"Israel’s Foreign Ministry announced on Tuesday that the government is to launch a "media war room" to target Palestine content online, in the latest attempt to propagate pro-Israel narratives on internet platforms."
Israel is scared. Despite millions of dollars in #lobbying, buying media, #politicians and #SocialMedia, the truth is coming out. Millions of #activists around the world expose the crimes of #Israel to people of the world.
Pollution de l'eau : les labos pharmaceutiques refusent de payer
Efpia fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/F%C3%A9d… a saisi la justice européenne pour contester la directive qui vise à améliorer le traitement des eaux usées avant leur rejet dans la nature. 20min.ch/fr/story/europe-les-l… L'EFPIA avait poussé l'UE à obtenir des exemptions qui protégeraient ses membres des poursuites en cas de problèmes avec de nouveaux vaccins contre le coronavirus.
L’Efpia conteste devant la justice européenne la directive qui impose aux industries pharmaceutiques et cosmétiques de financer 80% des surcoûts liés à l’élimination des micropolluants.
More evidence of who exactly Rachel Reeves is listening to, when (re)formulating policies.... and if I tell you its investment firm Blackstone's CEO, who made representations about NonDoms interests right before the 'crack down' on NonDoms was softened, would you be shocked? Sadly, its all too predictable.
No doubt he'll have been whispering to her about those benefits scroungers & disabled people robbing the benefits system, too
Rachel Reeves softened non-dom plans after concerns from Blackstone CEO
#Reeves changed #Labour's position on #non-doms weeks after 1 of world’s most largest #financiers asked her personally not to increase taxes on super rich
Info released under Freedom of Information Act show Stephen Schwarzman, CEO of leading asset manager #Blackstone, raised concerns with Reeves about plans to reform tax treatment of #non-domiciled individuals
Rachel Reeves softened non-dom plans after ‘concerns’ from Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman
Rachel #Reeves changed the #Labour government’s position on non-doms weeks after one of the world’s most powerful financiers asked her personally not to increase the tax burden on the super rich.
Documents released to #openDemocracy under the Freedom of Information Act reveal Stephen Schwarzman, the CEO of leading asset manager #Blackstone, raised “concerns” with Reeves about her plans to reform the tax treatment of non-domiciled individuals at a meeting in Downing Street in December.
[Article] Ces lobbyistes qui attendent Richard Ferrand au Conseil constitutionnel
Les cabinets de conseils, avocats et autres agents d’influence ont pris l’habitude de draguer les Sages pour leur faire censurer des articles de loi. Une pression qu’aura à gérer le nouveau président de l’institution… lui-même reconverti dans le… blast-info.fr/articles/2025/ce… #Justice #Lobbying #Politique
A very good reel on how laws are passed in the #eu Understanding this is absolutely crucial if you want to grasp who can influence policy processes - and when. In my classes I usually devote an entire session to explain how this works. So @thegreenmonki did a great job explaining this process quickly!
1,528 likes, 59 comments - thegreenmonki on March 4, 2025: "You might feel completely lost when you think about how the EU and how it works. And that’s totally normal.
"Epidémiologistes et oncologues s’intéressent à d’autres paramètres qui pourraient favoriser la carcinogenèse, comme certains additifs alimentaires (dioxyde de titane, glutamate monosodique) ou encore l’exposition dans l’enfance ou pendant la grossesse à certaines substances, comme les antibiotiques, qui peuvent modifier le microbiote. D’autres produits sont soupçonnés de perturber ce dernier, comme les pesticides, les microplastiques, les perturbateurs endocriniens ou encore les polluants atmosphériques, mais les données manquent" #agroindustrie #lobbying #santepublique #CriminelsenColBlanc
"La consommation d’alcool et de tabac, le surpoids, l’obésité, un manque d’activité physique, des régimes alimentaires pauvres en fibres, en calcium et/ou riches en viande rouge, qui sont les facteurs de risque connus de la maladie, jouent probablement un rôle" #carnisme #lobbying #agroindustrie #grandedistribution #santepublique Le Monde – Les chiffres préoccupants des cancers chez les moins de 50 ans lemonde.fr/sciences/article/20…
Le nombre de nouveaux cas de cancers d’apparition précoce a, dans le monde, bondi de près de 80 % en moins de trente ans. La tendance est la même en France. Cette hausse concerne en premier lieu les tumeurs digestives et du sein.
EU lawmakers try to counter tech bros’ Washington lobbying.
European Union politicians who helped shape the bloc’s crackdown on Big Tech are trying to sway United States policymakers who've been listening to tech bros like X’s Elon Musk and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg.
What we currently see: companies often claim to have "company #values". With the current situation we see, this is all a lie. The only values they have is to bow to the #politics and then #lobbying the politics into their favor. Every word in regards to values, believes are "flexible"...
“The BBC has announced that it has ‘no plans’ to restore to its iPlayer platform the documentary on the struggle faced by Gaza’s children under Israel’s genocide that it deleted last week under pressure from the Israeli embassy and UK Israel lobby.” – Skwawkbox
Alberta hired more U.S. lobbyists than other provinces, feds since 2000: data Since 2000, Alberta has hired more U.S. lobbyists than any other province, or even the federal government, according to U.S. regulatory data. But how effective is that approach as a way to influence policy south of the border? #politics #economy #lobbying #Alberta #US #News cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/al…
Dekleva is now at the #EPA in a crucial job: She…has the authority to approve new #chemicals…. Earlier she spent 32yrs at Dupont, the chemical maker, before joining…the first #Trump admin.
Her most recent employer, the chemicals #lobbying group, has made reversing the EPA’s course on #formaldehyde a priority & is pushing to abolish a program under which the agency assess the #risks of chemicals to human #health.
#Formaldehyde, the #chemical of choice for undertakers & embalmers, is also used in products like furniture & clothes. But it can also cause #cancer & severe #respiratory problems. So, in 2021, the #EPA began a new effort to #regulate it. The #chemicals industry fought back w/an intensity that astonished even seasoned ofcls. Its campaign was led by Lynn Dekleva, then a lobbyist at the American Chemistry Council, an #industry group that spends millions on govt #lobbying. #PublicHealth #law #USpol
Today one of the Commission’s flagship projects, the ‘Clean Industrial Deal’ (CID) is published. The deal breaks with past ambitions on chemicals, and deepens the EU’s commitment to false solutions to the climate disaster.
PalmWatch: A Tool to Hold Palm Oil Greenwashers to Account
A groundbreaking open-source tool by the University of Chicago called PalmWatch, shines a light on the darkest parts of the palm oil industry.
PalmWatch is a free web-based tool that reveals links between major multinational brands using supposedly “sustainable” palm oil, and palm oil supply chain. This means that concerned consumers, animal rights advocates and human rights advocates can clearly see the toll of palm oil ecocide in their daily supermarket purchases.
Covering hundreds of thousands of kilometres, PalmWatch gives everyone open-source, free and unprecedented access to what “sustainable” palm oil really looks like.
More than simply a tool, PalmWatch is a clarion call to consumers to look carefully at their purchases. And where possible, to boycott brands causing the ecological crisis of tropical deforestation.
Help animals and indigenous peopl
... show more
PalmWatch: A Tool to Hold Palm Oil Greenwashers to Account
A groundbreaking open-source tool by the University of Chicago called PalmWatch, shines a light on the darkest parts of the palm oil industry.
PalmWatch is a free web-based tool that reveals links between major multinational brands using supposedly “sustainable” palm oil, and palm oil supply chain. This means that concerned consumers, animal rights advocates and human rights advocates can clearly see the toll of palm oil ecocide in their daily supermarket purchases.
Covering hundreds of thousands of kilometres, PalmWatch gives everyone open-source, free and unprecedented access to what “sustainable” palm oil really looks like.
More than simply a tool, PalmWatch is a clarion call to consumers to look carefully at their purchases. And where possible, to boycott brands causing the ecological crisis of tropical deforestation.
The media release below is provided by the University of Chicago and had the original title ‘PalmWatch, a new tool created by DSI’s 11th Hour Project team, sheds light on palm oil production across the globe’, published February 22nd, 2024. Read the original.
Palm oil is a required ingredient for a plethora of household products, from food items like packaged pastries and chips to cosmetics and soaps or even biofuels. But most palm oil is produced on mono-crop plantations, grown on huge tracts of land that were once tropical rainforests and other biodiverse ecosystems. Mapping the links between palm oil mills, multinational corporations, and future deforestation risk is a difficult data science problem to solve, but thanks to a partnership with Inclusive Development International (IDI), the DSI used novel methods to solve this problem.”
Mapping the links between palm oil mills, multinational corporations, and future deforestation risk is a difficult data science problem to solve, but the University of Chicago Data Science Institute and Inclusive Development International (IDI) have created a new tool to help fill gaps in understanding the problem. The DSI and the IDI, with support from the 11th Hour Project, launched a new tool called PalmWatch on Feb. 22. Using rigorous data science and advanced, low-cost data visualisation methods, PalmWatch traces palm oil supplies from the ground level, where the environmental and social impacts of palm oil cultivation occur, to the consumer brands that use the oil in their products. “This launch of the PalmWatch tool has been a long time coming,” said David Uminsky, executive director of the Data Science Institute at the University of Chicago. “This has all the hallmarks of a great data science problem.”
“I’m very excited that this dashboard will be owned by local communities and nonprofits working in the space,” said Launa Greer, a software engineer at the DSI. “Previously, investigating the effects of palm oil supply chains was a laborious process; now groups will have analytics at their fingertips.”
Connecting data sources
In an effort to increase transparency, multinational brands do currently report the palm oil mills from which they source their material. However, creating a repository that sorts and organises mills across the world requires collecting and standardising this information. And even with this information, it takes additional computational methods to understand how each mill impacts local deforestation risks. The PalmWatch project began as part of the Data Science Clinic, an experiential project-based course where students work as data scientists under the supervision of DSI staff and faculty.
To build the tool, DSI’s 11th Hour Project, led by Open Spatial Lab technical lead Dylan Halpern, first had to scrape public disclosures from thirteen multinational consumer brands that show which mills these brands source from.
This information then had to be standardised, with the palm oil mills geolocated on a searchable map. The data scientists also had to collect information about the mills, such as which companies own and operate them, which consumer brands they are affiliated with, and their RSPO certification status (a metric measuring sustainability of palm oil production).
Collecting the information was a challenge, said Greer. “Disclosures were typically located on obscure corners of the websites and difficult to scrape for information due to wildly-varying PDF layouts,” she said. “We hope that making a clean, consolidated, and machine readable dataset of mills available to the public will accelerate similar supply-chain research efforts.”
A screenshot from the PalmWatch app. Colors represent various degrees of deforestation.
Built with future-proofing in mind
Making sure that PalmWatch would be cheap to maintain and easy to update was a vital part of the process to ensure the website will continue to be a useful investigative tool. PalmWatch was built to not require heavy computation that can add up in costs to web hosts over time.
“Ongoing funding for community-centered data science projects is not always guaranteed, so it’s important to architect software that is cheap to own in the long term,” said DSI’s Open Spatial Lab technical lead Dylan Halpern. “It’s tragic to see fantastic software engineering and community-engaged data science fade away from public view due simply to a server bill.”
Full data files are available for public download. “We realised early on that palm oil production impacts each part of the world in a unique way; we integrated a collaborative content management system so that local advocates can add critical context, news, legal briefings, and other local knowledge to PalmWatch at every level—mill, country, consumer brand, and everything in between,” said Halpern.
The development team has future plans for additional updates, including a data pipeline github, a disclosure contribution guide, and plans to offer hands-on training to social impact organisations and journalists who want to dig deeper into specific data questions.
How does PalmWatch work?
PalmWatch addresses this disconnect between palm oil end users and ground-level impacts by:
Scraping public disclosures from 13 consumer brands showing which crushing mills—where crude palm oil is extracted from palm fruit grown on plantations—these brands source from globally.
Standardising that information across the brands and geolocating more than 2,000 mills on a searchable map. Detailed mill views show which consumer brands source from each mill, what companies own and operate them, and their RSPO certification status.
Drawing a catchment boundary around each mill, which shows the approximate geographical area a mill is likely sourcing palm fruit from, based on advanced data science techniques (described in more detail in the Methodology section below) and the industry’s own fruit spoilage standards.
Overlaying 20 years of deforestation data from the University of Maryland within each mill’s catchment area. PalmWatch then assigns a past deforestation score to each mill, based on the amount of forest cleared within its catchment area, along with a future deforestation risk score, based on past deforestation patterns and the amount of forest that remains at risk. This information is then connected to the brands sourcing from each mill, and can be aggregated and filtered, allowing users to see deforestation by brand, mill owner and mill corporate group.
The media release below is provided by the University of Chicago and had the original title ‘PalmWatch, a new tool created by DSI’s 11th Hour Project team, sheds light on palm oil production across the globe’, published February 22nd, 2024. Read the original.
ENDS
Read more about deforestation and ecocide in the palm oil industry
Attenborough’s long-beaked echidna (Zaglossus attenboroughi), known locally as “Payangko,” is one of the most evolutionarily distinct mammals and is native to the Cyclops Mountains in Papua, Indonesia. This critically endangered monotreme is distinguished…
Latin America is the fastest-growing producer of palm oil, but at what price for the environment and its defenders? Park rangers in Honduras tell harrowing tales of daily threats to their lives and…
Deep in the heart of the Amazon rainforest, the Nancy Ma’s night monkeys peer out of the trees during the dusk with their large, soulful eyes and striking facial markings. Also known as…
Emily is a Sussex-based illustrator with a degree in Marine Biology and an MA in Illustration. Combining her scientific background with her creative talents, she is passionate about highlighting lesser-known endangered species through…
The Maned Wolf Chrysocyon brachyurus is a captivating creature known for their “foxes on stilts” appearance and distinctive cannabis-like urine odour. Their long legs allow them to peer over the tall grass in…
Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.
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
PalmWatch is an open-access online tool that provides a uniquely comprehensive and detailed picture of global palm oil supply chains, linking global corporations to the on-the-ground impact of their palm oil consumption, including deforestation.
Attenborough’s long-beaked #echidna (Zaglossus attenboroughi), known locally as “Payangko,” is one of the most evolutionarily distinct mammals and is native to the Cyclops Mountains in Indonesian occupied #WestPapua. This critically endangered monotreme is distinguished by its unique feeding technique and smaller size compared to other long-beaked echidnas. Despite not being recorded by scientists since 1961, a recent expedition led to its rediscovery in 2023, offering renewed hope for the species. Facing threats from #hunting and habitat degradation, we must protect this elusive creature by supporting sustainable practices and community-led conservation. #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife
As the smallest member of the genus Zaglossus, the Attenborough’s long-beaked echidna is comparable in size to the short-beaked echidna. Males have spurs on their hind legs, and both sexes sport a long, narrow beak. They are solitary, coming together only once a year to mate. When threatened, they curl into a spiny ball, resembling a hedgehog.
Monotreme Lineage: One of the few egg-laying mammals, with ancestors dating back 46 million years.
Rediscovered Species: After not being recorded for over six decades, this critically endangered species was spotted through trail camera footage in 2023.
Nose Pokes: Their distinctive feeding behavior leaves behind “nose pokes” in the soil, revealing where they dig for earthworms and termites.
Threats
Long thought extinct for decades, a chance discovery of them on camera traps revealed they have survived. Yet they are critically endangered due to serious ongoing threats:
Hunting with Dogs: Local hunting practices using trained dogs to detect their burrows pose a significant threat.
Habitat Destruction: Logging for timber, palm oil agriculture, and forest conversion for gold mining make these echidnas put these animals at risk.
Hunting: Forest clearance puts them at risk for predation and hunting.
You can help them to survive when you consciously avoid and boycott products with palm oil in them and support local efforts to protect them. #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife
Habitat
This species is found exclusively in the tropical montane forests of the Cyclops Mountains in Papua, Indonesia. Their range includes lowland to montane elevations.
Diet
Their diet consists primarily of earthworms, termites, insect larvae, and ants. They use their long beaks to sniff out prey and then dig with their powerful claws, leaving behind the characteristic “nose poke” marks.
Mating and breeding
Attenborough’s long-beaked echidnas come together only once a year for mating. The female lays an egg, and the offspring remain in the mother’s pouch for around eight weeks until their spines develop. They have a long weaning period of approximately seven months.
Support Attenborough’s Long-Beaked Echidna by going vegan and boycotting palm oil in the supermarket, it’s the #Boycott4Wildlife
Support the conservation of this species
This animal has no protections in place. Read about other forgotten species here. Create art to support this forgotten animal or raise awareness about them by sharing this post and using the #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife hashtags on social media. Also you can boycott palm oil in the supermarket.
Further Information
Leary, T., Seri, L., Flannery, T., Wright, D., Hamilton, S., Helgen, K., Singadan, R., Menzies, J., Allison, A., James, R., Aplin, K., Salas, L. & Dickman, C. 2016. Zaglossus attenboroughi. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2016: e.T136322A21964353. dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.201…. Accessed on 09 May 2024.
Reuters. (2023, November 10). Species of mammal named after David Attenborough believed extinct rediscovered. The Guardian. theguardian.com/world/2023/nov…
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
A 2019 World Health Organisation (WHO) report into the palm oil industry and RSPO finds extensive greenwashing of palm oil deforestation and the murder of endangered animals (i.e. biodiversity loss)
Transparency International: Corruption of Indonesian Palm Oil
According to a May 2023 report by Transparency International, the top 50 palm oil companies in Indonesia are beset by deep problems: a lack of transparency in company ownership and who are the ultimate beneficiaries of profits, conflicts of interest, revolving-door politics, and politically exposed persons within companies.
All of the above makes the palm oil industry in Indonesia seriously susceptible to corporate capture and corruption. Don’t trust palm oil. Instead #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife every time you shop
A May 2023 report from @anticorruption shows the top 50 #palmoil companies in #Indonesia are deeply susceptible to corporate capture and #corrupt
... show more
Transparency International: Corruption of Indonesian Palm Oil
According to a May 2023 report by Transparency International, the top 50 palm oil companies in Indonesia are beset by deep problems: a lack of transparency in company ownership and who are the ultimate beneficiaries of profits, conflicts of interest, revolving-door politics, and politically exposed persons within companies.
All of the above makes the palm oil industry in Indonesia seriously susceptible to corporate capture and corruption. Don’t trust palm oil. Instead #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife every time you shop
A May 2023 report from @anticorruption shows the top 50 #palmoil companies in #Indonesia are deeply susceptible to corporate capture and #corruption. Don’t accept it. Fight back with your wallet #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife
A report into corporate capture and corruption in Indonesia’s top 50 palm oil companies originally published in Baha Indonesia by Transparency International Indonesia. This report is summarised and analysed by Mongabay journalist Hans Nicholas Jong and republished by Eco-Business on May 5, 2023. Republished below. The Transparency International report’s conclusion is also translated and published below.
“Revolving door practices and cooling-off periods are still not widely recognised in Indonesia. In fact, the trend of businesspeople sponsoring political parties and then being appointed to public office – revolving door practices – is still a well-established practice.
“Even RSPO/ISPO certification cannot guarantee that a certified company is free from illegal and unsustainable practices”
Published by anticorruption NGO Transparency International Indonesia (TII), the report evaluates the top 50 palm oil companies in Indonesia, the world’s biggest producer of palm oil. It focuses in particular on their disclosure practices with respect to their anticorruption programs, lobbying activities, company holdings, and key financial information.
This means there’s a general lack of transparency in palm oil companies’ political activities and how they can interfere with government policies, according to TII program officer Bellicia Angelica. In short, any government lobbying they carry out is done without much scrutiny and monitoring, leading to policies and regulations that are favourable to them, she said.
“This should serve as a warning for the government, the private sector and civil society to regulate the management of the palm oil industry more seriously,” Bellicia said.
The companies on six criteria on a scale of 0-10, with 0 being extremely not transparent and 10 being very transparent. The report found that, on average, the 50 companies only scored 3.5 out of 10.
Certification: Not a guarantee that a palm oil company is free from illegal practices
The report also looked at how many of the palm oil companies were certified, either under Indonesia’s mandatory palm oil certification scheme, the ISPO, or under the voluntary Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).
It found that only seven of the 50 companies have RSPO and/or ISPO certification that covers not only the parent companies, but also all their subsidiaries.Yet even RSPO/ISPO certification cannot guarantee that a certified company is free from illegal and unsustainable practices, the report said.
An assessment by Greenpeace of 100 RSPO members found that each had more than 100 hectares (250 acres) of illegal plantations inside forest areas in Indonesia, with eight of them having more than 10,000 hectares (24,700 acres).
Greenpeace also identified 252,000 hectares (623,000 acres) of ISPO-certified oil palm plantations inside forest areas, which aren’t permitted under Indonesian zoning laws.
Billionaire oligarchs control dozens of palm oil companies through opaque company structures – with great secrecy
The highest-scoring company in the report, at 7.2, is PT Sinar Mas Agro Resources and Technology (SMART), one of the palm oil arms of Indonesia’s billionaire Widjaja family, presiding over dozens of plantations and oil-processing mills across Indonesia.
Yet even SMART’s score doesn’t necessarily reflect strong anti-corruption measures, Bellicia said: Of the 50 companies, SMART has the highest number of politically exposed persons working for it, she noted.
Akhmad Kamaluddin, a plantation researcher at environmental NGO Auriga, noted that a former vice president of SMART was caught bribing a pair of provincial legislators from Central Kalimantan in 2018. The bribes were meant to head off an investigation into the alleged pollution of a lake by palm oil processing waste and pesticides.
“So it’s very ironic,” Akhmad said. “From this one case, we can see the face of the palm oil industry in Indonesia.”
Agus Purnomo, a director at SMART, said the problem of corporate corruption plagues all industries across in Indonesia, with local officials often seeing companies operating in their jurisdictions as prime targets for extortion.
“If we become an honest actor” — that is, refuse to pay bribes — “we will become an enemy of all stakeholders, from public officials to local communities,” he told Mongabay. “If there’s a rich person, it’s obligatory to pay for various things like sports and religious events, and that’s deemed normal.”
Agus said it’s this culture of permissiveness that needs to be changed, because it nurtures corruption. He added that the government, community leaders and organisation leaders should lead the change.
Before that change comes, however, companies will continue to feel like they have no option other than to comply with demands for money from stakeholders.
“People always assume that companies are evil [because] they bribe [officials] to get permits. While such cases may exist, most [companies] are afraid to say no [to extortion] because the risks are high,” Agus said. “Will you dare to say no if it’s locals who demand [money]? No, because if you do, then the road [to your company] will be blocked. If that’s the case, will you dare to clear the blockade?”
Corporate capture
We found that there are still many companies that are not transparent in informing the policies and processes of interaction between companies and public officials or politicians. This is quite worrying because political connections can lead to conflicts of interest and the impact can give excessive privileges to entrepreneurs who do business in palm oil in the form of policies, subsidies and incentives that can lead to policy capture
50% of companies do not have anticorruption commitments
In compiling their report, researchers from TII first looked at the 50 companies’ anticorruption policies.
They found that 24 of the companies, nearly half, don’t have an anticorruption commitment that applies to all staff members, including high-level board members.
The second aspect they analysed was whether the companies offered anticorruption training to staff. On this measure, they fared even worse: 46 of the companies don’t provide anticorruption training to all of their employees, including executives and directors.
Twenty-six companies don’t have whistleblower systems in place for employees to flag illegal or fraudulent activities anonymously without fear of retaliation. And even when a whistleblower channel was present, it didn’t necessarily protect whistleblowers from retaliation.
The report cited the case of PT Inti Indosawit Subur, a subsidiary of the Asian Agri group, controlled by the billionaire Tanoto family. In 2006, Asian Agri’s then-comptroller, Vincentius Amin Sutanto, was reported by the company to the police for allegedly embezzling US$3.1 million. Vincentius then revealed to the media and the country’s anticorruption agency, the KPK, that Asian Agri, had committed tax evasion from 2002 to 2005.
Despite Inti Indosawit Subur having a whistleblower system in place that should have followed up on Vincentius’s allegation, Asian Agri pressed ahead with its criminal charges against him. Vincentius was eventually convicted in court and sentenced to 11 years in prison in 2008. And in 2013, Asian Agri threatened Vincentius with a defamation lawsuit.
Asian Agri itself was in 2012 convicted of tax evasion and ordered by a court to pay US$205 million in fines.
Wilmar: Irresponsible political lobbying practices
The TII report also assessed the extent of the 50 palm oil companies’ lobbying practices. It found 41 of them lacked responsible lobbying policies or procedures. In particular, these companies don’t forbid donating to political figures.
The report also found that 49 firms, nearly all of them, don’t publish the details of their political donations.
Irresponsible lobbying practices increase the risk of corruption as there’s no transparency in the relationship between companies and policymakers, according to TII. This could result in corrupt practices like bribing policymakers in exchange for favourable policies for the companies. The report cited the case of PT Wilmar Nabati Indonesia, a subsidiary of Singapore-listed agribusiness giant Wilmar International. Master Parulian Tumanggor a member of its board, claimed he often attended government meetings that determined the allocation of money from the state palm oil fund.
The state fund, which is collected from export tariffs levied on palm oil producers for every shipment of crude palm oil that they sell abroad, is meant to be reinvested in the industry for farmer training, research and development, replanting ageing trees with newer and more productive ones, building infrastructure, and promoting palm oil.
But most of the money collected has instead gone toward palm oil-derived biodiesel, both to subsidise producers and to artificially lower the price of biodiesel at the pump, to make it more competitive with conventional diesel. Between 2015 and 2021, the fund collected 139.17 trillion rupiah (US$9.64 billion) in revenue, and handed 80 per cent of it to biodiesel producers — and less than 5 per cent to small farmers for a replanting program.
Wilmar is the biggest recipient of Indonesian government subsidies to biodiesel producers. In 2017, it received 55 per cent of the total US$530 million distributed by the government to five palm oil companies, or triple the amount it had paid into the fund.
“What PT Wilmar Nabati Indonesia did can be perceived as irresponsible lobbying practices,” TII said in its report.
TII’s Bellicia said there should be an investigation into the company’s role and influence in the fund’s meetings.
“This is what we have to investigate,” she said. “With Master attending those meetings, did it result in more beneficial policies to big companies, resulting in the government siding with corporations instead of people in need?”
However, Indonesia doesn’t have rules banning irresponsible lobbying practices or requiring companies to be transparent about their lobbying activities, Bellicia said.
“In our opinion, lobbying has to be regulated because it’s a doorway to corruption,” she said.
In January, Master was convicted and sentenced to one and a half years in prison for conspiring with a trade ministry official to ensure that four palm oil companies, including Wilmar, could skirt their obligations to allocate a quota for the domestic market.
“This is a concrete example of how corruption will be a never-ending problem [in Indonesia] if things like lobbying are not regulated,” Bellicia said.
A ‘Revolving Door’ between the palm oil industry and the Indonesian government
Another aspect assessed in the TII report is the revolving-door phenomenon that sees officials in charge of regulating the industry going on to take jobs in it, and vice versa.
Government agencies typically hire industry professionals to take advantage of their private sector experience and influence within corporations. Their presence can also help governments gain political support such as donations and endorsements from private firms.
“These individuals [hired by the government] also tend to have biased view in formulating policies and they tend to be in favour of policies that benefit companies but harm people,” the TII report said. In the other direction, companies also gain an advantage when they hire the very officials previously responsible for overseeing their industry. This allows them to seek favourable legislation and government contracts in exchange for high-paying employment offers, and also to gain inside information on policy discussions.
Unlike some other countries that have issued laws regulating the revolving-door issue, Indonesia has no such restrictions. And in the palm oil industry, the practice is very common: according to the TII report, only two out of the 50 companies assessed are aware of this practice, and none has regulations addressing it.
One example of a regulation used elsewhere to prevent conflicts of interest is the “cooling-off period,” in which former public officials are prohibited from accepting employment in the private sector for a given time period after leaving office.
The report also looked at the presence of politically exposed persons within the 50 companies.
Known as PEPs, these are individuals who hold a prominent public position or function, such as a political party official, industry regulator, law enforcer, or a family member of such a person. PEPs are widely seen as being more prone to bribery, corruption or other potential financial irregularities.
The TII report identified 80 PEPs in 33 companies, including six each at SMART and PT Multi Agro Gemilang. Agus from SMART is one of these. He served as a special assistant to former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono from 2010 to 2014, just before joining SMART in 2014. He was also a special adviser to the environment minister from 2004 to 2009.
The report characterises Agus as an example of both a politically exposed person and a revolving-door player.
“Am I a politically exposed person? I don’t know. It doesn’t seem like it,” Agus told Mongabay. “But if I didn’t go to the company I currently work in, there are many other companies that want my assistance.”
He added it’s not fair if a politically exposed person is automatically perceived as something of a liability.
“If [the report] gives a score, then it looks like the report is judging [politically exposed persons]. Don’t judge, just prove” that PEPs bring risk to a company, Agus said. “Because people can become a bad actor without them having served in the government before.”
The report noted that the presence of politically exposed persons within a company doesn’t necessarily translate into a bad thing.
“But there really needs to be extra monitoring because politically exposed persons are closely tied to conflicts of interests and trading in influence,” Bellicia said.
Lack of transparency of palm oil company ownership and ultimate beneficiaries
The final aspect assessed in the TII report was data disclosure — whether the companies revealed information on corporate structure, plantation ownership, tax and income, and beneficial owners.
Data transparency can be an effective tool in preventing illicit financial flows and tax evasion, according to the report. But palm oil companies in Indonesia are still largely opaque in this regard, the report said. For instance, only 34 out of the 50 assessed companies reported who their beneficial owners were to the government, despite this being a mandatory disclosure under a 2018 presidential regulation.
Lack of clarity on corporate ownership makes it difficult for the government and people affected by corporate activities such as deforestation or tax evasion to demand accountability from the company.
The report also found only five companies that disclosed detailed data on their tax payments.
The absence of disclosure of the ultimate beneficial owners of the company as well as the publication of the company’s tax expenses and revenues in detail and separately by country (country country-by-country, indicates loopholes for illicit financial flows by companies.
“This opens up room for tax evasion,” Bellicia said.
The Tanah Merah project in Indonesia’s easternmost region of Papua is an example of how obscure corporate structures and beneficial ownership can increase the risk of corruption, according to the report.
Spanning 280,000 hectares (692,000 acres) in the heart of the largest tract of primary rainforest remaining in Asia, nearly twice the size of Greater London, the project is set to become the world’s largest oil palm plantation.
A 2018 investigation by Mongabay and The Gecko Project revealed that the investors behind the project have employed all the tools of corporate secrecy to hide their identities: shell companies with front addresses, fake and proxy shareholders, and offshore secrecy jurisdictions.
The investigation also revealed that key documents relating to the project were signed by a politician while he was in jail on the island of Java, and that key permits have been hidden from public scrutiny.
Government response
Responding to the TII report, Roro Wide Sulistyowati from the corruption prevention department at the country’s antigraft agency, the KPK, said her office has been pushing for palm oil companies to commit to anticorruption practices.
She added that the KPK has also issued a corruption prevention guideline for companies.
“This year, we want to push [the guideline] to palm oil companies so that they have an anticorruption commitment and antibribery system,” Roro said.
In 2016, the KPK carried out an analysis of the palm oil industry and found a raft of problems, such as tax evasion and the lack of an accountable system to prevent corruption in the issuance of permits.
In 2019 and 2022, the country’s financial audit agency, the BPK, carried out its own assessment of the industry. The 2019 audit found that 81% oil palm plantations in Indonesia are operating in violation of numerous regulations, including excess size, noncompliance with the ISPO standard, failure to allocate sufficient land for smallholder farmers, and lack of relevant operating permits.
The BPK has already finished the 2022 audit, but refused to disclose the findings. Following this latest BPK audit, the government recently announced that it had formed a task force to improve governance in the palm oil industry, including on permits and taxes.
It is not surprising that in recent years, corruption cases involving individuals representing palm oil companies have emerged.
Despite the series of findings from the KPK and the BPK, there’s been little to no improvement in the management of the palm oil industry, Bellicia said.
“If there have been changes [since the 2019 audit], there’s no way the score would be 3.5,” she said. “This score should be a wake-up call for the government.”
Below is the conclusion of Transparency International’s report into palm oil industry’s weaknesses and vulnerability to corruption, collusion and corporate capture. Published on May 5, 2023 translated from Baha Indonesia to English. Read original report.
Transparency International Indonesia’s report findings
Indonesian
English
Berdasarkan penilaian yang dilakukan oleh TI Indonesia terhadap 50 perusahaan sawit dengan kinerja baik yang beroperasi di Indonesia, hasil yang dicapai oleh 50 perusahaan sawit tersebut tidak dapat dikatakan baik. Skor rata-rata Transparency in Corporate Reporting dari 50 perusahaan sawit yang dinilai hanya mendapatkan perolehan 3.5/10. Skor rata-rata dari 50 perusahaan sawit dengankinerja baik ini merefleksikan bahwa masih banyak perusahaan sawit tidak transparan dan minim informasi terkait kebijakan perusahaan terkait antikorupsi, inklusivitas, lobi yang bertanggung jawab, praktik keluar-masuk pintu, dan pengungkapan berbagai data yang seharusnya dapat diakses dan diketahui oleh publik. Hal ini juga mengindikasikan bahwa masih banyak perusahaan sawit, baik yang dikelola oleh negara maupun swasta juga cenderung tidak transparan terkait aktivitas perusahaan dan keterlibatannya dalam politik. Urgensi transparansi pelaporan dan aktivitas perusahaan dalam politik menjadi esensial mengingat interaksi antara sektor privat dan sektor publik rawan terhadap ruang gelap yang membuka lebar celah-celah korupsi dan penggelapan pajak yang merugikan negara dan berdampak buruk bagi masyarakat. Dalam penilaian dimensi pertama, yaitu program antikorupsi; hanya 26 perusahaan dari 50 perusahaan sawit yang memiliki komitmen antikorupsi dan 11 perusahaan yang melaporkan kegiatan politik atau mengatur hubungan antara pemerintah dengan perusahaannya. Sedikitnya angka ini menunjukkan bahwa masih ada perusahaan yang tidak mengutamakan kebijakan antikorupsi dan prinsip untuk mengatur hubungan perusahaan dengan pemerintah. Kekosongan kebijakan antikorupsi dan kode etik perilaku atau prinsip dalam pengaturan hubungan perusahaan dan pemerintah dapat menjadi celah korupsi melalui bagaimana perusahaan berinteraksi atau mencoba memberikan pengaruh pada pemerintah mengenai berbagai kebijakan sawit. Hasil penilaian dimensi kedua yang menilai aturan pencegahan korupsi dan inklusivitas perusahaan juga mengisyaratkan bahwa aturan atau pencegahan korupsi masih seakan berlaku hanya bagi pegawai perusahaan di level staf. Idealnya, seluruh lini jabatan perusahaan perlu diatur, diawasi, dan diberikan pemahaman secara ketat terkait pencegahan korupsi. Hanya 4 perusahaan yang secara eksplisit menyatakan aturan tersebut berlaku bagi seluruh level perusahaan, termasuk komisaris dan direksi. Selain itu, pelibatan perempuan di jajaran pengambil keputusan sangat diperlukan mengingat perspektif gender tidak dapat dipisahkan dari pengambilan keputusan bisnis – hanya 18 perusahaan yang menempatkan perempuan dalam jajaran direksinya. Dalam penilaian dimensi ketiga terkait kegiatan lobi yang bertanggung jawab, tidak ada satu pun perusahaan yang memiliki kebijakan terkait hal ini. Absennya aturan perusahaan dalam hal ini menandakan interaksi perusahaan dengan pejabat publik dapat dikatakan tidak transparan. Sama dengan penilaian dimensi ketiga, hasil dimensi keempat terkait praktik keluar masuk pintu juga tidak dapat dijawab dengan baik oleh semua perusahaan; hanya dua perusahaan yang memiliki kesadaran (awareness) terhadap praktik keluar masuk pintu–namun tidak ada regulasi yang mengatur praktik tersebut. Hal ini merefleksikan bahwa perusahaan memandang perpindahan individu dari sektor publik ke sektor privat dan sebaliknya tanpa masa jeda belum mempertimbangkan besarnya risiko konflik kepentingan. Dalam penilaian dimensi kelima terkait keberlanjutan dan standar sertifikasi, sebagian besar perusahaan telah dapat menjawab pertanyaan dengan baik mengingat kewajiban sertifikasi ISPO bagi perusahaan sawit di Indonesia. Sayangnya, masih banyak pula perusahaan yang belum memiliki ISPO bagi anak-anak perusahaannya–padahal sertifikasi ini sangat penting untuk seluruh grup perusahaan, setidaknya menjamin keberlanjutan sawit di Indonesia. Dalam dimensi pengungkapan data, banyak perusahaan sawit yang hanya mempublikasikan rincian data pembayaran pajak dan penerimaan perusahaan secara terkonsolidasi. Selain itu, hanya 7 perusahaan yang mengungkap pemilik manfaat akhir perusahaan yang dilakukan secara eksplisit; sisanya hanya berupa data pemegang saham perusahaan. Tidak adanya pengungkapan pemilik manfaat akhir perusahaan serta publikasi beban pajak dan penerimaan perusahaan secara rinci dan terpisah di negara tempat perusahaan beroperasi (country-by-country), mengindikasikan celah aliran keuangan gelap yang dilakukan oleh perusahaan. Tingkat kepatuhan perusahaan dalam pelaporan pemilik manfaat akhir dapat dikatakan cukup memenuhi prasyarat dengan persentase 68% perusahaan melapor. Namun, masih ada perusahaan yang melaporkan pemilik manfaat akhir berupa nama entitas legal/perusahaan. Selain itu, hadirnya politically exposed persons (PEPs) di 33 perusahaan juga perlu diawasi agar konflik kepentingan dan celah korupsi yang dapat mengintervensi kebijakan sawit yang adil dan berkelanjutan hanya menguntungkan kepentingan pebisnis.
Based on TI Indonesia’s assessment of 50 well-performing palm oil companies operating in Indonesia, the results achieved by these 50 palm oil companies operating in Indonesia are not good. The average score of Transparency in Corporate Reporting of the 50 palm oil companies assessed is only 3.5/10. The average score of the 50 well-performing palm oil companies reflects that the Transparency in Corporate Reporting of the 50 well-performing palm oil companies good performance reflects that there are still many palm oil companies that are not transparent and lack information regarding the company’s anti-corruption policies. information regarding the company’s policies on anti-corruption, inclusiveness, responsible lobbying, out-door practices, and responsible lobbying, door-to-door practices, and disclosure of data that should be publicly accessible and known by the public. This also indicates that there are still many palm oil companies palm oil companies, both state-owned and privately-owned, also tend not to be transparent about their activities and their involvement in politics.
The urgency of transparency in reporting and company activities in politics is essential given that the interaction between the private sector and the public sector is prone to dark spaces that open up loopholes for corruption and tax evasion that harm the state and impact the economy.
corruption and tax evasion that harm the state and have a negative impact on society.
In the assessment of the first dimension, anti-corruption programmes; only 26 out of 50 companies of 50 palm oil companies with anti-corruption commitments and 11 companies that reported on political activities or organising relations between the government and their companies.
At least this number shows that there are still companies that do not prioritise their anti-corruption policies and principles to regulate the company’s relationship with the government. The void anti-corruption policies and codes of conduct or principles in regulating company-government relations can be an opening for corruption through how companies and the government can be a loophole for corruption through how companies interact or try to influence the government on various palm oil policies.
The results of the second dimension, which assesses the company’s corruption prevention and inclusiveness rules, also suggest that anti-corruption rules or prevention The results of the second dimension assessing the company’s corruption prevention rules and inclusiveness also suggest that the rules or prevention of corruption still seem to apply only to company employees at the staff level. company employees at the staff level.
Ideally, all lines of company positions need to be regulated, supervised, and given a strict understanding of corruption prevention. given a strict understanding of corruption prevention. Only 4 companies explicitly state that the rules apply to explicitly state that the rules apply to all levels of the company, including commissioners and directors.
In addition, the involvement of women in the decision-making ranks is necessary, given that gender perspectives are inseparable from decision-making. given that gender perspectives are inseparable from business decision-making – only 18 companies that have women on their board of directors.
In assessing the third dimension of responsible lobbying, none of the companies had policies in place. company has a policy in this regard. The absence of company rules in this regard indicates that the company’s interactions with public officials can be considered non-transparent.
Similar to the assessment of the third dimension, the results of the fourth dimension related to door-to-door practices were also not well answered by the companies. also could not be answered well by all companies; only two companies had a good awareness of door-to-door practices-but there are no regulations governing the practice.
However, there is no regulation governing the practice. This reflects the fact that companies perceive the movement of of individuals from the public sector to the private sector and vice versa without a break in service has not yet the risk of conflicts of interest.
In the assessment of the fifth dimension related to sustainability and certification standards, most of the companies have been able to answer the questions well given the ISPO certification obligation for palm oil companies in Indonesia. certification for palm oil companies in Indonesia. Unfortunately, there are still many companies that do not yet ISPO for their subsidiaries – even though this certification is very important for the whole group, at least to ensure the sustainability of the company. at least to ensure the sustainability of palm oil in Indonesia.
In the dimension of data disclosure, many palm oil companies only publish details of tax payments and company revenues. data on tax payments and company revenues on a consolidated basis. In addition, only 7 companies explicitly disclose the ultimate beneficial owners of the company; the rest only provide data on the company’s shareholders. The absence of disclosure of the ultimate beneficial owners of the company as well as the publication of the company’s tax expenses and revenues in detail and separately by country (country country-by-country, indicates loopholes for illicit financial flows by companies.
The level of company compliance in reporting the ultimate beneficial owner can be said to be sufficiently fulfil the prerequisites with 68% of companies reporting. However, there are still companies that report the ultimate beneficial owner in the form of a legal entity/company name. In addition, the presence of the presence of politically exposed persons (PEPs) in 33 companies also needs to be monitored so that conflicts of interest and corruption loopholes that can intervene in the reporting of beneficial owners can be avoided. and corruption loopholes that can intervene in fair and sustainable palm oil policies that only benefit business interests. in favour of business interests.
Mewajibkan Komitmen Antikorupsi Perusahaan
Sawit merupakan komoditas ekspor andalan Indonesia. Namun pelaku usaha di sektor ini masih sedikit yang tidak mentoleransi adanya praktik korupsi–meskipun sudah mampu melakukan ekspansi bisnis di tingkat global. Bukan suatu hal yang mengejutkan apabila dalam beberapa tahun terakhir bermunculan kasus korupsi yang melibatkan individu-individu yang mewakili perusahaan sawit–seperti kasus korupsi pemberian persetujuan ekspor (PE) Crude palm oil (CPO).68 Sudah sepatutnya pemerintah memprioritaskan agenda pencegahan korupsi di korporasi terhadap perusahaan yang berbisnis di komoditas sawit dan menagih komitmen antikorupsi perusahaan sawit.
Requiring Corporate Anti-Corruption Commitments
Palm oil is Indonesia’s main export commodity. But businesses in this sector are still a few that do not tolerate corrupt practices – even though they have been able to expand their business globally. to expand their business on a global level. It is not surprising that in recent years, corruption cases involving individuals representing palm oil companies have emerged, such as the corruption case of Crude palm oil (CPO) export approval (PE).68 palm oil (CPO) export approval (PE).68.
It is only fitting that the government prioritises a corruption prevention agenda for companies doing business in corporations and a corruption prevention agenda for companies doing business in the palm oil commodity and demand an anti-corruption commitment from palm oil companies.
Mendorong Implementasi, monitoring, dan pengawasan kebijakan dalam kegiatan antikorupsi
dan keterlibatan politik perusahaan Tidak hanya pada tataran kebijakan (policy), pemerintah juga harus memastikan bahwa perusahaan telah mengimplementasikan kebijakan antikorupsi (practice). Berdasarkan hasil penilaian kami, sangat sedikit perusahaan yang mengimplementasikan kebijakan antikorupsi dan keterlibatan politik perusahaan–tataran practice–seperti pelatihan, monitoring, dan pengawasan. Keberadaan peraturan antikorupsi namun tidak diikuti dengan implementasinya akan membuat kebijakan antikorupsi hanya sebagai paper tiger dan mendelegitimasi eksistensi kebijakan antikorupsi dan kebijakan keterlibatan politik perusahaan.
Encourage the implementation, monitoring and supervision of policies on anti-corruption activities and political engagement of palm oil companies.
Not only at the policy level, the government must also ensure that companies have implemented anti-corruption policies. companies have implemented anti-corruption policies (practice). Based on the results of our our assessment, very few companies have implemented anti-corruption policies and corporate political engagement at the practice level-such as training, monitoring, and supervision. supervision. The existence of an anti-corruption regulation but not its implementation will make the anti-corruption policy only a practice. will make the anti-corruption policy a paper tiger and delegitimise the existence of anti-corruption and political engagement policies.
Perkuat transparansi besaran pendapatan (revenue) dan pembayaran pajak (tax payment)dari korporasi sawit ke Pemerintah Munculnya kasus korupsi minyak goreng pada tahun lalu membuat pemerintah bergerak untuk mengaudit seluruh perusahaan sawit di Indonesia serta memerintahkan agar perusahaan sawit berkantor pusat di Indonesia. Secara implisit, upaya pemerintah untuk ‘memaksa’ perusahaan berkantor pusat di Indonesia itu disebabkan karena adanya dugaan praktik Base Erosion Profit Shifting (BEPS), yaitu praktik penggerusan pajak dan pemindahan keuntungan yang dihasilkan dari negara yang menjadi lokasi aktivitas bisnis–Indonesia–ke negara tujuan yang memiliki tarif pajak yang lebih rendah–Singapura.69 Menyadari adanya potensi kehilangan pajak akibat praktik diatas, Pemerintah menerbitkan Peraturan Menteri Keuangan (PMK) No. 213/2016 tentang Jenis Dokumen dan/atau Informasi Tambahan yang Wajib Disimpan oleh Wajib Pajak yang Melakukan Transaksi dengan Para Pihak yang Memiliki Hubungan Istimewa dan Tata Cara Pengelolaannya, dan salah satu dokumen yang wajib dilaporkan adalah laporan per negara (Country-by-Country Report).70 Dalam laporan-per-negara, alokasi penghasilan, pajak yang dibayar, dan aktivitas bisnis di setiap yurisdiksi anak usaha wajib dilaporkan. 71 Laporan tersebut diyakini dapat dijadikan oleh Pemerintah sebagai senjata untuk memerangi praktik penggelapan pajak. Hasil penelusuran kami pun menunjukkan bahwa belum ada perusahaan yang mempublikasikan laporan per negara kepada publik. Selain itu, laporan per negara tidak membuka ruang bagi publik untuk melakukan verifikasi terhadap kebenaran informasi yang disampaikan oleh perusahaan dalam laporan per negara yang disampaikan oleh perusahaan ke Direktorat Jenderal Pajak (DJP). Sebaiknya dokumen ini dijadikan sebagai dokumen yang dapat diakses dan dipublikasikan kepada publik.72
Strengthen transparency of revenue and tax payments from palm oil corporations to the government
The emergence of the cooking oil corruption case last year made the government move to audit all palm oil companies in Indonesia and ordered palm oil companies to be headquartered in Indonesia. Implicitly, the government’s attempt to ‘force’ companies to be headquartered in Indonesia was due to the alleged practice of Base Erosion Profit Shifting (BEPS), which is the practice of profit shifting. Shifting (BEPS), which is the practice of tax erosion and profit shifting generated from the country of business activity-Indonesia. from the country of business activity-Indonesia-to a destination country with a lower tax rate-Singapore. 69
Recognising the potential for tax loss due to the above practice, the Government issued the Minister of Finance Regulation (MoFTR) on the practice. The Government issued Minister of Finance Regulation (PMK) No. 213/2016 on Types of Documents and/or Additional Information that Must be Kept by Taxpayers Conducting Transactions with Related Parties and the Procedures for Their Management, and one of the documents that must be reported is the Country-by-Country Report.70 In the Country-by-Country Report, the allocation of income, taxes paid, and business activities in each subsidiary jurisdiction must be reported. 71
The report is believed to be used by the Government as a weapon to combat tax evasion. Our search results also show that there are no companies that publish country-by-country reports to the public.
In addition, the country-by-country report does not allow the public to verify the accuracy of the information submitted by the company in the country-by-country report submitted by the company to the Directorate General of Taxes (DGT). This document should be made accessible and publicised to the public.72
Pengawasan terhadap Politically-Exposed Persons (PEPs)
Maraknya keberadaan Politically-Exposed Persons (PEPs) di 50 perusahaan sawit di Indonesia menunjukkan bahwa koneksi politik sangat berharga bagi perusahaan sawit. Sko Corruption Perception Index (CPI) tahun 2022 pun menurun 4 poin–penurunan skor terburuk sejak tahun reformasi. Penurunan skor disebabkan oleh konflik kepentingan antara pebisnis dan pejabat publik dinilai semakin terang enderang.73 Apabila pemerintah berkomitmen kuat untuk memperbaiki skor CPI, sudah seharusnya pemerintah mengimplementasikan aturan konflik kepentingan–dimulai dari kabinet Presiden Jokowi–dan mendorong perusahaan sawit untuk tidak merekrut direksi dan komisaris yang tergolong sebagai Politically-Exposed Persons (PEPs).
Supervision of Politically-Exposed Persons (PEPs)
The prevalence of Politically-Exposed Persons (PEPs) in 50 palm oil companies in Indonesia shows that political connections are valuable to palm oil companies. The 2022 Corruption Perception Index (CPI) score dropped by 4 points – the worst drop since reformasi. The decline in the score is due to the conflict of interest between business people and public officials, which is considered to be increasingly obvious.73 If the government is strongly committed to improving the CPI score, it should be the government’s responsibility to improve the CPI score. to improve the CPI score, the government should implement conflict of interest rules-starting with President Jokowi’s cabinet of interest rules – starting from President Jokowi’s cabinet – and encourage palm oil companies to not recruit directors and commissioners who are classified as Politically-Exposed Persons (PEPs). (PEPs).
Perusahaan Sawit di Indonesia Memastikan adanya kebijakan antikorupsi yang esensial
Selain menagih komitmen antikorupsi perusahaan sawit, pemerintah juga harus memastikan bahwa perusahaan sawit turut menyusun kebijakan antikorupsi yang esensial, seperti aturan terkait suap, gratifikasi, donasi politik, dan konflik kepentingan. Dalam laporan ini ditemukan bahwa masih sedikit perusahaan sawit yang memiliki aturan-aturan esensial yang telah disebutkan sebelumnya. Penyusunan peraturan antikorupsi dinilai penting karena aturan tersebut berguna untuk memberikan pedoman bagi karyawan, direksi, dan komisaris perusahaan dalam berperilaku mewakili nama perusahaan dan agar korporasi tidak dimintai pertanggungjawaban pidana karena tidak melakukan langkah-langkah yang diperlukan untuk melakukan pencegahan korupsi.
Palm Oil Companies in Indonesia
Ensure essential anti-corruption policies are in place
In addition to demanding anti-corruption commitments from palm oil companies, the government must also ensure that palm oil companies develop essential anti-corruption policies, such as rules on anti-corruption. that palm oil companies also develop essential anti-corruption policies, such as rules on bribery, gratuities, political donations and conflicts of interest. This report found that there are still few palm oil companies that have the essential rules mentioned earlier. mentioned earlier. The development of anti-corruption regulations is important because they provide guidance to employees, employees’ supervisors, and employees. to provide guidelines for employees, directors and commissioners of the company in their in their behaviour on behalf of the company and so that the corporation is not held criminally criminal liability for not taking the necessary steps to prevent corruption.74
Perkuat mekanisme peniup peluit
Kebijakan antikorupsi dan keterlibatan politik perusahaan sudah sepatutnya dilengkapi sistem yang bertujuan untuk menerima laporan dan mendeteksi kecurangan, seperti sistem pelaporan pelanggaran (Whistle-Blowing System/WBS). Hanya setengah dari 50 perusahaan sawit yang kami nilai yang memiliki WBS. Untuk meningkatkan efektivitas, perusahaan harus menjamin bahwa WBS yang dimiliki telah menjamin perlindungan kepada pelapor, memperbolehkan pelaporan secara anonim, dan menjaga independensi pengelola WBS.
Strengthen the whistleblower mechanism
Companies’ anti-corruption and political engagement policies should be complemented by systems aimed at receiving reports and detecting fraud, such as whistle-blowing systems (WBS). Only half of the 50 palm oil companies we assessed have a WBS. To improve effectiveness, companies should ensure that their WBS provides protection to whistleblowers, allows anonymous reporting, and maintains the independence of the WBS manager
Transparansi kegiatan lobbying Praktik lobbying–baik secara langsung maupun tidak langsung–sangat lekat dengan komoditas sawit. Komoditas ini sering dilabeli sebagai komoditas yang memicu tingginya tingkat deforestasi dan merusak biodiversitas kawasan hutan. Komoditas ini juga menjadi salah satu sasaran utama penerapan prinsip NDPE (No Deforestation, No Peat, and No Exploitation). Namun ada saja upaya lobi untuk membajak konsep deforestasi, misalkan saja upaya melabeli sawit sebagai tanaman hutan.75 Sudah seharusnya pemerintah memaksa perusahaan sawit–dan asosiasi bisnis sawit–untuk transparan dalam melakukan praktik lobbying agar tidak ada policy capture dalam kebijakan yang mengatur komoditas ekspor andalan Indonesia ini.
Transparency of lobbying activities
The practice of lobbying-both directly and indirectly-is closely associated with palm oil commodities. This commodity is often labelled as the one that triggers high deforestation and destroying the biodiversity of forest areas. This commodity has also become one of the main targets for the implementation of NDPE (No Deforestation, No Peat, and No Exploitation) principles. Exploitation). However, there are lobbying efforts to hijack the concept of deforestation, for example labelling palm oil as a forest crop.75 The government should have forced palm oil companies-and palm oil business associations-to be transparent in their lobbying practices so that there is no policy capture. lobbying practices so that there is no policy capture in the policies governing Indonesia’s flagship export commodity. Indonesia’s flagship export commodity.
Mewajibkan pihak ketiga dan penyedia barang dan jasa (PBJ) untuk mematuhi kebijakan antikorupsi perusahaan Untuk memudahkan praktik korupsi, korporasi seringkali memanfaatkan jasa perantara/intermediary untuk menyamarkan praktik tersebut.76 Selain itu, penyedia barang dan jasa (PBJ) yang ditunjuk oleh korporasi juga seringkali terpilih tanpa melalui proses uji tuntas integritas (integrity due diligence). Berdasarkan penilaian kami, sangat sedikit perusahaan sawit yang mewajibkan perantara dan penyedia barang dan jasa (PBJ) untuk mematuhi kebijakan antikorupsi perusahaan dan melalui proses cek latar belakang, pemilik manfaat (beneficial owner), dan Politically-Exposed Persons (PEPs). Sebaiknya korporasi mewajibkan kedua pihak di atas untuk mematuhi kebijakan antikorupsi perusahaan agar kekosongan hukum ini tidak menjadi bumerang ketika perusahaan tersangkut kasus tindak pidana.
Require third parties and providers of goods and services (PBJ) to comply with the company’s anti-corruption policy
To facilitate corrupt practices, corporations often utilise the services of intermediaries to disguise the practice. In addition, providers of goods and services appointed by corporations are also often selected without going through an integrity due diligence process. Based on our assessment, very few palm oil companies require intermediaries and PEPs to comply with the company’s anti-corruption policy and go through a background check process, beneficial owners, and Politically-Exposed Persons (PEPs). Corporations should require both of the above parties to comply with the company’s anti-corruption policy so that this legal vacuum does not backfire when the company is involved in a criminal case.
Pengaturan praktik revolving door dan cooling-off period Praktik keluar-masuk pintu (revolving door) dan masa jeda (cooling-off period) masih tidak dikenal secara luas di Indonesia. Padahal, tren di mana pebisnis yang dahulu menjadi sponsor bagi partai politik kemudian ditunjuk menjadi pejabat publik–praktik revolving door masih menjadi praktik yang dilaksanakan secara terang benderang.77 Hasil penilaian kami menunjukkan bahwa tidak ada satu pun perusahaan sawit yang telah mengatur praktik revolving door dan cooling-off period. Sudah sepatutnya pemerintah Indonesia yang mengklaim lebih mengutamakan pencegahan korupsi daripada penindakan korupsi–Operasi Tangkap Tangan (OTT)–pasca penerbitan UU KPK tahun 2019 untuk mengatur praktik revolving door dari sektor publik ke sektor swasta maupun sebaliknya.
Regulating revolving door practices and cooling-off periods
Revolving door practices and cooling-off periods are still not widely recognised in Indonesia. In fact, the trend of businesspeople sponsoring political parties and then being appointed to public office – revolving door practices – is still a well-established practice. 77 Our assessment shows that not a single palm oil company has regulated revolving door practices and cooling-off periods. It is appropriate for the Indonesian government, which claims to prioritise corruption prevention over corruption prosecution-Operasi Tangkap Tangan (OTT)-after the issuance of the 2019 KPK Law to regulate revolving door practices from the public sector to the private sector and vice versa.
Pentingnya mewajibkan korporasi untuk melaporkan pemilik manfaat (BO) dan verifikasi data BO Pemerintah telah mewajibkan korporasi untuk melaporkan pemilik manfaat korporasi–know your beneficial owner–melalui penerbitan Peraturan Presiden Nomor 13 tahun 2018 tentang Penerapan Prinsip mengenali Pemilik Manfaat dari Korporasi dalam rangka Pencegahan dan Pemberantasan Tindak Pidana Pencucian Uang dan Tindak Pidana Pendanaan Terorisme.
Namun analisis kami terhadap 50 perusahaan sawit yang beroperasi di Indonesia menunjukkan masih ada perusahaan yang belum melaporkan pemilik manfaat. Kemudian, masih ada korporasi yang melaporkan nama korporasi lainnya sebagai pemilik manfaat. Padahal, pemilik manfaat adalah orang perseorangan (nature person). Sejalan dengan isi dari Peraturan Menteri Hukum dan HAM (PermenkumHAM) Nomor 21 tahun 2019 tentang Tata Cara Pengawasan Penerapan Prinsip Mengenali Pemilik Manfaat dari Korporasi, sudah seharusnya Kementerian Hukum dan HAM (KemenkumHAM) melakukan verifikasi terhadap kebenaran laporan pemilik manfaat yang dilaporkan oleh korporasi dan menjatuhkan sanksi bagi korporasi yang menyampaikan pemilik manfaatnya secara tidak benar
The importance of requiring corporations to report beneficial owners (BO) and verification of BO data
The government has made it mandatory for corporations to report corporate beneficial owners – know your beneficial owner – through the issuance of Presidential Regulation No. 13/2018 on the Implementation of the Principle of Recognising Beneficial Owners of Corporations in the context of Preventing and Eradicating the Criminal Acts of Money Laundering and the Criminal Acts of Financing Terrorism. However, our analysis of 50 palm oil companies operating in Indonesia shows that there are still companies that have not reported their beneficial owners. Then, there are still corporations that report the names of other corporations as beneficial owners. In fact, the beneficial owner is a natural person. In line with the contents of the Minister of Law and Human Rights Regulation (PermenkumHAM) Number 21 of 2019 concerning Procedures for Supervising the Implementation of the Principle of Recognising Beneficial Owners of Corporations, the Ministry of Law and Human Rights (KemenkumHAM) should report the names of other corporations as beneficial owners.
Law and Human Rights (KemenkumHAM) should verify the accuracy of the beneficial owner report reported by the corporation and impose sanctions on corporations that submit their beneficial owners incorrectly.
Menagih komitmen transparansi keterlibatan politik perusahaan Selain transparansi program antikorupsi perusahaan, salah satu isu lainnya yang perl diwajibkan bagi perusahaan sawit adalah transparansi keterlibatan politik perusahaan (corporate political engagement). Kami menemukan bahwa masih banyak perusahaan yang belum transparan dalam menginformasikan kebijakan dan proses interaksi antara perusahaan dengan pejabat publik atau politisi. Hal ini cukup mengkhawatirkan karena koneksi politik dapat mengarah kepada konflik kepentingan dan dampaknya dapat memberikan privilese yang berlebih kepada pengusaha yang berbisnis di sawit dalam bentuk kebijakan, pemberian subsidi dan insentif yang bisa saja mengarah pada policy capture. Oleh karenanya, di samping mendorong agenda pencegahan korupsi di korporasi, pemerintah juga perlu memprioritaskan transparansi keterlibatan politik perusahaan.
Demanding transparency in corporate political engagement In addition to the transparency of corporate anti-corruption programmes, one of the other issues that needs to be addressed is the transparency of corporate political engagement. We found that there are still many companies that are not transparent in informing the policies and processes of interaction between companies and public officials or politicians. This is quite worrying because political connections can lead to conflicts of interest and the impact can give excessive privileges to entrepreneurs who do business in palm oil in the form of policies, subsidies and incentives that can lead to policy capture. Therefore, in addition to pushing the corruption prevention agenda in corporations, the government also needs to prioritise transparency of corporate political involvement.
ENDS
Read more about palm oil corruption, collusion and greenwashing
A joint investigation by Malaysiakini and Pulitzer Center’s Rainforest Investigations Network (RIN) reveals alarming deforestation in Pahang, #Malaysia, caused by one of the country’s largest #palmoil plantations. The plantation…
Latin America is the fastest-growing producer of palm oil, but at what price for the environment and its defenders? Park rangers in Honduras tell harrowing tales of daily threats…
A landmark lawsuit filed in Philadelphia names major food companies: Kraft Heinz, Mondelez, Post Holdings, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, General Mills, Nestlé, Kellogg’s, Mars, and ConAgra and accuses them of designing…
On Tuesday, April 30, 2024, a shocking and disgraceful incident occurred in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). During a meeting of shareholders from Plantations…
This article highlights the significant role that banks and investors play in fuelling a global biodiversity crisis – particularly in relation to palm oil, meat, soy and timber deforestation.…
One million plant and animal species are now threatened with extinction. Biodiversity is at a critical juncture before being wiped out forever and pressure is mounting on the international…
For decades, the palm oil industry, backed by the RSPO, has misled consumers with the false promise of “sustainable” palm oil. Behind this green façade lies a brutal reality…
When Indonesian prosecutors went after the leader of an illegal wildlife syndicate operating near the Malacca Strait, they relied on the country’s then relatively new 2019 Quarantine Act to seek a…
Gold mining is unparalleled in its environmental destruction and human rights toll. Frustratingly, 93% of gold is used for non-essential purposes like jewellery and investments.
Nestlé is destroying rainforests, releasing mega-tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere, and killing hundreds of endangered species. Once these animals are gone – they are gone for good. See Nestlé’s full list of…
Despite global retail giant Colgate-Palmolive forming a coalition with other brands in 2020, virtue-signalling that they will stop all deforestation, they continue to do this – destroying rainforest and releasing mega-tonnes of carbon…
Despite the virtue-signalling of the palm oil certification body the RSPO, Mondelez’s so-called “sustainable” palm oil is linked to 37.000ha of palm oil deforestation since 2016 (Source: Chain Reaction Research). Mondelez destroys rainforests,…
In 2020, global retail giant Unilever unveiled a deforestation-free supply chain promise. By 2023 they would be deforestation free. This has been and gone and they are still causing deforestation. This brand has…
Savvy consumers have been pressuring French Dairy multinational Danone for decades to cease using deforestation palm oil. Yet they actually haven’t stopped this. From their website: ‘Danone is committed to eliminating deforestation from…
Despite decades of promises to end deforestation for palm oil PepsiCo (owner of crisp brands Frito-Lay, Cheetos and Doritos along with hundreds of other snack food brands) have continued sourcing palm oil that…
Despite decades of promises to end deforestation for palm oil Procter & Gamble or (P&G as they are also known) have continued sourcing palm oil that causes ecocide, indigenous landgrabbing, and the habitat…
In late 2023, Kelloggs became Kellanova for their US arm. Savvy consumers have been pressuring Kelloggs for decades to cease using deforestation palm oil. Yet they actually haven’t stopped this. From their website:…
Global mega-brand Johnson & Johnson have issued a position statement on palm oil in 2020. ‘At Johnson & Johnson, we are committed to doing our part to address the unsustainable rate of global…
PZ Cussons is a British-owned global retail giant. They own well-known supermarket brands in personal care, cleaning, household goods and toiletries categories, such as Imperial Leather, Morning Fresh, Carex, Radiant laundry powder and…
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
A joint investigation by Malaysiakini and Pulitzer Center’s Rainforest Investigations Network (RIN) reveals alarming deforestation in Pahang, #Malaysia, caused by one of the country’s largest #palmoil plantations. The plantation threatens endangered species like #tigers and pollutes local water supplies. It has been described as “the worst-managed oil palm plantation in Malaysia.” Palm oil yields are low, while the #deforestation is chaotic, leaving the land barren and overrun with #elephants. The report highlights links between developers and political or royal ownership and rampant corruption and strongly pushes for more transparency, improved government oversight and regulatory enforcement. #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife
An investigation by Malaysiakini, in collaboration with the Pulitzer Center’s Rainforest Investigations Network, has exposed the dire environmental and social impacts of one of Malaysia’s largest oil palm plantations in Pahang. Located near an environmentally protected area, the plantation’s operations have resulted in chaotic deforestation, disrupted water supplies, and threats to endangered wildlife, including tigers.
The plantation, described by an environmental consultant as “the worst-managed oil palm plantation in Malaysia,” has low palm oil yields and barren landscapes overrun with elephants. Developers often cite “wildlife conflict” to justify failures, shifting focus to logging valuable timber instead of sustainable plantation development.
Malaysiakini’s investigation also shed light on troubling links between plantation developers and political or royal interests, with 95% of the land developed by such entities. In December, the investigative team revealed that prominent banks provided large loans to plantation developers despite repeated project failures, questioning the banks’ credibility and oversight practices.
The investigation calls on the Malaysian government to tighten plantation approval processes and enforce environmental protections to prevent further harm to biodiversity and local communities.
Latin America is the fastest-growing producer of palm oil, but at what price for the environment and its defenders? Park rangers in Honduras tell harrowing tales of daily threats to their lives and…
From Brazil’s action against illegal gold miners to the Sacred Headwaters Alliance defending the Amazon, these top Indigenous stories of 2024 highlight resilience and challenges. The year of 2024 underscored the importance of…
On Tuesday, April 30, 2024, a shocking and disgraceful incident occurred in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). During a meeting of shareholders from Plantations et Huileries du Congo…
The Amazon’s diverse ecosystem is under threat from rampant deforestation, degradation, a biodiversity crisis, and the climate crisis – jeopardising its ability to act as a carbon sink. This degradation increases the likelihood of zoonotic diseases emerging…
Gold mining is unparalleled in its environmental destruction and human rights toll. Frustratingly, 93% of gold is used for non-essential purposes like jewellery and investments.
Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.
Take Action in Five Ways
1. Join the #Boycott4Wildlife on social media and subscribe to stay in the loop: Share posts from this website to your own network on Twitter, Mastadon, Instagram, Facebook and Youtube using the hashtags #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife.
2. Contribute stories: Academics, conservationists, scientists, indigenous rights advocates and animal rights advocates working to expose the corruption of the palm oil industry or to save animals can contribute stories to the website.
3. Supermarket sleuthing: Next time you’re in the supermarket, take photos of products containing palm oil. Share these to social media along with the hashtags to call out the greenwashing and ecocide of the brands who use palm oil. You can also take photos of palm oil free products and congratulate brands when they go palm oil free.
4. Take to the streets: Get in touch with Palm Oil Detectives to find out more.
5. Donate: Make a one-off or monthly donation to Palm Oil Detectives as a way of saying thank you and to help pay for ongoing running costs of the website and social media campaigns. Donate here
This year’s picks emphasize the region’s increasingly sophisticated cross-border crimes, but also how investigative journalists consistently expose them.
Greenwashing Tactic #10: Gaslighting, Harassment, Stalking and Attempting to Discredit Critics
Attempting to humiliate, gaslight, discredit, harass and stalk any vocal critics of a brand, commodity or industry certification in order to scare individuals into silence and stop them from revealing corruption
Gaslighting, harassment, stalking and attempting to discredit critics
This direct, aggressive and intimidating form of greenwashing can scare individuals into silence and stop them participating in online conversations or in exposing corruption.
Greenwashing Tactic #10: Gaslighting, Harassment, Stalking and Attempting to Discredit Critics
Attempting to humiliate, gaslight, discredit, harass and stalk any vocal critics of a brand, commodity or industry certification in order to scare individuals into silence and stop them from revealing corruption
Gaslighting, harassment, stalking and attempting to discredit critics
This direct, aggressive and intimidating form of greenwashing can scare individuals into silence and stop them participating in online conversations or in exposing corruption.
Greenwashing’s most insidious and darkest form is the attempt to discredit, humiliate, harass, abuse and stalk individuals in order to silence individuals and stop them from sharing research and reports with others about corporate corruption, greenwashing and ecocide.
Targets of Greenwashing by Gaslighting, Abuse, Stalking and Harassment
Targets of this kind of greenwashing could be researchers, conservationists, activists, investigative journalists, whistle-blowers, concerned consumers or brands (both big and small) who have taken a stand against palm oil and refuse to use it in their products.
Anybody who delves too deeply into the inconsistencies, misinformation and corruption in the palm oil industry is a target for this.
This form of greenwashing is not isolated to the palm oil lobby, many other industries apply these dark tactics to cool down criticism online about the environmental damage and ecocide caused by fossil fuels, meat, dairy, timber and extractive open-cut mining.
Harassment and abuse has the ability to intimidate and scare some individuals into silence and stop them participating in online conversations or from asking too many questions.
Abusive, gaslighting and greenwashing Pro Palm Oil Lobbyists on Twitter:
It is recommend to block all of these people to make your Twitter experience more enjoyable with less palm oil greenwashing, abuse, harassment and hate in your life
Bart Van Assen is the most vile and abusive troll of all. He has harassed me and stalked me in two successive workplaces and has been banned several times from Mastadon and Twitter for harassment and abuse. You can also find him doing the same to other people on Instagram
Ray Whitley: @RayWhitley13 (Fake vegan/lobbyist who does not advocate for animals on Twitter but instead simply foments divisiveness and hate on Twitter)
Gaslighting is a powerful tool for greenwashing and psychological manipulation. The gaslighter sows seeds of doubt in online conversations from questioning and doubtful researchers and consumers.
A gaslighter will tell individuals that they are wrong and misinformed about the corruption, deforestation, human rights abuses of brands and certification schemes.
That they know far less about an issue than so-called ‘experts’. However, on closer examination, these ‘experts’ are a series of researchers, Zoos or conservation NGOs that are paid by the industry. They produce positive research or ambiguous and inconclusive research that supports their spurious claims of green sustainability.
Discrediting people (especially researchers) who produce evidence of corruption, deforestation, and human rights abuses associated with so-called ‘sustainable’ palm oil.
Targets of this form of harassment: researchers, whistleblowers, journalists, activists. Any person (particularly a public figure) who takes a clear and strong stance palm oil, who calls out the corruption of the RSPO and advocates for a palm oil boycott will receive online abuse.
Below: Serial online abuser and greenwasher Michelle Desilets of Orangutan Land Trust cuts and pastes the same response underneath of all tweets calling for a palm oil boycott to attempt to discredit the #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife movement.
Pictured: Serial online abuser and greenwasher Michelle Desilets of Orangutan Land Trust cuts and pastes the same response underneath of all tweets calling for a palm oil boycott to attempt to discredit the evidence I’ve gathered about the RSPO’s corruption.
Other targets of greenwashing by discrediting on social media:
Dr Roberto Gatti: Lead author of peer-reviewed research showing that “sustainable” palm oil is not sustainable.
Aurora Sustainability Group: A group of researchers who produced peer-reviewed research showing that “sustainable” palm oil is not sustainable.
Dr Setia Budhi: Dayak ethnographer who refuses to be cowed or silenced about the immense corruption and indigenous landgrabbing associated with “sustainable” RSPO plantations in Borneo. Read interview and update.
Craig Jones: Independent photographer who visited an RSPO “sustainable” palm oil plantation in Sumatra (PT Sisirau) and witnessed a mother and baby being rescued from a location of total ecocide – an area illegally destroyed for palm oil – yet “sustainable”. Read this story and the report about the biodiversity of PT Sisirau.
Isabella Guerrini de Clare: Author of peer-reviewed research showing that “sustainable” palm oil is not sustainable.
Neue Zurcher Zeitung: Media outlet in Germany that published OSINT satellite data showing incontrovertible and clear evidence of destruction of protected rainforests and within RSPO palm oil plantations.
Dr Birute Galdikas – the most respected orangutan researcher in the world, who has spent 50 years of her life in the field helping orangutans. She has for decades been a vocal critic against the palm oil industry. One of the few researchers who is brave enough to stand up to large corporations and the RSPO.
Orangutan Land Trust is known by critics of the industry and whistle-blowers of ‘sustainable’ palm oil corruption as the Palm Oil Lies Trust
This charity’s three ‘volunteers’ Bart W Van Assen, Michelle Desilets and Jane Griffiths are responsible for most of the misinformation and greenwashing about the sustainable palm oil on social media.
They confuse unaware consumers and harass critics calling them trolls, sustainability deniers, psychopaths, morons and conspiracy theorists – they behave very professionally. For nearly 20 years they have greenwashed the RSPO’s atrocious record on deforestation, human rights violations and illegal land-grabbing.
Bart Van Assen
Former auditor trainer for the RSPO and FSC, Bart Van Assen juggles various account names on Twitter before getting them banned for abusing people.
Bart has had 3 accounts banned from Twitter: @thewicorman @wildingrocks @bartwvanassen for harassment, abuse and stalking people. As a result of this behaviour, he has also had several police cases opened against him. He even talks in detail about how he stalked palm oil corruption whistleblower @ExposeLies2 on his website: Wilding Rocks. He has abused and harassed countless other people.
He currently uses: @palmoiltruther, @Apes4Forests @Forests4Apes @BartWVanAssen @eachtreematters @vliegerholland on Twitter. In the past, Bart has trained people to undertake audits in order to verify that palm oil plantations adhere to RSPO certified sustainable standards. The RSPO’s audits have been independently verified by different organisations to be fraudulent.
Bart’s now permanently suspended account on Twitter with the same name
A tweet from Bart Van Assen, former lead auditor for the RSPO and HCV admitting that the main goal of the RSPO, FSC and other certification initiatives is not to prevent deforestation. (Bart has formerly used @palmoiltruther on Twitter but now changes between @Forest4Apes or @Apes4Forests depending on times when he attempts to conceal his identity).
Bart Van Assen: Former RSPO and FSC Auditor and vile troll on Twitter and Mastadon
Bart Van Assen AKA @palmoiltruther and 3 other banned Twitter accounts @wildingrocks @thewicorman @bartwvanassen, banned for abuse and harassment of people exposing corruption of RSPO so-called ‘sustainable’ palm oil Bart Van Assen Palm Oil Truther Orangutan Land Trust – Harassment and Abuse, getting banned from Twitter Bart Van Assen AKA Wilding Rocks AKA The Wicorman AKA PalmOilTruther harassing people and getting banned from Twitter Bart Van Assen AKA Wilding Rocks AKA The Wicorman AKA PalmOilTruther harassing people and getting banned from Twitter Bart Van Assen AKA Wilding Rocks AKA The Wicorman AKA PalmOilTruther harassing people and getting banned from Twitter Bart Van Assen AKA Wilding Rocks AKA The Wicorman AKA and stalking people from Twitter and getting banned from Twitter Bart Van Assen and Michelle Desilets harass, abuse and attempt to discredit anyone who exposes corruption of the so-called ‘sustainable’ palm oil industry Michelle Desilets threatening and harassing people
Bart Van Assen: Lead Auditor Trainer for the RSPO
and full time greenwasher and online abuser of any person who declares that they want to boycott palm oil
Many of these reports cite extremely poor auditing is a major reason for the failure of the RSPO. In other words, the auditing process is not, nor has ever been robust enough to prevent human rights abuses, deforestation and illegal indigenous land-grabbing from taking place.
“Non-adherence to the RSPO’s standards is systemic and widespread, and has led to ongoing land conflicts, labour abuses and destruction of forests.
“As the world approaches 2020 targets to halt deforestation, the RSPO needs to rapidly implement radical solutions to restore its credibility. We question whether the RSPO is willing and able to rectify its systemic failures – ultimately, voluntary certification is too limited by its voluntary nature.”
“While RSPO is often referred to as the best scheme in the sector, it has several shortcomings; most notably it has not prevented human rights violations and it does not require GHG emissions reductions.”
“Implementation of [the RSPO’s] standards is often weak, with serious audit failures being reported, many members failing to meet the full range of membership requirements and grievances slow to be addressed.”
“Without assurance mechanisms that properly function, the RSPO has little credibility and its claims are hollow.
“RSPO companies have continued to be beset by assurance issues in 2020. Associated Press notably reported on labour violations in Malaysia, including by RSPO members. These allegations included forced labour, the abuse of women and child labour, among others.”
A 2019 World Health Organisation (WHO) report into the palm oil industry and RSPO finds extensive greenwashing of palm oil deforestation and the murder of endangered animals (i.e. biodiversity loss)
It was also acknowledged that the taskforce did not have the capacity to handle the responsibilities that it had set itself, and that besides training, a new model where the work was outsourced might be needed.
In ending the session, the panelists identified the most important things that would kickstart better assurance, namely: obtaining feedback to improve the assurance system, formulating better social policy, improved communications, rigour in meeting deadlines, and maintaining credible audits.
Jane is a ‘volunteer’ for Orangutan Land Trust, rarely does she openly harass or abuse people, however she does jump to most conversations about palm oil and gaslights and generates doubt. She casts doubt by citing the partnership of the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA) and the RSPO and an approval of the RSPO from David Attenborough in the form of a handwritten letter.
Example: Greenwashing with lies, abuse, discrediting whistleblowers
Craig Jones, one of the most respected photojournalists in Britain recorded a mother and baby close to death on an RSPO palm oil plantation – PT Sisirau in 2012
He was later told that he needed to hold off on releasing the photos of this hellish scene until after the RSPO conference.
Bart and Michelle claim that Craig was lying about this, that PT Sisirau was not an RSPO member palm oil plantation. The problem with that accusation is that there is public evidence from the RSPO’s own website which shows that this is a blatant lie.
A complaint was made to the RSPO by Helen Buckland, personal friend of Michelle Desilets and Director of OrangutanSOS. She attempted to prevent Craig from publishing the deeply horrific images until after the RSPO conference that year. The RSPO took a full year to send investigators to the plantation to examine the situation. The complaint, meeting minutes and report is below.
Michelle Desilets who conducts greenwashing for the RSPO in her ‘volunteer’ role for Orangutan Land Trust is also on the Complaints Panel for the RSPO. She investigates complaints of human rights and labour abuses, illegal land-grabbing, ecocide and illegal deforestation on RSPO palm oil plantations. She was part of the decision-making on PT Sisirau, so her tweets are a blatant lie that has been caught out.
A letter advising of the cancellation of PT Sisrau’s RSPO membership following the incident of illegal deforestation and orangutan harm, documented by Craig Jones. Meeting minutes from a Complaints Panel for the RSPO – which features Michelle Desilets on the panel.
Despite the presence of some threatened species, the area has an impoverished animal community. It is useful to look at the families that are missing. There were no tracks of: scavenging viverrids, arboreal squirrels and tupaiids and tragulids. All these would be expected in scrub and agricultural areas.
There were no overflying ardeids and other water birds from the nearby coastal wetland areas. No overflying hornbills from the adjacent from the nearby protected forests. In the scrub and secondary areas there were no drongos, flowerpeckers, starlings, flycatchers and babblers living off the local insects and fruit. There was a single cuckoo calling and no calls from barbets. And despite being a palm growing area, there were no parrots and no aerial feeding swifts.
The area within the project site and beyond in the Gunung Leuser Ecosystem area was extensively disturbed and clearance removed most of the low mobility, forest dependent species in the project site and beyond.
Aggarwal, P. (2011). Greenwashing: The darker side of CSR. Indian Journal of Applied Research, 4(3), 61-66. worldwidejournals.com/indian-j…
Anti-Corporate Activism and Collusion: The Contentious Politics of Palm Oil Expansion in Indonesia, (2022). Ward Berenschot, et. al., Geoforum, Volume 131, 2022, doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.202…
Balanced Growth (2020), In: Leal Filho W., Azul A.M., Brandli L., özuyar P.G., Wall T. (eds) Responsible Consumption and Production. Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Springer, Cham
Berenschot, W., Hospes, O., & Afrizal, A. (2023). Unequal access to justice: An evaluation of RSPO’s capacity to resolve palm oil conflicts in Indonesia. Agriculture and Human Values, 40, 291-304. doi.org/10.1007/s10460-022-103…
Carlson, K. M., Heilmayr, R., Gibbs, H. K., Noojipady, P., et al. (2018). Effect of oil palm sustainability certification on deforestation and fire in Indonesia. PNAS, 115(1), 121-126. doi.org/10.1073/pnas.170472811…
Cazzolla Gatti, R., Liang, J., Velichevskaya, A., & Zhou, M. (2018). Sustainable palm oil may not be so sustainable. Science of The Total Environment, 652, 48-51. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/303598…
Changing Times Media. (2019). Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil is ‘greenwashing’ labelled products, environmental investigation agency says. Changing Times Media. changingtimes.media/2019/11/03…
Commodifying sustainability: Development, nature and politics in the palm oil industry (2019). World Development, Volume 121, September 2019, Pages 218-228. ideas.repec.org/a/eee/wdevel/v…
Contrasting communications of sustainability science in the media coverage of palm oil agriculture on tropical peatlands in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore (2020). Liu, F. H. M., Ganesan, V., Smith, T. E. L. Environmental Science & Policy, 114. researchgate.net/publication/3…
Cosimo, L. H. E., Masiero, M., Mammadova, A., & Pettenella, D. (2024). Voluntary sustainability standards to cope with the new European Union regulation on deforestation-free products: A gap analysis. Forest Policy and Economics, 164, 103235. doi.org/10.1016/j.forpol.2024.…
Dalton, J. (2018). No such thing as sustainable palm oil – ‘certified’ can destroy even more wildlife, say scientists. The Independent. independent.co.uk/climate-chan…
Davis, S. J., Alexander, K., Moreno-Cruz, J., et al. (2023). Food without agriculture. Nature Sustainability. nature.com/articles/s41893-023…
EIA International. (2022). Will palm oil watchdog rid itself of deforestation or continue to pretend its products are sustainable? EIA International. eia-international.org/news/wil…
Environmental Investigation Agency. (2019). Palm oil watchdog’s sustainability guarantee is still a destructive con. EIA International. eia-international.org/news/pal…
Fifteen environmental NGOs demand that sustainable palm oil watchdog does its job (2019). Rainforest Action Network. ran.org/press-releases/fifteen…
Friends of the Earth International. (2018). RSPO: 14 years of failure to eliminate violence and destruction from the industrial palm oil sector. Friends of the Earth International. foei.org/rspo-14-years-of-fail…
Lang, Chris and REDD Monitor. Sustainable palm oil? RSPO’s greenwashing and fraudulent audits exposed. The Ecologist. theecologist.org/2015/nov/19/s…
Gatti, L., Pizzetti, M., & Seele, P. (2021). Green lies and their effect on intention to invest. Journal of Business Research, 127, 376-387. doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2021…
Group Challenges Rainforest Alliance Earth-Friendly Seal of Approval (2015). Truth in Advertising. truthinadvertising.org/group-c…
Helan, A. (2011). Greenwash and spin: palm oil lobby targets its critics. Ecologist: Informed by Nature. theecologist.org/2011/feb/15/g…
Hewlett Packard. (2021). What is Greenwashing and How to Tell Which Companies are Truly Environmentally Responsible. Hewlett Packard. hp.com/us-en/shop/tech-takes/w…
Holzner, A., Rameli, N. I. A. M., Ruppert, N., & Widdig, A. (2024). Agricultural habitat use affects infant survivorship in an endangered macaque species. Current Biology. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/381949…
Jauernig, J., Uhl, M., & Valentinov, V. (2021). The ethics of corporate hypocrisy: An experimental approach. Futures, 129, 102757. doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2021…
Li, T. M., & Semedi, P. (2021). Plantation life: Corporate occupation in Indonesia’s oil palm zone. Duke University Press. dukeupress.edu/plantation-life
Liu, F. H. M., Ganesan, V., & Smith, T. E. L. (2020). Contrasting communications of sustainability science in the media coverage of palm oil agriculture on tropical peatlands in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. Environmental Science & Policy, 114. researchgate.net/publication/3…
Meemken, E. M., Barrett, C. B., Michelson, H. C., et al. (2021). Sustainability standards in global agrifood supply chains. Nature Food. doi.org/10.1038/s43016-021-002…
Miles, T. (2019). Study in WHO journal likens palm oil lobbying to tobacco and alcohol industries. Reuters. reuters.com/article/idUSKCN1P2…
Nygaard, A. (2023). Is sustainable certification’s ability to combat greenwashing trustworthy? Frontiers in Sustainability, 4, Article 1188069. doi.org/10.3389/frsus.2023.118…
Oppong-Tawiah D, Webster J. Corporate Sustainability Communication as ‘Fake News’: Firms’ Greenwashing on Twitter. Sustainability. 2023; 15(8):6683. mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/8/6683
Pabon, J. (2024). The great greenwashing: How brands, governments, and influencers are lying to you. Anansi International. vitalsource.com/products/the-g…
Podnar, K., & Golob, U. (2024). Brands and activism: Ecosystem and paradoxes. Journal of Brand Management, 31, 95–107. link.springer.com/article/10.1…
Rainforest Action Network. (2019). Fifteen environmental NGOs demand that sustainable palm oil watchdog does its job. RAN. ran.org/press-releases/fifteen…
Renner, A., Zellweger, C., & Skinner, B. (2021). ‘Is there such a thing as sustainable palm oil? Satellite images show protected rainforest on fire’. Neue Zürcher Zeitung. nzz.ch/english/palm-oil-boom-t…
Saager, E. S., Iwamura, T., Jucker, T., & Murray, K. A. (2023). Deforestation for oil palm increases microclimate suitability for the development of the disease vector Aedes albopictus. Scientific Reports, 13(1), 9514. nature.com/articles/s41598-023…
Southey, F. (2021). What do Millennials think of palm oil? Nestlé investigates. Food Navigator. foodnavigator.com/Article/2021…
Transparency International. (2023). Transparency international report: Corruption and corporate capture in Indonesia’s top 50 palm oil companies. Transparency International. palmoildetectives.com/2023/05/…
Tybout, A. M., & Calkins, T. (Eds.). (2019). Kellogg on Branding in a Hyper-Connected World. Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. wiley.com/en-au/Kellogg+on+Bra…
Wicke, J. (2019). Sustainable palm oil or certified dispossession? NGOs within scalar struggles over the RSPO private governance standard. Bioeconomy & Inequalities: Working Paper No. 8. bioinequalities.uni-jena.de/so…
World Health Organisation. (2019). The palm oil industry and noncommunicable diseases. World Health Organisation Bulletin, 97, 118-128. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/307286…
World Rainforest Movement. (2021, November 22). Why the RSPO facilitates land grabs for palm oil. wrm.org.uy/articles-from-the-w…
Zuckerman, J. (2021). The Time Has Come to Rein In the Global Scourge of Palm Oil. Yale Environment 360, Yale School of Environment. e360.yale.edu/features/the-tim…
Palm Oil Detectives is completely self-funded by its creator. All hosting and website fees and investigations into brands are self-funded by the creator of this online movement. If you like what I am doing, you and would like me to help meet costs, please send Palm Oil Detectives a thanks on Ko-Fi.
A visual investigation by the NZZ shows the standards for certifying palm oil production as sustainable are often ignored. The consequences for millions of hectares of vulnerable rainforest could be catastrophic as the industry expands.
Eyewitness Story: The Last Village by Dr Setia Budhi
A lone Dayak village in Borneo surrounded by palm oil plantations has held out for 14 years and resisted corporate infiltration by global palm oil giants. My name is Dr Setia Budhi, I am a Dayak ethnographer and human rights advocate. I visited this village recently to see how they were going.
Pictured: The Barito River, the largest river in South Kalimantan Borneo by Aditya Perdana, Getty Images
“#Dayaks DO NOT want their lands turned to #palmoil. 1. They depend on rainforests for food/weaving. 2. They don’t want their roaming area disturbed 3. They don’t want to lose their land.” Dr Setia Budhi #Boycottpalmoil 🤬🌴🚫 palmoildetectives.com/2022/11/… @palmoildetect.bsky.social
Recently, I stayed a Ngaju Dayak village for 15 days
During my visit I wrote a lot, chatted with villagers and visited palm oil farmers.
This remote village is 125 km from downtown Banjarmasin. It’s a distance of about two hours by motorbike to arrive in a neighboring village and from then there, three hours by boat.
Located on the banks of the Barito river, the people who live here are the Ngaju Dayak.
Pictured: Dayak long house in Kalimantan, PxFuel.
The first time I visited this village was 14 years ago in 2008
Since then, I’ve always followed its development by reading the news. Especially interesting is the development that the villagers have refused the presence of palm oil plantations. They have refused to give up their lands to global corporate palm oil companies.
Fourteen years ago, I thought that this village would eventually be besieged by the expansion of oil palm plantations. My suspicions were based on what happened in neighbouring villages. They had given up and accepted the omnipresence of palm oil. Many residents sold their land to the plantations.
In these other towns, some residents work with palm oil companies in a cooperative way. Their land is planted with palm oil and they, as owners, work for the company for wages. Their activities include land-clearing, planting palm oil, along with fertilising and liming the soil.
So these people work on their own land. At that time, their daily wages are around 50,000 rupiahs ($3.30 USD) per day.
Pictured: Klotok traditional river boat on a river in Borneo by Guenterguni Getty Images
There are three reasons why the villagers do not want their ancestral lands to become a palm oil plantation:
1. They depend on the rainforest and peatlands for natural resources such as fisheries, agriculture and rattan weaving.
2. They don’t want their roaming area to be disturbed.
3. They don’t want to lose their land.
By roaming area‟ you probably think of a suburban area near you. For Dayaks, their roaming area is vastly different.
Clockwise: The Barito River: The largest river in South Kalimantan Borneo by Aditya Perdana Getty Images; Wooden Dayak village – Long Iram on the riverbank Mahakam river East Kalimantan, Indonesia. Getty Images; Nature in Annah Rais Sarawak, Malaysia by Nyiragongo Getty Images; Barito River -The largest river in South Kalimantan, Indonesia by Aditya Perdana Getty Images; Borneo’s spectacular rivers and rainforests; Getty Images; A group of beautiful Dayak Fruit Bats Dyacopterus spadiceus perched inside a hut at the Way Kambas National Park in Sumatra via Getty Images Signature collection.
The Dayak people need a roaming area for hunting, fishing and foraging for herbs, building materials and medicines
Pictured: Dayak family, Central Kalimantan by IndoMet licensed under CC BY 2.0 The palm oil industry is an unstoppable global corporate juggernaut that has become increasingly greedy for land in the past ten years.
When you hear about even a tiny piece of land that is about to be sold, global palm oil companies immediately and aggressively go after the land as buyers. They bargain and negotiate, driving the price down that they pay for the land – so the traditional landowners do not get paid what the land is really worth.
Pictured: Plasma Poverty, a joint investigation by Gecko Project and the BBC into major supermarket brands like Mondelez and Nestle (RSPO members) who are stripping smallholder farmers of their share of profitfor palm oil.
To read the news in Indonesia and Malaysia is to read brazen lies and greenwashing about palm oil
Reading news about palm oil is an astonishing experience that will fill you with confusion and incredulity. Your newsfeed will be brimming with stories about the greatness of oil palm and the welfare of farmers.
Palm oil is considered “good” in a neoliberal sense of the financial and economic growth that it brings here as a country. Also palm oil is considered “good” as an environmentally-friendly and healthy ingredient for all to buy and consume.
There is a flood of greenwashing news across all media channels: TV, online media, and social media channels celebrating the virtues of this enormously destructive ingredient. This false narrative emphasises palm oil as a method of “care for the environment‟.
For this reason, nowadays I choose to distance myself from social media, as this content is dishonest about what palm oil is in reality.
“Many of us grow rice, fruits and vegetables on our indigenous lands for survival and depend on the cash sales from oil palm fruits to buy what we cannot grow. Our oil palm trees empower us as indigenous peoples.”
The reality of palm oil is vastly different for Dayak peoples
Reports carried out by news media in Borneo simulate the facts about the real events and the detrimental impact of palm oil on Dayak communities.
We as the audience must remain constantly vigilant and aware that this is bad news.
“An assistant manager came to my home. On that day my oldest son had fever. He said to my husband, “Your five hectares of land here is gone and two hectares here is gone. Go to the company and get your money.” My husband told them he doesn’t want to sell. Months later, while I was at my mother’s new house [in the plantation] and my husband was away in Malaysia, we heard a loud noise and could see smoke. I went to see, and it was crazy. My house was already burned. Everything was in there, my son’s bicycle, clothes, and all the wood we planned to build a house, all was gone.”
~ Francesca, a 28-year-old Iban Dayak mother of two, told Human Rights Watch about how she and her husband refused relocation. She said that company representatives torched her home, rendering them homeless. Story via Human Rights Watch
Pictured: Rainforest on fire, Getty Images
Pollution run-off in an RSPO member palm oil plantation in Sumatra. Craig Jones Wildlife PhotographyDeforestation for palm oil at ground level – Getty Images videoDeforestation for palm oil waste reservoirs- Getty Images
The difficulty of addressing and resolving oil palm conflicts is due not only to the inadequacies of Indonesia’s legal framework regarding land and plantations but also to the way in which Indonesia’s informalized state institutions foster collusion between local power holders and palm oil companies. This collusion enables companies to evade regulation, suppress community protests and avoid engaging in constructive efforts to resolve conflicts. Furthermore, this collusion has made the available conflict resolution mechanisms largely ineffective.
With the palm oil narrative in Indonesia – many people can no longer distinguish the real from the fake, the fact from the simulation
The media presents a seemingly diverse chorus of voices that all seem to be singing from the same songbook – all of them praising palm oil.
Interviews with field officers, researchers, seminar recordings, podcasts, PR and advertising campaigns are backed financially by the palm oil industry to glaze over and greenwash the immense environmental and social impact of palm oil.
Instead we are presented with a positive narrative about palm oil that offers improved living conditions for farmers. This is not the lived reality for Dayak people. We are told that palm oil is a lucrative crop that benefits the farmers. This is not the lived reality for Dayak people.
Pictured: A Dayak woman weaves pandan in a traditional longhouse, PxFuel
The greenwashing of palm oil deforestation intensifies as time goes on
News articles and reports talk about how this country is preparing to deal with climate change, so as not to damage forests and also to save forests from deforestation.
News about customary Dayak lands that are seized for palm oil illegally or by force is online only momentarily and quickly disappears. These violations human rights are rendered invisible by the media in here.
In our news hungry and busy world, most people don’t read beyond the headlines. The messy, corrupt and invisible world of massive land-clearing for palm oil goes on without the world knowing about it through the media. In the meantime, tropical rainforests of Indonesia and Malaysia are silently disappearing. https://seanweston.co.uk" title="Deforestation by Sean Weston https://seanweston.co.uk" class="has-alt-description">Deforestation by Sean Westonseanweston.co.uk
The current era of fake news was predicted by Jean Baudrillard several decades ago
When we can no longer distinguish the truth, the facts and the real from a news. This is Hyperreality.
“The real has died and been replaced by Simulation”
~ Jean Baudrillard.
This is what Jean Baudrillard called the era of Simulacra, Simulation, and Hyperreality. When the news plays with symbols, and the public who consume or read the news only see and know about the simulation, we are existing in Hyperreality, in a Simulacra.
People who consume the news only know the simulation/ hyperreality in a Simulacra – Jean Baudrillard
A Simulacra is a combination of values, facts, signs, images and codes. In this reality we no longer find references or representations except the simulacra itself. People who consume the news only know the simulation/ hyperreality in a Simulacra – Jean Baudrillard Image, originally tweeted by lookcaitlin (@lookcaitlin) on September 17, 2022.
Greenwashing and denialism in the media about the environmental impact of palm oil
A recent report by the World Health Organisation (WHO) found that the palm oil industry used the same aggressive tactics for greenwashing akin to the tobacco and alcohol industries. Read more
Research studies of SE Asian media reporting on palm oil show a denialist and greenwashing narrative that is similar to climate change denialism i.e. climate change greenwashing.
“We found that media reporting of the denialist narrative is more prevalent than that of the peer-reviewed science consensus-view that palm oil plantations on tropical peat could cause excessive greenhouse gas emissions and enhance the risk of fires. “Our article alerts to the continuation of unsustainable practices as justified by the media to the public, and that the prevalence of these denialist narratives constitute a significant obstacle in resolving pressing issues such as transboundary haze, biodiversity loss, and land-use change related greenhouse gas emissions in Southeast Asia.”
~ Liu, Felicia & Ganesan, Vignaa & Smith, Thomas. (2020). Contrasting communications of sustainability science in the media coverage of palm oil agriculture on tropical peatlands in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. Environmental Science & Policy. 114. 162-169. 10.1016/j.envsci.2020.07.004.
Deforestation – Craig Jones Wildlife Photography Pictured clockwise: An orangutan grips helplessly onto a broken and destroyed tree, Craig Jones Wildlife Photography; River pollution, PxFuel; A freshly destroyed rainforest in Indonesia, Craig Jones Wildlife Photography; A vast and lifeless palm oil plantation, Greenpeace.
Impact of the media Simulacrum on Dayak people
Media coverage about the “goodness of palm oil” has a deep psychological impact on Dayak communities. In the news, this is where the simulation or simulacra begins to occur.
Pictured: Dayak men in Kalimantan, Pxfuel.
Some people cannot sort and distinguish the truth of the news content from the actual facts. Meanwhile, the village that I visited is still holding on to their traditional way of life – not to palm oil. This is the Last Village.
Dayak people in the neighbouring village tell them how they have lost their fishing resources. That now, because of the palm oil run-off and pollution there are no more fish to catch. Their roaming area has become too narrow.
They say: “Oh you are right! Keep on resisting the palm oil siege! For we are now labourers toiling for little money on our ancestral land.”
Liu, Felicia & Ganesan, Vignaa & Smith, Thomas. (2020). Contrasting communications of sustainability science in the media coverage of palm oil agriculture on tropical peatlands in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. Environmental Science & Policy. 114. 162-169. 10.1016/j.envsci.2020.07.004.
Manzo, Kate & Padfield, Rory. (2016). Palm oil not polar bears: Climate change and development in Malaysian media. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers. 41. 10.1111/tran.12129.
Morris J. Simulacra in the Age of Social Media: Baudrillard as the Prophet of Fake News. Journal of Communication Inquiry. 2021;45(4):319-336. doi:10.1177/0196859920977154
Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing (1998). Under the Shadows of the Queen of Diamonds: The Process of Marginalization in Isolated Communities. Indonesian Torch Foundation, Jakarta.
“The Forest is the father, land is the mother and rivers are blood
“That’s the spirituality of most Dayak people in Kalimantan. They understand the interdependent nature of everything in nature.”
Palm Oil Detectives is completely self-funded by its creator. All hosting and website fees and investigations into brands are self-funded by the creator of this online movement. If you like what I am doing, you and would like me to help meet costs, please send Palm Oil Detectives a thanks on Ko-Fi.
Palm Oil Detectives is completely self-funded by its creator. All hosting and website fees and investigations into brands are self-funded by the creator of this online movement. If you like what I am doing, you and would like me to help meet costs, please send Palm Oil Detectives a thanks on Ko-Fi.
This is "WHO Report - palm oil greenwashing and lobbying video" by Palm Oil Detectives on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love…
What does the $60 billion USD palm oil industry have in common with Big Tobacco? A lot according to this report by the World Health Organisation. Palm oil industry lobbying tactics are used to influence research into the health impacts of palm oil and also to influence consumer buying habits using deceptive advertising and greenwashing. The dire health and environmental impacts of palm oil are hidden from consumers by clever greenwashing and outright lies by NGOs, Zoos, researchers and food
... show more
WHO: Palm Oil Industry Greenwashing Like Big Tobacco
What does the $60 billion USD palm oil industry have in common with Big Tobacco? A lot according to this report by the World Health Organisation. Palm oil industry lobbying tactics are used to influence research into the health impacts of palm oil and also to influence consumer buying habits using deceptive advertising and greenwashing. The dire health and environmental impacts of palm oil are hidden from consumers by clever greenwashing and outright lies by NGOs, Zoos, researchers and food companies associated with and funded by the palm oil industry. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) the lobbying, marketing and greenwashing tactics used by the palm oil industry are reminiscent of the tobacco and alcohol industries.
“There is mutual benefit for #palmoil and processed food industry. The latter targets ads for ultra-processed foods towards children. Similar to #tobacco and #alcohol industries’ targeting of children” ~ @WHO Bulletin. #Boycottpalmoil
@WHO Report: “#Palmoil lobbying tactics include fighting regulations, trying to undermine reliable sources of information and using poverty alleviation arguments, similar to the #tobacco/ #alcohol industries.” #Boycottpalmoil
“@RSPOtweets certification has been linked to limited amounts of reduced #palmoil deforestation. A recent study found little impact on forest loss and #fire detection” ~ @WHO Bulletin We #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife
@WHO report: “The @RSPOtweets #palmoil sustainability certification has been linked to limited reduced #deforestation. A recent study found little impact on forest loss and #fire detection.” #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife
@WHO Bulletin: “Studies have found that the @RSPOtweets board members were still associated with companies involved in mass #deforestation.” This is why we #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife
@WHO Bulletin: “The #palmoil industry tries to influence global health policy-making. Tactics include establishing lobbying structures in political and economic hubs, fighting regulations and more” We #Boycottpalmoil
@WHO Bulletin 2019: “NGOs such as Palm Oil Investigations withdrew support for the Roundtable of Sustainable Palm Oil @RSPOtweets after evidence of harmful business practices emerged.” #Boycottpalmoil
@WHO Bulletin: “@RSPOtweets’ sustainability certification effort has been linked to limited amounts of reduced #deforestation, with a recent study finding little impact on forest loss and fire detection.” #Boycottpalmoil
“@WHO and @FAO advise that the evidence linking saturated #fat consumption with increased risk of #cardiovascular disease is convincing.” ~ WHO Bulletin This is why we #Boycottpalmoil
“With #palmoil’s unclear food labelling and conflicting information on #health impacts, it can be difficult for consumers to identify palm oil. They may be unaware of what they are eating or its #safety.” ~ @WHO Bulletin
“Although its negative #health impacts are contested, a meta-analysis of increased #palmoil consumption in 23 countries found a strong relationship to higher mortality from #heartdisease.” ~ @WHO Report #Boycottpalmoil
@WHO report: “There is mutual benefit for the #palmoil and #processedfood industries. Ads for ultra-processed foods target children – similar to aggressive advertising by the #tobacco and alcohol industries” #Boycottpalmoil
@WHO #Palmoil Report: “Of major concern is the effect of exposure to #airpollution particulate matter on fetal, infant and child mortality”. #Boycottpalmoil for your children’s #health
@WHO #Palmoil Report: “The direct and indirect impact of the palm oil cultivation industry on #children, including #childlabour practices, is especially concerning.” #Boycottpalmoil
@WHO Bulletin: “In Indonesia, around 2 million women are employed in the #palmoil industry. Children dependent on palm oil workers are impacted by lack of child-care, poor maternal #health, poor #nutrition, and difficulty in accessing education.” #Boycottpalmoil
@WHO Bulletin: “In Indonesia, an est. 2 million women work in the #palmoil industry. Children dependent on workers are impacted by lack of child-care, poor maternal #health, poor #nutrition, difficulty in accessing education.”
@WHO report on #palmoil: “Investigations by NGOs have found #childlabour and #humanrights violations at Roundtable @RSPOtweets members’ plantations.” This is why we #Boycottpalmoil
Large-scale industries do not operate in isolation, but have tangible impacts on human and planetary health. An often overlooked actor in the fight against non communicable diseases is the palm oil industry.
The dominance of palm oil in the food processing industry makes it the world’s most widely produced vegetable oil. We applied the commercial determinants of health framework to analyse the palm oil industry. We highlight the industry’s mutually profitable relationship with the processed food industry and its impact on human and planetary health, including detrimental cultivation practices that are linked to respiratory illnesses, deforestation, loss of biodiversity and pollution.
This analysis illustrates many parallels to the contested nature of practices adopted by the alcohol and tobacco industries. The article concludes with suggested actions for researchers, policy-makers and the global health community to address and mitigate the negative impacts of the palm oil industry on human and planetary health.
Introduction
Public health discourse increasingly focuses on the role of alcohol, tobacco and sugar in the growing burden of noncommunicable diseases. Increasingly this dialogue highlights how, in the pursuit of increased profits, the industries involved in these products aim to shape public and political opinion as well as influence research outcomes to influence policies that endanger public health.1,2 The palm oil industry is missing from this dialogue.
Palm oil is one of the world’s most commonly used vegetable oils, present in around half of frequently used food and consumer products, from snacks to cosmetics.3,4 Worldwide production of the oil has increased from 15 million tonnes in 1995 to 66 million tonnes in 2017. The rapid expansion in use is attributed to yields nearly four times other vegetable oil crops, with similar production costs; favourable characteristics for the food industry (its relatively high smoke point and being semi-solid state at room temperature); and strategies aimed at ensuring government policies are supportive to the expansion of palm oil cultivation, production and use.5 While these factors associated with palm oil offer clear advantages for the processed food industry, the oil contains a much higher percentage of saturated fats compared to other vegetable oils.6
Although its negative health impacts are contested,7 a meta-analysis of increased palm oil consumption in 23 countries found a significant relationship with higher mortality from ischaemic heart disease.8
Another systematic review found that palm oil consumption increased blood levels of atherogenic low-density lipoprotein cholesterol.6 As early as 2003, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) described the evidence linking saturated fat consumption with increased risk of cardiovascular disease as convincing.9
The indirect health impacts of oil-palm cultivation are less contested; clearing land for plantations by slash-and-burn practices has led to recurring episodes of harmful haze in South-East Asia.10 The most recent occurrence, in 2015, led to an estimated 100 000 premature deaths in the region from pollutants and documented increases in respiratory, eye and skin diseases.11
The impact of the [palm oil] industry on planetary health, that is, “the health of human civilisation and the state of the natural systems on which it depends”,12 through the cultivation practices of oil-palm trees has also been well-documented.
This entails large-scale deforestation, including loss of up to 50% of trees in some tropical forest areas; endangerment of at-risk species; increased greenhouse gas emissions (due to deforestation and drainage of peat bogs); water and soil pollution; and the rise of certain invasive species.13,14
Estimations suggest that more than two-thirds of the palm produced goes to food products, making the processed food industry’s relationship with the palm oil industry critical.15 With the United States Food and Drug Administration’s ban on trans-fatty acids (TFA) due to their potential adverse health impacts in 2015,16 and a similar recommendation by the WHO in 2018,17 an increase in the use of palm oil as a potential replacement for TFA in ultra-processed foods could be anticipated. This paper aims to describe the relationship between the palm oil and processed food industries and how these interconnect with public and planetary health. Box 1 lists the key terminology in the palm oil industry.
Approach
The commercial determinants of health are defined as “strategies and approaches used by the private sector to promote products and choices that are detrimental to health.”19 We adapted a 2016 framework on the commercial determinants of health (Fig. 1) and applied it to the palm oil industry to review the three domains: (i) drivers (internationalization of trade and capital, expanding outreach of corporations and demands of economic growth); (ii) channels (marketing, supply chains, lobbying and corporate citizenship); and (iii) outcomes (on the environment, consumers and health). The environment component was adapted from the initial framework to expand the scope beyond the social environment.
Fig. 1 Commercial determinants of health Source: Republished with permission from Kickbusch et al. 2016.19
Drivers
Internationalisation of trade and capital
Oil-palm plantations cover over 27 million hectares worldwide, an area approximately the size of New Zealand. The industry is estimated to be worth 60 billion United States dollars (US$) and employs 6 million people,7 with an additional 11 million people indirectly dependent on it, particularly in rural areas where jobs can be scarce. In 2014, Indonesia and Malaysia accounted for over 53.3 million (85%) of the 62.4 million tonnes of global palm oil production and have rapidly expanded their farming and exports. Indonesia, for example, increased production from 19.2 tonnes in 2008 to 32.0 tonnes in 2016. The largest importers of palm oil are India, China, the European Union countries, Malaysia and Pakistan.20
The palm oil and processed food industries have mutually benefited from increased sales and consumption of products through rapid internationalisation and trade. This trend is likely to continue as low- and middle-income countries increasingly move from eating fresh, minimally processed foods to ultra-processed products.21 Sales by manufacturers of ultra-processed foods containing palm oil have been expanding.22
Expanding outreach of corporations
Although many companies use palm oil, processing and refining is concentrated in a limited number of corporations. Companies source their supply from their own concessions, from a large number of third-party suppliers and smallholders, both independent and tied through partnership agreements.23 Increasingly, large corporations are expanding palm-oil refining capacity, expanding the scope of industry concentration.24 Indonesia and Malaysia have used government policies, including subsidies and land incentives, to assist industry expansion and facilitate greater investment.23
More than half the plantations in Indonesia are industrial estates of > 6000 hectares owned by private companies, with 40% smallholders with plantations < 25 hectares and 7% state-owned.13 When attempts are made to regulate oil-palm cultivation, industry leaders have highlighted the threat to smallholders’ livelihoods, making palm oil production a controversial political issue.25
Demands of growth
The palm oil industry is projected to reach a production value of US$ 88 billion by 2022.20 The increasing availability of palm oil, alongside increasing numbers of countries banning TFA in processed foods,26,27 means that palm oil will likely remain the food industry’s preferred vegetable oil in ultra-processed foods. With China and India continuing to import palm oil for consumption, the growth in its use is anticipated to continue.
Channels
Marketing
Marketing of palm oil does not occur in the traditional sense. Responding to a backlash against accusations of poor environmental and labour practices, the industry has sought to portray its products as sustainable, while highlighting the contribution to poverty alleviation. For example, in advance of the European Union’s 2020 ban on palm oil as a biofuel, the industry launched advertisements featuring smallholder farmers whose livelihoods would be lost.25 There is also a mutual benefit for the palm oil and processed food industry, with the latter targeting advertisements for ultra-processed foods towards children (similar to efforts by the tobacco and alcohol industries in targeting children and adolescents)28,29 and the palm oil refining industry benefiting from the corresponding increase in sales of foods containing palm oil.30–33
There is also a mutual benefit for the palm oil and processed food industry, with the latter targeting advertisements for ultra-processed foods towards children (similar to efforts by the tobacco and alcohol industries in targeting children and adolescents)28,29 and the palm oil refining industry benefiting from the corresponding increase in sales of foods containing palm oil.30–33
Supply chain
The global palm oil supply chain has many businesses, systems and structures, making it difficult to draw a clear line between the different components and identify the impact of each actor.23 For example, a recent brief by the nongovernmental organization (NGO) Ceres, unpacks the key elements of the supply chain and the American industries and companies linked to them (Fig. 2).34 Unilever PLC, who claim to be the largest user of physically certified palm oil in the consumer goods industry,35 recently published details of its entire palm oil supply chain; this included 300 direct suppliers and 1400 mills used in its food, personal care and biofuel products.26,27 The scale of the supply chain is massive and, even by the company’s own admission, social and environmental issues persist.26 The supply chain demonstrates a strong association between the palm oil and processed food industries. Global food processing corporations are further venturing into palm oil refining, creating blurred lines across the supply chain, making it difficult to hold individual actors accountable for any adverse outcomes.
Fig. 2 Global palm oil supply chain Source: Adapted with permission from Ceres, 2018.34
Lobbying
Apart from establishing a strong lobbying presence in the European Union,1 the palm oil industry has fostered partnerships with policy and research institutes providing policy recommendations against regulation.36
For example, the industry-backed World Growth Institute criticised the World Bank’s framework for palm-oil engagement – which seeks prioritisation of smallholders over large corporations and cultivation of plantations on degraded land instead of forested land – as ‘anti-poor’.37
The palm oil industry has also sought to influence global health policy-making. For example, during the drafting of the 2003 WHO/FAO report on Diet, Nutrition and Prevention of Chronic Diseases, the Malaysian Palm Oil Promotion Council questioned the palm oil-related health concerns raised by the report and suggested that any efforts to curb consumption would threaten several million peoples’ livelihoods.33
The palm oil industry has also sought to influence global health policy-making. These tactics include establishing lobbying structures in political and economic hubs, fighting regulations, attempting to undermine reliable sources of information and using poverty alleviation arguments, are similar to those pursued by the tobacco and alcohol industries.38,39
Corporate citizenship
Several major companies and countries have joined to create industry associations to showcase their sustainability efforts. These are membership organizations composed of oil-palm growers, palm oil producers, consumer goods manufacturers, retailers, investors and NGOs which certify sustainability and fair labour standards and include entities such as the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil and country-specific groups in Indonesia and Malaysia.
In 2017, the Roundtable certified approximately 13.4 tonnes (approximately 20%) of the global production as sustainable. The Roundtable also has partnerships with the United Nations Economic and Social Council, United Nations Environment and United Nations Children’s Fund, aimed at improving its members’ business practices. Twelve of the 16 Roundtable board members are representatives of palm oil processers, manufacturers, retailers, banks, investors or international food processing companies.
The sustainability certification effort has been linked to limited amounts of reduced deforestation, with a recent study finding little impact on forest loss and fire detection.40 Other studies have found that the Roundtable’s board members were still associated with companies involved in mass deforestation.41 Investigations by NGOs have found child labour and human rights violations at Roundtable members’ plantations.42
Despite some positive initiatives by the palm oil and processed food industries to cultivate, produce and source palm oil through sustainable, ethical practices, challenges remain.
Agencies entering partnerships with industry-led initiatives are at risk of becoming complicit in detrimental practices. Indeed, NGOs such as Palm Oil Investigations withdrew support for the Roundtable after evidence of harmful business practices emerged.43
Outcomes
Given the importance of assessing the outcomes of the palm oil industry, we conducted a rapid review of the literature to better understand the impact on the environment, consumers and health. We made a keyword search initially via the PubMed® online database to identify peer-reviewed articles and subsequently via Google search engine to identify other sources of information (Box 2). The review was conducted in June and July 2018 and updated in October 2018. Of 435 articles identified and scanned, we included 40 peer-reviewed articles and eight articles from the grey literature (Fig. 3; Table 1).
Environment
Forest, peatland and biodiversity losses, increased greenhouse gas emissions and habitat fragmentation as well as pollution are environmental concerns continually linked to the palm oil industry.5,10,12,46,52,53,63,69,75,77 In response, countries including Indonesia and Malaysia are increasing industry regulation, seeking to prevent slash-and-burn practices and restoring peatlands.11 Although the results are limited, companies are attempting to engage in more sustainable palm oil cultivation and production practices.13
Nevertheless, plantations with palm sustainability certification only encompass a fifth of all oil-palm cultivation, certification does not yield the desired benefits and there is limited consumer demand for sustainable palm oil.65
The palm oil industry and noncommunicable diseases’, 2019.
Consumers
In recent years, there have been campaigns by NGOs to increase consumer awareness about palm oil production practices, although success appears limited.65,80 From the processed food industry and health perspective, much work remains to be done. Palm oil derivatives in food, household and cosmetic products can be listed in any one or more of its 200 alternate names.79 Some countries such as Australia and New Zealand only require peanut, sesame and soy oils to be explicitly labelled, while palm oil can fall under a generic category of vegetable oil.79 The World Wildlife Fund lists more than 25 common alternatives to palm oil labelling found in food products (Box 1).18
With its inclusion in many everyday products, unclear food labelling and sometimes conflicting information on health impacts, it can be difficult to know how to identify palm oil in foods. Consumers may be unaware of what they are eating or its safety.
Reports of the health impacts of palm oil consumption in foods are mixed.44,49,51,55,59,61,66,74,76 Some studies link consumption of palm oil to increased ischaemic heart disease mortality, raised low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, increased risk of cardiovascular disease and other adverse effects.6,8,9 Other studies show no negative effects7 or even favourable health outcomes from palm oil consumption.7,45,47,48,50,57,60,67,78
Four of the nine studies in our literature search showing overwhelmingly positive health associations were authored by the Malaysian Palm Oil Board, again drawing parallels with the tobacco and alcohol industries38,39 and calling into question the credibility of claims in favour of increased palm oil consumption.
The contested nature of the evidence suggests the need for independent, comprehensive studies of the health impact of palm oil consumption. Countries such as Fiji, India and Thailand have initiated policy dialogues and analyses aimed at better understanding the role of palm oil in diets and best approaches to reducing saturated fats in the food-chain, but these discussions are far from conclusive.54,58,70,72,73
More unequivocally, land-clearing practices for oil palm cultivation have major public health consequences. Since the 1990s, air pollution from slash-and-burn practices have affected the health of populations in South-East Asia, especially the most vulnerable groups of the population, such as infants and children.11,56 Haze episodes, even across country borders, have been linked to premature deaths and increased respiratory illness as well as cardiovascular diseases.62,71
Of major concern is the effect of exposure to particulate matter on fetal, infant and child mortality, as well as children’s cognitive, educational and economic attainment.81,82 The direct and indirect impact of the palm oil cultivation industry on children, including child labour practices, is especially concerning. In Indonesia, around half of 4 million people employed in the industry are estimated to be women. Even when they are not directly employed, children dependent on palm oil workers are adversely affected by inadequate maternity protection, low breastfeeding rates, lack of child-care opportunities, poor maternal health and nutrition, and difficultly in accessing education.64
Discussion
This paper illustrates how the palm oil industry, in close connection with the processed food industry, impacts human and planetary health. The impact also cuts across other sectors, such as education, child protection, as well as having implications for gender-related policies and practices. A limitation of our rapid review is that not all the information from these industries is publicly available and, with limited peer-reviewed materials available on the palm oil industry, we included media reports, environmental activist web sites and other grey literature. This article is not meant to be exhaustive and therefore does not avert the need for an extensive systematic review of the human and planetary health outcomes of the palm oil industry, spanning other sectors such as labour, gender and use as biofuel.
The palm oil industry is an overlooked actor in discussions on noncommunicable diseases. The current widespread use of palm oil draws attention to the ultra-processed unhealthy food system and the need to deepen and expand existing research on the industry. However, we need to carefully consider practical policy options and their implications. For example, encouraging use of oils with lower saturated fat content in ultra-processed foods could have a greater detrimental impact on the environment than palm oil, through further deforestation and loss of biodiversity (given the need for more natural resources to cultivate such crops). Policy-makers may therefore need to consider ways to reduce the demand for oils more specifically and for unhealthy ultra-processed foods more broadly. Such actions would benefit not only the noncommunicable disease agenda, but also human and planetary health as part of the sustainable development goals (SDGs).
Suggestions for action
Addressing the palm oil industry’s impact goes beyond a single industry, product or sector. Taking a multifaceted approach, we suggest three sets of actions for researchers, policy-makers and the global health community (NGOs and international organizations; Box 3).
Suggested actions to address the palm oil industry’s impact
Address impact on health
Researchers
Investigate the health impact of ultra-processed foods, including specific ingredients such as palm oil;
study the long-term consequences of daily consumption of unhealthy, ultra-processed foods and their ingredients, including the effects on children; and
research the effect of combinations of ingredients in ultra-processed foods.
Policy-makers
Identify and address industries that adversely impact noncommunicable diseases and the broader human and planetary health agenda;
develop and enforce stricter labelling requirements for ultra-processed foods, including listing of ingredients and their potential harmful effects;
regulate the palm oil supply chains across sectors such as health, environment, labour, and child protection, including needed gender-related policies and practices; and
consider measures to reduce the production and consumption of unhealthy, ultra-processed foods.
Global health community
Tackle the issue of unhealthy mass-produced and processed foods and beverages synergistically instead of discretely by ingredient (e.g. palm oil, sugar, fats); and
facilitate consumer awareness and action on the negative impacts of palm oil cultivation, production and consumption.
Mitigate industry influences
Researchers
Drawing on experience with the tobacco and alcohol industries, understand and mitigate the influence of industries involved in palm oil production and manufactured foods; and
exercise caution when engaging in research activities using funding from the palm oil and related industries.
Policy-makers
Avoid the influence of lobbying by food industries whose practices adversely impact human and planetary health;
develop and enforce strict regulations that avoid political patronage or related practices (i.e. elected officials sitting on industry boards); and
introduce measures to reduce the population’s consumption of unhealthy, ultra-processed foods (e.g. by taxation, restricting advertising) and to increase the consumption of healthier, whole foods.
Global health community
When considering partnerships with the palm oil industry or their related entities, ensure public health priorities are not co-opted by private sector agendas; and
avoid the risk of perceived or real complicity, including avoiding funding or partnership opportunities for health that might come at the expense of other sectors such as environment or labour.
Work across SDGs
Researchers
Study interlinkages across complex systems of the palm oil and related industries aimed at identifying cross-sectoral solutions.
Policy-makers
Design policies that do not sacrifice longer-term health, environmental and social concerns for immediate economic gains and profits.
Global health community
Identify allies across sectors such as environment, child protection, labour and gender that can join in evidence generation and advocacy around the detrimental impacts of palm oil on human and planetary health; and
reform global health governance structures and funding mechanisms with the aim of promoting intersectoral action instead of narrow disease-specific programmes.
SDG: sustainable development goal.
Understand impact on health
We need to better understand and address the content, health impact and supply chains of palm oil products. The evidence on health remains mixed. Furthermore, the so-called cocktail effect remains unknown; individual ingredients of ultra-processed foods may be harmless alone, but consumed in combination, daily, could be damaging.83 This also includes understanding the associated supply chains and the needed accountability measures aimed at addressing potential determinantal actions from the palm oil and related industries.
Mitigate industry influences
We need to mitigate the influence of the palm oil and related industries on public health policies and programmes. The relationship between the palm oil and processed food industries, and the tactics they employ, resembles practices adopted by the tobacco and alcohol industries. However, the palm oil industry receives comparatively little scrutiny. Palm oil use will likely continue, given the relatively low production costs of palm oil, high profit margins of ultra-processed foods, abundant use of palm oil in processed foods and prevalence of palm oil use in several industries (without a current viable alternative). As seen with recent examples, the public health community, whether multilateral agencies84 or research institutes85, is not immune to industry influence. Political ties to industries merit further exploration.86
Work across the SDGs
Palm oil use in ultra-processed foods follows a long, complex chain. Even as the direct health impact remains unclear, cultivation and production and related practices contribute to environmental pollution, respiratory illnesses and loss of biodiversity. Furthermore, with documented forced and child labour and human rights abuses, as well as gender-related issues, such as inadequate maternity protections in palm oil plantations, understanding and addressing the influence of the palm oil industry cuts across different sectors and different SDGs. Therefore, narrow, health-specific measures cannot be implemented in isolation.
Conclusions
As the most prevalent vegetable oil in food manufacturing, palm oil is an integral component of the food supply chain. While the direct health effects of palm oil remain contested, the indirect health impacts of cultivating this product are many. Commercial determinants play a vital role in a complex system that leads to the production and consumption of foods detrimental to human health. The discourse on noncommunicable diseases and human health can no longer be separated from the dialogue on planetary health.
“@WHO and @FAO advise that the evidence linking saturated #fat consumption with increased risk of #cardiovascular disease is convincing.” ~ WHO Bulletin This is why we #Boycottpalmoil
“With #palmoil’s unclear food labelling and conflicting information on #health impacts, it can be difficult for consumers to identify palm oil. They may be unaware of what they are eating or its #safety.” ~ @WHO Bulletin
“Although its negative #health impacts are contested, a meta-analysis of increased #palmoil consumption in 23 countries found a strong relationship to higher mortality from #heartdisease.” ~ @WHO Report #Boycottpalmoil
@WHO report: “There is mutual benefit for the #palmoil and #processedfood industries. Ads for ultra-processed foods target children – similar to aggressive advertising by the #tobacco and alcohol industries” #Boycottpalmoil
@WHO #Palmoil Report: “Of major concern is the effect of exposure to #airpollution particulate matter on fetal, infant and child mortality”. #Boycottpalmoil for your children’s #health
@WHO #Palmoil Report: “The direct and indirect impact of the palm oil cultivation industry on #children, including #childlabour practices, is especially concerning.” #Boycottpalmoil
@WHO Bulletin: “In Indonesia, around 2 million women are employed in the #palmoil industry. Children dependent on palm oil workers are impacted by lack of child-care, poor maternal #health, poor #nutrition, and difficulty in accessing education.” #Boycottpalmoil
@WHO Bulletin: “In Indonesia, an est. 2 million women work in the #palmoil industry. Children dependent on workers are impacted by lack of child-care, poor maternal #health, poor #nutrition, difficulty in accessing education.”
@WHO report on #palmoil: “Investigations by NGOs have found #childlabour and #humanrights violations at Roundtable @RSPOtweets members’ plantations.” This is why we #Boycottpalmoil
There is no legislation to stop this vague product labelling of palm oil Despite the lobbying and activism of various environmental groups and those concerned with consumer rights, palm oil remains labelled in a…
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.
According to a study by Melbourne Business School, the most important factor determining whether consumers avoid purchasing a product containing palm oil is not…
#BigTech is the first form of #business to directly purchase #POTUS. The #oil industry must be kicking themselves for having spent all that #lobbying money over the years.
They just had to skip the middleman... by completely sabotaging other government bodies. It's that easy.
Corporate Europe Observatory and LobbyControl reveal the sheer corporate lobby firepower in the EU, analysed by sector. Big Tech, Energy, Banking, and Chemicals dominate.
The world’s largest companies and trade associations from the big tech, banking, energy, and chemicals/agri sectors have significantly increased their EU lobbying budgets in recent years.
Big business spends millions lobbying the EU, but who are the top spenders, and what do they want? We together with LobbyControl, took a look and can reveal that corporate lobby spending has reached unprecedented levels.
Big business spends millions lobbying the EU, but who are the top spenders, and what do they want? We together with LobbyControl, took a look and can reveal that corporate lobby spending has reached unprecedented levels.
Who is Iain Anderson & how did he become a non-executive director in the Department of Business & Trade?
Well, having spent many years as a lobbyist for the financial services sector & paid up member of the Tory party, in the wake of the Liz Truss debacle, he seems to have had a Damascene conversion & joined Labour (just in time for them to get into Govt.; lucky eh?).
If you wonder who's whispering in Rachel's ear here's one candidate.
For someone who swallowed the #antiwindenergy pill, I'm sharing this with family members who barely speak English.
The fact is that #windturbines aren't as bad as people think. The #OilIndustry uses #psyop and #lobbying to spread #FUD, as well as lies to demoralize people - LIKE THEY HAVE BEEN DOING FOR DECADES.
"This brief provides a detailed analysis of a first-of-its-kind, publicly available repository of U.S. think tank funding — www.thinktankfundingtracker.org. The repository tracks funding from foreign governments, the U.S. government, and Pentagon contractors to the top 50 think tanks in the United States over the past five years. It serves as a vital research guide for anyone wishing to learn more about the funding sources of prominent U.S. think tanks.
The repository gives a five-point transparency score to each of the top 50 think tanks in the U.S., a scale created by the authors based on five binary questions. Based on this criteria, nine of the top 50 think tanks (18 percent) are fully transparent, while 23 think tanks (46 percent) are partially transparent. Most concerning, the remaining 18 think tanks (36 percent) are “dark money” think tanks, entirely opaque in their funding without revealing donors.
In the past five years, foreign governments and foreign government-owned entities donated more than $110 million to the top 50 think tanks in the
... show more
"This brief provides a detailed analysis of a first-of-its-kind, publicly available repository of U.S. think tank funding — www.thinktankfundingtracker.org. The repository tracks funding from foreign governments, the U.S. government, and Pentagon contractors to the top 50 think tanks in the United States over the past five years. It serves as a vital research guide for anyone wishing to learn more about the funding sources of prominent U.S. think tanks.
The repository gives a five-point transparency score to each of the top 50 think tanks in the U.S., a scale created by the authors based on five binary questions. Based on this criteria, nine of the top 50 think tanks (18 percent) are fully transparent, while 23 think tanks (46 percent) are partially transparent. Most concerning, the remaining 18 think tanks (36 percent) are “dark money” think tanks, entirely opaque in their funding without revealing donors.
In the past five years, foreign governments and foreign government-owned entities donated more than $110 million to the top 50 think tanks in the United States. The most generous donor countries were the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and Qatar, which contributed $16.7 million, $15.5 million, and $9.1 million to U.S. think tanks, respectively. The Atlantic Council, Brookings Institution, and German Marshall Fund received the most money from foreign governments since 2019: $20.8 million, $17.1 million, and $16.1 million, respectively.
In that same period, the top 100 defense companies have contributed more than $34.7 million to the top 50 think tanks"
Long read: How a peripheral state can leverage its wealth, strategic geography and alliances to exert outsized influence on regional and global affairs
"How the UAE can simultaneously be both a subject of imperialism and an agent of imperialist practices within its spheres of influence while challenging traditional imperialist actors": tni.org/en/article/the-emergin…
The United Arab Emirates has become a sub-imperial power in Africa, investing in ports, airports and infrastructure projects to extract resources and increase its global political and military influence.
View Mondelez’s recent palm oil deforestation
Michelle Desilets threatening and harassing people
Michelle Desilets threatening and harassing people
Michelle Desilets threatening and harassing people
Michelle Desilets threatening and harassing people
Bart Van Assen AKA Wilding Rocks AKA The Wicorman AKA PalmOilTruther harassing people and getting banned from Twitter
Michelle Desilets at the RSPO conference
View thread on Twitter
View thread on Twitter
View thread on Twitter
View thread on Twitter
View thread on Twitter
View thread on Twitter
View thread on Twitter
View thread on Twitter
Pictured: Klotok traditional river boat on a river in Borneo by Guenterguni Getty Images
Pictured: Dayak family, Central Kalimantan by IndoMet licensed under CC BY 2.0
Pollution run-off in an RSPO member palm oil plantation in Sumatra. Craig Jones Wildlife Photography
Deforestation for palm oil at ground level – Getty Images video
Deforestation for palm oil waste reservoirs- Getty Images
The difficulty of addressing and resolving oil palm conflicts is due not only to the inadequacies of Indonesia’s legal framework regarding land and plantations but also to the way in which Indonesia’s informalized state institutions foster collusion between local power holders and palm oil companies. This collusion enables companies to evade regulation, suppress community protests and avoid engaging in constructive efforts to resolve conflicts. Furthermore, this collusion has made the available conflict resolution mechanisms largely ineffective.Pictured: A Dayak woman weaves pandan in a traditional longhouse, PxFuel
https://seanweston.co.uk" title="Deforestation by Sean Weston https://seanweston.co.uk" class="has-alt-description">Deforestation by Sean Weston seanweston.co.uk
People who consume the news only know the simulation/ hyperreality in a Simulacra – Jean Baudrillard
Deforestation – Craig Jones Wildlife Photography
Pictured clockwise: An orangutan grips helplessly onto a broken and destroyed tree, Craig Jones Wildlife Photography; River pollution, PxFuel; A freshly destroyed rainforest in Indonesia, Craig Jones Wildlife Photography; A vast and lifeless palm oil plantation, Greenpeace.
Pictured: Dayak men in Kalimantan, Pxfuel.
