Greenpeace activists released in Spain after 33-hour detention over peaceful protest against dirty palm oil

The six activists who were detained for 33 hours on board a shipment carrying dirty palm oil into Europe have been released by Spanish authorities in Algeciras. The Greenpeace International volunteers climbed onto the Stolt Tenacity tanker at dawn on Saturday, and delayed its journey from Indonesia to The Netherlands for almost two days.

The climbers were protesting a 185-metre long cargo loaded with palm oil products from Wilmar, the biggest palm oil trader in the world, which trades in palm oil associated with rainforest destruction.

“In delaying this shipment of dirty palm oil, these brave activists have shone a light on how the palm oil industry needs to change in order to prevent a further climate and extinction crisis. This must start with Wilmar, the world’s largest palm oil trader who can and should be an example to the others. We also demand that Mondelez, makers of Oreo cookies, drop Wilmar as a supplier until it can prove it no longer trades palm oil from forest destroyers.”, said Kiki Taufik, Greenpeace spokesperson.

Wilmar is a major supplier to global snack food giant Mondelez, one of the world’s largest buyers of palm oil, which it uses in many of its best-known products, including Oreo cookies, Cadbury chocolate bars, and Ritz crackers.

The Stolt Tenacity was safely scaled early Saturday morning by the six women and men from Indonesia, Germany, the UK, France, Canada and the US. No charges have been made against the climbers by the shipping company or the authorities.

The Greenpeace ship Esperanza is remaining in the area to keep watch over the tanker, Stolt Tenacity, which is still carrying the dirty palm oil.

The plantation sector—palm oil and pulp—is the single largest driver of deforestation in Indonesia. Around 24 million hectares of rainforest was destroyed in Indonesia between 1990 and 2015, according to official figures released by the Indonesian government [1].

Photos and video are available here

Notes

[1] Figures cover loss of natural forest. Sources:

1990–2012: MoEF (2016b) Table Annex 5.1, pp90–1 – gross deforestation 21,339,301ha

2012–2013: MoEF (2014) Lampiran 1, Tabel 1.1 – gross deforestation 953,977ha

2013–2014: MoEF (2015) Lampiran 1, Tabel 1.1 – gross deforestation 567,997ha

2014–2015: MoEF (2016a) Lampiran 1, Tabel 1.1 – gross deforestation 1,223,553ha