A local civic group has filed a petition with the Korea liaison office (National Contact Point, NCP) of the OECD on POSCO International's palm oil project in Indonesia. This is because POSCO International's palm oil project in Indonesia violates the OECD multinational company guidelines due to environmental damage and other problems.
A South Korean civic group called “Business and Human Rights Network” held a press conference on Dec. 12 to point out environmental and social problems arising from POSCO International's palm oil business in Indonesia.
The network said it will file a petition with the NCP of the OECD multinational company about POSCO International's Indonesian palm oil project in cooperation with PUSAKA, the Indonesian Catholic church's internal organization SKP-KAMe and an Indonesian non-governmental organization WALHI Papua.
"POSCO International, which runs a palm oil farm on the Indonesian island of Papua, destroyed 27,000 hectares of tropical forest," they said. "The pollution in the Bian River near the farm has prevented residents from using drinking water, and thus violated their rights to water."
"Under the OECD guidelines, companies that have had a negative impact on the environment and human rights should provide relief measures for them and prepare preventive measures to prevent a recurrence in the future," they said. "However, POSCO International does not recognize rights violations and provide relief measures."
Regarding the National Pension Service, an institutional investor of POSCO International, they also said that it has not taken any action even though it is aware of environmental problems arising from its Papua operations, and that it is against the responsibility of institutional investors under the OECD guidelines.
They also pointed out that the Eximbank provided $115.12 million in loans to POSCO International's local subsidiary, adding that the financial institution failed to do so, although it had to come up with measures to prevent environmental and human rights violations by companies.
