Greenpeace blockades palm oil trader IOI in Rotterdam

Two Indonesian men who have been directly affected by forest fires are blocking access to the refinery with eight activists. The Greenpeace ship Esperanza has moored to the dock at the back of the refinery, preventing palm oil being unloaded from incoming oil tankers.

IOI suppliers are linked to serious environmental and human rights abuses such as destruction of Indonesian rainforests, starting illegal fires and child labour. Palm oil from these companies continues to flood into Europe and the USA, research by Greenpeace reveals. Findings include:

• Destruction of primary forest in Papua and Kalimantan.
• Development on peatland
• Extensive uncontrolled fires including evidence of deliberate setting of fires in land clearing .
• Human rights abuses: use of excessive force, exploitation of workers and evidence of child labour.
• Non-compliance with the criteria and principles of the sustainability label (RSPO)

Plantation industries such as palm oil have been clearing rainforests and draining peatland for years, creating ideal conditions for the extensive forest fires that have ravaged Indonesia over the past two decades. [2] Last year’s fires were catastrophic, blanketing the region in a choking smoke haze for months. Between July and October 2015 more than 2 million hectares of Indonesian forest and peatland burned [3], an area half the size of the Netherlands. The resulting smoke haze caused an estimated 100,300 premature deaths across South East Asia in 2015, a Harvard and Columbia study revealed last week.[4]

The two Indonesian men have travelled from West Kalimantan in Indonesian Borneo to the Netherlands to bring their protest against IOI to the company’s European base. One of them is Nilus Kasmi. Fires caused Nilus and his family great hardship last year – they were exposed to the toxic particles and fumes which closed schools, offices and brought business to a standstill.