#News: Report by Oakland Institute finds Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is funding #PHC #palmoil plantations in the #DRC. Which operates on land seized in colonial times. Communities face #violence and #ecocide. #HumanRights #LandRights #BoycottPalmOil https://www.oaklandinstitute.org/report/king-leopolds-steps?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=Palm+Oil+Detectives&utm_campaign=publer
#phc
NEW PINKSHIFT! And they're channeling some angrier punkier stuff than their last album. If this sound is indicative of an upcoming album's tone than they're aiming for my AOTY list. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ME-FbKASXlE
#PalmOil giant #PHC formerly #Feronia, violently silences environmental defenders in the #DRC #Congo. Protesters arrested, journalist kidnapped, workers left without justice. Take action for #HumanRights #BoycottPalmOil 🌴🚫 @palmoildetect https://wp.me/pcFhgU-8xX?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=Palm+Oil+Detectives&utm_campaign=publer
Watching Prairie Home Companion anthology of Christmas videos from past shows, with captions! Where have these captions been for all those #phc shows of old?
#old #GarrisonKeillor
#PalmOil giant #PHC formerly #Feronia, violently silences environmental defenders in the #DRC #Congo. Protesters arrested, journalist kidnapped, workers left without justice. Take action for #HumanRights #BoycottPalmOil 🌴🚫 @palmoildetectives https://wp.me/pcFhgU-8xX
Palm Oil Protesters Silenced and Arrested in Congo
On April 30, 2024, a shocking and disgraceful incident occurred in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). During a meeting of shareholders from Plantations et Huileries du Congo (PHC), (formerly known as Feronia) environmental rights defenders were arrested, and a journalist was kidnapped after displaying banners denouncing PHC’s mistreatment of local communities. PHC, formerly known as Feronia, is a multinational company that operates large palm oil plantations in the DRC. Take action in solidarity of these people and #BoycottPalmOil when you shop!
In April, environmental defenders in the #DRC were arrested and kidnapped at a shareholder meeting for highlighting #PalmOil #HumanRights abuses 🔥🌴⛔️ Since then no action has been taken! Stand with them 💪 #WorkersRights #BoycottPalmOil https://wp.me/pcFhgU-8xX @palmoildetect
Share to BlueSky Share to Twitter#PalmOil giant #PHC formerly #Feronia, violently silences environmental defenders in the #DRC #Congo. Protesters arrested, journalist kidnapped, workers left without justice. Take action for #HumanRights #BoycottPalmOil 🌴🚫 @palmoildetect https://wp.me/pcFhgU-8xX
Share to BlueSky Share to TwitterZongwe Lukama, F. (2023, May 2). DRC: Mystery and collusion in the disappearance of environmental defenders fighting palm oil multinationals. Kilalo Press. Business and Human Rights Resource Centre has since asked for a company response, but to date none has been forthcoming from the palm oil company.
Arrests and Abduction at PHC Shareholders Meeting
On Tuesday, April 30, 2024, a shocking and disgraceful incident occurred in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). During a meeting of shareholders from Plantations et Huileries du Congo (PHC), environmental rights defenders were arrested, and an environmental journalist was kidnapped after displaying banners denouncing PHC’s mistreatment of local communities. PHC, formerly known as Feronia, is a multinational company that operates large palm oil plantations in the DRC.
Who are Plantations et Huileries du Congo (PHC)?
Plantations et Huileries du Congo (PHC) are a palm oil company that operate extensive palm oil plantations in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The company produces palm oil used in many products like food, cosmetics, and biofuels. PHC has faced numerous protests and criticism for its detrimental impact on the environment and local communities.
The people versus Feronia: Fighting palm oil agrocolonialism in the Congo
This incredible comic was created by Didier Kassai with research by Judith Verweijen and Dieudonne Botoko Kendewa of the University of Sussex and the University of Sheffield. The comic was…
by Palm Oil DetectivesThe Protesters’ Demands
The protest was sparked by a letter from the Réseau d’Information et d’Appui aux ONG (RIAO – DRC), a network supporting non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the DRC. This letter led PHC to hold an urgent meeting in Kinshasa.
Protesters had several demands:
- Release people who were unjustly imprisoned.
- Compensate workers for accidents and retirees.
- Reopen the Lokutu and Boteka ports, which they argue are public roads, not PHC property.
Call to Action and Strong Suppression
The protesters wanted to push state authorities to act on an open letter from RIAO – DRC and its partners. This letter discussed mediation claims funded by the German Bank (DEG) and the Dutch Development Bank (FMO) to help communities affected by PHC. Unfortunately, security forces were called to stop the protesters, damage their equipment, and kidnap the journalist and environmental defender.
An Urgent Appeal for Support
RIAO-RDC, a national support network for NGOs, made an urgent call to security authorities and stakeholders to find their members, Dieumerci Mpay Ngomba, and a cameraman journalist from Numerica TV in Kinshasa. They called these actions “kidnapping” and stressed that defenders of forest community rights should not face political or rights abuses.
An Alarming and Unjust Situation for Environmental Defenders
The situation for environmental defenders in the DRC is worrying. RIAO-RDC said Dieumerci was arrested because of a complaint by PHC. At the General Prosecutor’s Office near the Court of Appeal of Kinshasa Gombe, protesters were charged with inciting breaches against public authority under article 135 of the Congolese penal code.
Targeting Environmental Advocates
RIAO-RDC believes that PHC is mainly targeting Jean François Mombia Atukua, who previously led a disguised march against RIAO and its director at the Lokutu base. The organisation urges the judiciary to ensure the safety of those arrested and uphold press freedom and human rights.
Company Response
Following publication PHC did not respond to the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre’s request for comment regarding these allegations.
References
- La RĂ©daction. (2024, May 3). DRC: Mystery and Collusion in the Disappearance of Environmental Defenders Fighting Palm Oil Multinationals. Kilalo Press.
- Business & Human Rights Resource Centre. DRC: Mystery and Collusion in the Disappearance of Environmental Defenders Fighting Palm Oil Multinationals.
- Palm Oil Detectives. (2022, February 3). Research: Small Room for Compromise Between Oil Palm Cultivation and Primate Conservation in Africa.
- Palm Oil Detectives. (2021, September 1). Africa’s Rainforests Are Different: Why It Matters That They’re Protected.
- Palm Oil Detectives. (2021, February 14). As Palm Oil Production Ramps Up in Africa, Communities Work to Avoid Problems Plaguing Other Regions.
- Palm Oil Detectives. (2021, January 18). Africa: Species Endangered by Palm Oil Deforestation
- Palm Oil Detectives. (2022, June 16). The People Versus Feronia: Fighting Palm Oil Agrocolonialism in the Congo. https://palmoildetectives.com/2022/06/16/the-people-versus-feronia-fighting-palm-oil-agrocolonialism-in-the-congo/
Zongwe Lukama, F. (2023, May 2). DRC: Mystery and collusion in the disappearance of environmental defenders fighting palm oil multinationals. Kilalo Press. Business and Human Rights Resource Centre has since asked for a company response, but to date none has been forthcoming from the palm oil company.
ENDS
Read more about human rights abuses and child slavery in the palm oil industry
The Great Malaysian Timber and Palm Oil Swindle
A joint investigation by Malaysiakini and Pulitzer Center’s Rainforest Investigations Network (RIN) reveals alarming deforestation in Pahang, #Malaysia, caused by one of the country’s largest #palmoil plantations. The plantation threatens endangered species like…
Deadly Harvest: How Demand for Palm Oil Fuels Corruption in Honduras
Latin America is the fastest-growing producer of palm oil, but at what price for the environment and its defenders? Park rangers in Honduras tell harrowing tales of daily threats to their lives and…
Ten Victories and Challenges to Indigenous Rights in 2024
From Brazil’s action against illegal gold miners to the Sacred Headwaters Alliance defending the Amazon, these top Indigenous stories of 2024 highlight resilience and challenges. The year of 2024 underscored the importance of…
Palm Oil Protesters Silenced and Arrested in Congo
On Tuesday, April 30, 2024, a shocking and disgraceful incident occurred in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). During a meeting of shareholders from Plantations et Huileries du Congo…
Amazon Clarion Call: Pandemics Emerging in the Rainforest
The Amazon’s diverse ecosystem is under threat from rampant deforestation, degradation, a biodiversity crisis, and the climate crisis – jeopardising its ability to act as a carbon sink. This degradation increases the likelihood of zoonotic diseases emerging…
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Take Action in Five Ways
1. Join the #Boycott4Wildlife on social media and subscribe to stay in the loop: Share posts from this website to your own network on Twitter, Mastadon, Instagram, Facebook and Youtube using the hashtags #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife.
2. Contribute stories: Academics, conservationists, scientists, indigenous rights advocates and animal rights advocates working to expose the corruption of the palm oil industry or to save animals can contribute stories to the website.
Wildlife Artist Juanchi PĂ©rez
Mel Lumby: Dedicated Devotee to Borneo’s Living Beings
Anthropologist and Author Dr Sophie Chao
Health Physician Dr Evan Allen
The World’s Most Loved Cup: A Social, Ethical & Environmental History of Coffee by Aviary Doert
How do we stop the world’s ecosystems from going into a death spiral? A #SteadyState Economy
3. Supermarket sleuthing: Next time you’re in the supermarket, take photos of products containing palm oil. Share these to social media along with the hashtags to call out the greenwashing and ecocide of the brands who use palm oil. You can also take photos of palm oil free products and congratulate brands when they go palm oil free.
https://twitter.com/CuriousApe4/status/1526136783557529600?s=20
https://twitter.com/PhillDixon1/status/1749010345555788144?s=20
https://twitter.com/mugabe139/status/1678027567977078784?s=20
4. Take to the streets: Get in touch with Palm Oil Detectives to find out more.
5. Donate: Make a one-off or monthly donation to Palm Oil Detectives as a way of saying thank you and to help pay for ongoing running costs of the website and social media campaigns. Donate here
Pledge your support#BoycottPalmOil #BoycottPalmOil #childLabour #childSlavery #Congo #corruption #DemocracticRepublicOfCongo #DRC #Feronia #humanRights #HumanRights #indigenousRights #landRights #landgrabbing #PalmOil #palmoil #PHC #slavery #workersRights #WorkersRights
Strengthening primary health care in a changing climate
A new article by Andy Haines, Elizabeth Wambui Kimani-Murage, and Anya Gopfert, “Strengthening primary health care in a changing climate,” outlines how climate change is already impacting health systems worldwide, with primary health care (PHC) workers bearing the immediate burden of response.
Haines and colleagues make a compelling case for strengthening primary health care (PHC) as a cornerstone of climate-resilient health systems.
First, they note that approximately 90% of essential universal health coverage interventions are delivered through PHC settings, making these facilities and workers the backbone of healthcare delivery.
This is particularly significant because PHC systems address many of the health outcomes most affected by climate change, including non-communicable diseases, childhood undernutrition, and common infectious diseases like malaria, diarrheal diseases, and respiratory infections.
Furthermore, PHC workers are often the first responders to extreme weather events such as floods, droughts, and heatwaves.
They must manage both the immediate health impacts and the longer-term consequences of these events.
This comprehensive view of PHC’s role in climate resilience represents a significant shift from viewing primary care merely as a service delivery mechanism to recognizing it as a crucial component of climate adaptation and health system strengthening.
The authors argue that investing in PHC is not only essential for addressing immediate health needs but also for building long-term resilience to climate-related health threats.
In examining workforce issues, Haines et al. specifically emphasize that “building the capacity of the PHC and public health workforce in emergency preparedness and response to climate-induced risks is crucial for enhancing the resilience of health systems.”
They argue that “the health-care workforce, including multidisciplinary PHC teams, should be provided with training and education on the impacts of climate change on health and the implications for health-care delivery.”
The article specifies that this training should focus on three key areas: “strengthening integrated disease surveillance and response systems,” “diagnosis and management of changing disease patterns (eg, outbreaks of vector-borne diseases in new locations),” and “interpretation and use of available climate, weather, and health data to support planning and management of adaptation and mitigation interventions.”
They mention resources like those proposed by the “WONCA Global Family Doctor Planetary Health Working Party” as instructive for such training.
Although the article emphasizes the role of PHC workers as being “often on the front line of responses to extreme events such as floods, droughts, and heatwaves,” it does not discuss mechanisms for capturing or leveraging their experiential knowledge.
This is what they know because they are there every day.
Recommendations follow a traditional institutional approach: strengthen health information systems, build workforce capacity, develop integrated service delivery models, increase funding, and enhance governance.
While these recommendations are well-founded, they primarily envision a top-down flow of knowledge and resources, with health workers positioned as recipients of training and implementers of policies.
The epistemological framework underlying their recommendations reflects what educational theorists would recognize as a transmission model of learning, where knowledge is conceived as flowing primarily from experts to practitioners in a hierarchical manner.
This approach, while valuable for disseminating standardized protocols and evidence-based practices, implicitly positions health workers as passive recipients rather than active knowledge creators and agents of climate-health resilience.
Such a framework potentially undervalues the situated knowledge and practical wisdom (what Aristotle called phronesis) that practitioners develop through direct experience with climate-health challenges in their communities.
It also overlooks the potential for what complexity theorists describe as emergent learning – where new knowledge and practices arise from the dynamic interactions between practitioners facing similar challenges in different contexts.
Our research has documented how health workers are already responding to climate-related health challenges.
For example, observations from more than 1,200 health workers in 68 countries reveal a rich tapestry of local knowledge and insights that often go unrecognized in formal academic and policy discussions
Health workers are already intimate witnesses to the impacts of climate change on the health of the communities they serve, possessing valuable knowledge that should inform both science and policy.
Where Haines sees health workers primarily as implementers of climate-resilient healthcare strategies, we view them as leaders and innovators in climate adaptation.
However, these perspectives need not be mutually exclusive.
TGLF’s model offers a bridge between formal institutional approaches and ground-level experiential knowledge.
New peer learning platforms like Teach to Reach enable rapid sharing of solutions across geographical and institutional boundaries.
This platform enables health workers to be both learners and teachers, sharing successful adaptations while learning from colleagues facing similar challenges in different contexts.
Such participatory approaches also help local knowledge inform global understanding – if global research institutions and funders are willing to listen and learn.
When TGLF gathered observations about climate change impacts on health, we received detailed accounts of everything from disease transmission to healthcare access.
A health worker from Cameroon described how flooding from Mount Cameroon led to deaths in their community.
Another from Kenya shared how changing agricultural patterns forced them to develop new strategies for ensuring safe food access.
Jones, I., Mbuh, C., Sadki, R., Eller, K., Rhoda, D., 2023. On the frontline of climate change and health: A health worker eyewitness report. The Geneva Learning Foundation. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10204660
These granular insights complement the broader statistical evidence presented in academic literature, providing crucial context for how climate changes manifest in specific communities.
TGLF’s model demonstrates how digital technologies can democratize knowledge sharing to strengthen scientific evidence and drive locally-led action.
This creates a dynamic knowledge ecosystem that can respond more quickly to emerging challenges than traditional top-down approaches.
Importantly, this model addresses a key gap in Haines’ recommendations: the need for rapid, scalable knowledge sharing among frontline workers.
While formal research and policy development necessarily take time, climate impacts are already affecting communities.
TGLF’s approach enables immediate peer learning while building an evidence base for longer-term policy development.
The model also addresses the issue of trust.
Health workers, as trusted community members, play a crucial role in helping communities make sense of and navigate the changes they are facing.
Their understanding of local contexts and constraints are critical to develop strategies that can actually be implemented.
By combining institutional support with health worker-led local action, we can strengthen health systems to be both technically robust and locally responsive.
Our experience at the Geneva Learning Foundation suggests that new learning and leadership are needed to bridge these approaches, enabling the rapid sharing of both formal and experiential knowledge while building the collective capacity needed to survive the impacts of climate change on our health.
References
Haines, A., Kimani-Murage, E.W., Gopfert, A., 2024. Strengthening primary health care in a changing climate. The Lancet 404, 1620–1622. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(24)02193-7
Image: The Geneva Learning Foundation Collection © 2024
Share this:
#AndyHaines #AnyaGopfert #climateAndHealth #ElizabethWambuiKimaniMurage #epistemology #globalHealth #healthWorkforce #HumanResourcesForHealth #PHC #phronesis #primaryHealthCare #situatedKnowledge
Planetary Health Check 2024
Earth exceeds safe limits: First Planetary Health Check issues red alert
The Planetary Boundaries Science supported by the Planetary Guardians and other partners, has launched the Planetary Health Check (#PHC), a first-of-its-kind scientific report and tool for the health of the Earth’s vital organs that serve as humanity’s life support system.
#Report (PDF):
https://www.planetaryhealthcheck.org/storyblok-cdn/f/301438/x/03be75c484/planetaryhealthcheck2024_report.pdf
KP writes to PHC for formation of judicial commission on May 9 riots
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#KPGovernment #PHC #JudicialCommission #May9Riots #PakistanPolitics #KPNews #RiotInquiry #PakistanUpdate #JudicialProbe #KPUpdate
Great to be in Doha (#Qatar) to support capacity building of #health and #care workers on how to deliver person-centred integrated care for older persons (#ICOPE)
Penang Hill Corporation (#PHC) and #RapidPenang are again bringing back the #freeshuttle service from #Komtar to #PenangHill this month.
The complimentary #shuttle service will be operational from 23 Dec this year to 1 Jan 2024, spanning 10 days.
It will run from 9am to 9pm, with eight daily #trips in both directions, at intervals of 1 hour and 30 minutes.
Read more: https://www.buletinmutiara.com/penang-hill-free-shuttle-service-returns-for-year-end-festivities/
Offline: Primary healthcare is not enough.
"...The “fundamental role” of primary healthcare is, once again, central to the 2023 vision for #UHC—90% of essential interventions for UHC can be delivered using a primary healthcare approach...”
#PrimaryHealth #PHC #Care #aging
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(23)01843-3/fulltext#%20
We will have plenty more to report on #HealthReform developments in coming days, but meantime here is an overview of the news out of recent #NationalCabinet meeting re #NDIS, #PHC, housing & planning policy https://www.croakey.org/where-is-the-national-health-reform-agenda-heading/
#AusPol
(includes links to relevant documents)
Mental health first aid training will be rolled out to at least 1,000 community pharmacists across South Australia
#healthreform
#PHC
#primaryhealthcare
cc @CroakeyNews
Prioritise primary healthcare, public health and collaboration with communities: lessons from Costa Rica and the pandemic https://www.croakey.org/prioritise-primary-healthcare-public-health-and-collaboration-with-communities-lessons-from-costa-rica-and-the-pandemic/
HT @WFPHA_FMASP @BBorisch
#WorldInTurmoil #SDOH #PrimaryHealthCare #PHC
cc @BlairWilliams26 @tarunw @CrabbBrendan @Mark_Butler_MP
Groups call on the governments of 🇧🇪 🇫🇷 🇩🇪 🇳🇱 🇬🇧 to assume their responsibilities and stop the violence plaguing a mediation process between #oilpalm #plantation company #PHC/#Feronia and local communities in the #DRC.
➡️ https://www.farmlandgrab.org/31411
#landgrab #Africa #development #agribusiness #humanrights #DFI #developmentfinance
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