CARGILL’s
PRobLems wIth PALm oIL
A B u r n i n g T h r e A T i n B o r n e o
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CONTENTS
iNTrOduCTiON
mEThOdOlOgy
palm Oil iN SOuThEaST aSia
iNvESTigaTiON fiNdiNgS
Cargill: miSuSiNg rSpO mEmBErShip
aNd viOlaTiNg rSpO rulES
lEgal QuESTiONS: Cargill OpEraTiNg
OuTSidE Of iNdONESiaN law
Cargill’S Supply ChaiN
CONCluSiON
rECOmmENdaTiONS
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“Unfortunately, not every palm developer operates responsibly. Forests have been
logged (sometimes illegally) to make room for palm plantations. Destroying forests to
plant palm is a net negative for trapping carbon and mitigating climate change.”
– Paul Dienhart, Senior Editor, Cargill News, 20071
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U.S. agribusiness giant Cargill plays a leading role in the global
palm oil market. The largest importer of palm oil into the U.S.,
Cargill has a two-part business model in the palm oil industry: it
both owns and operates palm oil plantations in Indonesia and it
purchases and trades palm oil and its derivatives worldwide.
This report presents evidence that Cargill is operating two
undisclosed palm oil plantations in West Kalimantan, Indonesia.
Operations at these plantations are actively burning and clearing
rainforests, causing conflict with local communities, destroying
peatlands and operating in violation of the Roundtable on
Sustainable Palm Oil’s (RSPO) Principles and Criteria and
outside of Indonesian law. It also finds that Cargill has failed to
adopt and implement systematic safeguards in its production,
purchasing and trading of palm oil from other suppliers.
Cargill’s palm oil commitments
Cargill became a member of the RSPO, a voluntary standard
for palm oil production, in 2004. As a certified member of the
RSPO, Cargill is publicly asserting that the pa