Major development banks commit to addressing reports of worker abuses, environmental pollution and other malpractices at controversial Feronia palm oil sites in DRC
Four of Feronia’s largest European backers have announced
they will seek structural changes to the firm’s operations after a damning
report exposed illegalities at the Canadian company’s palm oil sites in
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The Human Rights Watch (HRW) report published in November
revealed a string of worker abuses and environmental malpractices at Feronia
concessions in northern DRC.
A Dirty Investment found that Feronia and its Congolese
subsidiary exposes workers to dangerous pesticides, dumps untreated industrial
waste into waterways, and engages in abusive employment practices that result
in extreme poverty wages.
The four development banks – Belgian BIO, British CDC Group,
German DEG, and Dutch FMO – have invested $100 million in Feronia and Plantations and
Huileries du Congo (PHC) since 2013. CDC Group also owns 38 per cent of Feronia.
“These banks can play an important role promoting
development, but they are sabotaging their mission by failing to ensure that
the company they finance respects the rights of its workers and communities on
the plantations,” said Luciana
Téllez of HRW.
The measures the banks announced in December include
addressing labour rights violations that result in extremely low wages,
ensuring wage parity between men and women, addressing villagers’ concerns
around water contamination, and taking steps to protect the health of laborers
who spray pesticides.
“Human Rights Watch will continue to engage the banks over
the implementation of these measures,” the NGO said.
“What is still lacking, however, is a commitment to address the monitoring and
accountability failures that allowed for these abuses to happen under their
watch.”
The Canadian giant gained control of the plantations in 2008
when it acquired PHC from Unilever.
Locals have denounced displacement and occupation of their
lands since colonial times and throughout Unilever’s and Feronia’s tenure of
the 100,000 hectare-plus concessions.
The failure of Feronia and its largest EU backers to address
complaints and reported abuses at the three plantations has long been a cause
of concern for civil society and community members.
A mediation process initiated by the RIAO-RDC to address
land rights complaints in 2017 failed to deliver progress and in November 2018
the NGO filed a complaint on behalf of communities who claim their land has
been illegally seized.
In March 2019, Congolese military reportedly fired live rounds
at protestors in two villages within the Lokutu concession.
In September RIAO-RDC said that
several community members were erroneously arrested following a meeting held
with the complaints panel of the German development bank near the Lokutu
plantation.
The news came only weeks after the murder of RIAO-RDC
activist Joel Imbangola Lunea in July. It is alleged that
Lunea was killed by a security guard employed by Feronia at its Boteka
plantation.
In a joint statement in December the four development banks
named in the HRW report said:
“As a group we welcome the HRW Report and are committed to tackling the
important issues raised.
“We recognise many of the issues through our own due diligence and monitoring and have, over the course of our investment, sought to resolve them in a timely and efficient way, recognising the challenges that the company is facing.”
