agricultura

With Ricardo Carrere, del WRM

Unilever applies a coat

of greenwash

A recent documentary produced by the BBC showed personnel employed by Duta Palma and PT Smart destroying rainforests in Indonesia to make way for African oil palm plantations. Both palm oil manufacturers are suppliers of Unilever. After the BBC exposed the environmental and social damages caused by these companies, Unilever decided to “distance itself from Duta Palma.”

Before that documentary, however, Unilever had had no qualms about purchasing low-priced palm oil from these companies, knowing full well that they were violating the already grossly ineffective environmental laws in place in Indonesia. Neither has it now decided to suspend the use of palm oil sourced by other companies operating in Indonesia and other countries where production and labor conditions are exactly the same as those depicted in the BBC documentary.

It should also be noted that numerous local and international social organizations have been denouncing these facts for years, but had not achieve the impact of the current BBC report. To learn more about this, Sirel spoke with Ricardo Carrere, international coordinator of one such organization, the World Rainforest Movement (WRM).

-Is Unilever really concerned with protecting the environment?

-Unilever is very concerned with protecting its growing market, which is why it’s decided to greenwash palm oil production. With that aim it has teamed up with the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) to lead a global process for a certification scheme to establish standards for sustainable oil palm plantations, which is being developed by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), under the direction of Unilever.

-What does this certification entail?

-If you look at the standards and certification process established by Unilever, it’s evident that it’s merely a diversion gimmick, as it only calls for a slight improvement of the most appalling conditions, in an industry rife with bad practices.

In terms of labor, for example, the standards call for the application of a national minimum wage, or “decent wage,” in each country, thus evidencing how bad the current conditions are. Paying a minimum wage is simply a legal obligation that all employers are required to meet anywhere, and calling for a “decent wage” is too vague even to be taken seriously.

In reality, nothing is being done to improve the working conditions of the laborers, because that’s what these companies build their fortunes on, a fortune that is based on two forms of exploitation: the first form is the excessive use of natural resources, with the ensuing environmental destruction, the cost of which is not included in the end product; and the second is the exploitation of workers, who are paid extremely low wages that allow producers to sell palm at a low price and keep increasing global demand.

-Why is global demand on the rise?

-African palm is used to manufacture edible oils that are widely consumed throughout India and China, for example, and are also used in the production of cosmetics, soaps and food products that contain palm oil. This is what makes it such a huge business for Unilever. There are literally thousands of products that contain palm oil and which Unilever manufactures.

Palm oil is also used to manufacture biodiesel, which is expected to fuel an increasingly large part of Europe’s vehicles. Hence the interest in whitewashing palm plantations, which are essentially destructive.

-In what way are they destructive?

-In terms of the damage it causes to the environment, for example. African palm grows in tropical and subtropical climates only. You can’t plant it anywhere else. And what you have in tropical and subtropical regions are rainforests and communities with sustainable livelihoods. These forests are being cleared in order to make room for African palm plantations, thus destroying the livelihoods of the communities and leaving their members, at best, at the mercy of the African palm companies who will over-exploit them. Others fare even worse, as they are left with no livelihood and forced to migrate.

This is what Unilever is trying to hide with its Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, which is formed by financial institutions, banks, major palm producers and other players.

One of the biggest insults that Latin America has had to suffer was to have the first meeting of this association in the region hosted by none other than Colombia, where gross violations of labor legislation and human rights have been amply proven. These abuse are repeatedly committed by military and paramilitary forces against the population but, in particular, against black Colombian communities, who have been massacred, tortured and driven off their habitats to make way for African palm.

-Don’t African palm crops create jobs where there are none?

-They don’t create many jobs, and the few they do create are not good jobs, they’re badly paid and dangerous. Meanwhile, the companies that hire these workers are making fabulous profits.