Eradicate poverty: End Western theft of indigenous land, livelihood

Africa hope of self-sufficiency charred in foreign grab: Palm Oil

Editing by Carolyn Bennett

A recent analysis of land grabs found that “Reported land deals in Africa concern an area equivalent to 4.8 percent of Africa’s total agricultural area.” 

This represents a serious threat to the livelihoods of small farmers and to food sovereignty in the often very poor countries where control of large areas of fertile land is being handed to foreign interests. Reports suggest the majority of land acquired by foreign investors will not be used to meet local needs or improve food security but to grow crops for export—both food and biofuel feedstock, says a Greenpeace report.

Land grabs also threaten Africa’s forests, which contain rare habitats and huge quantities of stored carbon. Unabated land grabbing for commercial agriculture represents a massive new threat to biodiversity and an increase in greenhouse gas emissions. 

In the Congo Basin, logging companies already control some 44 million hectares of forest, while another several hundred thousand hectares are threatened by new palm oil ventures.

Derivatives of Palm Oil

Derivatives of palmitic acid were used in combination with naphtha during World War II to produce aluminum naphthenate and aluminum palmitate: napalm

Processed foods (many) contain palm oil as an ingredient. The highly saturated nature of palm oil renders it solid at room temperature in temperate regions, making it a cheap substitute for butter in uses where solid fat is desirable, such as the making of pastry dough and baked goods: in this respect, it is less of a health-hazard than the alternative substitute of partially hydrogenated trans fat.

Splitting of oils and fats by hydrolysis, or under basic conditions saponification (saponification is a process that produces soap, usually from fats and lye), yields fatty acids with glycerin (glycerol) as a byproduct. 

Biodiesel: Palm oil can be used to produce biodiesel (aka palm oil methyl ester), created through a process called transesterification. Palm oil biodiesel is often blended with other fuels to create palm oil biodiesel blends. Palm oil biodiesel meets the European EN 14214 standard for biodiesels. The world’s largest palm oil biodiesel plant is the Finnish operated Neste Oil biodiesel plant in Singapore, which opened in 2011.

 

Energy: The organic waste matter that is produced when processing oil palm including oil palm shells and oil palm fruit bunches can also be used to produce energy. This waste material can be converted into pellets that can be used as a biofuel.

Additionally, palm oil that has been used to fry foods can be converted into methyl esters for biodiesel. The used cooking oil is chemically treated to create a biodiesel similar to petroleum diesel.

The use of palm oil in the production of biodiesel has led to concerns that the need for fuel is being placed ahead of the need for food, leading to malnourishment in developing nations.

Exploitation, human rights abuse for Palm Oil

Cameroon (West Africa): Herakles Farms in the United States has a production project underway in Cameroon, a project that has been halted under pressure from Greenpeace, WWF (World Wildlife Fund for Nature), and other civil society organizations in Cameroon. Local villagers also oppose the project.

While palm oil production reportedly provides “employment opportunities and has been shown to improve infrastructure, social services and reduce poverty,” says a Wikipedia article, oil palm plantations have also developed lands without consulting or compensating indigenous people who live on the land thus causing social conflict. The use of illegal immigrants in Indonesia has also raised concerns about working conditions within the palm oil industry.

Herakles Farms: Greenpeace reports that the Herakles Farms Project in the Cameroon area “includes 62,433 hectares (154,209 acres) of dense natural forest as well as farmland and agro-forestry small holdings” and local residents (as most farmers in Africa lack formal title to their land) fear this foreign incursion “will deprive them of their land and access to forest products.

 

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A Greenpeace team documented that the setting up of one of the project’s nurseries at Fabe (Village of Fabe in Cameroon) deprived people of access to a valuable collecting area for forest products, and that cocoa farms have been taken without farmers’ consent.

“Locals were not properly consulted before the establishment convention was signed. The convention gives Herakles Farms the exclusive right to farm in the area and includes no provisions for compensation of residents.”

Herakles “claims ‘a huge outpouring of support from communities’ and says its project will not displace people,” Greenpeace reports; but, at the same time, “communities have consistently objected to the plans by complaining to the government, signing petitions, and organizing peaceful demonstrations.”

 Environmental harm: Palm Oil plantations

Palm oil cultivation has been criticized for negatively affecting the natural environment: e.g., deforestation, loss of natural habitats which threaten critically endangered species such as the orangutan and Sumatran tiger, and increased greenhouse gas emissions ─ Palm oil plantations (many of them) are built on top of existing peat bogs, and clearing the land for palm oil cultivation may contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. For these reasons, Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and others oppose the use of palm oil biofuels.

I

n its 2001 “Assessment of Rural Poverty Western and Central Africa” the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) wrote, “Poverty in Western and Central Africa is essentially a rural phenomenon. The incidence of poverty is approximately 75 percent in rural areas, out of a total impoverished population of about 120 million people” and as urbanization grows so urban poverty will become dominant by the 2020s. 

The IFAD report concluded that the “battle against poverty cannot succeed without concerted effort(s) working to eliminate poverty at local, regional and global levels” and programs aimed at reducing rural poverty must “include the effective participation of rural African women, men and youth at all stages of design, implementation, evaluation.”

The report “Assessment of Rural Poverty Western and Central Africa” is therefore “an appeal to good will and solidarity with those who are trying to raise themselves from poverty.”

  

Sources and notes

“Herakles Farms in Cameroon: A showcase in bad palm oil production” (Greenpeace), Version 1.1 updated March 5, 2013, previous version published February 2013 by Greenpeace USA, 702 H Street NW Suite 300, Washington, DC 20001, Tel/ 202.462.1177, book design by Andrew Fournier, http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/en/media-center/reports/Herakles-Farms-in-Cameroon/

greenpeace.org

“Herakles Farms in Cameroon: A showcase in bad palm oil production,” publication February 19, 2013: “The palm oil project being developed by the U.S.-owned company Herakles Farms in Cameroon demonstrates the threat posed by badly managed expansion of oil palm plantations.

The project covers 73,086 hectares (180,599 acres) of forest and existing farmland and is home to an estimated 14,000 people, mostly small farmers.

Residents are fiercely opposing the plantation, fearing it will deprive them of their farmland and access to forest products.

International and Cameroonian NGOs and scientists are also critical of the project on the grounds of illegality, social and economic injustice and environmental destruction.

http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/en/media-center/reports/Herakles-Farms-in-Cameroon/

http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/Global/usa/planet3/PDFs/Forests/HeraklesCrimeFile.pdf

“Greenpeace is an independent campaigning organization that acts to expose global environmental problems and achieve solutions that are essential to a green and peaceful future.”

PALM OIL

Palm oil (also known as dendê oil, from Portuguese) is an edible vegetable oil derived from the mesocarp (reddish pulp) of the fruit of the oil palms, primarily the African oil palm Elaeis guineensis, and to a lesser extent from the American oil palm Elaeis oleifera and the maripa palm Attalea maripa. Palm oil is a common cooking ingredient in the tropical belt of Africa, Southeast Asia and parts of Brazil. Its use in the commercial food industry in other parts of the world is buoyed by its lower cost and by the high oxidative stability (saturation) of the refined product when used for frying. Refined bleached deodorized palm oil (RBDPO) is the basic oil product sold on the world’s commodity markets although many companies fractionate it further to produce palm olein for cooking oil or process it into other products.

The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil and others have engaged in efforts to promote sustainable cultivation of palm oil. Wikipedia notes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palm_oil

“Assessment of Rural Poverty Western and Central Africa”, IFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development, © 2001 International Fund for Agricultural Development. All rights reserved. “This Report is a product of the staff of IFAD and the judgments made herein do not necessarily reflect the views of its Member Countries or the representatives of those Member Countries appointed to its Executive Board. IFAD does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this publication and accepts no responsibility whatsoever for any consequence of their use. Designations employed, presentation of material in maps do not imply expression of any opinion on the part of IFAD concerning the legal status of any country or territory or the delineation of its frontiers.” http://www.ifad.org/poverty/region/pa/english.pdf

Some Facts On Palm Oil  

IMPORTANT: Just because a product says it is ‘Organic’ or ‘Cruelty-Free’ does not mean it doesn’t contain palm oil. In fact, most natural/organic products do contain palm oil - because palm oil is very much a natural ingredient. It’s the way it is produced that is far from natural, which is something many companies fail to realize. - See more at: http://arzone.ning.com/forum/topics/some-facts-on-palm-oil#sthash.Msiz4UXS.dpuf

30 NAMES PALM OIL CAN BE LABELLED UNDER

Foods, Body Products, Cosmetics & Cleaning Agents:

-Vegetable Oil	-Vegetable Fat
-Sodium Laureth Sulfate (in almost everything that foams) ^	-Sodium Lauryl Sulfate ^
-Sodium Dodecyl Sulphate (SDS or NaDS) ^	-Palm Kernel#
-Palm Oil Kernel #	-Palm Fruit Oil #
-Palmate #	-Palmitate #
-Palmolein #	-Glyceryl Stearate #
-Stearic Acid #	-Elaeis Guineensis #
-Palmitic Acid #	-Palm Stearine #
-Palmitoyl oxostearamide #	-Palmitoyl tetrapeptide-3 #
-Steareth -2 *	-Steareth -20 *
-Sodium Kernelate #	-Sodium Palm Kernelate #
-Sodium Lauryl Lactylate/Sulphate *	-Sodium Lauryl Sulfoacetate ^
-Hyrated Palm Glycerides #	-Sodium Isostearoyl Lactylaye ^
-Cetyl Palmitate #	-Octyl Palmitate #
-Cetyl Alcohol ^	-Palmityl Alchohol #
	# These ingredients are definitely palm oil or derived from palm oil.
* These ingredients are often derived from palm oil, but could be derived from other vegetable oils.	^ These ingredients are either derived from palm oil or coconut oil.
- See more at: http://arzone.ning.com/forum/topics/some-facts-on-palm-oil#sthash.Msiz4UXS.dpuf

http://arzone.ning.com/forum/topics/some-facts-on-palm-oil

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Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy

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World’s two billion people lack energy

We can and must do better — Greenpeace proposes

“Energy (R)evolution”

“Bringing energy to these parts of the developing world would not only help us address the ongoing issue of poverty but, if done in the right way, we would also be a big step closer to a fairer and more sustainable future. Such a move would also help curb global warming and create millions of new jobs along the way.” Kumi Naidoo

Excerpting and editing by Carolyn Bennett

Under the current system of energy production, distribution and consumption, the world produces “large amounts of energy at a few centralized locations and sends that energy over very long distances to where it is consumed,” Kumi Naidoo writes. “This system is inflexible, often wasteful, and leaves large swathes of the world’s population un-served and without access to any energy.…

“In addition to being centralized geographically, energy production is also centralized in terms of influence with control lying in the hands of a few very powerful energy companies. All too often, these companies operate as monopolies, dictating availability, prices and access.

“Because energy corporations do not cater to the poor, about a third of the world’s population (over 2 billion people) lives with little or no access to reliable energy services.

“… People and organizations have realized that it is in our collective interest as citizens of the world to pursue a green industrial policy. This should start with a re-evaluation of the way we produce and distribute energy.

The Energy (R)evolution calls for decentralized energy, which comes wherever possible from renewable sources such as wind or solar energy and is connected to a local distribution network system. This local “micro-grid” supplies homes and offices, rather than the high voltage transmission system. The scenario would see a huge proportion of global energy produced by such decentralized energy sources – supplemented, as needed, by large offshore wind farms, concentrating solar power (CSP) plants in the sunbelt regions of the world, and other renewable sources of energy by 2050. Creating a closer proximity of electricity-generating plants to consumers will allow any waste heat from combustion processes to be piped to nearby buildings, a system known as cogeneration or combined heat and power. This means that nearly all the input energy is finally put to use.

The Energy [R]evolution is a win not just for the environment, but also for local people. Towns, villages and local communities will be empowered to produce, monitor and profit from their own energy thus bypassing major monopolies.

Properly implemented, the Energy (R)evolution would also create millions of new jobs starting with the global power supply sector which could create up to 12.5 million jobs by 2015 (4.5 million more than the current projection). A significantly increased uptake of renewable energy would create over 8 million jobs by 2020 in that sector alone, four times more than today.

“For developing countries this presents a great opportunity to catch up both financially and technologically with the more developed world. By implementing new forms of energy, these countries could leapfrog the era of dirty energy that the world’s developed countries are just emerging from – and move straight to clean and sustainable energy thereby avoiding rising oil prices, dwindling fossil fuel reserves and the ongoing dangers that come with these types of energy.

“The Energy [R]evolution won’t happen by itself. We need governments and industry around the world to implement the right policies to make substantial structural changes in the energy and power sector.…

“We need an international movement of honest men and women that encompasses environmental organizations, trade unions, development organizations and many others who have not actively thought about how the environment touches all of our lives.”

“History teaches us that real change only comes when good men and women are prepared to put their lives and personal safety on the line to advance the cause of justice, equity and peace.”

Sources and notes
“Talking About an Energy and Jobs Revolution” (Kumi Naidoo), December 13, 2010,

http://www.social-europe.eu/2010/12/talking-about-an-energy-and-jobs-revolution/?pfstyle=wp

http://www.social-europe.eu/2010/12/talking-about-an-energy-and-jobs-revolution/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+SEJColumns+%28Social+Europe+Journal+%C2%BB+Columns%29

Greenpeace’s proposal for an Energy (R)evolution at www.greenpeace.org/energyrevolution

The column was first published by the Global Labor University

Greenpeace is present in 40 countries across Europe, the Americas, Asia, Africa and the Pacific; and has been campaigning against environmental degradation since 1971 when a small boat of volunteers and journalists sailed into Amchitka, an area north of Alaska where the U.S. Government was conducting underground nuclear tests. This tradition of ‘bearing witness’ in a non-violent manner continues today Greenpeace’s and ships are an important part of all our campaign work.

“Greenpeace exists because this fragile earth deserves a voice. It needs solutions. It needs change. It needs action.” Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning organization that acts to change attitudes and behavior, to protect and conserve the environment and to promote peace by—

Catalyzing an energy revolution to address the number one threat facing our planet: climate change

Defending our oceans by challenging wasteful and destructive fishing, and creating a global network of marine reserves
Protecting the world's ancient forests and the animals, plants and people that depend on them
Working for disarmament and peace by tackling the causes of conflict and calling for the elimination of all nuclear weapons
Creating a toxic free future with safer alternatives to hazardous chemicals in today's products and manufacturing
Campaigning for sustainable agriculture by rejecting genetically engineered organisms, protecting biodiversity and encouraging socially responsible farming
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/about/

Kumi Naidoo (b. 1965) became the Executive Director of Greenpeace International in November 2009 and is recognized internationally as a forceful advocate for gender equity and against gender violence. In 1997, he organized South Africa’s first National Men's March Against Violence on Women and Children. Kumi Naidoo is an active board member of the Association for Women’s Rights in Development.

He has said, “In any platform I am given, whether environmental, NGO law, voluntary organizations, whatever it is, at least 25 percent of my time is directed toward the issue of gender equity…I think it is very important that if you support the notion of democracy, then you must also support gender equity.…

“History teaches us that real change only comes when good men and women are prepared to put their lives and personal safety on the line to advance the cause of justice, equity and peace. I believe today that Greenpeace is the leading organization in embracing that approach.”  http://www.africansuccess.org/visuFiche.php?id=441&lang=en

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Bennett's books available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; The Book Den, Ltd.: BookDenLtd@frontiernet.net [Danville, NY]; Talking Leaves Books-Elmwood: talking.leaves.elmwood@gmail.com [Buffalo, NY]; Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza: http://www.bhny.com/ [Albany, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY]; LONGS’ Cards and Books: http://longscardsandbooks.com/ [Penn Yan, NY]


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