Palm Oil

The oil palm tree is native to West Africa. It is an important tree for forest-dependent communities, their cultures and their economies. However, large-scale oil palm monocultures for industrial production (oil and agrofuels) have been driving deforestation and land grabbing in Southeast Asia. More recently, oil palm monocultures are also driving destruction in Africa and Latin America.

Type of content

Country

Ataque de empresa Brasil Bio Fuels (BBF) a indígenas
Multimedia 11 August 2023

Public note about attack to Tembé´s leaders

Tembé indigenous leaders shot by private security forces (only available in Portuguese).
Carta aberta ao governador do estado do Pará e ao presidente da República do Brasil
Articles 11 August 2023

Open letter to the governor of the state of Pará and the president of Republic of Brazil

Your Excellencies Governor Helder Barbalho and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, there is no climate justice without the protection of two forests, urban centers, water and land! (Only available in Portuguese).
BBF para 2023
Action alerts 28 April 2023

Brazil BioFuels (BBF) carries out armed attack against communities in Pará, Brazil

agropalma
Other information 16 January 2023

Oil palm production exploits black and indigenous populations in Brazil

The news portal Metrópoles travelled 5,700 km to denounce how the palm oil production chain affects quilombola communities and Indigenous Peoples in the state of Pará, Brazil—namely through expropriation of traditional communities, environmental impacts, and a labor history analogous to slavery.
MPA Brasil Para
Bulletin articles 16 June 2022

Green Deserts: The Advance of Oil Palm Plantations in the Amazonian State of Pará

In Brazil, oil palm plantations are expanding rapidly, mainly in the Amazonian state of Pará. BBF (Brasil BioFuels), the largest oil palm company in Brazil, stands accused of environmental crimes and violence against indigenous, quilombola and peasant communities such as Virgílio Serrão Sacramento, a community linked to the Small Farmers’ Movement (MPA).
concesiones
Bulletin articles 23 March 2022

Forest Concessions, Colonial Concept

What a certain historiography terms civilizational expansion or capital’s expansion has in fact been the invasion and de-territorialization of peoples and communities using much epistemic and territorial violence. Concessions have been granted in areas that are not demographic voids, a colonial concept that ignores the fact that they have been populated for millennia.
golden veroleum liberia
Other information 9 March 2021

Liberia: Longstanding rights’ violations and deforestation exposed

Multimedia 24 November 2020

Video: Violence and sexual abuse against women in oil palm plantations MUST END

The video “NO to violence against women and girls living in and around oil palm plantations” denounces the violence against women in West and Central Africa whose lands have been invaded by industrial oil palm plantations.
Bulletin articles 17 November 2020

Development: Understandings from the Ground

WRM spoke with close allies from Brazil, Gabon, India, Mexico and Mozambique, to hear from them and learn about their understandings of development.

9 September 2020

International Day of Struggle Against Monoculture Tree Plantations 2020

It is a day for organizations, networks and movements to celebrate resistance and raise their voices to demand, “Stop the Expansion of Monoculture Tree Plantations!"

Other information 5 March 2020

UK must prosecute British companies violating human rights in Liberia

cover_alliance
Publications 20 September 2019

Report: Communities in Africa fight back against the land grab for palm oil

A new report on the state of industrial oil palm plantations in Africa shows how communities are turning the tide on a massive land grab in the region.