[open-sustainability] Land grab in Cameroon by Foreign companies

Sun Jan 6 22:20:08 UTC 2013

Dear All

Happy Ney Year! The link below on Cameroon may be of interest to some of you. It unravels the plight of many local communities in Cameroon who are dispossessed of their only livelihood capital - land by foreign companies with the connivance of greedy and corrupt officials.

In 2009, Herakles Farms, a New York based company, through its subsidiary, SG Sustainable Oils Cameroon, Ltd. (SGSOC), acquired over 73,000 ha of pristine rainforest in Cameroon for a palm oil plantation, through a lease of 99 years, paying $0.50 - $1.00 per ha. From its very name, American-owned SG Sustainable Oils Cameroon, Ltd. (SGSOC) presents a pro-environment, pro-resources image. This is supported by an impressive-sounding partnership with an NGO by the name of All for Africa, and as a package typifies the kind of convoluted modern-day foreign investment going on in Africa.

Herakles claims that its project will provide sustainable development including jobs, roads, health care, and even environmental protection. It is sadly all too familiar to communities on the ground. According to the locals, the Herakles plantation which would cover over 30 forest villages and threatens their livelihoods and an ancient forest at the heart of the wider Congo Basin rainforest - the world’s second-largest after the Amazon - is a land grab!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgrFvayJhE0<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgrFvayJhE0>

Could you kindly suggest what can be done to stop this dubious project going ahead?

Regards,

Bakia Mbianyor
Politics Development and Sustainability Research Group
Room 7, EMU Building
RH University of London
Egham, Surrey
United Kingdom.
TW20 0EX

Tel: +44 (0)1784 276157
Fax: +44 (0)1784 472836
Email: mbianyor.bakia.2010 at live.rhul.ac.uk
________________________________
From: open-sustainability-bounces at lists.okfn.org [open-sustainability-bounces at lists.okfn.org] on behalf of Jonathan Gray [jonathan.gray at okfn.org]
Sent: 04 January 2013 14:52
To: Discussion list for Working Group on Open Sustainability
Subject: [open-sustainability] Delayed action raises costs of climate change, study says

Happy New Year to you all!

I thought this might be of interest to some of you:

http://www.euractiv.com/climate-environment/delayed-action-raises-costs-clim-news-516847

While modelling in this area is obviously very complicated, I've always wanted to be able to have a rough and ready sense of how different climate policies might help us to limit warming to below 2 degrees.

Does anyone know of anything like this?

All the best,

Jonathan

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