Socapalm is a private oil palm company that owns six plantation concessions in Cameroon, located in two regions along the country’s fertile coast. In the Dibombari plantation, which covers around 6,000 hectares, entire villages lie within the company’s concession area. They share roads, water and land.

One of the many issues that have tainted the relationship between Socapalm and the local population is that of theft inside the company’s plantation area. ‘20% of our harvest is stolen,’ said Michel Noulowe, chairman of the board. In response Socapalm has begun a crackdown on small-scale milling stations that it claims are involved in the theft of fruit from the plantation’s trees. Small millers, in return, hold the company responsible, saying that buying and milling stolen nuts is their only feasible source of income because they no longer have access to most of the villages’ lands.

Socapalm’s plantations are guarded by British security firm G4S. When the head of human resources, Joseph Mengue, and the plantation manager of Dibombari, Alain Fayd’herbe, gave a tour of the area, they made it clear that they are not willing to enter the villages of the indigenous people for fear of attack. The tour took place from the plantation manager’s white Toyota Hilux, with curious workers and villagers gathering around the car as the men stopped to point out water sources or small-scale mills that they described as ‘illegal mills’.

A sign outside Socapalm’s mill in the Dibombari plantation warns residents, who live directly alongside it, against unauthorised access. The mill generates a putrid smell that lingers over the adjacent work camp. Residents complain of both the smell and the pollution.

The palm oil sector is of major importance for Cameroon’s economy. Smallholders control roughly 70% of the land currently used for oil palm cultivation. Their productivity, however, is very low: with less than one tonne of oil per hectare per year, they are far behind the industrial producers. In the last few months, NGOs and other civil society stakeholders have called for the creation of a national strategy to merge the informal and formal markets.

Emmanuel Elong founded the National Synergy of Peasants and Villagers movement, a collective of palm farmers whose membership has spread beyond the borders of his home in Dibombari, across other parts of Cameroon and into neighbouring countries. His aim, he says, is to establish a dialogue with Socapalm. ‘This land was given to us by God,’ he says. ‘It is a blessed village, we cannot give it away.’

Equipped with a machete, Elong cuts his way through thick jungle, gathering wild mangoes, potatoes and roots. Elong’s farmland lies entirely within Socapalm’s Dibombari plantation. He says he’s unable to make long-term investments in the property due to the fear that the company will soon seek to expand and consequently absorb his land.

Elong confronts plantation labourers preparing to fill their pesticide containers in the Marigaud, a freshwater stream that villagers use for washing and cooking. The head of the team claims his supervisor gave him direct orders to rinse dirty canisters and clothes in nearby streams. When confronted, Socapalm’s head of human resources, Joseph Mengue said, ‘That cannot be true. We have water tractors in all our operations. I am sure the workers want to punish the company.’ Mengue promised to investigate the incident.

Palm trees have to be replanted every 25 to 30 years. When Socapalm – a government-run company for almost four decades – was privatised back in 2000, the investor began replanting and expanding. In 2007, 32,908 hectares of Socapalm’s 58,063 hectare concession area lay untouched, but as the company prepares to expand into this territory, local populations are beginning to push back.

Emmanuel Ngalle stands on the front step of his home with his wife and four grandchildren. In 2012, when Socapalm’s plans to expand in the Dibombari area failed due to village resistance, the company approached Ngalle asking to buy the few hectares of land on which he cultivates oil palms. Although they allegedly offered him a huge sum of money, the farmer refused. ‘Money is used up in one or two years,’ he said, ‘but land stays. It will nourish my children and children’s children.’

Michel Noulowe is the chairman of the board of Socapalm. To date, he says, Socapalm has built 58 schools and provided medical centres as well as water and electricity for its workers. In response to questions about land disputes, he said: ‘If they respected Cameroonian law, they would not be there’. ‘The government of Cameroon was supposed to give us land without any interference,’ he says. What they received, a large swath of territory inhabited by thousands of indigenous people, was a ‘poisoned gift’, he argues.

Samuel Nguiffo from the Centre for Environment and Development is one of the most vocal players in Cameroon’s palm oil scene, and a man well known by all company officials. ‘The government gives out land without designating specific areas for palm oil. There are no conditions, no system,’ he concludes. In his opinion, two things must be done: smallholders must become more efficient and, ‘until we come up with a strategy,’ he says, ‘I think we must stop in order to avoid more damage’.