Abuse in the Palm Oil Industry

by Luca Catalano Gonzaga
Part of Land and ocean grabbing
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In Liberia, international companies are taking over 1.5 million acres of land, causing problems for local communities, including loss of their land, livelihoods, and negative environmental impact. One of these companies is the multinational Equatorial Palm Oil (EPO), accused by various NGOs of illegally clearing land and not consulting or supporting local communities. Many of the land acquisitions in Liberia were made during the country’s civil war and in the subsequent period, when the government was weak and unable to effectively regulate property transactions, often without local community consent and with little or no compensation. Child labor is also a significant issue in the palm oil industry in Liberia. Children are employed for tasks such as land clearing, planting, fruit picking, and heavy lifting. They are also used for dangerous tasks such as using machinery and handling chemicals. Poverty and lack of labor regulation are some of the main reasons for this phenomenon. In Buchanan, in particular, there have been serious human rights violations in the palm oil industry, including forced eviction of local communities, destruction of their homes and agricultural land, and exploitation of workers, including children. (text by Luca Catalano Gonzaga).

  • Buchanan, Grand Bassa County, Liberia. Plants for palm oil processing. The transformation process involves several steps, including the harvesting, cleaning and cutting of the fruit, pressing to extract the juice, and subsequent boiling to obtain the oil.
  • Buchanan, Grand Bassa County, Liberia. After pressing the palm oil fruits, the juice is introduced into a tank with continuous addition of water. It then undergoes manual washing and the juice is boiled for two days in barrels until all the water has evaporated, leaving the oil ready for sale.
  • Buchanan, Grand Bassa County, Liberia. The palm oil production process. After boiling, the fruits are collected for mechanical squeezing. The increasing demand for palm oil as an ingredient in food and cosmetic products has led to a rapid expansion of palm oil plantations, which often resort to child labor to keep costs low and increase productivity.
  • Buchanan, Grand Bassa County, Liberia. Mechanical palm oil milling plants. This type of activity often involves the use of minors as labor.
  • Buchanan, Grand Bassa County, Liberia. The various stages of palm oil processing, from mechanical pressing to boiling.
  • Buchanan, Grand Bassa County, Liberia. A female worker checking the boiling status, which involves cooking the palm oil fruits to separate the pulp from the nut.
  • Buchanan, Grand Bassa County, Liberia. The boiling of palm oil takes two days and this results in high wood consumption, causing a constant deforestation of the country’s tropical forests.
  • Buchanan, Grand Bassa County, Liberia. Plants for cooking palm oil fruits before mechanical pressing. The increasing production of palm oil has raised concerns about the environmental impact, particularly deforestation and loss of habitat for wildlife.
  • Buchanan, Grand Bassa County, Liberia. Boiling process involving cooking palm fruit to separate the flesh from the nut. This process requires the use of large amounts of water to maintain the moisture of the fruit. Palm oil is a versatile ingredient widely used in many food, cosmetic and cleaning products (from bread to deodorant and shampoo).
  • Buchanan, Grand Bassa County, Liberia. A female worker checks if the oil, after boiling, is ready to be transferred to containers and then sold. The palm oil boiling process involves transforming the raw product into a usable final product.
  • Buchanan, Grand Bassa County, Liberia. Production of palm oil: the process involves squeezing the flesh of the oil palm fruit to obtain the vegetable oil. Child labor is often used in this activity.
  • Oil palm processing. The fruits are poured into the digester and manually crushed by turning the vertical tree to extract a mixture of water and oil that is collected at the base. This process is often entrusted to child labor.
  • Fruit extraction. Today, palm oil is the most consumed vegetable oil in the world. It can be found in many foods (snacks, bread, cakes, and cookies), but also in personal hygiene products (detergents, soaps), and even in metal, plastic, rubber products and in processes for producing textiles, paints, paper and electronic components. Palm oil is also widely used for biodiesel production.
  • Buchanan, Grand Bassa County, Liberia. Refined palm oil is the most consumed food vegetable oil in the world because it is cheap and gives creaminess to products, making it suitable for many uses.
  • Buchanan, Grand Bassa County, Liberia. The palm tree produces its fruit in bunches that vary in weight from 10 to 40 kg. The individual fruit, which varies from 6 to 20 g, is composed of an outer skin (exocarp), a flesh (mesocarp) that contains palm oil in a fibrous matrix; a central shell consisting of a shell (endocarp) and a nut that in turn contains a very different oil from palm oil, similar to coconut oil.
  • Buchanan, Grand Bassa County, Liberia. The palm oil production process begins with the collection of the fruit from the oil palms. After separation from the bunch, the fruit flesh is subjected to mechanical pressing to extract the oil.
  • Buchanan, Grand Bassa County, Liberia. After a two-day boiling process, the palm oil is transferred to containers and then bottled in drums for marketing.
  • Buchanan, Grand Bassa County, Liberia. Hand squeezing of palm oil fruits. This method is used for some palm oil plants where the fruits are too hard for mechanical squeezing.
  • Buchanan, Grand Bassa County, Liberia. The cultivation of palm oil is a growing industry, but it is often associated with child labor.
  • Buchanan, Grand Bassa County, Liberia. The palm oil processing process involves mixing the oil with water, followed by separating the oil layer from the water which is then placed in barrels for the boiling phase which lasts for 2 days.
  • Buchanan, Grand Bassa County, Liberia. The process of purifying crude palm oil involves removing impurities through an evaporation phase. The result is a superior quality finished oil, ready to be used.
  • Buchanan, Grand Bassa County, Liberia. The first step in processing raw palm oil is to wash it with water, carefully mixing the two components to create a fruitful contact. After this step, a separation between water and oil is performed, as the latter tends to float due to its lightness. Subsequently, the product undergoes an evaporation process to eliminate volatile components.
  • Buchanan, Grand Bassa County, Liberia. Hand squeezing of the empty clusters left from their fruits. They will be used as combustion in the subsequent boiling phase.
  • Buchanan, Grand Bassa County, Liberia. The clusters without fruits are collected and subsequently used as fuel in the palm oil boiling phase.
  • Buchanan, Grand Bassa County, Liberia. The transformation of palm oil may require large amounts of water, particularly for the boiling phase. Child labor is used for the collection and transportation of water.
  • Buchanan, Grand Bassa County, Liberia. The boiling process involves cooking palm oil fruits to separate the pulp from the nut and this process requires the use of large amounts of water to maintain the humidity of the fruits.
  • Buchanan, Grand Bassa County, Liberia. The palm oil is poured into drums and then sold. On average, a family of farmers produces 200 liters of palm oil per month with an average income of 100 dollars (3 dollars a day).
  • Buchanan, Grand Bassa County, Liberia. A break during the palm oil transformation activity.
  • Buchanan, Grand Bassa County, Liberia. Palm oil is a vegetable oil that comes from the fruit of the oil palm tree. The oil palm begins to bear fruit two or three years after planting and continues to bear fruit throughout its life of about 25 years.
  • Buchanan, Grand Bassa County, Liberia. The fruit collection of palm oil by the company Equatorial Palm Oil (EPO) has been criticized for alleged illegal deforestation activities and the lack of consultation with local communities. EPO is 62.8% controlled by the powerful Malaysian oil company Kuala Lumpur Kepong Berhad (KLK), which has been implicated in allegations of illicit activities related to projects in Papua New Guinea and Indonesia.
  • Buchanan, Grand Bassa County, Liberia. A truck loaded with palm oil fruits is collected at the Equatorial Palm Oil (EPO) plantations. The plantation covers approximately 34,000 hectares with a presence of around 1,800 workers on 3-month renewable fixed-term contracts. These workers receive a wage of $5 a day with no health coverage. EPO is 62.8% controlled by the Malaysian palm oil giant Kuala Lumpur Kepong Berhad (KLK).
  • Buchanan, Grand Bassa County, Liberia. Child labor in palm oil production exposes children to risks, excessive physical efforts, and precarious working conditions. This takes away their opportunity to have a normal childhood and enjoy the right to education.
  • Buchanan, Grand Bassa County, Liberia. In Liberia, as in many other developing nations, the lack of economic alternatives compels families to take up palm oil cultivation. However, the low prices paid by companies for the harvest make it difficult for local farmers to generate an adequate income to support their families.
  • Buchanan, Grand Bassa County, Liberia. Families are often forced to send their children to work in palm oil cultivation due to extreme poverty. This leads to the denial of minors’ right to education and can have negative consequences on their life and future.
  • Buchanan, Grand Bassa County, Liberia. Bamboo canes are used as a tool to gather fruit from the tops of oil palms. Being an affordable and easily available material, they are an ideal option for local farming families.
  • Buchanan, Grand Bassa County, Liberia. Manual harvesting with bamboo canes is labor-intensive and time-consuming. Using longer bamboo canes can also increase the risk of injury, as it can make it more difficult to maintain balance during harvesting.
  • Buchanan, Grand Bassa County, Liberia. The growing demand for palm oil as an ingredient in food and cosmetic products has led to a rapid expansion of oil palm plantations. This has resulted in the destruction of large areas of rainforest, which has had a negative impact on local biodiversity and the community that relies on the forest for their livelihood. Furthermore, deforestation contributes to climate change, as the forest is an important carbon sink.
  • Buchanan, Grand Bassa County, Liberia. In many rural areas, wood is the main fuel used to power boilers for palm oil boiling. This intensive use of wood has negative environmental consequences, as it contributes to deforestation and the destruction of significant areas of rainforest.
  • Buchanan, Grand Bassa County, Liberia. Liberia is the most forested country in West Africa, with rainforests covering about two thirds of its territory. Since 2000, about 22% of the nation’s tree cover has been lost due to deforestation for palm oil plantation expansion.
  • Buchanan, Grand Bassa County, Liberia. Clearing land for planting new oil palm trees. Deforestation has a negative impact on biodiversity and the health of communities that rely on the forest for sustenance and on climate stability.
  • Buchanan, Grand Bassa County, Liberia. Child labor is a widespread issue in palm oil plantations, where children are often employed in dangerous and heavy work such as clearing land for new oil palm plants.
  • Buchanan, Grand Bassa County, Liberia. The high yield of oil palms has encouraged wider cultivation, resulting in massive deforestation of rainforests to make room for oil palm monoculture.
  • Buchanan, Grand Bassa County, Liberia. Deforestation caused by palm oil production often involves the use of child labor.

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