Greasy Loot
00:24
Land clearing on Sumatra. As more and more oil palm plantations are set up, Indonesia’s rain forest must give way. Monocultures of palm trees stretch as far as the eye can see.
00:39:15 Titel GREASY LOOT
00:47 Titel Oil Palm form Indonesia
00:53 Titel Altemeier Hornung presents
01:00
The fruits of oil palms contain the healthy, low cholestorol vegetable fat used in margarine.
01:14
Palm kernel meal and cake supply healthy feed for European farm animals. In times of BSE, the world needs vegetable fat more than ever.
01:28
The oil palm must grow for at least three years before it bears the fruit from which the oil is pressed. The cheapest palm oil in the world comes from Indonesia. Since the mid nineties international investors have been ensuring the constant expansion of palm oil production in Indonesia.
Today the island state is the second biggest producer after Malaysia. For this the forests of the indigenous people of Sumatra have had to give way to the plantations.
02:02
O-Ton Suku Anak Dalam
There is only a small forest left in the national park around the mountain summits. Where can we find enough fruits and animals to feed ourselves? That’s the only place where we can still search for food. There are plantations everywhere in the plains. What are we to eat?
02:19
The palm oil seeds must be processed within 24 hours, otherwise the fruit rots. We follow the trucks that race along the roads of the plantations day and night.
02:39
We film in secret. For years there have been land conflicts with local residents.
02:46
The waste is burnt right outside the factory gates. Journalists are not welcome here.
This plant belongs to Asian Agro, the palm oil division of Raja Garuda Mas, a company that operates worldwide. Apart from palm oil it also produces pulp and paper.
03:05
The oil press is the only one in this region. The company owns 250.000 acres of mono cultures, but Asian Agro still has to buy from outside. Because of its monopoly it can set the prices it pays to local farmers. Excess liquids and other waste is created in the process of crushing the fruit.
03:40
It is simply discharged into nature. No fish can survive in this water. The oxygen level is far too low, due to organic waste which reacts with the water.
03:53
The largest producer of Indonesian palm oil is the Singapor based company Sinar Mas. Its creditors are spread around the world, including well known banks such as Deutsche Bank or Banque Nationale de Paris.
Here in Sarolangun in the district of Jambi there are serious tensions with the local population. The villagers say Kresna Duta Agroindo the company in charge has stolen 25.000 acres of their land. The 16 oil palm presses need feeding. The aim is to undercut all competitors, which is only possible by producing vast amounts.
For vegetable fat to stay runny it must be constantly heated.
04:38
More than ninety per cent of the palm oil is produced for the European market. To increase Indonesia’s chances on the international market the government has waved the export tax. After all Indonesia wants to be number one among the world’s palm oil producing countries within the next eight years.
04:58
Sinar Mas works with the world’s largest palm oil trader Cargil, an American company. They’ve joined forces to reach their goal of increasing the country’s palm oil production.
05:24
From the harbor in Jambi the greasy cargo is shipped to Rotterdam.
05:44
Thanks to the Indonesian dumping prices a ton of palm oil currently costs only 280 US dollars. A few years ago it still went for 500 dollars.
From Rotterdam harbor the vegetable fat is distributed across the whole of Europe.
06:04
To the German city of Kleve in the lower Rhine valley, for example.
Here the palm oil is delivered to one of Europe’s oldest margarine factories. It now belongs to the international Unilever group. The company processes around 1.5 million tons of palm oil a year.
06:28
The raw fat, pressed in Indonesia, is refined here in Germany. The third world was and still is merely a supplier of the raw material.
06:46
O-Ton Head of the refinery Unilevercopacker Wieland Reich
“Here you see the raw material as the palm oil is delivered to us. That means that it still has an orange color. So this orange color is taken out as well as the unwanted substances so that afterwards in the refined end product we then actually have the color that we can deliver to the margarine factory. And also the desired attributes as they naturally not only process the pure palm oil but rather compositions of different oils for their end products.”
07:22
Among the unwanted substances are pesticide residues. After criticism from environmental groups over the consequences of palm oil production in Indonesia the food giant has decided to change its ways.
07:38
O-Ton Head of the Unilever refinery.
“Within Unilever the project ‘sustainable agriculture’ is being set up to achieve exactly this. The possibility to follow and guarantee all the quality parameters within the chain of production. That means for me in the area of refinery, which is only a small part of the supply process, that I can track the raw material’s origin and quality attributes.”
08:11
Sustainable agriculture takes better care of the environment.
Only one sixth of the palm oil used in Unilever’s margarine comes from the company’s own production, the rest is bought on the free market.
08:24
In comparison to sunflower and rapeseed oil as raw material for margarine, Indonesian palm oil is extremely cheap…
08:33
…- it’s also virtually indispensable in our health-conscious society.
08:41
This low cholesterol fat is used not only for baking and deep frying at home but especially in the industrial production of sweets, cookies and many different processed foods.
08:54
But oil palm and oil palm fruit peel are not only used in food production. They’re also common ingredients for washing powder, soap, cosmetics and shampoo. Worldwide consumption has doubled over the last 15 years and demand is still on the increase.
09:13
This is not likely to change, according to the consulting firm Oil World Mielke – a leading adviser to international investors in the palm oil sector. Mielke even sees the expansion of production as inevitable.
09:30
O-Ton
Thomas Mielke Oil World; Mielke Consulting
“This is a very necessary development because worldwide we need an annual increase in palm oil production of roughly 1.2 Million tons within the next 10 years. That is a difficult task, especially because areas that are available for planting in Malaysia are decreasing. That’s why Indonesia offers to be a country with a great growth potential. But that has to be opened up.”
10:30
The last rain forest paradise on Sumatra. In these protected areas the indigenous people still live in harmony with nature.
10:49
But where there are no roads, wide rivers serve as infrastructure for the exploitation of still intact rain forests.
11:01
Clear cut for the oil palm plantations of the Sinar Mas company.
11:18
Here in Lingun, Jambi 7.400 acres are cut down. Throughout the country the affected area totals 670.000 acres. That’s an area of land the size of Belgium. First the wood is cleared away and taken to the paper mills - then what’s left of the forest is simply burned.
11:41
Using fire for land clearing is illegal in Indonesia. Several times the companies Raja Garuda Mas and Sinar Mas have been found guilty of arson by Indonesian courts, but fire is still the cheapest way of preparing the rain forest for their monocultures. The verdicts count only on paper.
12:05
One example is the district of Banko Jambi. In this case the company Sinar Mas started the fire. The permits for these new plantations are from the authorities in Jakarta, although, according to Indonesian law the land belongs to the people who cultivate it. Particularly in Jambi bribed state officials are lax in the enforcement of this law.
12:32
O-Ton Farmers
This was our land. We lived from the forest, it fed us and our people. We also owned several fields. Now it’s very hard for us. We have no fields anymore and nothing to live off.
12:50
Just one example of tens of thousands of people. The Suku Anak Dalam, Jambi’s indigenous people are most affected. They’ve lost their basis of living.
13:22
In night time rituals the shaman summons the good spirits. Through his dancing he reaches ecstasy.
13:43
He begs the Gods to protect his people from the oil palm plantation.
14:00
The faith in the power of nature and its spirits - against the almighty palm oil companies. The Suku Anak Dalam people are mercilessly driven off their indigenous land by the owners of the palm oil companies.
14:17
O-Ton
Suku Anak Dalam
They are sucking the blood out of our bodies from head to toe. I am despaired and I’m willing to die for this land. It is holy for us, but the palm oil companies come to our huts and threaten us. They say if you don’t want to work on the plantation, clear off into the forest! We don’t want to surrender our land, but the companies don’t care.
15:00
Traditionally the nomads live in the forest. The fruits of the forest are their food.
15:12
Trees offer protection from storms.
15:22
The national park Bukit Duablas is one of the last places of refuge for the Suku Anak Dalam. Since the forest can no longer feed them they make baskets from wild rattan and swap them especially for food.
After a hard struggle against the state they managed to secure this last corner of living space.
15:44
They call themselves the children of the rain forest. It is father and mother for them. They would never dare to log one of its mighty trees. For he who destroys nature, will suffer the wrath of the spirits – or so their legend says.
16:12
They are driven deeper and deeper into the forests, but even here far from the roads and villages they are haunted by the sound of chain saws.
16:46
These men once were farmers. They have no license to log trees, but as large companies simply took away their fields and turned them into oil palm plantations, they have no other way to survive than to join in the illegal logging of these valuable trees.
17:17
O-Ton Illegal loggers.
The work on these oil palm plantations is like that in the days of colonialism – nothing but exploitation. We’re only day-laborers and when it rains there’s no work. We prefer to work independently and we can live from our work. On an oil palm plantation you’re only paid a pittance, if anything at all. And the pay is often late.
17:42
Most of the workers come from distant villages or they are transmigrant from the overpopulated neighboring island of Java. They came to Sumatra through a re-settlement program, financed by German development aid and the World Bank. They can’t live off the land they were given. They’re day laborers now. And because they don’t earn enough to send their children to school, the boys and girls end up working.
18:20
This boy has been working on the oil palm plantation since he was 13 years old.
18:40
O-Ton
Sprecherin:
How much do you earn a day
Boy:
I earn 1 Dollar 20 a day.
Sprecherin:
And how long do you have to work for that?
Boy:
Four hours.
Sprecherin:
Why don’t you go to school?
Boy:
I went to pre-school and to elementary school, but then we couldn’t afford it any more.
19:13
Only few workers are needed on these plantations.
Of the three thousand villagers, who lost their land to the Kresna Duta Agri Indo corporation, only six men found work on the plantation. The production is industrially organised and rationalised. Weeds for example, are simply killed by the massive use of herbicides.
19:37
They often consist of highly toxic chemicals, which are a health threat for the workers. “Use only with mask” is written on the canister. But who cares about such things here? These herbicides come from the US bio-tech and chemical giant Monsanto.
19:54
The Sinar Mas corporation has housed whole villages of re-settlers on its plantations, supported by a World Banks’ transmigration program.
Cheap labor through the kind help of the World Bank.
In Sumatra Sinar Mas runs three giant pulp factories. They are bankrupt, due to falling paper prices. But Sinar Mas was clever – they let European governments back the loans for these unprofitable factories.
20:26
Through its own money laundry, the Bank International Indonesia, the Sinar Mas syndicate has transferred billions of dollars into the palm oil business.
20:37
The money was acquired with the help of European governments and banks. Now the investors are searching for lost credits amounting to more than a billion dollars. They put their trust in the corporation after countries like Germany granted them government backed loans.
21:12
The German development society, a state owned bank, also supports the palm oil production of the Sinar Mas group with millions of Dollars.
21:26
Dr. Herbert Baungärtner DEG Indonesien
All the projects we finance must fulfill three criteria. First of course they have to be economically viable. But they also have to be ecologically sound and we check this very carefully. And they have to make sense in socio-political terms. In this case that means they have to contribute to the development of Indonesia. That’s very important for us. So on the one hand it has to be profitable, but it also has to help the country in its development.
22:00
The Asian Development Bank, the Asian subsidiary of the World Bank, also supports the palm oil business. The bank was commissioned in the name of western governments to finance projects which contribute positively to the development of Indonesia.
22:19
Englischen O-Ton stehen lassen William H.Menninger Projektleiter ADB
22:47
What European governments are financing with state banks and guaranteeing with 1.3 billion tax dollars, is also receiving loans from private banks.
22:56
Deutsche Bank and the French bank BNP have poured millions into the Sinar Mas corporation. After all Sinar Mas was said to have been checked meticulously both for its economic and ecological credentials.
23:12
Now the shares of Sinar Mas are no longer traded on the stock market and in Singapore a state prosecuter has started a fraud investigation.
The Dutch bank ABN Amro as well as the British-Dutch ING Bank have invested in the palm oil business.
23:30
These pulp factories can continue to produce, because international investors have to foot the bill, with taxpayers’ money.
The expansion of Sinar Mas in the palm oil sector as well as the dumping prices for the raw material are thereby financed indirectly with European tax money.
23:55
Since they opened, the hungry mills of the pulp factories have eaten millions of tons of wood. Because there is hardly any sustainable supply from plantations, they have to destroy intact rain forest to cover the demand for raw materials.
When we filmed this logging area three years ago, we were told that in the future acacias would grow here for the paper mills.
24:23
Now upon our return we find that hardly a tree grows here for the paper industry.
But Sinar Mas has planted ten thousands of acres of oil palm monocultures.
24:37
This way they’re getting around the regulations of the supporting countries. They wanted only to give their loans, on the condition that the logging stopped.
And yet still the local authorities continue to make concessions - getting the permission to build new oil palm plantations from the Indonesian government is no problem at all for this international corporation.
25:00
When this much money is at stake, the military and the police always stand firmly on the side of the palm oil industry in conflicts with farmers who refuse to give up their land.
25:16
The plantations are even guarded by the military. If necessary the police will shoot at peaceful farmers as this villager confirms.
25:26
O-Ton Victim
The police did this.
Why did they do this?
I don’t know. We walked past the front gate of the plantation to negotiate with the factory bosses. Because Sinar Mas stole the land from our village Empang Benao. All farmers wanted to go to the offices of those in charge, to find a solution. When we were 50 meters from the entrance they started shooting at us.
26:00
This is by no means an exception in Empang Benao, a village which lost all its forest and fields to the company. But these farmers continue to protest, supported by the environmental group WAHLI. Rivani Noor is a lawyer who advises the farmers.
26:19
O-Ton Rivani
We have made maps of all the villages in the area, to document the land ownership. So for example where the border of this village Tanjung or of other villages runs. But we don’t just need the approval of the villagers, we also need the permission of the village head. For these questions of ownership to be clear, the council of village elders should also sign and of course the council of the indigenous people, such as the Sembilan Ilir.
26:52
But this alone isn’t enough for the farmers.
26:58
O-Ton Dörfler
We must carefully plan what to do. Not everything at once, but step by step. That’s our only hope. We need this plan of action, so that we can monitor whether we are making any progress and continue until justice prevails. Now we should all write a letter together. We want the governor to make a statement. If we have to, we will send this letter on to Jakarta.
27:28
These farmers also know that the European governments and banks are partly to blame for their misery. For the people here every single day counts. Their fight has become a struggle for survival in this fertile land.
27:57
O-Ton Frau
We desperately need help. We have hardly any rice left to feed ourselves, because we no longer have fields or forests. Since our husbands have been jailed and the bread-winners are gone we have no more income and have become beggars.
28:21
Farmers are still imprisoned.
28:24
Their only offence was to demonstrate against the Sinar Mas factory for taking away their land.
28:31
Torture is daily business here.
28:46
O-Ton Opfer
When they tried to shoot at me, I ran away and tried to mount my bicycle. They followed me and my bicycle broke down. I fell and they started to beat me. I was lying on my stomach and was covered in blood, half unconscious.
Then they put me on my feet and held a gun to my head and I heard a bang. Look here, this is where they beat me unconscious with the butt of the gun.
29:30
In the mean time Sinar Mas has discovered a new lucrative business. They sell not only the oil of the oil palm fruits, but also the peal and the palm cake.
29:45
A waste product - but one that makes good animal feed for cows. Sinar Mas’s entire animal feed production is shipped to Europe.
30:00
Large importers, such as the Alfred C. Töpfer company in Hamburg supply the whole of Europe with oil palm kernel meal from Indonesia. As an additive to animal feed it is an extremly cheap product. Less than seventy dollars a ton, a price that is hard to beat, and creates stiff competition for European animal feed.
30:33
Especially since the Mad Cow Disease crisis vegetable protein has become an essential ingredient in European cattle feed. As the use of animal protein in cattle feed was banned, producers must list the ingredients of their feed more clearly. Oil palm kernel meal is completely harmless for European consumers.
That’s why quality animal feed producers are changing their recipes and supplying farmers with Indonesian oil palm kernel meal.
31:05
European farmers are under pressure. On the one hand beef prices have fallen and on the other hand agriculture regulations are tougher than ever before. Cattle feed must be of prime quality, shouldn’t cost more and can contain only vegetable protein. An equation which is hard to balance.
31:27
Many cattle farms are facing bankruptcy. Consumer trust has to be rebuilt and the future of Europe’s agriculture secured.
31:42
Healthy cattle - thanks to global trade and the Indonesian oil palm.
A positive example of globalisation - if only it weren’t for the plight of the Indonesian farmers.
32:10
Farmer Carsten Bünz
It’s not a simple question. If one looks at it from a humanitarian standpoint, then one would have to say no, we can’t do this to our colleagues on the other side of the world. But you also have to consider that we all have to survive and we’re all competing in a global market in which we have to think of ourselves first.
32:33
So farmers in Europe can only survive in the global market if they use its opportunities. Thanks to the cheap cattle feed from Indonesia their cows are bursting with plentiful milk to give.
32:55
Not only spin off products such as palm cake and palm kernel meal are used for meat production, but also the pure oil itself. Like here in the central German pig farming region of Westphalia.
Cheap and healthy palm oil is a good alternative to animal fat and well suited for fattening pigs. To ensure the pork meets the expectations of even the most distinguished gourmets, vanilla or coconut aroma can be mixed into the palm oil.
33:32
An exotic aroma that gives the local grain an extra kick.
Animal feed experts were sceptical at first whether palm oil would find its way into German pig troughs. But their doubts proved wrong – German farmers soon recognised the benefits of this easily digestable oil.
33:57
The pigs like the feed. They get fat quickly and are sent to the slaughterhouse in only a hundred days.
34:19
So the pork despising muslim in Jambi is left with his prayers to Allah.
34:31
“Justice and freedom for the farmers.” More and more farmers in Jambi are losing their forests and their fields to the corporations. They want their land back and call upon the government to start financing reforestation instead of deforestation. The Indonesian environmental organisation Wahli Jambi supports the farmers.
34:56
The government must finally stop thinking only about profit.
35:21
The government spokesman promises a lot, but really all they are concerned about is the expansion of the oil palm plantations.
The governor’s plan is to build a 2.5 million acres of new oil palm plantations alone in Jambi, with the help of international creditors.
35:43
O-Ton
Feri Irawan Wahli Jambi
So far the governor has not specified this program. We from WAHLI Jambi have asked many times on whose land there is space for a one million hectare plantation, and how this plan is to be carried out.
36:05
More than 30 per cent of all oil palm plantations are cultivated by small holders. But the farmers can’t afford to buy the necessary equipment to deliver the fruits to the factory on time. The small farmers are dependant on traders because they do not own the facilities to process the fruits. That’s why many small oil palm plantations are out of business. Without outside help this won’t change.
36:36
For the palm trees to grow fast, they need fertilizer. A farmer on his own can’t afford to invest the money needed in advance. It takes years before a palm tree carries its first fruits. For small farmers fertilizer is scarce, as the large corporations such as Sinar Mas have a monopoly on it. On their huge plantations they use a massive amount of fertilizer containing phosphates.
37:05
The rain washes it into the rivers and pollutes them.
37:24
The Cirad in France. A state owned research institute which is working on finding ways to make better use of existing palm oil plantations in order to limit their further expansion in the rainforest.
For this, special oil palms are being developed. Cirad wants to make better use of fertilizer and also reduce the environmental damage through waste water.
37:46
O-Ton - Dr.Jean Marc Noel Cirad
We have found several ways of tackling these problems. They are currently being tested in industrial applications in Indonesia.
Very elegant solutions which enable us to solve all the problems at once, whilst at the same time returning essential minerals to the fields.
38:04
One of the partners of Cirad is Sinar Mas. The institute is researching the genes of the oil palm. In this context, Sinar Mas is contractually obliged to work with the local farmers and inform them about Cirads’ research findings.
38:25
The results of Professor Alain Rival’s extensive genetic research have so far led only to few practical applications.
38:38
Dr.Alain Rival Projektleiter
The day we know enough to do it, we will do what is best for the local needs, as we have done since the beginning of palm tree research at CIRAD. That means we will not produce a genetically engineered palm just to bring it onto the market for the sake of it. It has to fulfill the needs of industry in terms of the quality of the oil, or the needs of the plantation owners in terms of its resistance to illnesses and productivity.
39:09
Anyone who wants to buy palm oil produced in a socially fair manner, without fertilizer and pesticides, can do so today already by choosing organic palm oil.
39:23
So far organic margarine has only a small market share. But its sales are growing – in the last year alone they have doubled.
39:40
Medium size businesses like the Alsan margarine factory are highly profitable, although organically produced palm oil is a lot more expensive. It costs 600 US dollars per ton. A price which ensures fair trade, but is also inflated by high transport costs for still relatively small quantities.
40:07
Karsten Reich is a pioneer of the organic food trade in Germany.
40:16
Karsten Reich Naturkost wholesaler
In Indonesia we couldn’t find anyone to produce organic palm oil so far, despite hard efforts. We sent people there to find out what possibilities exist. But we failed because of the huge plantations there. So far nobody wants to engage in organic production, the structures just don’t seem to be right there.
40:40
Time is running out. If the current developments on the world market continue, in just four years time there will be no more forest left in Sumatra, only oil palm monocultures.
*****
00:24
Land clearing on Sumatra. As more and more oil palm plantations are set up, Indonesia’s rain forest must give way. Monocultures of palm trees stretch as far as the eye can see.
00:39:15 Titel GREASY LOOT
00:47 Titel Oil Palm form Indonesia
00:53 Titel Altemeier Hornung presents
01:00
The fruits of oil palms contain the healthy, low cholestorol vegetable fat used in margarine.
01:14
Palm kernel meal and cake supply healthy feed for European farm animals. In times of BSE, the world needs vegetable fat more than ever.
01:28
The oil palm must grow for at least three years before it bears the fruit from which the oil is pressed. The cheapest palm oil in the world comes from Indonesia. Since the mid nineties international investors have been ensuring the constant expansion of palm oil production in Indonesia.
Today the island state is the second biggest producer after Malaysia. For this the forests of the indigenous people of Sumatra have had to give way to the plantations.
02:02
O-Ton Suku Anak Dalam
There is only a small forest left in the national park around the mountain summits. Where can we find enough fruits and animals to feed ourselves? That’s the only place where we can still search for food. There are plantations everywhere in the plains. What are we to eat?
02:19
The palm oil seeds must be processed within 24 hours, otherwise the fruit rots. We follow the trucks that race along the roads of the plantations day and night.
02:39
We film in secret. For years there have been land conflicts with local residents.
02:46
The waste is burnt right outside the factory gates. Journalists are not welcome here.
This plant belongs to Asian Agro, the palm oil division of Raja Garuda Mas, a company that operates worldwide. Apart from palm oil it also produces pulp and paper.
03:05
The oil press is the only one in this region. The company owns 250.000 acres of mono cultures, but Asian Agro still has to buy from outside. Because of its monopoly it can set the prices it pays to local farmers. Excess liquids and other waste is created in the process of crushing the fruit.
03:40
It is simply discharged into nature. No fish can survive in this water. The oxygen level is far too low, due to organic waste which reacts with the water.
03:53
The largest producer of Indonesian palm oil is the Singapor based company Sinar Mas. Its creditors are spread around the world, including well known banks such as Deutsche Bank or Banque Nationale de Paris.
Here in Sarolangun in the district of Jambi there are serious tensions with the local population. The villagers say Kresna Duta Agroindo the company in charge has stolen 25.000 acres of their land. The 16 oil palm presses need feeding. The aim is to undercut all competitors, which is only possible by producing vast amounts.
For vegetable fat to stay runny it must be constantly heated.
04:38
More than ninety per cent of the palm oil is produced for the European market. To increase Indonesia’s chances on the international market the government has waved the export tax. After all Indonesia wants to be number one among the world’s palm oil producing countries within the next eight years.
04:58
Sinar Mas works with the world’s largest palm oil trader Cargil, an American company. They’ve joined forces to reach their goal of increasing the country’s palm oil production.
05:24
From the harbor in Jambi the greasy cargo is shipped to Rotterdam.
05:44
Thanks to the Indonesian dumping prices a ton of palm oil currently costs only 280 US dollars. A few years ago it still went for 500 dollars.
From Rotterdam harbor the vegetable fat is distributed across the whole of Europe.
06:04
To the German city of Kleve in the lower Rhine valley, for example.
Here the palm oil is delivered to one of Europe’s oldest margarine factories. It now belongs to the international Unilever group. The company processes around 1.5 million tons of palm oil a year.
06:28
The raw fat, pressed in Indonesia, is refined here in Germany. The third world was and still is merely a supplier of the raw material.
06:46
O-Ton Head of the refinery Unilevercopacker Wieland Reich
“Here you see the raw material as the palm oil is delivered to us. That means that it still has an orange color. So this orange color is taken out as well as the unwanted substances so that afterwards in the refined end product we then actually have the color that we can deliver to the margarine factory. And also the desired attributes as they naturally not only process the pure palm oil but rather compositions of different oils for their end products.”
07:22
Among the unwanted substances are pesticide residues. After criticism from environmental groups over the consequences of palm oil production in Indonesia the food giant has decided to change its ways.
07:38
O-Ton Head of the Unilever refinery.
“Within Unilever the project ‘sustainable agriculture’ is being set up to achieve exactly this. The possibility to follow and guarantee all the quality parameters within the chain of production. That means for me in the area of refinery, which is only a small part of the supply process, that I can track the raw material’s origin and quality attributes.”
08:11
Sustainable agriculture takes better care of the environment.
Only one sixth of the palm oil used in Unilever’s margarine comes from the company’s own production, the rest is bought on the free market.
08:24
In comparison to sunflower and rapeseed oil as raw material for margarine, Indonesian palm oil is extremely cheap…
08:33
…- it’s also virtually indispensable in our health-conscious society.
08:41
This low cholesterol fat is used not only for baking and deep frying at home but especially in the industrial production of sweets, cookies and many different processed foods.
08:54
But oil palm and oil palm fruit peel are not only used in food production. They’re also common ingredients for washing powder, soap, cosmetics and shampoo. Worldwide consumption has doubled over the last 15 years and demand is still on the increase.
09:13
This is not likely to change, according to the consulting firm Oil World Mielke – a leading adviser to international investors in the palm oil sector. Mielke even sees the expansion of production as inevitable.
09:30
O-Ton
Thomas Mielke Oil World; Mielke Consulting
“This is a very necessary development because worldwide we need an annual increase in palm oil production of roughly 1.2 Million tons within the next 10 years. That is a difficult task, especially because areas that are available for planting in Malaysia are decreasing. That’s why Indonesia offers to be a country with a great growth potential. But that has to be opened up.”
10:30
The last rain forest paradise on Sumatra. In these protected areas the indigenous people still live in harmony with nature.
10:49
But where there are no roads, wide rivers serve as infrastructure for the exploitation of still intact rain forests.
11:01
Clear cut for the oil palm plantations of the Sinar Mas company.
11:18
Here in Lingun, Jambi 7.400 acres are cut down. Throughout the country the affected area totals 670.000 acres. That’s an area of land the size of Belgium. First the wood is cleared away and taken to the paper mills - then what’s left of the forest is simply burned.
11:41
Using fire for land clearing is illegal in Indonesia. Several times the companies Raja Garuda Mas and Sinar Mas have been found guilty of arson by Indonesian courts, but fire is still the cheapest way of preparing the rain forest for their monocultures. The verdicts count only on paper.
12:05
One example is the district of Banko Jambi. In this case the company Sinar Mas started the fire. The permits for these new plantations are from the authorities in Jakarta, although, according to Indonesian law the land belongs to the people who cultivate it. Particularly in Jambi bribed state officials are lax in the enforcement of this law.
12:32
O-Ton Farmers
This was our land. We lived from the forest, it fed us and our people. We also owned several fields. Now it’s very hard for us. We have no fields anymore and nothing to live off.
12:50
Just one example of tens of thousands of people. The Suku Anak Dalam, Jambi’s indigenous people are most affected. They’ve lost their basis of living.
13:22
In night time rituals the shaman summons the good spirits. Through his dancing he reaches ecstasy.
13:43
He begs the Gods to protect his people from the oil palm plantation.
14:00
The faith in the power of nature and its spirits - against the almighty palm oil companies. The Suku Anak Dalam people are mercilessly driven off their indigenous land by the owners of the palm oil companies.
14:17
O-Ton
Suku Anak Dalam
They are sucking the blood out of our bodies from head to toe. I am despaired and I’m willing to die for this land. It is holy for us, but the palm oil companies come to our huts and threaten us. They say if you don’t want to work on the plantation, clear off into the forest! We don’t want to surrender our land, but the companies don’t care.
15:00
Traditionally the nomads live in the forest. The fruits of the forest are their food.
15:12
Trees offer protection from storms.
15:22
The national park Bukit Duablas is one of the last places of refuge for the Suku Anak Dalam. Since the forest can no longer feed them they make baskets from wild rattan and swap them especially for food.
After a hard struggle against the state they managed to secure this last corner of living space.
15:44
They call themselves the children of the rain forest. It is father and mother for them. They would never dare to log one of its mighty trees. For he who destroys nature, will suffer the wrath of the spirits – or so their legend says.
16:12
They are driven deeper and deeper into the forests, but even here far from the roads and villages they are haunted by the sound of chain saws.
16:46
These men once were farmers. They have no license to log trees, but as large companies simply took away their fields and turned them into oil palm plantations, they have no other way to survive than to join in the illegal logging of these valuable trees.
17:17
O-Ton Illegal loggers.
The work on these oil palm plantations is like that in the days of colonialism – nothing but exploitation. We’re only day-laborers and when it rains there’s no work. We prefer to work independently and we can live from our work. On an oil palm plantation you’re only paid a pittance, if anything at all. And the pay is often late.
17:42
Most of the workers come from distant villages or they are transmigrant from the overpopulated neighboring island of Java. They came to Sumatra through a re-settlement program, financed by German development aid and the World Bank. They can’t live off the land they were given. They’re day laborers now. And because they don’t earn enough to send their children to school, the boys and girls end up working.
18:20
This boy has been working on the oil palm plantation since he was 13 years old.
18:40
O-Ton
Sprecherin:
How much do you earn a day
Boy:
I earn 1 Dollar 20 a day.
Sprecherin:
And how long do you have to work for that?
Boy:
Four hours.
Sprecherin:
Why don’t you go to school?
Boy:
I went to pre-school and to elementary school, but then we couldn’t afford it any more.
19:13
Only few workers are needed on these plantations.
Of the three thousand villagers, who lost their land to the Kresna Duta Agri Indo corporation, only six men found work on the plantation. The production is industrially organised and rationalised. Weeds for example, are simply killed by the massive use of herbicides.
19:37
They often consist of highly toxic chemicals, which are a health threat for the workers. “Use only with mask” is written on the canister. But who cares about such things here? These herbicides come from the US bio-tech and chemical giant Monsanto.
19:54
The Sinar Mas corporation has housed whole villages of re-settlers on its plantations, supported by a World Banks’ transmigration program.
Cheap labor through the kind help of the World Bank.
In Sumatra Sinar Mas runs three giant pulp factories. They are bankrupt, due to falling paper prices. But Sinar Mas was clever – they let European governments back the loans for these unprofitable factories.
20:26
Through its own money laundry, the Bank International Indonesia, the Sinar Mas syndicate has transferred billions of dollars into the palm oil business.
20:37
The money was acquired with the help of European governments and banks. Now the investors are searching for lost credits amounting to more than a billion dollars. They put their trust in the corporation after countries like Germany granted them government backed loans.
21:12
The German development society, a state owned bank, also supports the palm oil production of the Sinar Mas group with millions of Dollars.
21:26
Dr. Herbert Baungärtner DEG Indonesien
All the projects we finance must fulfill three criteria. First of course they have to be economically viable. But they also have to be ecologically sound and we check this very carefully. And they have to make sense in socio-political terms. In this case that means they have to contribute to the development of Indonesia. That’s very important for us. So on the one hand it has to be profitable, but it also has to help the country in its development.
22:00
The Asian Development Bank, the Asian subsidiary of the World Bank, also supports the palm oil business. The bank was commissioned in the name of western governments to finance projects which contribute positively to the development of Indonesia.
22:19
Englischen O-Ton stehen lassen William H.Menninger Projektleiter ADB
22:47
What European governments are financing with state banks and guaranteeing with 1.3 billion tax dollars, is also receiving loans from private banks.
22:56
Deutsche Bank and the French bank BNP have poured millions into the Sinar Mas corporation. After all Sinar Mas was said to have been checked meticulously both for its economic and ecological credentials.
23:12
Now the shares of Sinar Mas are no longer traded on the stock market and in Singapore a state prosecuter has started a fraud investigation.
The Dutch bank ABN Amro as well as the British-Dutch ING Bank have invested in the palm oil business.
23:30
These pulp factories can continue to produce, because international investors have to foot the bill, with taxpayers’ money.
The expansion of Sinar Mas in the palm oil sector as well as the dumping prices for the raw material are thereby financed indirectly with European tax money.
23:55
Since they opened, the hungry mills of the pulp factories have eaten millions of tons of wood. Because there is hardly any sustainable supply from plantations, they have to destroy intact rain forest to cover the demand for raw materials.
When we filmed this logging area three years ago, we were told that in the future acacias would grow here for the paper mills.
24:23
Now upon our return we find that hardly a tree grows here for the paper industry.
But Sinar Mas has planted ten thousands of acres of oil palm monocultures.
24:37
This way they’re getting around the regulations of the supporting countries. They wanted only to give their loans, on the condition that the logging stopped.
And yet still the local authorities continue to make concessions - getting the permission to build new oil palm plantations from the Indonesian government is no problem at all for this international corporation.
25:00
When this much money is at stake, the military and the police always stand firmly on the side of the palm oil industry in conflicts with farmers who refuse to give up their land.
25:16
The plantations are even guarded by the military. If necessary the police will shoot at peaceful farmers as this villager confirms.
25:26
O-Ton Victim
The police did this.
Why did they do this?
I don’t know. We walked past the front gate of the plantation to negotiate with the factory bosses. Because Sinar Mas stole the land from our village Empang Benao. All farmers wanted to go to the offices of those in charge, to find a solution. When we were 50 meters from the entrance they started shooting at us.
26:00
This is by no means an exception in Empang Benao, a village which lost all its forest and fields to the company. But these farmers continue to protest, supported by the environmental group WAHLI. Rivani Noor is a lawyer who advises the farmers.
26:19
O-Ton Rivani
We have made maps of all the villages in the area, to document the land ownership. So for example where the border of this village Tanjung or of other villages runs. But we don’t just need the approval of the villagers, we also need the permission of the village head. For these questions of ownership to be clear, the council of village elders should also sign and of course the council of the indigenous people, such as the Sembilan Ilir.
26:52
But this alone isn’t enough for the farmers.
26:58
O-Ton Dörfler
We must carefully plan what to do. Not everything at once, but step by step. That’s our only hope. We need this plan of action, so that we can monitor whether we are making any progress and continue until justice prevails. Now we should all write a letter together. We want the governor to make a statement. If we have to, we will send this letter on to Jakarta.
27:28
These farmers also know that the European governments and banks are partly to blame for their misery. For the people here every single day counts. Their fight has become a struggle for survival in this fertile land.
27:57
O-Ton Frau
We desperately need help. We have hardly any rice left to feed ourselves, because we no longer have fields or forests. Since our husbands have been jailed and the bread-winners are gone we have no more income and have become beggars.
28:21
Farmers are still imprisoned.
28:24
Their only offence was to demonstrate against the Sinar Mas factory for taking away their land.
28:31
Torture is daily business here.
28:46
O-Ton Opfer
When they tried to shoot at me, I ran away and tried to mount my bicycle. They followed me and my bicycle broke down. I fell and they started to beat me. I was lying on my stomach and was covered in blood, half unconscious.
Then they put me on my feet and held a gun to my head and I heard a bang. Look here, this is where they beat me unconscious with the butt of the gun.
29:30
In the mean time Sinar Mas has discovered a new lucrative business. They sell not only the oil of the oil palm fruits, but also the peal and the palm cake.
29:45
A waste product - but one that makes good animal feed for cows. Sinar Mas’s entire animal feed production is shipped to Europe.
30:00
Large importers, such as the Alfred C. Töpfer company in Hamburg supply the whole of Europe with oil palm kernel meal from Indonesia. As an additive to animal feed it is an extremly cheap product. Less than seventy dollars a ton, a price that is hard to beat, and creates stiff competition for European animal feed.
30:33
Especially since the Mad Cow Disease crisis vegetable protein has become an essential ingredient in European cattle feed. As the use of animal protein in cattle feed was banned, producers must list the ingredients of their feed more clearly. Oil palm kernel meal is completely harmless for European consumers.
That’s why quality animal feed producers are changing their recipes and supplying farmers with Indonesian oil palm kernel meal.
31:05
European farmers are under pressure. On the one hand beef prices have fallen and on the other hand agriculture regulations are tougher than ever before. Cattle feed must be of prime quality, shouldn’t cost more and can contain only vegetable protein. An equation which is hard to balance.
31:27
Many cattle farms are facing bankruptcy. Consumer trust has to be rebuilt and the future of Europe’s agriculture secured.
31:42
Healthy cattle - thanks to global trade and the Indonesian oil palm.
A positive example of globalisation - if only it weren’t for the plight of the Indonesian farmers.
32:10
Farmer Carsten Bünz
It’s not a simple question. If one looks at it from a humanitarian standpoint, then one would have to say no, we can’t do this to our colleagues on the other side of the world. But you also have to consider that we all have to survive and we’re all competing in a global market in which we have to think of ourselves first.
32:33
So farmers in Europe can only survive in the global market if they use its opportunities. Thanks to the cheap cattle feed from Indonesia their cows are bursting with plentiful milk to give.
32:55
Not only spin off products such as palm cake and palm kernel meal are used for meat production, but also the pure oil itself. Like here in the central German pig farming region of Westphalia.
Cheap and healthy palm oil is a good alternative to animal fat and well suited for fattening pigs. To ensure the pork meets the expectations of even the most distinguished gourmets, vanilla or coconut aroma can be mixed into the palm oil.
33:32
An exotic aroma that gives the local grain an extra kick.
Animal feed experts were sceptical at first whether palm oil would find its way into German pig troughs. But their doubts proved wrong – German farmers soon recognised the benefits of this easily digestable oil.
33:57
The pigs like the feed. They get fat quickly and are sent to the slaughterhouse in only a hundred days.
34:19
So the pork despising muslim in Jambi is left with his prayers to Allah.
34:31
“Justice and freedom for the farmers.” More and more farmers in Jambi are losing their forests and their fields to the corporations. They want their land back and call upon the government to start financing reforestation instead of deforestation. The Indonesian environmental organisation Wahli Jambi supports the farmers.
34:56
The government must finally stop thinking only about profit.
35:21
The government spokesman promises a lot, but really all they are concerned about is the expansion of the oil palm plantations.
The governor’s plan is to build a 2.5 million acres of new oil palm plantations alone in Jambi, with the help of international creditors.
35:43
O-Ton
Feri Irawan Wahli Jambi
So far the governor has not specified this program. We from WAHLI Jambi have asked many times on whose land there is space for a one million hectare plantation, and how this plan is to be carried out.
36:05
More than 30 per cent of all oil palm plantations are cultivated by small holders. But the farmers can’t afford to buy the necessary equipment to deliver the fruits to the factory on time. The small farmers are dependant on traders because they do not own the facilities to process the fruits. That’s why many small oil palm plantations are out of business. Without outside help this won’t change.
36:36
For the palm trees to grow fast, they need fertilizer. A farmer on his own can’t afford to invest the money needed in advance. It takes years before a palm tree carries its first fruits. For small farmers fertilizer is scarce, as the large corporations such as Sinar Mas have a monopoly on it. On their huge plantations they use a massive amount of fertilizer containing phosphates.
37:05
The rain washes it into the rivers and pollutes them.
37:24
The Cirad in France. A state owned research institute which is working on finding ways to make better use of existing palm oil plantations in order to limit their further expansion in the rainforest.
For this, special oil palms are being developed. Cirad wants to make better use of fertilizer and also reduce the environmental damage through waste water.
37:46
O-Ton - Dr.Jean Marc Noel Cirad
We have found several ways of tackling these problems. They are currently being tested in industrial applications in Indonesia.
Very elegant solutions which enable us to solve all the problems at once, whilst at the same time returning essential minerals to the fields.
38:04
One of the partners of Cirad is Sinar Mas. The institute is researching the genes of the oil palm. In this context, Sinar Mas is contractually obliged to work with the local farmers and inform them about Cirads’ research findings.
38:25
The results of Professor Alain Rival’s extensive genetic research have so far led only to few practical applications.
38:38
Dr.Alain Rival Projektleiter
The day we know enough to do it, we will do what is best for the local needs, as we have done since the beginning of palm tree research at CIRAD. That means we will not produce a genetically engineered palm just to bring it onto the market for the sake of it. It has to fulfill the needs of industry in terms of the quality of the oil, or the needs of the plantation owners in terms of its resistance to illnesses and productivity.
39:09
Anyone who wants to buy palm oil produced in a socially fair manner, without fertilizer and pesticides, can do so today already by choosing organic palm oil.
39:23
So far organic margarine has only a small market share. But its sales are growing – in the last year alone they have doubled.
39:40
Medium size businesses like the Alsan margarine factory are highly profitable, although organically produced palm oil is a lot more expensive. It costs 600 US dollars per ton. A price which ensures fair trade, but is also inflated by high transport costs for still relatively small quantities.
40:07
Karsten Reich is a pioneer of the organic food trade in Germany.
40:16
Karsten Reich Naturkost wholesaler
In Indonesia we couldn’t find anyone to produce organic palm oil so far, despite hard efforts. We sent people there to find out what possibilities exist. But we failed because of the huge plantations there. So far nobody wants to engage in organic production, the structures just don’t seem to be right there.
40:40
Time is running out. If the current developments on the world market continue, in just four years time there will be no more forest left in Sumatra, only oil palm monocultures.
*****