October, 07 2021, 11:59pm EDT

Global Witness reveals household brands and global financiers including BlackRock linked to clearance of tropical rainforest, human rights abuses in Papua New Guinea
Undercover investigation reveals tainted palm oil has been sold on to household brands including Kellogg’s, Nestlé, and The Hershey Company
GLOBAL
A two-year investigation released today shines a light on palm oil in Papua New Guinea (PNG), the notorious industry's newest frontier. It reveals a litany of human rights abuses and the widescale destruction of tens of thousands of hectares of climate-critical rainforest, linked to major financial institutions including BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager.
This investigation uncovers shocking human rights abuses including admissions of the use of child labour and brutal beatings of local people. It examines three of the country's newest palm oil operations: the East New Britain Resources Group (ENB), the Rimbunan Hijau Group (RH), and Bewani Oil Palm Plantations Ltd. Going undercover, Global Witness investigators were able to gain unfiltered access to top ENB executives. On tape, the executives boast about bribing a minister, apparently evading custom duties on imports into India, and using child labour. A business partner of the group told the undercover team he had paid police to assault villagers he suspected of opposing the palm oil plantations.
By using satellite imagery, tracking cargo shipments, analyzing company records, and interviewing people directly affected by these plantations, Global Witness uncovered that these companies have all recently destroyed climate-critical rainforests. Two of them have received direct and indirect financing from international institutions including Maybank, OCBC Bank, BlackRock, the California Public Employees' Retirement System, the Norwegian Pension Fund and Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V.
For the first time, the investigation also reveals that the tainted palm oil and its byproducts has been sold on to household brands including Kellogg's, Nestle, Colgate, Danone, Hershey, and the parent companies of both Imperial Leather and Strepsils.
The production of this tainted palm oil is made possible by loans from Malaysia's infamous bankroller of rainforest destruction, Maybank, and by indirect financing from international financiers including the world's largest asset manager, BlackRock.
PNG is home to the world's third-largest remaining rainforest, which supports rural communities, is among the most biodiverse in the world, and serves as a critical carbon sink. Yet it is under immediate and growing threat from the palm oil industry. By 2030, the PNG government is aiming for a tenfold expansion in oil palm cultivation to 1.5m hectares (ha), compared to about 150,000 ha in 2016.
Lela Stanley, Senior Investigator at Global Witness, said:
''Papua New Guinean communities have managed and protected their forests sustainably for countless generations. This investigation shows they are being sold out by their own government and global financial institutions in favour of a small number of highly destructive companies, with devastating human rights and environmental consequences.
This investigation is yet further confirmation that the global financial system is broken - the business-as-usual, voluntary approach of past years has led us into climate crisis. Firms like BlackRock talk a big game on their commitment tackling climate change and protecting human rights, yet our revelations show its money is ultimately financing the destruction of climate-critical forests, the use of child labour, and other human rights abuses.
It is increasingly urgent that governments legislate to prevent supply chains and global financiers bankrolling deforestation and human rights abuses.''
Key findings
- Palm oil companies told undercover Global Witness investigators that they bribed officials including a government minister, paid police to brutalize villagers, used child labour and participated in an apparent tax evasion scheme.
- Malaysian-backed firms clear-felled tens of thousands of hectares of Papua New Guinean rainforest, which supports rural communities and is among the most biodiverse in the world.
- Tainted palm oil and its byproducts from Papua New Guinea plantations sold on to household name brands including Kellogg's, Nestle, Colgate, Danone, Hershey's and PZ Cussons and Reckitt Benckiser - the manufacturers of Imperial Leather and Strepsils respectively.
- One palm oil firm, Rimbunan Hijau, negligently ignored repeated and avoidable worker deaths and injuries on palm oil plantations, with at least 11 workers and the child of one worker losing their lives over an eight-year period, a far higher rate than on comparable plantations.
- Global financiers including BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, the California Public Employees' Retirement System, and Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. are exposed to these human rights and environmental abuses. Some of these financiers have developed policies or principles that should limit their investing in deforestation. CalPERS, for example, says that companies should disclose and manage environmental risks, including deforestation.
Report recommendations
Global Witness is calling on the government of Papua New Guinea toimmediately investigate the companies named in this report, and to review all injuries and deaths on oil palm plantations. The government must also provide support for injured workers and their next of kin to find suitable replacement employment. All palm oil operations in Papua New Guinea should meet industry best practices with regards to ecosystem protection and avoided deforestation; community and human rights, including worker rights; and ethical and transparent business dealings.
The governments of the UK, US, European Union, and other countries home to companies importing palm oil or financing palm oil-linked banks or companies must urgently introduce and implement legislation requiring businesses, including the finance and investment sector, to identify, prevent, mitigate and report on deforestation and forest-related human rights risks and impacts in their supply chains and financing.
Businesses, including banks and investors named in our report need to urgently work with affected communities in PNG to provide redress and remedy for their role in contributing to and legitimising the abuses we outlined.
Many of the world's worst environmental and human rights abuses are driven by the exploitation of natural resources and corruption in the global political and economic system. Global Witness is campaigning to end this. We carry out hard-hitting investigations, expose these abuses, and campaign for change. We are independent, not-for-profit, and work with partners around the world in our fight for justice.
LATEST NEWS
100 Palestinians Killed in Weekend of Israeli Airstrikes on Gaza
Victims include 22 members of one family massacred in their Gaza City home.
Apr 27, 2025
Israel Defense Forces bombing killed at least 100 Palestinians including numerous women and children in the Gaza Strip over the weekend, while the IDF also renewed airstrikes on Lebanon as cease-fire talks between senior Hamas and Egyptian officials wrapped up in Cairo without any breakthrough.
The Gaza Health Ministry said Sunday that Israeli strikes killed at least 51 Palestinians over the previous 24 hours. Among the victims were eight people, including three women and two children, killed in an IDF bombing of a tent in Khan Younis; a man and four children slain in another strike on a tent in Deir al-Balah; and at least six people who died when a coffee shop near the Bureij refugee camp was hit.
The ministry said Saturday that at least 49 Palestinians were killed during the preceding 24 hours, including 22 members of the al-Khour family who were sheltering in their Gaza City home when it was bombed.
The IDF said the strike targeted a Hamas militant. Israel's military relaxed rules of engagement after the October 7, 2023 attack to allow an unlimited number of civilians to be killed when targeting a single Hamas member, no matter how low-ranking.
Saed al-Khour, who is grieving the loss of his family, refuted Israel's claim, tellingThe Associated Press that "there is no one from the resistance" among the victims.
"We have been pulling out the remains of children, women, and elderly people," al-Khour added.
Israel's U.S.-backed 569-day assault on Gaza has left at least 183,800 Palestinians dead, injured, or missing. Nearly all of Gaza's more than 2 million people have been forcibly displaced, starved, or sickened amid a "complete siege" that is cited in an International Court of Justice genocide case against Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant are also fugitives from the International Criminal Court, which issued arrest warrants for the pair last year.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces unleashed a wave of bombing attacks in Lebanon in what critics called a blatant violation of a November cease-fire agreement with the resistance group Hezbollah. The IDF bombed targets in southern Lebanon and in suburbs of the capital city of Beirut.
The IDF, which said it warned residents ahead of the Beirut airstrike, claimed it attacked "an infrastructure where precision missiles" were being stored by Hezbollah, without providing any supporting evidence.
Israel says it will continue its assault and siege on Gaza until Hamas releases the two dozen Israeli and other hostages it has imprisoned since October 2023. Hamas counters that it will only free the hostages in an exchange for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, a complete withdrawal of IDF troops from Gaza, and a new cease-fire agreement. Israel unilaterally broke a January cease-fire last month.
A senior Hamas delegation left Cairo late Saturday following days of talks regarding a possible deal for a multi-year truce and the release of all remaining hostages. The head of Israel's Mossad spy agency was also in Qatar earlier this week for separate cease-fire talks. Qatari mediators said they believed there has been "some progress" in both sides' willingness to reach an agreement.
United Nations agencies and international humanitarian groups—many of which have accused Israel of using starvation as a weapon of war—have warned in recent days of the imminent risk of renewed famine in Gaza as food stocks run out.
"Children in Gaza are starving," the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East
said on social media Sunday. "The government of Israel continues to block the entry of food and other basics. [This is a] man-made and politically motivated starvation."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Sanders: 'Oligarchy on Steroids' Poses Existential Threat to Democracy
"If we don't address that issue, the American people will continue to turn their backs on democracy."
Apr 27, 2025
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders said Sunday that Democrats lack a "vision for the future," warning that Americans will "turn their backs on democracy" if elected officials fail to tackle an "oligarchy on steroids."
Appearing on NBC News' "Meet the Press," Sanders (I-Vt.) was asked about Sen. Elissa Slotkin's (D-Mich.) recent assertion that Democrats should stop saying "oligarchy" because it only resonates with coastal institutions, and whether he's "missing a chance to speak to a wider audience."
"Well... we had 36,000 people out in Los Angeles, 34,000 people in Colorado, we had 30,000 people in Folsom, California," Sanders replied, referring to the wildly popular Fighting Oligarchy Tour he's currently on with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.).
"I think the American people are not quite as dumb as Ms. Slotkin thinks they are. I think they understand very well," the senator continued. "When the top 1% owns more wealth than the bottom 90%, when big money interests are able to control both political parties, they are living in an oligarchy."
"And these are precisely the issues that have got to be talked about," Sanders said. "Are you living in a democracy when [Elon] Musk can spend $270 million to elect [President Donald] Trump, and then becomes the most important person in government?"
Sanders called out the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and other super PACs "that have enormous power over Democratic candidates."
"Those are issues that we have got to talk about. That is the reality of American society today. The very rich getting richer, working-class people are struggling, 800,000 people [are] sleeping out on the streets," the democratic socialist contended.
"If we don't address that issue, the American people will continue to turn their backs on democracy, because they're looking around them and they're saying, 'Does anybody understand what I am going through?'" he added. "And unfortunately right now, to a large degree, neither party does."
Sanders urged Democrats to embrace policies like fixing the nation's "broken healthcare system" and raising the minimum wage, pointing to issues on which he is working with colleagues.
"You have Democrats... talking about Trump's movement toward authoritarianism; vigorously opposing the so-called reconciliation bill to give over a trillion dollars in tax breaks for the 1% and make massive cuts to Medicaid, nutrition, and housing; opposing what Musk is doing to dismember the Social Security Administration and the Veterans Administration, making it hard for our veterans to get decent health care or benefits on time," he said.
Sanders argued that the country needs more working-class people to run for office—and not necessarily as Democrats.
"You want to run as a Democrat? Great," he said. "You want to run as an Independent? That's great, but you've got to get involved in the political process, because right now the two-party system is failing the working class of this country."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Hundreds Rally in Milwaukee Against Trump Admin's 'Unprecedented' Arrest of Judge
"We reject this lawless escalation against an immigration judge who appears to be showing a commonsense and humane approach to immigrants, and stands for due process for all," said one campaigner.
Apr 26, 2025
Hundreds of people rallied in Wisconsin's largest city on Saturday to protest the Trump administration's arrest of Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan on what critics called "baseless" charges of felony obstruction after she allegedly helped an undocumented immigrant evade arrest during an appearance in her courtroom.
FBI agents arrested Dugan, 65, on Friday following an investigation, accusing her of escorting an undocumented man and his attorney through her courtroom's jury door after learning that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents showed up to arrest him.
Protesters chanted slogans including, "No ICE, No KKK, No Fascist USA!" and "No Hate, No Fear, Immigrants Are Welcome Here!" They held signs with messages like "Liberty and Justice for All" and "Resist Fascism!"
HAPPENING NOW: A HUGE crowd of protesters march through the streets outside an FBI office in Milwaukee in support of Judge Hannah Dugan (Video: @unraveledpress.com)
[image or embed]
— Marco Foster ( @marcofoster.bsky.social) April 26, 2025 at 3:05 PM
"I have never heard of a state court judge being arrested by the federal government because she chose to control her own courtroom. This is unprecedented," Sara Dady, an immigration attorney who traveled more than 90 miles from Rockford, Illinois to attend the demonstration outside the FBI field office in Milwaukee, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Wisconsin state Rep. Ryan Clancy (D-19) told the crowd: "The judiciary acts as a check to unchecked executive power. And functioning democracies do not lock up judges."
"I hope that we can all be as brave as Judge Dugan was," Clancy added.
Janan Najeeb, one of the leaders of the Wisconsin Coalition for Justice in Palestine, told rallygoers: "The courtroom is not a hunting ground for ICE. It is a sanctuary. When our government turns our courtrooms into traps, they are betraying the very laws that they claim to defend."
Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights director Angelica Salas said in a statement that "in an unprecedented move against members of the judicial branch, the Trump administration is exercising authoritarianism to degrees that should alarm us all."
"We reject this lawless escalation against an immigration judge who appears to be showing a commonsense and humane approach to immigrants, and stands for due process for all, and against wanton disregard for our Constitution," Salas added.
Critics have called Dugan's arrest part and parcel of President Donald Trump's attacks on immigrants, the nation's system of checks and balances, and the rule of law.
"The Trump administration deserves zero benefit of the doubt here. It has evinced utter contempt for due process and the rule of law since inauguration day," Ryan Cooper, managing editor of The American Prospect, wrote on Friday. "It has deported numerous legal residents, most notably Kilmar Abrego García, to an El Salvador torture dungeon, and is openly disobeying a 9-0 Supreme Court decision to bring García back."
"The ongoing mass layoffs of federal workers and outright dismantling of legislatively mandated agencies being carried out by Elon Musk and DOGE is blatantly unconstitutional," Cooper added, referring to the Department of Government Efficiency.
Among those pushing back against Dugan's arrest are Wisconsin Circuit Judge Monica Isham, who wrote in an email to other judges: "Enough is enough. I no longer feel protected or respected as a judge in this administration. If there is no guidance for us and no support for us, I will refuse to hold court."
"I have no intention of allowing anyone to be taken out of my courtroom by ICE and sent to a concentration camp, especially without due process as BOTH of the constitutions we swore to support require," Isham added. "If this costs me my job or gets me arrested, then at least I know I did the right thing."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular