ADM: Investing in Human Rights Abuses

Unlike 2008′s showdown, nobody from RAN attended this year’s Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) shareholder meeting to hold CEO Patricia Woertz’ ass to the fire. Nonetheless, ADM did not get away without responding to tough questions about the company’s irresponsible palm oil supply chain.

ADM, one of the world’s largest agricultural processors with operations in more than 75 countries, held its annual shareholder meeting on Thursday in it’s hometown of Decatur, Illinois. ADM CEO Patricia Woertz proudly announced that the company increased its quarterly cash dividend from 16 cents per share to 17.5 cents per share. Happy news for shareholders, right?

Well, probably not if they knew the dirty truth: they are invested in a company complicit in gross human rights violations in Indonesia.

The most significant part of this year’s meeting was that shareholders presented a powerful resolution on palm oil, resolving that the board of directors adopt and implement a comprehensive sustainable palm oil policy. Not surprisingly, and by way of shedding light on the true nature of this company, the Board of Directors recommended a vote AGAINST this stockholder proposal.

The resolution included:

• A target date for sourcing 100% certified sustainable palm oil and for segregating and tracing certified palm oil throughout the supply chain;

• Plans to verify suppliers’ compliance with the policy; and

• Supporting a moratorium on palm oil expansion in rainforests and peatlands.

It’s too bad ADM didn’t welcome this resolution — it could have been a positive step in the right direction for a laggard of a company. A concerned shareholder attended the meeting and raised a few of her concerns about palm oil, which I’ve summarized below:

- Indonesia is the 3rd largest producer of greenhouse gases behind china and the US thanks to deforestation linked to palm oil plantation expansion, exacerbating climate change.

- ADM sources palm oil from one of the most biodiverse areas in the world, the last remaining habitat for the critically endangered orangutan, meaning they will likely become extinct.

- Indigenous people are also losing their homes and livelihoods to plantations; when they resist, they are arrested, and their homes bulldozed. This violates the standards of the RSPO, of which ADM is a member.

These comments led to an important question. The shareholder asked Woertz what ADM was doing to address the fact that Wilmar, a massive palm oil plantation company with operations in Indonesia and Malaysia of which ADM is a major shareholder, violated the RSPO code of conduct by bulldozing an Indigenous community when it got in the way of the company’s operations. Ms. Woertz responded by saying that most of the charges by the community were found to be “without merit” but that there were some issues found to have validity regarding the land, and that those investigations are still ongoing.

The CEO also said that, “as far as committing to 100% sustainable palm oil, we believe this can be done most effectively through a group effort, not by acting alone.” I beg to disagree. As the three top importers of palm oil into the US, I believe ADM, Cargill and IOI all have a responsibility to commit to 100% RSPO certified palm oil as the bare minimum standard for their US customers.

Hopefully shareholders continue to challenge ADM on its misleading claims. Any claims by ADM that it is taking the environment into consideration are completely toothless without a palm oil policy in place to make even the most basic level of assurances to its customers by adopting supply chain safeguards. With these safeguards in place, palm oil produced by companies that think bulldozing a community is a viable dispute resolution mechanism will never end up in our homes.

Daisy Troop #42, Seacliff, NY. Photo: Diana Lenkler

After four years of savvy campaigning by Girl Scout activists Madison Vorva and Rhiannon Tomtishen, Girl Scouts USA (GSUSA) has finally acknowledged its role in rainforest destruction by releasing a commitment regarding its use of palm oil in its iconic cookies.

Unfortunately, the statement on palm oil just released is a small step in the right direction at a time when we need leaps forward to prevent the imminent extinction of orangutans and the wholesale destruction of some of the world’s most biologically diverse and carbon rich forests.

The bottom line remains: Girl Scouts USA cannot guarantee that the box of Thin Mints you buy doesn’t contain palm oil from rainforest destruction.

Rainforest Action Network, the Union of Concerned Scientists, and Madi and Rhiannon remain concerned and have issued a joint press statement explaining why the announcement by GSUSA, while a good start, is insufficient to sever the unacceptable connection between beloved Girl Scout cookies and tropical deforestation.

Rainforest Action Network asks Girl Scouts USA to instruct their suppliers, especially agribusiness giant Cargill, to adopt basic safeguards around greenhouse gas emissions, human rights and biodiversity loss, and not outsource their values by relying on the inadequate standards of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil.

Troop #9045 in Central Texas. Photo: Troop Leader Jennifer McNichols

We believe Girl Scouts USA must do more than simply “work with its bakers.” In its statement, GSUSA acknowledges that while the quantity of palm oil they use is relatively small, “their voice is big.” We believe the organization has a responsibility to use that voice to help convince Cargill and other suppliers to offer guarantees to American consumers that abuses such as slave labor will no longer end up in Girl Scout cookies, or any other product. Cargill is buying its oil from the likes of Wilmar, KLK and IOI, companies connected to some of the very worst examples of corporate environmental destruction and human rights abuses. And this means Girl Scout cookies are implicated too.

Girl Scouts USA’s palm oil announcement states:

Beginning with the 2012-13 cookie season, each cookie box will include a GreenPalm logo as a symbol of Girl Scouts’ commitment to address concerns about the deforestation of sensitive lands currently caused by the production of palm oil.

Green Palm Certificates are sold to companies by the plantation that grew the palm oil. The company then goes and buys palm oil from anyone at the cheapest price. For this reason, Green Palm Certificates are a step in the right direction because they reward growers for following basic safeguards, but they do not ensure that the palm oil used in products is not linked to controversy or is driving up demand for palm oil connected to rainforest destruction and human rights violations.

As great as it is that Girl Scouts USA will be addressing the issue of palm oil in the coming cookie season, we strongly urge GSUSA to refrain from simply using its purchase of Green Palm Certificates to greenwash its image, and instead to consider implementing a plan of action to ensure its cookies are truly free of ingredients sourced from rainforest destruction. It would be very misleading for young girls across the country selling Girl Scout cookies to make claims of “sustainable palm oil” in Thin Mints when in actuality the cookies are continuing to drive deforestation and orangutan extinction.

A man imprisoned for protesting palm oil expansion on his native customary land. Photo by Hendrikus Adam of Walhi Kalbar (Friends of the Earth West Kalimantan).

Much like the story with palm oil suppliers IOI and KLK, Cargill is again implicated in serious human rights abuses through it’s palm oil supplier Wilmar.

News of yet another case of heated social conflict on an oil palm plantation is breaking in Indonesia, and meanwhile Cargill continues to traffic this controversial palm oil into the US and sell it to most major brand companies throughout North America.

Today RAN released a press statement exposing these damning links and expressing our concern that the palm oil Cargill supplies and trades to the world is tied to intensifying community violence in Indonesia.

Cargill Supplier Linked to Violence and Home Demolition in Indonesia

San Francisco, CA – Newly uncovered customs data unearthed by Rainforest Action Network links agriculture trading giant Cargill to recent acts of violence, intimidation and home demolition against Indigenous villagers on the Indonesian island of Sumatra.

The security forces of Cargill palm oil supplier Wilmar have been documented using armed violence and heavy machinery to destroy homes in the village of Sungai Beruang. This attack is an escalation of a long simmering tension over land rights between the native community and Wilmar affiliate “Asiatic Persada.” Another wholly owned Wilmar subsidiary, PGEO Edible Oils, has been a frequent supplier of palm oil to Cargill.

The most recent conflicts began August 8, after Wilmar’s security forces apprehended a villager because he attempted to sell palm oil fruits that the company claimed it owned. This resulted in an altercation between community members and police forces. On August 10, Wilmar security forces, together with the Indonesian special police brigade Brimob, entered the village and began demolishing homes with bulldozers. Brimob fired live ammunition and reports from the scene say that over 100 men, women and children were evicted from their homes. A coalition of organizations has submitted a letter of complaint to the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) but no response has been received at this time.

Cargill's supply chain is leaving a trail of community destruction. Photo: Rainforest Rescue

Rainforest Action Network Forest Program Director Lindsey Allen issued the following statement in response to this latest controversy:

“This outrageous act of violence against community members is yet another in a series of examples that starkly illustrate why Cargill must adopt crucial safeguards on its supply chains. This is the only way Cargill will be able to guarantee these kinds of gross human rights violations do not continue to be imported into the American food supply.

“Rainforest Action Network has been warning Cargill for years that the company’s supply chain is vulnerable to serious human rights abuses, including slave labor and violence against Indigenous villagers. Rainforest Action Network deeply regrets that homes and livelihoods have been destroyed in this latest conflict and we hope this is a wake up call for Cargill to change the way it does business.

“Rainforest Action Network demands that Cargill implement meaningful safeguards to prevent anything of this sort from happening again. Cargill should also pressure the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) to set in motion a process to resolve the situation amicably and address the underlying land dispute, in line with RSPO Principles 2 and 6.”

Rivani Noor, a human rights and environmental advocate with the Indonesian NGO Cappa, said “This is a crime against humanity. Wilmar has blood on its hands. The assertion that this company produces sustainable palm oil is a lie.”

Photos of the destroyed village can be found at: www.robinwood.de/palmoel

For more photos and information on longstanding conflict resolution efforts with Wilmar, contact Rivani Noor with the contact information listed above.

For background on the campaign to convince Cargill to institute supply chain safeguards, and the company’s history of ties to environmental and human rights scandals, please contact Laurel Sutherlin at RAN with the contact information listed above.

With oil gushing in the gulf, activists locking down in boardrooms, the ball of financial reform being thrown from Wall Street to Washington and back again, and Indonesia announcing a two year freeze on the parceling out of its forests to international corporations, the world’s focus seems to be on corporations.

But in the struggle to hold onto the last of Indonesia’s rainforests – and the biodiversity, culture, livelihoods, and global climate stability these threatened forests provide – recent actions by the multilateral institutions International Finance Corporation (IFC), and the World Bank (WB) must not be ignored.

Multilateral institutions, funded by nations worldwide to implement projects, give loans, and steer ‘underperforming’ economies into globalized capitalism, are big, powerful, and active in Indonesia’s forests. The World Bank and its private investment arm, the IFC, have long seen agribusiness as a key growth sector in the tropics. In Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, both groups have given huge loans to encourage the expansion of palm oil and pulp wood plantations, to the benefit of multi-billion dollar corporations like Cargill and Wilmar.

After developing plantations with World Bank aid money, Cargill sold their PNG palm oil plantations for a profit of hundreds of millions of dollars.

Encouraged by the palm oil boom in Malaysia that created enormous wealth in that tropical country, the World Bank and IFC began giving out tens of millions of dollars to encourage the same process of industrialization in Indonesia’s forests.

But rather than work directly with Indonesia’s 30 million forest peoples and those that were concerned with the rational use of Indonesia’s natural resource wealth, the World Bank made the decision to fund some of the world’s largest agribusiness corporations, and trust that Wilmar and Cargill would act responsibly and with concern for the common good.

Today, after thirty years of World Bank and IFC’s support for the palm oil and pulp and paper industry, the social and environmental consequences of their trust in agribusiness is clear. The rich forests of Sumatra are now almost completely parceled out and in the control of corporations clear cutting the forest to produce forest commodities. The Orang Rimba, one of the world’s last truly nomadic cultures, are undergoing a mass exodus because their forest homes have been cleared for palm oil.

Gumpa, and all of the Orang Rimba, are threatened by palm oil expansion

Newly cleared forests to make way for the planting of palm oil and pulp wood burn, releasing smoke plumes that travel for thousands of miles. In Papua New Guinea social unrest and upheaval created by the first industrial monoculture plantations is threatening to tear communities apart.

After thousands of media articles, exposes, research projects, and political appeals, The Forest Peoples Programme and Sawit Watch, supported by hundreds of additional environmental, social, and development groups, convinced the World Bank and IFC to freeze all of their projects supporting oil palm plantations. The process started with the Forest Peoples Programme and Sawit Watch filing a complaint with the IFC’s own internal auditing office over the destructive and dangerous practices of the palm oil producer Wilmar, which received a loan from the IFC for expansion.

Oil palm plantations destroy globally important rainforests

The evidence of open burning and social conflict at Wilmar plantations was enough for the IFC to initiate a freeze on their support for oil palm while they carried out a review of their funding policies. Mounting evidence of the negative impacts of their oil palm plantation projects in Papua New Guinea combined with the IFC’s internal review to push the World Bank to declare their own moratorium on support for palm oil projects while they undergo their own review of the dangers of palm oil expansion.

The decision was one of the biggest wins to protect Indonesia’s forests in memory, as much for the implication on the ground for World Bank and IFC expansion projects as for the strong signal the moratorium send to private banks and agribusiness companies. The World Bank’s current moratorium serves as a warning to the private sector: the palm oil industry as a whole needs to be treated with great caution.

As the multilateral institutions proceed with consultations and internal reviews, and a final decision on palm oil funding is expected soon, almost two hundred leading Indonesian and International voices have called for the World Bank and IFC to implement significant reforms before the Bank returns to funding oil palm.

“Major reforms are needed in places like Sarawak and Indonesia to stop oil palm development doing further harm, including land tenure reforms, recognition of indigenous peoples’ rights, a halt to land-grabbing and a ban on clearance of forests and peatlands” says Marcus Colchester of the Forest Peoples Programme.

The thirty years of damage from the World Bank and the IFC’s support of the oil palm and pulp and paper sectors can not be undone, but immediately implementing needed reforms throughout the entire World Bank Group will be a positive step for Indonesia’s forests, forest peoples, and the climate.

**This blog post previously mis-characterized the nature and details of the demands put forward by Forest Peoples Program, Sawit Watch, and their allies.  These groups have never called for a permanent moratorium on World Bank funding of palm oil projects; this mis-characterization of their position was the authors mistake. The text of the blog post has been changed to more accurately reflect these groups demands.**

Below is the list of environmental and social groups that have submitted and endorsed a statement urging the IFC and World Bank to freeze the funding of oil palm:

Submitted by:

Forest Peoples Programme

Sawit Watch

Lembaga Gemawan

Scale Up

Lestari Negri, Provinsi Riau

Serikat Tani Serumpun Damai (STSD), Kabupaten Sambas, Kalimantan Barat

SAD Kelompok 113 Sungai Bahar, Kabupaten Batanghari, Provinsi Jambi

DebtWatch Indonesia

Serikat Petani Kelapa Sawit (SPKS)

Jaringan Kerja Pemetaan Partisipatif (JKPP)

ELAW Indonesia

Setara, Jambi

Yayasan PADI Indonesia, Provinsi Kalimantan Timur

Supported by:

1.      Nordin, Save Our Borneo, Provinsi Kalimantan Tengah

2.      Rivanni Noor, CAPPA

3.      Hendi Blasius Candra, WALHI Kalimantan Barat

4.      Andi Kiki, Individu

5.      Korinna Horta, Ph.D., Urgewald, Germany

6.      Nasahar, Dewan AMAN NTB

7.      Jelson Garcia, Asia Program Manager, Bank Information Center

8.      Erwin Usman, WALHI Eksekutif Nasional/Ketua Badan Pengurus Nasional Koalisi Anti Utang-KAU)

9.      Victor Mambor, Koordinator PJIK Foker LSM Papua

10.     Dadang Sudardja, Aliansi Rakyat Untuk Citarum – ARUM

11.     Rebecca Tarbotton, Executive Director (Acting), Rainforest Action Network

12.     M. Zulficar Mochtar, Destructive Fishing Watch (DFW) Indonesia

13.     Virginia Ifeadiro, Nigeria

14.     Titi Soentoro, Manila

15.     Hisma Kahman, Individu

16.     Kamardi, Direktorat Perluasan Partisipasi Politik Masyarakat Adat, AMAN

17.     Natalie Bridgeman, Accountability Counsel, USA

18.     Dedi Ratih, WALHI Eksekutif Nasional

19.     Khalid Saifullah, Direktur Eksekutif WALHI Sumatra Barat

20.     Among, KRuHA

21.     Bustar Maitar, Forest Campaign, Team Leader, GREENPEACE South-east Asia

22.     Tri Wibowo, individu

23.     Anuradha Mittal, the Oakland Institute, Oakland, CA, USA

24.     Molly Clinehens, International Accountability Project

25.     Yon Thayrun, Executive Editor, Voice of Human Right Media

26.     Kristen Genovese, Senior Attorney, Center for International Environmental Law

27.     Edy Subahani, POKKER SHK, Kalimantan Tengah

28.     Nasution Camang, Yayasan Merah Putih (YMP) Sulawesi Tengah

29.     Ibrahim A. Hafid, Institut Transformasi Lokal (INSTAL)

30.     Rizal Mahfud, Individu

31.     Sirajuddin, Ketua BPH AMAN Sulawesi Selatan

32.     Mahir Takaka, Wakil Sekretaris Jendral, AMAN

33.     Haitami, Pengurus AMAN Bengkulu

34.     Suryati Simanjuntak, KSPPM Parapat, Sumatra Utara

35.     Arifin Saleh, Pengurus AMAN

36.     Shaban Stiawan, Individu, Kalimantan Barat

37.     Fien Jarangga, Individu, Papua

38.     Frida Klasin, Individu, Papua

39.     Anike Th Sabami, Individu, Papua

40.     Bernadetha Mahuse, Individu, Papua

41.     Bata Manurun, BPH Wilayah AMAN Tana Luwu

42.     Irsyadul Halim, Kaliptra Sumatera, Riau

43.     Don K. Marut, Direktur Eksekutif INFID

44.     Arie Rompas, Walhi Kalimantan Tengah

45.     Ahmad SJA, PADI Indonesia, Balikpapan, Kalimantan Timur

46.     Thomas Wanly, Sampit, Kalimantan Tengah

47.     Datuk Usman Gumanti, Ketua BPH AMAN Wilayah Jambi

48.     Itan, Mitra Lingkungan Hidup Kalimantan Tengah

49.     Chabibullah, Serikat Tani Merdeka (SeTAM)

50.     Asmuni, Sekretaris Jendral, SPKS Paser, Kalimantan Timur

51.     Jazuri, Sekretaris Jendral, SPKS Tanjabar

52.     Lamhot Sihotang, Sekretaris Jenrdal, SPKS Rokan Hulu Riau

53.     Zuki, Sekretaris Jendral, SPKS Kabupaten Sekadau

54.     Riko Kurniawan, Perkumpulan Elang Riau

55.     Rano Rahman, Yayasan Betang Borneo, Kalimantan Tengah

56.     Risma Umar, Solidaritas Perempuan (SP), Jakarta

57.     Abdi Hayat, PERKUMPULAN SERABUT (SEKOLAH RAKYAT BUTUNI)

58.     Mohammad Djauhari, Koordinator KpSHK, Bogor

59.     Diana Gultom, Debtwatch Indonesia

60.     Suzanne Jasper, First Peoples Human Rights Coalition, United States of America.

61.     Jaya Nofyandry, Yayasan Lembaga Bantuan Hukum Lingkungan, Jambi

62.     Jason Pan, TARA-Ping Pu, Taiwan

63.     Thaifa Herizal, ST, Direktur Eksekutif, Atjeh Int’l Development

64.     Hegar Wahyu Hidayat, Eksekutif Daerah WALHI Kalimantan Selatan

65.     Fabby Tumiwa, Institute for Essential Services Reform (IeSR)

66.     Puspa Dewy, Solidaritas Perempuan

67.     Giorgio Budi Indrarto, Koordinator, Indonesia Civil Society Forum on Climate Justice

68.     The Environment and Conservation Organisations of Aotearoa/NZ

69.     Puspa Dewy, Solidaritas Perempuan

70.     Leonardus Bagus, lPPSLH purwokerto

71.     Chandra, WALHI Riau

72.     Heny Soelistyowati, Program Manager – Komunitas Indonesia untuk Demokrasi

73.     Agung Wardana, Nottingham

74.     Haryanto, Belitung

75.     M. Ali Akbar, Eknas WALHI

76.     Mardiyah Chamim, Tempo Institute

77.     Tandiono Bawor Purbaya, PHR Perkumpulan Huma

78.     Arif Munandar, WALHI Jambi

79.     Wirendro Sumargo, Forest Watch Indonesia

80.     TM Zulfikar, individu

81.     Hariansyah Usman, Direktur Eksekutif WALHI Riau

82.     Ida Zubaidah, Direktur, Wahana peduli Perempuan Jambi/WPPJ

83.     Ismet Soelaiman, Direktur, WALHI MALUT

84.     Koesnadi Wirasapoetra, Sekretaris Jendral, Sarekat Hijau Indonesia

85.     Teddy Hardiyansyah, Kabut Riau

86.     Edo Rakhman, Direktur WALHI Sulawesi Utara

87.     Asman Saelan, LBH Buton Raya

88.     Wilianita Selviana, Direktur WALHI Sulawesi Tengah

89.     R. Yando Zakaria, Lingkar Pembaruan Desa dan Agraria./KARSA, Yogyakarta

90.     Adrian Banie Lasimbang, President, Jaringan Orang Asal SeMalaysia (JOAS)/ Indigenous Peoples’ Network of Malaysia

91.     Ramananda Wangkheirakpam, North East Peoples Alliance, North East India

92.     Joan Carling, Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact, Thailand

93.     Sandra Moniaga, Jakarta, Indonesia

94.     Muliadi SE, Diretktur PETAK DANUM Kalimantan Tengah

95.     Idham Arsyad, Konsorsium Pembaruan Agraria (KPA)

96.     Mukri Friatna, Eksekutif Nasional WALHI

97.     Sanday Gauntlett, PIPEC (Pacific Indigenous Peoples Environment Coalition)

98.     Rizki Anggriana Arimbi, Deputi WALHI Sulawesi Selatan

99.     Javier M. Claparols, Director, Ecological Society of the Philippines

100.    Agustinus Agus, LBBT, Pontianak

101.    Endah Karyani, individu

102.    Happy Hendrawan, Komunitas Transformatif Kalimantan Barat

103.    Maharani Caroline, Direktur, YLBHI – LBH Manado

104.    Budi Karyawan, AMAN-NTB

105.    Taufiqul Mujib, Indonesian Human Rights Committee for Social Justice (IHCS)

106.    Giring, Perkumpulan Pancur Kasih, Pontianak, Kalimantan Barat

107.    Hironimus Pala, Yayasan Tananua Flores Ende NTT

108.    Philipus Kami, JAGAT,  NTT

109.    Nikolaus Rima, AMATT Ende, NTT

110.    Agus Sarwono,TiLe, Individu

111.    Dickson Aritonang, Yayasan Ulayat Bengkulu

112.    Mina Susana Setra, Aliansi Masyarakat Adat Nusantara (AMAN)

113.    Alma Adventa, PhD, University of Manchester, UK

114.    Marianne Klute, Watch Indonesia!, Jerman

115.    Aidil Fitri, Yayasan Wahana Bumi Hijau – Sumatera Selatan, Indonesia

116.    Anja Lillegraven, Rainforest Foundation Norway (RFN)

117.    Judith Mayer, Ph.D., Coordinator, The Borneo Project, Earth Island Institute

118.    Septer Manufandu, Forum Kerjasama  LSM di Tanah Papua

119.    Andik Hardiyanto, The Indonesian Social and Economic Rights Action Network

120.    Hartono, WALHI Sulawesi Utara

121.    Stephanie Fried, `Ulu Foundation

122.    Sarah Lery Mboik, Individu (Anggota DPD RI Daerah Pemilihan NTT)

123.    Julia Kam, Pontianak-Indonesia

124.    Jupran Abbasri, Ketua Lembage Jurai Tue-Semende

125.    Agapitus, AMAN Kalimantan Barat

126.    Sainal Abidin, Perkumpulan WALLACEA Palopo

127.    Macx Binur, Belantara Papua-Sorong

128.    Sri Hartini, Walhi Kalimantan Barat

129.    Ecologistas en Acción (Spain)

130.    Muhammad Juaini, GEMA ALAM NTB

131.    Budi Arianto, Banda Aceh, Indonesia

132.    Solihin, Individu

133.    Aylian Shiau, Kahabu Culture and Education Association of Nantou County

134.    Sultan Darampa, Sulawesi Channel

135.    Thomas Irawan Sihombing, Perkumpulan KABAN, KalBar

136.    Yohanes RJ, Sintang, Kalbar Indonesia

137.    Ranto Sibarani, Sekretaris Eksekutif, KOTIB

138.    Nikmah, INFID

139.    Ahmad, Deputy Director, ED. Walhi Sulteng

140.    Sarma Hutajulu, Koordinator, Jaringan Aktifis Perempuan/Pendukung Penguatan Pr Sumut

141.    Hamsuri, Individu, Balikpapan, Indonesia

142.    Imanche Al Rachman, Koordinator Eksekutif Komnasdesa-Sultra

143.    Asep Yunan Firdaus, HuMa

144.    Juliade, Individu, Banjarmasin, Kalimantan Selatan

145.    Arief Candra S Hut, Kelompok Studi Konservasi (KSK) HIMBA

146.    Chia Tek-khiam, Director, Takao Indigenous Kakatao Council, Taiwan

147.    Serge Marti – LifeMosaic

148.    Betty Tiominar, Bogor

149.    Rukmini Paata Toheke, AMAN

150.    Carolyn Marr, UK Coordinator, Down to Earth

151.    Yuni Riawati, Ketua BEK SP Komunitas Mataram

152.    Geert Ritsema, Coordinator International Affairs, Friends of the Earth Netherlands

153.    Gindo Nadapdap, Kelompok Pelita Sejahtera  (KPS) Medan, Sumatra Utara

154.    Eko Waskito, Lembaga Tiga Beradik Merangin, Jambi Sumatera Indonesia

155.    Haryanto Ramli, Tanjungpandan – Belitung, Provinsi Kep. Bangka Belitung

156.    Benget Silitonga, Sekretaris Eksekutif Perhimpunan BAKUMSU

157.    Yuyun Kurniawan, Yayasan Titian

158.    M. Rafli Kaitora, Ketua PD.AMAN Enggano

159.    Ronny Christianto, Sahabat Masyarakat Pantai (SAMPAN), Kalimantan Barat

“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.

But us, us people from the forest, who live in the longhouses, what are we left with? Nothing. And the Malay people, who have cars, is this a sustainable economy, that depends on illegal labor and government jobs to support the common man? I think not.

Oil palm does not lead to the development of a country. Wealth, contained in the natural resources of the our forests and controlled by us,  is flattened and burned, and then collected by the world’s rich, from Companies like Sinar Mas, Cargill, IOI, and Duta Palma. Oil palm does not bring wealth to the poor, it takes it away. Oil palm development, like so many neo-colonial trading systems, makes the poor poorer and the rich richer.

Supporting this argument, so powerfully and simply laid out by a man from the last of Borneo’s almost extinct forests with no formal education but a lifetime of wisdom,  is a year long research project. One I hope to complete some day. But for now, lets just take his word for it, as a man who has lost his livelihood, way of life, and future so one of the world’s largest companies, Wilmar, can become a little bit richer.

David Gilbert is a Research Fellow at RAN. He has worked in the tropical forests of the Amazon and Indonesia, with a special focus on forest conservation and indigenous rights. He can be reached at davidgilbert@ran.org