The Colombian agriculture minister said Tuesday a United Nations report blaming the forced displacement of people off their land on weak governance and corruption was “biased,” reported newspaper El Espectador.
Juan Camilo Restrepo said many of the problems highlighted in the report, such as the illegitimate acquisition of land by multinational companies and abuses of government power, had already been corrected.
He said some of the report’s claims, such as the statement that nations with governance problems and corruption are still considered the most attractive destinations for profitable investments in biofuels, “stigmatize” the entire palm sector, and “reveal bias in the information and little scientific rigor.”
Referring to the illegal acquisition of 62,000 acres of land suitable for growing plant oil palms by private interests, cited in the report, Restrepo said a process of recovery and restitution of land to its rightful owners had already been concluded.
