World Bank Knowingly Funds Harmful Biofuel Co.

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In our March/April 2009 issue, journalist Heather Rogers investigates the controversy surrounding biofuel production and the ever-expanding oil palm plantations in Indonesia. In her report, Rogers explores why the world’s largest palm oil trader, Wilmar, is facing intense criticism: 

Wilmar is currently under scrutiny for illegalities…including logging protected areas, using fire to clear trees, forcibly removing peasants and indigenous people, and operating without proper permits. 

According to Rogers, these activities violate Wilmar’s own social responsibility policies, as well as the standards of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank’s private sector lending arm that has bankrolled Wilmar with millions. After pressure from Indonesian activists, IFC’s ombudsman was forced to launch an investigation.

Well, the investigation finally wrapped up this summer, culminating in this damning report that details IFC’s failures:

  • IFC did not address the livelihood and economic issues faced by smallholders or plantation workers in the supply chain.
  • IFC overrode the assessment by it’s own economic and social department (CES) and incorrectly categorized investments in Wilmar’s oil palm projects as having “limited, or no, environmental or social impacts.”
  • IFC failed to address the fact that Wilmar’s plantation operations were not in compliance with Indonesia’s national laws, which require Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA), and local land rights customs.
  • IFC investments were overly influenced by commercial pressures and disregarded environmental and social due diligence requirements.

Indonesia’s civil society organizations have responded quickly to these findings. In conjunction with the UK’s Forest Peoples Programme, they sent a letter to IFC officials arguing that such failures require IFC “to suspend its support for the palm oil sector in Indonesia until these deficiencies are addressed.” As Marcus Colchester of the Forest Peoples Programme explains, “IFC staff knew of the environmental and social risks in the palm oil sector, including unresolved land disputes and non-compliance with its social and environmental standards, but chose to ignore the risks.”

Check out Heather Rogers’ investigation here.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT.

We have a considerable $390,000 gap in our online fundraising budget that we have to close by June 30. There is no wiggle room, we've already cut everything we can, and we urgently need more readers to pitch in—especially from this specific blurb you're reading right now.

We'll also be quite transparent and level-headed with you about this.

In "News Never Pays," our fearless CEO, Monika Bauerlein, connects the dots on several concerning media trends that, taken together, expose the fallacy behind the tragic state of journalism right now: That the marketplace will take care of providing the free and independent press citizens in a democracy need, and the Next New Thing to invest millions in will fix the problem. Bottom line: Journalism that serves the people needs the support of the people. That's the Next New Thing.

And it's what MoJo and our community of readers have been doing for 47 years now.

But staying afloat is harder than ever.

In "This Is Not a Crisis. It's The New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, why this moment is particularly urgent, and how we can best communicate that without screaming OMG PLEASE HELP over and over. We also touch on our history and how our nonprofit model makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there: Letting us go deep, focus on underreported beats, and bring unique perspectives to the day's news.

You're here for reporting like that, not fundraising, but one cannot exist without the other, and it's vitally important that we hit our intimidating $390,000 number in online donations by June 30.

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