Oil Palm Plantation impacts on communities and the environment in Colombia: the case of Mapiripán

FPP interview with Willian Aljure (CONPAZ) of the municipality of Mapiripán, Department of Meta in Eastern Plains of Colombia and member the national network of victims of the armed conflict “Communities Building Peace from Territories” (CONPAZ)

Where is Mapiripán and what is the area like?

Mapiripán is located in the high plains region of Colombia and is one of the largest municipalities in the country. It is very diverse culturally. Much of the area forms part of the traditional lands of indigenous peoples and the landscape is made up of grasslands, gallery forests and wetlands that support a very rich variety of plants, animals, fishes and birds. The government has identified the area as a “great agricultural frontier” and is promoting cattle ranching and agro-industrial development projects there.

Mapiripán suffered a lot during the armed conflict. It is very well known because of the massacre of 1997, one of the biggest that had happened in my country at the hands of paramilitaries. In 2005, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights condemned the Colombian government for its responsibility for the massacre. 

The violence in Colombia killed nine members of my family. The last to die were my father and then my mother, who died after being tortured. It is very painful for me to remember all this.

When did the cultivation of palm oil begin in Mapiripán and how did they acquire the land to cultivate?

Since 2008, despite Colombian laws that prevent the accumulation of land, palm oil companies, including the Spanish-Italian company Poligrow, have entered the area to buy lands and plant oil palm in many farms. In one case the mayor’s office, along with the police and the army, but also with paramilitaries, started to evict people inhabiting those lands. The places planted with oil palm are part of the territories that the Sikuani and Jiw indigenous peoples have inhabited since ancestral times. Today, the oil palm plantation companies prevent them from hunting and fishing. Many of the children suffer from malnutrition due to a poor diet. The Colombian government has not resolved the request for extension of land titles that the Sikuani indigenous peoples made more than 20 years ago, but has allowed companies to plant oil palm in areas that have been requested for the extension of indigenous reserve title areas (Resguardos).

In 2012, my brothers and I made the decision to continue to claim ownership of our farm, but when we arrived at the farm the paramilitaries threw us out, knocking down my house. After, they took us to the paramilitaries’ base. A lawyer arrived there as well. In this “meeting” there were about 30 armed individuals. They were attempting to displace us, I believe, in order to acquire the land and then provide it to companies. We were pressured to sign the documents to give up the farm, but we refused. The paramilitaries let us go, and threatened us saying that we couldn’t report them because the mayor, the police inspector and the government officials were working for them. We were told that the paramilitaries would know immediately if we did so. Then, we couldn’t report them because of fear. However, subsequently the paramilitaries ordered my assassination, but I survived thank God, with help from national and international human rights organisations. 

It was then that I said to myself: ‘I am already dead, even if I am still alive. So I will report all this.’ I had the telephone number of an activist at the Inter-Ecclesiastical Commission for Justice and Peace. I called him very scared and he took me out of Mapiripán with my family. I do not have any protection in Colombia. I travel to Mapiripán only with the Commission, because I fear for my family’s physical integrity and mine.

How and why did you come to Europe to share your experiences with the palm sector?

There was a huge campaign against me driven by agribusiness interests. They said that I was against development and manipulated indigenous communities.  

The Inter-Ecclesiastical Commission for Justice and Peace introduced me to international organisations like the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) and FPP. I then joined the delegates that were travelling to Europe to inform civil society, governments and decision-making organisations, as well as European consumers, on the impacts that palm oil supply chains have on our communities.

What did you do in the tour and what were the main messages? 

During the tour we visited the European Parliament and the European Commission to discuss environmental, energy, agriculture, foreign affairs, trade and climate issues with parliamentarians and with EC officials in charge. In Europe, I met indigenous and civil society leaders from three other countries: Indonesia, Peru and Liberia. Being together we realised that we were victims of palm oil plantations developed for agro-fuels and other products. We visited the port of Rotterdam as well, where I saw the smoke stacks of the plants that process palm oil.

I gave my personal testimony directly to the people in the institutions we visited. I said: no one told me this story. I have lived the story myself. I want to talk about it so that the civil society, governments and the different organisations here learn about the reality of palm oil supply chains. People must realise that when they consume biofuel, use make up, and eat biscuits and meat from animals that have been fed with palm products, these products might be stained with the blood not only from my municipality, not only from my country, but also from every single country where this phenomenon is observed.

The Post-conflict Minister of Colombia says that despite difficulties the oil palm in Mapiripán is a pole for development, and that it is important to attract companies to develop this agroindustry. However, this position doesn’t seem to seriously address environmental damages, human rights violations, the denial of indigenous people’s rights, or the violation of land legislation behind the cultivation of this agro-industrial crop.

I explained that palm plantations use 1.7 million litres of water every day, according to documents from Cormacarena. Parts of Mapiripán are nature conservation areas, but the company is seeking to change the land use for agro-industrial purposes, with the complicity of the municipal authorities. They want to build an extractor plant to process the oil next to a lake called ‘La Laguna de las Toninas’, which is sacred to indigenous peoples. They want to establish an economic free zone. This ecosystem is inhabited by the giant otter, the Amazon’s pink dolphin and we can find riparian forests and wetlands. The government and institutions have not taken any steps to prevent these developments.

The companies say that I am crazy, but, if so, I love my madness. My passion is to protect the environment, to defend human rights, to fight for my family’s memory, and to reclaim the land that I inherited from my grandfather and my parents. My madness is that I do not want my children to suffer in the future as I am suffering now. The environment and human rights cannot be separated. We only have one Earth, but we also have just one life. This is the reason why we invite the European peoples and entities to control supply chains. They must recognise that the palm causes not only environmental damage, but also human harm.

This is my message.

For more information:

CIJP (2015), Los Claros Oscuros del Grupo Palmicultor Poligrow en Colombia, Comisión Intereclesial Justicia y Paz, Bogotá http://justiciaypazcolombia.com/Los-claro-oscuros-del-grupo-palmicultor-Poligrow-en-Colombia 

Indepaz y Somo (2015), Reconquista y Despojo en la Altillanura: El caso Poligrow en Colombia. http://indepaz.org.co/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/DOCUMENTOS-CASO-POLIGROW-WEB/1.%20INFORME%20SOMO-INDEPAZ/Reconquista%20y%20despojo%20en%20la%20altillanura%20%20El%20caso%20Poligrow%20en%20Colombia%20-%20Informe%20SOMO-INDEPAZ.pdf 

Video ‘Entre el Agua y el Aceite de Palma’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6q2RU_8RRTc