Forest Peoples Programme responds to legal letter from palm oil company Ocho Sur

On 4 April 2023, a coalition of 24 Peruvian and international Indigenous, human rights and environmental organisations issued a statement condemning the US Ambassador in Peru’s public endorsement of the palm oil company Ocho Sur’s operations in Ucayali, in the Peruvian Amazon, due to links to land grabbing, massive deforestation and Indigenous rights abuses.  

Whilst the Ocho Sur group’s parent company, Peruvian Palm Holdings, is based in Bermuda, investigations by Convoca and FPP have shown that the palm oil group is owned by US private equity firms including Amerra Capital Management LLC and Anholt Services (USA) Inc.  

On 4 May, Forest Peoples Programme received a notarised letter from Ocho Sur. Two Peruvian organisations from the coalition, the Instituto de Defensa Legal (IDL) and Kené Instituto de Estudios Forestales y Ambientales received similar letters around the same time. IDL and Kené, together with the Indigenous federation FECONAU, recently filed a lawsuit against Ocho Sur for operating its plantations without environmental and forestry permits. 

Both Ocho Sur’s letter and FPP’s subsequent response can be read in full below. 

Ocho Sur notarised letter – 4 May 2023 (Spanish only)

FPP response to Ocho Sur – 28 June 2023 

Also during May, independent Peruvian media outlet La Encerrona published a two-part investigation by investigative journalist Enrique Vera, supported by FPP and IDL, uncovering Ocho Sur's supply chain links (Spanish, English) by tracing the route of taken by its palm oil from the Ucayali plantations to its export to international markets and buyers, via the Sol de Palma consortium. The investigation also examines the complex dynamics of land dispossession, colonisation and extensive deforestation in the area surrounding the Ocho Sur plantations (Spanish, English forthcoming).