(Ecofin Agency) - In a statement published on its website, non-lucrative international organization Grain denounced pressures on local communities in Congo by Feronia Inc, a Canadian firm owned in majority by European and American development banks, to abandon their right to lands.

“Over the past days, Feronia Inc. has been putting a lot of pressure on local communities so that they sign a term of reference which will allow the firm to continue exploiting and further expand its palm oil plantations across the country. Despite the grave means of pressure and intimidations, the communities rejected the specification and are now calling unto the international community to insure that Feronia respect their decision,” the statement said.

Grain’s intervention thus comes to support the communities’ choice. Indeed, on March 8, 2015, more than 60 traditional chiefs and other community leaders from the Yahuma district (where Feronia has 90% of its plantations) met to solve their long date issues with Feronia. “We demand first of all, that talks are initiated so we can recover our rights on lands which were illegally taken from us in the past 104 years. We demand compensation, and only then will we pursue talks regarding a memorandum of understanding,” they said at the time. These demands fell in the ears of a deaf.

In its statement, Grain said “financial development institutions that own Feronia have guidelines that must be followed by the firms in which they invest for talks regarding access to lands by communities. The present efforts to put pressure on the Lokutu communities to sign specifications are in contradiction with these guidelines. The finance development institutions should thus take immediate measures to drive Feronia to respect the rights and demands of local communities and stop putting pressure on the communities to sign the term of references”.

Organizations called include UK’s CDC, AFD’s Proparco in France, AECID from Spain, OPIC in the US, BIO from Belgium, German DEG, FMO from Netherlands and SECO from Switzerland.

Souha Touré