Eight activists of Robin Wood, a grassroots group in Germany, were sued in October 2013 for taking part in a peaceful demonstration to protect Indonesian rain-forests. In September, the activists hung a banner at Wilmar‘s palm oil refinery plant in Germany saying "Wilmar's refined destruction - No palm oil from deforestation". They were convicted for "assault".
Wilmar International is the world's largest owner of oil palm plantations as well as the largest refiner of palm oil in Indonesia and Malaysia. Wilmar is a major player in south-east Asia and it is also expanding in Africa, where the Group started an international joint venture to convert an area of around 6,500 hectares of forest and farmland into pain oil plantations. Farmers and their families were expelled from their land without compensation.
Robin Wood initiated a campaign to stand in solidarity with the eight activists, asking people to send protest letters against the intimidation seeking to prevent environmentalists to expose environmental crimes.
Contact: Ute Bertrand, press@robinwood.de, Stefanie Hess, stefanie.hess@robinwood.de, http://environmentalpaper.org/mailman/listinfo/indonesia-forests_environmentalpaper.org
