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village, who had been dealing directly withthe project developer and the State withoutinforming his colleagues or community,continued to support the project despite theopposition of much of his community. Somehave alleged that he has a personal stake inthe project taking place. During the authors’work, it was observed that this chief wasclosely linked with the company (e.g. callingcompany representatives on his cell phoneduring meetings) and had access to muchmore information about the project than theother chiefs and community members.To avoid the risk of conflict and the legalconsequences of a serious violation of therights of its citizens, the government and thecompany will have to make a fundamentalchange in their approach, and closelyobserve both national and internationallaws and RSPO standards, including theright to FPIC of communities. Failure to doso is bound to have serious negative legal,commercial and reputational consequencesfor BioPalm and its parent company aswell as repercussions on the government ofCameroon.ConclusionAt this stage, it is not known what stepsthe government has taken or plans totake to ensure that the company respectsnational and international laws in termsof consultation with communities andrespecting their right to Free, Prior andInformed Consent. It is clear that theactions of the company and the governmentto date fall short of the requirements ofboth national and international law and theRSPO Principles and Criteria. In severalinstances, government officials have eventold us to ask BioPalm for the officialdocumentation and information (such asconcession maps and authorising decrees),thus forgoing their role of enforcing lawsand regulations and encouraging bestpractice and transparency. Meanwhile, thecommunities are very worried about losingtheir lands and livelihoods as governmentofficials have told them that there is norecourse against the project taking place.One community leader said in September2011, ‘we accept unwillingly’ 80 , butsince then communities have becomeincreasingly mobilised so as to demandrespect for their rights.With so much at stake for the Bagyéli, Bassaand Bakoko communities and apparentlyso little effort to meaningfully engagingwith them, there is significant potential forconflict, such as that currently taking placeat the Herakles oil palm plantation projectin the Southwest province of Cameroon. 81ReferencesAfrican Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights2012 Resolution 224 on a Human Rights-BasedApproach to Natural Resources Governance, 51stOrdinary Session, 18/04/12 – 2/05/12. Available athttp://www.achpr.org/sessions/51st/resolutions/224/.Al-Khasawneh AS & R Hatano 1993 The humanrights dimensions of population transfer, includingthe implantation of settlers. UN Doc. E/CN.4/Sub.2/1993/17*.AllAfrica.com 2012 Cameroon: Kribi Gas Plant- Construction of Houses for Compensation NearsCompletion. 22 nd January 2012. Available at http://allafrica.com/stories/201201231987.html.BioPalm (nd1) Biopalm Energy Limited - Management.Available at http://www.biopalmenergy.com/management.html#management.BioPalm (nd2) Biopalm Energy Limited -Sustainability Agenda. Available at http://biopalmenergy.biz/sustainability.html#sustainability.Borras SM et al 2011 ‘Towards a BetterUnderstanding of Global Land Grabbing: AnEditorial Introduction’ in Journal of Peasant Studies38, No. 2: 209–216.Brown K 2011 ‘Sime Darby Eyes Palm OilExpansion in Africa’ in FT.com. 27 th February 2011.Available at http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:WdKfRKM1I6EJ:www.ft.com/cms/s/0/290c6a52-42ad-11e0-8b34-00144feabdc0.html+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&client=firefox-a.Butler R & J Hance 2011 ‘A Huge Oil Palm350Conflict or consent? The oil palm sector at a crossroads