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	<channel>
		<title>Conservation news</title>
		<atom:link href="https://news.mongabay.com/feed/?topic=slavery&#038;type=post" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/slavery/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Fri, 25 Sep 2026 05:45:37 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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	<url>https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/05/16160320/cropped-mongabay_icon-32x32.png</url>
	<title>News on Slavery</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/slavery/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>Bumble Bee asks court to dismiss lawsuit alleging forced labor in tuna supply chain</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/bumble-bee-asks-court-to-dismiss-lawsuit-alleging-forced-labor-in-tuna-supply-chain/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/bumble-bee-asks-court-to-dismiss-lawsuit-alleging-forced-labor-in-tuna-supply-chain/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Jun 2025 16:26:41 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Basten Gokkon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Food systems]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/06/06123302/tuna-in-taiwan-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=300315</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Business, Certification, Conflict, Conservation, Crime, Environment, Environmental Law, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Food, Food Industry, Forced labor, Governance, Human Rights, Industry, Marine Conservation, Oceans, Saltwater Fish, Slavery, Social Justice, Sustainability, and Tuna]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[U.S. canned tuna producer Bumble Bee Foods has asked a court to dismiss a lawsuit alleging that it knowingly benefited from its suppliers’ use of forced labor by Indonesian workers. Earlier this year, four Indonesian men filed a complaint in federal court in San Diego, California, against Bumble Bee, alleging the company was aware of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[U.S. canned tuna producer Bumble Bee Foods has asked a court to dismiss a lawsuit alleging that it knowingly benefited from its suppliers’ use of forced labor by Indonesian workers. Earlier this year, four Indonesian men filed a complaint in federal court in San Diego, California, against Bumble Bee, alleging the company was aware of and profited from labor abuses and forced labor that they and other migrant sea workers endured aboard fishing vessels supplying the iconic U.S. tuna brand. On June 2, the company submitted a motion to the court to dismiss the case on legal grounds in an effort to end it before it reaches trial. In the motion, the company argued the plaintiffs lack standing for their claims, that they failed to state a proper claim under the law in question, and that the court lacks jurisdiction over certain aspects of the case. “Plaintiffs allege horrible mistreatment at the hands of vessel captains and crew on distant-water fishing vessels owned by two Chinese companies, operating in international waters, that supplied albacore tuna to Bumble Bee Foods, LLC (Bumble Bee),” the company stated in the motion. “Bumble Bee unequivocally condemns forced labor and takes allegations of forced labor in its supply chain seriously. Indeed, when Bumble Bee learned of the allegations in the Complaint, it promptly instructed its suppliers to cease purchasing from the vessels at issue. Plaintiffs nonetheless seek to hold Bumble Bee—a U.S. company—liable under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) and state negligence law&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/bumble-bee-asks-court-to-dismiss-lawsuit-alleging-forced-labor-in-tuna-supply-chain/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/bumble-bee-asks-court-to-dismiss-lawsuit-alleging-forced-labor-in-tuna-supply-chain/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-300315</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Coffee companies are readier for the EUDR than they claim (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/coffee-companies-are-readier-for-the-eudr-than-they-claim-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/coffee-companies-are-readier-for-the-eudr-than-they-claim-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Feb 2025 11:13:35 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Etelle Higonnet]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Food systems]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/12/21105318/Floating-and-sorting-the-coffee.-Photo-by-Jo-Anne-McArthur-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=294941</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Asia, European Union, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Business, Coffee, Conservation, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporate Social Responsibility, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, EUDR, Forest Loss, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, International Trade, Politics, Poverty, Slavery, Supply Chain, Trade, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The battle over the fate of the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) was arguably the biggest forest story in 2024. It turns out, coffee played a dark and bitter role in that struggle. Under the EUDR, companies wanting to sell to the EU market products containing coffee, wood, cattle, cocoa, soy, palm oil or rubber [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The battle over the fate of the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) was arguably the biggest forest story in 2024. It turns out, coffee played a dark and bitter role in that struggle. Under the EUDR, companies wanting to sell to the EU market products containing coffee, wood, cattle, cocoa, soy, palm oil or rubber must prove that they are deforestation-free. The law, the first of its kind globally, aimed to tackle the impacts of these seven commodities on forests and peoples’ rights. It was approved with an overwhelming democratic mandate in 2023, sending a clear signal about the EU’s determination to drastically reduce its contribution to clearing land for agriculture.  The law was initially greeted as a breakthrough in the global battle against forest loss, and seen as a template for others to follow around the world.   But after the breakthrough came the “greenlash.”   Lobbyists, politicians (some of whom received more than €1.7 million, or $1.8 million, from industry players facing regulation) and industry forces like coffee companies tried to sabotage Europe’s efforts to end deforestation in its supply chains — disregarding democratic principles, threatening the EU’s credibility with its trading partners, and undermining those companies that had already spent tens of millions of euros preparing for EUDR implementation.  Coffee plantation in the Andes. Image by Morley Read. At the forefront of some of the most bitter, groundless attacks on the EUDR were major coffee companies and EU coffee industry lobby groups. Letters shared by insider sources reveal the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/coffee-companies-are-readier-for-the-eudr-than-they-claim-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/coffee-companies-are-readier-for-the-eudr-than-they-claim-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-294941</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New abuse allegations hit China ghost ships in Indonesia waters</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/new-abuse-allegations-hit-china-ghost-ships-in-indonesia-waters/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/new-abuse-allegations-hit-china-ghost-ships-in-indonesia-waters/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Oct 2024 10:27:49 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/10/25091501/Run-Zeng-03-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=289185</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, China, Indonesia, Maluku, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Crime, Environment, Environmental Law, Fish, Governance, Human Rights, Law, Marine, Marine Conservation, Oceans, Slavery, and Social Justice]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Labor abuses on foreign-flagged fishing vessels in Indonesia&#8217;s remote eastern seas continue to claim lives, with Indonesian crew members bearing the brunt of exploitation amid weak law enforcement, a new report published on Oct. 3 shows. “What we ate and drank was unfit,” Sanusi, a crew member aboard the Russia-flagged Run Zeng 03 fishing boat, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Labor abuses on foreign-flagged fishing vessels in Indonesia&#8217;s remote eastern seas continue to claim lives, with Indonesian crew members bearing the brunt of exploitation amid weak law enforcement, a new report published on Oct. 3 shows. “What we ate and drank was unfit,” Sanusi, a crew member aboard the Russia-flagged Run Zeng 03 fishing boat, told Indonesian publications Jaring and Tempo. Sanusi said he was given rotten chicken to eat and drank used water from an air-conditioning condenser. Crew members felt so desperate after working up to 18 hours a day and enduring a protracted dispute over withheld pay that they leapt in April from the boat into the Arafura Sea, some 8 kilometers (5 miles) from shore. Most of the crew were rescued by a passing purse seine fishing boat and admitted to the nearest health center for critical care. However, the headless body of one of the men, named Juanaaby, was recovered days later and buried by residents of Warabal village, Tual district. Awareness of criminality at sea has increased a decade after Associated Press journalists won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for documenting systemic forced labor in Southeast Asia’s fishing fleets. That disclosure led to the release of more than 2,000 people, some of whom had been kept in cages. However, reporting in the past several years has revealed widespread abuses have persisted in the sector, perhaps most notoriously on vessels operated by Dalian Ocean Fishing, a China-based tuna firm that supplied sashimi-grade fish to Japan.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/new-abuse-allegations-hit-china-ghost-ships-in-indonesia-waters/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/new-abuse-allegations-hit-china-ghost-ships-in-indonesia-waters/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-289185</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>U.S. and U.K. lawmakers must wake up to the coffee problem (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/u-s-and-u-k-lawmakers-must-wake-up-to-the-coffee-problem-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/u-s-and-u-k-lawmakers-must-wake-up-to-the-coffee-problem-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Dec 2023 01:19:13 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Etelle Higonnet]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2016/11/09112559/coffeecup2-683x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=276892</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Britain, Europe, European Union, Global, United Kingdom, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Business, Coffee, Commentary, Commodity Roundtables, Conservation, Deforestation, Food, Food Industry, Forest Products, Forests, Green, Human Rights, International Trade, Slavery, Trade, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Coffee. Nectar of the gods. Lifesaving energy booster that helps many of us start our days. Ubiquitously consumed around the world by people like me – without my beloved morning brew I am something of a discombobulatedgrumpyhedgehog. And yet, this top, globally traded agri-commodity is also a major driver of deforestation, mass extinction, child labor, slavery, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Coffee. Nectar of the gods. Lifesaving energy booster that helps many of us start our days. Ubiquitously consumed around the world by people like me – without my beloved morning brew I am something of a discombobulatedgrumpyhedgehog. And yet, this top, globally traded agri-commodity is also a major driver of deforestation, mass extinction, child labor, slavery, and other abuses. Few consumers realize that only 10% to 1% of coffee&#8217;s retail price ends up in the coffee farmers’ hands, most of whom do not earn a living wage, and are subsisting in grinding poverty. (Sorry for this downer, please don&#8217;t read any further till you&#8217;ve had a good strong cup to brace for the rest!) Coffee is thought to be one of the top seven commodities driving deforestation worldwide – not as bad as cattle, but right up there with cocoa, rubber, and wood fiber; sometimes even nipping at the heels of the notorious palm oil industry. Coffee replaced about 1.9 million hectares of forest from 2001 to 2015. Coffee doesn&#8217;t just kill forests though. Pesticide-soaked monoculture coffee is a significant contributor to the mass extinction we are in, especially the insect apocalypse. Forest area replaced by commodity crops. Table via World Resources Institute. Bizarrely, almost no NGOs work to document abuses in the coffee industry, but thanks to some fearless journalists, we know quite a bit about abuses in coffee supply chains from Mexico to Vietnam, Guatemala to Ethiopia, Brazil to Cote d&#8217;Ivoire, Honduras to Indonesia. Despite valiant efforts by some pioneering investigators though, not much is said however about horrific conditions in the coffee industry, compared to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/u-s-and-u-k-lawmakers-must-wake-up-to-the-coffee-problem-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/u-s-and-u-k-lawmakers-must-wake-up-to-the-coffee-problem-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-276892</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Alleged torturers roam free as Indonesia struggles to bring charges in palm oil slavery case</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/06/alleged-torturers-roam-free-as-indonesia-struggles-to-bring-charges-in-palm-oil-slavery-case/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/06/alleged-torturers-roam-free-as-indonesia-struggles-to-bring-charges-in-palm-oil-slavery-case/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Jun 2023 01:46:26 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/06/20134537/oil-palm-indonesia-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=270015</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, North Sumatra, Southeast Asia, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Crime, Environment, Forced labor, Human Rights, Law, Law Enforcement, Palm Oil, Plantations, Slavery, Social Justice, trafficking, and Violence]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Only 13 of some 60 men implicated in a human trafficking case in which Indonesian drug users were imprisoned under the guise of a rehabilitation program and forced to work on a palm oil plantation have been charged, with the local district attorney citing a lack of police cooperation as impeding his office from prosecuting [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Only 13 of some 60 men implicated in a human trafficking case in which Indonesian drug users were imprisoned under the guise of a rehabilitation program and forced to work on a palm oil plantation have been charged, with the local district attorney citing a lack of police cooperation as impeding his office from prosecuting many of the alleged culprits, according to a new article by The New York Times. The scandal came to light last year after Terbit Rencana Perangin-angin, the leader of the district of Langkat in North Sumatra province, was arrested for bribery. When anticorruption officers raided his residential compound, they discovered dozens of men locked in barred cells on the estate. Instead of receiving treatment for their addiction, they had been tortured and made to toil on a plantation and palm oil factory owned by Perangin-angin and his family, witnesses said. The men have since been freed, and horrific accounts of physical assault have circulated in courtrooms and media reports, with some suggesting Perangin-angin was able to get away with a forced-labor operation because of his considerable influence in Langkat district. His son, Dewa Perangin-angin, 25, was among the few people punished for their role in the scheme. Judges ruled last November that he had tortured a man to death, beating him during an interrogation about whether he had used drugs before ordering guards to push him into a pond, where he drowned. “He had this excitement seeing people being tortured,” one victim told the Times&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/06/alleged-torturers-roam-free-as-indonesia-struggles-to-bring-charges-in-palm-oil-slavery-case/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/06/alleged-torturers-roam-free-as-indonesia-struggles-to-bring-charges-in-palm-oil-slavery-case/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-270015</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>For Brazil’s Indigenous people, slavery born of colonization still hasn’t ended</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/08/for-brazils-indigenous-people-slavery-born-of-colonization-still-hasnt-ended/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/08/for-brazils-indigenous-people-slavery-born-of-colonization-still-hasnt-ended/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Aug 2022 11:35:25 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Lais Modelli]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hayat Indriyatno]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/08/04112813/SCuffe_BrazilIndigenous_Guarani-Kaiowa_big-e1657207545730-768x417.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=258884</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[COVID-19, Environment, Environmental Policy, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Mining, Slavery, and Traditional People]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[At least 1,640 Indigenous people have been rescued from slave-like work conditions in Brazil since 2004, or an average of 90 rescues every year over the past 18 years. That’s the key finding from a Mongabay analysis of official records, corroborated by interviews with labor inspectors. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic alone, 115 [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[At least 1,640 Indigenous people have been rescued from slave-like work conditions in Brazil since 2004, or an average of 90 rescues every year over the past 18 years. That’s the key finding from a Mongabay analysis of official records, corroborated by interviews with labor inspectors. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic alone, 115 Indigenous workers have been rescued from modern slavery in Brazil, according to data from DETRAE, the division within the Ministry of the Economy responsible for tackling slave labor practices. The data show that forced labor among Indigenous people is closely linked to the farming and cattle-ranching sectors: of the 303 Indigenous people rescued between 2010 and May 2022, 287 fell into the DETRAE category of “agricultural, forestry or fisheries workers.” Of those rescued in 2022, 77% worked in farming and cattle ranching; 18% were migrant laborers (general helpers in agriculture, such as fence builders, bark peelers, weeders, etc.), and 5% were sex workers. The Brazilian state with the highest number of Indigenous people subjected to forced labor is Mato Grosso do Sul. Lúcia Helena Rangel, an anthropologist with the Indigenist Missionary Council (CIMI), says the main factor here is the historic process of expropriation of Indigenous lands for use by agribusiness. “Historically, agribusiness has pushed Indigenous communities onto small pieces of land. Over the years, the situation has worsened as Indigenous populations have grown but their territories haven’t,” Rangel says. A case in point is that of the Guarani-Kaiowá people. A report by the Instituto&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/08/for-brazils-indigenous-people-slavery-born-of-colonization-still-hasnt-ended/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/08/for-brazils-indigenous-people-slavery-born-of-colonization-still-hasnt-ended/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-258884</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Book Review: &#8216;Slaves for Peanuts&#8217; gets to the troubling roots of a beloved snack</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/book-review-slaves-for-peanuts-gets-to-the-troubling-roots-of-a-beloved-snack/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/book-review-slaves-for-peanuts-gets-to-the-troubling-roots-of-a-beloved-snack/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Jun 2022 07:46:03 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Malavika Vyawahare]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Malavikavyawahare]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/06/22042308/peanuts-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=257558</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Senegal, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Books, Conservation, Environment, Food, Forced labor, Governance, History, International Trade, Journalism, Law, Slavery, Social Conflict, and Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[“How do we tell the stories of people that history forgets and the present avoids?” journalist-turned-author Jori Lewis asks in the preface to her debut book, Slaves for Peanuts: A Story of Conquest, Liberation, and a Crop That Changed History. Lewis&#8217;s account of Senegal’s peanut trade in the second half of the 19th century is [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[“How do we tell the stories of people that history forgets and the present avoids?” journalist-turned-author Jori Lewis asks in the preface to her debut book, Slaves for Peanuts: A Story of Conquest, Liberation, and a Crop That Changed History. Lewis&#8217;s account of Senegal’s peanut trade in the second half of the 19th century is peopled with such stories, from a “negro” French evangelist to a defiant Senegalese chief. By tracing their life stories, Lewis creates a prism through which to view European colonial expansion in West Africa. The book illustrates how the commercial trade in peanuts took root after slavery officially ended by continuing to draw on the labor of unfree humans. Lewis also details how ascendant Western nations got hooked on this humble nut of the earth. Peanuts weren’t just food; peanut oil was lard and lubricant. The British railway, the backbone of the Industrial Revolution, required 13,000 tons of grease every year. French soap-makers were increasingly warming to the idea of substituting olive oil with peanut oil. This demand spurred a boom in peanut cultivation in Senegal. The West African nation has been one of the world&#8217;s leading peanut producers for more than a century, though it lags behind major exporters today. Cover of Jori Lewis’s “Slaves for Peanuts: A Story of Conquest, Liberation, and a Crop That Changed History,” which tells the stories of “people that history forgets and the present avoids.” Image courtesy of The New Press. Most of Senegal’s current peanut production occurs in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/book-review-slaves-for-peanuts-gets-to-the-troubling-roots-of-a-beloved-snack/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/book-review-slaves-for-peanuts-gets-to-the-troubling-roots-of-a-beloved-snack/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-257558</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Study links many reported fisheries crimes to just a few repeat offenders</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/03/study-links-many-reported-fisheries-crimes-to-just-a-few-repeat-offenders/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/03/study-links-many-reported-fisheries-crimes-to-just-a-few-repeat-offenders/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Mar 2022 15:15:36 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Annelise Giseburt]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/03/24115333/USNS-Spearhead-Photo-Oceana-report-fisheries-crime-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=254129</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Business, Crime, Environment, Environmental Law, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Food Industry, Global Environmental Crisis, Human Rights, Illegal Fishing, Illegal Trade, International Trade, Marine, Marine Conservation, NGOs, Oceans, Organized Crime, Saltwater Fish, and Slavery]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The shadowy world of fisheries crime is difficult to study; much of the action takes place far from land, without the knowledge of anyone but the perpetrators. New research shows that a small number of companies may be responsible for a large chunk of international fisheries crimes. It also shows that the vessels committing abuses, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The shadowy world of fisheries crime is difficult to study; much of the action takes place far from land, without the knowledge of anyone but the perpetrators. New research shows that a small number of companies may be responsible for a large chunk of international fisheries crimes. It also shows that the vessels committing abuses, such as unauthorized fishing and human rights and labor violations, often engage in more than one offense. The study, funded by the Washington, D.C.-based NGO Oceana and published March 23 in the journal Science Advances, offers new insight into patterns of illegal activity across the global fishing industry that can help authorities address fisheries crimes, according to its authors. To conduct the study, Dyhia Belhabib, principal investigator at the NGO Ecotrust Canada and director of the Vancouver, British Columbia-based startup Nautical Crime Investigation Services, and Philippe Le Billon, a professor at the University of British Columbia, compiled roughly 8,000 unique offenses reported from nearly 7,000 incidents between 2000 and 2020. They gathered the records mainly from reports by governments, NGOs and the media, naming the database the Criminal Record of Fishing Vessels. While the authors call it the “largest existing repository” of reported fisheries offenses, the actual number of crimes at sea is likely much higher due to an overall lack of monitoring and reporting in the fishing sector. The paper states illegal fishing accounts for one-fourth the value of all landed seafood products, roughly $30 billion globally. Abetted by insufficient monitoring, illegal fishing is&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/03/study-links-many-reported-fisheries-crimes-to-just-a-few-repeat-offenders/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/03/study-links-many-reported-fisheries-crimes-to-just-a-few-repeat-offenders/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-254129</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>It’s Juneteenth, but these American companies are still profiting from slavery (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/06/its-juneteenth-but-these-american-companies-are-still-profiting-from-slavery-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/06/its-juneteenth-but-these-american-companies-are-still-profiting-from-slavery-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Jun 2021 22:57:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Samuel Mawutor]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/06/18225205/Better_Cocoa-0689-uai-2880x1920-1-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=243888</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cote D'Ivoire, Ghana, United States, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Cacao, Commentary, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Forced labor, Forests, Green, Human Rights, Slavery, Social Justice, and Supply Chain]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Juneteenth marks the date in 1865 where an estimated 250,000 enslaved people in Texas were freed, marking the official end of slavery in the Confederacy – two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, and six months before the 13th Amendment to the Constitution finally banned slavery nationwide. As much as Juneteenth is worthy of celebration, liberation [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Juneteenth marks the date in 1865 where an estimated 250,000 enslaved people in Texas were freed, marking the official end of slavery in the Confederacy – two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, and six months before the 13th Amendment to the Constitution finally banned slavery nationwide. As much as Juneteenth is worthy of celebration, liberation is not complete. In our work, the most egregious and direct manifestation of that delayed justice is that American companies and institutions are continuing to drive slavery today at scale. The Emancipation Proclamation may have made it to Texas in 1865, but some companies are acting today as if it still doesn’t apply in their corporate suites. And on Wednesday, those companies got a free pass from the Supreme Court to continue the profit from slavery. There is probably no company that better symbolizes continued complicity with slavery than Cargill, America’s largest privately-held company and the world’s largest agribusiness.  Cargill isn’t a household name, but it’s bigger than even Koch industries, and sits astride much of America and the world’s food system. Cargill sells the chicken, beef, palm oil, corn, grain, cocoa and many other raw ingredients that’s found in much of what’s sold in supermarkets and restaurants. You may not know it, but you’re probably eating a Cargill product today. For instance, it’s actually Cargill that makes chicken McNuggets and Big Mac patties – and then just sends them to McDonald’s to be warmed up. The company has a terrible and well-documented record of driving destruction of forests,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/06/its-juneteenth-but-these-american-companies-are-still-profiting-from-slavery-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/06/its-juneteenth-but-these-american-companies-are-still-profiting-from-slavery-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-243888</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Companies ‘disregard responsibility’ over conflict minerals: Report</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/10/companies-disregard-corporate-responsibility-over-conflict-minerals-report/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/10/companies-disregard-corporate-responsibility-over-conflict-minerals-report/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Oct 2019 08:50:08 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Daniel]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2016/02/01230716/Image3_ResponsibleSourcingNetworkFlickr_coltan_mineDRC-520x292.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=223719</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Global Commodities]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, and Democratic Republic Of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Corporate Social Responsibility, Energy, Environment, Environmental Policy, Governance, Human Rights, Mining, Natural Gas, Oil, Rainforests, Slavery, Technology, Threats To Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[An analysis of 215 companies’ mineral supply chains has found many have fallen short of their obligations under the Conflict Minerals Rule, also known as Section 1502 of the Dodd-Frank Act, regarding their sourcing from the Democratic Republic of Congo. In a report published this month by the Responsible Sourcing Network (RSN), the group analysed [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[An analysis of 215 companies’ mineral supply chains has found many have fallen short of their obligations under the Conflict Minerals Rule, also known as Section 1502 of the Dodd-Frank Act, regarding their sourcing from the Democratic Republic of Congo. In a report published this month by the Responsible Sourcing Network (RSN), the group analysed corporate compliance under the legislation, passed by the Obama administration in 2010, which requires public companies in the United States to disclose the use of tin, tungsten, tantalum and gold (3TG) in their products and determine if they have been sourced ethically. Mining concessions are scattered across DRC&#8217;s east and south, where long-running conflicts have been fuelled by the minerals trade. Source: DRC Mining Cadastre Portal. The analysis showed an average company score of less than 40%, on par with last year. The report also ranked 27 companies on efforts to address child labor and other rights abuses in their cobalt supply chains, with firms scoring 26.4%. The worst performing industries remained integrated oil and gas, steel and business services. While some companies increased participation in efforts to address the conflict minerals issue, most indicators studied by RSN showed a decline in long-term engagement and “deplorable” levels of risk regarding child labor and other abuses, it said. “The majority of results in this year’s report demonstrate complacency,” Patricia Jurewicz, vice president of RSN, said in a statement. “Companies need to constantly improve their due-diligence efforts to ensure the materials in their products are not causing&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/10/companies-disregard-corporate-responsibility-over-conflict-minerals-report/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/10/companies-disregard-corporate-responsibility-over-conflict-minerals-report/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-223719</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Slave labor found at second Starbucks-certified Brazilian coffee farm</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/05/slave-labor-found-at-second-starbucks-certified-brazilian-coffee-farm/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/05/slave-labor-found-at-second-starbucks-certified-brazilian-coffee-farm/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 May 2019 13:00:43 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Daniel Camargosfrom Repórter Brasil]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/04/27165454/BANNER-st-768x451.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=217906</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Amazon Agribusiness]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Coffee, Controversial, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corruption, Crime, Environment, Environmental Law, Farming, Food, Food Industry, Globalization, Governance, Green, Human Rights, Industrial Agriculture, International Trade, Law, Law Enforcement, Monitoring, Plantations, Regulations, Slavery, Social Justice, Supply Chain, and Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
											<grant>
							<![CDATA[2TFAA2018]]>
						</grant>
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A farm newly placed on the Brazilian Ministry of Labor’s “Dirty List” had been certified by Starbucks and Nestlé; both have since ceased buying coffee from the farm.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A worker’s hands injured by long hours of coffee harvesting. Image by Lilo Clareto / Repórter Brasil This story was produced via a co-publishing partnership between Mongabay and Repórter Brasil; a version in Portuguese can be read here. Eight months after slave labor was discovered at the Cedro II farm in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, Starbucks and Nestlé-controlled brand Nespresso — both of whom had quality certified the farm — said they would stop sourcing coffee there. The decision by the two transnational companies came after the publication of the government’s April “Dirty List” of employers — those caught with labor conditions analogous to slavery. The Dirty List is released biannually by what was previously the Ministry of Labor, now part of the Ministry of Economy, and the the first update under President Jair Bolsonaro. The April Dirty List includes 48 new employers. One of them is coffee producer Helvécio Sebastião Batista, who had been certified with Nespresso and Starbucks quality seals and used to provide coffee for both brands. Nespresso responded: “In the light of the last report of the Ministry of Labor, we immediately suspended business with the producer in question and we will investigate the case. Farms providing coffee to the company are rigorously evaluated and inspected every year to meet the program’s criteria. We will not accept otherwise and there will be no exception.” Starbucks responded, saying it will look into the incident and that it has suspended the farm from its supplier list&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/05/slave-labor-found-at-second-starbucks-certified-brazilian-coffee-farm/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/05/slave-labor-found-at-second-starbucks-certified-brazilian-coffee-farm/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-217906</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Slave labor found at Starbucks-certified Brazil coffee plantation</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/09/slave-labor-found-at-starbucks-certified-brazil-coffee-plantation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/09/slave-labor-found-at-starbucks-certified-brazil-coffee-plantation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Sep 2018 11:16:16 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Daniela Penha contributor for Repórter Brasil]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2018/09/17171412/FEATURED-2-JackieCheu-under-the-terms-of-the-GNU-Free-Documentation-License-Version-1.2-768x447.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=210328</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Certification, Coffee, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Crime, Environment, Food, Forced labor, Governance, Green, Industrial Agriculture, International Trade, Slavery, Social Justice, Supply Chain, Sustainability, Sustainable Development, Trade, and Transparency]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Raid rescues 18 workers from Minas Gerais farm holding good practice seals. Starbucks denies buying beans there in recent years, though its certifier approved the farm.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Ministry of Labor investigators rescued 18 workers laboring in conditions analogous to slavery on coffee farms in the state of Minas Gerais; one of those farms held international certifications. Image by Adere. This story was produced via a co-publishing partnership between Mongabay and Repórter Brasil and can be read in Portuguese here. At first sight, the Córrego das Almas farm in Piumhi, in rural Minas Gerais state, seems to be a model property. “No slave or forced labor is allowed,” reads one of several signs that display international certifications — including one linked to the U.S.-based company Starbucks corporation. But investigators have found that laborers on the farm’s coffee plantations were working under degrading conditions and living in substandard housing without sewerage or drinking water. A Ministry of Labor team inspection conducted at the site rescued 18 rural workers in conditions analogous to slavery. The farm, locally known as Fartura (Portuguese for Abundance), also boasts the UTZ seal – a Netherlands-based sustainable farming certificate considered one of the most prestigious in the coffee industry. That seal of approval was suspended after the certifier was questioned by Repórter Brasil about the case. The farm also holds the C.A.F.E. Practices certification — owned by Starbucks in partnership with SCS Global Services. After hearing of the raid, the two companies responsible for issuing the seal said they would review the farm’s quality certificate. The certifiers verify commodity supply chains in order to assure ethical purchases, good labor practices, and other criteria required by&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/09/slave-labor-found-at-starbucks-certified-brazil-coffee-plantation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/09/slave-labor-found-at-starbucks-certified-brazil-coffee-plantation/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-210328</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Brazilian Supreme Court ruling protects Quilombola land rights for now</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/02/brazilian-supreme-court-ruling-protects-quilombola-land-rights-for-now/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/02/brazilian-supreme-court-ruling-protects-quilombola-land-rights-for-now/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Feb 2018 11:53:18 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mauricio TorresSue Branford]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2018/02/13113827/FEATURED-QU-768x450.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=203745</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Amazon Agribusiness]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Conservation, Controversial, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corruption, Crime, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, forest degradation, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forests, Green, Industrial Agriculture, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Land Use Change, Politics, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Saving Rainforests, Slavery, Social Conflict, Social Justice, Threats To Rainforests, Traditional People, and Tropical Deforestation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
											<grant>
							<![CDATA[TFAA2018]]>
						</grant>
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Land rights of Quilombolas, former slave communities, protected by high court ruling that rejects ruralist-backed lawsuit. The settlements have a strong record of protecting forests.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Children dancing at a quilombola. There are nearly 3,000 quilombola communities in Brazil, but only 219 have received legal title of their lands from the Brazilian government. Photo courtesy of ISA After long consideration, Brazil’s Supreme Court (STF) ruled on 8 February by an overwhelming majority to reject a legal action initiated in 2003 by a right-wing political party to declare invalid a presidential decree (Decreto 4.887/2003), passed by President Lula in the same year. The action, had it succeeded, would have made it much harder for quilombolas (communities of former slaves) to gain rights to their traditional land claims and could have led to the dismantling of quilombola territories already created. Ten of the eleven STF ministers voted that Lula’s presidential decree was constitutional, as Quilombola communities and those working with them breathed a collective sigh of relief. The NGO Socioenvironmental Institute (ISA) called it “an important defeat” of “the Temer government, the rural caucuses (bancada ruralista) and the National Confederation of industry [a powerful business lobby].” The case has been in limbo since 2015. A ruling was scheduled three times last year but postponed each time. In April 2017, the Temer administration suspended all new land demarcations until a ruling was made, which was seen as a clear message that his government endorsed the legal action. Quilombola community members celebrate the Brazilian Supreme Court decision. Photo by Carlos Moura Demildo Biko Rodrigues, from the National Coordination of Rural Black Communities (CONAQ), told BBC Brasil that “the Brazilian state&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/02/brazilian-supreme-court-ruling-protects-quilombola-land-rights-for-now/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/02/brazilian-supreme-court-ruling-protects-quilombola-land-rights-for-now/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-203745</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Militarization and mining a dangerous mix in Venezuelan Amazon</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2017/12/militarization-and-mining-a-dangerous-mix-in-venezuelan-amazon/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2017/12/militarization-and-mining-a-dangerous-mix-in-venezuelan-amazon/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Dec 2017 10:58:04 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Bram Ebus]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2017/12/07103113/FEATURED-1-768x471.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=201895</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, South America, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity Hotspots, Conservation, Controversial, Corruption, Crime, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, forest degradation, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Gold Mining, Green, Illegal Mining, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Infrastructure, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Land Use Change, Mining, Politics, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Saving Rainforests, Slavery, Social Conflict, Social Justice, Threats To Rainforests, Traditional People, and Tropical Deforestation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In 2016, Pres. Maduro proclaimed the Orinoco Mining Arc. Today armed gangs and the military fight over its riches at the expense of the environment and small-scale miners.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Venezuelan military stops motorists passing in front of Minerven, a state company just outside of the town of El Callao. These military checkpoints are a regular part of Venezuelan life today. Photo by Bram Ebus This story is the first in a series of Mongabay articles about Venezuela’s Arco Minero, produced in partnership with InfoAmazonia which has launched an in-depth multimedia platform called Digging into the Mining Arc, exclusively highlighting Venezuela’s mining boom. The three Mongabay stories by Bram Ebus can be found here, here and here. A fourth story, by Mongabay Editor Glenn Scherer, summarizing the series, can be found here. EL CALLAO, BOLIVAR, Venezuela – In conflict-ridden Venezuela, slowing your car to a stop, rolling down your window, and opening your trunk to allow armed National Guardsmen to inspect your vehicle has become a standard routine for just about everybody. Especially in rural Bolívar, the nation’s richest state in minerals, and a region at the heart of what’s known as Venezuela’s Orinoco Mining Arc. There, drivers can expect to encounter improvised roadblocks roughly every half hour. Rural roads are also patrolled by the military and intelligence services, looking for gold smugglers or maybe for an opportunity to extort money or supplies from those making deliveries of food and fuel to the mines. “This government and President Maduro send everybody here: the military, SEBIN [police intelligence], the [state] police and the National Guard. Since about a year ago they have taken control and malandros [gangs] are farther away now,” says Manuel Álvarez&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2017/12/militarization-and-mining-a-dangerous-mix-in-venezuelan-amazon/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2017/12/militarization-and-mining-a-dangerous-mix-in-venezuelan-amazon/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-201895</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Current regulations unable to control trade in products from slave labor, expert says</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2017/03/current-regulations-unable-to-ban-products-manufactured-by-slave-labor/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2017/03/current-regulations-unable-to-ban-products-manufactured-by-slave-labor/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Mar 2017 16:31:45 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ana Aranhafrom Repórter BrasilJoão Diaz]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2017/03/30124109/ShrimpFarmWorkersBangladesh--768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=193961</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Global, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Environment, Forced labor, Forest Destruction, Forests, Habitat Loss, Illegal Logging, Law, Law Enforcement, Logging, Rainforests, Slavery, Timber, timber trade, Trees, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This story is the fourth in a four-part series on slave labor practices at logging camps in Pará, Brazil, produced by Repórter Brasil. Click the following links to access the first, second, and third parts in English on Mongabay. &#160; Miners in Ghana, fishers in Bangladesh and loggers in Brazil have two things in common: many are vulnerable workers [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This story is the fourth in a four-part series on slave labor practices at logging camps in Pará, Brazil, produced by Repórter Brasil. Click the following links to access the first, second, and third parts in English on Mongabay. &nbsp; Miners in Ghana, fishers in Bangladesh and loggers in Brazil have two things in common: many are vulnerable workers often submitted to slave-like conditions while engaging in an activity destructive to forests, rivers and oceans. Another common element is that they often work extracting products destined for markets in Europe and the U.S. “There’s always been a moral case to end slavery; now there is an environmental reason too,” says Kevin Bales in his latest book “Blood and Earth.” Co-founder of the advocacy group Free the Slaves and professor of Contemporary Slavery at the University of Nottingham (UK), Bales gathered seven years of research to unveil a cross-border and cross-industry connection between labor rights and nature protection. “The key thing is how some groups are operating illegally. People are under violent control in forests that are supposed to be protected,” he said in an interview with Reporter Brasil, using cases of illegal logging in the Brazilian Amazon as examples of the same system he saw operating in Africa and Asia. Hiding out in illegality, small logging companies – which Bales refers to as slaveholders – are committing various crimes to extract resources at the lowest costs. In this interview with Repórter Brasil, Bales discusses the fragile regulations that are failing to cut the flow&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2017/03/current-regulations-unable-to-ban-products-manufactured-by-slave-labor/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-193961</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Suppliers of Lowe’s in the US and Walmart in Brazil linked to slave labor in the Amazon</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2017/03/suppliers-of-lowes-in-the-us-and-walmart-in-brazil-linked-to-slave-labor-in-the-amazon/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2017/03/suppliers-of-lowes-in-the-us-and-walmart-in-brazil-linked-to-slave-labor-in-the-amazon/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Mar 2017 16:30:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[André Campos - Repórter Brasil]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2017/03/30124114/Brooklyn_Bridge_at_Night-768x502.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=193957</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, North America, South America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Corporations, Environment, Forced labor, Forest Destruction, Forests, Habitat Loss, Illegal Logging, Law, Law Enforcement, Logging, Rainforests, Slavery, Supply Chain, Timber, timber trade, Trees, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This story is the third in a four-part series on slave labor practices at logging camps in Pará, Brazil, produced by Repórter Brasil; their Portuguese version of this story can be found here. Click the following links to access the first, second, and fourth parts in English on Mongabay. &#160; Products derived from timber extracted [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This story is the third in a four-part series on slave labor practices at logging camps in Pará, Brazil, produced by Repórter Brasil; their Portuguese version of this story can be found here. Click the following links to access the first, second, and fourth parts in English on Mongabay. &nbsp; Products derived from timber extracted by workers living in conditions analogous to slave labor in Brazil are connected to a complex business network linked to the U.S. market – possibly reaching the shelves of large retailers and being used in renovation of landmarks – according to a new investigation conducted by Brazilian news outlet Repórter Brasil. After purchasing from suppliers held liable for that crime by the Brazilian government, local traders exported timber to companies like USFloors, which supplies the retail chain Lowe’s, as well as Timber Holdings, which supplied timber for construction projects at Central Park and Brooklyn Bridge in New York. The commercial network linking retailers to sawmill companies was identified by a three-month investigation and confirmed by the companies. The wood products were mixed at Brazilian intermediaries, so the investigation was unable to track the exact destination of each piece of wood. However, its findings reveal that large retail and construction groups are sourcing the product from companies whose supply chains are contaminated by the alleged use of criminal practices, with the conditions of workers rescued from sawmill sites aligning with slave labor practices as defined by Brazilian law. New York City&#8217;s iconic Brooklyn Bridge was recently&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2017/03/suppliers-of-lowes-in-the-us-and-walmart-in-brazil-linked-to-slave-labor-in-the-amazon/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2017/03/suppliers-of-lowes-in-the-us-and-walmart-in-brazil-linked-to-slave-labor-in-the-amazon/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-193957</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Slave labor in the Amazon: Risking lives to cut down the rainforest</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2017/03/slave-labor-in-the-amazon-risking-lives-to-cut-down-the-rainforest/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2017/03/slave-labor-in-the-amazon-risking-lives-to-cut-down-the-rainforest/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Mar 2017 16:27:43 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ana Aranhafrom Repórter BrasilTania Caliari]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2017/03/30124116/shadow-video-768x405.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=193940</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Environment, Forced labor, Forest Destruction, Forests, Habitat Loss, Illegal Logging, Law, Law Enforcement, Logging, Rainforests, Slavery, Timber, timber trade, Trees, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This story was produced by Repórter Brasil through on-the-ground observations and interviews with local sources and labor inspectors during a one-year investigation of slave labor practices at logging camps in Pará, Brazil. Repórter Brasil&#8217;s Portuguese version of this story can be found here. This is the second story in a four-part series on the topic; [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This story was produced by Repórter Brasil through on-the-ground observations and interviews with local sources and labor inspectors during a one-year investigation of slave labor practices at logging camps in Pará, Brazil. Repórter Brasil&#8217;s Portuguese version of this story can be found here. This is the second story in a four-part series on the topic; click the following links to access the first, third, and fourth parts in English on Mongabay. &nbsp; A rookie in the trade of cutting down trees, João* asked himself how life led him to this “terribly wrong” way to make ends meet. Camped out in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest in the state of Pará, 90 kilometers from the Trans-Amazonian Highway, João regretted taking the job, the first to come along in months. He and his colleagues had finished cutting down the first of many massaranduba trees for the day when they heard the roar of cars. “Come on, let’s hide in the forest,” João heard from one of his more experienced colleagues, and followed. Peering through the leaves, they saw armed men appear clad in vests marked “Federal.&#8221; “Oh God, get me out of here. Don’t let me die,” João pleaded as he ran further into the woods. His fear was rooted in stories told by his more-experienced colleagues, tales of how state authorities handle workers like him: with repression, prison and even physical violence. After he was found by the inspectors, João said the idea of the state being there to protect him never&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2017/03/slave-labor-in-the-amazon-risking-lives-to-cut-down-the-rainforest/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-193940</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Investigation reveals slave labor conditions in Brazil&#8217;s timber industry</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2017/03/investigation-reveals-slave-labor-conditions-in-brazils-timber-industry/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2017/03/investigation-reveals-slave-labor-conditions-in-brazils-timber-industry/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Mar 2017 16:26:20 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[from Repórter BrasilThais Lazzeri]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2017/03/30124134/co06-1367-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=193933</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Environment, Forced labor, Forest Destruction, Forests, Habitat Loss, Illegal Logging, Law, Law Enforcement, Logging, Rainforests, Slavery, Timber, timber trade, Trees, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This story is the first in a four-part series on slave labor practices at logging camps in Pará, Brazil, produced by Repórter Brasil; their Portuguese version of this story can be found here. Click the following links to access the second, third, and fourth parts in English on Mongabay. &#160; The dictionary definition of a settler, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This story is the first in a four-part series on slave labor practices at logging camps in Pará, Brazil, produced by Repórter Brasil; their Portuguese version of this story can be found here. Click the following links to access the second, third, and fourth parts in English on Mongabay. &nbsp; The dictionary definition of a settler, “one who emigrates to populate and/or exploit a foreign land,” does not just apply to the Brazilian colonial period. Even in the 21st century, the term settler is alive and well for families that have migrated from the south and northeast to the Brazilian Amazon, in the state of Pará. Lured by the promise of a prosperous life in agriculture made by the government during a period of military dictatorship, settlers arrived in droves in the 1970s. Nearly fifty years later, many of the descendants of these settlers have become hostages to working conditions analogous to slave labor. This is one of the conclusions of the report “Underneath the Forest: Pará’s Amazon plundered by slave labor” produced by Brazil&#8217;s Pastoral Land Commission (CPT) and the Carmen Bascarán Center for the Defense of Life and Human Rights. The culmination of an investigation into slave labor practices in Pará’s timber industry led by the Integrated Action Network to Combat Slavery (RAICE), the report&#8217;s findings show how the federal government played a role in pushing generations of workers into the trade of logging forests under conditions that align with slave labor practices as defined by Brazilian law. “The&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2017/03/investigation-reveals-slave-labor-conditions-in-brazils-timber-industry/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-193933</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>What’s being done to secure justice for SE Asia’s seafood slaves?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2016/03/whats-being-done-to-secure-justice-for-se-asias-seafood-slaves/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2016/03/whats-being-done-to-secure-justice-for-se-asias-seafood-slaves/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Mar 2016 04:08:54 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Cory Rogers]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2016/03/01220542/Burmese-fishing-slaves-Al-Jazeera-documentary-Ambon-4-520x292.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Maluku, Myanmar, Southeast Asia, and Thailand]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Consumer Action, Environment, Fishing, Forced labor, Governance, Human Migration, Human Rights, Law Enforcement, Oceans, and Slavery]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Twenty-hour work days, savage beatings with stingray tails, years at sea with no way home. Until the release of a thunderbolt Associated Press report in March 2015, these brutal features of Southeast Asia’s fishing industry were largely invisible to the world. Today, governments, especially in Indonesia and Thailand, have been pressured to address the abuses, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Twenty-hour work days, savage beatings with stingray tails, years at sea with no way home. Until the release of a thunderbolt Associated Press report in March 2015, these brutal features of Southeast Asia’s fishing industry were largely invisible to the world. Today, governments, especially in Indonesia and Thailand, have been pressured to address the abuses, passing a bevy of new regulations and even prosecuting some of the worst offenders. A new Al Jazeera documentary examines the pace of progress by asking a different question: What is being done to secure justice for the victims of trafficking and slavery? To answer, a film crew travels to Ambon Port in eastern Indonesia to ask Burmese victims to tell their stories. “The way they forced us to work was [actually] worse than slaves,” said one of the Burmese interviewed at the sprawling port, where a care center has been set up for men awaiting repatriation. “Slaves would have their own time to eat, time to sleep,” he said. “We only had time to work.” A trafficking survivor from Myanmar tells his story at the care center in Ambon. Image courtesy of Al Jazeera Since the AP report came out 11 months ago, the Indonesian government, in partnership with the International Organization for Migration (IOM), has been ratcheting up the repatriations of former slaves. As of early March, just 24 of the hundreds of men were still waiting to go home. Most of them were rescued off boats in 2015, while others had fled&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2016/03/whats-being-done-to-secure-justice-for-se-asias-seafood-slaves/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-184733</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Not all escaped fishing slaves want to go home</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2015/11/escaped-fishing-slaves-find-saving-grace-in-ordinary-indonesians/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2015/11/escaped-fishing-slaves-find-saving-grace-in-ordinary-indonesians/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Nov 2015 01:13:02 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Cory Rogers]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2015/11/03133834/greg_asner_ray-462x330.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Maluku, Myanmar, Southeast Asia, and Thailand]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Fishing, Forced labor, Human Migration, Illegal Fishing, Migration, Oceans, Slavery, and trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[“The most important thing,” 39-year-old Ani Imbran says, sliding a plate of steaming, deep-fried bananas across the floor toward her four Burmese guests, “is that everyone knows my door is open.” Two of the men have been staying at Ani’s house in Shark village — a Muslim enclave in northern Ambon, the largest city in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[“The most important thing,” 39-year-old Ani Imbran says, sliding a plate of steaming, deep-fried bananas across the floor toward her four Burmese guests, “is that everyone knows my door is open.” Two of the men have been staying at Ani’s house in Shark village — a Muslim enclave in northern Ambon, the largest city in the Maluku Islands of eastern Indonesia — for weeks, the others for much longer. All four, however, are among the dozens of escaped fishing slaves Ani has sheltered after months or even years of forced labor at sea, where their bodies were beaten, their dreams crushed into a mush of pain and regret. Like other so-called ibu piara, or adoptive mothers, scattered around the Malukus, Ani became these men’s best hope for survival after the brave, often perilous decision to flee their floating prisons. She currently houses six Burmese men in her cramped, two-room home. Sitting quietly, Umi, Ani’s 22-year-old daughter, glances over at 26-year-old Zaw Myo Win, who sits cross-legged on the other side of the room, cradling their nine-month-old baby boy. Like thousands of other mainland Southeast Asians enslaved in Indonesian waters, in 2006 Zaw Myo Win was lured by recruiters with promises of lucrative work in Thailand, only to find himself forced onto a boat, where he was beaten, deprived of wages and kept on the edge of starvation for nearly a year. Umi met him in this same house, where he would spend a few days of allotted respite between marathon&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2015/11/escaped-fishing-slaves-find-saving-grace-in-ordinary-indonesians/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-157199</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>From slave to student: Myanmar migrants find abuse, opportunity in Thailand</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2015/09/from-slave-to-student-myanmar-migrants-find-abuse-opportunity-in-thailand/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2015/09/from-slave-to-student-myanmar-migrants-find-abuse-opportunity-in-thailand/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Sep 2015 07:12:18 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sarah Hucal]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2015/09/03151918/EJF-RS21790_IMG_1040-511x330.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Southeast Asia, and Thailand]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Crime, Fishing, Forced labor, Human Migration, Illegal Fishing, Law Enforcement, Migration, Organized Crime, and Slavery]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This is the third piece in a three-part series on recruiting aboard Thai-run slave boats in the country&#8217;s fishing industry. Read the first two here and here. As soon as he saw men wielding guns, he knew he was in trouble. Dressed in a stylish checkered shirt and speaking fluent English, a 29-year-old Burmese man [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This is the third piece in a three-part series on recruiting aboard Thai-run slave boats in the country&#8217;s fishing industry. Read the first two here and here. As soon as he saw men wielding guns, he knew he was in trouble. Dressed in a stylish checkered shirt and speaking fluent English, a 29-year-old Burmese man who asked to be referred to as “John” for his safety, describes his arrival into Thailand nine years ago. “It was a nightmare,“ he said of his 10 months spent slaving with dozens of his countrymen who were sold into the fishing industry. In a sector notorious for its prevalence of forced and bonded labor, migrants make up an estimated 90 percent of Thailand’s fishing industry workforce. Most hail from neighboring Myanmar, a country with extreme rural poverty and ongoing ethnic conflict. Promised a job on an orange farm in Thailand, easy work for a former farmer such as himself whose family had fallen on hard times, John paid a broker to take him across the border. “Once we crossed, everything changed,” he said. “I was really scared.” A group of armed men awaited them. They piled John and some 30 others in the bed of a truck, one on top of another. The mirrors were covered, so they couldn’t see where they were headed. Men were defecating, the stench and lack of air a combination so toxic he thought he would die. Seeking economic prosperity in Thailand, like so many before him, John had&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2015/09/from-slave-to-student-myanmar-migrants-find-abuse-opportunity-in-thailand/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2015/09/from-slave-to-student-myanmar-migrants-find-abuse-opportunity-in-thailand/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-140825</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Lies, deceit and abduction staff Thailand’s fishing industry</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2015/09/lies-deceit-and-abduction-staff-thailands-fishing-industry/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2015/09/lies-deceit-and-abduction-staff-thailands-fishing-industry/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Sep 2015 18:07:44 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sarah Hucal]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2015/09/03164054/boat-511x330.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Indonesia, Southeast Asia, and Thailand]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Fish, Forced labor, Oceans, and Slavery]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[One night nearly four years ago in Mahachai, a gritty port town near Bangkok, Akaradetch Seri was down on his luck. A fight with his girlfriend had left him out on the streets. Lacking funds, a job and now a home, the former factory worker pondered his next move, bedding down on a park bench, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[One night nearly four years ago in Mahachai, a gritty port town near Bangkok, Akaradetch Seri was down on his luck. A fight with his girlfriend had left him out on the streets. Lacking funds, a job and now a home, the former factory worker pondered his next move, bedding down on a park bench, the smell of raw fish lingering in the air. This would be among Seri’s last nights on Thai soil after becoming one of an unknown number of men trafficked onto boats in the country’s fishing industry. Contributing $7 billion annually to Thailand’s economy, the industry has been linked to a desperate need for cheap labor, with migrants and poor Thais like Seri often supplying it against their will. As survivors have testified, many are recruited into the industry by deceitful means, a practice that has picked up pace as boat captains struggle to find men to work willingly. Seri was at his most vulnerable when a stranger approached and took an interest in his plight. After a chat, the man offered him a drink and a place to stay the night. He even said he knew of an easy job sorting fish. A stroke of luck, thought Seri, now 35, who today safe in Mahachai where it all began, speaks haltingly in Thai. The man mentioned he could stay at a friend’s house, what turned out to be a stark room inhabited by several others. The front door remained bolted, and Seri became worried when&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2015/09/lies-deceit-and-abduction-staff-thailands-fishing-industry/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2015/09/lies-deceit-and-abduction-staff-thailands-fishing-industry/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-67533</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Thai junta asked to crack down harder on rogue seafood industry</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2015/08/thai-junta-asked-to-crack-down-harder-on-rogue-seafood-industry/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2015/08/thai-junta-asked-to-crack-down-harder-on-rogue-seafood-industry/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Aug 2015 15:35:36 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sarah Hucal]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Southeast Asia and Thailand]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Fish, Fisheries, Illegal Fishing, Oceans, Slavery, and trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the wake of renewed revelations of slavery aboard Thai-run fishing vessels in Indonesian waters and the discovery of people-smuggling camps and migrant mass graves near the Malaysia-Thailand border, Thailand’s ruling military junta has stepped up efforts to crack down on human trafficking and illegal fishing. Further prodding has come from the EU’s threat to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the wake of renewed revelations of slavery aboard Thai-run fishing vessels in Indonesian waters and the discovery of people-smuggling camps and migrant mass graves near the Malaysia-Thailand border, Thailand’s ruling military junta has stepped up efforts to crack down on human trafficking and illegal fishing. Further prodding has come from the EU’s threat to boycott Thai seafood if the country doesn’t clean up its act and from Thailand’s inclusion for a second straight year on the lowest rung of the U.S. State Department’s annual Trafficking in Persons Report, released in July. Skeptics, though, say the junta must do more to address what a torrent of investigations has identified as widespread slavery and illegality in the industry. “They haven’t really looked into where the problems are,” asserted Patima Tangpratyakoon of the Labour Rights Promotion Network (LRPN), an NGO in Samut Sakhon province. “They’re just doing what they need to do to be able to continue to export fish.” In March, the Associated Press published the first in an ongoing series of articles into Thai-run slave boats operating around the remote Indonesian island of Benjina and the link between slave-harvested seafood and major distributors and retailers in the West. The revelations came at a time when the Indonesian government was escalating a campaign against illegal foreign fishing vessels in its waters and the particulars of a cross-border trade in Rohingya and Bangladeshis, many of whom have been sold onto fishing boats via Thai jungle camps, were coming into fuller focus. In&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2015/08/thai-junta-asked-to-crack-down-harder-on-rogue-seafood-industry/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-66000</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Outrage at claims of migrants enslaved on Malaysian palm plantations</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2015/07/outrage-at-claims-of-migrants-enslaved-on-malaysian-palm-plantations/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2015/07/outrage-at-claims-of-migrants-enslaved-on-malaysian-palm-plantations/#comments</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Jul 2015 00:50:42 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Malaysia and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Forced labor, Human Rights, Palm Oil, Plantations, and Slavery]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Civil society groups are calling for the palm-oil sector’s primary certification body to follow up on an investigation by the Wall Street Journal which provides evidence of slavery on plantations owned by Felda Global Ventures, a Malaysian agribusiness giant with links to the government. A Journal article published Sunday suggests that Southeast Asia’s palm-oil sector might [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Civil society groups are calling for the palm-oil sector’s primary certification body to follow up on an investigation by the Wall Street Journal which provides evidence of slavery on plantations owned by Felda Global Ventures, a Malaysian agribusiness giant with links to the government. A Journal article published Sunday suggests that Southeast Asia’s palm-oil sector might be a major pull factor behind the Asian migrant crisis, which has been well-documented since Thai and Malaysian authorities began turning up mass graves and camps from human trafficking several months ago. The International Organization for Migration estimates that 25,000 Southeast Asian migrants, mainly Rohingyas fleeing persecution in Myanmar and Bangladeshis, took to the seas in the first three months of the year. The Journal article features the account of a young Bangladeshi, Mohammad Rubel, who said a human smuggler lured him abroad with promises of well-paying plantation work, and then subjected him to beatings and abuse during a horrific sea voyage to southern Thailand, where he was held for ransom in a jungle camp until relatives could buy his freedom. After that, Rubel’s captors marched him into Malaysia and turned him over to different operatives who took him to the town of Jempol, where a contractor supplying Felda with labor gave him a job. Palm-oil fresh fruit bunches in Indonesia. Photo: Rhett A. Butler Rubel and other migrants working for Felda in Jempol told the Journal of being forced into debt-bondage and being denied pay for months while working seven-day weeks. They also had to spray the toxic&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2015/07/outrage-at-claims-of-migrants-enslaved-on-malaysian-palm-plantations/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-64435</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Thailand, Indonesia join forces against illegal fishing amid EU ultimatum</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2015/04/thailand-indonesia-join-forces-against-illegal-fishing-amid-eu-ultimatum/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2015/04/thailand-indonesia-join-forces-against-illegal-fishing-amid-eu-ultimatum/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Apr 2015 07:38:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2015/04/03141801/sabah_0212-495x330.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2015/04/thailand-indonesia-join-forces-against-illegal-fishing-amid-eu-ultimatum/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Indonesia, Southeast Asia, and Thailand]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Environment, Fisheries, Fishing, Green, Illegal Fishing, and Slavery]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Amid EU threats to blacklist Thai seafood if the industry fails to clean up its act by October, the Southeast Asian country and its neighbor Indonesia agreed on Thursday to form a joint task force to combat illegal fishing, which remains in the spotlight in the wake of an Associated Press investigation into slavery aboard [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Amid EU threats to blacklist Thai seafood if the industry fails to clean up its act by October, the Southeast Asian country and its neighbor Indonesia agreed on Thursday to form a joint task force to combat illegal fishing, which remains in the spotlight in the wake of an Associated Press investigation into slavery aboard Thai-run ships in Indonesian waters. Indonesian President Joko &#8220;Jokowi&#8221; Widodo and Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-ocha – who took power in a military coup last year – made the announcement on the sidelines of the Asian-African Conference in Jakarta. Establishing the cooperation is just one measure the Thai government has pledged to pursue this week in the wake of the ultimatum from the EU, which gave the world&#8217;s third-largest seafood exporter six months to crack down on illegal fishing or face an import ban. Prayut said he would invoke extraordinary powers under a new security act to fast-track a regulation that would empower officials to inspect vessels and penalize illegal operations. Industry players were doubtful the Thai government could turn the industry around in time to meet the EU&#8217;s deadline. &#8220;There are 2,000 boats in Thailand that have incorrect licenses,&#8221; Wiriya Sirichaiekawat, vice-chairman of the National Fisheries Association of Thailand, told Reuters. &#8220;It will be difficult for the government to get the boats registered within six months.&#8221; He added, &#8220;There&#8217;s too much paperwork to register a boat and to obtain a fishing license. We are recommending that the government has a center in every province&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2015/04/thailand-indonesia-join-forces-against-illegal-fishing-amid-eu-ultimatum/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-23802</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesia recognizes bribery might have enabled slavery in eastern waters</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2015/04/indonesia-recognizes-bribery-might-have-enabled-slavery-in-eastern-waters/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2015/04/indonesia-recognizes-bribery-might-have-enabled-slavery-in-eastern-waters/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Apr 2015 06:28:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jay Fajar]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2015/04/indonesia-recognizes-bribery-might-have-enabled-slavery-in-eastern-waters/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Indonesia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Environment, Fishing, Green, and Slavery]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[More than 300 hundred natives of Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos who were moved from the island of Benjina to neighboring Tual this week as part of Indonesia&#8217;s investigation into slavery on fishing vessels in its waters there. Photo: Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry The composition of Indonesia&#8217;s special team tasked with investigating slavery allegations against [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[More than 300 hundred natives of Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos who were moved from the island of Benjina to neighboring Tual this week as part of Indonesia&#8217;s investigation into slavery on fishing vessels in its waters there. Photo: Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry The composition of Indonesia&#8217;s special team tasked with investigating slavery allegations against fishing company Pusaka Benjina Resources reflects the government&#8217;s acknowledgement that the crimes might have happened with the assent of corrupt officials. The team, formed by President Jokowi &#8220;Jokowi&#8221; Widodo after a closed meeting on April 7, includes representatives from the military, police, attorney general and several ministries. The meeting was called in the wake of an Associated Press investigation that revealed dozens if not hundreds of slaves, mostly from Myanmar, were held captive and forced to work Thai-run fishing vessels off the island of Benjina in eastern Indonesia. &#8220;Right now we&#8217;re making an inventory of the problems,&#8221; said Mas Achmad Santosa, head of the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry&#8217;s illegal fishing task force. He added that the allegations included slavery, bribery and collusion as well as illegal fishing. Pusaka Benjina&#8217;s director, Hermanwir Martino, claims to have bribed marine patrol officers for sailing permits, according to Tempo, the Indonesian news magazine. The money was allegedly distributed among officials from the Maritime Affairs Ministry, the Transportation Ministry, the Customs and Excise Office and the Immigration Office. Anda Fauzi Miraza, the Maritime Affairs Ministry&#8217;s inspector general, pledged to crack down on anyone taking bribes. However, he added that&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2015/04/indonesia-recognizes-bribery-might-have-enabled-slavery-in-eastern-waters/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-23874</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>U.S. car manufacturers linked to Amazon destruction, slave labor</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2012/05/u-s-car-manufacturers-linked-to-amazon-destruction-slave-labor/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2012/05/u-s-car-manufacturers-linked-to-amazon-destruction-slave-labor/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 May 2012 20:17:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2012/05/u-s-car-manufacturers-linked-to-amazon-destruction-slave-labor/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, South America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corruption, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Green, Human Rights, Illegal Logging, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Law, Law Enforcement, Logging, Monocultures, Plantations, Politics, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Slavery, Threats To Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Illegal charcoal kilns in the municipality of Tucuruí. Photo by: Marizilda Cruppe/Greenpeace. According to a new report by Greenpeace, top U.S. car companies such as Ford, General Motors, and Nissan are sourcing pig iron that has resulted in the destruction of Amazon rainforests, slave labor, and land conflict with indigenous tribes. Spending two years documenting [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Illegal charcoal kilns in the municipality of Tucuruí. Photo by: Marizilda Cruppe/Greenpeace. According to a new report by Greenpeace, top U.S. car companies such as Ford, General Motors, and Nissan are sourcing pig iron that has resulted in the destruction of Amazon rainforests, slave labor, and land conflict with indigenous tribes. Spending two years documenting the pig iron trade between northeastern Brazil and the U.S., Greenpeace has discovered that rainforests are cut and burned to power blast furnaces that produce pig iron, which is then shipped to the U.S. for steel production. &#8220;Despite attention to the problem over the years, little has been done and household consumer products in the U.S. can still be traced back to illegalities and forest destruction in the Amazon,&#8221; the Greenpeace report reads. Brazil&#8217;s Carajás region is home to 43 blast furnaces used by 18 different companies, of which Viena is the largest. The blast furnaces depend largely on illegal camps that cut and burn rainforest for charcoal. &#8220;These camps are built in a matter of days, located in difficult to access areas and, if shut down by authorities, frequently spring up again in another location. They are built next to wood sources, including illegally in protected areas and indigenous lands,&#8221; the report reads, noting that labor conditions in the area are often similar to slavery. Often forced to work seven-days-a-week in hazardous and toxic conditions, workers are fleeced of salaries by imaginary debts. The massive pig iron production in the region has been actively&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2012/05/u-s-car-manufacturers-linked-to-amazon-destruction-slave-labor/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-30922</doi>				</item>
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