Accountability Counsel is collaborating with the Papua New Guinea-based Centre for Environmental Law and Community Rights (“CELCOR”) to assist a local advocacy group and small landowners in the Oro province of Papua New Guinea in their complaint to the World Bank Inspection Panel about a project to expand oil palm in their region. 

On December 19, 2011, the Panel released its Investigation Report, confirming violations of the Bank’s policies regarding Indigenous Peoples (OP/BP 4.10), Environmental Assessment (OP 4.01), Forests (OP/BP 4.04), Project Appraisal (OMS 2.20), and Economic Evaluation of Investment Operations (OP 10.04).  

World Bank Management responded to the Panel’s report with an action plan that the Board of Directors approved on December 13, 2011.  Accountability Counsel’s summary of the actions the World Bank must now take to bring the project into compliance is available here.

To learn

more, please see Accountability Counsel and CELCOR’s report, The World Bank's Duty in PNG and a detailed critique of the Effluent Study that the Bank released many years late in July 2011.

The Problem

The complaint to the World Bank Inspection Panel concerns the World Bank’s support of the Smallholder Agricultural Development Project (“SADP”), a US$ 69 million project to expand oil palm production and reorganize the road levy system partially by extracting burdensome tolls from local smallholders. 

The project violates World Bank policy by failing to consult with locally affected people about the project and by failing to gain their consent.  As indigenous people, the smallholders have the human right to free, prior, informed consent before such a project is developed - this consent was not requested nor gained in this case.  The project will also cause environmental damage by degrading forests and grasslands which will have negative impacts on local people.

The Request

The local smallholders argue for a moratorium on the project until:

1. (a)poverty reduction is incorporated into the project design;
   

2. (b)other economic livelihood options are presented;
   

3. (c)a comprehensive environmental assessment is undertaken, including assessment of effluent treatment and forest inventory;
   

4. (d)the project design is changed to ensure project sustainability, and
   

5. (e)proper consultation is undertaken to ensure communities give their free, prior and informed consent to all components of the project.
   

The World Bank Inspection Panel’s documents about this case are here.