France

In 2016, a TV station in France (Channel 2) aired a report that told the story of Vincent Bolloré, a businessman who heads the oil palm plantation company, Bolloré, a subsidiary of the multinational company, Socfin. The television report showed the social and environmental abuses committed in Cameroon by the company, Socapalm, another subsidiary of Socfin. Vincent Bolloré owns 38.7% of the shares of Socfin. In a clear intimidation strategy, the businessman decided to take the journalist to court on charges of defamation.

If the project goes ahead, the Montagne d'Or project, scheduled to start mining in 2018, would become the largest gold mine on French soil. Not only will it have serious human and environmental impacts, it will also open the floodgates for other mining multinationals in French Guyana, and expand mining exclusively for the luxury jewellery market. Industrial demand for gold accounts for only 8 percent of gold currently mined. The recycling sector supplied three times that amount in 2015.

10 February 2016 | Press release - A day before the start of yet another trial brought on the Bolloré Group against French journalists, organisations denounce the imprisonment of six local community leaders affected by the investments of Socfin Agricultural Company Sierra Leone Ltd (SAC)[1], a subsidiary of Socfin, linked to Bolloré.

A case study of the "Fair Forest Carbon compensation" project of French company Pur Projet, in the region of San Martin, Peru, which aims to generate carbon credits destined, initially, for the voluntary carbon market.

Online resources and in-depth investigations on the social, ecological and political impact of French transnational corporations. See http://www.multinationales.org/?lang=en

Targeting the media

 WRM information sheets on GE tree research First posted: 1 August 2008 Updated: 15 August 2008, based on information from (1) Last update: August 2014 Tree species being manipulated: (1,2,3)

The main aim of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) is the conservation and sustainable use of the world’s biological diversity. It would thus seem obvious that anything that threatens biodiversity should be adequately addressed by signatories to the convention.

As has been the case with most Southern countries, Côte d’Ivoire inherited from the colonial period the role of exporter of tropical agricultural products. Apart from the ivory from which the country was named, prior to colonization Côte d’Ivoire had less to offer for trading compared to its eastern neighboring country Ghana, more endowed with gold. So, when the French arrived in the area in the 1880s they found it simple to use the vast fertile land of dense tropical forest for agricultural production.

Government delegates from all over the world met this month in Lyon, France, in a Preparatory Conference prior to the Conference of the Parties of the Convention on Climate Change which will be held next November in the Hague, Netherlands.