The palm oil project being developed by the US-owned company Herakles Farms in Cameroon demonstrates the threat posed by badly managed expansion of oil palm plantations.
The project covers 73,086 hectares (180,599 acres) of forest and existing farmland and is home to an estimated 14,000 people, mostly small farmers. Residents are fiercely opposing the plantation, fearing it will deprive them of their farmland and access to forest products. International and Cameroonian NGOs and scientists are also critical of the project on the grounds of illegality, social and economic injustice and environmental destruction.
