Deal #1396 Version #53338

The consultation process was too short and the community was not sufficiently informed on the impact of the palm oil plantation. The Sinoe community has reported Golden Veroleum to the roundtable on sustainable oil palm as the company is currently engaged in active land clearing on our customary land without our free prior informed consent as well as violating the RSPO New planting procedures which requires Golden Veroleum to not proceed with any land preparation, any new planting or infrastructure development. Several members of the Sinoe community have been arrested for attending meetings regarding the project.

According to The Forest Trust (TFT) there is materiality to a number of the claims made by the communities (see Reuters press release). Adverse impacts include insufficient land and forest areas for community to farm/forage and sacred areas have been damaged.

Communities have not been compensated for the loss of future income but only for land and crops per area and is not in compliance with “Price for economic crops damaged during development projects” published by the Ministry of Agriculture on August 20th, 2012.

The company will provide direct employment for an estimated 40000 persons, as well as develop infrastructure, train out growers and provide them low cost seedlings for cultivation and production of final brand of consumer products for local consumption and export to Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) countriesThe company will provide direct employment for an estimated 40,000 persons, as well as develop infrastructure, train out growers and provide them low cost seedlings for cultivation and production of final brand of consumer products for local consumption and export to Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) countries.