Agriforestry, the Biofuel Industry and Greenwashing: Decimating Forests and Native Cultures

Consumer Beware
I am including this information because many conscientious people want to buy healthy products that are good for themselves and good for the earth. Holistic health and sustainable products go hand in hand but just because a product may have a green stamp of approval does not make it truly sustainable or for the highest good of all. This caveat also applies to unethical GMO labeling that claims to be non-GMO, gluten free but really isn’t. Big Bu$iness is all about making money – and the bigger the business, the more likely it is that they are more interested in marketing strategies, misrepresentations and buying certifications rather than working for the good of the planet and its people. Monsanto's soybean business in Mexico, Central and South America parallels the agri-forest business model.

Green is the Color of Big Money
Since many exposes have been well researched and written about the World Wildlife Fund aka Worldwide Fund for Nature, I will focus on this organization. Many other NGOs and non-profits have followed and used them as a “successful?” business model. I have listed a few reference documents at the end of the article where you can read further and learn more.

The WWF began decades ago with a goal to control large areas of land that would be made into animal parks and sanctuaries. However, in doing so, native peoples that had lived there, survived there and sustainably managed their homeland for centuries, were evacuated by any method deemed necessary. Sound familiar? The foreign interlopers, wealthy hunters and tourists did not want to be around these “ignorant and backwards savages.” That is, unless, these native peoples were doing their bidding for slave wages and performing cheap travesties of their cultural rituals and dances for a few coins.

The foreigners, in their superior knowledge (EGO) attempted to educate the natives about their own land and how to better manage it. Let that sink in when you think of our smoggy cities, polluted water and air, poisoned fields of crops, urban sprawl and other problems our own culture has generated. The result of this green meddling and control is that both animals and native people have suffered greatly. Both have lost habitat. Both have been diminished in numerous ways. Both have been threatened and endangered.

Over the years, the WWF published fund raising appeals to pull at the heartstrings and purse strings of well-meaning people who gladly donated thousands and thousands of dollars to save the “forlorn animals” featured in pictures published by the non-profit organization. The monies were promptly deposited in Swiss bank accounts where the WWF headquarters are located. It wasn’t long before the WWF mascot would be dubbed “the pander bear” since they worked both sides of the street, so to speak. They took money from conservation minded and animal loving individuals while also receiving monies from large corporations that wanted to exploit valuable lands for a good price via leases with the WWF. Sustainability has become a buzzword that implies a positive treatment of the earth, but in reality, all too often greenwashes the unpleasant and inconvenient truth.

While the native people were and still are losing their lands, traditional livelihoods and cultures – the wealthy corporations have a ready-made, inexpensive labor force to exploit along with the lands they have taken. The natives often work as little more than slave labor, barely surviving. They can be laid off at any time and work in harsh and polluted environments caused by industry. The water they once fished in is polluted. Pesticide use has rendered the once fertile soil useless for true sustainable farming.

Meanwhile, the land that wasn’t used to grow forests – and for this article I will focus on the palm oil tree forests – are small parcels of land are “protected” for animals and eco-tourism, if that. These are referred to as “High Conservation Value Areas” while everything else is slashed and burned to plant trees. Hunting, planting and even entering high conservation areas is often forbidden. Some of the areas are secondary growth and do not provide enough area or food resources for animals to survive. They are designated high value areas only because the land is unsuitable to grow palms.

And by the way, many eco-parks allow hunting of big game – for a price, of course. They justify this of culling and over-population of animals while the WWF continues to beseech good honest folk for more donations to save them! If the animals get in the way of the corporate producers, hunters are hired to kill them.

All in the Name of Biofuel
Passport to Big Business: RSPO and the RSPO Green Palm Oil label

Indonesia is paradise – if you are a palm oil producer. If you are an orangutan or native, it is the opposite. The WWF doesn’t have any orangutan projects in Indonesia or run any rescue centers where animals can find shelter. The few national parks where they live are secondary forests and those are rapidly disappearing. Six out of nine orangutan habitats in the Wilmar plantation areas have been destroyed. Nevertheless, they still receive certification from the Round Table for Sustainable Palm Oil. All it takes is some of the world’s best known, universal palm oil (Money) to obtain the label.

You might also find it interesting that the WWF has a banking partnership with the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC). This “green” bank has financed the majority of loans to the biofuel energy sector. Corporations need money to keep them afloat until the palm trees yield their first fruits after five years. Other banks, such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), provide “green” loans as well.

Biofuels and Carbon Offsets 
Because slashing and burning forests to plant new tree plantations generates constant raging fires, Indonesia is one of the world’s biggest CO2 polluters. Ironically, biofuel from palm oil is considered a “climate-friendly” energy source because the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) simply doesn’t factor the greenhouse gases emitted during production. hmmmm

The WWF joined forces in 2004 with the multinational food giant Unilever (headquartered in Zurich. Unilever, along with over 500 other companies – producers, traders, and financiers – are fee-paying members of the RSPO - the Round Table of Sustainable Palm Oil. The list includes such corporations like Bayer, Cargill, DuPont, Henkel, Mitsubishi, Nestlé, Shell, ADM, IKEA, Unilever, Rabobank, HSBC Bank and the energy giant RWE. All of them are on board because the “sustainable” label spells profit and lots of it.

Palm oil is an ingredient in thousands of consumer goods from soaps, cosmetics and detergents to margarine, sweets and pastries. It has been sold to Europeans as a “renewable” fuel for cars and power plants.

These giants in biofuel have no problem getting their sustainable certificates because there is no independent oversight authority to ensure compliance with standards. In other words, the standards are not worth the paper they are printed on. But the exploitation doesn’t end there. Palm oil agribusinesses discovered a lucrative new sector – the trade in carbon credits. Companies that clear forests for industry but conserve a few “high-value” areas, are rewarded with credits for “avoided carbon emissions.” This system is a product of the United Nations REDD program (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation). This panel also participates in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Carbon credits are then sold for cash value on the climate exchange.

That's right....they get carbon credits for land they couldn't use to grow palm oil trees on anyway. Furthermore, renewable energy certificates (RECs) are given for running an oil mills on palm oil instead of diesel. Another way to obtain even more RECs are to plant oil palms on fallow forest areas and deforested land and call these reforestation initiatives!!! Win-Win-Win BINGO

The WWF added their own new sustainability seal of approval called an International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC) which is applicable to all biomass products that can be used to produce fuel. This helps to facilitate international trade but doesn’t do anything to protect nature or wildlife. Ka-Ching! It's a rigged game, every time.

Sustainable BS. Fungicides and insecticides including Paraquat (produced by Syngenta) are used on the palm tree plantations and have eliminated all other plant and animal life. Nothing is being sustained except corporate greed. The stench of untreated waste water from the biofuel mills is reported to be overwhelming.  It is metaphorical evidence for what is really going on in the palm oil forests.   The polluted effluent runs through open trenches and then sinks into the ground, contaminating nearby rivers and streams. Toxic green lakes are created by this mess.

The impact on the health of people, wildlife, fish and the earth is great. And the corporations exploit every aspect of the palm plantations they can without giving back anything. So while we in the northern hemisphere of the planet generally believe that palm oil and biofuel are excellent ways to help our earth and reduce air pollution and carbon footprints etc., nothing could be further from the truth.  


References and Further Reading:

ANATOMY OF A CON JOB: Exposing the players and the scams behind the “sustainability” movement!  John Truman Wolfe

Are You Eating Dirty Palm Oil? The Environmental Impacts of the Palm Oil Industry. 
One Green Planet

Cloak of Green: The Lines between Key Environmental Groups, Government and Big Business. Elaine DeWar. (1995)

Death of Sustainability.  Glenn Hurowitz. Grist. (2013)

Orangutans – Victims of Sustainable Palm Oil in Indonesia. Digital Journal: Anne Sewell: 18 April 2013 

Panda Leaks: The Dark Side of the WWF. Wilfred Hussmann. (2014)

Round Table of Sustainable Palm Oil – Member corporations

RSPO Trademark Product Gallery

World Wide Government Fund: Does WWF Protect Nature? Parts I and II. Published by Stichting de Groene Rekenkamer. www.gorenerekenkamer.nl (2012)   (If this link does not work for you - search the for the Title of this paper and you should be able to download both Part I and II in pdf form)