Sierra Leone

Behind every tree plantation developed for carbon offsets, there are external agents seeking to profit from increased control over the land. And while they all have the same colonial approach, these plantations can vary widely: they can be large-scale monocultures or schemes with smallholder farmers; they can include exotic species or native species; and some of them may even exist on paper only.

A report documents how a tree planting carbon project in Port Loko, Sierra Leone is violating the country’s community rights laws and risks locking families into 50-year contracts. The British oil company BP has already paid USD 2.5 million to Carbon Done Right, one of the companies behind this tree plantation and carbon offset project.

Socfin oil palm plantation company has meant violence and oppression in several African countries. Sierra Leone is no exception.

Oil palm plantation company Socfin has meant violence and oppression for affected communities in several African countries. Sierra Leone is no exception. In collaboration with Aminata Finda Massaquoi, a journalist and the national coordinator of the women’s advocacy network WORNAPI, WRM is releasing a podcast to highlight the voices of women living with the impacts of industrial plantations.

The Informal Alliance Against the Expansion of Industrial Oil Palm Plantations in West and Central Africa released a declaration to keep breaking the silence of the many abuses around industrial plantations and to reaffirm their strong commitment to resist their expansion in the defence of their territories and lives.

Almost 1,500 members of MALOA (Malen of Affected Land Owners and Users Assosiation) in Sierra Leona released a petition to object the RSPO (The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil) certification of SOCFIN subsidiary in that country.

The false idea that industrial plantations are a solution to the climate crisis is a golden opportunity for investment funds like Arbaro, which access scarce climate funding for expanding destructive monocultures.

Oil palm company Socfin has meant oppression for affected communities. Yet, women have to confront another patriarchic system. Paramount Chiefs are the custodian of the land according to customary law, which often give men decision-making and ownership power over land.

Patriarchal oppression is inseparable from the industrial plantation model, and it is at the base of how companies generate profits. Companies target women, including due to their fundamental role in community life.

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.

Company plans 75,000 hectare expansion of Industrial Tree Plantations in Seven Countries in the Global South: Sierra Leone, Ghana, Uganda, Ethiopia, Peru, Ecuador and Paraguay. Download the leafelt to know more about the company and why communities should be alert.

Civil society organizations have welcomed the finalization of a report of a Technical Committee about a legal dispute between the multinational company Socfin and communities affected by the company’s oil palm plantations in the Malen Chiefdom in Sierra Leone.