Palm oil, corruption and the destruction of the rainforest

Clear-cutting in the Amazon - Overexploitation of the rainforest: who benefits and who loses out?

Drinking coffee, eating cornflakes, brushing our teeth: Even in our morning routine, we encounter products with raw materials from Peru. In the supply chains of brands such as Nestlé, Kellog's and Colgate, there is a company that operates two palm oil plantations in the tropical rainforest, in an area that belongs to the ancestral land of an indigenous community.

But how did it come about that more than 13,000 hectares of forest were cut down without anyone being held accountable? Investigations into environmental crimes have been dragging on for years - the outcome is uncertain.

Nicole Maron investigates a dizzying web: It all starts with a Czech-American businessman who has already run plantations in Asia. But could he have founded an investor-backed conglomerate of 25 companies in Peru on his own? Who gave him access to land? And what role did a financial network from Singapore, France, the USA and Switzerland play?

A veritable thriller unfolds: about the destruction of the rainforest, international financial interests, corruption in politics and administration and the persecution of environmental and human rights defenders. And about the question of how we actually want to live in the future.

After the reading, there will be space for questions and a discussion.