Struggles Against Tree Monocultures

Corporate profit drives land grabs to install industrial tree monocultures. Where industrial plantations take root, communities' territories and lives are violently invaded, their forests destroyed and their water polluted. When communities resist, companies tend to respond with aggression. Despite this extreme violence, communities around the world are resisting, organizing and joining forces to defend their territories. Every September 21 the International Day of Struggle against Monoculture Tree Plantations is celebrated.

Bulletin articles 15 December 2024

West and Central African grassroots organisations reaffirm their commitment against tree monocultures and in defence of their ancestral lands and forests

The just-released “Mouila Declaration” is a message of resistance, solidarity and unity from communities and grassroots organisations of the Informal Alliance against the expansion of Industrial Monocultures.

Bulletin articles 24 October 2024

Portucel/Navigator and eucalyptus in Mozambique: “What the company leaves for the population is 0%”

Besides the direct impacts on communities’ lives, eucalyptus monoculture plantations represent absurd and obscene inequality. A group of 45 community people with whom we spoke was shocked to learn that it would take them 2,300 years of non-stop work to collectively earn the same amount that a single Portuguese family, one of the owners of the plantation company they work for, earned in one single year from the profits of their shares in the company.

Bulletin articles 25 October 2023

Communities from Brazil and Mozambique exchange experiences in the fight against industrial tree plantations

Exchanges between activists put the voices of those who fight to defend their territories at the center of the conversation. In September, members of communities from Brazil and Mozambique united their struggles and connected their histories once again, helping to strengthen solidarity in the fight against industrial tree plantations.

Bulletin articles 30 March 2023

Rubber Tree Monoculture Plantations in Communal Territories in Mabu, Mozambique: Concession of Injustices

At the foot of Mount Mabu, Mozambique, the expansion of rubber tree monoculture plantations has restricted Manhaua communities’ access to their own territory. This process has occurred by means of systematic abuses, thus depicting the contrast between the different ways the population and foreign capital relate to the environment where they find themselves.

Multimedia 22 March 2023

Podcast: Voices of resistance from women surrounded by Socfin oil palm plantations, in Sierra Leone

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

Bulletin articles 16 January 2023

Podcast: The Voices of Women Living around Socfin’s Oil Palm Plantations in Sierra Leone

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.

Bulletin articles 11 October 2022

Communities in West and Central Africa are Determined to Put a Stop to Oil Palm Plantations Expansion

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.

Other information 16 June 2022

RSPO Certification despite land conflicts, violence and criminalization

Bulletin articles 17 December 2021

Eucalyptus and Rubber Tree Monoculture Plantations Cause Hunger Among Rural Communities

On the frontlines of the promotion of monoculture tree plantations as a solution to the climate crisis, families affected by tree plantations in Mozambique, Tanzania and Brazil, have once again denounced the serious impacts on their lives and the environment.

Action alerts 30 September 2021

Public letter of the International Meeting "How to Resist Monoculture Plantations"

21 September, 2021 – International Day of Struggle against Industrial Tree Plantations.

Bulletin articles 27 September 2021

Women, Land, Plantations and Oppression in Sierra Leone

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.