Deadly harvest: how global demand for palm oil is fuelling corruption in Honduras

Latin America is the fastest growing producer of the lucrative crop, but at what price for the environment and its defenders?Words and photographs by Fritz Pinnow in Tela, HondurasPark ranger Adonias Cruz was out monitoring illegal oil palm crops in Blanca Jeannette Kawas national park, on the north coast of Honduras, on 10 September, when an unknown armed man came to his flat and rang the bell. When the stranger realised Cruz was out, he left him a death threat."I had already received death threats from people in the community for leading a team to eradicate a new oil palm plantation in the central zone of the park," says Cruz. "It was frightening to know they were in my flat and that everything could have ended differently if I had been home that day." Continue reading...