Questions are being raised in the European Parliament about the socio-environmental sustainability of agricultural and food production in Colombia. The Commission offers generic assurances, unfortunately belied by the facts, about the effectiveness of European cooperation policy in this area.
The issue of ESG(Environmental, Social and Governance) due diligence comes up again in the Amazon, in Colombia as elsewhere. Namely, the responsibility of operators to ensure and report on effective respect for human rights and the environment in the supply-chain.
Public and private greenwashing, profit over people, profit over planet. Here’s why.
1) EU – Colombia, cooperation programs.
1.1) Memorandum of Understanding, 21.9.21
The European Union and Colombia signed on 9/21/21 a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on a strengthened political and sectoral dialogue and cooperation agenda for the next decade. (1) This understanding is based on previous reports that include:
- The trade agreement between the EU and Colombia, Peru and Ecuador, applied as of 1.8.13, (2)
- ‘i human rights and security and defense dialogues,
- The European Union’s important political and financial support for the peace process in
peace process in Colombia, as well as substantial development cooperation in support of rural and local development, competitiveness and environmental sustainability, and its humanitarian assistance.’ (1)
The scope and priorities of the MoU cover:
- ‘the successful implementation of the 2016 peace agreement between the government of Colombia and the FARC as a contribution to global peace and stability,
- the ambitious agenda on environment, climate change, resilience and biodiversity,
- economic and social agenda, including the digital agenda that promotes sustainable and inclusive growth and economic, social and territorial cohesion in the EU and Colombia,
- the solidarity agenda, covering the Venezuelan migration and refugee crisis and its impact on Colombia and the region, as well as all aspects of migration,
- multilateral agenda and cooperation on global and regional foreign policy issues to strengthen multilateralism and a rules-based global order.’ (1)
1.2) Indicative Program 2021-2027
TheMulti-annual Indicative Program (MIP ) 2021-2027 for development cooperation mentions environmental protection as a shared priority objective between the EU and Colombia, which is cited as the EU’s second-largest biodiversity country in the world with Colombia. (3) As well as a stable and ‘like-minded‘ democracy-that is, one aligned with the ‘liberal world order,’ like the EU and its member states. (4)
2) Colombia, the structural problems.
Moreover, the ‘Multi-year Indicative Program’ 2021-2027 belies its own false axiom about the stability of Colombian democracy in its very premise, where it refers to:
- ‘insecurity in some areas of the country’,
- ‘difficulties in access to land and the weakness of land governance for potential beneficiaries.’
- ‘violence against human rights defenders and social leaders’,
- ‘presence of criminal networks and the abundance of resources linked to illegal activities‘, which ‘fuel corruption‘,
- ‘the presence of multiple drivers of deforestation (illegal activities, expansion of the agricultural frontier, exploitation of natural resources, etc.).’ (3)
3) Colombia – EU, an unsustainable agenda.
Therefore, the Republic of Colombia has planned in its 2021-2027 ‘indicative program’ agreed with the EU:
- deforestation, in the four-year period 2018-2022 alone, of as much as 880 thousand hectares (8,800 km2) of primary forests, accounting for about 1.5 percent of the total (estimated to be about half of the country’s area, i.e. 57 mln ha = 570,000 km2),
- The promotion of fracking (hydraulic fracturing of rocks underground to extract oil and shale gas), neglecting the resulting chemical contamination of ecosystems, (5)
- aerial spraying of crops with glyphosate and other agrotoxics. (3)
4) Question of the European Parliament
MEPs Jordi Solé (E), Diana Riba i Giner (E) and Ignazio Corrao (I), Greens political group, denounced the serious health and environmental consequences of the above unsustainable program. (6) Recalling that Global Witness recorded the largely unpunished murders of 65 human rights and environmental defenders in Colombia in 2020 (7,8).
The MEPs’ question to the European Commission is simple:
‘1) How will the Commission ensure that EU cooperation funds are not used by the Colombian government to implement policies that are potentially harmful to the environment?
2) How will the Commission ensure that EU development cooperation funds have a positive impact on the environment and people?
3) How will environmental cooperation projects be shared with civil society?’ (6)
5) Response of the European Commission
European Commissioner for International Partnerships, Jutta Urpilainen (FIN), provided a late as well as evanescent response to the above parliamentary question. (9) Referring to ‘robust political dialogue, frequent communication and regular interaction including on environmental issues‘ in EU-Colombian relations. As would be shown, among other things, by ‘the initiation of a new dialogue on sustainability within the framework of the joint declaration‘ signed on 14.2.22. (10)
‘The EU has been working on environmental issues in Colombia for more than 15 years.
The environment is a priority in the current 2021-2027 multi-year program, which supports Colombia’s goal of reducing deforestation by 30 percent in 2025, placing 30 percent of the land jurisdictional area under formal protection, and achieving zero net deforestation by 2030. (…) The EU-funded “Sustainable Local Development in Marginalized Areas of Colombia” program is a good example (…)’. (9)
6) Sustainability of agricultural and food production in Colombia, the facts
The European Commission under the leadership of Ursula von der Leyen, unfortunately, continues the toxic treaty policy inaugurated by Jean-Claude Juncker. (11) Which often contain ISDS(Investor-State Dispute Settlement) clauses that effectively shield large ‘investors’ from liability for violations of human rights and environmental standards (12) as most recently seen in the partnership with Canada (CETA, see footnote 13).
The European draft ‘free trade agreement‘ with Colombia, Peru and Ecuador-as has also already been denounced (14)-refers to sustainability in merely abstract terms, without providing any binding clauses or sanctions for violations of fundamental human rights and the environment. Land grabbing, i.e., land robbery and conflict, has been going on for years along with deforestation in Colombia itself, not coincidentally the leading producer of palm oil in the Americas. (15)
7) Interim Conclusions
The EU draft regulations and directive on due diligence – of which the first concerns critical supply chains in Colombia as well (palm, coffee and cocoa, as well as soy and timber) – may perhaps ‘course-correct’ with respect to the most barbaric human rights and environmental violations for years to come, after long transitional periods and tombstone amnesties on crimes still in progress (16,17).
CSR, understood as ‘Corporate Sustainability Reporting,’ could in turn mitigate the impact of ‘excessive harm,’ under the motto DNSH(Do Not Significant Harm. See notes 18,19). But the interests of transnational giants in relocating the production of agribusiness commodities will continue to dominate the global chessboard until citizens demand unbreakable rules.
Dario Dongo
Cover image from #justiceforcolombia
Notes
(1) The Republic of Colombia-European Union Memorandum of Understanding on an Agenda of enhanced political and sectoral dialogue and cooperation for the next decade https://www.eeas.europa.eu/sites/default/files/memorandum_of_understanding_colombia-eu_en_0.pdf
(2) EU trade agreement with Colombia, Peru and Ecuador. European Commission
(3) Multi-annual Indicative Program 2021-2027. Republic of Colombia. https://ec.europa.eu/international-partnerships/system/files/mip-2021-c2021-8995-colombia-annex_en.pdf
(4) Ash Jain. Like-Minded and Capable Democracies (2013). A New Framework for Advancing a Liberal World Order. https://bit.ly/3QEpwZH Council on Foreign Relations
(5) Ronald V. Emmons, Govind Sharma Shyam Sunder, Tiffany Liden, Kevin A. Schug, Timnit Yosef Asfaha, Joseph G. Lawrence, Jon R. Kirchhoff, Emanuela Gionfriddo (2022). Unraveling the Complex Composition of Produced Water by Specialized Extraction Methodologies. Environmental Science & Technology, 2022; 56 (4): 2334 DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.1c05826
(6) Question by MEPs Jordi Solé (Verts/ALE), Diana Riba i Giner (Verts/ALE), Ignazio Corrao (Verts/ALE) to the European Commission (E-001647/2022/rev.1). https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/E-9-2022-001647_EN.html 2.5.22
(7) Last line of defense. Global Witness. 13.9.21
(8) Colombia was ranked first in the number of murders of environmental and human rights activists again in 2019. V. Colombia leads the number of killings in 2019: Global Witness reports. https://www.globalwitness.org/en/blog/colombia-leads-number-killings-2019-global-witness-reports/ 14.9.20
(9) Response by Jutta Urpilainen on behalf of the European Commission to parliamentary question E-001647/2022(ASW). https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/E-9-2022-001647-ASW_EN.html 25.7.22
(10) Joint Declaration for a Dialogue on Environment, Climate Action and Sustainable Development between the European Union and the Republic of Colombia. European Commission, DG Environment. https://environment.ec.europa.eu/system/files/2022-02/Joint_Declaration_EU-COL.pdf 14.2.22
(11) Dario Dongo. TTIP and other partnership agreements, reflections. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 30.9.18
(12) Dario Dongo, Giulia Torre. #StopCorporateImpunity, #StopISDS, human rights petition. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 20.1.19
(13) Dario Dongo, Sabrina Bergamini. CETA, green light from the Court of Justice to the ‘shredder’ serving ‘Corporations’. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 6.5.19
(14) Dario Dongo. Free trade agreement between EU and Colombia, Peru, Ecuador. Public consultation in Brussels. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 17.2.21
(15) Dario Dongo. Colombia, palm oil and conflicts. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 2.8.17
(16) Dario Dongo. Due diligence and deforestation, stop unsustainable imports of commodities. Proposed EU regulation, the ABC. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 6.3.22
(17) Dario Dongo. Due diligence, the EU draft directive on socio-environmental responsibilities in the value chain. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 27.7.21
(18) Dario Dongo. Sustainability reporting, ESG and due diligence. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 18.7.22
(19) Dario Dongo, Elena Bosani. Sustainability budgets and responsible investment, ESG and CSR due diligence. Reg. EU 2022/1288. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 29.7.22
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
