Cameroon says Herakles Farms free to resume tree felling operations

Herakles Farms clear-cut zone near Talangaye, Southwest Region, Cameroon.

Herakles Farms clear-cut zone near Talangaye, Southwest Region, Cameroon.

In a strange about-face, the government of Cameroon has authorized Herakles Farms to resume clear-cutting in the Southwest Region. This decision comes only a few weeks after the government ordered the company to halt all operations until it could produce a “declaration d’utilité publique,” a legal prerequisite for the work. The letter lifting the suspension of clear-cutting makes no mention of the required document and only reminds the company that it must follow laws and regulations. Several observers have suggested the latest letter is likely indicative of a power struggle, with someone higher in rank than the Minister of Forestry and Wildlife ordering that work resume.

To be continued…

In the meantime, here is a press release from WWF Cameroon and the Center for the Environment and Development, a respected Cameroonian NGO:

Yaoundé, Cameroun (5 June 2013)

Herakles Farms is free to resume its tree felling operations in Cameroon, according to a Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife document obtained by local and international NGOs Wednesday, a blow to local communities and the unique biodiversity of the region.

The decision came as a surprise as in April the same ministry had ordered the US-based company which intends to cut up to 73,000 hectares of pristine rainforest to develop an oil palm plantation, to suspend operations until it had obtained legal authorization to do so.

“This is incomprehensible,” said Ludovic Miaro Iii, WWF Regional Palm Oil Coordinator in Central Africa. “On the one hand, we have a company which is operating without requisite permits on public lands, in clear violation of national and international social and environmental norms. What Herakles Farms is doing is a de facto land grab.

“On the other hand, we have the government of Cameroon which seems to be encouraging this company to circumvent national legislations and the rights of local people,” Iii added.

According to a 29 May 2013 letter by Cameroon’s Minister of Forestry and Wildlife, Ngole Philip Ngwese addressed to the CEO of SG Sustainable Oils – the local affiliate of Herakles Farms – the “suspension of tree felling operations of announced in my (previous) correspondence is hereby lifted.”

Palm oil cultivation is a contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation and the loss of biodiversity worldwide. Improperly designed and managed, it deprives local communities of access to land and impacts food security.

“Herakles Farms has consistently shown a complete disregard for Cameroonian laws and local community rights,” according to Samuel Nguiffo, head of the Cameroonian NGO Centre for Environment and Development.”

“The Ministry Forestry and Wildlife of Cameroon itself, in a February 2013 report, accused Herakles Farms of intimidation and bribery in its dealings with chiefs and local decision-makers.”

“Furthermore, should the project go forward, local communities who depend on their traditional lands and forest for their livelihood will be pushed away, leading to increased food insecurity and social instability,” Nguiffo added.

Herakles Farms shutdown generates global news coverage

Christell Kouetcha at Bibi Ngota awards ceremony. Photo: Tribunal Article 53

Christelle Kouetcha at Bibi Ngota awards ceremony. Photo: Tribunal Article 53

The suspension of operations at Herakles Farms has generated a number of stories in the international and Cameroonian press. Links to recent articles are listed below. Here are some highlights from Cameroon.

“Herakles Farms accused of not having told the truth about its project in Cameroon,” reports business publication, Investir au Cameroun (Invest in Cameroon). The article, in French, includes a statement from the minister in charge of forests, Ngolle Philip Ngwesse, who emphasized that the Establishment Convention signed in 2009 did not exempt the company from respecting procedures and laws.  The article also reports that Greenpeace and Cameroonian NGO, Center for the Environment and Development, have called for a moratorium on all new concessions.

Free Speech Radio News features reporting by Ngala Killian Chimtom in the concession area. The story, Local residents in Cameroon raise concerns about massive U.S.-backed palm oil plantation, is online. Another story, Advocacy groups say internal documents from Herakles Farms point to corruption, bribery in Cameroon palm oil plantation, is also available online.

On May 15th, Cameroonian journalist Christelle Kouetcha Tcheulatchue was awarded a 2013 “Bibi Ngota Journalism Against Impunity” award for her July 2012 special report on Herakles Farms. Kouetcha, a reporter at Le Quotidien de l’Economie in Douala, put together an in-depth report on the Herakles Farms project featuring interviews with officials, community leaders and ordinary citizens across the concession area.

Bibi Ngota was a Cameroonian journalist who died in prison in April 2010. Ngota, editor of the monthly Cameroon Express, was arrested after he and three other journalists sent questions to presidential advisor, Laurent Esso, about allegations of embezzlement of public funds. Ngota had known health problems and was denied medical care; he died in prison during pre-trial detention. Cameroonian writer, Patrice Nganang, and other human rights activists established the Bibi Ngota Journalism Against Impunity award in 2012 to honor investigative journalists whose work seeks to break the silence of impunity, “one of the main characteristics of dictatorships.”  The prize is administered by Cameroonian human rights organization, Tribunal Article 53.

For more information on the status of press freedom in Cameroon, see the 2012 report from Freedom House.

Press  and Media on Herakles Farms/SGSOC week of May 20th, 2013

http://stream.wsj.com/story/latest-headlines/SS-2-63399/SS-2-237745/ 

http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/Blogs/makingwaves/herakles-cameroon-palm-oil-project-starts-to-/blog/45259/

http://www.oaklandinstitute.org/press-release-herakles-exposed-truth-behind-herakles-farms-false-promises-cameroon

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/05/22/cameroon-palm-idUKL6N0E344Q20130522

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-05-23/cameroon-says-herakles-needs-permits-for-oil-palm-project

http://news.mongabay.com/2013/0523-herakles-halted.html

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-23/cameroon-says-herakles-needs-permits-for-oil-palm-project.html

http://cameroonjournal.com/herakle%20farms.html

http://bourse.lefigaro.fr/devises-matieres-premieres/actu-conseils/huile-de-palme-un-projet-emblematique-suspendu-428479

http://www.romandie.com/news/n/_La_societe_americaine_Herakles_suspend_son_projet_de_culture_de_palmiers_a_huile_au_Cameroun23240520131124.asp

(One of several stories taken from the AFP wire published on 24/5)

http://economie.jeuneafrique.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=17306

http://www.lemonde.fr/afrique/article/2013/05/23/au-cameroun-un-projet-geant-d-huile-de-palme-fait-scandale_3416319_3212.html

http://economie.jeuneafrique.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=17306

http://www.camerounactu.net/fr/economie/entreprises/3320-exploitation-dhuile-de-palm-heracles-suspend-ses-activites-au-cameroun

http://www.journalducameroun.com/article.php?aid=14360

http://www.businessincameroon.com/agribusiness/2205-4079-herakles-farms-suspends-activities-in-cameroon

http://www.investiraucameroun.com/agriculture/2205-4224-herakles-farm-suspend-ses-operations-suite-aux-injonctions-du-gouvernement-camerounais

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/22/cameroon-palm-idUSL6N0E344Q20130522

http://www.africareview.com/Business—Finance/US-firm-shelves-Cameroon-plantation-project/-/979184/1859662/-/x49w93/-/index.html

 

Herakles Farms releases public statement: Operations suspended

TalangayeNurs002resz

Herakles Farms, known in Cameroon as SGSOC, has issued a public statement regarding the suspension of its operations.

The 73,000 hectare Herakles Farms project has been extremely controversial since communities first became aware of its existence. As numerous reports and observers have documented, the initial contract (the September 2009 “Establishment Convention”)  was the result of secret negotiations between the company and Cameroonian officials. Communities were only “consulted” after the fact and although the company has been negotiating directly with villages in recent months, its consultation practices — often involving gifts and other incentives — have been widely criticized.

For several weeks rumors regarding Herakles Farms have been circulating on the ground and the company has finally responded with this statement:

HERAKLES FARMS SUSPENDS CAMEROON OPERATIONS IN COMPLIANCE WITH THE RECENTLY ISSUED STOPPAGE ORDER FROM THE MINISTRY OF FORESTRY &WILDLIFE (MINFOF)

May 18, 2013 ‐ Herakles Farms (also known as SG‐SOC in Cameroon) (“Company”), a United States‐based agriculture company with operations in Ghana and Cameroon, today, announced that it has suspended work in Cameroon in response to an order it received from the Government of Cameroon’s Ministry of Forestry & Wildlife (MINFOF).

The order requests that the Company cease preparing land near its Talangaye nursery, the resumption of activities “being subject to a declaration of public usefulness made to the zone where your entire project is located.” The order comes at a time when the Company’s main activity is the transfer of young trees from the nurseries to their permanent places in the field near the village of Talangaye. The Company had obtained permission to proceed and always has and will comply fully and transparently with government regulations in force.

The Company hopes to understand and resolve these actions by the MINFOF.

Given the uncertain timeframe for resuming development, SG‐SOC is reducing and furloughing its workforce of 690 full‐time employees. Herakles Farms’ management reaffirms their commitment to the successful development of their operations in Cameroon. The Company is diligently working with Cameroonian Government officials to resolve the matter as quickly as possible.

The Company is deeply distressed to see so many of its committed Cameroonian employees being left without jobs for an uncertain period of time. In addition, the Company’s community and work force development programs will remain in doubt until a resolution with the Government of Cameroon can be found. The company finds these events especially tragic and will do all it can to achieve a positive outcome.

About Herakles Farms

Herakles Farms is an agriculture company that identifies and implements solutions to important food security concerns in Africa. The Company has had operations in Ghana since 2008 and in Cameroon since 2009. Herakles Farms is guided by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) Performance Standards and Equator Principles. www.heraklesfarms.com

End of statement

Note: The company’s statement raises many questions  about the project and its future. The company makes no mention of the sale of its seedlings to Pamol. The number of employees of Herakles Farms has not been independently verified. Herakles Farms states that it has had operations in Cameroon since 2009. This is misleading. The company signed a contract in September 2009, but as the December 2010 minutes of an inter-ministerial commission show, as of late 2010, the boundaries of the proposed concession were still disputed.  At that time, a representative of the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife indicated that, “SG SOC did  not respect the procedure for submission of files and other ministries concerned were not included in the project.” More than 11,000 hectares of land included in the Herakles Farms concession were already attributed to others (community forests, council forests).

Customary land ownership must be recognized

Hevea (rubber) plantations stretch for miles across parts of Cameroon. Most of the country's large plantations were established during the colonial period -- the first land grabs.

Hevea (rubber) plantations stretch for miles across parts of Cameroon. Most of the country’s large plantations were established during the colonial period — the first land grabs.

By Clemence Tabodo Martiale, translated by Jaff Napoleon Bamenjo, RELUFA

In Africa, land is considered a precious resource of divine providence. It is collectively owned and systematically inherited or handed down to branches of each family. As a God given good, land is considered inalienable by most local communities. But since the advent of colonization and the introduction of written laws regulating land in Africa, local communities have become more and more vulnerable to land deals.

In Cameroon, the decline in full customary land ownership status started during the German colonization and has worsened over time. In 1896, the imperial decree erected all the unoccupied lands as belonging to the German crown. This piece of legislation ushered in the beginning of conflicts between customary land ownership and the written state land laws in Cameroon. This resulted in the promotion of a system where individual land rights are guaranteed only by the State. According to the imperial decree of 15 June 1896, when Cameroon was still under German protectorate, unoccupied or unexploited land was termed “vacant land without masters” with the crown assuming ownership.

This approach ignored the scope of customary rights, ignoring local land uses beyond agriculture such as hunting and gathering that takes place on unoccupied lands.  After independence however, a quasi-denial of the rights of local communities to full ownership of customary land was enacted.  In 1974, with the creation of the national domain, land registration became the exclusive channel for land ownership, negating customary land ownership. Although land registration carries with it the advantage of facilitating the identification of land and proof of land ownership, its existence as the only mode of access to land, denies local people their customary land rights.

This situation is setting a disturbing precedent in Cameroon, where multinational companies are rushing to purchase parcels of land for their investments from governments, and coming into conflict with local communities who consider the land to be their own.  The governments are ready to sell the land without the informed consent of the local communities.

One glaring example is the Herakles land concession in Ndian and Kupe Manenguba divisions of the South West region of Cameroon, where 73,000 hectares (180,386 acres) were purchased for a palm oil project. The Herakles project has generated a lot of attention, controversy and resistance from the local communities in the project area for a variety of reasons.

Not only is the contract signed between Herakles and the government of Cameroon, granting Herakles a 99 year land lease, flawed on most of the contract details, but it also fails to respect the provisions of the law on the competent authority to sign such a long term land lease; the concerned population was inadequately consulted for their approval of the project and the project deprives the population of the only available customary land left for their livelihood activities.

RELUFA and other Civil Society Organizations both locally and internationally have been actively participating in advocacy campaigns to raise issues around this project and engage and influence policy makers in taking appropriate decisions about this and similar projects. The rationale for such campaigns is not only to influence this single project, but it is geared at influencing the entire land legislation so that customary land owners and local communities are expressly recognized and protected by the law.

So far, this is not happening because the government of Cameroon seems to paradoxically believe that foreign agro industrial investment presents the best option for national development. Hence, the government is focusing on promoting land reforms that makes it easier for foreign companies to obtain land leases. This is reflected in recent moves by the government to make land expropriation for industrial investment easier. Currently, land registration requirements are difficult for local communities to meet so as to assert full ownership because of the inhibitive cost and lengthy nature of the procedures involved. Advocating for recognition of customary land ownership is our greatest ambition and the campaign will continue unabated.

In sum, land rights of local communities remain precarious in Cameroon, especially now that the rush for land by multinational industrial plantations is on the increase. We are engaged in this struggle so that future land reforms take into account the rights of indigenous and local communities and implement a coherent land policy and management of the national territory which gives customary land ownership its rightful recognition and protection. This is a battle that must be won.

Customary Land Ownership Increasingly in Jeopardy: Monitoring Trends in Cameroon originally appeared in the Joining Hands newsletter.

Community voices making a difference in Cameroon

 

Entrance to Lipenja nursery. Lipenja, SW Region, Cameroon.

Entrance to Lipenja nursery. Lipenja, SW Region, Cameroon.

Community opposition to the 73,000 hectare Herakles Farms palm oil project in Cameroon’s Southwest region remains strong. Last week an open letter to Herakles Farms CEO, Bruce Wrobel, appeared in a number of online publications — the latest in a series of letters and petitions from Cameroonians who do not want to see their forest transformed into a vast plantation. Recent moves by the company to sell the seedlings from several of its nurseries suggest that opposition to the project is having an impact.

Reports on the ground indicate that work in the concession area has slowed, although there’s little official information available. Local community activist, Nasako Besingi, has spoken with company employees who say they are worried about their jobs and their wages for the month. Several workers told Besingi they have been sitting idly at the nurseries for one week but have heard nothing from their supervisors or the company. Besingi describes an atmosphere of confusion in the concession area.

See our links to reports for more information on Herakles Farms.

Visit the “News and downloads” page of the SAVE-Wildlife website to view copies of letters and petitions from local attorneys, community leaders and villagers opposed to the project.

 


					

Cameroon: Are communities able to make “free” and “informed” decisions about giving away their land?

TalangayeNurs001resz

Or the corrupting influence of gifts.

The recent German-Cameroonian fact-finding mission to the Herakles Farms concession area has generated some news coverage in France.  The  AFP article posted below was published in Les Echos. Interestingly, this article refers to “corruption” and brings up the food and drink that Herakles Farms has given communities.

Corporate social responsibility is part of doing business and companies donate goods and services to communities all the time. But Herakles Farms has not yet obtained the presidential decree necessary for the implementation of its project (see our sidebar for reports on Herakles Farms). As the report from the fact-finding mission points out, the company is negotiating with villages to get land and the gifts the company doles out may influence the decisions of local populations.  In other words, villagers may not be making “free” and “informed” decisions about giving away their land.

These gifts are not insignificant. The company described its holiday gift-giving in a January press release: “Over the holidays, Herakles Farms (also known as SGSOC), a New York-based agriculture company operating in Ghana and Cameroon, donated food to 1,700 households in 38 villages located in the Nguti subdivision of Kupe-Muanenguba and in Mundemba and Toko in Ndian. In total, 11 tons of rice and 10 tons of fish were distributed to more than 8,000 individuals in the Nguti, Mundemba and Toko areas.”

That’s a lot of food to give away just to say, “Happy New Year.”  And its worth reminding readers outside of Cameroon that what may seem insignificant in the U.S. or Europe — free beer at a meeting, for example — is actually a big deal in a village where a bottle of beer is an unaffordable luxury.

The AFP article puts the word corruption in quotation marks because these are allegations, of course. But more importantly, even if these allegations are verified, what is the recourse for villagers and what are the possible consequences for the company? The U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) defines bribery as “anything of value,” including money, travel, gifts and entertainment. But, the FCPA is concerned only with  foreign government officials. The FCPA says nothing about the bribery of foreign citizens — even if their consent is necessary for a project to go ahead.

The issue of “soft corruption” comes up often in this type of negotiation and clearly needs to be addressed. With millions of hectares of Congo Basin forest now earmarked for palm oil development, communities need to be able to make clear-headed and informed decisions about the future of their land. Any company that claims to abide by best practices, including free, prior and informed consent should be forbidden from providing gifts to communities during the negotiation stage. Just as government officials should not be bribed to sign deals, nor should communities.

Here’s the article from Les Echos:

Cameroun: “corruption” lors de l’acquisition de terres pour un projet américain (rapport)

Un rapport issu du ministère des forêts camerounais et consulté par l’AFP mardi reproche à la société américaine Heraklès Farms des méthodes “d’intimidation et de corruption” pour acquérir des terres pour la culture du palmier à huile dans le sud-ouest du Cameroun.

Selon le rapport, la négociation de terres par la filiale camerounaise d’Herakles Farms, la SG Sustainables Oils Cameroon Ltd (SGSOC) “se fait avec beaucoup d’intimidations et de corruption, ciblant les chefs et certains décideurs (locaux) influents”.

La compagnie américaine se sert souvent “de bières, de whisky, des sacs de riz et de vaches”, pour que les collectivités entrent vite en négociation avec elle et la stratégie “fonctionne” puisque “des milliers d’hectares de terres” ont déjà été cédés, souligne le document.
Les auteurs de ce rapport disent s’être rendus dans 20 villages du sud ouest au mois de février et affirment que “les collectivités locales ne sont pas prêtes ou pas informées (de ce) dans quoi elles s’embarquent”.

En 2009, le gouvernement camerounais a signé avec Herakles Farms une convention de base lui donnant un accord de principe pour une concession de plus de 73.000 hectares dans le Sud-ouest pour la culture du palmier à huile.
Selon le secrétaire général du Centre pour l’environnement et le développement (CED) Samuel Nguiffo toutefois, aucun contrat de bail “n’a jamais été signé”.

“La présence de la compagnie (qui a déjà créé des pépinières et abattu des arbres pour mener ses activités) sur le lieu est illégale. Cette procédure d’acquisition des terres auprès des communautés n’est pas prévue par la loi camerounaise. Elle est illégale”, souligne M. Nguiffo. “Au gouvernement camerounais, il y a des gens qui ont obtenu des pots-de-vin” pour faciliter la signature de la convention de 2009, accuse sous anonymat un responsable de l’ambassade américaine à Yaoundé.

“Les négociations foncières doivent être arrêtées” pour éviter “de potentiels conflits sur l’utilisation des terres”, suggère pour sa part le rapport du ministère.

Début septembre, l’institut Oakland avait déjà demandé l’arrêt du projet redoutant notamment “la mise en péril d’écosystèmes uniques”.

Heads up!

Photo by Fon Christopher Achobang

Photo by Fon Christopher Achobang

Traditional palm fruit harvesting in Cameroon.

The Impact of Land Acquisition on Food Sovereignty: Herakles Farms in Cameroon

Entrance to cocoa farm in forest, Southwest Region, Cameroon. This land is earmarked for the Herakles Farms plantation.

Entrance to cocoa farm in forest, Southwest Region, Cameroon. This land is earmarked for the Herakles Farms plantation.

This article is reprinted from the Spring 2013 issue of the PHP Post, a publication of the Presbyterian Hunger Program

By Jaff Bamenjo, RELUFA, JH Cameroon and Nasako Besingi, Director, Struggle to Economize Future Environment in Cameroon (SEFE)

Herakles Farms is a New York based company which obtained 73.086 hectares (172,912 acres or 270 square miles) of land through its Cameroonian subsidiary SGSOC in some villages in the Ndian and Kupe Maneguba divisions of the South West region of Cameroon for an oil palm plantation project. The case of Herakles Farms is one of RELUFA’s (PHP’s Joining Hands Cameroonian partner) campaign foci within its Land and Food justice platform.

Large-scale land acquisition in Africa by foreign agriculture multinational companies is on the rise. This phenomenon represents a huge cost to local farmers as it takes away from them the land, which is their most important wealth.

Herakles Farms and five other multinational companies are currently applying for a total of almost 1-million hectares of land for industrial palm oil production in Cameroon despite the fact that there are already five industrial palm oil producing companies in the country. But these industrial palm oil companies provide only about 30 percent of the local market with palm oil and the rest coming from smallholder producers.

Small holders can produce enough palm oil, which is used for cooking as well as soaps and lotions, to supply the local and international market if there is adequate government support. Industrial palm oil plantations are problematic because they take away agricultural land from the local population in a context where food security is already a concern. The 2008 hunger strike that affected many parts of Cameroon is one clear indication of the precarious food security situation in the country.

Farmers in villages where Herakles Farms projects are planned have a firm belief that the land earmarked for lease to Herakles belongs to them. Their perception is that their ownership of the land they have occupied for time immemorial is unshaken, considering that the preamble to the Land and Native Rights Ordinance of West Cameroon recognizes customary land ownership. But the 1974 Cameroon land law (enacted after the unification of the French and English parts of the country) only recognizes ownership when land is legally registered and titled, which is hardly the case in most rural communities.

A lot of momentum is being generated by national and international partners against the Herakles Farms oil palm project in Cameroon. The campaign, as a matter of principle, constitutes an effort to preserve human dignity by averting starvation or malnourishment of people living in the project area. This message must be spread far and wide.

Some villages like Fabe, Masaka, Mbimaand Mundemba, have sent letters to local administrative authorities protesting against this project. Concrete scenarios feared by the population of the project zone are that they will lose land for cultivating their staple foods like cassava and cash crops like cocoa, and that they will lose forest area for harvesting non timber forest products like spices, njansa, bush mango, bitter kola, and medicinal herbs.

Becoming laborers for a multinational company gives them no time to work on their own farms to provide for their families. At the same time, the plantation may lead to the emergence of a local market economy with higher food and oil palm prices, disrupting the independent subsistence way of life villagers have known for ages.

As Nasako Besingi, a farmer and civil society activist at the forefront of the campaign against the Herakles Farms project in Cameroon, declared in his award ceremony speech in December of 2012, “We have to work to put an end to this type of project in order to prevent a looming crisis.”

Communities explore alternatives to industrial palm oil development

Large-scale oil palm plantations have existed in SW Cameroon for decades, but have brought little in the way of development.

Large-scale oil palm plantations have existed in SW Cameroon for decades, but have brought little in the way of development.

 

In forest communities across Cameroon and the Congo Basin people want development — quality roads, clean water, electricity, the ability to earn a decent living and access to education, among other things.  Promoters of palm oil projects would like people to believe that ceding their lands to corporations for large-scale industrial plantations will put them on the road to development.

What communities don’t get are the facts.  They hear little about the true costs and benefits of giving up their land for industrial plantations. Nor can communities easily get information about the alternatives to plantation agriculture. Although communities may get the impression that they must choose forests or development, industrial agriculture or poverty, this is not true. Nor is it clear that industrial palm oil development will lead people out of poverty or increase food security.

Greenpeace Africa and Cameroonian NGO ACDIC (Association Citoyenne pour la Defense des Interêts Collectifs) are working together “to assess how small-scale farming can offer a responsible development path” and on April 16th close to 100 community representatives attended a workshop “to share ideas on how to ensure food security and forest protection…and identified technical support for farmers, access to land, and producing food locally for local consumption as some of the key factors in achieving this.”

Read more about the initiative here: Food Security and Forest Protection in Cameroon and on the Greenpeace Africa blog.

 

A fact-finding mission to Herakles Farms

Mokango community gathered around food and beer provided by Herakles Farms (SGSOC) to settle land negotiations. Photo: PSMNR. To outsiders, beer and food may look like nothing more than a kind gesture. But in a region where a bottle of beer is an unaffordable luxury for many, providing beer and food during negotiations is a questionable practice.

Mokango community gathered around food and beer provided by Herakles Farms
(SGSOC) to settle land negotiations. Photo: PSMNR. To outsiders, beer and food may look like nothing more than a kind gesture. But in a region where a bottle of beer is an unaffordable luxury for many, providing beer and food during negotiations is a questionable practice.

 

If you want to understand the problematic nature of palm oil development in Cameroon, there’s a must-read report now available online.

The Programme for the Sustainable Management of Natural Resources (PSMNR), a German government-supported program of Cameroon’s Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife, has published the results of its February 2013 fact-finding mission to the Herakles Farms palm oil development area.  The team’s findings paint a damning picture of the so-called “sustainable” and “environmentally benign” project. The report details illegality, corruption, inadequate community consultation and insufficient environmental protection across the concession area.

The report is available on the Cameroon Veritas website. Cameroon Veritas is the go-to source for reports and documents related to the Herakles Farms project (including a leaked copy of the project’s Establishment Convention).

Greenpeace has published several reports on the project, including one in collaboration with the Oakland Institute. The Center for the Environment and Development and RELUFA, two Yaounde-based organizations, have also published reports on the Herakles Farms project. The company has attacked these reports, dismissing them as uninformed and biased. This latest report, prepared by recognized experts on behalf of a governmental program, will be hard for Herakles Farms to dismiss out of hand. This is not the work of “activists,” but a detailed account of an official mission.

The report describes the fact-finding mission’s methodology, which included open discussions with community representatives in villages throughout the concession area (the villages and participants are included in the report):

The team explained that PSMNR wasn’t against Herakles Farms (SGSOC) project but wanted to ensure that the community was fully aware of what they were negotiating. These sessions were organized to enable communities to reflect and take a better informed decision towards the Herakles Farms (SGSOC) project and better negotiate with the company. For those who have already entered into the negotiation process, the team provided recommendations on what bases to re-negotiate the agreement which can better contribute to their development and to the conservation of their natural and social environment. 

Some of the report’s findings:

In Nguti Sub-Division, Herakles Farms (SGSOC) is currently opening the first 2500 ha plantation block…. About 600ha of this first block already falls outside Herakles Farms (SGSOC) proposed concession limit covered by their Environmental Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) 

The negotiation is not transparent and also differs from one village to another. SGSOC negotiation methods are clearly not respecting “Free Prior and Informed Consent” process (FPIC) principles. “FPIC implies that communities have the right to decide whether they will agree to the project or not once they have a full and accurate understanding of the implications of the project on them and their customary land”. Communities should be informed on what is a large scale plantation, on the positive and negative impacts of Herakles Farms (SGSOC) project in the short, medium and long term. Communities should also be made aware of other development models and on the contribution of the forest to their livelihood.

During the negotiation sessions the Communities are convinced to concede as much land as possible without taking into account their own future development needs. The agreed maps showing the surface area conceded are then signed by the village Chiefs on behalf of the traditional council and later on by local government officials. The Communities are obviously neither prepared nor equipped for such technical negotiations with Herakles Farms (SGSOC) experts since they don’t master land use mapping and land negotiation processes. Some chiefs have declared that they did not realize what they were getting into and are now trying to renegotiate with SGSOC.

The report also notes that 1000 ha of oil palms in Cameroon will generate approximately 3.75 billion FCFA per year (approximately US$ 7.5 million), but that the company will give less than 3 million FCFA per year (approximately US$ 6,000) to communities that are ceding thousands of hectares of their lands.

The report adds that, “most of the villages would obtain more money with REDD+” than what the company will pay. And, of course, “with REDD+, those villages would still enjoy their customary rights and would still benefit from the environmental services provided by the forest.”

Read the full report online here: Fact finding mission on Herakles Farms (SGSOC) oil palm plantation project, February 2013

Cameroon Veritas provides a valuable public service in a country where land and extractive industries deals are notoriously opaque.