Reflection on the industrial expansion of palm oil plantations in Africa and their impacts

From November 1 to 6, 2013, an International Strategy Meeting was held.

The International Strategy Meeting is an initiative of the WRM to facilitate the exchange of information and experiences among African organizations and activists regarding the current and rapid expansion of industrial oil palm plantations on the continent.

The meeting is to take place every two years to help member organizations of the network formulate ideas, analyze, develop strategies and networks on common issues discussed during the meeting, as well as to gather and review contributions from participants. Subsequently, WRM will use these contributions to define its future priorities and activities.

The goal of this platform is to establish a strategic forum to promote networking, share information at the continental level, and, above all, foster cooperation among participants on a global scale. To enrich this dialogue and consolidate the initiative, WRM extends its invitation to Latin American and Asian members of its network who have extensive experience in fighting against industrial oil palm plantations in their countries.

The aim of this meeting was to allow participants to exchange ideas and formulate common strategies for joint actions to contain the exploitation of local forest communities in large plantations and to halt all forms of destructive oil palm plantation expansion in Africa. Furthermore, the meeting was intended to identify and exchange experiences of alternative land use based on genuine rights, so that indigenous peoples and communities can have control over their lands and territories and strengthen their food sovereignty. In the long term, it is envisioned that this collective action will help strengthen the affected local communities that are fighting for their rights over their territories.

This Meeting took place according to the following schedule:

November 1: Arrival of participants.

November 2: Opening Ceremony and Public Event on the Expansion of Palm Oil in Cross River State.
In the lead-up to the Strategic Meeting, this event was an opportunity to present to participants and other local authorities the initiative "The protection of the Cross River Tropical rainforest from excessive destruction for short term benefits" by the RRDC, focusing on the affected communities so that they, through their representatives, could share their experiences in their fight against industrial oil palm plantations and other forms of monoculture plantations in their territories.

November 3: Field Visit to Communities Affected by Industrial Oil Palm Plantations in Cross River State.
This visit was primarily aimed at seeing in situ the realities faced by the affected communities. In addition to the Kwa Falls, the Mandrills Ranch, and the Marina Resort and Tinapa, participants also visited the plantations of Sime Darby.

November 4-5: Strategic Meeting.
Focused on sharing experiences among actors from diverse backgrounds who share the issue of fighting against the rapid expansion of industrial oil palm plantations and tree monoculture plantations, and defending the rights of impacted communities, this meeting revolved around the theme of the Expansion of Palm Oil Plantations in Africa: Experiences Across the Continent. The various countries present thus presented the state of the struggle as well as the national contexts in which these processes are developing. Following all the country presentations, "World Café" group work was organized to identify similarities, differences, and challenges that arose in the different country presentations.

From this "World Café" on November 4, a group exercise was conducted on November 5 to identify ways to strengthen resistance and work together through the establishment of a draft work plan that will later be better developed with a certain distribution of responsibilities.

After these group works, a series of presentations were made by other partners from Asia, WRM, and the NGO GRAIN:

– The representative of GRAIN presented on the issue of "The Expansion of Palm Oil Plantations in the Context of Land Grabbing." It emerged from this presentation that Africa is now considered the "new window" for land acquisition, which is becoming increasingly scarce in other regions of the world. This is mainly due to the fact that the export of vegetable oil has been expanding since the 1990s, especially palm oil since the 2000s. Details and further information are available on the website Food Crisis and the Global Land Grab: www.accaparementdesterres.org.

– GRAIN's presentation concluded the day on November 4, and WRM began the day on November 5 with the presentation of the Update of the WRM report and the mapping of oil palm plantations in Africa. Two important recommendations were highlighted here: i) It is important to organize well to support populations in their struggle to preserve their lands, and ii) It is crucial to be patient, as planning and/or organization are important.

Finally, in addition to these presentations, representatives from Indonesia and two representatives from the communities in Cross River State (Nigeria) presented their experiences of fighting against the expansion of palm oil plantations to the assembly. It should be noted that the common denominator in these struggles is that they are caused by the transfer of community lands to a private company without consultation, leading to community resistance manifested through various forms of mobilization. Unfortunately, these mobilizations are often met with violent repression (injuries, deaths...) and/or the imprisonment of leaders.

Before concluding this Strategic Meeting, and in order to make some common commitments and send a message to all actors, participants agreed to draft a Calabar Declaration (Annex 1) that will be circulated in various networks.