Black Communities and Peasant Farmers File Complaint Against Colombian Palm Oil Giant

In addition, it denounces violent behaviour, criminalisation and intimidation against human rights defenders, as well as the lack of transparency in the value chain of the company, its subsidiaries and suppliers. Grievances also highlight the company’s failures to resolve land and water access disputes in a peaceful manner, amongst other corporate abuses.

It presents evidence to demonstrate that the company’s abuses amount to serious and multiple breaches of RSPO’s Code of Conduct for Members and RSPO sustainability standards, all of which the Oleoflores Group has pledged publicly to uphold. The abuses also constitute a violation of the Colombian Constitution and international human rights law.

 

“We cannot talk about sustainable products when the leaders of the territory are stigmatised and prosecuted,” said a peasant leader and human rights defender from  Montes de María. “I really don't know why they talk about green products, when in reality they are red products, stained with blood.”

“International companies which buy palm oil from producers in Colombia must ensure that the product they are buying is not stained by human rights violations, violence and harms committed against communities and the environment,” insists a woman human rights defender from Maria la Baja.

 

The Oleoflores Group is a supplier of palm oil to major agricommodity traders and distributors, such as the Louis Dreyfus Company and Bunge Global. Its palm oil is also linked to global consumer goods companies, including Unilever, Cargill, Kelloggs, Colgate-Palmolive, Nestlé, and ADM, among others, whose products are used daily by millions of people around the world.

Since 1998, Oleoflores’ oil palm plantations in the Montes de María region have been a hotspot for violent land and water conflicts that continue to this day. When land and water defenders have spoken out against rights violations perpetrated by the company, on many occasions they have been subjected to physical and legal attacks, including via Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPP) actions. These intimidatory legal actions can be traced to the Oleoflores Group:

 

“When local farmers organised to claim land rights in the area of the Candelaria Estate in 2015 they were criminalised by lawyers acting for Oleoflores,” said a peasant leader and human rights defender in María la Baja.  

“…When we took peaceful action in 2019 to defend our right to water, our leaders were again criminalised by the company Usomarialabaja [led by Oleoflores and other oil palm and rice growers] that administrates the Irrigation District. This is the history here in Montes de María that continues up until today.”

 

The communities also complain that the palm oil giant is using underhand tactics to restrict their access to their land and water supplies, with the aim of gradually forcing them to leave the territory they have traditionally occupied.

 

“The company has sought to take away our access to our traditional wells [nowadays located within oil palm plantations]. The wells are the source of life for our communities and sustain our livelihoods,” said a woman leader from María la Baja.

“Their objective is to remove the communities from here; to look for ways for the communities to leave... If the only access we have to collect drinking water is the well, and if they privatise it, we no longer have water, we no longer have land to grow on. So, people say, “Well, what do we do here? We have to go somewhere else!”

 

Affected communities present detailed evidence in their complaint showing that the oil palm plantations of the Oleoflores Group and its suppliers in Montes de María have deforested tropical dry forests impacting High Conservation Value (HCV) in order to convert land to oil palm plantations – in direct contravention of RSPO environmental and social standards.

 

“They slaughtered trees that are more than a hundred years old on the Candelaria Estate. We did not touch the trees along the creeks when we were at that place…we left those trees standing to maintain the water flow. We did not cut down the wild fig, because it is a tree that calls water…,” explains a local peasant farmer.

 

Community grievances are presented in an extensive 100-page document, which includes photographic, cartographic and legal evidence detailing harms and abuses caused by the agro-industrial operations of Oleoflores S.A.S., its subsidiaries and its suppliers. The complaint ends with a series of demands for the RSPO Complaints Panel to issue decisions to ensure justice and redress for abuses and harms caused by the Colombian palm oil giant.

 

“The company must respond to all damages caused to the communities,” said a community leader from María la Baja.

“International bodies like the RSPO that claim to promote sustainable palm oil must take stronger measures to ensure its members are complying with their rules. That's really what we ask for and this is why we have made this complaint to the RSPO.” 

 

The RSPO secretariat has 30 days from the receipt of the complaint to carry out an assessment to determine whether the allegations would be a breach of RSPO key documents. If this is the case, they will open an investigation into the actions of Oleoflores, which could lead to rulings and sanctions for the company.

Contact for further information and to organise interviews: 

Frances Jenner, Comms and Media Officer, Forest Peoples Programme - fjenner@forestpeoples.org; +44 7925 914379 (WhatsApp)

[ENDS]

Annex: Community demands and requests made in the complaint

• That RSPO must commission a fully independent investigation into the human rights abuses and environmental damages detailed in the complaint (including safeguards to ensure none of the complaint investigators have worked in the Colombian oil palm sector); 

• Strict application of RSPO’s (2018) Policy on the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, Whistleblowers and Complainants, and timely processing of the complaint to minimise the risk of reprisals against community leaders and human rights defenders;

• Withdrawal of RSPO certificates for the company’s mills and plantations in Cesar department, and suspension of any steps to advance certification of Oleoflores’ Palm Oil Mill in María la Baja, until decisions are complied with and the protective and corrective measures ordered by the RSPO Complaint Panel are adopted;

• Issuance of a robust RSPO Complaints Panel decision calling on the Oleoflores Group to, inter-alia: 

1. Refrain from any further acts of violence, intimidation or criminalisation of community leaders in Montes de María; 
2. Commit to non-repetition of abuses and adoption of measures to protect human rights defenders and prevent reprisals against them. This should include commitments to cease intimidation, stigmatisation and criminalisation of Afro-descendant and peasant community leaders; 
3. Cease all restrictions on customary community tenure, use and access rights and remove any blockages to public rights of way; 
4. Investigate wrongdoing among company operatives and associates, and sanction company staff, legal advisors, contractors and executives for intimidating behaviour and other violent and inappropriate conduct; 
5. Disclose the land titles and plans of land holdings and plantations owned or managed by the company in disputed areas, including uploading of required geographic data to the GeoRSPO Portal; 
6. Ensure good faith cooperation with national land authorities dealing with land restitution claims and petitions for land demarcation and collective titling made by Black Community Councils and peasant communities in Montes de María;
7. Ensure measures are taken to guarantee application of the core free prior and informed consent (FPIC) standard in all efforts to resolve land and water disputes, and in all matters where its operations may affect Black, peasant and indigenous communities; 
8. Refrain from any further activities that might degrade or damage habitats and natural resources of High Conservation Value for Black, peasant and indigenous communities in Montes de María. 
9. Ensure fair and equitable reparations for rights abuse and damages caused to communities and the environment through processes guided by good faith negotiation and FPIC using independent arbitrators mutually agreeable to both parties, and fully respecting the communities’ autonomous right to obtain their own independent and freely chosen legal and technical advisors, as well as international observers, if so desired.