Socapalm and Safacam are two companies controlled by Socfin, a multinational agribusiness specialized in the cultivation of oil palm and rubber. The group has financial and operating companies in Belgium, Luxembourg and Switzerland, which manage plantations in a dozen African and Asian companies. The group's aggressive expansion policy has led to land-grabbing, causing serious impacts on local communities' living conditions. This has sparked many reactions from directly affected community members, as well as international NGOs. On June 1, 2016, hundreds of villagers—men, women and children—peacefully mobilized to disrupt Socapalm and Safacam's activities in five plantations (Mbambou, Mbongo, Dibombari, safacam, Kienké) and to challenge the company administration. Simultaneously, villagers of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Cambodia joined Cameroonians to denounce the same abuses in their countries.
Read the press release from Synaparcam (National Peasant and River Populations Association of Cameroon) which brings together over 1,000 members from five different plantations.
Also, we invite you to access the first edition of the quarterly “Union Line Magazine” (in French) produced by the associations that defend the rights of Cameroonian river populations living adjacent to Socapalm's plantations. Its main objective is to inform actors in the oil palm sector of—and expose to the outside world—the daily reality of this activity, in order to facilitate coordinated actions through exchange.