Hallo in die Runde,

Global Witness von einen Report zu Palmöl in Papua Neu Guinea veröffentlicht. Das Material dazu ist komplett auf englisch, aber ja vielleicht trotzdem für einige von Interesse...

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Hi all,

Global Witness has launched a new report The true price of palm oil: How global finance funds deforestation, violence and human rights abuses in Papua New Guinea investigating three palm oil companies in Papua New Guinea and their links to global companies, including household names and financiers.  

Below are a few links:

The two-year investigation found:  

  • Serious human rights abuses – including admissions of child labour  
  • Tens of thousands of hectares of deforestation since 2010 
  • Concerns raised about land acquisitions and use 
  • One firm negligently ignored repeated and avoidable worker deaths and injuries on palm oil plantations 
  • Executives boasting about bribing a minister and apparent tax evasion  
  • A business partner discussing how he had paid local police to assault villagers he suspected of resisting palm oil plantations 

We found the palm oil and its byproducts has been sold to brands like Kellogg’s, Nestle, Colgate, Danone, Hershey and the parent companies of both Imperial Leather and Strepsils. The PNG companies we investigated had received financing from banks such as Maybank and OCBC – who have faced various concerns about their palm oil financing, and whose shareholders include investors such as BlackRock.

As you can appreciate, many people in Papua New Guinea have taken on significant risks to help share their story and what is happening in the palm oil industry. It would be really amazing if you can help share this in your networks and social media channels to ensure that the story gets out there.

The story is also a compelling example of why it’s critical that the deforestation measures under the UK Environment Bill and secondary legislation need to require companies to fully respect the Free, Prior and Informed Consent of indigenous peoples. It also raises questions about how the UK approach will address these sorts of cases – where there are credible allegations that local land and forest laws are not being met, but forest-risk commodities are still being exported and laws are not enforced at the local level.