To Mondelēz International:
As one of the biggest snack producers and buyers of forest-risk commodities in the world, Mondelēz has a major responsibility to protect humanity’s remaining rainforests, global climate and to respect human rights.
Nonetheless, numerous investigations have found ties between Mondelēz and suppliers who wreak havoc on endangered ecosystems and participate in land grabbing in Indonesia.
Mondelēz has not been living up to its commitments to help people “snack right” in part, due to continued sourcing from companies planning the destruction of tropical rainforest in Indonesia.
Over the last decade significant areas of forests in East Kalimantan — including customary forests of the Indigenous Dayaks — have been allocated by the governments of Indonesia for logging operations and the establishment of pulpwood and palm oil plantations.
Between 2009 and 2019 alone, over 487,631 hectares of forests were destroyed within well-known oil palm, and pulp and timber concessions. The Long Isun community was among those who had part of their land stolen and now is under the control of the Harita Group. The Harita Group owns the timber conglomerate Roda Mas, which controls the two timber companies that plan to log forests on Long Isun’s territory.
Mondelēz has disclosed sourcing palm oil from mills that are controlled by the Harita Group. With its significant leverage, your company has the opportunity to contribute to the protection of intact rainforests and ensure its suppliers respect the rights of Indigenous communities across their entire operations, but you need to act and act now.
We call on Mondelēz to:
1. Engage the Harita Group and use its influence to encourage Roda Mas to permanently cancel their plans to log the customary forests of the Long Isun community. If Roda Mas fails to respect the rights of the Long Isun community, Mondelēz must issue a public statement that it is suspending sourcing of palm oil from the Harita Group’s palm oil company — its supplier called Bumitama Agri.
2. Engage the district government to communicate both their support of Long Isun and how legal recognition can benefit the private sector as a whole.
Rainforest Action Network’s latest assessment of 17 major brands and banks finds that Mondelēz continues to shirk responsibility for deforestation and human rights abuses in its supply chains, earning a failing grade. We call on Mondelēz to act now to meet these demands.