Deal #1396

With alleged Free, Prior and Informed Consent(FPIC) violations in three MOU areas, while in relation to others, including food security and labour rights, the allegations are broader, although testimonies and evidence is drawn from particular areas in which field research was conducted (Numupoh and elsewhere in Kpanyan district).

In 2018 the Liberian legislature passed the landmark Land Rights Act which recognizes the customary land rights of communities to own, manage, and govern their traditional lands and forests.

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. View the report by Forest Peoples Programme for more information on the consultation process. Public meetings where landowners were encouraged to hand over their land to GVL were watched over by powerful local officials, and in at least one case armed police. Global Witness also documents several accounts of violent assaults and arbitrary arrests of those who voiced their concerns. The MOU was not read to the communities. In October 2015, the Butaw Welfare and Development Association (BWDA) of Butaw District, Sinoe County has officially withdrawn the letter of complaint that was lodged against Golden Veroleum Liberia Incorporated in 2012 which resulted into imposing sanctions on GVL operations in Butaw District since 2012. While other communities reported to have Free, prior and informed consent (such as Wedabo-Juduken and Wedabo). In a comprehensive report published this month, the company was also found to have violated the land and cultural rights of local communities, including the right to free prior and informed consent and social requirements on basic needs and grievance and remedy. Investigation by the The High Carbon Stock Approach (HCSA) in 2021 found that the company had violated the land and cultural rights of local communities, including the right to free prior and informed consent and social requirements on basic needs and grievance and remedy.

According to The Forest Trust (TFT) there is materiality to a number of the claims made by the communities (see Reuters press release). Several communities have laid (successful) complaints against the company. Initial support for the company is dwindling in places due to lack of jobs and loss of livelihoods.

In May 2015 the community had violent protests (riots) about the Butaw plantation. Villagers were beaten by the police during the riot, whilst managers of the plantations and workers were smuggled off the plantations in the trucks of cars. Villagers stole company and personal property of employees to the value of $736,509.58. The Liberian president has spoken about the protests by the community members, as she states it is chasing away further investors. Local dissent against the GVL land grab was silenced by beatings, threats, and arbitrary detention. Some villagers were detained until Mid August, following the riots in May- while one villager died in the police cells. GVL cleared the land of the Lower Kulu people called Blogbo land without their consent.In December 2021, it was recorded that the company among other companies received Dutch investments through their parent companies to knock down the forest and take away land belonging to rural communities. Subsidiaries of multinational companies operating in Liberia have all been investigated and found liable for land grab.

Adverse impacts include insufficient land and forest areas for community to farm/forage and sacred areas have been damaged. There have been ongoing allegations of land clearing without consultation, pollution of community water sources, and destruction of cultural and spiritual sites. Human rights violations and threats to environmental human rights defenders are reported by local communities and civil society. In 2015, 17 community members were arrested and put in jail for a year without proper trial after community protest in Butaw at the insistence of GVL. Communities reported that pollution and disturbance of water courses, lack of safe drinking water and fishing areas. Destruction of cultural and spiritual areas of local communities. Socio-economic impact: loss of livelihoods and living space as well as loss of healthy forest areas impacts on people’s food sovereignty and development opportunities. High Carbon Stock Approach (HCSA), an agribusiness industry sustainability body, has confirmed allegations that the investor committed widespread deforestation, including endangered species habitat and important wetlands. In May 2021 it was reported that around 443 workers. were fired by GVL to grapple with the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic and a slump in the price of palm oil on the world market. According to the Occasious Sarckor "the Liberian farmer "everything on the plantation looks green, but it is an ecological desert. Nothing grows there but palm trees. And there are hardly any animals. The the enclaved area, is making farming and any other things difficult for the affected communities. GVL said in a Sept. 7 response to queries from Bloomberg that it had made “mistakes” and had stopped clearing land in February, though it denied many of the allegations leveled by local communities. Singapore-listed Golden Agri, part of the Sinar Mas Group of the billionaire Indonesian Widjaja family, said in a statement that GVL has suspended further land development and implemented some other recommended measures, including drawing up a sustainability plan. Subsidiaries of multinational companies operating in Liberia includidng GVL have all been investigated and found liable for deforestation, land grab, and human rights abuse

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. Golden Veroleum must pay the community development fund $5 for every hectare it plants.Golden Agri Resources Ltd. acknowledged in February that its Golden Veroleum Liberia (GVL) unit hadn’t done enough to compensate local residents for business practices that included razing part of one of the planet’s richest biodiversity regions

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. Golden Veroleum must pay the community development fund $5 for every hectare it plants.

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) countries. The company has not delivered its promises as of July 2015, only six toilets have been built. The MOU includes the development of the community through education initiatives and programs that allow villagers to sell their own palm oil to GVL. Company has rehabilitated hand pumps. GVL has also failed to live up to employment terms in MoUs it signed with the communities. The MoUs mandate GVL to employ one person per six hectares. That has never been done. In Butaw, for instance, it has hired less than half of the number of residents it agreed to employ. Inhabitants say GVL promised to provide jobs and amenities such as piped water, but instead the company cut down the forest, deprived farmers of their land and polluted the water supply.

The company built Butaw primary and secondary school as part of the arrangement that the company must contribute to Liberia’s development. In July 2021, it was reported that the teachers are still waiting for their salary. Community members were promised community development fund, health facilities and schools

In May 2015 the community had violent protests (riots) about the Butaw plantation. Villagers were beaten by the police during the riot, whilst managers of the plantations and workers were smuggled off the plantations in the trucks of cars. Villagers stole company and personal property of employees to the value of $736,509.58. The Liberian president has spoken about the protests by the community members, as she states it is chasing away further investors. Local dissent against the GVL land grab was silenced by beatings, threats, and arbitrary detention. Some villagers were detained until Mid August, following the riots in May- while one villager died in the police cells. Representatives from communities visited the ABN AMRO and Rabobank, both in the Netherlands, in October 2019 to request the bank takes action against the investor. The community is supported by Milieudefensie, Sustainable Development Institute (SDI) and WALHI. In February 2019, the bank announced that communities could come and report on rights violations by its clients who should provide remedy, but now state that they only have an indirect link to the deals and there is little they can do. In 2021, an investigation (the first of its kind) by the High Carbon Stock Approach was done and found that Golden Veroleum cleared more than 1,000 hectares (2,500 acres) of carbon-rich forests in Liberia’s remote southeast. They recommended that Golden Veroleum freeze any further development of plantation land and work with communities in its concession zone to resolve outstanding disputes and carry out a detailed assessment of the forests there. In October 2012, Liberian NGO Green Advocates filed a complaint against the company with the RSPO. The NGO Forest People’s Programme has gathered evidence on places where crops were destroyed, shrines were desecrated, villages displaced, and burial grounds and graves sites denigrated, as well as several sites where wetlands, including rivers, marshlands, swamps, streams and creeks, have been dammed or diverted and polluted. Sustainable Development Institute (SDI) and Milieudefensie, a Dutch NGO, have accused the oil palm company Golden Veroleum Liberia (GVL) of not living up the full commitment of the memorandum of understanding it signed with communities in within its concession areas.At a press conference on Thursday, August 12, both organizations called upon the Government of Liberia to ensure agribusiness in Liberia halts deforestation and rights violations.This was after they have conducted community exercises earlier this year to assess GVL’s compliance with specific obligations and commitments on a healthy environment, jobs, education, health care, development funds and the possibility to start community farms. The research indicates that half of the commitments are not met by GVL and another 20 percent only partially. SDI and Milieudefensie call upon the Government of Liberia to ensure that royalties are paid to affected communities and to promote an agriculture sector that puts communities at the centre of agriculture development, respects rights, improves community livelihoods, and ensure food sovereignty through agro-ecology and community-based forest management