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Palm Oil Detectives Jun 17, 2023

RSPO’s Dubious “Sustainability”: 30 Years of Deceit

Ecolabels like RSPO and FSC are involved in networks of extensive greenwashing. They exist to conceal corporations’ environmental damage rather than fighting it. With three decades dubious promises from environmental certifications, World Rainforest Movement calls for a swift end to this disgraceful palm oil, soy and timber industry greenwashing. You can help resist palm oil colonialism and ecocide #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife every time you shop!

#Ecolabels like #RSPO and #FSC are accused of greenwashing, hiding corporations’ environmental #ecocide from consumers 💩🛒 rather than fighting #corruption. Fight back with your wallet and #Boycottpalmoil 🌴🪔🩸🧐🙊⛔️ #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2023/06/18/certification-ecolabels-dubious-sustainability-30-years-of-deceit-and-violence/

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World Rainforest Movement and Palm Oil Detectives call for an end to #palmoil #greenwashing from #RSPO “sustainable” palm oil 🙊🧐⛔️ Resist the greenwash and #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife in the supermarket! 🌴💀🩸🚫 @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2023/06/18/certification-ecolabels-dubious-sustainability-30-years-of-deceit-and-violence/

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This article was originally published by World Rainforest Movement as “Certification schemes on “sustainability”: 30 years of deceit and violence” on 25 March, 2023 and was republished with permission here alongside other reports from World Health Organisation, Global Witness and others. Read original.

The shelves in supermarkets and stores are full of certified products. The packaging displays different labels indicating products were made with “sustainable” paper or wood, food or cosmetic products made with “sustainable” palm oil, “responsible” soybeans and so on and so forth.

Even when it comes to buying an airplane ticket, consumers can pay a little more
to ensure that their carbon emissions are (supposedly) “neutralised”, so as to guarantee that much touted “sustainability”.

So why is there this need for so many labels and forms of certification? What is actually being certified? And who is benefiting from this?

After 30 years of certification schemes with environmental and social bias, what is clear is that the only “sustainability” that they guarantee is that of corporations’ lucrative business.

The first environmental certification mechanism for a specific product (wood) and its production chain emerged in the early 1990s, with the creation of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). Although its origin is connected with civil society pressure on corporations, FSC has been fully incorporated into the production logic of logging companies operating in forests, of giant paper and pulp corporations using tree monoculture plantations, as well as of producers and distributors of consumer goods.

Over time, having shown that it did not constitute any threat – on the contrary: an opportunity – to the accumulation strategy of the corporations involved, other sectors started creating similar mechanisms. Hence, starting in the 2000s, initiatives and so-called roundtables for “sustainable” or “responsible” production of palm oil, soybeans, cocoa, sugarcane, among others, proliferated.

Greenwashing ecocide – Agropalma & Orangutan Land Trust

100 NGOS signed a public statement denouncing the RSPO in late 2022

These “sustainable” initiatives have various aspects in common

1. They are dominated, compromised and funded by corporate interests

They are schemes that present themselves as non-profit associations including many apparently diverse actors and interests (companies, NGOs, governments etc.) However, in practice, the business sector participants andtheir allies, like the big conservationist NGOs, dominate these initiatives and impose their interests in a highly unequal power relation between the members.

2. They promote toothless and unenforceable guidelines

They are mechanisms that establish operational guidelines and directives for companies to adhere to on a voluntary bases, leaving no possibility of legal consequences when rules are broken – rules formulated and judged by the companies themselves, it should be noted.

3. They promote an endless growth model of capitalism in spite of our limited and finite natural world

They are initiatives submitted to the logic of the market and its expansion, that is to say, certification labels have become important both to obtain funding for companies’ expansion projects and to win over consumers, mainly urban consumers and those from the global North. Read more about the limits of the Endless growth model.

4. The mechanism for conflict resolution is set and decided upon by the certification label itself – amplifying racial and gender inequities

They are mechanisms headquartered in countries of the North, and with management boards mainly composed of men and white people, leaving the rural communities of the South that have to face the certified plantations, to play the role of mere receivers of determinations imposed from outside about the use of the space where they live. And if they want to question the actions of any of the certified companies, they must submit to the protocol created by the certification system itself on how to proceed.

5. They use greenwashing language and false promises even though this does not reflect reality

Certification schemes are used by companies as defence mechanisms whenever they are faced with criticism over the impacts of their activities:

“Our products are certified…”, “The project has certification…”, as if this has guaranteed that there is no cause for concern.

One way or another, such certification mechanisms have not stopped the destructive expansion of industrial tree plantations, oil palms, soy, etc. Read more about using Design and Words as a greenwashing tool.

6. The predatory nature of corporate land-grabbing and expansionism cannot ever work in favour of indigenous peoples

A still from the documentary: by Mama Malind su Hilang (Our Land Has Gone) Nanang Sujana Watch on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqYoRh1aApg

Certification labels have not been able to resolve the conflicts generated with traditional communities and Indigenous Peoples. Nor do they have the potential to do so, since they are designed to allow the continuity and expansion of corporate accumulation patterns that are intrinsically dependent on a predatory dynamic.

In fact, the main common denominator of such certification schemes is that they guarantee a green label to the companies involved, thus contributing to their primary objective, i.e., the maximisation of profit.

7. Certification labels like FSC and RSPO are vital to for companies gain consumer buy-in and greenwash away harms

Certifiers have hence become a key element through which companies seek to legitimize their territorial and economic expansion in the global South, deceiving consumers with the “sustainability” discourse.

In other words, these destructive corporations need certification labels to obtain some legitimacy in the eyes of consumers and investors, bearing in mind the vast number of reports, news and studies showing their harmful effects, such as:

Violent corporate land-grabbing aided by private enforcement or military/police intervention
Problematic, deceptive or non-existent community consultation processes
Contamination by agro-chemicals and its human health and environmental impacts
Soil degradation
Dangerous and humiliating jobs
Sexual abuse and other forms of violence against women
Child slavery and indentured slavery

among many other impacts related to extensive monoculture plantations.

This permits one to affirm without reservation that certification itself has become an underlying cause of deforestation.

https://vimeo.com/735353691

10 Tactics of Sustainable Palm Oil Greenwashing

Greenwashing Tactic #1: Hidden Trade Off

When a brand makes token changes while continuing with deforestation, ecocide or human rights abuses in another part of their business – this is ‘Hidden Trade Off’

For example, Nestle talks up satellite monitoring to stop palm oil deforestation. Yet…

Greenwashing Tactic #2: No Proof

Greenwashing Tactic 5. Palm oil companies make environmental claims without providing proof or evidence of these claims or using spurious evidence.

Greenwashing Tactic #3: Vagueness

Claiming a brand or commodity is ‘green’ or ‘sustainable’ based on broad generalisations, unclear language or vague statements Jump to section Greenwashing: Vagueness in Language Greenwashing: Vagueness in certification standards Reality: Auditing of RSPO a failure Quote: EIA: Who Watches…

Greenwashing Tactic #4: Fake Labels

Claiming a brand or commodity is green based on unreliable, ineffective endorsements or eco-labels such as the RSPO, Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) or FairTrade coffee and cocoa. Examples of this form of greenwashing Original tweet [Tweet above by Ruben Brunsveld…

Greenwashing Tactic #5: Irrelevance and Deflection

Claiming a brand, commodity or industry is green based on irrelevant information Jump to section Greenwashing: Irrelevant Topics Greenwashing: Colonial Racism Research: Palm oil greenwashing and its link to climate denialism Reality: RSPO Certification Doesn’t Stop Deforestation, Human Rights Abuses…

Greenwashing Tactic #6: The Lesser of Two Evils

Claiming that a brand, commodity or industry is greener than others in the same category, in order to excuse ecocide, deforestation, human rights and animal rights abuses. Jump to section Greenwashing: Lesser of Two Evils: Palm Oil Uses Less Land…

Greenwashing Tactic #7: Lying

Greenwashing lies are falsifying support from authorities to back up claims or using spurious research data to back up the greenwashing, boycott palm oil!

Greenwashing Tactic 8: Design & Words

Greenwashing Tactic 8. Companies use design principles and subliminal language to signal ‘greenness’ and trigger unconscious emotional responses in consumers

Greenwashing Tactic 9: Partnerships, Sponsorships and Research Funding

Greenwashing Tactic 9. Corporations use NGOs, Zoo partnerships, sponsorships, and research funding to give an industry or brand a ‘green image.

Greenwashing Tactic 10: Gaslighting, Harassment, Stalking and Threats

Gaslighting, harassing or stalking vocal critics of a brand, commodity or industry certification in order to silence these critics – this is greenwashing!

Ten Tactics of ‘Sustainable’ Palm Oil Greenwashing

Learn ten marketing and PR tactics used for “sustainble” palm oil greenwashing to justify endless growth by the palm oil industry. Boycott palm oil now!

New forms of greenwashing: Carbon Credits and Biodiversity Credits

Furthermore, it is important to mention that the idea of certification has been taking on new shapes. With the creation of offset mechanisms for carbon emissions and biodiversity loss, new commodities have emerged already linked to certification mechanisms. In this new market, carbon credits and biodiversity credits – issued by certification schemes – represent a supposed guarantee that greenhouse gas emissions or the destruction of biodiversity are being duly offset elsewhere.

Differently from wood, paper, palm oil or soybeans, where the certification is “added” to the product by means of a label, in the carbon or biodiversity markets it is the
certification itself that makes it feasible for the product to be consumed.

In other words, the commodity in itself is supposedly a guarantee – though a virtual guarantee, obtained through dubious methodologies and permeated by openly suspect interests.

https://youtu.be/X7x4TWazWJg

This compilation of articles from the WRM Bulletin aims to underscore the damaging role played by companies and organisations involved in certification schemes. WRM considers it important to highlight that after three decades with ever more environmental certification labels on the market, it is urgent to put an end to this greenwashing.

Ultimately, instead of combating environmental devastation and the social ills linked
to corporations’ and other players’ operations, these labels cover up and
sustain their destructive logic.

Sexual Exploitation and Violence against Women at the Root of the Industrial Plantation Model

The industrial plantation model is intrinsically linked with patriarchal oppression, serving as a cornerstone for corporate profitability. Companies often exploit women, recognizing their integral role within community dynamics, as a means to augment their bottom line. The intersection of gender and economic exploitation exemplifies the profound social implications of this oppressive system.

RSPO: outsourcing environmental regulation to oil palm businesses and industry

The RSPO certification, cleverly turning the palm oil industry’s legitimacy crisis to its favor, uses it as a stepping stone to further strengthen the industry’s position. It provides certificates claiming to meet sustainability standards—a clear advantage to the industry. However, it’s important to note that these standards are largely controlled by and designed to benefit companies operating within the palm oil sector itself.

“Gender” in the palm oil industry and its RSPO label

Implementing gender policies in oil palm companies and the RSPO certification scheme is a start. But do they truly tackle the violence, patriarchy, and racism in the plantation model, or merely mask them? It’s crucial to examine how these policies are enacted and if they genuinely drive substantial change, or just scratch the surface of these systemic issues.

https://youtu.be/0n4LSP9RCfA

Colombia: Palm-Producing Company Poligrow Plans to Grab more Land under the “Small Producers” Scheme

The harsh realities of violence, mass killings, and forced relocations amid the armed conflict in Colombia have disturbingly paved the way for the expansion of industrial oil palm cultivation. The palm oil company and RSPO member Poligrow, has been significantly implicated in these issues, with credible allegations of land seizure and intimidation tactics within the region of Mapiripán.

Greenwashing Words: Language that kills forests

Language never operates in a vacuum. Historically, specific terms have been leveraged as tools for exercising control over populations and territories. This article throws light on certain terms which, while seemingly positive, often shield economic interests detrimental to forests, forest animals and forest peoples.

Africa: The RSPO certification for palm oil plantations is greenwash!

The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) is a widely used certification system promising environmental, safety, and human rights standards in the palm oil industry. However, Friends of the Earth Africa groups contest its effectiveness, citing ongoing environmental degradation, human rights breaches, biodiversity loss, and increased poverty in Africa linked to the activities of palm oil companies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnXISnURIBA

Communities resisting the impunity and impacts of oil palm growers in Ecuador: Cases from Esmeraldas

The palm industry in Ecuador, encompassing 270,000 hectares of plantations, has been using the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) certification to project an image of sustainability, setting itself apart from Asian palm oil. However, critics argue that this certification merely muffles community objections. Resistance from communities such as La Chiquita, Guadualito, and Barranquilla de San Javier in the Esmeraldas region continues to fuel discontent and foster international solidarity.

RSPO Certification despite land conflicts, violence and criminalisation

Nearly 1,500 members of MALOA in Sierra Leone are challenging RSPO’s certification of a SOCFIN subsidiary. They cite a string of conflicts and grievances tied to land use. This move follows controversial certifications of SOCFIN group’s operations in Nigeria, Cameroon, and Ivory Coast. Critics question if RSPO, perceived as industry-biased, can truly guarantee sustainability and human rights in the palm oil sector.

Are FSC and RSPO accomplices in crime? Agropalma’s Unresolved Land Question in the Brazilian Amazon

The Palmas del Ixcán company in Guatemala is accused of implementing systematic dispossession of land from indigenous communities for oil palm cultivation, using tactics such as deceptive RSPO certification and independent producers. The company’s strategic approach replaced the traditional collective land management by indigenous people in the Municipality of Ixcán, which had been disrupted by development plans since the 1960s. Despite filing a complaint to the RSPO and participating in consultations, the communities found their concerns disregarded, leading them to criticize the RSPO and label it a sham, asserting that its true intention is to facilitate palm planting at any cost.

Water is life – stop planting palms! reads a sign in Guatemala

“Water is life. Stop planting oil palms”. Photo: Movimiento Social Intercultural del Pueblo de Ixcán, Guatemala

This article was originally published by World Rainforest Movement as “Certification schemes on “sustainability”: 30 years of deceit and violence” on 25 March, 2023 and was republished with permission alongside other reports from World Health Organisation, Global Witness and others. Read original.

ENDS

Read more about human rights abuses and greenwashing associated with “sustainable” palm oil

Family Ties Expose Deforestation and Rights Violations in Indonesian Palm Oil

An explosive report by the Environment Investigation Agency (EIA) details how Indonesia’s Fangiono family, through a wide corporate web, is linked to ongoing #deforestation, #corruption, and #indigenousrights abuses for #palmoil. Calls mount for…

Corporate Control of Food Harms Us All

Around 800 million people in our world go hungry each day. Yet around the globe we have enough food to go around. So why the discrepancy? Market concentration and corporate monopoly of our…

MSC and RSPO Absolutely Untrustworthy, Greenpeace Report

Greenpeace report reveals severe failures of ecolabel RSPO certifying palm oil and FSC certifying seafood. Consumers are being greenwashed. Boycott palm oil!

Guaranteeing Ecocide: The Green Lie of Palm Oil Certification

For decades, the palm oil industry, backed by the RSPO, has misled consumers with the false promise of “sustainable” palm oil. Behind this green façade lies a brutal reality of deforestation, human rights…

How Brands Exploit “Green” Certification

Brands and businesses may be tempted to exploit “green” certifications to garner a larger market share at the expense of integrity.

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Take Action in Five Ways

1. Join the #Boycott4Wildlife on social media and subscribe to stay in the loop: Share posts from this website to your own network on Twitter, Mastadon, Instagram, Facebook and Youtube using the hashtags #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife.

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2. Contribute stories: Academics, conservationists, scientists, indigenous rights advocates and animal rights advocates working to expose the corruption of the palm oil industry or to save animals can contribute stories to the website.

Wildlife Artist Juanchi Pérez

Mel Lumby: Dedicated Devotee to Borneo’s Living Beings

Anthropologist and Author Dr Sophie Chao

Health Physician Dr Evan Allen

The World’s Most Loved Cup: A Social, Ethical & Environmental History of Coffee by Aviary Doert

How do we stop the world’s ecosystems from going into a death spiral? A #SteadyState Economy

3. Supermarket sleuthing: Next time you’re in the supermarket, take photos of products containing palm oil. Share these to social media along with the hashtags to call out the greenwashing and ecocide of the brands who use palm oil. You can also take photos of palm oil free products and congratulate brands when they go palm oil free.

https://twitter.com/CuriousApe4/status/1526136783557529600?s=20

https://twitter.com/PhillDixon1/status/1749010345555788144?s=20

https://twitter.com/mugabe139/status/1678027567977078784?s=20

4. Take to the streets: Get in touch with Palm Oil Detectives to find out more.

5. Donate: Make a one-off or monthly donation to Palm Oil Detectives as a way of saying thank you and to help pay for ongoing running costs of the website and social media campaigns. Donate here

Pledge your support

#auditFraud #Boycott4wildlife #BoycottPalmOil #corruption #deforestation #ecocide #ecolabels #fraud #FSC #greenwashing #humanRights #indigenousRights #landRights #landgrabbing #OrangutanLandTrust #palm #palmOilDeforestation #palmoil #RSPO #RSPOGreenwashing

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Ferdi Magellan May 7, 2024

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ExTraders Global May 3, 2024

SEC charges audit firm BF Borgers with fraud affecting 1,500+ filings, leading to $14M in civil penalties. #SEC #AuditFraud

Palm Oil Detectives Oct 21, 2021

Ten Tactics of ‘Sustainable’ Palm Oil Greenwashing

What is greenwashing?

At the end of the 20th century, environmental problems began to arise from unchecked capitalist growth. Out of-control global corporates needed strong storytelling and PR to support their continued exponential growth.

The marketing and PR tactics employed to justify the continued growth of these brands and products despite their destruction, is known as:

Greenwashing

There has never been a more urgent time for consumers to wake up to the devastation wrought by global supermarket brands for palm oil

Here’s 10 different ways #consumers are deceived by so-called ‘sustainable’ #palmoil which is a multi-billion $ lie. #Fightgreenwashing with your wallet! #deforestation #extinction #Boycottpalmoil

Here is a ten-part series abt #greenwashing by ‘sustainable’ #palmoil lobbyists, certified #palmoil is a greenwashing lie according to @greenpeaceUK @EIA_News @foeint @sumofus @mightyearth @NZZ @AP #Boycottpalmoil

Jump to section

1. Greenwashing with Hidden Trade-Off

2. Greenwashing with No Proof

3. Greenwashing with Vagueness

4. Greenwashing with Fake Labels

5. Greenwashing with Irrelevance & Deflection

6. Greenwashing by Lesser of Two Evils

7. Greenwashing by Lying

8. Greenwashing with Design & Words

9. Greenwashing with Partnerships, Sponsorships & Research Funding

10. Greenwashing by Gaslighting, Stalking, Harassment & Attempting to Discredit Critics

Explore the Series

Further Reading on Palm oil Greenwashing and Deceptive Marketing

Send in examples to me

Say thanks for this guide by donating to my Ko-Fi

1. Greenwashing with a Hidden Trade Off

Claiming a brand or commodity is ‘green’ using a narrow definition or series of characteristics

For example, when a brand talks about satellite monitoring to stop palm oil deforestation, however deforestation continues to take place or perhaps even accelerate in spite of this, that’s ‘Hidden Trade-Off’

Share this insight on Twitter…

Greenwashing Tactic #1: Hidden Trade Off: Claiming a brand or commodity is ‘green’ using a narrow definition or set of characteristics. #Boycott4Wildlife #Boycottpalmoil #FightGreenwashing

2. Greenwashing with No Proof

Claiming a brand or commodity is ‘green’ without any supporting evidence

Making baseless claims is one of the easiest greenwashing tactics. For example when an advertisement claims that a product has several environmental benefits, but the company can’t back up these claims with any scientific data or evidence.

Share this insight on Twitter…

Greenwashing Tactic #2: No Proof: Claiming a #brand or #commodity is sustainable without any evidence. We’ve had enough of #greenwashing lies to sell so-called ‘sustainable’ #palmoil #Boycottpalmoil #FightGreenwashing #Boycott4Wildlife

3. Greenwashing with Vagueness

Claiming a brand or commodity is ‘green’ or ‘sustainable’ based on broad generalisations, unclear language or vague statements

For example having vague requirements for certification schemes like the RSPO that are easily manipulated or where loopholes or vagueness in certification standards can be exploited by RSPO members.

Read more 10 Tactics of Sustainable Palm Oil Greenwashing – Tactic 3 Vagueness

Share this insight on Twitter…

Greenwashing Tactic #3: Vagueness: Claiming a brand or commodity is green by using vague generalisations or by having vague guiding principles which are subject to #corruption. We #Boycott4Wildlife #Boycottpalmoil #FightGreenwashing

4. Greenwashing with Fake Labels

Claiming a brand or commodity is green based on unreliable, ineffective endorsements or eco-labels such as the RSPO, Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) or FairTrade coffee and cocoa.

Most certifications and eco-labels add a ‘green sheen’ to brands. Yet according to Greenpeace – even the most respected certifications in the world rarely have a positive environmental and social impact.

Share this insight on Twitter…

Greenwashing Tactic #4: Fake Labels: Claiming a brand or commodity is green by using fake certifications such as @RSPOtweets that do not stop #deforestation #landgrabbing. We #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife #FightGreenwashing

5. Greenwashing with Irrelevance & Deflection

Claiming a brand, commodity or industry is green based on irrelevant information

A common greenwashing tactic is to shift the conversation towards a an irrelevant issue that deflects from the environmental issue at hand.

For example, palm oil lobbyists steer online conversations away from criticising ‘sustainable’ palm oil or calling for a boycott of palm oil, towards other topics that are irrelevant.

Read more 10 Tactics of Sustainable Palm Oil Greenwashing – Tactic 5 Irrelevance deflecti on

Share this insight on Twitter…

#Greenwashing Tactic #5: Irrelevance and Deflection: A common greenwashing tactic is to shift the conversation away from criticising sustainable #palmoil towards an irrelevant topic. #FightGreenwashing #Boycott4Wildlife #Boycottpalmoil

6. Greenwashing by Lesser of Two Evils

Claiming that brand, commodity or industry is greener than others in the same category in order to excuse ecocide, deforestation, human rights and animal rights abuses

For example, the main justification for using palm oil over other oil crops by palm oil lobbyists is: “Palm oil uses less land than other oil crops. Therefore, even though this crop is causing indigenous land-grabbing, ecocide, deforestation, fires, species extinction and causing air and water pollution – it’s still better than other oils”

Read more 10 Tactics of Sustainable Palm Oil Greenwashing – Tactic 6 Lesser of Two Evils

Share this insight on Twitter…

#Greenwashing Tactic #6: Lesser of Two Evils: Claiming a commodity or industry is #greener than others in the same category, to excuse #ecocide #humanrights #animalrights abuses #Boycott4Wildlife #Boycottpalmoil #FightGreenwashing

7. Greenwashing by Lying

Telling outright lies over and over to consumers, or skillfully omitting the truth in statements, until the lies are believed as truth

Brands and food agriculture lobbyists generate blatant lies that appear in advertising or on social media. The lie could be falsifying support from respected authorities or individuals on environmental issues. The lie could also be a turn of phrase which ‘massages the truth’ for consumers.

‘Deforestation by fire is prohibited for RSPO members’

Yet in reality, deforestation is allowed to continue by palm oil traders, manufacturers within that certification scheme.

Read more 10 Tactics of Sustainable Palm Oil Greenwashing – Tactic 7 Lying

Share this insight on Twitter…

#Greenwashing Tactic #7 Lying: Telling outright lies over again to #consumers until they are believed as truth. This is commonly done by #palmoil lobbyists and global food companies #Boycott4Wildlife #Boycottpalmoil #FightGreenwashing

8. Greenwashing with Design & Words

Using design principles and greenwashing language in order to trigger emotional and unconscious responses in consumers

Some examples of greenwashing design include:

Hand-drawn typography and fonts.
Pastel colours or blue and green hues.
Hand-drawn or vintage and nostalgic animals and children illustrations in packaging and advertising design that bring to mind children’s books.
Happy, uplifting and nostalgic music.
Visual storytelling involving nature.

Read more 10 Tactics of Sustainable Palm Oil Greenwashing – Tactic 8 Design and Words

Share this insight on Twitter…

Greenwashing Tactic #8: #Design and #Words: Using subliminal design principles and #greenwashing #language to convey ‘greenness’ to #consumers. We #Boycott4Wildlife #Boycottpalmoil #FightGreenwashing

9. Greenwashing with Partnerships, Sponsorships & Research Funding

Using corporate partnerships, sponsorships and research funding to give a commodity, an industry, certification scheme or supermarket brand a ‘greener’ reputation

Global supermarket brands that are members of the RSPO provide sponsorship money to Zoos, city councils in the UK and small businesses in order to push the lie of sustainable palm oil to school children and unaware consumers.

Corporate partnerships, sponsorships and research funding are easy ways to gain legitimacy and win consumer trust.

Read more 10 Tactics of Sustainable Palm Oil Greenwashing – Tactic 9 Partnerships Sponsorships

Share this insight on Twitter…

#Greenwashing Tactic #9: Using #corporate #partnerships, #sponsorships and #research #funding to give a #commodity, #industry or
a #brand a ‘greener’ reputation. #Boycottpalmoil #FightGreenwashing #Boycott4Wildlife

10. Greenwashing by Gaslighting, Harassment, Stalking and Attempting to Discredit Critics

Attempting to humiliate, gaslight, discredit, harass and stalk any vocal critics of a brand, commodity or industry certification in order to scare individuals into silence.

Greenwashing’s most insidious and darkest form is the attempt to discredit, humiliate, harass, abuse and stalk individuals in order to stop them from sharing information with others about corporate corruption.

Targets of this kind of greenwashing could be researchers, conservationists, activists, investigative journalists, whistle-blowers or concerned and aware consumers who delve too deeply into issues, such as corruption in the palm oil industry.

Read more 10 Tactics of Sustainable Palm Oil Greenwashing – Tactic 10 Gaslighting Abuse

Share this insight on Twitter…

#Greenwashing Tactic #10: #Gaslighting #harassment #stalking attempting to discredit critics of an industry, certification scheme or commodity. We #Boycott4Wildlife #Boycottpalmoil #FightGreenwashing

Explore the series

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

#Fightgreenwashing in the products and brands you buy!

We concerned consumers of the #Boycott4Wildlife movement says NO to the bloated, toxic industrial complex that underlies all of our consumer goods.

#Boycott4Wildlife #Boycottpalmoil #FightGreenwashing

Further reading on palm oil ecocide, greenwashing and deceptive marketing

A Brief History of Consumer Culture, Dr. Kerryn Higgs, The MIT Press Reader. https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/a-brief-history-of-consumer-culture/

A Deluge of Double-Speak (2017), Jason Bagley. Truth in Advertising. https://truthinadvertising.org/blog/a-deluge-of-doublespeak/

Aggarwal, P. (2011). Greenwashing: The darker side of CSR. Indian Journal of Applied Research, 4(3), 61-66. https://www.worldwidejournals.com/indian-journal-of-applied-research-(IJAR)/article/greenwashing-the-darker-side-of-csr/MzMxMQ==/?is=1

Anti-Corporate Activism and Collusion: The Contentious Politics of Palm Oil Expansion in Indonesia, (2022). Ward Berenschot, et. al., Geoforum, Volume 131, 2022, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2022.03.002

Armour, C. (2021). Green Clean. Company Director Magazine. https://www.aicd.com.au/regulatory-compliance/regulations/investigation/green-clean.html

Balanced Growth (2020), In: Leal Filho W., Azul A.M., Brandli L., özuyar P.G., Wall T. (eds) Responsible Consumption and Production. Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Springer, Cham

Berenschot, W., Hospes, O., & Afrizal, A. (2023). Unequal access to justice: An evaluation of RSPO’s capacity to resolve palm oil conflicts in Indonesia. Agriculture and Human Values, 40, 291-304. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-022-10360-z

Carlson, K. M., Heilmayr, R., Gibbs, H. K., Noojipady, P., et al. (2018). Effect of oil palm sustainability certification on deforestation and fire in Indonesia. PNAS, 115(1), 121-126. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1704728114

Cazzolla Gatti, R., Liang, J., Velichevskaya, A., & Zhou, M. (2018). Sustainable palm oil may not be so sustainable. Science of The Total Environment, 652, 48-51. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30359800/

Changing Times Media. (2019). Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil is ‘greenwashing’ labelled products, environmental investigation agency says. Changing Times Media. https://changingtimes.media/2019/11/03/roundtable-on-sustainable-palm-oil-is-greenwashing-labelled-products-environmental-protection-agency-says/

Client Earth: The Greenwashing Files. https://www.clientearth.org/projects/the-greenwashing-files/

Commodifying sustainability: Development, nature and politics in the palm oil industry (2019). World Development, Volume 121, September 2019, Pages 218-228. https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/wdevel/v121y2019icp218-228.html

Contrasting communications of sustainability science in the media coverage of palm oil agriculture on tropical peatlands in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore (2020). Liu, F. H. M., Ganesan, V., Smith, T. E. L. Environmental Science & Policy, 114. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/343772443_Contrasting_communications_of_sustainability_science_in_the_media_coverage_of_palm_oil_agriculture_on_tropical_peatlands_in_Indonesia_Malaysia_and_Singapore

Cosimo, L. H. E., Masiero, M., Mammadova, A., & Pettenella, D. (2024). Voluntary sustainability standards to cope with the new European Union regulation on deforestation-free products: A gap analysis. Forest Policy and Economics, 164, 103235. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forpol.2024.103235

Dalton, J. (2018). No such thing as sustainable palm oil – ‘certified’ can destroy even more wildlife, say scientists. The Independent. https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/palm-oil-sustainable-certified-plantations-orangutans-indonesia-southeast-asia-greenwashing-purdue-a8674681.html

Davis, S. J., Alexander, K., Moreno-Cruz, J., et al. (2023). Food without agriculture. Nature Sustainability. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-023-01241-2

EIA International. (2022). Will palm oil watchdog rid itself of deforestation or continue to pretend its products are sustainable? EIA International. https://eia-international.org/news/will-palm-oil-watchdog-rid-itself-of-deforestation-or-continue-to-pretend-its-products-are-sustainable/

Environmental Investigation Agency. (2019). Palm oil watchdog’s sustainability guarantee is still a destructive con. EIA International. https://eia-international.org/news/palm-oil-watchdogs-sustainability-guarantee-is-still-a-destructive-con/

Federal Trade Commission. (n.d.). Green Guides. https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/topics/truth-advertising/green-guides

Fifteen environmental NGOs demand that sustainable palm oil watchdog does its job (2019). Rainforest Action Network. https://www.ran.org/press-releases/fifteen-environmental-ngos-demand-that-sustainable-palm-oil-watchdog-does-its-job/

Friends of the Earth International. (2018). RSPO: 14 years of failure to eliminate violence and destruction from the industrial palm oil sector. Friends of the Earth International. https://www.foei.org/rspo-14-years-of-failure-to-eliminate-violence-and-destruction-from-the-industrial-palm-oil-sector/

Lang, Chris and REDD Monitor. Sustainable palm oil? RSPO’s greenwashing and fraudulent audits exposed. The Ecologist. https://theecologist.org/2015/nov/19/sustainable-palm-oil-rspos-greenwashing-and-fraudulent-audits-exposed

Gatti, L., Pizzetti, M., & Seele, P. (2021). Green lies and their effect on intention to invest. Journal of Business Research, 127, 376-387. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2021.01.028

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Global Witness. (2021). The True Price of Palm Oil. Global Witness. https://www.globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/forests/true-price-palm-oil/

Grain. (2021). Ten reasons why certification should not be promoted in the EU anti-deforestation regulation. Grain. https://grain.org/en/article/6856-ten-reasons-why-certification-should-not-be-promoted-in-the-eu-anti-deforestation-regulation

Green Clean (2021). Armour, C. Company Director Magazine.

Green marketing and the Australian Consumer Law (2011). Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. https://www.accc.gov.au/system/files/Green%20marketing%20and%20the%20ACL.pdf

Greenwash and spin: palm oil lobby targets its critics (2011). Helan, A. Ecologist: Informed by Nature. https://theecologist.org/2011/jul/08/greenwash-and-spin-palm-oil-lobby-targets-its-critics

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Greenwashing of the Palm Oil Industry (2007). Mongabay. https://news.mongabay.com/2007/11/greenwashing-the-palm-oil-industry/

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Helan, A. (2011). Greenwash and spin: palm oil lobby targets its critics. Ecologist: Informed by Nature. https://theecologist.org/2011/feb/15/greenwash-and-spin-palm-oil-lobby-targets-its-critics

Hewlett Packard. (2021). What is Greenwashing and How to Tell Which Companies are Truly Environmentally Responsible. Hewlett Packard. https://www.hp.com/us-en/shop/tech-takes/what-is-greenwashing-environmentally-responsible-companies

Holzner, A., Rameli, N. I. A. M., Ruppert, N., & Widdig, A. (2024). Agricultural habitat use affects infant survivorship in an endangered macaque species. Current Biology. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38194972/

How Cause-washing Deceives Consumers (2021). Truth in Advertising. https://truthinadvertising.org/resource/how-causewashing-deceives-consumers/

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Jauernig, J., Uhl, M., & Valentinov, V. (2021). The ethics of corporate hypocrisy: An experimental approach. Futures, 129, 102757. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2021.102757

Kirby, D. (2015). Sustainable Palm Oil? Who Knows, Thanks to Derelict Auditors. Take Part. https://www.yahoo.com/news/sustainable-palm-oil-knows-thanks-derelict-auditors-200643980.html

Li, T. M., & Semedi, P. (2021). Plantation life: Corporate occupation in Indonesia’s oil palm zone. Duke University Press. https://www.dukeupress.edu/plantation-life

Liu, F. H. M., Ganesan, V., & Smith, T. E. L. (2020). Contrasting communications of sustainability science in the media coverage of palm oil agriculture on tropical peatlands in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. Environmental Science & Policy, 114. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/343772443_Contrasting_communications_of_sustainability_science_in_the_media_coverage_of_palm_oil_agriculture_on_tropical_peatlands_in_Indonesia_Malaysia_and_Singapore

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World Rainforest Movement. (2021, November 22). Why the RSPO facilitates land grabs for palm oil. https://wrm.org.uy/articles-from-the-wrm-bulletin/section1/why-the-rspo-facilitates-land-grabs-for-palm-oil/

Zuckerman, J. (2021). The Time Has Come to Rein In the Global Scourge of Palm Oil. Yale Environment 360, Yale School of Environment. https://e360.yale.edu/features/the-time-has-come-to-rein-in-the-global-scourge-of-palm-oil

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Palm Oil Detectives Feb 6, 2021

Research: Palm Oil Deforestation and its connection to RSPO members/supermarket brands

The RSPO is a global certification scheme for palm oil that certifies palm oil as ‘sustainable’. Yet this word means absolutely nothing, as RSPO members – the biggest supermarket brands in the world: (Unilever, Nestle, Colgate-Palmolive, L’Oreal, Avon, Mars, Mondelez, Cargill, Danone and more) continue with illegal indigenous landgrabbing, deforestation, human rights abuses, slavery and violence on their palm oil plantations.

The World Health Organisation’s Bulletin: Palm Oil Industry Lobbying and Greenwashing is Like Big Tobacco. Palm. oil’s impact on deforestation and animal extinction
The World Health Organisation’s Bulletin: Palm Oil Industry Lobbying and Greenwashing is Like Big Tobacco. Palm. oil’s impact on deforestation and animal extinction. RSPO board members are associated with companies involved in mass deforestation
The World Health Organisation’s Bulletin: Palm Oil Industry Lobbying and Greenwashing is Like Big Tobacco. Palm. oil’s impact on deforestation and animal extinction. RSPO board members are associated with companies involved in mass deforestation
The World Health Organisation’s Bulletin: Palm Oil Industry Lobbying and Greenwashing is Like Big Tobacco. Palm. oil’s impact on deforestation and animal extinction.

Read research by @EIA_News @Greenpeace @AP @NZZ @Global_Witness @crresearch @FOEInt @ECCHRBerlin how the @RSPOtweets does not stop #deforestation and human rights abuses for #palmoil. Make sure you #BoycottPalmOil when you shop! @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2021/02/07/research-palm-oil-deforestation-and-its-connection-to-brands/

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This is why Palm Oil Detectives advocates for a full boycott on these global brands because of their palm oil corruption. Here is some collected peer-reviewed research, OSINT and investigative journalism about these issues.

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Burning Questions – Environmental Investigation Agency (2021)

Dying for a Cookie – Greenpeace (2019)

Who Watches the Watchmen 2 – Environmental Investigation Agency (2019)

The RSPO: 14 Years of Failure – Friends of the Earth International (2014)

Destruction Certified – Greenpeace (2021)

Trading Risks ADM and Bunge – Global Witness (2021)

Keep the Forests Standing – Rainforest Action Network (2019)

License to Clear West Papua – Greenpeace 2021

FMCG’s Zero-Deforestation Challenges – Chain Reaction Research (2020)

Plantation Life Corporate Occupation in Indonesia’s Oil Palm Zone (2021)

Planet Palm – Jocelyn Zuckerman (2021)

Rethinking Dayak Identity – Dr Setia Budhi

Human Rights Fitness of the Auditing and Certification Industry – ECCHR (2021)

Is there such a thing as sustainable palm oil? – Neue Zürcher Zeitung (2021)

The True Price of Palm Oil – Global Witness (2021)

Research: Do certified sustainable palm oil plantations support more animal species?

Research: Does RSPO palm oil certification stop deforestation, human rights abuses, illegal land-grabbing and does it meet sustainability metrics?

The RSPO: 14 Years of Failure – An Open Letter from Friends of the Earth and 100 Human Rights NGOs (2014)

Which RSPO members continue to cause deforestation? – Mighty Earth (2021)

Which supermarket brands (RSPO members) cause deforestation, human rights abuses for palm oil? Palm Oil Detectives (2021)

Ecocide & Corruption Whistle-blowers on Twitter

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Investigative journalism, OSINT investigations into the RSPO and ‘sustainable’ palm oil

Burning Questions – Credibility of sustainable palm oil still illusive – Environmental Investigation Agency (2021) Read report Dying for a cookie: How Mondelez’s Dirty Palm Oil is feeding the climate and extinction crisis by Greenpeace (2019) Read report Who Watches the Watchmen Part 2: The continuing incompetence of the RSPO’s assurance systems (2019) Read report The RSPO: 14 Years of Failure by Friends of the Earth International and Co-signed by 100 Indigenous and Human Rights Organisations (2014) Read report Destruction Certified by Greenpeace (2021) Read report Trading Risks ADM and Bunge and failing land and environmental rights defenders in Indonesia (2021) Read report Keep the Forests Standing: Exposing the brands driving deforestation – RAN (2020) Read report License to Clear Dark Side of Permitting in West Papua by Greenpeace (2021) Read report FMCG’s Zero-Deforestation Challenges and Growing Exposure to Reputational Risk. Chain Reaction Research (2020) Read report Plantation Life Corporate Occupation in Indonesia’s Oil Palm Zone (2021) Read report Planet Palm: How Palm Oil Ended Up In Everything and Endangered the World by Jocelyn Zuckerman (2021) Read report Rethinking Dayak Identity Dr Setia Budhi Read report Read report Adina Renner, Conradin Zellweger, Barnaby Skinner. ‘Is there such a thing as sustainable palm oil? Satellite images show protected rainforest on fire’. (May 2021) https://www.nzz.ch/english/palm-oil-boom-threatens-protected-rainforest-in-indonesia-ld.1625490 Read report The True Price of Palm Oil: How global finance and household brands are fuelling deforestation, violence and human rights abuses in Papua New Guinea Read Report

Research: Do certified sustainable palm oil plantations support more animal species?

Answer: NO

Oil palm plantations support much fewer species than do forests and often also fewer than other tree crops. Further negative impacts include habitat fragmentation and pollution, including greenhouse gas emissions.

Emily B. Fitzherbert, Matthew J. Struebig, Alexandra Morel, Finn Danielsen, Carsten A. Brühl, Paul F. Donald, Ben Phalan, How will oil palm expansion affect biodiversity?,
Trends in Ecology & Evolution, Vol 23, 2008, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2008.06.012.

Currently certified grower supply bases and concessions in Sumatra and Borneo are located in large mammal’s habitat and in areas that were biodiverse tropical forests less than 30 years ago. We suggest that certification schemes claim for the “sustainable” production of palm oil just because they neglect a very recent past of deforestation and habitat degradation.

Roberto Cazzolla Gatti, Alena Velichevskaya, Certified “sustainable” palm oil took the place of endangered Bornean and Sumatran large mammals habitat and tropical forests in the last 30 years, Science of The Total Environment, Vol 742, 2020,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.140712.

We analyse consequences of the globally important land-use transformation from tropical forests to oil palm plantations. Species diversity, density and biomass of invertebrate communities suffer at least 45% decreases from rainforest to oil palm.

Barnes, A., Jochum, M., Mumme, S. et al. Consequences of tropical land use for multitrophic biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Nat Commun 5, 5351 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms6351

We found that certified plantation concessions that are committed to deforestation-free production are limited in their ability to prevent further biodiversity loss, due to the past conversion of forest habitats to plantations. Concession holders can improve forest habitats through corridor development and other measures, which would mitigate, but not prevent, further biodiversity loss.

Hideyuki Kubo, Arief Darmawan, Hendarto, André Derek Mader,
The effect of agricultural certification schemes on biodiversity loss in the tropics,
Biological Conservation, Volume 261, 2021, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2021.109243.

Research: Does RSPO palm oil certification stop deforestation, human rights abuses, illegal land-grabbing and does it meet sustainability metrics?

Answer: NO

Ans

https://twitter.com/earthsight/status/1192827396451438592?s=20&t=rnSAWHikl-a8C6GAd9n09g

Chain Reaction Research

February 2021

2020’s Top Deforesters for Oil Palm in Southeast Asia: A Lower Rate of Deforestation, but the Same Culprits

Read report

We find positive effects on prices and income from sale of certified products. However, we find no change in overall household income and assets for workers. The wages for workers are not higher in certified production.

Oya, C., Schaefer, F. & Skalidou, D. The effectiveness of agricultural certification in developing countries: a systematic review. World Dev. 112, 282–312 (2018).

There was no significant difference was found between certified and non-certified plantations for any of the sustainability metrics investigated, however positive economic trends including greater fresh fruit bunch yields were revealed. To achieve intended outcomes, RSPO principles and criteria are in need of substantial improvement and rigorous enforcement.

Morgans, C. L. et al. Evaluating the effectiveness of palm oil certification in delivering multiple sustainability objectives. Environ. Res. Lett. 13, 064032, 2018.

This article argues that the form of sustainability offered by certification schemes such as the RSPO fetishes the commodity palm oil in order to assuage critical consumer initiatives in the North. This technical-managerial solution is part of a larger project: the “post-political” climate politics regime (Swyngedouw) that attempts to “green” the status quo.

Commodifying sustainability: Development, nature and politics in the palm oil industry (2019) World Development
Volume 121, September 2019, Pages 218-228

The palm oil industry is neither sustainable nor a viable development model.
Certification represents a technical fix which neglects underlying dynamics of power, class, gender and accumulation.
The fetishised commodity ‘certified sustainable palm oil’ has no impact on the regional scale of expansion.
Working conditions in the plantations and mills entrench social inequality and poverty.

From: Commodifying sustainability: Development, nature and politics in the palm oil industry (2019) World Development
Volume 121, September 2019, Pages 218-228

“Both Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) and Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO) schemes are failing to ensure that palm oil is being produced and traded legally, let alone sustainably. They cannot be relied upon by overseas consumers concerned about their role in the global chain that leads to deforestation.”

Deceased Estate: Illegal palm oil wiping out Indonesia’s national forest, Greenpeace Indonesia, Oct 2021

Read report Deceased Estate: Illegal palm oil wiping out Indonesia’s national forest, Greenpeace Indonesia, Oct 2021

No significant difference was found between certified and non-certified plantations for any of the sustainability metrics investigated, however positive economic trends including greater fresh fruit bunch yields were revealed. To achieve intended outcomes, RSPO principles and criteria are in need of substantial improvement and rigorous enforcement.

Evaluating the effectiveness of palm oil certification in delivering multiple sustainability objectives. (2018), Morgans, C. L. et al. Environ. Res. Lett. 13, 064032.

RSPO: 14 years of failure to eliminate violence and destruction from the industrial palm oil sector

Friends of the Earth and 100 other human rights and environmental NGOS co-signed this letter in 2018

Read original letter

Letter

During its 14 years of existence, RSPO – the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil – has failed to live up to its claim of “transforming” the industrial palm oil production sector into a so-called “sustainable” one. In reality, the RSPO has been used by the palm oil industry to greenwash corporate destruction and human rights abuses, while it continues to expand business, forest destruction and profits.

RSPO presents itself to the public with the slogan “transforming the markets to make sustainable palm oil the norm”. Palm oil has become the cheapest vegetable oil available on the global market, making it a popular choice among the group that dominates RSPO membership, big palm oil buyers.

They will do everything to secure a steady flow of cheap palm oil. They also know that the key to the corporate success story of producing “cheap” palm oil is a particular model of industrial production, with ever-increasing efficiency and productivity which in turn is achieved by:

Planting on a large-scale and in monoculture, frequently through conversion of tropical biodiverse forests

Using “high yielding” seedlings that demand large amounts of agrotoxics and abundant water.

Squeezing cheap labour out of the smallest possible work force, employed in precarious conditions so that company costs are cut to a minimum

Making significant up-front money from the tropical timber extracted from concessions, which is then used to finance plantation development or increase corporate profits.

Grabbing land violently from local communities or by means of other arrangements with governments (including favourable tax regimes) to access land at the lowest possible cost.

Those living on the fertile land that the corporations choose to apply their industrial palm oil production model, pay a very high price.

Violence is intrinsic to this model:

violence and repression when communities resist the corporate take over of their land because they know that once their land is turned into monoculture oil palm plantations, their livelihoods will be destroyed, their land and forests invaded. In countless cases, deforestation caused by the expansion of this industry, has displaced communities or destroyed community livelihoods where
companies violate customary rights and take control of community land;
sexual violence and harassment against women in and around the plantations which often stays invisible because women find themselves without possibilities to demand that the perpetrators be prosecuted;
Child labour and precarious working conditions that go hand-in-hand with violation of workers’ rights;
working conditions can even be so bad as to amount to contemporary forms of slavery. This exploitative model of work grants companies more economic profits while allowing palm oil to remain a cheap product. That is why, neither them or their shareholders do anything to stop it.

exposure of workers, entire communities and forests, rivers, water springs, agricultural land and soils to the excessive application of agrotoxics;
depriving communities surrounded by industrial oil palm plantations of their food sovereignty when industrial oil palm plantations occupy land that communities need to grow food crops.

RSPO’s proclaimed vision of transforming the industrial oil palm sector is doomed to fail because the Roundtable’s certification principles promote this structural violent and destructive model.

The RSPO also fails to address the industry’s reliance on exclusive control of large and contingent areas of fertile land, as well as the industry’s growth paradigm which demands a continued expansion of corporate control over community land and violent land grabs.

None of RPSO’s eight certification principles suggests transforming this industry reliance on exclusive control over vast areas of land or the growth paradigm inherent to the model.

Industrial use of vegetable oils has doubled in the past 15 years, with palm oil being the cheapest. This massive increase of palm oil use in part explains the current expansion of industrial oil palm plantations, especially in Africa and Latin America, from the year 2000 onward, in addition to the existing vast plantations areas in Malaysia and Indonesia that also continue expanding.

On the ground, countless examples show that industrial oil palm plantations continue to be synonymous to violence and destruction for communities and forests. Communities’ experiences in the new industrial oil palm plantation frontiers, such as Gabon, Nigeria, Cameroon, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Peru, Honduras, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, are similar to past and ongoing community experiences in Indonesia and Malaysia.

RSPO creates a smokescreen that makes this violence invisible for consumers and financiers. Governments often fail to take regulatory action to stop the expansion of plantations and increasing demand of palm oil; they rely on RSPO to deliver an apparently sustainable flow of palm oil.

For example, in its public propaganda, RSPO claims it supports more than 100,000 small holders. But the profit from palm oil production is still disproportionally appropriated by the oil palm companies: in 2016, 88% of all certified palm oil came from corporate plantations and 99,6% of the production is corporate-controlled.

RSPO also claims that the principle of Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) is key among its own Principles and Criteria. The right to FPIC implies, among others, that if a community denies the establishment of this monoculture in its territory, operations cannot be carried out. Reality shows us, however, that despite this, many projects go ahead.

Concessions are often guaranteed long before the company reaches out to the affected communities. Under these circumstances, to say that FPIC is central to RSPO is bluntly false and disrespectful.

RSPO also argues that where conflicts with the plantation companies arise, communities can always use its complaint mechanism. However, the mechanism is complex and it rarely solves the problems that communities face and want to resolve.

This becomes particularly apparent in relation to land legacy conflicts where the mechanism is biased against communities. It allows companies to continue exploiting community land until courts have come to a decision. This approach encourages companies to sit out such conflicts and count on court proceedings dragging on, often over decades.

Another argument used by RSPO is that industrial oil palm plantations have lifted millions of people out of poverty. That claim is certainly questionable, even more so considering that there is also an important number of people who have been displaced over the past decades to make space for plantations.

Indigenous communities have in fact lost their fertile land, forests and rivers to oil palm plantations, adversely affecting their food, culture and local economies.

The RSPO promise of “transformation” has turned into a powerful greenwashing tool for corporations in the palm oil industry. RSPO grants this industry, which remains responsible for violent land grabbing, environmental destruction, pollution through excessive use of agrotoxics and destruction of peasant and indigenous livelihoods, a “sustainable” image.

What’s more, RSPO membership seems to suffice for investors and companies to be able to claim that they are “responsible” actors. This greenwash is particularly stunning, since being a member does not guarantee much change on the ground. Only recently, a company became RSPO member after it was found to deforest over 27.000 hectares of rainforest in Papua, Indonesia.

Certification is structurally dependent on the very same policies and regulation that have given rise to the host of environmental devastation and community land rights violations associated with oil palm plantations. These systemic governance issues are part of the destructive economic model, and embedded in state power.

For this reason, voluntary certification schemes cannot provide adequate protection for forests, community rights, food sovereignty and guarantee sustainability. Governments and financiers need to take responsibility to stop the destructive palm oil expansion that violates the rights of local communities and Indigenous Peoples.

As immediate steps, governments need to:

Put in place a moratorium on palm oil plantations expansion and use that as a breathing space to fix the policy frameworks;
Drastically reduce demand for palm oil: stop using food for fuel;
Strengthen and respect the rights of local communities and Indigenous Peoples to amongst others, self-determination and territorial control.
Promote agro-ecology and community control of their forests, which strengthens local incomes, livelihoods and food sovereignty, instead of advancing industrial agro-businesses.

Signatures

Aalamaram-NGOAcción Ecológica, Ecuador
ActionAid, France
AGAPAN
Amics arbres
Arbres amics
Amis de la Terre France
ARAARBA (Asociación para la Recuperación del Bosque Autóctono)
Asociación Conservacionista YISKI, Costa Rica
Asociación Gaia El Salvador
Association Congo Actif, Paris
Association Les Gens du Partage, Carrières-sous-Poissy
Association pour le développement des aires protégées, Swizterland
BASE IS
Bézu St Eloi
Boxberg OT Uhyst
Bread for all
Bruno Manser Fund
CADDECAE, Ecuador
Campaign to STOP GE Trees
CAP, Center for Advocacy Practices
Centar za životnu sredinu/ Friends of the Earth Bosnia and Herzegovina
CESTA – FOE El Salvador
CETRI – Centre tricontinental
Climate Change Kenya
Coalición de Tendencia Clasista. (CTC-VZLA)
Colectivo de Investigación y Acompañmiento Comunitario
Collectif pour la défense des terres malgaches – TANY, Madagascar
Community Forest Watch, Nigeria
Consumers Association of Penang
Corporate Europe Observatory
Cuttington University
Down to Earth Consult
El Campello
Environmental Resources Management and Social Issue Centre (ERMSIC) Cameroon
Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria
FASE ES , Brazil
Fédération romande des consommateurs
FENEV, (Femmes Environnement nature Entrepreneuriat Vert).
Focus on the Global South
Forum Ökologie & Papier, Germany
Friends of the Earth Ghana
Friends of the Earth International
GE Free NZ, New Zealand
Global Alliance against REDD
Global Justice Ecology Project
Global Info
Gobierno Territorial Autónomo de la Nación Wampís , Peru
GRAIN
Green Development Advocates (GDA)
CameroonGreystones, Ireland
Groupe International de Travail pour les Peuples Autochtones
Grupo ETC
Grupo Guayubira, Uruguay
Instituto Mexicano de Gobernanza Medioambiental AC Instituto Mexicano de Gobernanza Medioambiental AC
Integrated Program for the Development of the Pygmy People (PIDP), DRC
Justica Ambiental
Justicia Paz e Integridad de la Creacion. Costa Rica
Kempityari
Latin Ambiente, http://www.latinambiente.org
Les gens du partage
LOYOLA SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY, MANILA
Maderas del Pueblo del Sureste, AC
Maiouri nature, Guyane
Mangrove Action Project
Milieudefensie – Friends of the Earth Netherlands
Movimento Amigos da Rua Gonçalo de Carvalho
Muyissi Environnement, Gabon
Nature-d-congo de la République du Congo
New Wind Association from Finland
NOAH-Friends of the Earth Denmark
Oakland Institute
OFRANEH, Honduras
Ole Siosiomaga Society Incorporated (OLSSI)
ONG OCEAN : Organisation Congolaise des Ecologistes et Amis de la Nature et sommes basés en RD Congo.
OPIROMA, Brazil
Otros Mundos A.C./Amigos de la Tierra México
Paramo Guerrrero Zipaquira
PROYECTO GRAN SIMIO (GAP/PGS-España)
Quercus – ANCN, Portugal
Radd (Reseau des Acteurs du Développement Durable) , Cameroon
Rainforest Foundation UK
Rainforest Relief
ReAct – Alliances Transnationales
RECOMA – Red latinoamericana contra los monocultivos de árboles
Red de Coordinacion en Biodiversidad , Çosta Rica
REFEB-Cote d’Ivoire
Rettet den Regenwald, Germany
ROBIN WOOD
Sahabat Alam Malaysia (Friends of the Earth Malaysia)
Salva la Selva
School of Democratic Economics, Indonesia
Serendipalm Company Limited
Sherpa , The Netherlands
SYNAPARCAM, Cameroon
The Corner House, UK
Towards Equitable Sustainable Holistic Development
TRAFFED KIVU ,RD. CONGOUNIÓN UNIVERSAL DESARROLLO SOLIDARIO
University of Sussex, UK
UTB ColombiaWatch Indonesia!
WESSA
World Rainforest Movement
Youth Volunteers for the Environment Ghana

Which RSPO members continue to cause deforestation?

Have a look at these quarterly and at-a-glance reports by Mighty Earth, they show the RSPO members (palm oil manfacturers, traders, processors and retail brands) at the centre of deforestation. Click on image to go to most recent report. This information below is a stark contrast to the greenwashing WWF Palm Oil Scorecard, which allocates many of these same brands with a ‘green’ and ‘sustainable’ label and encourages people to buy from them! We call out this form of greenwashing and #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife!

View the Palm Oil Tracker View the latest Rapid Response Report

Retailers and banks at the heart of palm oil deforestation

Source: Rainforest Action Network (RAN)’s March 2020 Whitepaper

Greenpeace:

The True Cost of Palm Oil & Wood Pulp (2019)

https://palmoildetectivez.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/greenpeace-palm-oil-and-wood-pulp-2019.pdf

Read report

Greenpeace

How Unilever and other global brands continue to fuel Indonesia’s fires (2019)

https://palmoildetectivez.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/mondelez-nestle-p-and-g-unilever-bad.pdf

Read report

Chain Reaction Research

Loopholes in the palm oil supply chain allow RSPO members to continue to destroy forests with fire July 2020

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlXmWWql6AM

Chain Reaction Research

Retailers and FMCG Giants do not take deforestation seriously enough to warrant change (2020)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2_uu4EOyqQ

Which brands cause deforestation, human rights abuses for palm oil?

Boycott Palm Oil

Learn how to boycott palm oil this Halloween in America, the UK and Australia

Brands

PepsiCo

Brands

Procter & Gamble

Brands

PZ Cussons

Brands

Danone

Boycott Palm Oil

Brands Using Deforestation Palm Oil

Brands

Kelloggs/Kellanova

Brands

Mondelēz

Brands

Johnson & Johnson

Brands

L’Oreal

Brands

Nestlé

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Ecocide & Corruption Whistle-blowers on Twitter

With so much misinformation, greenwashing and BS out there. It is difficult to know who is telling the truth.

Here’s a list of NGOS, individuals and media outlets you can trust for clear information that exposes the corruption going on around so-called ‘sustainable’ palm oil, deforestation and many other issues.

Also these media outlets, individuals and NGOs regularly cover other topics like deforestation for soy, meat, gold, timber, cocoa, coffee and other commodities. They also expose corruption, abuse, violence and death of indigenous people, land grabs etc and how this links to global companies.

There are now literally thousands of people who are a passionate supporters and activists in the #Boycott4Wildlife – This list is not ignoring these people, you are all amazing people and the contribution you are making is very important!. However this list here focuses on people or NGOs who publish and produce news, research, books, photojournalism, podcasts or TV documentaries. So that everyone else knows who to listen to in the gigantic social media cacophony.