Liberia

A year after the World Bank approved a plan to redress community grievances over inadequate compensation and sexual harassment at Liberia’s Salala Rubber Corporation, a progress report provides little evidence that any of its key commitments have been implemented.

Un piano d’azione per il risarcimento delle comunità i cui diritti terrieri e umani sono stati violati dai gestori della piantagione di gomma Salala in Liberia sembra essere bloccato.

The government has ordered two subcontracting firms operating within the Liberian Agriculture Company (LAC) concession to pay thousands of US dollars in retroactive wages to more than 500 workers, following an investigation that uncovered years of minimum wage violations.

Dopo otto anni, la società multinazionale Socfin, specializzata nelle piantagioni, ha interrotto il suo legame con l’Earthworm Foundation, una consulente ambientale. Socfin si era rivolta a Earthworm dopo aver ricevuto accuse di violazioni dei diritti umani e impatti ambientali negativi nelle sue piantagioni in Africa e Asia sudorientale. Rappresentanti delle comunità e attivisti ambientali in Liberia sostengono che le raccomandazioni di Earthworm non siano state implementate in modo adeguato.

Communities affected by the operations of the Salala Rubber Corporation (SRC) and the Liberia Agriculture Company (LAC) have forcefully rejected Socfin Group’s 2024–2025 progress reports, accusing the multinational agribusiness of masking persistent environmental and human rights abuses behind what they describe as “paper compliance.”

Liberia's Blue Carbon deal has stalled. Other accords across Africa and elsewhere have also gone nowhere, while the UAE company itself appears to have fallen silent, according to a joint investigation by AFP and Code for Africa

"Pour Socfin, la lutte contre les violences passe par la promotion des femmes à des positions hiérarchiques supérieures."

L’enquête met en lumière trois problèmes récurrents sur les plantations de Socfin : exploitation sexuelle, conflits fonciers et violences

La Coalition pour des multintionales responsables sort un dossier sur les plaintes d’exploitation sexuelle, de violence, d’expulsion et de pollution autour des plantations de caoutchouc et d’huile de palme du groupe Socfin, dont une grande partie du négoce agricole se fait via la Suisse.

Liberian civil society and international allies are urgently demanding the RSPO maintain its stop-work order on GVL’s expansion to prevent further deforestation, protect communities’ rights, and ensure accountability for the company’s environmental and human rights violations.

The Civil Society Oil Palm Working Group of Liberia has called on the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil to immediately reinstate the stop-work order on Golden Veroleum Liberia, citing unresolved compliance issues and unfulfilled conditions related to land use and community rights.

Five months after the World Bank’s private investment arm submitted its action plan to address community grievances against a rubber plantation it funds in Liberia, affected residents are still waiting for its implementation.