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345 results for “Kallang”
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Text: Soledad Cartagena
Hon menar att desinformation är skadlig därför att människor får en skev världsbild, vilket i sin tur får konsekvenser.
– Under pandemin såg vi den konkreta faran med desinformationen, när människor som trodde på den inte vaccinerade sig och blev sjuka, och till och med dog. Konspirationsteorier kan också användas för att underminera förtroendet för det demokratiska systemet på olika sätt, till exempel valsystemet som i Trumps USA. Det kan även handla om att utpeka vissa grupper som syndabockar och skapa en vi mot dem-dynamik som är central för antidemokratiska aktörer.
Det har gått snabbt
2017 kom hennes bok Alternativa fakta. Ända sedan hon skrev boken har hon tänkt att spridningen av det falska kunde bli ett jätteproblem. Men inte att det skulle gå så snabbt.
– Ta USA som exempel. På fyra år har landet utvecklats från att ha varit en hyfsat välfungerande demokrati till att nu stå på randen till ett inbördeskrig. I samband med rättegångarna mot Donald Trump kommer det att bli en enorm desinformationskampanj för att skydda honom. Det kommer att splittra landet ännu mer och kan skada USA permanent.
Åsa Wikforss menar att utmaningen idag är att det har blivit billigare och enklare att producera olika typer av desinformation. Det finns även fejkade bilder, filmer och intervjuer som är AI-tillverkade på basis av data som redan är tillgängliga.
– Och som är mycket svåra att avslöja. Vi har lärt oss tumregler för att upptäcka manipulerade bilder men de reglerna kommer inte att gälla längre. Det är extremt svårt när tekniken utvecklas så snabbt.
Hur problematiskt är det att politiker, ledarskribenter och andra makthavare sprider desinformation?
– Forskning visar att hur pass stort genomslag desinformationen får beror på hur opinionsbildare och de som har en röst i offentligheten agerar. Om de väljer att liera sig med dem som desinformerar och använder sig av desinformation för egna syften så blir det farligt. När en president som Trump är beredd att ljuga hejvilt tror folk på honom eftersom de inte kan tänka sig att en person i den ställningen skulle ljuga. På liknande sätt är det en oroande utveckling att politiker, både i Sverige och utomlands, är villiga att använda skeva missvisande påståenden för att gynna sina syften.
Detta är i och för sig inget nytt menar Åsa Wikforss. Politiker som förr ville sprida sina budskap var tvungna att gå via traditionella medier och blev då ifrågasatta och granskade av journalister. Nu kan de i stället nå ut direkt via sociala medier. Om de blir påkomna med en lögn får uppdagandet inte så stor spridning utan människor lyssnar hellre på det falska. Det är en ny dynamik som gör att det blir farligt.
Lyft inte konspirationsteoriernas innehåll
Åsa Wkforss poängterar, att alla som har en röst i offentligheten har ett ansvar att se till att hålla sig till det de vet, men också vara tydliga med när de inte vet något, när det råder osäkerhet.
Åsa Wikforss. Fotograf: Roger Turesson.Hur ska vi prata om konspirationsteorier utan att fortsätta sprida dem?
– Det är ett problem som även traditionella medier står inför. När de skriver om konspirationsteorier, även om de säger att de är falska, får teorierna spridning. Jag leder ett program om kunskapsmotstånd ihop med filosofer, psykologer, statsvetare och kommunikationsforskare. De har tittat just på traditionella mediers roll i att sprida konspirationsteorier, där man i all välmening skriver om teorierna, men samtidigt medverkar till att de får en stor räckvidd. Det är ett dilemma även för lärare och bibliotekarier. Ska jag prata om de här sakerna och därmed sprida teorierna? Eller strunta i det och därmed riskera att människor inte får redskap att hantera dem?
Ett råd är att den som undervisar eller skriver om konspirationsteorier inte lyfter fram deras innehåll. Det var ett misstag som amerikanska medier gjorde när de rapporterade om Donald Trump. Journalisterna skrev om hans lögner först och längre ner i artikeln fick läsaren reda på att det var falskt. Men då var skadan redan skedd.
– Det gäller att lyfta fram det sanna och inte det falska. Om du ska diskutera sådant här i skolmiljöer lyft inte fram konspirationsteorierna utan säg bara lite grann om dem. Prata sedan allmänt om hur sådana teorier fungerar, varför vi blir lurade och vilka aktörer som sprider dem. Fokusera på mekanismerna bakom teorierna, varför vi blir indragna i dem och varför de får så stor spridning.
Statliga aktörer vill försvaga demokratin
En av de största kampanjerna mot svenska myndigheter på senare tid är den som utmålar myndigheterna som antimuslimska. I den ingår även konspirationsteorin om socialtjänsten som tar muslimska barn. Där finns statliga aktörer som vill försvaga demokratin, säger Åsa Wikforss,
– Det är lätt eftersom vi har en stor muslimsk befolkning. Om man kan sprida det falska budskapet att Sverige är antimuslimskt kan man både gadda internationella aktörer mot Sverige och också skapa splittring inom landet.
Hur kan vi bli mindre sårbara för desinformation?
– Sårbarheten beror på att många av sakerna som det här handlar om är vetenskapliga frågor eller samhällsfrågor. Det är inget vi direkt har kunskap om från egen erfarenhet utan merparten av vår kunskap om vetenskap och samhället kommer från källor av olika slag. Det betyder att kunskap förutsätter tillit. Om du ska få kunskap från en källa måste du lita på den. Men tilliten som ligger till grund för vår kunskap kan manipuleras, av vetenskapsförnekare till exempel.
Öva det kritiska tänkandet
För att motverka hoten mot kunskapen måste man titta både på det individuella och strukturella planet, menar Åsa Wikforss. Hos individen handlar det om att öva det kritiska tänkandet. Det svåra är att det inte fungerar så bra eftersom kritiskt tänkande inte lever i ett vakuum.
– Det beror på vilken information människor har tagit till sig. Har du redan druckit ur den förgiftade källan kommer inte det kritiska tänkandet att fungera. Man behöver kunskap för att stå emot det här. Faktakunskaper, till exempel om klimatet, men också kunskap om vad som kännetecknar en pålitlig källa.
På den strukturella planen handlar det om att göra något åt informationsomgivningen.
– Medieplattformarna måste styras upp på olika sätt och ta sitt ansvar. Det betyder inte att vi ska förbjuda vissa påståenden eller inskränka yttrandefriheten. Utan om att kräva ansvar av techbolagen, till exempel transparens vad gäller algoritmerna. Man kan göra om algoritmerna så att de inte premierar det sensationella och opålitliga som det är just nu. Innehållet behöver kureras så att det är en större sannolikhet att kunskapen kommer fram snarare än desinformationen.
Avslutningsvis menar Åsa Wikforss att vi måste prata mer om varför man ska lita på forskare. Det avgörande är att de hör till vetenskapliga institutioner som är designade för att man ska undvika misstag och upptäcka fel.
– Vi ifrågasätter varandra, våra artiklar granskas till exempel alltid av andra forskare innan de publiceras. Det är ett sätt att motverka agendadriven forskning.
Prenumerera
Få nästa nummer av bis i brevlådan! En prenumeration kostar från 175 kronor för fyra nummer och du kan betala enkelt med Swish.
Prenumererahttps://foreningenbis.com/2023/10/25/lyft-fram-det-sanna-och-inte-det-falska/
-
Text: Soledad Cartagena
Hon menar att desinformation är skadlig därför att människor får en skev världsbild, vilket i sin tur får konsekvenser.
– Under pandemin såg vi den konkreta faran med desinformationen, när människor som trodde på den inte vaccinerade sig och blev sjuka, och till och med dog. Konspirationsteorier kan också användas för att underminera förtroendet för det demokratiska systemet på olika sätt, till exempel valsystemet som i Trumps USA. Det kan även handla om att utpeka vissa grupper som syndabockar och skapa en vi mot dem-dynamik som är central för antidemokratiska aktörer.
Det har gått snabbt
2017 kom hennes bok Alternativa fakta. Ända sedan hon skrev boken har hon tänkt att spridningen av det falska kunde bli ett jätteproblem. Men inte att det skulle gå så snabbt.
– Ta USA som exempel. På fyra år har landet utvecklats från att ha varit en hyfsat välfungerande demokrati till att nu stå på randen till ett inbördeskrig. I samband med rättegångarna mot Donald Trump kommer det att bli en enorm desinformationskampanj för att skydda honom. Det kommer att splittra landet ännu mer och kan skada USA permanent.
Åsa Wikforss menar att utmaningen idag är att det har blivit billigare och enklare att producera olika typer av desinformation. Det finns även fejkade bilder, filmer och intervjuer som är AI-tillverkade på basis av data som redan är tillgängliga.
– Och som är mycket svåra att avslöja. Vi har lärt oss tumregler för att upptäcka manipulerade bilder men de reglerna kommer inte att gälla längre. Det är extremt svårt när tekniken utvecklas så snabbt.
Hur problematiskt är det att politiker, ledarskribenter och andra makthavare sprider desinformation?
– Forskning visar att hur pass stort genomslag desinformationen får beror på hur opinionsbildare och de som har en röst i offentligheten agerar. Om de väljer att liera sig med dem som desinformerar och använder sig av desinformation för egna syften så blir det farligt. När en president som Trump är beredd att ljuga hejvilt tror folk på honom eftersom de inte kan tänka sig att en person i den ställningen skulle ljuga. På liknande sätt är det en oroande utveckling att politiker, både i Sverige och utomlands, är villiga att använda skeva missvisande påståenden för att gynna sina syften.
Detta är i och för sig inget nytt menar Åsa Wikforss. Politiker som förr ville sprida sina budskap var tvungna att gå via traditionella medier och blev då ifrågasatta och granskade av journalister. Nu kan de i stället nå ut direkt via sociala medier. Om de blir påkomna med en lögn får uppdagandet inte så stor spridning utan människor lyssnar hellre på det falska. Det är en ny dynamik som gör att det blir farligt.
Lyft inte konspirationsteoriernas innehåll
Åsa Wkforss poängterar, att alla som har en röst i offentligheten har ett ansvar att se till att hålla sig till det de vet, men också vara tydliga med när de inte vet något, när det råder osäkerhet.
Åsa Wikforss. Fotograf: Roger Turesson.Hur ska vi prata om konspirationsteorier utan att fortsätta sprida dem?
– Det är ett problem som även traditionella medier står inför. När de skriver om konspirationsteorier, även om de säger att de är falska, får teorierna spridning. Jag leder ett program om kunskapsmotstånd ihop med filosofer, psykologer, statsvetare och kommunikationsforskare. De har tittat just på traditionella mediers roll i att sprida konspirationsteorier, där man i all välmening skriver om teorierna, men samtidigt medverkar till att de får en stor räckvidd. Det är ett dilemma även för lärare och bibliotekarier. Ska jag prata om de här sakerna och därmed sprida teorierna? Eller strunta i det och därmed riskera att människor inte får redskap att hantera dem?
Ett råd är att den som undervisar eller skriver om konspirationsteorier inte lyfter fram deras innehåll. Det var ett misstag som amerikanska medier gjorde när de rapporterade om Donald Trump. Journalisterna skrev om hans lögner först och längre ner i artikeln fick läsaren reda på att det var falskt. Men då var skadan redan skedd.
– Det gäller att lyfta fram det sanna och inte det falska. Om du ska diskutera sådant här i skolmiljöer lyft inte fram konspirationsteorierna utan säg bara lite grann om dem. Prata sedan allmänt om hur sådana teorier fungerar, varför vi blir lurade och vilka aktörer som sprider dem. Fokusera på mekanismerna bakom teorierna, varför vi blir indragna i dem och varför de får så stor spridning.
Statliga aktörer vill försvaga demokratin
En av de största kampanjerna mot svenska myndigheter på senare tid är den som utmålar myndigheterna som antimuslimska. I den ingår även konspirationsteorin om socialtjänsten som tar muslimska barn. Där finns statliga aktörer som vill försvaga demokratin, säger Åsa Wikforss,
– Det är lätt eftersom vi har en stor muslimsk befolkning. Om man kan sprida det falska budskapet att Sverige är antimuslimskt kan man både gadda internationella aktörer mot Sverige och också skapa splittring inom landet.
Hur kan vi bli mindre sårbara för desinformation?
– Sårbarheten beror på att många av sakerna som det här handlar om är vetenskapliga frågor eller samhällsfrågor. Det är inget vi direkt har kunskap om från egen erfarenhet utan merparten av vår kunskap om vetenskap och samhället kommer från källor av olika slag. Det betyder att kunskap förutsätter tillit. Om du ska få kunskap från en källa måste du lita på den. Men tilliten som ligger till grund för vår kunskap kan manipuleras, av vetenskapsförnekare till exempel.
Öva det kritiska tänkandet
För att motverka hoten mot kunskapen måste man titta både på det individuella och strukturella planet, menar Åsa Wikforss. Hos individen handlar det om att öva det kritiska tänkandet. Det svåra är att det inte fungerar så bra eftersom kritiskt tänkande inte lever i ett vakuum.
– Det beror på vilken information människor har tagit till sig. Har du redan druckit ur den förgiftade källan kommer inte det kritiska tänkandet att fungera. Man behöver kunskap för att stå emot det här. Faktakunskaper, till exempel om klimatet, men också kunskap om vad som kännetecknar en pålitlig källa.
På den strukturella planen handlar det om att göra något åt informationsomgivningen.
– Medieplattformarna måste styras upp på olika sätt och ta sitt ansvar. Det betyder inte att vi ska förbjuda vissa påståenden eller inskränka yttrandefriheten. Utan om att kräva ansvar av techbolagen, till exempel transparens vad gäller algoritmerna. Man kan göra om algoritmerna så att de inte premierar det sensationella och opålitliga som det är just nu. Innehållet behöver kureras så att det är en större sannolikhet att kunskapen kommer fram snarare än desinformationen.
Avslutningsvis menar Åsa Wikforss att vi måste prata mer om varför man ska lita på forskare. Det avgörande är att de hör till vetenskapliga institutioner som är designade för att man ska undvika misstag och upptäcka fel.
– Vi ifrågasätter varandra, våra artiklar granskas till exempel alltid av andra forskare innan de publiceras. Det är ett sätt att motverka agendadriven forskning.
Prenumerera
Få nästa nummer av bis i brevlådan! En prenumeration kostar från 175 kronor för fyra nummer och du kan betala enkelt med Swish.
Prenumererahttps://foreningenbis.com/2023/10/25/lyft-fram-det-sanna-och-inte-det-falska/
-
Text: Soledad Cartagena
Hon menar att desinformation är skadlig därför att människor får en skev världsbild, vilket i sin tur får konsekvenser.
– Under pandemin såg vi den konkreta faran med desinformationen, när människor som trodde på den inte vaccinerade sig och blev sjuka, och till och med dog. Konspirationsteorier kan också användas för att underminera förtroendet för det demokratiska systemet på olika sätt, till exempel valsystemet som i Trumps USA. Det kan även handla om att utpeka vissa grupper som syndabockar och skapa en vi mot dem-dynamik som är central för antidemokratiska aktörer.
Det har gått snabbt
2017 kom hennes bok Alternativa fakta. Ända sedan hon skrev boken har hon tänkt att spridningen av det falska kunde bli ett jätteproblem. Men inte att det skulle gå så snabbt.
– Ta USA som exempel. På fyra år har landet utvecklats från att ha varit en hyfsat välfungerande demokrati till att nu stå på randen till ett inbördeskrig. I samband med rättegångarna mot Donald Trump kommer det att bli en enorm desinformationskampanj för att skydda honom. Det kommer att splittra landet ännu mer och kan skada USA permanent.
Åsa Wikforss menar att utmaningen idag är att det har blivit billigare och enklare att producera olika typer av desinformation. Det finns även fejkade bilder, filmer och intervjuer som är AI-tillverkade på basis av data som redan är tillgängliga.
– Och som är mycket svåra att avslöja. Vi har lärt oss tumregler för att upptäcka manipulerade bilder men de reglerna kommer inte att gälla längre. Det är extremt svårt när tekniken utvecklas så snabbt.
Hur problematiskt är det att politiker, ledarskribenter och andra makthavare sprider desinformation?
– Forskning visar att hur pass stort genomslag desinformationen får beror på hur opinionsbildare och de som har en röst i offentligheten agerar. Om de väljer att liera sig med dem som desinformerar och använder sig av desinformation för egna syften så blir det farligt. När en president som Trump är beredd att ljuga hejvilt tror folk på honom eftersom de inte kan tänka sig att en person i den ställningen skulle ljuga. På liknande sätt är det en oroande utveckling att politiker, både i Sverige och utomlands, är villiga att använda skeva missvisande påståenden för att gynna sina syften.
Detta är i och för sig inget nytt menar Åsa Wikforss. Politiker som förr ville sprida sina budskap var tvungna att gå via traditionella medier och blev då ifrågasatta och granskade av journalister. Nu kan de i stället nå ut direkt via sociala medier. Om de blir påkomna med en lögn får uppdagandet inte så stor spridning utan människor lyssnar hellre på det falska. Det är en ny dynamik som gör att det blir farligt.
Lyft inte konspirationsteoriernas innehåll
Åsa Wkforss poängterar, att alla som har en röst i offentligheten har ett ansvar att se till att hålla sig till det de vet, men också vara tydliga med när de inte vet något, när det råder osäkerhet.
Åsa Wikforss. Fotograf: Roger Turesson.Hur ska vi prata om konspirationsteorier utan att fortsätta sprida dem?
– Det är ett problem som även traditionella medier står inför. När de skriver om konspirationsteorier, även om de säger att de är falska, får teorierna spridning. Jag leder ett program om kunskapsmotstånd ihop med filosofer, psykologer, statsvetare och kommunikationsforskare. De har tittat just på traditionella mediers roll i att sprida konspirationsteorier, där man i all välmening skriver om teorierna, men samtidigt medverkar till att de får en stor räckvidd. Det är ett dilemma även för lärare och bibliotekarier. Ska jag prata om de här sakerna och därmed sprida teorierna? Eller strunta i det och därmed riskera att människor inte får redskap att hantera dem?
Ett råd är att den som undervisar eller skriver om konspirationsteorier inte lyfter fram deras innehåll. Det var ett misstag som amerikanska medier gjorde när de rapporterade om Donald Trump. Journalisterna skrev om hans lögner först och längre ner i artikeln fick läsaren reda på att det var falskt. Men då var skadan redan skedd.
– Det gäller att lyfta fram det sanna och inte det falska. Om du ska diskutera sådant här i skolmiljöer lyft inte fram konspirationsteorierna utan säg bara lite grann om dem. Prata sedan allmänt om hur sådana teorier fungerar, varför vi blir lurade och vilka aktörer som sprider dem. Fokusera på mekanismerna bakom teorierna, varför vi blir indragna i dem och varför de får så stor spridning.
Statliga aktörer vill försvaga demokratin
En av de största kampanjerna mot svenska myndigheter på senare tid är den som utmålar myndigheterna som antimuslimska. I den ingår även konspirationsteorin om socialtjänsten som tar muslimska barn. Där finns statliga aktörer som vill försvaga demokratin, säger Åsa Wikforss,
– Det är lätt eftersom vi har en stor muslimsk befolkning. Om man kan sprida det falska budskapet att Sverige är antimuslimskt kan man både gadda internationella aktörer mot Sverige och också skapa splittring inom landet.
Hur kan vi bli mindre sårbara för desinformation?
– Sårbarheten beror på att många av sakerna som det här handlar om är vetenskapliga frågor eller samhällsfrågor. Det är inget vi direkt har kunskap om från egen erfarenhet utan merparten av vår kunskap om vetenskap och samhället kommer från källor av olika slag. Det betyder att kunskap förutsätter tillit. Om du ska få kunskap från en källa måste du lita på den. Men tilliten som ligger till grund för vår kunskap kan manipuleras, av vetenskapsförnekare till exempel.
Öva det kritiska tänkandet
För att motverka hoten mot kunskapen måste man titta både på det individuella och strukturella planet, menar Åsa Wikforss. Hos individen handlar det om att öva det kritiska tänkandet. Det svåra är att det inte fungerar så bra eftersom kritiskt tänkande inte lever i ett vakuum.
– Det beror på vilken information människor har tagit till sig. Har du redan druckit ur den förgiftade källan kommer inte det kritiska tänkandet att fungera. Man behöver kunskap för att stå emot det här. Faktakunskaper, till exempel om klimatet, men också kunskap om vad som kännetecknar en pålitlig källa.
På den strukturella planen handlar det om att göra något åt informationsomgivningen.
– Medieplattformarna måste styras upp på olika sätt och ta sitt ansvar. Det betyder inte att vi ska förbjuda vissa påståenden eller inskränka yttrandefriheten. Utan om att kräva ansvar av techbolagen, till exempel transparens vad gäller algoritmerna. Man kan göra om algoritmerna så att de inte premierar det sensationella och opålitliga som det är just nu. Innehållet behöver kureras så att det är en större sannolikhet att kunskapen kommer fram snarare än desinformationen.
Avslutningsvis menar Åsa Wikforss att vi måste prata mer om varför man ska lita på forskare. Det avgörande är att de hör till vetenskapliga institutioner som är designade för att man ska undvika misstag och upptäcka fel.
– Vi ifrågasätter varandra, våra artiklar granskas till exempel alltid av andra forskare innan de publiceras. Det är ett sätt att motverka agendadriven forskning.
Prenumerera
Få nästa nummer av bis i brevlådan! En prenumeration kostar från 175 kronor för fyra nummer och du kan betala enkelt med Swish.
Prenumererahttps://foreningenbis.com/2023/10/25/lyft-fram-det-sanna-och-inte-det-falska/
-
India’s Palm Oil Goals Raise Extinction Fears
India aspires to bring one million hectares of land under oil palm cultivation by 2025, scaling up from its current cultivation area of around 0.37 million hectares. This move has not been welcomed by local politicians and experts who warn that it could lead to large-scale deforestation, disturbances to sensitive ecosystems and trigger land conflicts in tribal areas.
The huge growth of #palmoil in #Assam and #Nicobar Islands in #India 🇮🇳 poses a threat to rare beautiful animals 🐒🌿🐢🦎🐦🕊️ #ecosystems and #indigenous peoples. Fight back when you shop! #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2023/02/26/indias-oil-palm-goals-raise-fears-of-deforestation-and-extinction/
Share to BlueSky Share to TwitterOriginally published by Phys.org. Read the original article on September 10, 2021. Republished under the fair use policy.
India’s newly announced plan to move from being the world’s biggest importer of palm oil to that of major producer of the crop may be at the cost of large-scale deforestation of ecologically sensitive areas.
An official note posted recently said the union cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi had approved the launch of a National Mission on Palm Oil that would have a “special focus on the north-east region and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.”
“Due to the heavy dependence on imports for edible oils, it is important to make efforts for increasing the domestic production of edible oils in which increasing area and productivity of oil palm plays an important part,” the note said.
According to the Solvent Extractors Association of India, the country spends an average of US$10 billion on importing palm oil—the cheapest source of fat that goes into the processed food and cosmetic industries.
India aspires to bring one million hectares of land under oil palm cultivation by 2025, scaling up from its current cultivation area of around 0.37 million hectares. The Indian Institute of Oil Palm Research has assessed that the country has 2.8 million hectares of land that could potentially be used for oil palm cultivation. The government has allocated US$1.5 billion to help achieve this target. By 2025–26, India’s crude oil production is expected to reach 1.12 million tons, rising to 2.8 million tons by 2029–30.
“The decision of the government is nothing new but a continuation of the previous government policies to reduce dependency from import of edible oil,” says Siraj Hussain, India’s former secretary of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare.
Hussain explains to SciDev.Net that when he was the secretary, he too pushed oil palm plantation as it “yields about five times more oil than other edible oils per hectare of cultivated area.”
However, India’s drive to expand palm oil production has not been welcomed by local politicians and experts who warn that it could lead to large-scale deforestation, disturbances to sensitive ecosystems and trigger land conflicts in tribal areas.
Agatha Sangma, a member of parliament from Meghalaya state in the north-east, tells SciDev.Net that she has written to the prime minister opposing the move on the grounds that it would ruin the country’s environment, citing the experiences of Indonesia and Malaysia where around 3.5 million hectares of forest have been converted into oil palm plantations.
“Our north-east region has rich biodiversity and it will get ruined soon if the palm oil mission is implemented,” she says adding that the plan could also lead to land conflict with ethnic peoples.
Agatha Sangma
According to the World Wildlife Fund, a leading conservation organization, oil palm plantations are spreading across Asia, Africa and Latin America at the “expense of tropical forests—which form critical habitats for many endangered species and a lifeline for some human communities.”
“Besides causing large scale deforestation of rainforest of the region, it would invite conflict between private companies and ethnic tribes as private companies are going to indirectly control their land,” says T R Shankar Raman of Nature Conservation Foundation, a South India based non-profit organization which has carried out a detailed study on the negative effects of oil palm plantations in Mizoram, a north-eastern state.
“Besides causing large scale deforestation of rainforest of the region, it would invite conflict between private companies and ethnic tribes as private companies are going to indirectly control their land.”
~ T R SHANKAR RAMAN OF NATURE CONSERVATION FOUNDATION
Caption: Forests are still being bulldozed to make way for agricultural land for palm oil and beef production. Richard Whitcombe/Shutterstock
A review paper published in Advances in Agronomy says that the conversion of forest land into oil palm plantations reduces water infiltration and dry season water flows, and increase soil erosion, sedimentation and surface runoff. Another study shows that bird populations declined when natural forests were replaced by oil palm plantations in Mizoram.
“It is time to promote traditional oil seed varieties like coconut rather than industrial-scale production of oil with exotic species,” says Kartini Samon, an Indonesia-based activist who works with GRAIN, an international non-profit that supports small-scale farmers and community-based biodiversity conservation.
In April, Sri Lanka banned imports of palm oil and ordered the phased uprooting of palm oil plantations in favor of crops that are regarded as more environment-friendly such as coconut, tea and rubber.
Provided by SciDev.Net
ENDS
Originally published by Phys.org. Read the original article on September 10, 2021. Republished under the fair use policy.
An Indian documentary about the dangers of consuming palm oil
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Concerns Mount Over Palm Oil Expansion in Nagaland
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by Palm Oil DetectivesSeptember 24, 2023June 15, 2025Load more posts
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Read more stories about human rights and land-grabbing in the palm oil industry and other extractive industries
Pictured: Mushrooms on the forest floor by Wooter Penning for Pexels
BoycottGreasing the Wheels of Colonialism: Palm Oil Industry in West Papua
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Here are some other ways you can help by using your wallet as a weapon and joining the #Boycott4Wildlife
Why join the #Boycott4Wildlife?
Greenwashing Tactic #4: Fake Labels
The Counterpunch: Consumer Solutions To Fight Extinction
Did you enjoy visiting this website?
Palm Oil Detectives is 100% self-funded
Palm Oil Detectives is completely self-funded by its creator. All hosting and website fees and investigations into brands are self-funded by the creator of this online movement. If you like what I am doing, you and would like me to help meet costs, please send Palm Oil Detectives a thanks on Ko-Fi.
Say thanks on Ko-Fi#AnimalBiodiversityNews #animalExtinction #Assam #Boycott4wildlife #BoycottPalmOil #deforestation #ecosystems #extinction #ForgottenAnimals #humanRights #India #indigenous #indigenousRights #landRights #landgrabbing #Nicobar #PalmOil #palmOilDeforestation #palmoil
-
Land-grabbing and Climate Crisis Linked to Palm Oil
A corporate monopoly for control over land and resources for palm oil must be dismantled immediately to give humanity, animals and our natural world a fighting chance for survival and to reverse the climate crisis. In Asia, many indigenous peoples are now joining forces and rising up to resist this corruption and ecocide. Help them to fight back and #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife
Corporate monopolies 💰🔥👿 drive #landgrabbing for #palmoil. To give #indigenous peoples, animals and #nature a fighting chance, we must resist. “Sustainable” palm oil is #greenwashing! #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect 🌴🪔🧐🙊⛔️ https://palmoildetectives.com/2022/11/20/land-grabbing-and-the-climate-crisis-are-strongly-linked-to-palm-oil/
Share to BlueSky Share to Twitter#Report by @FAO 📜 finds 90% of #deforestation is for BIG-AG by #Cargill, #Wilmar and #SimeDarby. Their monopoly drives #indigenous #landgrabbing for #palmoil 🌴💰 Take action! 🌴🪔💀🤢🚫 #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2022/11/20/land-grabbing-and-the-climate-crisis-are-strongly-linked-to-palm-oil/
Share to BlueSky Share to TwitterOriginally written by Arnold Padilla for Bulatlat.com as ‘Land Monopoly and Climate Crisis: A Look at Asia’. Read the original article. Published November 17, 2022. Arnold Padilla is the coordinator of the Food Sovereignty Program of PAN Asia Pacific (PANAP) and its “No Land, No Life” campaign against land grabbing.
Some closely following the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) say that the 27th session of its Conference of the Parties (COP27) puts more attention on food and agriculture than in previous years.
For instance, the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES) noted that the climate gathering in Egypt features four pavilions and about 200 events on food and farming. But these are still outside official negotiations, where states do the actual policymaking and commitments.
No meaningful focus at COP27 on accountability of industrial farming
It is apparent in the discussions that matter in the COP process that there is no meaningful focus on the role and accountability of corporate farming in warming the planet.
The industrial food system (i.e., agriculture and land use/land-use change activities plus supply chain activities like retail, transport, consumption, fuel production, waste management, industrial processes and packaging) contributes about 34% to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, with an estimated environmental cost of US$ 3 trillion annually.
Yet, addressing and reversing the climate impacts of corporate farming through radical food systems transformation is not a priority among the COP27 negotiators.
6 out of 10 of the worst affected countries for climate change are in Asia
- For Asia, the urgency of the climate crisis cannot be overemphasised. Six of the ten worst affected countries by climate change in the past two decades are in Asia (i.e., Myanmar, Philippines, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Thailand, and Nepal).
- This year alone, heavy monsoon rains caused unprecedented flooding in Pakistan, affecting 33 million people and inflicting over US$ 30 billion in damages and economic losses.
- Consecutive typhoons – Noru and Nalgae – hit the Philippines in the two months leading to COP27.
- These disasters affected more than four million people, displaced more than 241,000, left more than 150 dead, and caused more than US$50 million in damages to agriculture alone.
Land monopoly: an indispensable requirement of corporate farming
Land monopoly, an indispensable requirement of corporate farming, creates favorable conditions for the climate crisis to persist and worsen. Corporate monoculture plantations, one of the most visible expressions of land monopoly since colonial times, are among the significant contributors to the existential crisis that the world faces today.
Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO): 90% of global deforestation is driven by agriculture
Big agribusiness firms are cutting down massive swathes of forests for conversion into industrial plantations and livestock grazing. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reported that agricultural expansion drove almost 90 percent of global deforestation in the past two decades.
In Asia, nearly 80 percent of deforestation during the same period is due to conversion into croplands, mainly by corporate plantations, based on the UN body’s study.
Independent studies affirm this, such as the data compiled and analysed by the Land Matrix (a collaboration of civil society, farmers’ groups, and academic research institutions) on large-scale land acquisitions.
These refer to lands in low and middle-income countries acquired by foreign and local investors through purchase, lease or concession for agricultural production, timber extraction, carbon trading, industry, renewable energy production, conservation, and tourism. Their 2021 report noted that 964 land deals caused the deforestation of almost two million hectares between 2000 and 2019.
In East Asia and the Pacific, the Land Matrix reported that about 74 percent of the areas around the locations of land deals were still forested in 2000. By 2019, that number declined to 58 percent, mainly due to oil palm expansions in Malaysia and Indonesia and new agricultural frontiers in Cambodia, China, Laos, and Vietnam.
Clearing forests releases CO2 and contributes to rising temperatures
Clearing the forests releases the carbon dioxide (CO2) they store into the atmosphere, contributing to rising global temperatures.
According to one study, deforestation – which has already claimed 420 million hectares of forests in the last 30 years – can also affect temperatures through its effect on various physical processes of nature. For example, cutting down trees eliminates the forests’ ability to absorb water from the soil and release it into the air as moisture and cool the atmosphere.
Perpetuating plunder
At COP27, the world’s largest transnational food companies led by Cargill, Bunge, and Archer Daniels Midland, among others, launched a roadmap to eliminate deforestation from their supply chains for soy, beef, and palm oil by 2025.
However, these companies, which have already made similar pledges in the past only to fall short, continue to be implicated in the massive destruction of forests, like Cargill in the Amazon.
Read more: New research: Indirect sourcing of up to 90% of palm oil from Cargill, Wilmar, Musim Mas cannot be traced and is linked to deforestationEven worse, they use the climate crisis to legitimise and perpetuate resource grabbing, plunder, and land monopoly. One of the supposed climate solutions that big corporations tend to rally around is planting “new forests”.
However, the problem is that these large-scale tree-planting efforts are often a pretext to promote corporate plantations.
Based on another estimate, 45% of oil palm plantations were built in forest areas in Southeast Asia, considered the global hotspot of palm-driven deforestation.
Wilmar responsible for palm oil deforestation despite supposedly using “sustainable” palm oil.Palm oil is considered the fastest-growing commodity crop worldwide, requiring an ever-expanding mass of arable lands and forests. FAO data shows that the size of land devoted to oil palm plantations in the past four decades ballooned by more than 571 percent – from 4.28 million hectares in 1980 to 28.74 million in 2020.
Climate justice vs. land monopoly
Corporate plantations – motivated by profits for their investors that include the world’s wealthiest people and largest investment firms from mostly the industrialised countries – produce commodities dictated by the global market’s needs, not by the food security requirements and overall development agenda of mostly the underdeveloped countries and local communities where they are built often in violent ways. These big capitalists and finance oligarchs are oblivious to their operations’ harsh socioeconomic and environmental impacts.
Aside from degrading or destroying the forests to establish monoculture, export-oriented industrial farms, corporate land monopolies also perpetuate the use of massive amounts of climate-warming fossil fuels by promoting harmful agrochemicals like synthetic fertilizers and pesticides and encouraging long supply chains. It is not a coincidence that as corporate plantations, agrochemicals such as pesticides have also soared by 80 percent in the past three decades.
Agroecological, localised, and diversified food systems offer sustainable and climate-friendly alternatives, as much evidence suggests, but ultimately, decisions on how to use and manage the world’s forests and farmlands for the benefit of the greatest majority without harming the people and planet rest on the question of who effectively controls these resources.
From colonialism to modern imperialism today, such control has been taken away from the indigenous and peasant communities, grabbed and monopolised by and for commercial interests.
The people rising for climate justice necessitates the struggle to dismantle this corporate monopoly control over land and resources and give humanity a fighting chance to survive and reverse the climate crisis.
Read more stories about human rights and land-grabbing in the palm oil industry and other extractive industries
Pictured: Mushrooms on the forest floor by Wooter Penning for Pexels
BoycottGreasing the Wheels of Colonialism: Palm Oil Industry in West Papua
BoycottPalm Oil Workers Expose Industry Practices Resembling Colonialism
BoycottPapua’s ‘Empty Lands’: A Dangerous Myth Displacing Indigenous Peoples
BoycottKey To Reversing Amazonia’s Mineral Demand: Indigenous Empowerment
BoycottResearch: Palm Oil Plantations Threaten Indigenous Waterways
BoycottNew Research: Indigenous Communities Reduce Amazon Deforestation by 83%”
BoycottConcerns Mount Over Palm Oil Expansion in Nagaland
BoycottPalm Oil Is Ruining Kalangala Uganda — Locals Paying the Price
BoycottViolence for Palm Oil Against Peasant Communities in Honduras Meets Resistance
Load more posts
Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.
Forests are still being bulldozed to make way for agricultural land for palm oil and beef production. Richard Whitcombe/ShutterstockWritten by Arnold Padilla for Bulatlat.com as ‘Land Monopoly and Climate Crisis: A Look at Asia’. Read the original article. Published November 17, 2022. Arnold Padilla is the coordinator of the Food Sovereignty Program of PAN Asia Pacific (PANAP) and its “No Land, No Life” campaign against land grabbing.
ENDS
Here are some other ways you can help by using your wallet as a weapon and joining the #Boycott4Wildlife
Why join the #Boycott4Wildlife?
Greenwashing Tactic #4: Fake Labels
The Counterpunch: Consumer Solutions To Fight Extinction
Did you enjoy visiting this website?
Palm Oil Detectives is 100% self-funded
Palm Oil Detectives is completely self-funded by its creator. All hosting and website fees and investigations into brands are self-funded by the creator of this online movement. If you like what I am doing, you and would like me to help meet costs, please send Palm Oil Detectives a thanks on Ko-Fi.
Say thanks on Ko-Fi#Boycott4wildlife #BoycottPalmOil #Cargill #corporateSocialResponsiblity #deforestation #greenwashing #humanRights #indigenous #IndigenousActivism #indigenousRights #landRights #landgrabbing #nature #PalmOil #palmOilDeforestation #palmoil #report #SimeDarby #SouthEastAsia #tropicalRainforest #Wilmar
-
Land-grabbing and Climate Crisis Linked to Palm Oil
A corporate monopoly for control over land and resources for palm oil must be dismantled immediately to give humanity, animals and our natural world a fighting chance for survival and to reverse the climate crisis. In Asia, many indigenous peoples are now joining forces and rising up to resist this corruption and ecocide. Help them to fight back and #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife
Corporate monopolies 💰🔥👿 drive #landgrabbing for #palmoil. To give #indigenous peoples, animals and #nature a fighting chance, we must resist. “Sustainable” palm oil is #greenwashing! #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect 🌴🪔🧐🙊⛔️ https://palmoildetectives.com/2022/11/20/land-grabbing-and-the-climate-crisis-are-strongly-linked-to-palm-oil/
Share to BlueSky Share to Twitter#Report by @FAO 📜 finds 90% of #deforestation is for BIG-AG by #Cargill, #Wilmar and #SimeDarby. Their monopoly drives #indigenous #landgrabbing for #palmoil 🌴💰 Take action! 🌴🪔💀🤢🚫 #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2022/11/20/land-grabbing-and-the-climate-crisis-are-strongly-linked-to-palm-oil/
Share to BlueSky Share to TwitterOriginally written by Arnold Padilla for Bulatlat.com as ‘Land Monopoly and Climate Crisis: A Look at Asia’. Read the original article. Published November 17, 2022. Arnold Padilla is the coordinator of the Food Sovereignty Program of PAN Asia Pacific (PANAP) and its “No Land, No Life” campaign against land grabbing.
Some closely following the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) say that the 27th session of its Conference of the Parties (COP27) puts more attention on food and agriculture than in previous years.
For instance, the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES) noted that the climate gathering in Egypt features four pavilions and about 200 events on food and farming. But these are still outside official negotiations, where states do the actual policymaking and commitments.
No meaningful focus at COP27 on accountability of industrial farming
It is apparent in the discussions that matter in the COP process that there is no meaningful focus on the role and accountability of corporate farming in warming the planet.
The industrial food system (i.e., agriculture and land use/land-use change activities plus supply chain activities like retail, transport, consumption, fuel production, waste management, industrial processes and packaging) contributes about 34% to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, with an estimated environmental cost of US$ 3 trillion annually.
Yet, addressing and reversing the climate impacts of corporate farming through radical food systems transformation is not a priority among the COP27 negotiators.
6 out of 10 of the worst affected countries for climate change are in Asia
- For Asia, the urgency of the climate crisis cannot be overemphasised. Six of the ten worst affected countries by climate change in the past two decades are in Asia (i.e., Myanmar, Philippines, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Thailand, and Nepal).
- This year alone, heavy monsoon rains caused unprecedented flooding in Pakistan, affecting 33 million people and inflicting over US$ 30 billion in damages and economic losses.
- Consecutive typhoons – Noru and Nalgae – hit the Philippines in the two months leading to COP27.
- These disasters affected more than four million people, displaced more than 241,000, left more than 150 dead, and caused more than US$50 million in damages to agriculture alone.
Land monopoly: an indispensable requirement of corporate farming
Land monopoly, an indispensable requirement of corporate farming, creates favorable conditions for the climate crisis to persist and worsen. Corporate monoculture plantations, one of the most visible expressions of land monopoly since colonial times, are among the significant contributors to the existential crisis that the world faces today.
Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO): 90% of global deforestation is driven by agriculture
Big agribusiness firms are cutting down massive swathes of forests for conversion into industrial plantations and livestock grazing. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reported that agricultural expansion drove almost 90 percent of global deforestation in the past two decades.
In Asia, nearly 80 percent of deforestation during the same period is due to conversion into croplands, mainly by corporate plantations, based on the UN body’s study.
Independent studies affirm this, such as the data compiled and analysed by the Land Matrix (a collaboration of civil society, farmers’ groups, and academic research institutions) on large-scale land acquisitions.
These refer to lands in low and middle-income countries acquired by foreign and local investors through purchase, lease or concession for agricultural production, timber extraction, carbon trading, industry, renewable energy production, conservation, and tourism. Their 2021 report noted that 964 land deals caused the deforestation of almost two million hectares between 2000 and 2019.
In East Asia and the Pacific, the Land Matrix reported that about 74 percent of the areas around the locations of land deals were still forested in 2000. By 2019, that number declined to 58 percent, mainly due to oil palm expansions in Malaysia and Indonesia and new agricultural frontiers in Cambodia, China, Laos, and Vietnam.
Clearing forests releases CO2 and contributes to rising temperatures
Clearing the forests releases the carbon dioxide (CO2) they store into the atmosphere, contributing to rising global temperatures.
According to one study, deforestation – which has already claimed 420 million hectares of forests in the last 30 years – can also affect temperatures through its effect on various physical processes of nature. For example, cutting down trees eliminates the forests’ ability to absorb water from the soil and release it into the air as moisture and cool the atmosphere.
Perpetuating plunder
At COP27, the world’s largest transnational food companies led by Cargill, Bunge, and Archer Daniels Midland, among others, launched a roadmap to eliminate deforestation from their supply chains for soy, beef, and palm oil by 2025.
However, these companies, which have already made similar pledges in the past only to fall short, continue to be implicated in the massive destruction of forests, like Cargill in the Amazon.
Read more: New research: Indirect sourcing of up to 90% of palm oil from Cargill, Wilmar, Musim Mas cannot be traced and is linked to deforestationEven worse, they use the climate crisis to legitimise and perpetuate resource grabbing, plunder, and land monopoly. One of the supposed climate solutions that big corporations tend to rally around is planting “new forests”.
However, the problem is that these large-scale tree-planting efforts are often a pretext to promote corporate plantations.
Based on another estimate, 45% of oil palm plantations were built in forest areas in Southeast Asia, considered the global hotspot of palm-driven deforestation.
Wilmar responsible for palm oil deforestation despite supposedly using “sustainable” palm oil.Palm oil is considered the fastest-growing commodity crop worldwide, requiring an ever-expanding mass of arable lands and forests. FAO data shows that the size of land devoted to oil palm plantations in the past four decades ballooned by more than 571 percent – from 4.28 million hectares in 1980 to 28.74 million in 2020.
Climate justice vs. land monopoly
Corporate plantations – motivated by profits for their investors that include the world’s wealthiest people and largest investment firms from mostly the industrialised countries – produce commodities dictated by the global market’s needs, not by the food security requirements and overall development agenda of mostly the underdeveloped countries and local communities where they are built often in violent ways. These big capitalists and finance oligarchs are oblivious to their operations’ harsh socioeconomic and environmental impacts.
Aside from degrading or destroying the forests to establish monoculture, export-oriented industrial farms, corporate land monopolies also perpetuate the use of massive amounts of climate-warming fossil fuels by promoting harmful agrochemicals like synthetic fertilizers and pesticides and encouraging long supply chains. It is not a coincidence that as corporate plantations, agrochemicals such as pesticides have also soared by 80 percent in the past three decades.
Agroecological, localised, and diversified food systems offer sustainable and climate-friendly alternatives, as much evidence suggests, but ultimately, decisions on how to use and manage the world’s forests and farmlands for the benefit of the greatest majority without harming the people and planet rest on the question of who effectively controls these resources.
From colonialism to modern imperialism today, such control has been taken away from the indigenous and peasant communities, grabbed and monopolised by and for commercial interests.
The people rising for climate justice necessitates the struggle to dismantle this corporate monopoly control over land and resources and give humanity a fighting chance to survive and reverse the climate crisis.
Read more stories about human rights and land-grabbing in the palm oil industry and other extractive industries
Pictured: Mushrooms on the forest floor by Wooter Penning for Pexels
BoycottGreasing the Wheels of Colonialism: Palm Oil Industry in West Papua
BoycottPalm Oil Workers Expose Industry Practices Resembling Colonialism
BoycottPapua’s ‘Empty Lands’: A Dangerous Myth Displacing Indigenous Peoples
BoycottKey To Reversing Amazonia’s Mineral Demand: Indigenous Empowerment
BoycottResearch: Palm Oil Plantations Threaten Indigenous Waterways
BoycottNew Research: Indigenous Communities Reduce Amazon Deforestation by 83%”
BoycottConcerns Mount Over Palm Oil Expansion in Nagaland
BoycottPalm Oil Is Ruining Kalangala Uganda — Locals Paying the Price
BoycottViolence for Palm Oil Against Peasant Communities in Honduras Meets Resistance
Load more posts
Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.
Forests are still being bulldozed to make way for agricultural land for palm oil and beef production. Richard Whitcombe/ShutterstockWritten by Arnold Padilla for Bulatlat.com as ‘Land Monopoly and Climate Crisis: A Look at Asia’. Read the original article. Published November 17, 2022. Arnold Padilla is the coordinator of the Food Sovereignty Program of PAN Asia Pacific (PANAP) and its “No Land, No Life” campaign against land grabbing.
ENDS
Here are some other ways you can help by using your wallet as a weapon and joining the #Boycott4Wildlife
Why join the #Boycott4Wildlife?
Greenwashing Tactic #4: Fake Labels
The Counterpunch: Consumer Solutions To Fight Extinction
Did you enjoy visiting this website?
Palm Oil Detectives is 100% self-funded
Palm Oil Detectives is completely self-funded by its creator. All hosting and website fees and investigations into brands are self-funded by the creator of this online movement. If you like what I am doing, you and would like me to help meet costs, please send Palm Oil Detectives a thanks on Ko-Fi.
Say thanks on Ko-Fi#Boycott4wildlife #BoycottPalmOil #Cargill #corporateSocialResponsiblity #deforestation #greenwashing #humanRights #indigenous #IndigenousActivism #indigenousRights #landRights #landgrabbing #nature #PalmOil #palmOilDeforestation #palmoil #report #SimeDarby #SouthEastAsia #tropicalRainforest #Wilmar
-
Land-grabbing and Climate Crisis Linked to Palm Oil
A corporate monopoly for control over land and resources for palm oil must be dismantled immediately to give humanity, animals and our natural world a fighting chance for survival and to reverse the climate crisis. In Asia, many indigenous peoples are now joining forces and rising up to resist this corruption and ecocide. Help them to fight back and #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife
Corporate monopolies 💰🔥👿 drive #landgrabbing for #palmoil. To give #indigenous peoples, animals and #nature a fighting chance, we must resist. “Sustainable” palm oil is #greenwashing! #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect 🌴🪔🧐🙊⛔️ https://palmoildetectives.com/2022/11/20/land-grabbing-and-the-climate-crisis-are-strongly-linked-to-palm-oil/
Share to BlueSky Share to Twitter#Report by @FAO 📜 finds 90% of #deforestation is for BIG-AG by #Cargill, #Wilmar and #SimeDarby. Their monopoly drives #indigenous #landgrabbing for #palmoil 🌴💰 Take action! 🌴🪔💀🤢🚫 #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2022/11/20/land-grabbing-and-the-climate-crisis-are-strongly-linked-to-palm-oil/
Share to BlueSky Share to TwitterOriginally written by Arnold Padilla for Bulatlat.com as ‘Land Monopoly and Climate Crisis: A Look at Asia’. Read the original article. Published November 17, 2022. Arnold Padilla is the coordinator of the Food Sovereignty Program of PAN Asia Pacific (PANAP) and its “No Land, No Life” campaign against land grabbing.
Some closely following the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) say that the 27th session of its Conference of the Parties (COP27) puts more attention on food and agriculture than in previous years.
For instance, the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES) noted that the climate gathering in Egypt features four pavilions and about 200 events on food and farming. But these are still outside official negotiations, where states do the actual policymaking and commitments.
No meaningful focus at COP27 on accountability of industrial farming
It is apparent in the discussions that matter in the COP process that there is no meaningful focus on the role and accountability of corporate farming in warming the planet.
The industrial food system (i.e., agriculture and land use/land-use change activities plus supply chain activities like retail, transport, consumption, fuel production, waste management, industrial processes and packaging) contributes about 34% to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, with an estimated environmental cost of US$ 3 trillion annually.
Yet, addressing and reversing the climate impacts of corporate farming through radical food systems transformation is not a priority among the COP27 negotiators.
6 out of 10 of the worst affected countries for climate change are in Asia
- For Asia, the urgency of the climate crisis cannot be overemphasised. Six of the ten worst affected countries by climate change in the past two decades are in Asia (i.e., Myanmar, Philippines, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Thailand, and Nepal).
- This year alone, heavy monsoon rains caused unprecedented flooding in Pakistan, affecting 33 million people and inflicting over US$ 30 billion in damages and economic losses.
- Consecutive typhoons – Noru and Nalgae – hit the Philippines in the two months leading to COP27.
- These disasters affected more than four million people, displaced more than 241,000, left more than 150 dead, and caused more than US$50 million in damages to agriculture alone.
Land monopoly: an indispensable requirement of corporate farming
Land monopoly, an indispensable requirement of corporate farming, creates favorable conditions for the climate crisis to persist and worsen. Corporate monoculture plantations, one of the most visible expressions of land monopoly since colonial times, are among the significant contributors to the existential crisis that the world faces today.
Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO): 90% of global deforestation is driven by agriculture
Big agribusiness firms are cutting down massive swathes of forests for conversion into industrial plantations and livestock grazing. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reported that agricultural expansion drove almost 90 percent of global deforestation in the past two decades.
In Asia, nearly 80 percent of deforestation during the same period is due to conversion into croplands, mainly by corporate plantations, based on the UN body’s study.
Independent studies affirm this, such as the data compiled and analysed by the Land Matrix (a collaboration of civil society, farmers’ groups, and academic research institutions) on large-scale land acquisitions.
These refer to lands in low and middle-income countries acquired by foreign and local investors through purchase, lease or concession for agricultural production, timber extraction, carbon trading, industry, renewable energy production, conservation, and tourism. Their 2021 report noted that 964 land deals caused the deforestation of almost two million hectares between 2000 and 2019.
In East Asia and the Pacific, the Land Matrix reported that about 74 percent of the areas around the locations of land deals were still forested in 2000. By 2019, that number declined to 58 percent, mainly due to oil palm expansions in Malaysia and Indonesia and new agricultural frontiers in Cambodia, China, Laos, and Vietnam.
Clearing forests releases CO2 and contributes to rising temperatures
Clearing the forests releases the carbon dioxide (CO2) they store into the atmosphere, contributing to rising global temperatures.
According to one study, deforestation – which has already claimed 420 million hectares of forests in the last 30 years – can also affect temperatures through its effect on various physical processes of nature. For example, cutting down trees eliminates the forests’ ability to absorb water from the soil and release it into the air as moisture and cool the atmosphere.
Perpetuating plunder
At COP27, the world’s largest transnational food companies led by Cargill, Bunge, and Archer Daniels Midland, among others, launched a roadmap to eliminate deforestation from their supply chains for soy, beef, and palm oil by 2025.
However, these companies, which have already made similar pledges in the past only to fall short, continue to be implicated in the massive destruction of forests, like Cargill in the Amazon.
Read more: New research: Indirect sourcing of up to 90% of palm oil from Cargill, Wilmar, Musim Mas cannot be traced and is linked to deforestationEven worse, they use the climate crisis to legitimise and perpetuate resource grabbing, plunder, and land monopoly. One of the supposed climate solutions that big corporations tend to rally around is planting “new forests”.
However, the problem is that these large-scale tree-planting efforts are often a pretext to promote corporate plantations.
Based on another estimate, 45% of oil palm plantations were built in forest areas in Southeast Asia, considered the global hotspot of palm-driven deforestation.
Wilmar responsible for palm oil deforestation despite supposedly using “sustainable” palm oil.Palm oil is considered the fastest-growing commodity crop worldwide, requiring an ever-expanding mass of arable lands and forests. FAO data shows that the size of land devoted to oil palm plantations in the past four decades ballooned by more than 571 percent – from 4.28 million hectares in 1980 to 28.74 million in 2020.
Climate justice vs. land monopoly
Corporate plantations – motivated by profits for their investors that include the world’s wealthiest people and largest investment firms from mostly the industrialised countries – produce commodities dictated by the global market’s needs, not by the food security requirements and overall development agenda of mostly the underdeveloped countries and local communities where they are built often in violent ways. These big capitalists and finance oligarchs are oblivious to their operations’ harsh socioeconomic and environmental impacts.
Aside from degrading or destroying the forests to establish monoculture, export-oriented industrial farms, corporate land monopolies also perpetuate the use of massive amounts of climate-warming fossil fuels by promoting harmful agrochemicals like synthetic fertilizers and pesticides and encouraging long supply chains. It is not a coincidence that as corporate plantations, agrochemicals such as pesticides have also soared by 80 percent in the past three decades.
Agroecological, localised, and diversified food systems offer sustainable and climate-friendly alternatives, as much evidence suggests, but ultimately, decisions on how to use and manage the world’s forests and farmlands for the benefit of the greatest majority without harming the people and planet rest on the question of who effectively controls these resources.
From colonialism to modern imperialism today, such control has been taken away from the indigenous and peasant communities, grabbed and monopolised by and for commercial interests.
The people rising for climate justice necessitates the struggle to dismantle this corporate monopoly control over land and resources and give humanity a fighting chance to survive and reverse the climate crisis.
Read more stories about human rights and land-grabbing in the palm oil industry and other extractive industries
Pictured: Mushrooms on the forest floor by Wooter Penning for Pexels
BoycottGreasing the Wheels of Colonialism: Palm Oil Industry in West Papua
BoycottPalm Oil Workers Expose Industry Practices Resembling Colonialism
BoycottPapua’s ‘Empty Lands’: A Dangerous Myth Displacing Indigenous Peoples
BoycottKey To Reversing Amazonia’s Mineral Demand: Indigenous Empowerment
BoycottResearch: Palm Oil Plantations Threaten Indigenous Waterways
BoycottNew Research: Indigenous Communities Reduce Amazon Deforestation by 83%”
BoycottConcerns Mount Over Palm Oil Expansion in Nagaland
BoycottPalm Oil Is Ruining Kalangala Uganda — Locals Paying the Price
BoycottViolence for Palm Oil Against Peasant Communities in Honduras Meets Resistance
Load more posts
Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.
Forests are still being bulldozed to make way for agricultural land for palm oil and beef production. Richard Whitcombe/ShutterstockWritten by Arnold Padilla for Bulatlat.com as ‘Land Monopoly and Climate Crisis: A Look at Asia’. Read the original article. Published November 17, 2022. Arnold Padilla is the coordinator of the Food Sovereignty Program of PAN Asia Pacific (PANAP) and its “No Land, No Life” campaign against land grabbing.
ENDS
Here are some other ways you can help by using your wallet as a weapon and joining the #Boycott4Wildlife
Why join the #Boycott4Wildlife?
Greenwashing Tactic #4: Fake Labels
The Counterpunch: Consumer Solutions To Fight Extinction
Did you enjoy visiting this website?
Palm Oil Detectives is 100% self-funded
Palm Oil Detectives is completely self-funded by its creator. All hosting and website fees and investigations into brands are self-funded by the creator of this online movement. If you like what I am doing, you and would like me to help meet costs, please send Palm Oil Detectives a thanks on Ko-Fi.
Say thanks on Ko-Fi#Boycott4wildlife #BoycottPalmOil #Cargill #corporateSocialResponsiblity #deforestation #greenwashing #humanRights #indigenous #IndigenousActivism #indigenousRights #landRights #landgrabbing #nature #PalmOil #palmOilDeforestation #palmoil #report #SimeDarby #SouthEastAsia #tropicalRainforest #Wilmar
-
Land-grabbing and Climate Crisis Linked to Palm Oil
A corporate monopoly for control over land and resources for palm oil must be dismantled immediately to give humanity, animals and our natural world a fighting chance for survival and to reverse the climate crisis. In Asia, many indigenous peoples are now joining forces and rising up to resist this corruption and ecocide. Help them to fight back and #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife
Corporate monopolies 💰🔥👿 drive #landgrabbing for #palmoil. To give #indigenous peoples, animals and #nature a fighting chance, we must resist. “Sustainable” palm oil is #greenwashing! #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect 🌴🪔🧐🙊⛔️ https://palmoildetectives.com/2022/11/20/land-grabbing-and-the-climate-crisis-are-strongly-linked-to-palm-oil/
Share to BlueSky Share to Twitter#Report by @FAO 📜 finds 90% of #deforestation is for BIG-AG by #Cargill, #Wilmar and #SimeDarby. Their monopoly drives #indigenous #landgrabbing for #palmoil 🌴💰 Take action! 🌴🪔💀🤢🚫 #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2022/11/20/land-grabbing-and-the-climate-crisis-are-strongly-linked-to-palm-oil/
Share to BlueSky Share to TwitterOriginally written by Arnold Padilla for Bulatlat.com as ‘Land Monopoly and Climate Crisis: A Look at Asia’. Read the original article. Published November 17, 2022. Arnold Padilla is the coordinator of the Food Sovereignty Program of PAN Asia Pacific (PANAP) and its “No Land, No Life” campaign against land grabbing.
Some closely following the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) say that the 27th session of its Conference of the Parties (COP27) puts more attention on food and agriculture than in previous years.
For instance, the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES) noted that the climate gathering in Egypt features four pavilions and about 200 events on food and farming. But these are still outside official negotiations, where states do the actual policymaking and commitments.
No meaningful focus at COP27 on accountability of industrial farming
It is apparent in the discussions that matter in the COP process that there is no meaningful focus on the role and accountability of corporate farming in warming the planet.
The industrial food system (i.e., agriculture and land use/land-use change activities plus supply chain activities like retail, transport, consumption, fuel production, waste management, industrial processes and packaging) contributes about 34% to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, with an estimated environmental cost of US$ 3 trillion annually.
Yet, addressing and reversing the climate impacts of corporate farming through radical food systems transformation is not a priority among the COP27 negotiators.
6 out of 10 of the worst affected countries for climate change are in Asia
- For Asia, the urgency of the climate crisis cannot be overemphasised. Six of the ten worst affected countries by climate change in the past two decades are in Asia (i.e., Myanmar, Philippines, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Thailand, and Nepal).
- This year alone, heavy monsoon rains caused unprecedented flooding in Pakistan, affecting 33 million people and inflicting over US$ 30 billion in damages and economic losses.
- Consecutive typhoons – Noru and Nalgae – hit the Philippines in the two months leading to COP27.
- These disasters affected more than four million people, displaced more than 241,000, left more than 150 dead, and caused more than US$50 million in damages to agriculture alone.
Land monopoly: an indispensable requirement of corporate farming
Land monopoly, an indispensable requirement of corporate farming, creates favorable conditions for the climate crisis to persist and worsen. Corporate monoculture plantations, one of the most visible expressions of land monopoly since colonial times, are among the significant contributors to the existential crisis that the world faces today.
Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO): 90% of global deforestation is driven by agriculture
Big agribusiness firms are cutting down massive swathes of forests for conversion into industrial plantations and livestock grazing. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reported that agricultural expansion drove almost 90 percent of global deforestation in the past two decades.
In Asia, nearly 80 percent of deforestation during the same period is due to conversion into croplands, mainly by corporate plantations, based on the UN body’s study.
Independent studies affirm this, such as the data compiled and analysed by the Land Matrix (a collaboration of civil society, farmers’ groups, and academic research institutions) on large-scale land acquisitions.
These refer to lands in low and middle-income countries acquired by foreign and local investors through purchase, lease or concession for agricultural production, timber extraction, carbon trading, industry, renewable energy production, conservation, and tourism. Their 2021 report noted that 964 land deals caused the deforestation of almost two million hectares between 2000 and 2019.
In East Asia and the Pacific, the Land Matrix reported that about 74 percent of the areas around the locations of land deals were still forested in 2000. By 2019, that number declined to 58 percent, mainly due to oil palm expansions in Malaysia and Indonesia and new agricultural frontiers in Cambodia, China, Laos, and Vietnam.
Clearing forests releases CO2 and contributes to rising temperatures
Clearing the forests releases the carbon dioxide (CO2) they store into the atmosphere, contributing to rising global temperatures.
According to one study, deforestation – which has already claimed 420 million hectares of forests in the last 30 years – can also affect temperatures through its effect on various physical processes of nature. For example, cutting down trees eliminates the forests’ ability to absorb water from the soil and release it into the air as moisture and cool the atmosphere.
Perpetuating plunder
At COP27, the world’s largest transnational food companies led by Cargill, Bunge, and Archer Daniels Midland, among others, launched a roadmap to eliminate deforestation from their supply chains for soy, beef, and palm oil by 2025.
However, these companies, which have already made similar pledges in the past only to fall short, continue to be implicated in the massive destruction of forests, like Cargill in the Amazon.
Read more: New research: Indirect sourcing of up to 90% of palm oil from Cargill, Wilmar, Musim Mas cannot be traced and is linked to deforestationEven worse, they use the climate crisis to legitimise and perpetuate resource grabbing, plunder, and land monopoly. One of the supposed climate solutions that big corporations tend to rally around is planting “new forests”.
However, the problem is that these large-scale tree-planting efforts are often a pretext to promote corporate plantations.
Based on another estimate, 45% of oil palm plantations were built in forest areas in Southeast Asia, considered the global hotspot of palm-driven deforestation.
Wilmar responsible for palm oil deforestation despite supposedly using “sustainable” palm oil.Palm oil is considered the fastest-growing commodity crop worldwide, requiring an ever-expanding mass of arable lands and forests. FAO data shows that the size of land devoted to oil palm plantations in the past four decades ballooned by more than 571 percent – from 4.28 million hectares in 1980 to 28.74 million in 2020.
Climate justice vs. land monopoly
Corporate plantations – motivated by profits for their investors that include the world’s wealthiest people and largest investment firms from mostly the industrialised countries – produce commodities dictated by the global market’s needs, not by the food security requirements and overall development agenda of mostly the underdeveloped countries and local communities where they are built often in violent ways. These big capitalists and finance oligarchs are oblivious to their operations’ harsh socioeconomic and environmental impacts.
Aside from degrading or destroying the forests to establish monoculture, export-oriented industrial farms, corporate land monopolies also perpetuate the use of massive amounts of climate-warming fossil fuels by promoting harmful agrochemicals like synthetic fertilizers and pesticides and encouraging long supply chains. It is not a coincidence that as corporate plantations, agrochemicals such as pesticides have also soared by 80 percent in the past three decades.
Agroecological, localised, and diversified food systems offer sustainable and climate-friendly alternatives, as much evidence suggests, but ultimately, decisions on how to use and manage the world’s forests and farmlands for the benefit of the greatest majority without harming the people and planet rest on the question of who effectively controls these resources.
From colonialism to modern imperialism today, such control has been taken away from the indigenous and peasant communities, grabbed and monopolised by and for commercial interests.
The people rising for climate justice necessitates the struggle to dismantle this corporate monopoly control over land and resources and give humanity a fighting chance to survive and reverse the climate crisis.
Read more stories about human rights and land-grabbing in the palm oil industry and other extractive industries
Pictured: Mushrooms on the forest floor by Wooter Penning for Pexels
BoycottGreasing the Wheels of Colonialism: Palm Oil Industry in West Papua
BoycottPalm Oil Workers Expose Industry Practices Resembling Colonialism
BoycottPapua’s ‘Empty Lands’: A Dangerous Myth Displacing Indigenous Peoples
BoycottKey To Reversing Amazonia’s Mineral Demand: Indigenous Empowerment
BoycottResearch: Palm Oil Plantations Threaten Indigenous Waterways
BoycottNew Research: Indigenous Communities Reduce Amazon Deforestation by 83%”
BoycottConcerns Mount Over Palm Oil Expansion in Nagaland
BoycottPalm Oil Is Ruining Kalangala Uganda — Locals Paying the Price
BoycottViolence for Palm Oil Against Peasant Communities in Honduras Meets Resistance
Load more posts
Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.
Forests are still being bulldozed to make way for agricultural land for palm oil and beef production. Richard Whitcombe/ShutterstockWritten by Arnold Padilla for Bulatlat.com as ‘Land Monopoly and Climate Crisis: A Look at Asia’. Read the original article. Published November 17, 2022. Arnold Padilla is the coordinator of the Food Sovereignty Program of PAN Asia Pacific (PANAP) and its “No Land, No Life” campaign against land grabbing.
ENDS
Here are some other ways you can help by using your wallet as a weapon and joining the #Boycott4Wildlife
Why join the #Boycott4Wildlife?
Greenwashing Tactic #4: Fake Labels
The Counterpunch: Consumer Solutions To Fight Extinction
Did you enjoy visiting this website?
Palm Oil Detectives is 100% self-funded
Palm Oil Detectives is completely self-funded by its creator. All hosting and website fees and investigations into brands are self-funded by the creator of this online movement. If you like what I am doing, you and would like me to help meet costs, please send Palm Oil Detectives a thanks on Ko-Fi.
Say thanks on Ko-Fi#Boycott4wildlife #BoycottPalmOil #Cargill #corporateSocialResponsiblity #deforestation #greenwashing #humanRights #indigenous #IndigenousActivism #indigenousRights #landRights #landgrabbing #nature #PalmOil #palmOilDeforestation #palmoil #report #SimeDarby #SouthEastAsia #tropicalRainforest #Wilmar
-
Land-grabbing and Climate Crisis Linked to Palm Oil
A corporate monopoly for control over land and resources for palm oil must be dismantled immediately to give humanity, animals and our natural world a fighting chance for survival and to reverse the climate crisis. In Asia, many indigenous peoples are now joining forces and rising up to resist this corruption and ecocide. Help them to fight back and #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife
Corporate monopolies 💰🔥👿 drive #landgrabbing for #palmoil. To give #indigenous peoples, animals and #nature a fighting chance, we must resist. “Sustainable” palm oil is #greenwashing! #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect 🌴🪔🧐🙊⛔️ https://palmoildetectives.com/2022/11/20/land-grabbing-and-the-climate-crisis-are-strongly-linked-to-palm-oil/
Share to BlueSky Share to Twitter#Report by @FAO 📜 finds 90% of #deforestation is for BIG-AG by #Cargill, #Wilmar and #SimeDarby. Their monopoly drives #indigenous #landgrabbing for #palmoil 🌴💰 Take action! 🌴🪔💀🤢🚫 #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2022/11/20/land-grabbing-and-the-climate-crisis-are-strongly-linked-to-palm-oil/
Share to BlueSky Share to TwitterOriginally written by Arnold Padilla for Bulatlat.com as ‘Land Monopoly and Climate Crisis: A Look at Asia’. Read the original article. Published November 17, 2022. Arnold Padilla is the coordinator of the Food Sovereignty Program of PAN Asia Pacific (PANAP) and its “No Land, No Life” campaign against land grabbing.
Some closely following the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) say that the 27th session of its Conference of the Parties (COP27) puts more attention on food and agriculture than in previous years.
For instance, the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES) noted that the climate gathering in Egypt features four pavilions and about 200 events on food and farming. But these are still outside official negotiations, where states do the actual policymaking and commitments.
No meaningful focus at COP27 on accountability of industrial farming
It is apparent in the discussions that matter in the COP process that there is no meaningful focus on the role and accountability of corporate farming in warming the planet.
The industrial food system (i.e., agriculture and land use/land-use change activities plus supply chain activities like retail, transport, consumption, fuel production, waste management, industrial processes and packaging) contributes about 34% to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, with an estimated environmental cost of US$ 3 trillion annually.
Yet, addressing and reversing the climate impacts of corporate farming through radical food systems transformation is not a priority among the COP27 negotiators.
6 out of 10 of the worst affected countries for climate change are in Asia
- For Asia, the urgency of the climate crisis cannot be overemphasised. Six of the ten worst affected countries by climate change in the past two decades are in Asia (i.e., Myanmar, Philippines, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Thailand, and Nepal).
- This year alone, heavy monsoon rains caused unprecedented flooding in Pakistan, affecting 33 million people and inflicting over US$ 30 billion in damages and economic losses.
- Consecutive typhoons – Noru and Nalgae – hit the Philippines in the two months leading to COP27.
- These disasters affected more than four million people, displaced more than 241,000, left more than 150 dead, and caused more than US$50 million in damages to agriculture alone.
Land monopoly: an indispensable requirement of corporate farming
Land monopoly, an indispensable requirement of corporate farming, creates favorable conditions for the climate crisis to persist and worsen. Corporate monoculture plantations, one of the most visible expressions of land monopoly since colonial times, are among the significant contributors to the existential crisis that the world faces today.
Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO): 90% of global deforestation is driven by agriculture
Big agribusiness firms are cutting down massive swathes of forests for conversion into industrial plantations and livestock grazing. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reported that agricultural expansion drove almost 90 percent of global deforestation in the past two decades.
In Asia, nearly 80 percent of deforestation during the same period is due to conversion into croplands, mainly by corporate plantations, based on the UN body’s study.
Independent studies affirm this, such as the data compiled and analysed by the Land Matrix (a collaboration of civil society, farmers’ groups, and academic research institutions) on large-scale land acquisitions.
These refer to lands in low and middle-income countries acquired by foreign and local investors through purchase, lease or concession for agricultural production, timber extraction, carbon trading, industry, renewable energy production, conservation, and tourism. Their 2021 report noted that 964 land deals caused the deforestation of almost two million hectares between 2000 and 2019.
In East Asia and the Pacific, the Land Matrix reported that about 74 percent of the areas around the locations of land deals were still forested in 2000. By 2019, that number declined to 58 percent, mainly due to oil palm expansions in Malaysia and Indonesia and new agricultural frontiers in Cambodia, China, Laos, and Vietnam.
Clearing forests releases CO2 and contributes to rising temperatures
Clearing the forests releases the carbon dioxide (CO2) they store into the atmosphere, contributing to rising global temperatures.
According to one study, deforestation – which has already claimed 420 million hectares of forests in the last 30 years – can also affect temperatures through its effect on various physical processes of nature. For example, cutting down trees eliminates the forests’ ability to absorb water from the soil and release it into the air as moisture and cool the atmosphere.
Perpetuating plunder
At COP27, the world’s largest transnational food companies led by Cargill, Bunge, and Archer Daniels Midland, among others, launched a roadmap to eliminate deforestation from their supply chains for soy, beef, and palm oil by 2025.
However, these companies, which have already made similar pledges in the past only to fall short, continue to be implicated in the massive destruction of forests, like Cargill in the Amazon.
Read more: New research: Indirect sourcing of up to 90% of palm oil from Cargill, Wilmar, Musim Mas cannot be traced and is linked to deforestationEven worse, they use the climate crisis to legitimise and perpetuate resource grabbing, plunder, and land monopoly. One of the supposed climate solutions that big corporations tend to rally around is planting “new forests”.
However, the problem is that these large-scale tree-planting efforts are often a pretext to promote corporate plantations.
Based on another estimate, 45% of oil palm plantations were built in forest areas in Southeast Asia, considered the global hotspot of palm-driven deforestation.
Wilmar responsible for palm oil deforestation despite supposedly using “sustainable” palm oil.Palm oil is considered the fastest-growing commodity crop worldwide, requiring an ever-expanding mass of arable lands and forests. FAO data shows that the size of land devoted to oil palm plantations in the past four decades ballooned by more than 571 percent – from 4.28 million hectares in 1980 to 28.74 million in 2020.
Climate justice vs. land monopoly
Corporate plantations – motivated by profits for their investors that include the world’s wealthiest people and largest investment firms from mostly the industrialised countries – produce commodities dictated by the global market’s needs, not by the food security requirements and overall development agenda of mostly the underdeveloped countries and local communities where they are built often in violent ways. These big capitalists and finance oligarchs are oblivious to their operations’ harsh socioeconomic and environmental impacts.
Aside from degrading or destroying the forests to establish monoculture, export-oriented industrial farms, corporate land monopolies also perpetuate the use of massive amounts of climate-warming fossil fuels by promoting harmful agrochemicals like synthetic fertilizers and pesticides and encouraging long supply chains. It is not a coincidence that as corporate plantations, agrochemicals such as pesticides have also soared by 80 percent in the past three decades.
Agroecological, localised, and diversified food systems offer sustainable and climate-friendly alternatives, as much evidence suggests, but ultimately, decisions on how to use and manage the world’s forests and farmlands for the benefit of the greatest majority without harming the people and planet rest on the question of who effectively controls these resources.
From colonialism to modern imperialism today, such control has been taken away from the indigenous and peasant communities, grabbed and monopolised by and for commercial interests.
The people rising for climate justice necessitates the struggle to dismantle this corporate monopoly control over land and resources and give humanity a fighting chance to survive and reverse the climate crisis.
Read more stories about human rights and land-grabbing in the palm oil industry and other extractive industries
Pictured: Mushrooms on the forest floor by Wooter Penning for Pexels
BoycottGreasing the Wheels of Colonialism: Palm Oil Industry in West Papua
BoycottPalm Oil Workers Expose Industry Practices Resembling Colonialism
BoycottPapua’s ‘Empty Lands’: A Dangerous Myth Displacing Indigenous Peoples
BoycottKey To Reversing Amazonia’s Mineral Demand: Indigenous Empowerment
BoycottResearch: Palm Oil Plantations Threaten Indigenous Waterways
BoycottNew Research: Indigenous Communities Reduce Amazon Deforestation by 83%”
BoycottConcerns Mount Over Palm Oil Expansion in Nagaland
BoycottPalm Oil Is Ruining Kalangala Uganda — Locals Paying the Price
BoycottViolence for Palm Oil Against Peasant Communities in Honduras Meets Resistance
Load more posts
Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.
Forests are still being bulldozed to make way for agricultural land for palm oil and beef production. Richard Whitcombe/ShutterstockWritten by Arnold Padilla for Bulatlat.com as ‘Land Monopoly and Climate Crisis: A Look at Asia’. Read the original article. Published November 17, 2022. Arnold Padilla is the coordinator of the Food Sovereignty Program of PAN Asia Pacific (PANAP) and its “No Land, No Life” campaign against land grabbing.
ENDS
Here are some other ways you can help by using your wallet as a weapon and joining the #Boycott4Wildlife
Why join the #Boycott4Wildlife?
Greenwashing Tactic #4: Fake Labels
The Counterpunch: Consumer Solutions To Fight Extinction
Did you enjoy visiting this website?
Palm Oil Detectives is 100% self-funded
Palm Oil Detectives is completely self-funded by its creator. All hosting and website fees and investigations into brands are self-funded by the creator of this online movement. If you like what I am doing, you and would like me to help meet costs, please send Palm Oil Detectives a thanks on Ko-Fi.
Say thanks on Ko-Fi#Boycott4wildlife #BoycottPalmOil #Cargill #corporateSocialResponsiblity #deforestation #greenwashing #humanRights #indigenous #IndigenousActivism #indigenousRights #landRights #landgrabbing #nature #PalmOil #palmOilDeforestation #palmoil #report #SimeDarby #SouthEastAsia #tropicalRainforest #Wilmar
-
CW: about "filipinx"
through mastodon, reddit, and tiktok, i've encountered so much more filipino community discourse, especially concerning the filipino american diaspora, and it still boggles my mind how the term "filipinx" creates such a stir.
this discourse takes place day in and day out, with people fawning over how terrible this lexical shift is and crying out about how awful and "cringe" filipino americans are for it.
-
CW: about "filipinx"
through mastodon, reddit, and tiktok, i've encountered so much more filipino community discourse, especially concerning the filipino american diaspora, and it still boggles my mind how the term "filipinx" creates such a stir.
this discourse takes place day in and day out, with people fawning over how terrible this lexical shift is and crying out about how awful and "cringe" filipino americans are for it.
-
CW: about "filipinx"
through mastodon, reddit, and tiktok, i've encountered so much more filipino community discourse, especially concerning the filipino american diaspora, and it still boggles my mind how the term "filipinx" creates such a stir.
this discourse takes place day in and day out, with people fawning over how terrible this lexical shift is and crying out about how awful and "cringe" filipino americans are for it.
-
CW: about "filipinx"
through mastodon, reddit, and tiktok, i've encountered so much more filipino community discourse, especially concerning the filipino american diaspora, and it still boggles my mind how the term "filipinx" creates such a stir.
this discourse takes place day in and day out, with people fawning over how terrible this lexical shift is and crying out about how awful and "cringe" filipino americans are for it.
-
CW: about "filipinx"
through mastodon, reddit, and tiktok, i've encountered so much more filipino community discourse, especially concerning the filipino american diaspora, and it still boggles my mind how the term "filipinx" creates such a stir.
this discourse takes place day in and day out, with people fawning over how terrible this lexical shift is and crying out about how awful and "cringe" filipino americans are for it.
