The inhabitants of Mwingi and Bolesa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo need our help: Local activists were jailed after a protest against PHC, a palm oil company.

The inhabitants of more than 100 villages are being impacted by the PHC oil palm plantations (© RIAO-RDC)

Call to action

To: the authorities of the Democratic Republic of the Congo

“We demand the release of the activists and an end to violence and land grabbing. Local people must finally get their land rights and the right to free consent.”
Read letter

Communities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have suffered under palm oil companies for decades, and violence has erupted time and again: In 2015, a couple accused of stealing palm oil fruits was killed, and in 2019, the villager Joel Imbangola was beaten to death.

In February 2021, following a protest march against the palm oil company PHC, villagers, including local members of RIAO-RDC, were beaten and jailed.
Two reportedly received death threats, and women were sexually assaulted.
The occasion for the protest march was an anticipated visit by Kalaa Mpinga, the new CEO of Feronia-PHC. His Mauritius-registered corporation took over the plantations in 2020.

The villagers are accused of “inciting revolt”. Their taking photos of the protest march and giving interviews to journalists is also being held against them.

The roots of the conflict go back 110 years when the first plantations were established.

The local people were never consulted but were simply robbed of their ancestral land and thus their livelihood.

Please sign the Petition:

https://www.rainforest-rescue.org/petitions/1233/drc-release-the-palm-oil-protesters-jailed-in-mwingi

For more… at https://worldanimalsvoice.com/2021/02/18/congo-criminal-oligarchs-against-indigenous-people-and-nature/#more-38712

And I mean…Where previously there was a dense jungle, now only cut tree trunks lie on top of each other.
Criminal oligarchs from the palm oil mafia are to blame for this.

25,000 hectares of forest have already fallen victim to the company’s operations. The concessions are vast: They extend over 107,000 hectares – an area roughly the size of New York City.

The oil palms are originally native to Africa, but Malaysia and Indonesia are the largest producers in the world.

According to statistics, the Democratic Republic of the Congo produced 300,000 tons of palm oil in 2013, which puts it in twelfth place, behind other African countries such as Nigeria and Ivory Coast.

Indonesia

But because the area for palm oil is slowly running out in Southeast Asia and the demand for it continues to grow on the world market, more is now to be cultivated in Africa.

That was always the fascist principle of domination of the Europeans against Africa.

The people in Africa don’t want anything for free
They just want us to stop stealing their resources.

Maybe we can help them, we owe it to them. Please sign and share.

My best regards to all, Venus

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Plant-based diets will be essential to the planet’s future, report says

• A new report explores the role of the global food system and its role in accelerating biodiversity loss.
• The quest for ever cheaper food prices leads many farmers to adopt unsustainable practices, the paper from UK think tank Chatham House says.
• These practices harm biodiversity and exploit valuable resources like land and water.
• Switching to a primarily plant-based diet could prevent the loss of thousands of wildlife species.
• Setting aside and protecting more land for nature and farming in a more nature-friendly way are also recommended.

Read it all here:

Report: We urgently need to move to plant-based diets | World Economic Forum (weforum.org)

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New Film Details Animals’ Harrowing Journey to Slaughter

• Hannah Bugga
• February 12, 2021

The new short film Moving Animals documents the excruciating journey animals face in their transport from factory farms to slaughterhouses.

Produced by We Animals Media, the film follows the work of award-winning photojournalist and author Jo-Anne McArthur. McArthur has spent over a decade documenting the horrors animals endure around the globe. She welcomes viewers into her world:

Join me as I climb transport trucks, and stay quietly and diligently with animals as they go to slaughter. Join me in the dusty roads and at my little hotel room editing desk, as Miguel and I discuss animals, animal photojournalism, and ultimately, kindness.

Animals suffer long, grueling journeys to slaughter, up to 28 hours in the United States, with no food or water. And transport trucks are not built to protect animals from harsh weather. During summer, temperatures in the trucks rise to well over 100°F. Many animals suffer heat stress, asphyxiation, and heart attacks.

In winter, farmed animals endure below-freezing conditions and are exposed to snow, rain, and frigid winds. Some die from hypothermia, and others even freeze to the floors or sides of truck beds. McArthur stated:

We have enough photos in the world of beautiful wildlife. We get it. It’s time to show the harsh reality of how the rest are living.

Shot and produced by filmmaker Miguel Endara, Moving Animals focuses on the plight of cows. The film documents cows so weak from long journeys that they can’t even lift their heads. McArthur captures heartbreaking images of desperate cows sticking their tongues through the bars of a truck in an attempt to eat the leaves off a nearby tree.

According to McArthur, when she started documenting farmed animals 10 to 15 years ago, no one was interested in her stories. Now, she is seeing concern for animals making its way into mainstream newspapers around the world.

We can all help spread awareness of animal suffering. Share this powerful film with your friends and family, and follow We Animals on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Of course, the best thing we can do for animals is choose plant-based food. Download our free Vegetarian Starter Guide to learn how.

New Film Details Animals’ Harrowing Journey to Slaughter (chooseveg.com)

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Help the elephants! Public consultation on new EU measures to ban trade in ivory

16 February 2021

On January 28th the European Commission published draft measures aimed to effectively ban EU trade in ivory.

The draft Commission regulation and guidance are now open for final public feedback before being adopted by the Commission. The period of public feedback will last until 25 February 2021.  

Across Europe, ivory continues to be traded online, in auction houses and markets. The EU and Japan are among the last countries with large, legal domestic ivory markets, while other major markets in the USA, China and the UK are now closed or in the process of closing. 

Luckily, there is wide support in the EU for the closure of domestic elephant ivory markets, from the EU Council to the European Parliament, and among EU citizens and civil society. 

Help the elephants and take part in the EC public consultation. 

You have time until February 25th

The European Commission has the mandate to introduce comprehensive measures aimed at closing the EU domestic ivory market, thereby showing global leadership. Only by so doing, the EU will remove any financial value from ivory, reduce the opportunity for new ivory to be laundered through legal markets, and send a clear message to the rest of the world that the EU no longer considers ivory a commodity.

We therefore welcome the European Commission’s draft measures to ban the ivory trade in the European Union (EU) and urge the EU and its Member States to support and implement them without further delays.

We would nevertheless like to highlight the following recommendations for the European Commission’s public consultation:

• We strongly recommend that the EC assess within the next few years the real effectiveness of both the implementing Regulation and the Guidance.
•  We ask that the changes made to the guidance document on the EU regime governing trade in ivory is integrated into the EU Commission Regulation, in order to ensure that the guidance becomes legally binding and a consistent language in both the Guidance and the proposed Regulation is used.
• We fully support the proposed measures which provide that antique worked ivory may only be traded within the EU with a certificate. However, only independent approved/recognised experts should be authorised to assess whether an item has been legally acquired or not in order to avoid conflict of interests.

Read more about Wildlife trade and trafficking.

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