Oil Palm Plantation in Cameroon Threatens a Biodiversity Hotspot
Cameroon’s endangered rainforests
The rainforests of the Gulf of Guinea in Cameroon are among the most biologically rich forests in the world, harboring numerous unique and threatened plant and animal species. In this landscape are several protected areas, including Korup National Park, Bakossi National Park, Banyang Mbo Wildlife Sanctuary, and Rumpi Hills Forest Reserve.
If current plans proceed, a roughly 200,000 acre (300 square mile) mosaic of dense forest, agroforest, farmland, and human settlements in this area will be transformed into a monoculture of oil palms. The plantation will further fragment the unique landscape, threaten the biodiversity of the area, and restrict the movements of many animal species.
Most of the 45,000 people from thirty-eight small villages that will be affected by the plantation rely heavily on farming to feed their families and earn an income. They also rely heavily on the non-timber forest products surrounding the village. It is feared that the deforestation caused by the plantation would dramatically alter their livelihoods, and further limit their already limited ability to expand the land area on which they rely.
Palm oil: lessons from Asia
Palm oil is used for cooking and in preparing products such as soaps and cosmetics, and is increasingly promoted as an “eco-friendly” biofuel alternative to fossil fuels. A new palm oil plantation typically requires cutting down all of the trees and transforming the forest into a monoculture. Eighty percent of the world’s palm oil comes from southeast Asia because the plant requires a hot, humid, environment- like a rainforest.
But the oil palm experience of Asian countries does not bode well for the people and forests of Cameroon. A substantial body of scientific literature documents the negative environmental and social impacts of oil palm monoculture, which is one of the leading causes of forest loss in the tropics. Other reports challenge the claim that palm plantations alleviate poverty. Companies tend to target the dense, high canopy, mature forests for their plantations because they can first remove the valuable timber and make a profit by selling it. Oil palm workers are often brought in from outside the general plantation area, resulting in a massive influx of people into the area. Wages are often low, and living conditions poor.
The proposed plantation and sustainable palm standards
Herakles Farms is headquartered on Park Avenue in New York City. Its Cameroonian subsidiary, SG Sustainable Oils Cameroon (SGSOC), entered into a contract with the government of Cameroon in 2009 to develop an oil palm plantation in the area described above. SGSOC is a member of the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), a global organization that sets guidelines for producing sustainable palm oil. RSPO member companies are, among other things, required to conduct a High Conservation Value Forest assessment of lands on which they propose to develop a plantation. If that assessment identifies High Conservation Values (a determination that the area is biologically important), then according to the RSPO’s guidelines, those values must be protected.
In July 2010, Herakles approached the London-based organization, Proforest, to conduct the assessment for the project in Cameroon. Proforest refused on the grounds that the maps provided by Herakles showed that the proposed development was essentially located in primary forest and part of the wider Korup forest landscape. Proforest also informed Herakles that the development would not comply with several principles of the RSPO. Proforest is categorically opposed to the development of oil palm plantations within primary forests or within large, landscape level forests such as the Korup complex, which protects and provides support functions to Korup National Park.
It will be better to avoid the sad experiences and memories of what we know of plantation companies. In other areas, in their initial stage [palm oil plantations] paraded as a blessing of the people but in the course of their establishment and operation their activities are usually turned into a ‘White elephant.’
- December 15, 2010 letter from twelve Ngolo chiefs of communities in the Ndian Division of southwest Cameroon that would be affected by the proposed SGSOC oil palm plantation