Mar15

[posted on Amnesty International, November 28, 2016] Palm Oil: Global brands profiting from child and forced labor. Unilever, Nestlé, Proctor & Gamble among nine household names contributing to labor abuse. The world’s most popular food and household companies are selling food, cosmetics and other everyday staples containing palm oil tainted by shocking human rights abuses in Indonesia, with children as young as eight working in...

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Mar13

[posted on Union of Concerned Scientists] Found in everything from shampoo to donuts, palm oil is now the most common vegetable oil in the world—and also one of the world’s leading deforestation drivers. Palm oil is extracted from the fruit of the oil palm tree, Elaeis guineensis, which thrives in humid climates. The large majority of palm oil production occurs in just two countries, Malaysia and Indonesia, where huge swaths of...

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Mar11

[posted by Nina Lakhani on The Guardian, February 28, 2017] The Honduran environmental activist’s killing a year ago bears the hallmarks of a ‘well-planned operation designed by military intelligence’ says legal source. Leaked court documents raise concerns that the murder of the Honduran environmentalist Berta Cáceres was an extrajudicial killing planned by military intelligence specialists linked to the country’s US–trained special...

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Mar09

[posted on ECCJ – European Coalition for Corporate Justice, February 21, 2017] The French Parliament adopted a much-awaited law establishing a duty of vigilance obligation for parent and subcontracting companies. The law marks a historic step towards improving corporate respect for human rights and the environment. ECCJ joins the French corporate accountability platform, Forum Citoyen pour la RSE in calling on European...

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Mar07

[posted by Vince Beiser on The Guardian, February 27, 2017] From Cambodia to California, industrial-scale sand mining is causing wildlife to die, local trade to wither and bridges to collapse. And booming urbanisation means the demand for this increasingly valuable resource is unlikely to let up. Times are good for Fey Wei Dong. A genial, middle-aged businessman based near Shanghai, China, Fey says he is raking in the equivalent of...

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Mar01

[posted on Global Witness, February 13, 2017] The latest developments in a multi-billion dollar corruption scandal show how the net is closing in on oil bosses who allow shady deals to happen on their watch – and how vital global transparency rules that make such deals much harder must be upheld. Last month, we celebrated a huge victory for the people of Nigeria when news broke that the Nigerian government seized a valuable block OPL...

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