Who gains from saving nature
Ledger 1 : 33 — For each dollar financing nature-based solutions in 2023, about $33 financed activities harmful to nature. (UNEP)
Cases / Agriculture, livestock and food · Sierra Leone · 2008–2015

Dutch bank FMO backed a 20,000-hectare Sierra Leone sugar cane lease

Short record: the main facts, with sources. A full case file has not been prepared.

Nature's voice · report
No measurement of the harm done to me here is on record.
Did nature suffer? Not measured.
Not on record
  • The record does not name which of my species, waters, soils or forests were harmed.
What the record lacks: 2 none on record · 1 not measured See the gaps

FMO, the Dutch development bank, became a partner in Addax Bioenergy's 50-year lease of 20,000 hectares for sugar cane and ethanol in Sierra Leone in 2008. Sixty villages lost land, and FMO withdrew around 2015.

What?
FMO joined a 50-year lease of 20,000 hectares for a sugar cane and ethanol scheme run by Addax Bioenergy in Sierra Leone in 2008, and withdrew around 2015. Trouw / farmlandgrab.org
Where?
Sierra Leone Trouw / farmlandgrab.org
When?
2008 (lease partnership); around 2015 (FMO withdrawal) Trouw / farmlandgrab.org
Who?
Gained
Lost
Harmed
None on record
Why?
Not stated in the sources reviewed.
How?
A 50-year lease for sugar cane and ethanol production, with FMO as a partner. Trouw / farmlandgrab.org
6 of 6 questions answered from the record

What happened

The record, in order.

In 2008 FMO, the Dutch development bank, became a partner in Addax Bioenergy's 50-year lease of 20,000 hectares for sugar cane and ethanol in Sierra Leone (TNI and FIAN; Trouw, 2019).

Sixty villages lost land in the scheme, according to TNI and FIAN and Trouw.

FMO withdrew from the investment around 2015, according to TNI and FIAN and Trouw.

FMO is 51 percent owned by the Dutch state, according to Trouw (15 October 2019).

    In court and with insurers

    Every proceeding and every insurer decision on record.

    Lawsuits and rulings

    No court case on record. No court has ruled on this case.

    Insurers

    No insurer decision on record.

    What we don't know

    Undisclosed, unproven, untried: recorded as data.

    Nature

    • Not measured Harm to nature: The record holds no measurement of harm to nature.

    Record

    • None on record What the sources do not say: whether Addax Bioenergy still operates the lease, or the terms of FMO's withdrawal.
    • None on record What the sources do not say: whether the 60 villages received compensation.

    Did the harm stop?

    Not stated in the sources reviewed.

    Who paid?

    Not stated in the sources reviewed.

    Sources

    Voices on record: — Company or project— Government and regulators— Courts✓ Press and investigations— Communities and civil society— Researchers

    Press and investigations

    Connected cases

    Related matters, and cases linked to this one through the same organisations, with the role each played in both.
    Terms used on this page

    Science and environment

    Hectare (ha)
    A unit of area equal to 10,000 square metres, about 2.5 acres. 100 hectares make one square kilometre.
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