EU tour by indigenous, community and NGO leaders highlights impacts of palm oil supply chains on communities and their lands and forests

In an unprecedented move, a delegation of indigenous peoples’ and community leaders from Indonesia, Liberia, Peru and Colombia travelled throughout Europe in late April to highlight the human rights and social impacts of palm oil production and to propose possible solutions and policy options.1 

The tour, supported by Forest Peoples Programme and other partner NGOs, including FERN, Oxfam, Both Ends, INFOE, Environmental Investigation Agency, and Global Witness, visited various capital cities from Brussels to the Hague, London, Rome and Cologne where meetings with policy makers and parliamentarians as well as private sector, investor groups and NGOs were held.  

The tour route symbolically represented the various elements of a suite of measures and commitments that are required to address the growing threat to indigenous peoples’ rights to land, territories, and self-determination posed by the expanding demand for palm oil as fuel and food in Europe. The Brussels leg of the tour involved meetings with top-level Commission officials and Commissioners’ offices, including those working on trade, aid, environment, energy, agriculture and climate, to reiterate the need to adopt a rights-based approach and go beyond an approach based on purely on sustainability. 

A hearing was organised in the European Parliament to inform Members of Parliament engaged in discussions on trade, environment, land grabbing and indigenous peoples about indigenous peoples’ concerns and proposals. While the Brussels leg was dedicated to the governance aspects of a policy approach to human rights and palm oil, meetings in the Hague were dedicated more to highlighting the contribution that the Dutch government – currently holding the presidency of the EU – can make and the role of private sector and importers. For that reason the delegation visited palm oil refining plants in the Rotterdam harbour, where most of the palm oil from Indonesia comes into European markets.

Peruvian delegates met with German Aid Agency officials to highlight the positive contribution that aid can play in supporting land demarcation and empowerment of indigenous communities as the most effective way to protect forests, while properly addressing key external drivers of deforestation. The two Peruvian delegates also met with representatives of the Climate Alliance (Klimabündnis), the coalition of European mayors for climate, which supports emissions reduction in their municipalities, forest protection and indigenous peoples’ rights in the Amazon basin.

Among the key issues touched upon was the possible role of municipalities in supporting land demarcation and adopting strong procurement policies on palm oil in food and energy production. 

The final leg of the tour was in London where an international press conference was held, together with meetings with UK government officials, the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Human Rights (APPG-HR), key investor groups and initiatives such as UNPRI and companies like Unilever. An action was also staged at Canary Wharf to highlight the role of stock markets in supporting deforestation for the production of cocoa. The press conference offered the occasion to present an open call to governments, banks, investors, and companies, the “London Call to Action on Industrial Agricultural Supply Chains, Human Rights and Deforestation”.  

The call was launched by William Aljure, of CONPAZ, from Colombia; Sedequias Ancon Chavez from AIDESEP, Peru; Robert Guimaraes , FECONAU Peru; Ali Kaba of SDI Liberia; Agus Sutomo  of NGO Link_AR Borneo; and  Franky Samperante of Pusaka Indonesia. It stresses – among others – the contradictions of zero deforestation commitments by governments, the role of European Banks and pension funds, those of the EU as the third major importer and consumer of palm oil, the shortcomings of existing certification schemes, and noncompliance issues surrounding voluntary initiatives such as the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). 

The Call urges the financial sector and International Financial Institutions to stop investing in unsustainable supply chains and adopt stringent safeguard policies, while the EU and member states are called upon to adopt robust standards to ensure legality, compliance and traceability of forest risk commodities supply chains. Aid resources should be earmarked to support land rights and demarcation while effective mechanisms to monitor respect of human rights in trade agreements be introduced. Producer companies and supply chain certification bodies are asked to prevent land rights violations and land conflicts, and increase transparency and accountability while upgrading their certification standards to avoid land grabbing. 

The tour is the first step of a broader goal to establish a Europe-wide network of groups and organisations that support the struggles of indigenous peoples’ communities and organisations affected by oil palm schemes. The key deadline for this common goal will be in October, when the Feasibility Study on an EU Action Plan on Deforestation will be made public, and the EU Renewable Energy Directive (RED) Review will be finalised together with the recommendations of the FLEGT review. 

The convergence of these three key and interconnected policy processes in October will represent an unprecedented opportunity to call for an effective set of rights-based policies to regulate global supply chains impacting on forests and forest peoples. FPP and its partners will continue to engage with key decision makers in the EU and Member States and NGO partners to support and respect indigenous peoples’ rights and recognise indigenous peoples’ vital role in the sustainable use of forest ecosystems, climate protection and conservation. 

By Francesco Martone, Forest Peoples Programme

1. For country studies and background materials http://www.burness.com/pressrooms/ipeuropetour/