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Procter & Gamble Sources Suffering from Indonesia’s Forests
Procter & Gamble Sources Suffering from Indonesia’s Forests

A report released by Friends of the Earth US and WALHI finds that Astro Agro Lestari are caught up in land conflicts with local communities, and are responsible for environmental and human rights abuses.

In the Peatlands of South Sumatra: A Tale of Two Villages
In the Peatlands of South Sumatra: A Tale of Two Villages

The palm oil industry is responsible for destroying some 24 million hectares of Indonesian rainforest since 1990, much of it through burning. But because huge areas of Indonesia’s vast peat bogs have been drained and dried out to make way for the plantations, the industry has also unleashed flooding in places like Sumatra’s wetlands — flooding that claims lands and lives in a way that is largely invisible.

Another hidden link between your retirement funds and rainforest destruction: Maybank, the world’s largest financier of palm oil
Another hidden link between your retirement funds and rainforest destruction: Maybank, the world’s largest financier of palm oil

The destruction wrought by the palm oil sector — millions of hectares of forest and peatlands destroyed, entire species driven to the brink, assaults on local communities’ lands — is our responsibility.

Guatemalan land defenders are under threat and need justice
Guatemalan land defenders are under threat and need justice

The best way to defend our lands, rivers and forests is to speak out for the defenders—the people at the front lines of these struggles—so they may live on to continue fighting for all of us.

How are orangutans protected from the peril of palm?
How are orangutans protected from the peril of palm?

Last month, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature listed the Bornean orangutan as critically endangered --  joining its cousin the Sumatran orangutan in that classification. Immediately following, the IUCN World Conservation Congress agreed to take action to halt the expansion of the palm oil industry, for its role as a leading killer of tropical biodiversity. Simultaneously, news reports have begun to reveal that orangutans will be extinct within 10 years unless action is taken…

The willpower of women in Nigeria leads to victory
The willpower of women in Nigeria leads to victory

In Nigeria, as elsewhere across the world, women are disproportionately affected by corporate land grabs and deforestation. Two recent victories by Nigerian women reclaiming 13,750 hectares of land from a palm oil company (Okomu Oil Palms Plc/Socfin Group) and a rubber company (Iyayi Group) demonstrate how women are organizing to challenge corporate power and win concrete gains for their people.

In this current edition of Friends of the Earth International’s Real World Radio,…

Rally Tally: Demanding justice for Honduran activist Berta Ceres
Rally Tally: Demanding justice for Honduran activist Berta Ceres

Berta Cáceres ¡presente! On Friday, March 4, Friends of the Earth joined other supporters in front of the U.S. State Department to remember Honduran civil and environmental rights activist Berta Cáceres. Berta was assassinated in her home Thursday, March 3, targeted for her decade-long fight against the building of the Agua Zarca Dam along the Gualcarque River -- territory sacred to the indigenous Lenca people.

Supporters gathered to recount stories of Berta, remember her generous…

Rally Tally: Dozens of activists condemn the murder of Berta Ceres
Rally Tally: Dozens of activists condemn the murder of Berta Ceres

Yesterday, Friends of the Earth co-sponsored a rally at the UN in New York City for Berta Cáceres and International Woman’s Day. Berta is a well-known indigenous environmental activist who was murdered in her home on March 2.

Dozens of activists and human rights supporters denounced the criminal violence plaguing Honduran environmentalists – violence that has increased dramatically since the 2009 coup in that in that country.We joined the Organización Fraternal Negra Hondureña (OFRANEH), Associates (JASS),…

Ugandan farmers call on UN to end disastrous palm oil project
Ugandan farmers call on UN to end disastrous palm oil project

For years, Friends of the Earth has been supporting farmers in Uganda's Kalangala Islands to fight back against a palm oil land grab that has turned them from subsistence farmers and fishers, with a small but diverse income stream, into wage laborers on palm oil plantations that were once their own land.

It's been a controversial campaign because the palm oil effort is financed by the UN International Fund for Agricultural Development, and joint partner Wilmar…

Why African farmers are upset about the New Alliances annual progress report
Why African farmers are upset about the New Alliances annual progress report

Towards the end of 2015, we posted this video of landless farmers in Nigeria telling global palm oil giant Wilmar International that they oppose the large scale land deal that sold off their livelihoods to this multinational corporation. That land purchase was and is part of the expansion of industrial agribusiness in Nigeria promoted by the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition -- a program that provides aid money from rich countries like…