Bulletin 240 - October 2018

Certification schemes for tree plantations initially generated many expectations, promising a true transformation. Yet after all these years, we can definitely conclude that what the RSPO and FSC also have in common is that they will not meet those expectations.

For years, WRM has been warning many certified monoculture plantations in Brazil have been established on land for which titles were obtained fraudulently. This article discusses the case of two companies that operate in the Brazilian Amazon: Agropalma and Jari Florestal.

Interview with Hajaratu Abdullahi from Community Forest Watch in Nigeria who talks about the hardship and misery that the palm oil company Okomu Oil, subsidiary of global palm oil company SocFin, is bringing to communities like hers in Nigeria's Edo state

Land owners in Cote d'Ivoire are trapped in contracts with Dekel Oil, a company that made false promises arguing villagers would become rich by signing contracts to let oil palm monocultures on their land.

In Ecuador, the expansion of industrial oil palm plantations is the main cause of deforestation. A meeting to exchange knowledge, the first of its kind in Ecuador, brought together leaders from oil palm-affected provinces from the three regions of the country.

The expansion of industrial oil palm plantations by OLAM hit the village of Sanga in the South of Gabon particularly hard: The community's main water source became so polluted that the water is now unsafe for drinking and not suitable for other daily uses.

The government of Lao PDR has decided to establish the country as “the battery of Asia” by developing major hydropower dams along the Mekong River. The recent collapse of the Xe Pian -Xe Namnoy dam, however, accentuated once again the many risks of such projects.

We share here the Declaration of the Global Campaign for the closing of this 4th session of the Working Group, which highlights some key elements for the elaboration of a meaningful instrument that allows those affected to have access to effective justice

On September 28, the Chilean courts ruled in favor of the Ignacio Huilipán community, located in the Contulmo Commune, Bío Bío region.

Women affected by OLAM’s oil palm plantations, during a meeting in the village of Fera, in Gabon, decided to send a letter to FAO denouncing the impacts they are suffering.

Friends of the Earth International and the World Rainforest Movement have launched an international sign-on statement denouncing the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).

A new documentary shows how the FSC certification of forests and industrial tree plantations looks like on the ground and whether it protects the forests and the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities.

Peasants and other people working in rural areas are one step away from achieving a United Nations Declaration that could defend and protect their rights to land, seeds, biodiversity, local markets and much more.