For the attention of Mr Andrea TOZZI and Mr Davide GIACHERO
Dear Directors
We have received your reply to our Open Letter of 16 May 2024, to which we provided public access via a link on our website and on our Facebook page :
The purpose of our open letter of 16 May was to denounce the intimidation linked to the highly questionable and unacceptable methods used by people acting on behalf of your company. Stating what happens on the ground is a matter of transparency and information, not a way to discredit the company in the eyes of public opinion, as stated in your letter of 23 May.
The decision to send gendarmerie officers to accompany the public relations officer to a meeting with the communities is questionable. The impression of the participants is that this was clearly intended to make them change their minds about their refusal. You may not be familiar with the local context. So please allow me to explain that the job of the gendarmes’ official is to enforce law and order : their presence and participation, even as mediators, suggests from the outset that the communities have committed an offence, especially as the function usually assigned to the gendarmes is to conduct investigations as part of the initial stages of legal proceedings following a complaint lodged by one of the parties. In addition, the meeting with the communities was initially scheduled to take place at the gendarmerie headquarters office in Andiolava, before the communities asked for it to be moved to the village of Ambatolahy.
Concerning the invitations to the information meetings on the reforestation project, you state that “in October 2023, all the public authorities in the region and the local authorities, both formal and informal, as well as the stakeholders in the areas concerned, were invited in writing and duly informed of the possibility of participating and extending the invitation to …”.
We spoke with the residents of Ambatolahy and they said that they had never received a written invitation to the “public consultation” meetings organised by the company and/or the local authorities concerning the reforestation project. They asked their neighbours and friends who said that they had never received one either. The residents of Ambatolahy wondered how many meetings had been organised in Ambatolahy for “public consultation” on the reforestation project, how many people were invited, how many attended them and what the outcome had been, what were their opinion.
In addition, we have also learned from the NGO Entraide et Fraternité that the bank BIO responded to a specific question by saying that 11 public consultation meetings were organized on the tree planting project during October 2023. In 10 cases out of 11, BIO specified that the invitations were made verbally, which collides with what you write in your letter.
Finally, at the end of the first page of your letter of 23 May, you state that “during the presentation of the project”, you did everything possible to obtain our (the TANY Collective’s) participation, “unfortunately without success”. We take the liberty of asserting that the only fact that could resemble the request for participation mentioned is a request for a meeting received from Mr Eric Suttor from BIO, prior to his mission to Madagascar in February 2023. In this context, the Collectif TANY had already asked Eric Suttor to negotiate with Tozzi Green so that the company would withdraw the ban it had imposed on lawyer Luca Saltalamacchia to share with the Collectif TANY the information and documents on the project in Ihorombe that the company had sent him. In the absence of any authorization, confirmed by Tozzi Green in writing, the TANY Collective refused to meet Eric Suttor before and during his mission. I then had the opportunity to meet and talk with Eric Suttor during a meeting in Brussels at BIO’s offices with colleagues from Entraide & Fraternité in June 2023.
To conclude, we would like to make it clear that it is the communities of Ihorombe, and in particular those of Ambatolahy in the context of this letter, who are primarily concerned. The Collectif TANY and the other organisations are only expressing their solidarity in the defence of their land and in the promotion of peasant family farming. Where necessary, we are also helping to ensure that the voice of the Ambatolahy communities is heard by everyone, including Tozzi Green’s senior management and the general public.
We therefore strongly recommend asking the Ambatolahy communities directly about the practices that suit them best when it comes to invitations to meetings and other matters, without preventing them from talking to the other organisations that support them in Madagascar and abroad.
They have already told us that the company central managers themselves should come and talk to them, so that they can obtain information directly and without distortion. Such meetings will undoubtedly also enable you to learn about the experiences that communities have had in the past, before, during and after meetings organised by various company representatives, and which have made some of them reluctant to take part in meetings organised by Tozzi Green.
We acknowledge your recognition of the National Contact Point procedure as the venue to better discuss the rights of the communities and your commitment to respect these rights,
So we look forward to our future mediation.
Best regards
4 June 2024
On behalf of all organizations signatories,
For the Collectif TANY
Mamy Rakotondrainibe