Agribusiness giant Louis Dreyfus Company sourcing palm oil from deforested Indigenous lands in the Peruvian Amazon

Miguel Guimaraes, president of the Federation of Native Communities of Ucayali and Tributaries (FECONAU), to which Santa Clara de Uchunya belongs, said:

 

“The palm oil which the Louis Dreyfus Company buys from Ocho Sur through its mill Servicios Agrarios de Pucallpa is the fruit of the dispossession of Indigenous territories and violations of our human rights. If the LDC is committed to “sustainable palm oil production”, then they should not buy palm from a plantation such as that operated by Ocho Sur.”

 

At the same time as LDC was acquiring this palm oil associated with deforestation and Indigenous Peoples’ human rights violations in the Amazon, Santa Clara and Indigenous and human rights organisations were publicly denouncing how Ocho Sur P continued its operations even as the COVID-19 pandemic wracked urban and rural communities across Ucayali, exposing communities and workers to further risks. At present, the local criminal prosecutor’s office is investigating these allegations against Ocho Sur P. Documents subsequently obtained via information requests by Forest Peoples Programme show that neither Ocho Sur P nor Servicios Agrarios de Pucallpa had obtained the necessary permits to continue operating, despite their public claims to the contrary.

Santa Clara de Uchunya has previously presented a series of Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) complaints against millers and consumer goods companies for buying palm oil from the Ocho Sur P plantation. The RSPO condemned the plantation in 2016 when it was operated by its previous owner, Plantaciones de Pucallpa. In its most recent decision issued in February 2021, the RSPO held that Peruvian palm oil miller OLPESA must not buy or process palm oil from Ocho Sur. LDC has also been a RSPO member since 2012.

 

“For its part, the RSPO should demand that its member companies comply with treaties and standards based on respect for peoples’ rights to live in a peaceful environment, since all this company Ocho Sur has done is contribute to the destruction of our Mother Earth and our resources which are our only source of life,” added Guimares.

 

In a recent evaluation for its updated Agribusiness Scorecard, Oxfam gave LDC just 10.4% for its performance across a series of indicators relating to women, land rights, climate, small-scale producers and transparency and accountability.

The Ocho Sur group companies, including Ocho Sur P, Ocho Sur U and Servicios Agrarios de Pucallpa SAC, are owned by Peruvian Palm Holdings Ltd, based in offshore tax haven Bermuda, and have received international investment led by the Anholt group. Connecticut-based Anholt Services (USA) Inc. has invested in the Ucayali plantation development since 2012. Anholt Services is wholly owned by Anholt Investments Ltd, a Bermuda-based company, and is a wholly owned affiliate of the Kattegat Trust, also registered in Bermuda. Ocho Sur has also received private equity investment from New York-based Amerra Capital Management LLC.

A recent article published in Peru by Convoca drew attention to the fact that on 11 May 2021, Peruvian Palm Holdings reduced its issued share capital by 99.9%. According to Peruvian Palm Holdings’ CEO, Michael Spoor, this was due to a decision by the company and its lenders to convert part of its outstanding debt into equity to make its capital structure more sustainable as a loan matures.

However, the community’s legal advisers, the Institute of Legal Defence, have expressed concerns that this could possibly signal an attempt to transfer the ownership of Peruvian Palm Holdings’ Ucayali plantations (as happened previously in 2016 when the plantations were sold via a hastily organised auction). The plantations are currently held in a trust administered by Scotiabank Peru S.A.A. to which the Ocho Sur group and Peruvian Palm Holdings transferred their properties in August 2018. Scotiabank claims to be committed to serious social standards and the fight against climate change, however this trust may be an attempt to create an additional barrier behind which to hide the lands Santa Clara de Uchunya are fighting to have returned by Peru’s Constitutional Tribunal, leaving the deforestation and human rights violations in impunity.