Palm Oil Detectives

2024-05-04 14:12:00

Stop Gambling Our Future for Meat Deforestation

Renowned animal rights ethicist philosopher Peter Singer asserts that our dietary choices, particularly our consumption of meat and dairy, are jeopardising the Earth’s future. These industries contribute significantly to environmental degradation, deforestation, and greenhouse gas emissions, intensifying the impacts of climate change. By indulging in hamburgers and other meat-based products, we are not only compromising our health but also the wellbeing of our planet. For a more sustainable and compassionate future, consider boycotting meat and dairy. Choose to be vegan for the animals and to save our planet #Boycottmeat be #vegan #Boycott4Wildlife

youtu.be/ge4S2oHF5oY

Originally published by The Conversation June 15, 2023 and republished here under the Creative Commons Licence, read original.

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Peter Singer, Princeton University

I wasn’t aware of climate change until the 1980s — hardly anyone was — and even when we recognised the dire threat that burning fossil fuels posed, it took time for the role of animal production in warming the planet to be understood.

Today, though, the fact that eating plants will reduce your greenhouse gas emissions is one of the most important and influential reasons for cutting down on animal products and, for those willing to go all the way, becoming vegan.

A few years ago, eating locally — eating only food produced within a defined radius of your home — became the thing for environmentally conscious people to do, to such an extent that “locavore” became the Oxford English Dictionary’s “word of the year” for 2007.

If you enjoy getting to know and support your local farmers, of course, eating locally makes sense. But if your aim is, as many local eaters said, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, you would do much better by thinking about what you are eating, rather than where it comes from. That’s because transport makes up only a tiny share of the greenhouse gas emissions from the production and distribution of food.

With beef, for example, transport is only 0.5% of total emissions. So if you eat local beef you will still be responsible for 99.5% of the greenhouse gas emissions your food would have caused if you had eaten beef transported a long distance. On the other hand, if you choose peas you will be responsible for only about 2% of the greenhouse gas emissions from producing a similar quantity of local beef.

And although beef is the worst food for emitting greenhouse gases, a broader study of the carbon footprints of food across the European Union showed that meat, dairy and eggs accounted for 83% of emissions, and transport for only 6%.

More generally, plant foods typically have far lower greenhouse gas emissions than any animal foods, whether we are comparing equivalent quantities of calories or of protein. Beef, for example, emits 192 times as much carbon dioxide equivalent per gram of protein as nuts, and while these are at the extremes of the protein foods, eggs, the animal food with the lowest emissions per gram of protein, still has, per gram of protein, more than twice the emissions of tofu.

Animal foods do even more poorly when compared with plant foods in terms of calories produced. Beef emits 520 times as much per calorie as nuts, and eggs, again the best-performing animal product, emit five times as much per calorie as potatoes.

Favourable as these figures are to plant foods, they leave out something that tilts the balance even more strongly against animal foods in the effort to avoid catastrophic climate change: the “carbon opportunity cost” of the vast area of land used for grazing animals and the smaller, but still very large, area used to grow crops that are then fed — wastefully, as we have seen — to confined animals.

Because we use this land for animals we eat, it cannot be used to restore native ecosystems, including forests, which would safely remove huge amounts of carbon from the atmosphere. One study has found that a shift to plant-based eating would free up so much land for this purpose that seizing the opportunity would give us a 66% probability of achieving something that most observers believe we have missed our chance of achieving: limiting warming to 1.5℃.

Another study has suggested that a rapid phaseout of animal agriculture would enable us to stabilise greenhouse gases for the next 30 years and offset more than two-thirds of all carbon dioxide emissions this century. According to the authors of this study:

The magnitude and rapidity of these potential effects should place the reduction or elimination of animal agriculture at the forefront of strategies for averting disastrous climate change.

Climate change is undoubtedly the biggest environmental issue facing us today, but it is not the only one. If we look at environmental issues more broadly, we find further reasons for preferring a plant-based diet.
Fires in the Amazon and linked to cattle ranching. Andre Penner/AP Photo
The clearing and burning of the Amazon rainforest means not only the release of carbon from the trees and other vegetation into the atmosphere, but also the likely extinction of many plant and animal species that are still unrecorded.

This destruction is driven largely by the prodigious appetite of the affluent nations for meat, which makes it more profitable to clear the forest than to preserve it for the indigenous people living there, establish an ecotourism industry, protect the area’s biodiversity, or keep the carbon locked up in the forest. We are, quite literally, gambling with the future of our planet for the sake of hamburgers.

Joseph Poore, of the University of Oxford, led a study that consolidated a huge amount of environmental data on 38,700 farms and 1,600 food processors in 119 countries and covered 40 different food products. Poore summarised the upshot of all this research thus:

A vegan diet is probably the single biggest way to reduce your impact on planet Earth, not just greenhouse gases, but global acidification, eutrophication, land use and water use. It is far bigger than cutting down on your flights or buying an electric car, as these only cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Poore doesn’t see “sustainable” animal agriculture as the solution:

Really it is animal products that are responsible for so much of this. Avoiding consumption of animal products delivers far better environmental benefits than trying to purchase sustainable meat and dairy.

Those who claim to care about the wellbeing of human beings and the preservation of our climate and our environment should become vegans for those reasons alone.

Doing so would reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other forms of pollution, save water and energy, free vast tracts of land for reforestation, and eliminate the most significant incentive for clearing the Amazon and other forests.

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This is an edited extract from Animal Liberation Now by Peter Singer (Penguin Random House).

Peter Singer, Professor of Bioethics in the Center for Human Values, Princeton University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Originally published by The Conversation June 15, 2023 and republished here under the Creative Commons Licence, read original.

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Read more about human health, veganism, nutrition and why you should #Boycottpalmoil, #Boycottmeat for your own and the planet’s health

Western Parotia Parotia sefilata

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Jaguars vs Cows: JBS Fuelling Biodiversity Collapse in Brazil’s Forests

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Capped Langur Trachypithecus pileatus

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Jaguars and Pumas Eat More Monkeys in Damaged Forests

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Take Action in Five Ways

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

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

Wildlife Artist Juanchi Pérez

Read more

Mel Lumby: Dedicated Devotee to Borneo’s Living Beings

Read more

Anthropologist and Author Dr Sophie Chao

Read more

Health Physician Dr Evan Allen

Read more

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

Read more

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

Read more

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

twitter.com/CuriousApe4/status…

twitter.com/PhillDixon1/status…

twitter.com/mugabe139/status/1…

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

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

Pledge your support

#animalRights #animalrights #animals #BoycottMeat #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4wildlife #BoycottMeat #BoycottPalmOil #climateChange #climatechange #dairy #deforestation #diet #ethics #meat #nutrition #PalmOil #palmOilDeforestation #PeterSinger #plantBasedDiet #saturatedFats #vegan #veganism

Peter Singer: We are gambling with the future of our planet for the sake of hamburgers

Renowned animal rights ethicist philosopher Peter Singer asserts that our dietary choices, particularly our consumption of meat and dairy, are jeopardising t...

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Palm Oil Detectives

2024-07-16 16:02:00

Paraquat: Banned in EU, Destroying Lives of Palm Oil Workers in Indonesia

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The dangerous pesticide Paraquat is banned in the EU and strictly limited in the USA, however it continues to destroy the lives of palm oil workers in Indonesia. Paraquat has severe human health impacts including respiratory problems, severe burns and skin and eye irritation. America’s Centre for Disease Control links it to Parkinson’s disease and other life-threatening illnesses. Read this story below originally published in Geographical Magazine about the lives of vulnerable palm oil workers in Indonesia. Afterwards you can learn how to take action to resist the human rights abuses and ecocide of dangerous pesticide use in palm oil agriculture. #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife

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#Paraquat is a dangerous #pesticide 🤢 banned in #EU ⛔️and limited in #USA yet used widely in #Indonesia by #palmoil workers with grave #health impacts on (mainly) women 👩‍👧 and children workers #Boycottpalmoil 🌴🚫Story via @geographicalmag @palmoildetect wp.me/pcFhgU-8Bt

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#Paraquat #pesticide is deadly and causes respiratory illnesses, #Parkinsons #disease. It’s banned in the #EU yet used routinely in #Indonesian #palmoil. Palm oil workers are paying with their lives #Boycottpalmoil Story: @geographicalmag @palmoildetect wp.me/pcFhgU-8Bt

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This article was originally published as ‘Paraquat: banned in Europe, on sale in Indonesia in Geographical Magazine on the 28th of June 2024. Written by Daniela Sala, Adi Renaldi & Budi Baskoro. Photography by Daniela Sala. Republished with permission. Read original.

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A local farmer sprays the herbicide Roundup among the oil palms in the small plot of land she and her family owns. She also routinely sprays Gramoxone, without protection

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“I used to spray both the yellow and the green poison,” Herna says.

For nearly six years, from 2006 to 2011, Herna worked for the so-called ‘maintenance team’ on one of the oil palm plantations of Musim Mas, a Singapore-based multinational corporation, in Central Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of Borneo. The green poison she refers to is Gramoxone, the brand name for a highly toxic herbicide based on the organic compound paraquat. Sold by the Swiss, now Chinese-owned multinational Syngenta, paraquat has been banned in the European Union since 2007 due to concerns related to its effect on the health of workers and the environment.

‘I often had nausea, vomiting and dizziness after my work. I don’t know exactly why, but most of my colleagues experienced the same symptoms. I knew these were dangerous substances and I was always afraid to handle them,’ she says. Herna got an indication of how toxic paraquat is when one morning, while she was diluting it with water as instructed, a drop of the liquid splashed onto her hand, causing a burn that took weeks to heal.
Backpacks used for paraquat spraying
Sitting cross-legged on the floor of her home in Penyang, Herna looks tired. The humid heat gives no respite, the air is heavy and the fan Herna sits next to is of little use. It’s difficult to imagine how, in these conditions, Herna and her colleagues could work an entire eight-hour shift with a heavy container (weighing some 13 kilograms) on their backs, without ever removing their masks.

Herna grew up in a small cluster of houses surrounded by rainforest. Her family relied on hunting and farming; they had a small area of land where they harvested rice and fruit. It was a simple, quiet life. In the late 1990s, however, their economic situation rapidly deteriorated with the arrival of oil palm plantations. They lost not only their land, but also access to the forest. Herna, in her early 20s, had no choice but to accept a job on one of the plantations that had so drastically altered the way of life in her village. For five years, from 7am to 3pm, she sprayed highly toxic herbicides, which prevented weeds and other plants from proliferating and allowed oil palms to grow faster and taller.

Herna endured continuous discomfort for years, sometimes so intense that she had to stay in bed for days. The plantation doctor, whom she sometimes asked for help, always told her not to worry too much, prescribing at most paracetamol or an anti-emetic.
A fisher arrives at Bikal market with his meagre catch after a night’s fishing
Eventually, Herna began to suffer a pain in the pit of her stomach, ‘like a stab wound’. The doctor speculated that it might be a symptom of a lung problem. The cause was never clarified because Herna couldn’t take further tests as they were too expensive. She decided, however, that she couldn’t take it anymore and quit her job.

Paraquat’s known direct health effects include respiratory problems, severe burns and skin and eye irritation. In the USA, it has also been linked to Parkinson’s disease. In Indonesia, paraquat should only be used by properly trained workers with appropriate protections. However, a report by PANAP (Pesticide Action Network Asia Pacific) documented how these conditions are rarely met.

Herna, who is now 48 and has six children, did her best to find another job, ‘but since the plantations are here, there is no other job,’ she says.

As she goes silent, the background noise becomes more obvious: it’s the constant traffic along the Trans Kalimantan, the highway that cuts through southern Borneo, just a few dozen metres from Herna’s home. Trucks follow one another in a constant back-and-forth. In one direction, they transport oil palm fruits to the refineries. In the opposite direction, they transport the refined oil to ports for the export market.
Villagers in Tanjung Puting National Park only use river water to wash and rely on rainwater for cooking and drinking

Made in Europe

Indonesia is by far the world’s largest exporter of palm oil, accounting for nearly 50 per cent of global exports in 2022, closely followed by Malaysia, with 30 per cent. The industrial uses are countless, from food and cosmetics to the production of biofuels. About ten per cent of palm oil exports from Indonesia end up in Europe.

The oil palm, a plant native to West Africa, was first introduced to Indonesia during Dutch colonialism. Over a few decades, the expansion of monocultures in the archipelago triggered the destruction of large portions of Borneo’s rainforest. Despite intense environmental campaigns in recent years, the rate of deforestation due to plantation expansion only slowed; it started to rise again in 2023.

In Indonesia, intensive palm oil production and the heavy use of paraquat and other herbicides are inextricably linked. In total, Indonesia imported pesticides worth about half a million US dollars in 2020, a market that has steadily grown over the past decade.
Old man’s hand and palm oil. Image: Daniela Sala
In 2019, Indonesia imported from the UK 2,300 tons of paraquat, largely manufactured by Syngenta’s Huddersfield plant. Since 2017, with ChemChina’s acquisition of Syngenta, production and exports from China have also increased, making the paraquat supply chain increasingly difficult to track.

The countries that are responsible for most of the manufacturing and export (China, Switzerland and the UK) ban paraquat domestically, as has the EU. While the EU’s internal regulations are increasingly protective of the environment, it remains the largest pesticide exporter, with EU companies investing more and more in countries in the Global South.

Environmental Disaster

In Kalimantan, the effects of palm oil monocultures and the extensive use of pesticides are unspooling before the eyes of the local communities.

A short drive from Herna’s house, just on the other side of the Trans Kalimantan highway in the village of Bangkal, most residents still have first-hand memories of life before the plantations. The village is located on the shore of the biggest lake in the region, Sembuluh Lake. Its 4,000 residents, mostly Dayaks, the indigenous peoples of Borneo, relied on farming and fishing, and they drank water from the lake. Now, they have lost their land and, in one of the wettest areas in the world, they struggle to access clean water.

It all started with huge concessions to palm oil companies. ‘It happened suddenly, without any consultation with the community,’ says Sangkai Rewa, secretary of Bangkal and leader of AMAN, the association that represents the indigenous people of Central Kalimantan. Sangkai has been connected to Bangkal for generations. His wooden house, on stilts, like all the houses in the surrounding area, sits on the edge of the village. The residents did everything they could to resist the arrival of the plantations. In the late 1990s, they managed to force the Indonesian company Agro Indomas to back down. But in 2005, their fight against another conglomerate, PT Hamparan Masawit Bangun Persada, failed, due in part to support for the company from the then local governor, Darwan Ali, as revealed by a Gecko Project investigation.
Worker carries palm oil fruits. Image: Daniela Sala
‘The people of Bangkal were forced to give up their land by threats and deception. Around us it was all forest. Look around: what is left today?’ says Sangkai. The establishment of Hamparan plantation paved the way for the arrival of more companies. Bangkal is now surrounded by a dozen plantations and refineries.

‘We saw the colour of the water changing’, says Sangkai. ‘We can not even use the water for washing: it feels itchy and you get rashes. The water is polluted, and because of that, our entire ecosystem is under threat.’

At dawn every day, a few narrowboats approach the small wooden dock next to the daily market in Bangkal. Nouredin, a 60-year-old fisherman from a nearby village, is busy untangling a few dozen small fish from his net. He spent the whole night fishing, but the catch was meagre. ‘It did not used to be like that,’ he explains while unloading his catch. ‘Fish were bigger and easier to catch. There are species that are slowly disappearing.’

Fish have become scarcer, while the fast-growing weed water hyacinth is invading the shore of Sembuluh, forcing fishermen to travel much further. Residents say that the overgrowth must be associated with fertilisers and chemicals dumped from the plantations.
The village of Bangkal on the shores of the now heavily polluted Lake Sembuluh
In 2018, the Central Kalimantan Environment Agency had the water in the lake tested. Nothing is wrong, they stated, dismissing the residents’ protests.

But not everybody agrees. ‘We openly challenged the agency’s findings,’ says Muhammad Habibi, director of the NGO Save Our Borneo. ‘We asked the agency to disclose the actual results, and to share all the relevant details: where the samples had been taken, how they had been treated, what residues they had been analysed for. But the agency simply refused to comply.’

Save Our Borneo and Ecoton, another environmental NGO, conducted some water testing in Sambas, Western Borneo, in an area geographically very similar to Lake Sembuluh and similarly affected by palm oil monoculture. The results were worrying, with levels of chloride and phosphates in the region’s river far higher than accepted norms. Habibi fears for the fate of Lake Sembuluh. ‘Our suspicion is that the local authorities have no interest in going against the palm oil industry. What if it becomes known that the ongoing ecological disaster in Lake Sembuluh is caused by the companies?’

Farmer Turned Protester

‘Palm oil means Gramoxone, Gramoxone means palm oil’, says James Watt, a farmer in Bangkal. Watt is among the few residents who still have a small piece of land left: he used to grow rubber plants, fruit and vegetables. He started life as a traditional farmer and had no interest in palm oil cultivation. But as the vast plantations came to dominate the region, he was forced to switch. Around the same time, in 2015, he was introduced to paraquat, under the label Gramoxone. ‘I needed a stronger herbicide, and I went to the shop in Sampit, the nearest city. I asked the shopkeeper for advice, and he gave me this,’ Watt says, holding out the five-litre plastic package of the substance. Paraquat became a familiar household item and can be found in most farmers’ houses in Bangkal. ‘When I have to spray it, I smoke a cigarette first, so I make sure of the wind direction,’ Watt says.

Watt has no love for palm oil. In addition to being a farmer, he’s an activist. At 54, he has spent nearly half his life fighting against the palm oil industry, trying to mediate between residents and companies, and paying the price himself.

In 2020, following a demonstration against the plantation, Watt was sentenced to ten months in prison on a charge of stealing oil palm fruit from the land that once belonged to Bangkal residents.
Bottles of paraquat and pesticide – Image: Daniela Sala
The last major protest against palm oil companies in Bangkla was in October 2023. Gijik, a 35-year-old man, was killed by a gunshot fired by police deployed to defend the plantation. Such cases, according to the Consortium for Agrarian Reform (KPA), an Indonesian association fighting against land grabbing, are far from isolated. Between 2015 and 2022, at least 69 people died as a result of clashes and protests against land grabbing. The clashes and deaths, again according to KPA, can’t be separated from the decision to deploy police forces always and exclusively in a repressive function, in defence of plantations.

‘I can’t understand what the government means when it says palm oil brings development and prosperity,’ says.Watt. He never asked his parents why they named him after the Scottish inventor, which is said to have started the industrial revolution. While he grasps the subtle irony, he’s proud of the name he bears.

‘For me, real prosperity was before. We were not dependent on anyone: we grew our own vegetables, rice. We went fishing and if we wanted meat, all we had to do was go hunting in the forest. Now all that is gone’.

This article was originally published as ‘Paraquat: banned in Europe, on sale in Indonesia in Geographical Magazine on the 28th of June 2024. Written by Daniela Sala, Adi Renaldi & Budi Baskoro. Photography by Daniela Sala. Republished with permission. Read original.

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Death by Pesticide on a Papuan Palm Oil Plantation

In the below 2021 report by respected non-profit Global Witness, there was a shocking revelation that a young child of a palm oil worker died as a result of consuming pesticide infused water on a “sustainable” palm oil plantation in Papua New Guinea. The firm sold to global giants like Nestle, Ferrero, Unilever, Mondelez and more, with products on the shelves and bought be consumers all over the world.

Global Witness October 2021 Report: Violence and death for palm oil connected to household supermarket brands (RSPO members)

“One palm oil firm, Rimbunan Hijau, [Papua New Guinea] negligently ignored repeated and avoidable worker deaths and injuries on palm oil plantations, with at least 11 workers and the child of one worker losing their lives over an eight-year period.

“Tainted palm oil from Papua New Guinea plantations was sold to household name brands, all of them RSPO members including Kellogg’s, Nestlé, Colgate, Danone, Hershey’s and PZ Cussons and Reckitt Benckiser”

The true price of palm oil: How global finance funds deforestation, violence and human rights abuses in Papua New Guinea – Global Witness, 2021

Read report

Read more about deforestation and ecocide in the palm oil industry

Mountain Tapir Tapirus pinchaque

Mountain Tapirs are the most threatened large mammals of the northern Andes, hunting, climate change and mining are threats, take action and boycott gold!

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Finance giants fuel $8.9 trillion deforestation economy

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SOCFIN’s African Empire of Colonial Oppression: Billionaires Profit from Palm Oil and Rubber Exploitation

Investigation by Bloomberg exposes that despite being RSPO members, #SOCFIN plantations in #WestAfrica are the epicentre of #humanrights abuses, sexual coercion, environmental destruction, and #landgrabbing. Operating in #Liberia, #Ghana, #Nigeria, and beyond, SOCFIN’s…

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Palm Oil Threatens Ancient Noken Weaving in West Papua

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Family Ties Expose Deforestation and Rights Violations in Indonesian Palm Oil

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Take Action in Five Ways

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

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Enter your email address

Sign Up

Join 3,174 other subscribers

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

Wildlife Artist Juanchi Pérez

Read more

Mel Lumby: Dedicated Devotee to Borneo’s Living Beings

Read more

Anthropologist and Author Dr Sophie Chao

Read more

Health Physician Dr Evan Allen

Read more

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

Read more

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

Read more

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

twitter.com/CuriousApe4/status…

twitter.com/PhillDixon1/status…

twitter.com/mugabe139/status/1…

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

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

Pledge your support

#BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4wildlife #BoycottPalmOil #corruption #deforestation #disease #ecocide #EU #health #humanRights #Indonesia #Indonesian #MusimMas #PalmOil #palmOilDeforestation #palmoil #Paraquat #Parkinsons #pesticide #pesticides #pollution #USA #waterPollution #womenSRights #workersRights #WorkersRights

Paraquat: Banned in EU, Destroying Lives of Palm Oil Workers in Indonesia

The dangerous #pesticide #Paraquat is banned in the EU and strictly limited in the USA, however it continues to destroy the lives of #palmoil workers in Indo...

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Palm Oil Detectives

2025-05-09 12:40:45

Palm Oil Workers Exposed to Hazardous Pesticides

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Investigation reveals that #palmoil plantation workers in #Colombia, #Ghana, and #Indonesia are routinely exposed to hazardous #agrochemicals and #pesticides, including EU-banned #paraquat. Lack of protective gear, inadequate health monitoring, and poor enforcement of safety regulations exacerbate the grave health risks for workers and environmental risks for water #pollution. The study calls for immediate action to protect workers’ health and rights. #BoycottPalmOil #HumanRights #BoycottPalmOil #Ecocide

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News: #Palmoil workers in #Colombia, #Ghana, and #Indonesia exposed to hazardous #pesticides, including EU-banned #paraquat. Lack of protective gear poor safety puts lives and #health at risk. #HumanRights #Boycottpalmoil @palmoildetect wp.me/pcFhgU-bHT

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Profundo. (2025, May 7). Research on spraying in the palm oil sector reveals many hazardous substances. FNV. Retrieved May 9, 2025, from fnv.nl/mondiaal-fnv/nieuws-mon…

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Palm Oil Workers Face Hazardous Pesticide Exposure, New Report Reveals

A comprehensive study conducted by research agency Profundo, commissioned by the International Palm Oil Workers United (IPOWU) and funded by Mondiaal FNV, has uncovered alarming health risks faced by palm oil plantation workers in Colombia, Ghana, and Indonesia due to exposure to hazardous agrochemicals.

The investigation, involving 1,436 workers, identified the use of at least 56 different agricultural chemicals on plantations, including substances classified as “highly hazardous” by the World Health Organization. Notably, paraquat—a pesticide banned in the European Union since 2007—is still being exported from the EU to Indonesia, highlighting a concerning double standard in global chemical safety practices.

Key findings from the report include:

• Absence of comprehensive chemical safety policies, leading to inadequate health monitoring, safety training, and protective clothing for workers.
• None of the three countries studied have ratified key International Labour Organization conventions related to occupational health and safety.
• International palm oil buyers do not mandate specific occupational health and safety policies from their suppliers.
• Many workers are unaware of the dangers associated with pesticide exposure.
• Personal protective equipment (PPE) is often not replaced when damaged, and access to facilities for washing PPE is limited, increasing the risk of contamination.
• Workers with longer tenures reported more health issues, such as skin rashes, dizziness, and vomiting, indicating cumulative exposure effects.

The report underscores the urgent need for stronger enforcement of safety regulations, better training and equipment for workers, and greater accountability from international buyers to ensure the health and safety of those at the forefront of palm oil production.

The EU’s double standards by banning paraquat while exporting it to Indonesia

Quiroz is upset about the EU’s double standards: banning paraquat but still producing and exporting it to Indonesia. “That is unacceptable! That the EU protects its own citizens but not the rest of the world. The EU does not show much compassion for people in the supply chain. At the same time, we see that Colombia allows certain chemicals under specific and controlled conditions on palm oil and other commercial plantations, which eventually end up in the palm oil that we import. So that protection is not watertight at all.”

Risks of pesticide contamination are high for families and communities

“I did not expect that not all plantations have washing facilities for the workers’ protective clothing. So, they can’t wash their gear on-site, and they bring it home, exposing their families. There are even reports of people washing their protective clothing in nearby, flowing rivers, potentially contaminating the whole area. This happens on a small scale in Colombia and on a larger scale in Indonesia.” – lead researcher Diana Quiroz.

Profundo. (2025, May 7). Research on spraying in the palm oil sector reveals many hazardous substances. FNV. Retrieved May 9, 2025, from fnv.nl/mondiaal-fnv/nieuws-mon…

ENDS

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Read more about animals at risk from air and water pollution and human rights problems associated with palm oil. When you shop #Boycottpalmoil

Asian Small-clawed Otter Aonyx cinereus

Asian Small-clawed Otters are the world’s smallest otter species and are Vulnerable from palm oil tea and coffee deforestation. Protect them, boycott palm oil!
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Gursky’s Spectral Tarsier Tarsius spectrumgurskyae

Gursky’s spectral tarsiers AKA Wusing of North Sulawesi are vulnerable due to palm oil and timber deforestation. Take action for them and boycott palm oil!
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Andean condor Vultur gryphus

The Andean condor Vultur gryphus is one of the largest flying #birds in the world, with a wingspan of up to 3.3 metres and a body weight of up to 15 kilograms. These…
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Palm Oil Plantations Threaten Indigenous Waterways

Expansion of palm oil in West Papua’s Kais River watershed degrades water quality, polluting Indigenous waterways. Take action and boycott palm oil
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Irrawaddy Dolphin Orcaella brevirostris

Intelligent and social Irrawaddy dolphins, also known as the Mahakam River dolphins or Ayeyarwady river #dolphins have endearing faces. Only 90 to 300 are estimated to be left living in the wild. Their…
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Wildlife Artist Juanchi Pérez

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Mel Lumby: Dedicated Devotee to Borneo’s Living Beings

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Anthropologist and Author Dr Sophie Chao

Read more

Health Physician Dr Evan Allen

Read more

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

Read more

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

Read more

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

twitter.com/CuriousApe4/status…

twitter.com/PhillDixon1/status…

twitter.com/mugabe139/status/1…

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

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

Pledge your support

#agrochemicals #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4wildlife #BoycottPalmOil #Colombia #ecocide #Ghana #health #humanHealth #HumanRights #Indonesia #News #PalmOil #palmOilDeforestation #palmoil #Paraquat #pesticides #pollution #ToxicTrade

Palm Oil Detectives

Empowering creatives and consumers

^{Palm Oil Detectives}

BellingenNSW

2026-01-31 21:08:49

Let's cover the Mid North Coast of NSW in plastic..

Image:
"Surrounding the town of El Ejido, Almeria Province, southern Spain is a sea of greenhouses, stretching for tens of kilometers. Millions of tons of vegetables are exported to other European countries and other parts of the world. The image covers an area of 19 x 30.5 km, was acquired July 20, 2008, and is located at 36.75 degrees north latitude, 2.75 degrees west longitude."
science.nasa.gov/photojournal/…

NSW - Traumatic landscapes of plastic, pollution and exploitation
mastodon.au/@Bellingen/1159916…
#NSW #industrialisation #SeaOfPlastic #plastic #MidNorthCoast #blueberries #agribusiness #plantations #externalities #EcologicalViolence

Almeria, Spain - NASA Science

Surrounding the town of El Ejido, Almeria Province, southern Spain is a sea of greenhouses, stretching for tens of kilometers as shown in this image from NASA's Terra spacecraft.

^{Rafael Alanis (NASA Science)}

Palm Oil Detectives

2024-12-17 15:21:00

Palm Oil Protesters Silenced and Arrested in Congo

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On April 30, 2024, a shocking and disgraceful incident occurred in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). During a meeting of shareholders from Plantations et Huileries du Congo (PHC), (formerly known as Feronia) environmental rights defenders were arrested, and a journalist was kidnapped after displaying banners denouncing PHC’s mistreatment of local communities. PHC, formerly known as Feronia, is a multinational company that operates large palm oil plantations in the DRC. Take action in solidarity of these people and #BoycottPalmOil when you shop!

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In April, environmental defenders in the #DRC were arrested and kidnapped at a shareholder meeting for highlighting #PalmOil #HumanRights abuses 🔥🌴⛔️ Since then no action has been taken! Stand with them 💪 #WorkersRights #BoycottPalmOil wp.me/pcFhgU-8xX @palmoildetect

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#PalmOil giant #PHC formerly #Feronia, violently silences environmental defenders in the #DRC #Congo. Protesters arrested, journalist kidnapped, workers left without justice. Take action for #HumanRights #BoycottPalmOil 🌴🚫 @palmoildetect wp.me/pcFhgU-8xX

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youtu.be/Vp03S3v4r5Y

Zongwe Lukama, F. (2023, May 2). DRC: Mystery and collusion in the disappearance of environmental defenders fighting palm oil multinationals. Kilalo Press. Business and Human Rights Resource Centre has since asked for a company response, but to date none has been forthcoming from the palm oil company.

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Arrests and Abduction at PHC Shareholders Meeting

On Tuesday, April 30, 2024, a shocking and disgraceful incident occurred in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). During a meeting of shareholders from Plantations et Huileries du Congo (PHC), environmental rights defenders were arrested, and an environmental journalist was kidnapped after displaying banners denouncing PHC’s mistreatment of local communities. PHC, formerly known as Feronia, is a multinational company that operates large palm oil plantations in the DRC.

Who are Plantations et Huileries du Congo (PHC)?

Plantations et Huileries du Congo (PHC) are a palm oil company that operate extensive palm oil plantations in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The company produces palm oil used in many products like food, cosmetics, and biofuels. PHC has faced numerous protests and criticism for its detrimental impact on the environment and local communities.

The people versus Feronia: Fighting palm oil agrocolonialism in the Congo

This powerful #comic is by Didier Kassai and Dieudonne Botoko Kendewa is about a community in the #Congo 🇨🇩 living next to the #Feronia #palmoil plantation. They faced #violence…
Keep reading
by Palm Oil Detectives

The Protesters’ Demands

The protest was sparked by a letter from the Réseau d’Information et d’Appui aux ONG (RIAO – DRC), a network supporting non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the DRC. This letter led PHC to hold an urgent meeting in Kinshasa.

Protesters had several demands:

• Release people who were unjustly imprisoned.
• Compensate workers for accidents and retirees.
• Reopen the Lokutu and Boteka ports, which they argue are public roads, not PHC property.

Call to Action and Strong Suppression

The protesters wanted to push state authorities to act on an open letter from RIAO – DRC and its partners. This letter discussed mediation claims funded by the German Bank (DEG) and the Dutch Development Bank (FMO) to help communities affected by PHC. Unfortunately, security forces were called to stop the protesters, damage their equipment, and kidnap the journalist and environmental defender.

An Urgent Appeal for Support

RIAO-RDC, a national support network for NGOs, made an urgent call to security authorities and stakeholders to find their members, Dieumerci Mpay Ngomba, and a cameraman journalist from Numerica TV in Kinshasa. They called these actions “kidnapping” and stressed that defenders of forest community rights should not face political or rights abuses.

An Alarming and Unjust Situation for Environmental Defenders

The situation for environmental defenders in the DRC is worrying. RIAO-RDC said Dieumerci was arrested because of a complaint by PHC. At the General Prosecutor’s Office near the Court of Appeal of Kinshasa Gombe, protesters were charged with inciting breaches against public authority under article 135 of the Congolese penal code.

Targeting Environmental Advocates

RIAO-RDC believes that PHC is mainly targeting Jean François Mombia Atukua, who previously led a disguised march against RIAO and its director at the Lokutu base. The organisation urges the judiciary to ensure the safety of those arrested and uphold press freedom and human rights.

Company Response

Following publication PHC did not respond to the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre’s request for comment regarding these allegations.

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References

• La Rédaction. (2024, May 3). DRC: Mystery and Collusion in the Disappearance of Environmental Defenders Fighting Palm Oil Multinationals. Kilalo Press.
• Business & Human Rights Resource Centre. DRC: Mystery and Collusion in the Disappearance of Environmental Defenders Fighting Palm Oil Multinationals.
• Palm Oil Detectives. (2022, February 3). Research: Small Room for Compromise Between Oil Palm Cultivation and Primate Conservation in Africa.
• Palm Oil Detectives. (2021, September 1). Africa’s Rainforests Are Different: Why It Matters That They’re Protected.
• Palm Oil Detectives. (2021, February 14). As Palm Oil Production Ramps Up in Africa, Communities Work to Avoid Problems Plaguing Other Regions.
• Palm Oil Detectives. (2021, January 18). Africa: Species Endangered by Palm Oil Deforestation
• Palm Oil Detectives. (2022, June 16). The People Versus Feronia: Fighting Palm Oil Agrocolonialism in the Congo. palmoildetectives.com/2022/06/…

Zongwe Lukama, F. (2023, May 2). DRC: Mystery and collusion in the disappearance of environmental defenders fighting palm oil multinationals. Kilalo Press. Business and Human Rights Resource Centre has since asked for a company response, but to date none has been forthcoming from the palm oil company.

ENDS

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Read more about human rights abuses and child slavery in the palm oil industry

Indigenous Peoples Fight Climate Change

After wildfires, Belize’s indigenous people rebuild stronger based on “se’ komonil”: reciprocity, solidarity, gender equity, togetherness and community.
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SOCFIN’s African Empire of Colonial Oppression: Billionaires Profit from Palm Oil and Rubber Exploitation

Investigation by Bloomberg exposes that despite being RSPO members, #SOCFIN plantations in #WestAfrica are the epicentre of #humanrights abuses, sexual coercion, environmental destruction, and #landgrabbing. Operating in #Liberia, #Ghana, #Nigeria, and beyond, SOCFIN’s…
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Palm Oil Threatens Ancient Noken Weaving in West Papua

Colonial palm oil and sugarcane causing the loss of West Papuans’ cultural identity. Land grabs force communities from forests, threatening Noken weaving
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Family Ties Expose Deforestation and Rights Violations in Indonesian Palm Oil

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

Indigenous Melanesian women in West Papua fight land seizures for palm oil and sugar plantations, protecting their ancestral rights. Join #BoycottPalmOil
Read more

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Take Action in Five Ways

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

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Enter your email address

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

Wildlife Artist Juanchi Pérez

Read more

Mel Lumby: Dedicated Devotee to Borneo’s Living Beings

Read more

Anthropologist and Author Dr Sophie Chao

Read more

Health Physician Dr Evan Allen

Read more

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

Read more

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

Read more

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

twitter.com/CuriousApe4/status…

twitter.com/PhillDixon1/status…

twitter.com/mugabe139/status/1…

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

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

Pledge your support

#BoycottPalmOil #BoycottPalmOil #childLabour #childSlavery #Congo #corruption #DemocracticRepublicOfCongo #DRC #Feronia #humanRights #HumanRights #indigenousRights #landRights #landgrabbing #PalmOil #palmoil #PHC #slavery #workersRights #WorkersRights

Palm oil protesters silenced and arrested in Congo

On April 30, 2024, a shocking and disgraceful incident occurred in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). During a meeting of share...

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Palm Oil Detectives

2025-03-29 15:10:00

Demystifying the Strange Beauty of the Proboscis Monkey’s Large Nose

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Of all the #monkey species around the world, one stands out with its large, bizarre nose. In male proboscis monkeys, their bulbous noses will often hang past their mouths.

But why did they evolve such a strange feature? Are they a visual sign of health and status to potential female mates, and to other males? Or did they evolve to help the monkeys make honks and other loud sounds? New groundbreaking #research has much to reveal about the mysterious large nose of the Proboscis Monkey!

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Fascinating and oddly beautiful Proboscis #Monkeys of #Malaysia #Indonesia, have webbed feet and live in harems. Now #researchers discovered why they have such long noses! Help them survive when you #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect wp.me/pcFhgU-5G6

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Gentle Proboscis #Monkeys of #Borneo are famous for their long noses. Until recently the reasons why baffled scientists, not anymore! They’re threatened by #palmoil #deforestation. You can help when you Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect wp.me/pcFhgU-5G6

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Written by Katharine Balolia, Senior Lecturer in Biological Anthropology, Australian National University The author would like to acknowledge the paper’s co-author, former ANU Masters student Pippa Fitzgerald. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Proboscis monkey side view with a large nose Slavianin/Shutterstock
In our new study, published in Scientific Reports, we have deepened our understanding of these enlarged nasal structures by investigating what lies beneath: the structures in the skull.

Our findings help to explain how these noses function as visual and acoustic signals of health and status. They also add to a growing body of evidence that shows researchers can use close examinations of skulls to glean information about primate social behaviour.

A battle of noses

One of the largest monkey species in Asia, proboscis monkeys (Nasalis larvatus) are endemic to the island of Borneo. They live in coastal mangroves, peat swamps and riverine forests, and have an unusual diet made up mostly of leaves.

They can swim quite well and have webbed fingers and toes. They typically live in harem groups, made up of a single adult male (who tends to have a large, bulbous nose), some adult females and their offspring.

Males don’t often get the opportunity to attract a harem until they reach middle age. These older, dominant and large-nosed males don’t easily tolerate other large-nosed males, often trying to ward them off aggressively with deep honks and “nasal roars” – loud calls they make using their noses.

Young adult males with smaller noses often live in all-male bachelor groups, and don’t tend to fight aggressively with each other. When these bachelor males get older and become large (and large-nosed) enough to compete with males that are part of a breeding group, they are in a position to overthrow the tenured male. Females then often choose to form a harem group with this new, high-status male.
The nose is considerably smaller in female proboscis monkeys. Milan Zygmunt/Shutterstock

What’s behind the nose?

We investigated the size and shape of the proboscis monkey nasal cavity. That’s the bony chamber of the skull that sits behind the fleshy nose. Our goal was to find out if the size and shape of the nasal aperture – the front part of the cavity, where the fleshy nose tissue attaches – can tell us more about why these peculiar appendages evolved.

Previous research that looked at the bulbous nose in males suggests it evolved to advertise status. In our new research, we wanted to better understand how this could be the case, this time using data taken from the skull.

We used 3D surface models, downloaded from a public repository, to take size and shape measurements from 33 adult proboscis monkey skulls. We compared these with the adult skulls of king colobus monkeys, blue monkeys and crab-eating macaques, three old world monkey species.
Crab-eating macaques have tiny noses by comparison. Erik Klietsch/Shutterstock
We chose some measurements to quantify the nasal cavity, and others to quantify the nasal aperture in all the species. We also looked at tooth wear, since older adult monkeys have more worn teeth than younger adults. That would allow us to find out if older adult males had a larger nasal aperture than younger adult males.

Better honks

If male proboscis monkeys have a different nasal cavity shape to females, and a unique shape compared to the other monkey species, it would support the idea these enhanced nasal structures – both the fleshy nose and the cavity behind it – evolved to allow for more effective honks and nasal roars.

That was indeed what we found. The shape of the male nasal cavity was low and long compared to females. This allows males to build up resonance (sound vibration) in their nasal cavities, allowing them to emit deeper and louder calls through their noses.

The nasal aperture shape was also different between the sexes. In males, it looks a bit like an eggplant, while in females it looks more like an upside-down pear. This unique opening shape in males allows for higher intensity sounds to be emitted through the nose.
3D model screenshots of a male proboscis monkey (left) and a female proboscis monkey (right). Male nasal aperture size is 29% larger than that of females, and males and females differ in their nasal aperture shape. Katharine Balolia/Morphosource Media (USNM521841; ID 000345556 and USNM142224; ID 000345144)
The sex differences in cavity shape were also larger than what we found in other old world monkey species. This further supports the idea that the nasal cavity of male proboscis monkeys underwent an evolutionary change for the purpose of making certain sounds.

Lastly, the age. Older proboscis monkey males really do have larger nasal apertures than younger adult males, but the cavity itself didn’t increase with age. This supports the idea that the large noses act as a visual signal. It’s also consistent with the fleshy nose size increasing in middle-aged or older adult males, which we know from behavioural studies in the wild.
Making honks and nasal roars really does seem to be the evolutionary purpose of these fleshy noses. Nokuro/Shutterstock
Our evidence from the skull allows us to better understand how nasal structures in male proboscis monkeys evolved for both acoustic and visual signalling.

The more we know about how regions of the skull function as social signals, the better chance we have of reconstructing extinct primate social behaviour using fossilised skull remains.

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Written by Katharine Balolia, Senior Lecturer in Biological Anthropology, Australian National University The author would like to acknowledge the paper’s co-author, former ANU Masters student Pippa Fitzgerald. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

ENDS

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Learn about other animals endangered by palm oil and other agriculture

Global
South America
S.E. Asia
India
Africa
West Papua & PNG

Gursky’s Spectral Tarsier Tarsius spectrumgurskyae

Keep reading

Sunda Flying Lemur Galeopterus variegatus

Keep reading

Western Parotia Parotia sefilata

Keep reading

Capped Langur Trachypithecus pileatus

Keep reading

Mountain Tapir Tapirus pinchaque

Keep reading

Saola Pseudoryx nghetinhensis

Keep reading

---

Learn about “sustainable” palm oil greenwashing

Read more about RSPO greenwashing

Lying
Fake labels
Indigenous Land-grabbing
Human rights abuses
Deforestation
Human health hazards

A 2019 World Health Organisation (WHO) report into the palm oil industry and RSPO finds extensive greenwashing of palm oil deforestation and the murder of endangered animals (i.e. biodiversity loss)

Read more

---

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Take Action in Five Ways

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

• Twitter
• Facebook
• Instagram
• WordPress
• YouTube
• Mail
• Mastodon

Enter your email address

Sign Up

Join 3,178 other subscribers

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

Wildlife Artist Juanchi Pérez

Read more

Mel Lumby: Dedicated Devotee to Borneo’s Living Beings

Read more

Anthropologist and Author Dr Sophie Chao

Read more

Health Physician Dr Evan Allen

Read more

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

Read more

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

Read more

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

twitter.com/CuriousApe4/status…

twitter.com/PhillDixon1/status…

twitter.com/mugabe139/status/1…

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

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

Pledge your support

#animalBehaviour #AnimalBiodiversityNews #animalCommunication #animalIntelligence #animalRights #Borneo #Boycott4wildlife #BoycottPalmOil #deforestation #Indonesia #Malaysia #monkey #monkeys #PalmOil #palmOilDeforestation #palmoil #ProboscisMonkeyNasalisLarvatus #research #Researchers #SouthEastAsia

The Problems with Palm Oil

Discover the environmental and social issues caused by palm oil production. Learn about its impacts on wildlife, indigenous communities, and how to take action with Palm Oil Detectives

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