This bulletin brings together testimonies from movements and communities around the world who are building resistance against these practices and fighting to defend life. Listening to these communities is essential. Their stories reveal the reality behind these projects, tearing away the mask of “sustainability” that project promoters work hard to uphold. The daily impacts of these projects on the environment, culture and lives of communities – and in particular on women – leave no room for doubt: monoculture tree plantations are an arm of patriarchal, racist and colonial capitalism (1).
In 2025, European companies that have monoculture tree, rubber and oil palm plantations, such as Socfin, continue to operate in several African countries, in areas from which entire communities have been expelled (2). These companies continue to deprive community members of access to the lands where they used to grow food and gather native oil palm fruits, activities primarily carried out by women. Employees of these companies allow women to enter these areas in exchange for sex, so that the women can collect palm fruits on their own ancestral territory – which is now fenced off and protected by company security guards (3). What else can we call this but patriarchal, racist, and colonial capitalism?
Suzano Papel e Celulose, the world's largest company in this sector, occupies 2.7 million hectares in Brazil (4). Agrarian reform would enable some 100,000 peasant families could live in this area, but the area is currently allocated to a single company that is destroying the environment and concentrating land and money (5). These corporate expansion processes are characterized by illegal land appropriation and the expulsion of peasant families. Women who live in areas where there are disputes over land, sparked by companies like Suzano, suffer directly from the impacts of these green deserts. These plantations kill all life around them and dry up springs and rivers with their thirsty roots. Among other issues, women are exposed to an overload of work, since they have to venture increasingly further away to seek water and food for their families and communities. This is what women in the MST denounced during their recent protests, stating that "Suzano sows hunger" (6). This is not to mention the threats they suffer for denouncing and fighting against companies like these. What else can we call this but patriarchal, racist, and colonial capitalism?
Since women are the ones who suffer the most from the impacts of monoculture tree plantations, they are often the ones who lead community organizations and territorial defense (7) (8). This bulletin takes a close look at this matter, by visiting different territories in conflict with multinational oil palm, rubber and eucalyptus companies. This bulletin puts its feet on the ground in communities that are resisting tree plantations. It brings stories from those who have witnessed the arrival of these projects and their impacts firsthand. These texts were written by female and male community leaders, and by organized movements from places where there is an intense struggle against this model of extractivism. These texts come from places where women are rising up to defend their communities and nature as a source of life.
The first article takes us to Indonesia. The authors are members of the resistance movement, Buol Plasma Peasants Forum (FPPB), which is fighting against oil palm multinational PT Hardaya Inti Plantations. They tell us how they were deceived with false promises that led them to accept collaboration agreements with companies – in a program the government dubbed as "Plasma." The result? Food shortages, debt, and the threat of flooding caused by oil palm monocultures, all of which especially affect women. They are currently organizing to confront this trap and to recover their lands and their traditional way of life.
In the second article, members of the Cajibío Interethnic and Intercultural Territory of Life movement from Colombia (TEVIIC, by its Spanish acronym) tell us how they united indigenous peoples and peasants in this movement to stand up to one of the world's largest cardboard and paper multinationals: Smurfit Westrock. They are organized and fighting to advance agrarian reform through autonomy and the recovery of lands usurped by the company.
The third article features the testimonies of two women – one from Thailand and one from Brazil – who are active in local peasant movements fighting for their land rights. In both cases, women are at the forefront of the occupation of lands, which they are recovering from industry giants. Where before there were only monoculture tree plantations, thanks to these women, there is now space being opened up to grow agroecological crops.
Finally, the fourth article takes us to Liberia. An exclusive interview with a female and male leader of the Joghban clan reveals details of the multiple forms of violence they have suffered with the arrival of rubber multinational LAC-Socfin and palm oil multinational Equatorial Palm Oil (formerly LIBINC). But the main focus of this interview is how the women and men, working together, achieved a historic victory: the partial recovery and recognition of their traditional territory that had been invaded by one of these companies.
Although this bulletin presents the impacts of monoculture tree plantations in its articles, it is not just focused on denunciation – which is clear from the words of those who have experienced said impacts firsthand. Above all, this bulletin is intended to fuel hope. It shows that the fight against tree plantations – and the model they represent – is very strong in the Global South, especially among women. Bringing together these resistance movements in the following pages is also an effort to bring together struggles and peoples who, despite their differences and geographic distances, share historical similarities and common objectives: they are saying no to monoculture tree plantations and yes to community autonomy.
Enjoy reading!
References:
(1) WRM, Tree Plantations.
(2) WRM, 2017. SOCFIN’s plantations in Africa: many places of violence and destruction.
(3) WRM, 2020. Video: Violence and sexual abuse against women in oil palm plantations MUST END.
(4) WRM, 2023. What you need to know about Suzano Papel e Celulose
(5) WRM, 2025. Against capital and patriarchy, MST women hold day of struggle and occupy Suzano-owned eucalyptus plantations in Brazil.
(6) MST, 2025. Mulheres Sem Terra interditam via de acesso à Suzano no Maranhão. Mujeres Sin Tierra bloquean la carretera de acceso a Suzano en Maranhão - MST (article in Portuguese)
(7) WRM, Women and Tree Monocultures. https://www.wrm.org.uy/subjects/women-and-tree-monocultures
(8) WRM, 2018. Women, tree plantations and violence: building resistances.