[ Green Peace Africa REPORTS: Tangaye South West, Cameroon ] TANGAYE, Cameroon — At the main gate of the Herakles Farms plantation, a large billboard reads, Contributing to a sustainable future for Cameroon. The gate is little more than a bamboo pole hung across a dirt road, but security guards wont let just anyone in. No visitors, one said when I asked permission to enter. You need a pass from management. This is no ordinary farm. Several years ago, Herakles Farms -- then an affiliate of Herakles Capital, a New York private investment firm -- negotiated a deal with the Cameroonian government to develop a palm oil plantation in the countrys Southwest Region, a province known for its lush rain forests and volcano, Mount Cameroon. The plantation would be massive: some 280 square miles, more than 12 times the size of Manhattan. Upon full implementation, Herakles Farms claimed, the plantation would be one of the biggest commercial palm oil operations in Africa. But the project, now in its fifth year, is highly controversial; it faces strong opposition both at home and abroad. Local opponents have accused the company of using donations of goods and services to garner support. Scientists have challenged Herakless claims of environmental sustainability. And numerous observers question the economic benefits promised for the surrounding region, fearing the project is much more likely to strip communities of land and livelihoods than it is to lift them out of poverty. In 2012, I set out to investigate the claims against the project, but my queries to Herakles managers all went unanswered, save for a single, brief conversation with the Cameroon in-country manager of operations -- an American -- that ended with him angrily telling me to never contact the company again. So on a return trip to the area in early 2013, I went directly to the plantation. When I was stopped at the gate, I decided to access the plantation through the forest that surrounds it, with two local human rights activists and a hunter, who served as a guide. The hunter, a compact, muscular man in his early 30s, cleared brush with his machete as he walked. He pointed out his own farm -- where he plants cocoa, plantains, and pineapple among the towering trees -- as well as wild nutmeg and cashew trees, bush peppers, bush mangoes, leaves for wrapping and cooking food, and a tree with nuts used to make cooking oil. There were also animal tracks and an uprooted area where, the guide said, river hogs had recently been digging. He showed us where he hunts crocodiles and porcupines. Under the canopy the scene was dark and damp. Butterflies flitted in and out of the light shafts, amid a cacophony of buzzing, chirping, and hooting. After walking for about two hours, a bright, white light shone ahead: the edge of the forest. As we walked past the last trees into an empty field, the sounds of the forest ended abruptly and all was silent. The cleared area was a desert: dry and brown, dotted with stacks of giant logs. The cleared area was a desert: dry and brown, dotted with stacks of giant logs. Everything had been bulldozed -- tangled heaps of dead wood and vines running up and down the length of the clearing created borders for planting rows. Giant black flies hovered around the piles of rotting vegetation. Standing there, amid the desolation, I recalled the voices of local villagers: The forest is our life. Because of the deal their government struck with Herakles Farms, that life is now in danger. * * * Today, everyone from Hillary Clinton to Bob Geldof -- the rock star most famous for his Band Aid and Live Aid projects -- is praising the virtue of private investment in Africa. Trade not aid has become a catchy development slogan. In 2000, the U.S. Congress passed the African Growth and Opportunity Act, which eliminated many tariffs and quotas for African goods. The act has not yet had the widespread development impact that many hoped for, but this hasnt slowed U.S. interest in promoting trade: Although short on details, the 2012 U.S. Africa strategy paper talks up trade and investment, with hardly a mention of aid. Investors are listening and increasingly looking to Africa, where returns on investments can be high. From 2002 to 2012, for instance, private investments on the continent produced annualized returns of 11.2 percent. On paper, the Herakles Farms project in Cameroon looks like a promising investment. Herakles Capital was founded by the late Bruce Wrobel, a prominent New York investor whose African interests included major energy, telecom, and mining ventures. Wrobel described himself as a lifelong environmentalist and activist for the poor and often spoke of a life-changing trip he made to Africa in 1999. That experience prompted Wrobel to focus his efforts on the continent, seeking investment opportunities designed, he said, to generate sustainable economic growth. In 2009, the advisory firm Africa Investor honored Wrobel with its International Business Leader of the Year award. In September 2009, Herakles Farms, then operating under a different name (Sithe Global Sustainable Oils Cameroon), secured a contract to develop an industrial palm oil plantation and refinery in Cameroons Southwest Region. It was a major coup for Wrobel: 73,000 hectares, granted for 99 years to a company with no prior experience in Cameroon and no agricultural track record of which to speak. Discussing Herakles Farms in 2011, Wrobel said, We expect that when complete well move half of families in the economic impact area into the middle class. We have lofty social ambitions there. Yet on the ground, the deal seemed troubled from day one. A number of government officials told me that Herakles had avoided the standard legal procedures for agricultural land acquisition. That process should have involved several officials and ministries, including the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. Instead, Herakles signed a secretly negotiated establishment convention with Louis-Paul Motazé, then Cameroons minister of the economy. The establishment convention, leaked and later posted online, created shock waves. Cameroon has a notorious record for corruption, but this deal startled even the most jaded observers. According to the convention, Herakles Farms would rent at a starting rate of $1 per hectare per year for developed land (and half that for undeveloped land) -- a virtual giveaway on property that could generate tens of millions of dollars in annual revenues. The convention also allowed Herakles to acquire additional land, exempted it from most taxes and duties, and granted the company valuable rights to water, sand, gravel, and any potential carbon credits (which could come about for forested areas the company left intact). Publicly, Wrobel claimed the Cameroonians were extremely tough, excellent negotiators, and they knew exactly what they were doing. But privately, Herakles told a different story, depicting the project as an incredible bargain. In a confidential 2013 Value Drivers prospectus for potential investors, the company described its evaluation of more than 20 large tracts of land across several West African countries. Of all of the parcels evaluated, the prospectus gushed, not one came close to the potential value of [Herakles Farms] current land concession in Cameroon. In addition to the very low land costs, the investment pitch highlighted the exceptional tax breaks. Cameroon is not alone; many African governments are offering increasingly lucrative terms to attract foreign investment. But will the cost of these incentives outweigh the benefits to Africans? For now, extractive industries and export-oriented agro-industries attract the bulk of Africa-focused private investment. Will these investments, couched in the language of development and sustainability, improve peoples lives? Many are far from convinced. When Olivier De Schutter, U.N. special rapporteur on the right to food until this past May, visited Cameroon on an official mission in July 2012, he singled out the Herakles Farms project for criticism, chiding the government (along with foreign investors) for accepting such unfavorable terms. By forgoing these tax revenues, De Schutter later wrote on the Guardians website, developing countries critically undermine their own ability to build infrastructure, drive development and create jobs -- therefore making themselves perpetually dependent on the inflow of foreign investment. The government of Cameroon seems unable to maximize its revenues or leverage investments for its own interests, Samuel Nguiffo told me after De Schutters visit. Nguiffo is the founder and director of the Center for Environment and Development, a Cameroonian NGO that works to protect the rights of forest communities. He described an investment climate in the country that attracts speculators who can procure land for next to nothing and then flip it for a quick profit -- all with the assistance of officials who place their own financial gain over the greater good. At the same time Cameroon is giving away the country to export-oriented agricultural ventures, the country is importing 300 billion FCFA [$600 million] of food each year, Nguiffo said. The world is upside down. Not long after signing the establishment convention, Herakles Farms employees began demarcating land at the northeastern end of the concession area, near the town of Nguti, a farming community where smallholder farmers grow cocoa, oil palms, plantains, pineapples, and other food crops. Like most of the villages in the area, Nguti is not electrified and lacks piped water and paved roads, which limits farmers ability to scale-up operations or get perishable produce to market. Besides a few roadside stands and a bar at the main crossroads where women set up tables and sell food, there is not much commerce in the town. When I first traveled to Nguti in 2012, I met with Dominic Ngwesse, head of Nature Cameroon, a local NGO working on environmental education and community development initiatives. Ngwesse took me to several neighboring villages to talk to people about Herakles Farms. I learned there had been little contact between the company and villagers over the previous three years. The company did not come to us directly, one man told me. We simply learned that they had picked our forest. The company did not come to us directly, one man told me. We simply learned that they had picked our forest. Another man said he was surprised one day to find a wooden marker stuck in his field. Herakless failure to consult with local communities spooked many villagers, who feared a land grab was in the works. Cameroons land-tenure laws are complex, with most people claiming land rights based on various customary laws. But when traditional claims conflict with governmental desires, the state simply uses statutory law to seize land. The Herakles plantation could affect land on which an estimated 15,000 people live or work, from Nguti in the north to the small town of Mundemba at the southwestern end of the concession area. Herakles officials have assured locals that the project will not displace farms or farmers, but many people remain skeptical. Among other things, they are asking how plantation labor will lift anyone out of poverty. The Southwest Region is already home to some of Cameroons largest industrial plantations -- and has been since the colonial era, when villagers were forcibly evicted from their lands. These plantations may no longer be colonial enterprises, but they remain notorious for low pay and terrible working conditions. According to Bernard Njonga, a Cameroonian agronomist who works to promote the interests of local smallholder farmers, an average cocoa farmer in the region works four hectares of land and earns significantly more than a typical plantation laborer. We can anticipate a drastic decline in earnings for those who lose their farms, even if they were hired by Herakles, Njonga said. Herakless confidential investment documents also seem to contradict Wrobels promises of middle-class wages. To potential investors, Herakles has pitched low pay as part of its competitive edge: Daily wages for manual labor in Malaysia average 5 to 6 euros per day, nearly double the average wage in Cameroon.... The massive unemployment in Cameroon suggests that wage pressures will not be experienced for many years. Peter Okpo wa Namolongo, the deputy mayor of Mundemba, has been talking to villagers about the importance of keeping their land. Read more: foreignpolicy/articles/2014/07/11/bruce_wrobel_cameroon_palm_oil_herakles_greenpeace_logging
Posted on: Tue, 25 Nov 2014 11:02:28 +0000
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