Like many activists, we ask lots of questions, and often these questions go unanswered in the hope that we’ll simply give up and stop asking.
US agribusiness Herakles Farms and its chief executive Bruce Wrobel think they can put their heads in the sand in the hope we’ll eventually stop pestering them. Why? Because they don’t like answering questions about how they intend to carve out 73,000 hectares of largely dense forest in Cameroon. Learn more about Palm oil’s new frontier.
Greenpeace has asked Wrobel to directly answer whether the forest clearing that has already started in Cameroon to establish a large palm oil plantation is being done without a presidential decree – the paperwork required by national law.
But Wrobel and his associates don’t appear very interested in proving the legality of their actions in Cameroon.
Instead, they are very interested in claiming the palm oil plantation they want to create will bring benefits to the thousands of people living, using and farming in the forests there. Asked for details though on what these benefits actually translate to on the ground and how the project will prevent people losing their lands and their livelihoods, Herakles Farms cannot give a straight answer.
But Greenpeace likes asking questions and has raised a few more in our new report, Herakles: A showcase in bad palm oil production, which has been released today.
Among the critical issues the company has failed to address are:
1. How the massive environmental devastation that will be caused by the project will result in the release of millions of tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere;
2. How a key corridor for both endangered and rare species of wildlife, situated between five protected areas, will be removed;
3. How widespread opposition to the project continues to grow and the company has not
sought the free and prior informed consent of all the people using the area;
4. How work and clearing continues despite the fact the project is in violation of national law.
Greenpeace and our partners need Herakles to start acknowledging that the company’s project is the wrong type of project in the wrong place.
If not stopped, it will show other companies that it is possible to destroy Africa’s forests for profit and with no regard for the rights of people living there or for the environment of the countries they are doing business in.
Bruce Wrobel says his company is addressing the issues surrounding the project and are prepared to demonstrate that further. Until the facts on the ground start backing up those claims and until Greenpeace and its partners in Cameroon start getting specific answers on these critical issues, we will continue to ask.
Dear Herakle Farms:
Please do NOT destroy the forests of Africa! We only have one planet and we need our forests and wildlife. What good is money if you have to live with breathing masks and there’s no forestry? Slowly (faster now) but surely, everything on the planet is coming to an end. So sad. Don’t be a part of it…instead, fight for the beauty of your country and is forestry. Thank you.
I can’t believe what Herakles Farms is doing and they are doing this without a presidential decree or informed consent of the people using that area. I can’t believe they are destroying 73,000 hectares of land inhabited by rare and endangered species that live there. Where would the wildlife go and the people who live in that area? I am so tired of big corporations greed and lack of concern for our environment. They and the governments are the ones who caused global warming, deforestation and the decline of species. Please stop this now and protect the land.
It’s not just carbon emissions from the destruction of rain forest.It’s the loss of ability to remove carbon in the future.Not only must we stop treating our sky like garbage dump.We actively protect what little forest we have left.If future generation are to have a future at all. I RESPECTIVELY ask you to rethink your position.
Don’t destroy the forests.
Stop destroying the world’s and mankinds natural hertiage for porfiteering. You will be held responsible for criminal acts against nature, if not now, your children and the children of many others will condemn you for these crimes. You have the choice to make the right decisions on a moral balance sheet – not on the balance sheet you normally look at.
When will this destruction and madness end? Do we need to destroy the planet for it to stop?
Palm oil is very bad for you when you destroy the environment to obtain it….Give the GOOD PEOPLE THEIR SAY…as for the GREEDY…TAKE IT AWAY!!!
Stop destroying the environment.
cant let them do it,we must stop not just this people,this company,but all of them who are destroying mother earth for profit,for g.d.money!!!!! (sorry for bad english)
Stop destroying critical forest and jungle habitat.
keep up the GOOD work greenpeace!!!!
WHEN ARE WE GOING TO STOP DESTROYING THIS WORLD? WE ONLY HAVE ONE PLANET. WHEN WILL THESE CORPORATE GIANTS STOP.
stop this, please
THE WORLD IS BEING DESTROYED BY THE RICH FOR MONEY AND BY POOR PEOPLE IN THEIR NEED FOR HOUSING. In developing countries, like Venezuela, for example, it is difficult to say who of them are more destructive. But, no doubt, in gereral, big corporations destroy more and faster. This new destruction, about to happen in Camerum, would be -we hope not- a new critical global disaster. In Venezuela, my country, in spite of the Bolivarian Revolution, great areas of pristine forest are currently beinfg destroyed for building factories, new roads, cattle ranching, houses, etc. In most of the cases, without a previous environmental impact study. Not far from my house, a building company is about to start destroying a fortest with a great variety of species, many streams, etc. which make up a very rich ecosystem; but most of the people are almost completely apathetic and ignorant of what is at stake. WE NEED THE HELP OF GREEN PEACE because we must organize a fight. Tropical forests destruction in Venezuela is not new but now it has been becoming very critical and we also have part of the Amazon tropical forests where the Orinoco river flows, at stake. THIS IS AN URGENT REQUEST I MAKE., as a 30-year-experience evironmentalist I am, I’m certain that Venezuelan people are not prepared to face this terrible threat. I hope GREENPEACE activists can do something to help us protect this important part of the whole tropical forests of the world.
Short term profits vs long term degradation of the environment, ethnic communities and their livelhood and way of life destroyed.
What do we choose?
why do the stupid riches have to do this?