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.

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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.
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Articles 10 May 2024

DRC: President of Tshopo provincial assembly supports demands of communities affected by oil palm company PHC

The president of the Tshopo provincial assembly supports the call of international NGOs demanding to pause a mediation process between the oil palm company PHC and communities affected by its oil palm plantations. Since 2018, the mediation has not addressed the communities’ demand for investigation of the (il)legality of the concessions at the basis of the companies palm oil business but has led to increased the violence and put community rights at the plantation sites in Lokutu and Boteka, in neighbouring Equateur province, at risk.
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Articles 6 May 2024

DRC: Communities in Lokutu once again demanded full reparation for the occupation of their lands by oil palm company PHC

On 1 April 2024, eight representatives chosen by communities from Lokutu, in the Tshopo province of the DR Congo, to represent them in the mediation process with the oil palm company PHC presented a letter rejecting the outcome presented by the mediation.
Articles 4 April 2024

New revelations in a palm oil scandal in the DRC: Urgent actions need to be taken in the mediation process

An alliance of organizations have demanded that European governments pause the mediation process and provide the communities access to the land documents and legal support to defend their interests.
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Action alerts 20 November 2023

PHC Congo: European development banks must be held accountable for broken mediation process

Collective statement, 20 November 2023
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Action alerts 24 February 2023

DR Congo: Undermined by violence, a development bank mediation process requires immediate government action

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Other information 16 January 2023

Palm Oil Company, Police and Military Conduct Massive, Violent Rampage Against Villagers in the DR Congo

In September 2022, two large contingents of national police and military were dispatched to oil palm plantation concession areas of the Plantations et Huileries du Congo (PHC) in Lokutu and Boteka.
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Bulletin articles 11 October 2022

What ‘Plantations’ Really Mean

This bulletin highlights materials and analysis related to communities’ struggles against industrial tree plantations. It also pays homage to communities in DRC struggling to get their lands back from an oil palm company since colonial times. Their courageous struggle showcases the multiple layers of oppression and violations that result from the plantation model.
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Bulletin articles 23 March 2022

A Century of Agro-Colonialism in the DR Congo

Many oil palm plantations’ concessions in West and Central Africa were built on lands stolen from communities during colonial occupations. This is the case in the DRC, where food company Unilever began its palm oil empire. Today, these plantations are still sites of on-going poverty and violence. It is time to end the colonial model of concessions and return the land to its original owners.
Feronia
Articles 9 March 2022

Development banks make shameless exit from a colonial land grab in the Congo

Action alerts 11 January 2022

République Démocratique du Congo: Polices et militaires tirent à balles réelles sur des ouvriers de PHC en grève

(Only available in French) Polices et militaires tirent à balles réelles sur des ouvriers de la Société FERONIA/PHC en grève à la plantation de Boteka.

Bulletin articles 17 December 2021

Local Communities in Tanzania Continue to Face Problems Brought by Green Resources’ Tree Plantations

Green Resources Tanzania Limited (GRL)claims to offer solutions to climate change through planting monoculture trees. This wrong and misleading claim hides the reality on the ground: land grabbing, deforestation, destruction of grasslands and much social harm.