The Colombian government is embarking on a massive expansion of oil palms, sugar cane and other monocultures for agrofuels and other markets at the expense of rainforests, biodiverse grasslands and local communities. Sugar cane monocultures are being expanded in the Cauca Valley, whilst hundreds of thousands of hectares are being turned into oil palm plantations in the Pacific region, the eastern planes and the Caribbean region.
Palm oil expansion is linked to large-scale rainforest destruction and to serious violence and human rights abuses. NGOs have documented 113 killings in the river basin of Curvaradó and Jiguamiandó, in Chocó region at the hands of paramilitaries who are working with plantation companies to take over land which legally belongs to Afro-Colombian communities. The paramilitary groups operate with the support of the 17th Colombian Army Brigade.
Following a campaign of violence, forced displacements and massacres since 1996, Afro-Colombian and other peasant communities have recently returned to their land, but have found much of it planted with oil palms, even though the communities hold legal land titles. They have received repeated death threats from paramilitaries. So far, the government has done nothing to protect the communities and their land rights.
The expansion of agrofuel mono-cultures, mainly for biodiesel, is threatening the lives, livelihoods and lands of Afro-Colombian and peasant communities and indigenous people, not just in Chocó, but elsewhere, including in Tumaco, Magdalena Medio, Vichada, Meta and the Amazon regions. According to the UN High Commission for Refugees, 200,000 people are displaced every year in Colombia, totaling some 4 million over the past 20 years – the second highest rate of displacement in the world – with land expropriation in excess of 6 million hectares. The root cause of many forced displacements relates to land issues including the drive to expand monocultures and other agro-business.
The Chocó forests which are being destroyed by palm oil expansion are amongst the most biodiverse forests on Earth (biodiversity hot spots). They are home to 7,000 to 8,000 species, including 2,000 endemic plant species and 100 endemic bird species. Even before the current palm oil and agrofuel expansion, 66% had been destroyed.
Please write to the Colombian government and ask them to protect the rights of indigenous, Afro-Colombian and peasant communities affected by large-scale monoculture plantations, to stop further deforestation for oil palm plantations, impose a moratorium on further palm oil expansion and on the country’s biofuel programme, which is a major cause of monoculture expansion, and to protect the land rights, the food sovereignty and the environment on which local communities depend.
Please write to the Colombian government now and ask them to:
1) Protect the human rights of indigenous, Afro-Colombian and peasant communities affected by large-scale monoculture plantations;
2) Immediately restitute the ancestral land to Afro-Colombian communities and indigenous people affected by monoculture plantations, such as the Curvaradó and Jiguamiandó Afro-Colombian communities affected by palm tree plantations and call on the Government to implement the 169 Convention of the International Labor Organisation and the Order of Provisional Measures of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in favour of the ‘humanitarian refuge’ zones of Curvaradó and Jiguamiandó.
3) Stop further deforestation and exploitation of large-scale palm tree plantations in the Curvaradó and Jiguamiandó river basin and elsewhere in Colombia.
4) Guarantee the integral reparation of human and environmental damages generated by the imposition of large-scale monocultures and by human rights violations by State Forces.
5) Recognise and respect local civilian initiatives aimed at protecting the environment, such as the recent creation of Biodiversity Zones.
6) Review Colombia’s biofuel policy and the impacts of large-scale monocultures in general on communities, human rights and the environment, including the impacts of rainforest destruction on climate change, and impose an immediate moratorium on biofuel developments from large-scale monocultures, including from oil palms.
Francisco Santos, Vicepresidente de la República (Vice President)
E-mail: fsantos@presidencia.gov.co; buzon1@presidencia.gov.co
Andrés Felipe Arias Leyva, Ministro de Agricultura y Desarrollo Rural (Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development)
E-mail: quejas@minagricultura.gov.co
Juan Lozano Ramírez, Ministro de Ambiente, Vivienda y Desarrollo Territorial (Minister for Environment, Housing and Development)
E-mail: correspondencia@minambiente.gov.co
This email alert is supported by the Inter-Church Commission for Justice and Peace (Comisión Intereclesial de Justicia y Paz) in Colombia, an organisation which has been actively supporting local communities in Curvaradó and Jiguamiandó. At a seminar on “Global Crisis, Human Rights and Agrofuels” in Bogota in august 2007, representatives from international organsiations visited the Curvaradó Humanitarian and Biodiversity Zone and expressed their strong support for the local communities against the palm oil expansion threatening their livelihoods, food sovereignty and their environment. Those included FSPI-La Via Campesina (Indonesia), Confederación Nacional de Mujeres Campesinas (CONAMUCA), Coordinadora Latinoamericana de Organizaciones del Campo (CLOC)- La Via Campesina (Dominican Republic), BASE Investigaciones Sociales (Paraguay), Centro de Analisis Social, Informacion y Formacion Popular (Mexico), Biofuelwatch (UK), World Rainforest Movement, Ecologistas en Accion (Spain), Amazon Watch (US), and Rainforest Action Network (US). For further information see
http://www.wrm.org.uy/countries/Colombia.html#info
and article in the August 2007 World Rainforest Movement bulletin: http://www.wrm.org.uy/ .
Source:
http://www.regenwald.org/international/englisch/protestaktion.php?id=202
Long background:
The Colombian government is embarking on a massive expansion of oil palms, sugar cane and other monocultures at the expense of rainforests, biodiverse grasslands and local communities. Sugar cane monocultures are being expanded in the Cauca Valley, whilst hundreds of thousands of hectares are being turned into oil palm plantations in the Pacific region, the eastern planes and the Caribbean region.
Palm oil expansion is linked to large-scale rainforest destruction and to serious violence and human rights abuses. Colombian international NGOs have documented 113 killings and evictions in the river basin of Curvaradó and Jiguamiandó, in Chocó region, at the hands of paramilitaries who are working with plantation companies to acquire land which legally belongs to Afro-Colombian communities. The following NGOs have documented and condemned those human rights abuses: Inter-Church Commission of Justice and Peace, Comisión Colombiana de Jusristas, Colectivo de Abogados ‘Jose Alvear Restrepo’, Fundacion Manuel Cepeda, Movimiento Nacional de Victimas de Crimenes de Estado (all from Colombia), Christian Aid (UK), CCFD (France), Ecologistas en Accion (Spain), PASC (Canada), WOLA, US-Office on Colombia, Presbyterian Peace Fellowship, Presbyterian Church, Franciscan Province of the Sacred Heart, Witness for Peace, Lutheran World Relief (all from USA), Centro E. Balducci (Italy), Comunidad Mapuche Juan Paillalef (Chile), Movimiento Sem Terra (Brazil), Madres de la Plaza de Mayo-Linea Fundadora (Argentina), Hijas e Hijos por la Identidad y la Justicia contra el Olvido y el Silencio (Argentina), SICSAL (International), , World Rainforest Movement, Comision Etica contra la Tortura (Chile), Federacion de Asociaciones de Defensa y Promocion de los Derechos Humanos (Spain), Red CAPICUA (Spain).
The companies involved are Urapalma S.A., Palmas S.A., Palmado Ltda, Palmas del Curvaradó, Fregni Ochoa, La TuKeKa, Selva Humeda, Asbicon and Palmas del Atrato. The paramilitary groups operate with the support of the 17th Colombian Army Brigade and are responsible for 13 forced displacements (one displacement occurred due to combat between the paramilitary and the FARC guerilla). The paramilitary strategy developed in complicity with the Colombian Army has included economic blockades, selective murders, massacres and torture.
Recently, the Afro-Colombian communities that returned to their land to live in Humanitarian Areas and promote the newly set up Biodiversity Zone, have received repeated death threats from the paramilitary group “Aguilas Negras” (Black Eagles). In spite of evidence of the illegal nature of growing oil palm plantations (as acknowledged by General Attorney’s Office and the Ombudsman’s Office), the great environmental impact and the destruction of human lives, the Colombian government has not taken effective measures to prevent this situation or to restitute the land to the Afro-Colombian communities. Although the government acknowledged the collective ownership of Curvaradó with 46,084 hectares with the Resolution 02809, and the collective ownership of Jiguamiandó with the Resolution 02801 with 54,973 hectares in 2000. According to the report of the Colombian Institute of Rural Development, INCODER published in March 2005, 93% of oil palm plantations in the area are on land for which communities hold collective land titles.
Due to the seriousness of this situation, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights recommended precautionary measures for the humanitarian zones in 2002. Due to persistent serious human rights violations, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights called for provisional measures in favour of Jiguamiandó’s Communal Council and the Curvaradó’s families, stating that special protection had to be granted to the so-called ‘humanitarian refuge zones’. In the preamble to this order, the Court stated: “Since 2001, the company Urapalma S.A. has begun cultivating oil palms on approximately 1,500 hectares of collective land of these communities, with the help of ‘the military protection of the Army’s Seventeenth Brigade and armed civilians in their factories and seed banks”. It also stated that, “under these circumstances, the cultivation of African palms and the exploitation of the natural resources on the communities’ territory endangers the lives and survival of these families” (Organizations of American States, Inter-American Court of Human Rights, Order of Provisional Measures, March 6th 2003, Page 2).
The expansion of agrofuel mono-cultures, mainly for biodiesel, is threatening the lives, livelihoods and lands of Afro-Colombian and peasant communities and indigenous people, not just in Chocó, but elsewhere, including in Tumaco, Magdalena Medio, Vichada, Meta and the Amazon regions. Agrofuel projects are already being implemented in the departments of Cesar, Atlantico, Magdalena, Santander, Norte de Santander, Bolivar, Antioquia, Caqueta, Meta, Cundinamarca, Casnara, Narino and Cauca. According to the UN High Commission for Refugees, 200,000 people are displaced every year in Colombia, totaling some 4 million over the past 20 years – the second highest rate of displacement in the world – with land expropriation in excess of 6 million hectares. The root cause of many forced displacements relates to land issues including the drive to expand monocultures and other agro-business.
With more than 300,000 hectares, Colombia is the fourth biggest producer of palm oil worldwide. The government intends to expand those plantations to 1 million hectares over the next four years. According to the Colombian NGOs Grupo Semillas, ILSA and ACVC, that figure could be nearer 2 million hectares. Colombia is the second most biodiverse country on Earth, with 10% of all the world’s species, 30% of them found nowhere else. Between 200,000 and 300,000 hectares of forest are already being destroyed every year in Colombia and biofuel expansion is likely to greatly accelerate this destruction.
The Chocó rainforests which are being destroyed by palm oil expansion are amongst the most biodiverse forests on Earth. They are home to 7,000 to 8,000 species, including 2,000 endemic plant species and 100 endemic bird species. Even before the current palm oil and agrofuel expansion, 66% had been destroyed.
As a member of CENSAT Agua Viva (Friends of the Earth Colombia) says: With these proposals for biodiesel production, the palm companies and the promoters of these companies now have new reasons to continue growing. But plantation stories are painful. They are stained with the blood and tears of the Afro-descendent and peasant communities of the Pacific, of Magdalena Medio, and the Colombian Caribbean. It is the silent story of forests disappearing to become plantations. It is the story of ancestral cultures becoming oil palm proletariats. These voices are clamouring to stop the destruction proposed by those defending biodiesel” (http://americas.irc-online.org/am/3962).