Cargill Inc., the world’s largest agribusiness company, has announced the sale of their palm oil plantations in the remote tropical nation of Papua New Guinea (PNG). Cargill owns mills and plantations in Indonesia, Malaysia, and until today, PNG, and trades palm oil globally produced by at least 25 additional palm oil producers in Indonesia and Malaysia.

Cargill’s oil palm operations in PNG destroyed rainforests – Photo by Greenpeace PNG

Just three months ago RAN released a case study, based on original field research carried out by RAN and the International Accountability Project, on Cargill’s palm oil operations in PNG.  Commodity Colonialism reports that serious environmental and social issues threaten the sustainability of Cargill’s plantations there, with a special focus on the dangers of converting once independent and self sufficient Papuan farmers into indebted laborers through Cargill’s use of share cropping contracts.

After five years of operations in PNG, Cargill is turning their palm oil plantations over to New Britain Palm Oil, along with a range of unfilled commitments to the people and government of PNG. More »

Thanks for taking action after we alerted you that General Mills products contain rainforest destruction. Nearly 8,000 of you took action by sending a letter to General Mills about your concerns about palm oil containing rainforest destruction in trusted brands such as Pillsbury, Betty Crocker and Hamburger Helper. Your letters, in combination with our massive banner unfurled on the lawn of their corporate headquarters, got General Mills’ and local media attention.

Did you get the response from General Mills? Are you thinking, “Gee, it seems like General Mills is doing all the right things already. Why is RAN picking on them?”. Here’s my response:

First of all, I want to commend General Mills for responding right away to share their concerns about the role of palm oil in rainforest destruction, biodiversity and endangered species. I’m glad they clarified that regardless of the modest amount of palm oil and palm oil derivatives they use in their products, they have a responsibility to purchase with principles; they have engaged their suppliers, which are all members of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO); and will only purchase from suppliers who meet RSPO principles and criteria. Great! While we knew this before we sent out our action alert and unfurled our banner, it’s always good to get clarification.

It is also reassuring that General Mills publicly supports a moratorium on palm oil expansion in tropical rainforests. Unfortunately, their palm oil supplier, Cargill, does not. In Cargill’s recently updated “Palm Oil Commitments”, Cargill commits to no expansion into high conservation value forests (HCVF) or peatlands and only expand on “degraded land”. As the largest importer of palm oil into the United States, Cargill should expand their commitment by supporting a moratorium on palm oil expansion in Southest Asia as other companies have already done. It is our hope that General Mills can convince Cargill to support a moratorium.

In order to ensure that the palm oil in General Mills’ products is not causing rainforest destruction, displacing communities and exacerbating climate change, General Mills needs to do more than engage their suppliers and trust that they are meeting RSPO principles and criteria. General Mills needs to pressure its suppliers to meet and exceed RSPO principles and criteria. Cargill is not doing that and until it does, General Mills should cancel its palm oil contract with Cargill or continue to be associated with rainforest destruction. To learn more about Cargill’s role in rainforest destruction, check out our case studies and videos.

As a trusted all-American brand with lots of recognition in corporate social responsibility, General Mills should encourage their suppliers to go beyond the RSPO. Settling for sustainable palm oil is not enough to protect the world’s remaining rainforests, forests communities and our climate. U.S. companies that use palm oil in their products, like General Mills, should demand socially and environmentally responsible palm oil. This is palm oil that is identity preserved (like organic), traceable and segregated. This is palm oil that is not grown on converted rainforests or peatlands, or where communities have not given their Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC). If companies cannot commit to socially and environmentally responsible palm oil, they shouldn’t be using it.

To learn more about what we’re calling socially and environmentally responsible palm oil, check out our reccommendations for market leaders and our model policy at www.theproblemwithpalmoil.org

Leila Salazar-Lopez
Rainforest Agribusiness Campaign Director

On the first day of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) Pak Jamaluddin was quiet. He said the air conditioning of Kuala Lumpor gave him the flu. He seemed lost among the groups of palm producers, with their Blackberries and dark suits.

Exhausted from the canoe rides, bad roads, the concrete maze of Jakarta, and the foreign environment of a Kuala Lumpor convention hall, I found Pak Jamaluddin on the second day of the RSPO outside, sitting cross legged on the sidewalk. He waved me over, and I sat with him. He leaned over to me as he whispered: “It is over. Our forest is gone. Duta Palma has flattened the last of it. We are finished.”

A few months before, I visited with Pak Jamaluddin in his village of Semunying Jaya. Deep in the interior of Borneo, his village had become a hotspot of rainforest destruction and human rights abuse at the hands of the palm oil producer Duta Palma.

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The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) was founded to create a path towards sustainability in the palm oil industry. A voluntary process, oil palm producers, traders, buyers, and NGO’s have joined up to find an alternative to the massive forest destruction, social conflict, and climate chaos the booming palm oil industry is bringing to the world’s rainforests. But eight years into the process, there is still nothing sustainable about the palm oil the RSPO endorses.

Early on, the RSPO identified accountability and transparency as key criteria to reduce the palm oil industry’s corrupt, dirty, and dangerous practices. Reflecting such, the first criteria for joining the RSPO are commitments to transparency.

But even a basic level of transparency is too much to ask from the USA’s largest producer and trader of palm oil, Cargill. Cargill was quick to sign up for the RSPO and to claim their support for the RSPO’s criteria. But when it comes to actually following the RSPO’s criteria for sustainable palm oil, Cargill is a non-starter. Hiring a questionable audit firm, Cargill has managed to pay its way into RSPO certification without living up to RSPO criteria.

This week, I attended the RSPO’s annual conference with two victims of Cargill’s oil palm operations in Indonesia. These community members, one of them the head of his small Indonesian village, traveled thousands of miles to meet Cargill face to face, to fight for the land Cargill has taken away from them. More »

Contrary to a number of sensationalist media reports leading up to this year’s Round Table on Sustainable Palm Oil, the RSPO is not breaking up.

At the core of the controversy has been the effort to include a commitment by all members of the RSPO to reduce their Green House Gas (GHG) emissions. After two years of meetings, the Malaysian and Indonesian producers managed to block any such commitment. It was a disappointing moment for the RSPO, and a lost opportunity to address one of the most serious issues of oil palm production.

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The RSPO is the world’s largest annual meeting of oil palm industry, environmentalists, human rights advocates, and, most importantly, community members. Today, I watched as a community member from Borneo stood up in front of oil palm producers, NGOs, and technocrats, identified himself as a victim of oil palm expansion, and tore apart the falsity that some of the world’s richest businessmen desperately want us to believe; the falsity that oil palm helps the world’s poor:

“They say oil palm is development. They say Malaysia has cars and big cities because of oil palm. But it is not oil palm, it is from other things, like our oil and our logging. Giant companies, most of them Malaysian, ignore customary land rights and take our land out from under us. They develop it into oil palm. They use only foreign workers, or people from Kuala Lumpur to drive the trucks and run the offices. For the day laborers, they will not even hire us local people, because we are Malaysians and have some basic rights. So they hire Indonesians who have come here illegally and have no rights, no one to protect them from the bad working conditions and horrible pay. The Malay people, who live near us, they all get a few hectares of land from the Company to have their own oil palm, but rather than work that land they too hire Indonesians. The government, using their oil and gas and timber money gives these Malay government jobs too, so even though they live in the countryside they can buy cars. The owners of the Company get rich, so rich. Then they take that money and invest it in oil palm in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, where they can do whatever they want, there are no laws there. And they get even richer. More »

David Dellatore has faced much criticism for his willingness to work with palm oil companies.  NGO’s on the ground in Indonesia face a very different reality than advocacy groups far from the jungle, who tend to call for boycotts of environmentally damaging palm oil, or demand that palm oil be phased out of all consumer products.  For a small NGO like the Orangutan Information Center, where Dellatore works, securing funding for their activities, such as caring for orphaned orangutans or reforesting small patches of Gunung Leuser National Park, is always a challenge, and oil palm companies have plenty of cash on hand. The general consensus of local NGO’s in Indonesia, which is the world’s largest palm oil producer commanding 40% of the global oil palm market, is that oil palm plantations are a fact of life in Indonesia, and conservation groups must work hand-in-hand with oil palm companies.

So the meeting of conservation groups and palm oil companies this week in the Malaysian province of Sabah was not a surprise.  The oil palm industry is a giant in both Malaysia and Indonesia, and forest conservation groups believe they can make big gains in forest and wildlife protections if they convince the industry as a whole to adapt forest and forest people friendly policies.

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