Documents

Oil Dependency and the Peruvian Amazon: How Oil Companies Have Exploited the Rainforest of Loreto

For more than 40 years, oil activity has brought destruction to the ecosystems and the indigenous people of four river basins, all major tributaries to the Amazon, which gives life to the biggest rainforest on Earth. The operator responsible for this human and environmental disaster, Pluspetrol Norte S.A., has evaded any responsibility. The company’s contract expires on August 29, 2015, but now a new oil lot, 192, has been created and put up for sale. Three big oil companies have shown an interest, including Pluspetrol Norte S.A, but the indigenous people of the River Tigre have stated they will not permit this operator to stay one day longer on their territories. Read their testimonies and more about the impact of oil exploitation in this report (Chaikuni Institute, 2015).

The New Snake Oil? Violence, threats & false promises driving rapid palm oil expansion in Liberia

As Liberia emerges as a new frontier market for the world’s cheapest, most popular vegetable oil, The New Snake Oil details how state officials are said to be helping the palm oil company Golden Veroleum (GVL) harass communities into signing away their land and crush dissent. The report also documents the huge foreign investment, state-sanctioned violence, and regulatory black holes that are making this possible. Global Witness reveals how GVL (whose parent company is the Indonesian Golden Agri-Resources) accelerated its operations at the peak of Liberia’s 2014 Ebola outbreak. This report comes at a point when ten percent of Liberia has been designated for agricultural plantations, despite the lack of a legal framework to regulate how companies acquire contracts, operate and remain accountable for their activities (www.globalwitness.org, 2015).

Exploitation and empty promises: Wilmar’s Nigerian landgrab

This document uses first-person testimonies, satellite maps, and Wilmar’s own filings with the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil to demonstrate that the company failed to gain the Free, Prior and Informed Consent of communities directly affected by its operations; failed to produce adequate Environmental and Social Impact Assessments; and failed to live up to promises of infrastructure development and benefit sharing, despite these promises being a primary incentive for local communities to allow the company to operate in Cross River State. (foei.org, 2015)

My Home My Land

My Home, My Land is a graphic representation of much of the Oakland Institute's work on land grabs. Illustrated by the Institute's Intern Scholar, Abner Hauge, this publication dismantles the many myths promoted by so-called donor countries, development agencies, and corporations about the positive effects of foreign direct investments through large-scale land acquisitions. (The Oakland Institute, 2015)

West Papua Oil Palm Atlas

The West Papua Oil Palm Atlas portrays a frontier region's early encounters with a crop that has come to dominate the Sumatran and Bornean landscapes.