and local government often differs from the physical land area. Instead, the land on the permit overlaps with land managed by the indigenous community long before the plantation permit was issued.
This cooperation is not balanced, so the community is often disadvantaged in this agreement. The land set aside for the community for plasma plantations is also included in the Business Use Rights (Hak Guna Usaha) document.
Plasma smallholders are farmers who took part in the Plasma Transmigration Program (Perkebunan Inti Rakyat, also known as PIR-Trans), set up by the Indonesian government in 1987. Under the scheme, villagers from rural parts of Indonesia were relocated to oil palm growing areas and given two hectares of land to farm, as well as another 0.5 ha for their housing and food crops. The plasma farmers were partnered with a local company which provided employment while the land was prepared, and after four years the oil palms were ready for harvesting. The plasma farmers agree to sell their produce to the company at a price set by the government.
Oil palm companies are often not strategic in their development of plasma plantations. Commonly these are located far from farmers’ homes making them hard to access. The plasma plantation will have inappropriate and less fertile land with poor seedlings and a small number of plants set aside for plasma plantations.
As consumers, we can all do our part to help keep the forests standing
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
Gaveau, DLA, Locatelli, B, Salim, MA, yaen, H, Pacheco, P, Sheil, D. Rise and fall of forest loss and industrial plantations in Borneo (2000-2017). Conservation Letters. 2019; 12:e12622. doi.org/10.1111/conl.12622
Join the #Boycott4Wildlife on supermarket brands causing palm oil deforestation
Plasma smallholder farmers are able to harvest sustainable palm oil plantations under the & Asian Agri partnership scheme for villagers from rural parts of Indonesia
In this story, Craig uses his own words to bear witness to the awesome love and intelligence of orangutans, and also shares stories of the immense suffering of orangutans and other species within RSPO member palm oil plantations. Craig is an absolute inspiration to photographers, animal lovers and conservationists. It is an honour to showcase his work and stories on Palm Oil Detectives.
“The most beautiful rainforest in the world is turned into a souless landscape of palm oil within weeks, with brutal efficiency. Anything in its way gets crushed, killed and discarded.” #Wildlife #photographer Craig Jones @CraigJones17 #Boycott4Wildlife
“That scream I can still hear now, the tone went through me, the pitch could have broken a glass, it was so high and shocking to hear.“ @CraigJones17 recalls rescuing a mum and baby #orangutan from an @RSPOtweets #palmoil plantation
“Sustainable palm oil is a con. #Palmoil is all about #wealth and it’s killing us and the planet. So mother nature will have the last laugh. It’s all corruption. #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife” #Wildlife photographer @CraigJones17
“I kept hearing from locals that the government fails to protect national parks and #endangered species. The same government hands out #palmoil licences letting these companies play god” #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife @CraigJones17
“Those with a vested interest in sustainable #palmoil are linked in some way. How can anyone say sustainable is OK when it is grow in the ashes of the dead wildlife and burnt forests?” #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife” #Wildlife photographer @CraigJones17
Nature saved me really. That’s behind everything I do. I’ve seen bad things in life and nature has always been there…
When I see animals in stress or danger, I have learned that I can turn my passion into a positive and use my heart and camera to capture what I see. This is despite shocking scenes I have witnessed in my career, with the many examples of sheer and pointless human cruelty.
Craig jones
Respect and care for wildlife was instilled in me by my late mother
[Pictured] Craig Jones as a boy in his aviary, in the garden of his mother’s home
“My love of wildlife started at a young age. My mum took me to the nearby woods where wildlife was as a small child. My mum taught me about the circle of life and where my food was from. She taught me to always to respect wildlife and listen to the woods, listen to nature and nature will give up her secrets.” Craig Jones Wildlife Photography – Virgin and untouched rainforest in Sumatra From those early days, I spent so much time being at one with nature, close to and watching, hidden from view on the off chance I would see a certain animal.
[Pictured] Puffins locked in an embrace. Craig Jones Wildlife Photography
I have learned how to get close to wildlife without disturbing animals and their world. In doing so, I can understand the animal better and give them complete respect. I have gained many skills by observing animals and their behaviour. This gives me a private window into their private lives.
The word conservation means many things to many different people
The courageous team from HOCRU led by Panut Hadisiswoy, rescue orangutans daily from RSPO palm oil plantations and illegally destroyed forests in Sumatra. Craig Jones Wildlife Photography For me, conservation means to simply to care, love and protect wildlife. I use my camera as an extension of myself to capture what I see and express this in my photography, with minimal intervention and great respect for wildlife.
Combining conservation and photography can be very powerful. This can move people to such a degree that change can and does happen!
craig jones
Early on in my career, I learned the power of an image. This moved me, and I was sure this would move viewers too. I try to help all animals with my images. I tell the stories behind the pictures, where and how they live.
The best camera is a person’s heart. This is then reflected through their eyes and the result is the photography
If you want to get into wildlife photography, be honest with yourself and nature when you are behind the camera. Don’t cut corners and always remember you are a guest in the animal’s world.
Watch and learn about wildlife and the species you wish to photograph. Don’t look for the perfect shot, because there isn’t such a thing really.
The perfect shot drives photographers to try and achieve this, often at the cost of the animals’ wellbeing and peace.
Become part of the environment, learn about fieldcraft, ethics and always respect nature. I have a saying, “what you give to nature, you get back” and this often is reflected in my work. Work with your heart on your sleeve and always be honest with nature and yourself with your work.
I love every single creature and species of the natural world. I find everything fascinating. Every individual animal is going about their own lives around us, often unnoticed and in clear view ~ Craig Jones
For my 8th Birthday I was given a book called “Animal World”. On the cover is tiger and to the side is an Orangutan. I’ve still got this book, which is signed inside by my late mum. As a child I was amazed by these animals. Without my knowing, this book started my life-long love and fascination for these two species.
Craig Jones Wildlife Photography – Animal World, the book that Craig Jones received from his mother which got him interested in wildlife conservation as a young boy.
Despite the shocking scenes I have witnessed, I am able to switch from the heart to my head and capture the true essence of the things I have seen
Craig Jones
When I see animals in stress of danger, I am able to turn that passion into a positive and use my heart and camera to photograph what I see. Craig Jones Wildlife Photography. Craig sits devastated after seeing the destruction of Sumatra’s rainforests Craig Jones Wildlife Photography. A female orangutan at dawn in Sumatra Craig Jones Wildlife Photography – A Sumatran Orangutan on the verge of death is saved from an RSPO “sustainable” palm oil plantation This wasn’t planned, it wasn’t taught, it comes from that true and powerful love for wildlife I had from a small child
I witnessed so much in Sumatra, it has been an emotional roller coaster with so many ups and downs, looking into an orangutan’s eyes and seeing yourself has filled me with so much joy, and at the same time sorrow. I have loved these enduring animals since childhood and now as an adult helping them is a blessing for me.
I try and show not only the beauty of the natural world, but also the suffering. My hope with my own contribution to conservation is to give all wildlife a true and meaningful voice around the world.
Although I had to walk away from these animals, I want my photos to be a visual reminder that these beautiful creatures will never be forgotten. Their plight wasn’t ignored
Orangutans are us and we are them in so many ways. Their peaceful mannerisms and intelligence is just remarkable
I feel there is so much we still don’t know about these great apes. For as long as I walk this earth, I will do my best to help them. Along with every other creature we share this planet with, using my camera and my own voice.
Orangutans are us and we are them in so many ways…
I’ve climbed trees in the rainforest. I’ve slept rough and washed in rainwater to be close to these amazing animals. I’ve seen their beauty, their spirit and my work I hope gives them a voice, and in turn I truly hope their voices will be heard.
Craig Jones Wildlife Photography – A Sumatran Orangutan on the verge of death is saved from an RSPO “sustainable” palm oil plantationCraig Jones Wildlife Photography – Sumatran Orangutan babyCraig Jones Wildlife Photography – Sumatran OrangutanSumatran orangutan close up. Craig Jones Wildlife PhotographyCraig Jones Wildlife Photography – Sumatran Orangutan mother and baby This baby orangutan was named Craig after we rescued him from the RSPO member palm oil plantation – Craig Jones Wildlife Photography Orangutan baby named Craig, rescued from an RSPO certified palm oil plantation in Sumatra. By Craig Jones Wildlife PhotographyFemale orangutan at dawn in the Sumatran jungle – Craig Jones Wildlife Photography
Without direct intervention in National Parks, orangutans along with all other forest-dependant species like the Sumatran Tigers and Sumatran Elephants will become progressively scarcer until their populations are no longer viable.
Craig jones
I have seen things during my time in Sumatra that have upset and angered me
Craig Jones
[Pictured] A forest is destroyed in so-called “protected” parts of Indonesia, first for timber, then for palm oil by palm oil companies that are granted permits by the government despite clear ecocide.
The fringes of protected rainforest habitat are slowly being eroded away with small to large de-forestation and illegal logging and forest clearance. This goes unchecked, as parts of the protected rainforest is lost each year and is shrinking at an alarming rate. There is no enforcement of regulations.
Long term initiatives like reducing corruption, massive changes in management regimes, institutional change, monitoring illegal wildlife trade and prosecuting criminal behaviour will take a long time to halt the immediate crisis.
Logging companies use bribes and are better armed and equipped than most rangers who protect the animals…
At last count when I visited there were 2,155 field rangers for a 108,000km square area. They have no access to helicopters, airplanes, arms or military patrolling skills that would enable them to prevent illegal activity.
If the rangers had the necessary training, communication, transport and arms then they’d be better placed to protect and prevent these illegal acts against the protected forests. HOCRU which stands for Human-Orangutan Conflict Response Unit are a brave group of wildlife rangers who go out every day attempting to save animals on so-called “sustainable” palm oil plantations and “protected” forests that have been destroyed. HOCRU – Brave wildlife rangers attempting to save animals on so-called “sustainable” palm oil plantationsThe courageous team from HOCRU who rescue orangutans daily from RSPO palm oil plantations and illegally destroyed forests in Sumatra. Craig Jones Wildlife Photography The courageous team from HOCRU who rescue orangutans daily from RSPO palm oil plantations and illegally destroyed forests in Sumatra. Craig Jones Wildlife Photography
Reducing the rate of deforestation over Indonesia as a whole will also have a dramatic impact on the regional carbon dioxide emissions and thus help to prevent dangerous levels of global climate change.
If the logging of national parks continues unchallenged it could under-mine the protected area concept worldwide.
Palm oil companies play god and play with fire in Sumatra…
Rainforest is quickly changed to dead land throughout the world by palm oil.
“One of the main things I kept hearing from locals was that the government fails to protect national parks, areas that contain so many endangered flagship species of wildlife. The same government that hands out licensees to palm oil companies letting them play god with some of the richest forests on earth.”
“Sustainable palm oil is a con. Palm oil is all about wealth and it’s killing us and the planet. So mother nature will have the last laugh. It’s all corruption. Those with a vested interest in this sustainable nonsense are linked in someway you mark my words because how could anyone say sustainable is OK when it’s grow in the ashes of the dead wildlife and burnt forests. This saddens me”. ~ Craig Jones
My recommendations on how you can help…
Craig Jones’ photography features on a billboard in London for the Spotlight on Sumatra exhibition. Craig Jones gives public talks to raises awareness of the plight of orangutans and other animals in Sumatra and he advocates for better, ethical wildlife photography that does not harm animals.
Consume less stuff overall and stop buying products containing palm oil, so this lowers demand
Move away from cheap food, cheap clothing and products that we really don’t need that have a hand in the destruction of the rainforests.
Although the world is highly complex, every person can make a difference. That previous sentence almost sounds like a cliche right? Really it’s not. If every person on the planet made a few simple lifestyle changes, it would result in less demand on land and resources and soften the impact of deforestation on endangered species.…
Look beyond so-called “sustainable” labels for palm oil and other commodities and you will see the lies, greenwashing and corruption inherent within them
Products that destroy the environment should come with a warning label on the side, like for cigarettes. Brands should pay a levy for rainforest destruction and give something back to offset their environmental impact.
The root problem is our bad food choices and what we put into our mouths
Once we’ve made ourselves sick with palm oil-ridden junk food, drug companies pick up where the junk food left off. People then become reliant on medical interventions to keep them alive. I try to cook and eat fresh. This way I remove the majority of palm oil out of my shopping basket. There are also many companies providing toiletries without palm oil, so just shop around for palm oil free products.
We should go back to eating “fresh” and avoiding junk food, as this will help the planet but also our own health
When I was young, I always and home-cooked food. Junk food was expensive and so my mum brought fresh and cooked fresh. Nowadays, junk food has become normal and not many can cook from fresh. This is a tragedy and we need to change this.
Bio: Craig Jones One of Britain’s finest wildlife photographers, Craig Jones is also one of the most humble and down-to-earth guys you will ever meet. His photography and stories capture the lives of endangered rainforest animals that we hold so dearly to our hearts: Sumatran orangutans, Sumatran tigers, Sumatran elephants, Siamangs and more. His work has featured in BBC News, BBC Wildlife Magazine and National Geographic magazine. He has also appeared for Nat Geo WILD discussing Sumatra as part of the “Paradise Islands & Photo Ark” Nat Geo series. He has spoken at the UK Green Party Conference about the…
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
In this my third and last blog from my trip to Sumatra I will show you and go through a day I will never forget for as long as I walk this earth. These images have been held back until now due to national coverage over the last several days.
The U.S. military transported 17 new immigrant detainees to the Guantánamo Bay military base on Sunday, just before efforts to jail an anticipated 30,000 immigrants in tent camps at the base were halted over concerns the makeshift facilities don’t me…
A documentary describing how PM Orban's family became so wealthy attracts millions of viewers in Hungary.
'The Dynasty' effectively traces how those close to the Hungarian prime minister have become miraculously wealthy alongside his political career for at least 15 years.
Donald Trump Allegedly Recruited by the KGB in 1987 Under Codename ‘Krasnov’ – Claims Former Soviet Spy Chief
A former senior Soviet intelligence officer has made a bombshell claim: Donald Trump was recruited as a KGB asset in 1987 under the codename “Krasnov.” According to Alnur Mussayev, who once led Kazakhstan’s National Security Committee (the successor to the KGB), Trump was targeted by Soviet intelligence due to his status as a prominent businessman.
Mussayev, who posted the claim on Facebook, alleges that his own KGB division was responsible for recruiting Trump during his visit to Moscow that year. His claims align with previous allegations from other former Soviet intelligence officers, including Oleg Kalugin and Yuri Shvets, who assert that Trump was cultivated by the KGB for years. Reports have long suggested that Soviet intelligence used flattery, business deals, and potential kompromat to bring him into their orbit.
The allegations deepen an already complex history of Trump’s ties to Russia, raising further q
... show more
Donald Trump Allegedly Recruited by the KGB in 1987 Under Codename ‘Krasnov’ – Claims Former Soviet Spy Chief
A former senior Soviet intelligence officer has made a bombshell claim: Donald Trump was recruited as a KGB asset in 1987 under the codename “Krasnov.” According to Alnur Mussayev, who once led Kazakhstan’s National Security Committee (the successor to the KGB), Trump was targeted by Soviet intelligence due to his status as a prominent businessman.
Mussayev, who posted the claim on Facebook, alleges that his own KGB division was responsible for recruiting Trump during his visit to Moscow that year. His claims align with previous allegations from other former Soviet intelligence officers, including Oleg Kalugin and Yuri Shvets, who assert that Trump was cultivated by the KGB for years. Reports have long suggested that Soviet intelligence used flattery, business deals, and potential kompromat to bring him into their orbit.
The allegations deepen an already complex history of Trump’s ties to Russia, raising further questions about the nature of his political rise and foreign entanglements.
by Nafeez Ahmed and Zarina Zabrisky 21 February 2025 | BylineTimes (bylinetimes.com)
About Byline Times: Byline Times is an independent, reader-funded investigative newspaper committed to exposing stories that mainstream media often overlook. Free from corporate influence, it relies on subscribers to support fearless journalism that challenges power. If you value in-depth investigative reporting, consider subscribing to the Byline Times.
Palm Oil Lobbyists Getting Caught Lying Orangutan Land Trust and Agropalma
For decades, investigative journalists have been exposing that illegal land grabbing from Indigenous peoples as a regular occurrence in West Papua, South and Central America, Africa and Asia.
Indigenous people’s land is being forcibly (and often violently) taken from them by predatory palm oil companies. Major supermarket brands and also palm oil producers that are RSPO members are involved in this illegal land-grabbing.
The ‘certified sustainable’ label of the RSPO is absolutely meaningless given that this is going on.
The @RSPOtweets and #palmoil lobbyists have lied and denied the illegal #landgra
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Palm Oil Lobbyists Getting Caught Lying Orangutan Land Trust and Agropalma
For decades, investigative journalists have been exposing that illegal land grabbing from Indigenous peoples as a regular occurrence in West Papua, South and Central America, Africa and Asia.
Indigenous people’s land is being forcibly (and often violently) taken from them by predatory palm oil companies. Major supermarket brands and also palm oil producers that are RSPO members are involved in this illegal land-grabbing.
The ‘certified sustainable’ label of the RSPO is absolutely meaningless given that this is going on.
RSPO member, NGO Orangutan Land Trust is the main shill on social media pushing greenwashing misinformation about “sustainable” palm oil to unaware consumers.
For decades, they have consistently pushed the lie of “sustainable” palm oil as being the saviour for rainforests, indigenous people and rare, endangered animals. Their greenwashing occurs despite a continuous stream of research papers and reports from many different sources showing that “sustainable” palm oil is a complete lie. Over almost 20 years, the following crimes continue to occur by RSPO members:
The lies are perpetuated by three main accounts: Michelle Desilets, Jane Griffiths and Bart Van Assen. They are supported by various other accounts associated with Zoos sponsored by big food companies like Ferrero and also fake accounts that they set up themselves in an effort to astroturf about “sustainable” palm oil.
Major international brands sourcing palm oil from Brazilian plantations linked to violence, torture and land fraud
Two Brazilian palm oil giants in particular, Brasil Biofuels (BBF) and Agropalma, are embroiled in long-standing conflict with local communities. BBF are accused of waging violent campaigns to silence Indigenous and traditional communities defending their ancestral lands, while Agropalma is linked to fraudulent land grabs and stranding or evicting communities. Both companies have acquired these lands to grow profitable palm crops, apparently at the expense of communities’ constitutional rights.
Global supermarket brands Ferrero, ADM, Bunge, Cargill, Danone, Ferrero, Hershey’s, Kellogg, Mondelez, Nestlé, PepsiCo, Unilever and many others source palm oil from Agropalma and BBF.
These supermarket brands along with Agropalma and BBF claim to use “sustainable” palm oil from the RSPO.
Agropalma states that its corporate policies forbid actions inhibiting legal and regular activities of Human Rights Defenders, while maintaining Agropalma’s right to protect its employees and its assets. Agropalma denies using violent actions against the communities and individuals in this report, and states that there are no land claims by Indigenous people overlapping with Agropalma lands.
Major international brands – ADM, Bunge, Cargill, Danone, Ferrero, Hershey’s, Kellogg, Mondelez, Nestlé, PepsiCo, Unilever and others – continue to purchase palm oil from BBF and/or Agropalma despite the situation in Pará, contributing to the violations of Indigenous and traditional peoples’ rights. Companies’ responses are included below. RSPO members sourcing palm oil from Agropalma and BBF
A litany of abuses
Global Witness received information of continued abuses in late April 2022 and early July 2022, attributed to armed men alleged to be working on behalf of BBF.
Groups of armed men have blockaded multiple roads around Indigenous, Quilombola and riverine territories.
Armed men have been stopping and searching cars and people on motorcycles saying they are ‘on the hunt’ for Indigenous and Quilombola leaders.
Armed men have tortured detained members of an Indigenous community by spilling burning plastic over their backs.
Armed men have shot and injured at least one Indigenous community member; several have been made to lie down, humiliated and had shots fired near their heads.
Armed men forced a Quilombola man and a teenager who were working on their crops to lay on the floor, firing shots next to their heads, causing both serious hearing problems.
Daily and nightly, community members are stopped, questioned and humiliated by BBF employees and/or security men.
Greenwashing ecocide – Agropalma & Orangutan Land Trust
“We benefit in no way whatsoever from the sale of palm oil. Not sure where this nonsense idea stems from.”
Orangutan Land Trust’s Michelle Desilets on the 18th of September, 2023
Michelle Desilets of Orangutan Land Trust with yet another lie about not profiting from palm oil, despite receiving funds from serial Amazon destroyer Agropalma for decades. Original tweet
Orangutan Land Trust receives funding from 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 Between 2015 -2020, Agropalma were assessed by the RSPO’s Complaints Panel for human rights abuses. This panel includes Orangutan Land Trust’s Executive Director Michelle Desilets as a decision maker.
RSPO case In 2020, the RSPO ruled in favour of Agropalma and against the human rights defenders and closed the case. Read letter
In March 2023, Mongabay and Rainforest Rescue reported that Agropalma’s RSPO membership had been temporarily suspended due to Mongabay and Global Witness’s reporting on these human rights abuses
Two months after this in May 2023, the South American conference for RSPO featured Agropalma’s logo emblazoned on the stage and promoted Agropalma as being “sustainable” despite countless concurrent news reports of their human rights abuses and landgrabbing Two months after this in May 2023, the South American conference for RSPO featured Agropalma’s logo emblazoned on the stage and promoted Agropalma as being “sustainable” despite countless concurrent news reports of their human rights abuses and landgrabbing twitter.com/afgarciaazuero/sta…
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.
What journalists, whistle-blowers and human rights defenders say
A 2021 Investigation by Global Witness found that palm oil companies in Papua New Guinea are alleged to have been involved in corruption, child labour, tax evasion, deforestation, worker deaths and paying police to assault villagers.
The palm oil from these mills in Papua New Guinea is used by RSPO members Colgate-Palmolive, Kelloggs, General Mills, Nestle, Hersheys, Danone, PZ Cussons – finds its way into our weekly supermarket shop.
Research: Certifying commodities does not advance equity or income for workers
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…
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.
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.
This finds that beauty brands (RSPO members) L’Oreal, Colgate-Palmolive, Johnson& Johnson, Unilever are linked to rape on palm oil plantations via palm oil company Musim Mas
twitter.com/dwnews/status/1329… Associated Press Investigation (2020) finds wide-spread rape, human rights abuses and slavery on palm oil plantations for well known brands: Unilever, Johnson & Johnson, L’Oreal, Avon, Colgate Palmolive
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.”
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
Oil palm expansion is shaped by wider political economies and development policies.
Market-based development policies have favored large-scale over smallholder production.
Benefits from oil palm are unevenly distributed across rural population.
Violence across forest frontiers has fueled conflicts linked to oil palm.
Weak forest governance has led to significant deforestation by industrial plantations.
A. Castellanos-Navarrete, F. de Castro, P. Pacheco, The impact of oil palm on rural livelihoods and tropical forest landscapes in Latin America, Journal of Rural Studies, Volume 81, 2021, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2020.10.047.
Reports: human rights and land rights violations, violence and indigenous land-grabbing by RSPO members
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
Discussion Paper. The Centre for Economic Performance, London School of Economics. Release date: 12th March, 2022
This paper provides novel granular evidence on the interaction between the Ebola epidemic, deforestation, and palm oil plantations in Liberia. The palm oil multinationals, exploiting the health crisis, stepped up deforestation to increase output. The effect on deforestation is more severe in areas inhabited by politically unrepresented ethnic groups, characterized by a reduction in tree coverage by 6.5%.
We also document an increase of more than 125% in the likelihood of fire events within concessions during the epidemic. This suggests that not only did the palm oil companies foster deforestation, but further that they used forest fires to do so. This is particularly harmful to the environment, and the smoke and the haze may have severe health consequences, apart from being a source of carbon dioxide.
This deforestation was accompanied by a 150% increase in the amount of land dedicated to cultivation. This exploitative behaviour was highly profitable for palm oil companies, with a 1428% increase in the value of Liberian palm oil’s exports compared with the pre-Ebola period. Unfortunately, we cannot say the same for local people or the local environment.
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.
Verisk Maplecroft: 2021 ESG Analysis of palm oil land-grabbing
Key insight: Palm oil is ranked highest risk for land grabs in Indonesia. The country produces more than half the world’s palm oil and #landgrabbing is on the rise there. There were 241 land conflicts across Indonesia in 2020, 10 times the amount of 2008
“There is a clear link between land grabs and the loss of natural capital: clean air and water, pollinating insects, and soil quality. Both land grabs and natural capital degradation are influenced by poverty, corruption and weak rule of law”
Orangutan Land Trust has been funded and associated with many past and present deforesters in the palm oil industry including PO companies: Agropalma, New Britain Palm Oil and Kulim Malaysia Berhad. Michelle, Bart and Jane maintain that they “volunteer” for their NGO.
The RSPO was set up 17 years ago by the WWF along with global palm oil companies themselves in order to monitor and regulate their own actions and to supposedly stop deforestation and ecocide.
RSPO members include the world’s biggest food companies: Nestle, Unilever, Cargill, L’Oreal, Danone, Kelloggs, Pepsi, Coca Cola, Mondelez, Johnson & Johnson, PZ Cussons, Ferrero and more. Since it was created in 2004, these RSPO members have been embroiled in greenwashing, corruption, illegal land-grabbing from indigenous peoples, the killing of wildlife, human rights abuses and 100,000’s of hectares of deforestation. Yet these members faced no expulsion from the RSPO and they faced no punishment at all for their actions, despite this going against the rules of the RSPO. The corruption and greenwashing of this industry knows no bounds!
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)
These brands have products that contain palm oil sourced from mills that are responsible for the destruction of precious habitats of endangered species. Just in 2020 alone,…
The RSPO is a global certification scheme for palm oil that certifies palm oil as ‘sustainable’. Yet this word means absolutely nothing, as RSPO members – the…
Although the world is highly complex, every person can make a difference. That previous sentence almost sounds like a cliche right? Really it’s not. If every person…
The RSPO is a global certification scheme for palm oil that certifies palm oil as ‘sustainable’. Yet this word means absolutely nothing, as RSPO members – the…
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
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.
For decades, Indonesia has been blighted by some of the highest levels of deforestation on earth. It also provides more than half the world’s palm oil. The two things are directly related.
In 2022, 71 environmental and human rights groups from around the world wrote to the EU Commission to warn that certification schemes and ecolabels were not sufficient to prevent human rights abuses and deforestation from entering the European Union. Thankfully in 2023 this has come to pass.
Fast forward to 2023, in the UK, industry lobbyists including Ferrero and serial greenwashing outfit Orangutan Land Trust have watered down the UK’s commitment to not importing deforestation into the UK. The new trade deal with Malaysia paves the way for mass importation of palm oil ecocide.
Signatories: 71 environmental and human rights NGOs
Considering the shortcomings of certification schemes that the European Commission itself has documented, we are deeply troubled by the current arguments coming from industry players advocating for a stronger role for certification in the regulation, including a way for companies to use these systems as proof of compliance with binding EU rules. Below are ten reasons why this should not happen.
1. Certification is not designed to achieve the main objective of the regulation – preventing deforestationand other harms
The EC’s own Commission Staff Working Document Impact Assessment (hereafter EC Impact Assessment) concludes that “the consensus is that [voluntary certification] schemes on their own have not been able to provide the changes needed to prevent deforestation”. This is the position defended by the European Parliament and by most NGOs. Certification schemes do not have a deforestation standard, or the standard does not meet the deforestation definition as proposed in the anti-deforestation regulation. For example, because companies are allowed to clear forests to establish plantations and remediate or compensate with conservation elsewhere. 1. Certification is not designed to achieve the main objective of the regulation – preventing deforestation and other harms Numerous studies conducted by WWF, FSCWatch, and Greenpeace and academic studies on Indonesia, have additionally concluded that certification on its own has not helped companies meet their commitments to exclude deforestation from their supply chains.
This led some actors such as WWF to lose faith in certification scheme Roundtable of Responsible Soy (RTRS), not only due to limited uptake, but more specifically, because in biomes where soy is produced, zero-deforestation commitments have so far failed to reduce deforestation. In support of this finding, the Dutch supermarket industry representative (CBL) stated that RTRS “has not appeared to be sufficient to halt [deforestation and conversion] developments and accelerate the transition to a sustainable soy chain”.
“Certification (or verification) schemes may, in some cases, contribute to achieving compliance with the due diligence requirement, however the use of certification does not automatically imply compliance with due diligence obligations. There is abundant literature on certification schemes shortcomings in terms of governance, transparency, clarity of standards, and reliability of monitoring systems”.
2. Certification does not provide the information needed to comply with the EU regulation
It does not create transparency of the supply chain or provide information on the geographical origin
As indicated in Article 8 of the Proposal, “because deforestation is linked to land-use change, monitoring requires a precise link between the commodity or product placed on or exported from the EU market and the plot of land where it was grown or raised.” Most certification schemes, however, require only a minimal level of traceability and transparency. 2. Certification does not provide the information needed to comply with the EU regulation As indicated in the EC’s Study On Certification And Verification Schemes In The Forest Sector, schemes make use of Chain of Custody (CoC) models, but very few apply a traceability system, making it difficult to track the claims of certification, from the forest to the end buyer. One of the most common CoC models used is Mass Balance. This model allows uncertified and untraceable supplies to be physically mixed with certified supplies and end up in EU supply chains. For the most part, certification schemes do not include the systematic ability to verify transactions of volumes, species, and qualities between entities, thus leaving the systems vulnerable to manipulation and fraud.
3. Certification does not provide guarantees for the legality of the product
Certification schemes do not have the authority to confirm or enforce compliance with national laws precisely because they are voluntary.
Article 3 in the proposed anti-deforestation regulation states that products are prohibited on the European market if they are not “produced in accordance with the relevant legislation of the country of production”. 3. Certification does not provide guarantees for the legality of the product
However, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), for example, has explicitly stated its standards are voluntary and “do not extend to enforcing or confirming the legal standing of a company’s use of land (which is a mandate only held by the national authority)”.
4. Certification does not identify or prevent harms. Audit teams lack time and expertise
According to the EC “labour, environmental and human rights laws will need to be taken into account when assessing compliance” and identifying harms. However, multiple reports by Friends of the Earth Netherlands, the Environmental Investigation Agency, and ECCHR, reveal that auditing firms responsible for checking compliance are fundamentally failing to identify and mitigate unsustainable practices within certification schemes due to lack of time and lack of expertise. Proper audits on social and human rights issues require extensive consultation to gain full community perspectives on land use, conflicts, or environmental harm. Certification Body (CB) procedures do not allow for this (due to financial resources).
RSPO’s own analysis reads that “the credibility of the RSPO certification scheme has been consistently undermined by documentation of poor practice, and concerns of the extent to which the Assurance System is being implemented”.
Oppressed and stretched NGO groups and communities in the global South spend time and resources on these consultation processes. They face backlash for speaking out during consultations without any guarantee that their input is included in the certification assessment. The EU should not become complicit in exploitation of rightsholders and stakeholders in their monitoring role.
5. Certification bodies and their auditors are not independent from the company they certify
The lack of independent audits, considered to be key in ensuring the robustness of certification, was highlighted in the EC Impact Assessment as a key weakness of private certification schemes.
If clients (businesses) hire, supervise, and pay audit firms, they are exposed to a structural risk of conflict of interest, which may lead to a lower level of control.
Previous studies by Friends of the Earth, IUCN, RAN, and Environmental Investigation Agency have shown that, for example in the palm oil industry, when auditors and certification companies are directly hired by an audited company, independence is inhibited and the risk of violations increases.
5. Certification bodies and their auditors are not independent from the company they certify Also, auditor dependence on company services such as transport and accommodation is problematic. The EC adds to this that these systems are sensitive to fraud given that certified companies may easily mislead their auditors even if the audit is conducted with the greatest care and according to all procedures.
“For example, a company may be selling products containing a volume of “certified” timber material that exceeds the volume of certified raw material that they are buying.”
6. Prevention of environmental and social harm cannot be outsourced, particularly because certification bodies are not liable for harms in the plantations they certify
The EU anti-deforestation regulation requires that operators shall exercise due diligence prior to placing relevant commodities on the Union market. Private certification may, in some cases, facilitate compliance with this requirement.
However, as reiterated by German human rights law firm ECCHR the control of compliance is outsourced to private certification bodies, in an unregulated audit and certification market, where CBs are not liable for potential harm.
This leads to inability to distinguish unreliable audits from reliable ones and to competition without rules, setting in motion a ‘race to the bottom’. Certification initiatives have increasingly received complaints for lack of proper due diligence.
For instance, the UK OECD National Contact Point has recently found that Bonsucro breached the Guidelines in relation to due diligence and leverage when reaccepting MPG-T as a member, and the Netherlands NCP handled a complaint about ING’s due diligence policies and practices regarding palm oil.
6. Prevention of environmental and social harm cannot be outsourced, particularly because certification bodies are not liable for harms in the plantations they certify The OECD guidelines confirm that certification is not a proxy for due diligence, as well as various governments. As echoed by the EC Impact Assessment, “maintaining operators’ responsibility for correctly implementing due diligence obligations when they use certification, aims at ensuring that authorities remain empowered to monitor and sanction incompliant behaviour, as the reliability of those [certification] systems has repeatedly been challenged by evidence on the ground.”
7. Certification cannot guarantee Free, Prior and Informed Consent or prevent land grabbing of indigenous land
Indigenous Peoples and local communities have a recognised role in preserving the lands they own and manage, but insecure land tenure is a major driver of deforestation and forest degradation.
Certification bodies commit to investigating whether lands are subject to customary rights of indigenous peoples and whether land transfers have been developed with Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC).
However, assessing whether land user rights and consultation rights were respected needs to consider the historical context, a multi-actor perspective and deep understanding of local conflicts. Considering the apparent low level of knowledge of auditors on human rights and legal issues, assessing prior land use and conflicts is an impossible task for a team of international auditors with limited time. 7. Certification cannot guarantee Free, Prior and Informed Consent or prevent land grabbing of indigenous land In Malaysia communities are often not consulted before the issuance of the logging licences. MTCS certified concessions encroach on indigenous territories while the judiciary recognised indigenous customary land rights are a form of property rights protected by the Federal Constitution.
Additionally, certification schemes failed on numerous occasions to address complaints by communities whose land was taken by palm oil companies, including the case of oil palm giant Sime Darby in Indonesia and Socfin in Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone. Certification will not lead to redress or resolution of problems linked to EU operators.
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…
Critics have argued that improving the image of forest and ecosystem risk commodities stimulates demand. Certification risks enabling destructive businesses to continue operating as usual and expand their practices, thereby increasing the harm.
“If certification on its own is unable to guarantee that commodity production is entirely free of deforestation or human rights abuses, there is little to suggest that using certification as a tool for proving compliance with legal requirements could solve the issues in supply chains and fulfil the legislation’s objectives. 8. Certification provides opportunities for greenwashing and increases vested interests in and corporate power over natural resources.
In this context, recognising a particular certification scheme as a proof of compliance removes any incentive to improve the scheme or to replace it with a more reliable alternative, effectively contributing to the institutionalisation of greenwashing.”
For example, a number of recent logging industry scandals suggest that the Forest Stewardship Council label has at times served merely to “greenwash” or “launder” trafficking in illegal timber, compelling NGOs to demand systemic change. The difference between certified and non-certified plantations in South East Asia was not significant.
9. Certification promotes the expansion of industrial agriculture and thereby prevents the transition needed to halt deforestation
This prevents the transition towards community-based forest management and agro-ecology, with food sovereignty as a leading principle
There are multiple drivers of deforestation, but the evidence is clear in pointing to industrial agricultural expansion as one of the most important. Ultimately, certification initiatives fail to challenge the ideology underpinning the continuation of industrial commodity crop production, and can instead serve to greenwash further agro-commodity expansion.
Corporations, along with their certifications, continue to seek legitimacy through a ‘feed the world’ narrative.
9. Certification promotes the expansion of industrial agriculture and thereby prevents the transition needed to halt deforestation The “expansion is the only way”argument has long since been discredited by international institutions such as FAO; we produce enough to feed the projected world populations, much of this coming from small-scale peasant producers using a fraction of the resources. Moreover, as smallholders are directly impacted by deforestation and often depend on large operators and are hereby forced to expand agricultural land and degrading their direct environment, they are therefore an essential part of the solution.
10. Certification directs resources towards a million-dollar certification industry
While community and smallholder forest and agriculture management are extremely underfunded.
As explained by the EC Impact Assessment, private certification can be a costly process and resources spent to certify operations and to support the various schemes’ managerial structures could be used for other ends. Considering that smallholders represent a large share of producers in the relevant sectors, they also represent a crucial part of the solution to deforestation.
The EU should stop financing and promoting improvements in a certification system, benefiting industrial forest and plantation companies, that has been proven to fail.
It would be a more effective use of public and private resources to pay smallholders adequately for their products and adhere to their calls if they seek technical or financial support. 10. Certification directs resources towards a million-dollar certification industry To conclude, building on these arguments, we foresee that if decision makers give in to the lobby from industry and certification’s role is reconsidered or promoted in the current proposal, the EU anti-deforestation regulation will not deliver, as it will not only lose its potential to provide information needed to comply with the regulation but lose its ability to curb deforestation and forest degradation all together.
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.
Friends of Earth Malaysia is an independent non-profit that works towards environmental justice through sustainability of natural resources and communities.
Over the years, Dr Ssuna has received many awards for animal welfare, and veterinary practice including:
The William Wilberforce Award in 2012.
The Africa Animal Advocate Award by Humane Society International (HSI) in 2014.
Special Recognition for Outstanding Leadership for Ngamba Island in 2018.
World Animal Day Ambassador for Malawi.
Along with a veterinary degree, Dr Ssuna holds a Masters of Science in Wild Animal Health (Royal Veterinary College, University of London) and a Masters of International Animal Welfare Ethics & Law (Royal School of Veterinary Studies, University of Edinburgh).
Dr Ssuna is an absolute inspiration to animal lovers and conservationists all over the world. It is an honour to showcase his work and stories on Palm Oil Detectives.
‘Foreign #palmoil companies (RSPO members) have claimed the Kalangala Islands, Uganda for #palmoil. The locals have lost their food sources. I support the #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife’ #Wildlife and #Pet Vet @RichardSsuna
“In my view product certifications like @RSPOtweets when their operations adversely affect people, they are designed to cover-up an already messed-up industry.” #Wildlife #vet @RichardSsuna #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife
‘Please support All Creatures Animal Welfare Trust so we can help domestic and wild animals’ #wildlife and #pet #vet @RichardSsuna of @africacreatures #Boycott4Wildlife
Chimps are very curious and they pay attention to detail
This is how it all started many years ago! Here I am examining one of the baby chimps at a sanctuary. Did you know that chimps appreciate veterinary care? Via Dr Richard Ssuna on Twitter
The beauty with being a wildlife-vet, is that you get to treat all sorts of animals
I used to be the Field Programs Officer and Veterinarian for the Jane Goodall Institute
This project was located in the richly forested areas of Bushenyi (Kalinzu) Hoima (Bulindi, Kitooba, Kaisotonya), Masindi and Kibaale (Kanyanchu).
dr richard ssuna
My organisation All Creatures Animal Welfare helps to keep animals and communities safe…
All Creatures was initially set up in Lilongwe in Malawi in 2016, we now have new sites in Lesotho and Uganda
We specialise in:
Mass rabies vaccinations: Rabies is a critical public health concern in Africa and has severe animal welfare and human health consequences.
Animal kindness education: We teach in schools and communities about the connection between animal welfare, environmental protection and human wellbeing.
Community Veterinary Services: Our free vet services including spaying and neutering, surgery and wildlife interventions.
Saving animals from disasters: Animals are often forgotten in natural disasters and pandemics and we are well equipped to save distressed and abandoned animals.
Animal Rescue Centre: We have a shelter in Lilongwe and care for abandoned and neglected dogs and other animals.
“We have successfully vaccinated 75% of all dogs against rabies in Mzuzu, and vaccinated and sterilised more than 80% dogs in Chintenche, Northern Malawi.”
When Malawi was hit with floods in 2019, we rescued, treated and vaccinated many animals
“We have rescued and treated many different species wildlife, for example: Vervet Monkeys, Bush Babies, Common Duikers and Olive Baboons.”
Dr Ssuna helping an injured bush baby.
All Creatures Animal Welfare Trust was set up to care not only for domestic pets, but wildlife too…
This has unfortunately been difficult to implement due to funding and the insurmountable challenges of animal welfare issues for domestic animals. You can help us to help more animals by donating…
I helped to rescue baby chimps who have lost their mothers to traps laid by cocoa farmers in Kitooba
Chimpanzee Pan troglodytesDr Ssuna helps some chimp orphans
I’ve seen first-hand the poaching of baby chimps and the destruction of chimp habitat for cocoa while I was working at The Jane Goodall Institute
~ Dr Richard Ssuna
Indiscriminate traps were usually intended for bush pigs and yellow baboons and laid by local farmers. They are a common affliction to wild chimp populations in West Uganda. The chimps use private forest patches as movement corridors to access their natural habitats. This below was Masindi, 20 years ago! Originally tweeted by Richard Ssuna (@RichardSsuna) on August 12, 2021.
The other culprit was British American Tobacco
They invested heavily in communities and tobacco farmers planted on deforested forest patches! Both activities adversely affected chimps, as their travel routes through community forests were cut off and some small unviable groups were isolated in small forest fragments.
Globally, deforestation of equatorial forests for palm oil has affected carbon sinks and has resulted in more global warming
~ Dr Richard Ssuna
Kalangala Islands, Uganda
“Foreign companies and RSPO members have claimed the land for palm oil. The local inhabitants of the island suffered from the brute destruction of the island’s forests and their loss of livelihood and food sources.
The Kalangala Islands are a renowned birders destination. Now, with forest destruction, this pristine bird-haven has been adversely affected and destabilised. All in the interest of a few greedy businessmen!
~ Dr Richard Ssuna
[Before] Forested area in Uganda, PxFuel. [After] Fire on a palm oil plantation, Greenpeace.
The global impact of palm oil on various facets of our lives is immoral
Palm oil is driven primarily by greed and profit at the expense of both mankind, the animal kingdom and our planet.
Before the bulldozers came, Magdalena Nakamya harvested coffee, cassava, avocado and jackfruit on her three-hectare (seven-acre) plot on Kalangala, an island in Lake Victoria.
But on a July morning in 2011, Nakamya, 64, awoke to find yellow machines churning up her land and razing the crops she had grown in a bid to make way for palm oil plantations.
“No one came to talk to me before they destroyed my crops,” says Nakamya. “I heard that some people were given money, but I didn’t receive anything.”
In my view all or most product certifications especially whose operations adversely affect people, are designed to cover-up an already messed-up palm oil industry.
Dr Richard Ssuna
“In my view product certifications like @RSPOtweets when their operations adversely affect people, they are designed to cover-up an already messed-up industry.” #Wildlife #vet @RichardSsuna #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife
The political will of governments – provided they are not compromised by kickbacks or other financial interests from global brands, provides the best opportunity to address this problem of deforestation for food, at least on a national level.
“In a real sense, the public has been hoodwinked into believing that a palm oil certification equates to a more sustainable product and as result, companies fetch even more cash for it”
In ten years there will be no more African animals. All gone. Extinct. The window for transformation of our food system is closing rapidly!
Four things consumers can do to stop deforestation for food ingredients…
1. Raise awareness of brands that are using greenwashing to sell products and are destroying the environment and causing tropical deforestation or emptying our oceans.
2. Consume alternative products, made locally and not coming from deforestation.
3. Publicly condemn these brands causing deforestation, whenever and wherever there is a platform, with family and friends and even on social media.
4. Make reference to this issue and to the #Boycott4Wildlife movement, whenever any adverse climatic changes are suffered as a result of deforestation for food.
Please support All Creatures Animal Welfare Trust so we can help domestic and wild animals
We have faced insurmountable challenges in recent years. Your donation will support us to help more animals
As palm oil production ramps up in Africa, communities work to avoid problems plaguing other regions
For many, palm oil has become synonymous with environmental devastation in Southeast Asia. Can palm oil production in Africa follow a more sustainable path forward?
March 26, 2019 — For many consumers, palm oil has become synonymous with environmental devastation in Southeast Asia. The industry has brought mass deforestation to the region, shrunk orangutan habitat beyond recognition and compromised local livelihoods. Indonesia, in the process, rose to become the third-largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), a partnership between stakeholders in the palm oil industry, such as producers, retailers and NGOs, was created over a decade ago to make the industry more environmentally and socially responsible. It helped, but critics argue the industry is still a long way from sustainable.
Meanwhile, the palm oil industry has grown in other parts of the globe. Latin America, for example, has seen an uptick in palm production. And over the past decade or so, large-scale palm oil production has expanded into West and Central Africa. While some people have welcomed this in hopes it will bring economic opportunity, a number of communities are trying to resist — either the presence of the industry itself or the way individual companies operate in their countries. How these efforts play out could determine whether the industry can find a way to be more sustainable in Africa, and also the fate of communities across the continent, not to mention that of nonhuman primates.
“Palm oil companies will not just displace [people in affected communities], but their culture, their history, their value, their traditional institutions, will all be completely altered,” says Alfred Brownell, founder of the Liberian lawyers network Green Advocates and currently a distinguished scholar in residence at Northeastern University School of Law in Boston. He lives in the U.S. in exile out of fear for his life, after he says he was threatened by private security guards protecting land being cleared of sacred sites to make way for palm oil development in Liberia. But he has represented indigenous communities in Liberia’s Sinoe County, where residents say that since the palm oil company Golden Veroleum Liberia (GVL) arrived in 2010, crops have been destroyed, shrines desecrated, burial grounds and grave sites denigrated, rivers diverted or dammed, and precious wetland areas polluted.
“It was a fertile ground for growing vegetables and other food staples to complement our local food basket,” Brownell wrote in a letter to RSPO on behalf of residents. “All of these are no more. All of the swamps within our communities have been filled in to make way for oil palm.”
Liberia is home to the largest remaining tract of West Africa’s Upper Guinean forest, which has some of the richest biodiversity in the world. In addition to wetlands and farmland that communities depend on, the forest is threatened by expanding palm oil production, among other commercial activities. If it disappears, Brownell says, so too does the spiritual connection that many indigenous communities have with it. “That’s why we took this complaint before the roundtable,” he says.
Rising Demand, Growing Industry
Palm oil production continues to grow steadily throughout the world. “Production has been doubling worldwide every 10 years during the past 40 years,” says Thomas Mielke, CEO of the market analysis firm Oil World. “Palm oil has become the most important vegetable oil worldwide.”
That’s because it’s cheap, and there are more uses for it all the time. It’s in all kinds of packaged food, from crackers to ice cream to instant noodles, and the rapidly growing consumption of processed foods globally is a big reason for the exploding demand. It’s also used in soap and cosmetics, in biodiesel, and as a mineral oil replacement. And because it is a very productive crop, impacts on land use could be even greater if the world were to try to replace palm with a different vegetable oil.
In Africa, an estimated 3 million hectares (almost 7.5 million acres) of land “traditionally used or inhabited by local communities,” covering both forest and farmland, have been acquired by palm oil companies, according to Devlin Kuyek, a researcher with GRAIN, a nonprofit that supports small farmers. That’s in line with reporting from The Economist in 2014, when the magazine reported, “In the past decade, politicians in west Africa and countries of the Congo basin have leased out around 1.8m hectares [4.5 million acres] of land for palm-oil plantations, according to Hardman, a London-based research company. Another 1.4m hectares [3.5 million acres] is being sought. Foreign companies sniffing around include groups such as Wilmar, Olam, Sime Darby, Golden Veroleum and Equatorial Palm Oil.” Meanwhile, pointing to statistics from the nonprofit Proforest, The Guardian reported in 2016 that “[a]s much as 22m hectares (54m acres) of land in west and central Africa could be converted to palm plantations over the next five years.”
While exact numbers on future large-scale expansion are difficult to predict, the industry is undoubtedly growing. “Despite having little plantation area currently, some countries in Latin America and Africa experienced greater percent growth during [2003–13] than did either Indonesia or Malaysia,” researchers wrote in PLOS One in 2016. “If these growth rates continue, oil palm plantation expansion in these countries will likely have increased impacts.”
Toward Sustainability
From Liberia to the Democratic Republic of Congo, a battle has been emerging in recent years over where and how palm oil should be developed. There are concerns about impacts on local water supplies, wildlife populations, biodiversity and climate change. But the heart of the matter, what’s making communities speak out en masse, is control over land. To expand their palm oil production, a number of companies have relied on what critics describe as land grabs.
Communities aren’t opposed to growing oil palm. Unlike in Indonesia and Latin America, oil palm is native to West Africa, and an important traditional crop with a variety of uses. But in the past it has grown wild or been integrated into fields with other crops. The large global producers rely on monoculture plantations.
The RSPO was established in 2004 to create environmental and social standards for the palm oil industry. A number of environmentalists and human rights groups, however, have criticized it as ineffective or not effective enough. One study that evaluated a set of sustainability metrics on palm oil plantations in Indonesia found no difference between plantations that were RSPO-certified and those that were not. Another found that certification was sometimes associated with lower rates of deforestation, but many plantations were in areas where much of the forest had already been destroyed.
“Brands that use palm oil, meanwhile, use the certification to assure customers that the ingredient is sustainable. They talk a great talk, but they’re all basing their sourcing on RSPO certification, though, that all the negative attention to the RSPO has prompted some improvements. There’s some teeth to the mechanism now, which I don’t think was the case a couple years ago. But it’s definitely not a panacea. There’s still a lot of loopholes, and I think it does provide a veneer of credibility.”
In Africa, the very certification that’s supposed to ensure sustainability is actually responsible for communities losing more land than what will even be used for production, according to Kuyek. The RSPO, he says, incentivizes companies to include more land in their contracts than they will convert to plantations, so they can say they are setting aside a certain amount for protection. “In a kind of sinister way,” he says, “it actually encourages a larger land grab.” Asked if he sees any validity to the land protection statute along the lines of ecological conservation, Kuyek wrote in an email, “I’m afraid I don’t. There can be no meaningful programme for ecological conservation embedded in a fundamentally, destructive model of plantation agriculture.”
More than 100 organizations from five continents signed on to this open statement from Friends of the Earth International and the World Rainforest Movement,
Brandi Morin in #Ecuador: A #Canadian #mining giant vs. the guardians of the #Amazon. Around the world, mining operations have deepened #poverty in #Indigenous communities & destroyed traditional livelihoods, leaving #environmental devastation in their wake.
Canada and Ecuador just signed a free trade deal touting human rights, even as a major mining project threatens to bulldoze through Indigenous communities
Shameless self-promotion alert 🙂. We’re proud to say we’ve won two gold medals from the Canadian Online Publishing Awards — the largest of its kind in Canada! Our reporter Zak Vescera and CTV won for Best Investigative Article. And, we got top spot for Continuing Coverage for our procurement database and stories. Read the details here.
Image: Barbara Crane Navarro
Mining regions in the rainforest have become epicenters of human trafficking, disease and environmental destruction, according to government officials and human rights investigators. Miners are forced into slavery. Prostitutes set up camps near the miners, fueling the spread of sexually transmitted infections. One human rights group found that 2,000 sex workers, 60 percent of them children, were employed in a single mining area in Peru. Meanwhile, strip mining and the indiscriminate use of mercury to ferret out gold are turning swaths of the world’s most biodiverse ecosystems into a nightmarish moonscape. In 2016, Peru declared a temporary state of emergency over widespread mercury poisoning in Madre de Dios, a jungle province rife with illegal mining. Nearly four in five adults in the area’s capital city tested positive for dangerous levels of mercury…”A typical mining site. Even five years after the mine has closed, there is still barely any vegetation. Michelle Kalamandeen, Author provided
Craig Jones Wildlife Photography – Virgin and untouched rainforest in Sumatra
The courageous team from HOCRU led by Panut Hadisiswoy, rescue orangutans daily from RSPO palm oil plantations and illegally destroyed forests in Sumatra. Craig Jones Wildlife Photography
Craig Jones Wildlife Photography – Animal World, the book that Craig Jones received from his mother which got him interested in wildlife conservation as a young boy.
Despite the shocking scenes I have witnessed, I am able to switch from the heart to my head and capture the true essence of the things I have seenCraig Jones Wildlife Photography. Craig sits devastated after seeing the destruction of Sumatra’s rainforests
Craig Jones Wildlife Photography. A female orangutan at dawn in Sumatra
Craig Jones Wildlife Photography – A Sumatran Orangutan on the verge of death is saved from an RSPO “sustainable” palm oil plantation
Craig Jones Wildlife Photography – A Sumatran Orangutan on the verge of death is saved from an RSPO “sustainable” palm oil plantation
Craig Jones Wildlife Photography – Sumatran Orangutan baby
Craig Jones Wildlife Photography – Sumatran Orangutan
Sumatran orangutan close up. Craig Jones Wildlife Photography
Craig Jones Wildlife Photography – Sumatran Orangutan mother and baby
This baby orangutan was named Craig after we rescued him from the RSPO member palm oil plantation – Craig Jones Wildlife Photography
Orangutan baby named Craig, rescued from an RSPO certified palm oil plantation in Sumatra. By Craig Jones Wildlife Photography
Female orangutan at dawn in the Sumatran jungle – Craig Jones Wildlife Photography
Without direct intervention in National Parks, orangutans along with all other forest-dependant species like the Sumatran Tigers and Sumatran Elephants will become progressively scarcer until their populations are no longer viable.HOCRU – Brave wildlife rangers attempting to save animals on so-called “sustainable” palm oil plantations
The courageous team from HOCRU who rescue orangutans daily from RSPO palm oil plantations and illegally destroyed forests in Sumatra. Craig Jones Wildlife Photography
Craig Jones’ photography features on a billboard in London for the Spotlight on Sumatra exhibition.
Craig Jones gives public talks to raises awareness of the plight of orangutans and other animals in Sumatra and he advocates for better, ethical wildlife photography that does not harm animals.
Signatories: 71 environmental and human rights NGOs
1. Certification is not designed to achieve the main objective of the regulation – preventing deforestation and other harms
2. Certification does not provide the information needed to comply with the EU regulation
3. Certification does not provide guarantees for the legality of the product
However, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), for example, has explicitly stated its standards are voluntary and “do not extend to enforcing or confirming the legal standing of a company’s use of land (which is a mandate only held by the national authority)”.5. Certification bodies and their auditors are not independent from the company they certify
6. Prevention of environmental and social harm cannot be outsourced, particularly because certification bodies are not liable for harms in the plantations they certify
7. Certification cannot guarantee Free, Prior and Informed Consent or prevent land grabbing of indigenous land
8. Certification provides opportunities for greenwashing and increases vested interests in and corporate power over natural resources.
In this context, recognising a particular certification scheme as a proof of compliance removes any incentive to improve the scheme or to replace it with a more reliable alternative, effectively contributing to the institutionalisation of greenwashing.”9. Certification promotes the expansion of industrial agriculture and thereby prevents the transition needed to halt deforestation
10. Certification directs resources towards a million-dollar certification industry
