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Palm oil and death threats

February 20, 2018

Indigenous communities in Peru are coming under increasing pressure from palm oil and cocoa companies to clear their land. Some are fighting back in the face of corruption — and even threats of violence.

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Man in traditional clothing, Ucayali, Peru
Image: DW/K. Döhne

The big sell-out - land deals in Peru

Project goal: Giving voice to victims and witnesses, and to those most vulnerable to corruption and climate change; preventing corruption in climate funding by increasing confidence and transparency around climate investment
Project implementation: Education and advocacy work, alongside research and monitoring in the fight against corruption
Project size: The project is taking place in Peru, Bangladesh, Kenya, Costa Rica, the Maldives, Mexico, Rwanda, Nepal and South Korea
Financing: €2.5 million ($3120175) provided by Germany's Federal Ministry for the Environment (BMUB) through theInternational Climate Initiative (IKI)
Project partners: Transparency International and its local chapters in each country

Few farmers in Peru would voluntarily give up the land that has sustained their family for generations. And yet that's what many in the country have been doing — often under duress and with little or no compensation, they say. The land being sold off to multinational corporations is being converted into huge palm oil and cocoa plantations as well as mass deforestation.  Proética, the Peruvian chapter of Transparency International, is fighting corruption in the business by examining the legitimacy of local land deals.

A film by Katja Döhne