AfroCubaWeb

Email from Nasako Besingi,  Director, Struggle to Economize Future Environment (SEFE)

Palm Oil Plantation News, Cameroon

Herakles Farms Releases Environmental & Social Impact Assessment, Launches Social Infrastructure Program  9/14/2011 Heracles Capital 

Palm oil, poverty, and conservation collide in Cameroon  9/13/2011 Mongabay: "The world's most productive oil seed has been a boon to southeast Asian economies, but the looming arrival of industrial plantations in Africa is raising fears that some of the same detriments that have plagued leading producers Malaysia and Indonesia—deforestation, greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity loss, conflicts with local people, social displacement, and poor working conditions—could befall one of the world’s most destitute regions."

A Huge Oil Palm Plantation Puts African Rainforest at Risk  9/12/2011 Environment 360: "Given the environmental importance of the site of the proposed Herakles plantation, conservationists are asking, why there? Considering that Africa has more than 400 million hectares of degraded forest land available for development, why not choose an area where the forest is already gone? “Given the versatility of oil palm and so much degraded, deforested land across the tropics, surely there are better places to make this kind of investment,” said Nigel Sizer, director of the World Resources Institute’s (WRI) Global Forests Initiative, who met with Herakles officials to express his concerns."

Herakles lands $350 mln Cameroon palm oil deal  7/17/2011 Reuters: "New York-based agricultural company Herakles Farms will develop some 60,000 hectares of oil palm plantations in Cameroon's south-west region, project manager Delilah Rothenberg told Reuters in an interview. "We are developing approximately 60,000 hectares of oil palm plantation, and expect the total capital costs to be about $350 million, to be invested over several years," she said of the result of a land lease deal signed with the government… She added Herakles was adhering to industry standards on sustainability and that the project would create some 9,000 local jobs."

US Investors want a 72,000 hectare palm oil plantation in the middle of the rainforest  7/9/2011 Intercontinental Cry: "Conservation groups are on a last-minute run to stop one of the world's largest private equity firms, the Blackstone Group, from getting a brand new 72,000 hectare palm oil plantation in the middle of the rainforest. Naturefund, Rettet den Regenwald, Rainforest Foundation UK SAVE Wildlife Conservation Fund and other groups warn that plans are already underway to clear out the biologically-rich rainforest in Southwest Cameroon."

Stop Blackstone Deforestation in Cameroon  6/30/2011 African Conservation Foundation: "The rainforests of the Gulf of Guinea in Cameroon and Nigeria are a biodiversity hotspot. They are among the most biologically rich forests in the world and harbor many plant and animal species found nowhere else on this planet. They are also highly threatened. In the middle of this network of forests a palm oil plantation is planned. Over 70,000 hectares (270 sq. miles) of land currently covered by a mosaic of mature, dense forest, agroforest, farmland, and human settlements will be transformed into a monoculture of oil palms. This will be an environmental disaster for the rainforests in Cameroon; even worse than the planned highway trough the Serengeti. The oil palm plantation will further fragment this unique landscape, restricting the natural movements of many animal species."

Stop the Palm Oil Plantation in Cameroon  6/27/2011 Care2 Petition Site: "The permit for the plantation was given without agreement from the 38 small villages (45,000 people) and factual landowners. Their estates would become confiscated."

Herakles Farms Develops Sustainable Palm Oil Plantations in Cameroon & Ghana  6/15/2011 Heracles Capital 

Palm oil plantation 'threatens Cameroon rainforest'  6/7/2011 Ethical Consumer: "German campaign group Rettet Den Regenvald have reported that Herakles Capital was planning a 72,000 hectare palm oil plantation in the rainforest of Cameroon. It argued that: "the forest and the animal and plant species living there would be destroyed forever. The people would also lose their land and livelihoods."

Cameroon: Palm Oil Project Threatens People and the Rainforest  5/7/2011 Rainforest Rescue: "Please participate in our protest and write to the Minister of Environment and the Minister of Forests of Cameroon. We are collecting signatures and will be presenting them to the Cameroon Embassy in Berlin."

Siva Group in Cameroon $1.9 bln palm oil deal  5/7/2011 Reuters: "Biopalm Energy, a subsidiary of Singapore’s Siva group will on Wednesday launch a 900 billion CFA Francs palm oil investment project in the south of Cameroon, an official of the country’s agriculture ministry said on Tuesday. The 200,000 hectares greenfield project will be jointly developed with the Central African nation’s National Investment Corporation, the official said, requesting not to be named."

Plantation News, Africa

Understanding Land Investment Deals in Africa  9/22/2011 Oakland Institute: multiple studies for each country

Africa: up for grabs - the scale and impact of land grabbing for agrofuels  9/22/2011 Friends of the Earth Africa And Friends of the Earth Europe: "Research carried out by Friends of the Earth Europe, Center for Environmental Development/Friends of the Earth Cameroon (CED/FoEC), Friends of the Earth Sierra Leone, Friends of the Earth Ghana, Environmental Rights Action/ Friends of the Earth Nigeria, Friends of the Earth Togo, Yonge Nawe – FoE Swaziland, FoE Mauritius – MAUDESCO, Citizens for Justice (CFJ) Malawi, Community Training and Development Trust Zimbabwe and the NRDC/ZEGA Training Trust Zambia."

Palm Oil Fuels Land Grabs in Africa  9/15/2011 Pambazuka News: "By next year 'palm oil is forecast to be the world's most produced and internationally traded edible oil.' But as foreign investors descend on Africa to develop large-scale palm oil plantations, the survival of local people is being threatened as they lose control of the land and water on which they depend for their food production and livelihoods, warns Joan Baxter."

The new African land grab  6/30/2011 Al Jazeera: "The "town" chief of the village seemed to be in a state of shock. Sitting on the front porch of his mud and thatch home in Pujehun District in southern Sierra Leone, he struggled to find words that could explain how he had signed away the land that sustained his family and his community. He said he was coerced by his Paramount Chief, told that whether he agreed, or not, his land would still be taken and his small oil palm stand destroyed. He didn't know the name of the foreign investor nor did he know that it planned to lease up to 35,000 hectares of farmland in the area to establish massive oil palm and rubber plantations."

Links/Enlaces

World Wide
Industry

Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil
www.rspo.org

Sithe Global Power
www.sourcewatch.org/wiki.phtml?title=Sithe_Global_Power

Community

Video: International Declaration: Stop the expansion of monoculture tree plantations!  9/9/2009 Pulp Inc 

International Declaration against monoculture tree plantations  9/9/2009 Pulp Inc 

Palm Oil Industry will never be sustainable  11/28/2008 Rainforest Rescue: "The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Forests has identified government policies replacing forests by industrial tree plantations, including palm oil plantations, as the causes of deforestation and degradation. Palm oil is produced in large scale monocultures in tropical countries to be exported to the global market (including the EU, China, India and the United Nations of America). The negative consequences of monoculture oil palm plantations are tangible in Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua-New Guinea, Cameroon, Uganda, Côte d’Ivoire, Cambodia, Philippines and Thailand and also in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua and Costa Rica."


Africa
Industry

SG Sustainable Oils on RSPO
www.rspo.org/?q=om/264

www.heraklescapital.com/agriculture.html

Cuba

Abakuá page on AfroCubaWeb

Cuba's Plantocracy

Contacting Struggle to Economize Future Environment (SEFE)

Contacting AfroCubaWeb

[AfroCubaWeb][Contents] [Music] [Arts][Authors & Teachers] [Arts][Organizations][News] [Conferences][What's New][Search this site]

Copyright © 2009 AfroCubaWeb, S.A.
Last modified: January 13, 2012