Issue 188 - March 2013

The UN, under whose auspices many initiatives to halt deforestation have been launched, is adding another to the list: 21 March from 2013 onwards will be the International Day of Forests. But does such a Day make sense? The International Year of Forests in 2011 went largely unnoticed, and one would be hard pressed to point to actual action that reduced deforestation and was undertaken as part of the UN Year on Forests.

1. Introduction UN climate negotiations have sparked a new wave of international interest in the fate of tropical forests. Their destruction, protection and above all, their role as stores of carbon have been debated by climate negotiators, donors like the World Bank, conservation organisations and others involved in the UN climate negotiations since 2007. The debates take place under the name of REDD – Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation. REDD was officially launched in 2007 in Bali, Indonesia, during the annual UN climate summit.

Since last March 18, workers of the pulp mill Veracel, a company equally the Swedish-Finnish Stora Enso and Fibria of Brazil, started an unlimited strike due a deadlock in the salary negotiations for the period 2012-2013. The strike also unveiled a facet cruel Finnish transnational: the company does not recognize most of the occupational health related diseases, mainly in the field of mechanical harvesting. Veracel entered, on March 20, a lawsuit against the union, trying to criminalize the strike and that the Justice declare the strike illegal.

A group of eleven Finnish and international NGOs has filed a complaint to the UN Human Rights Council about human rights violations in connection to Stora Enso's eucalyptus plantations and planned cardboard factory in Guangxi that led to land conflicts with two reported deaths and multiple episodes of violence The UN's Global Compact (an initiative for increasing social responsibility of corporations which Stora Enso has signed) requires Stora Enso to respond to allegations by 11 April. The main owners of the company are Swedish FAM, Finnish pension funds Varma and Ilmarinen, and state-owned KELA and Solidium.

ALDAW has just launched a massive campaign against oil palm expansion. A petition launched through care.org is addressed to the National Government. A second petition, launched through Change.org, is focused on Palawan and it is addressed mainly to the Provincial Government, to the Palawan Council for Sustainable Development (PCSD) and to the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP).

The Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG), one of the world’s biggest investors in the palm oil industry, has found that the activities of Wilmar International Ltd, Astra International Tbk PT and 21 other oil palm companies are incompatible with the Fund’s policy on risk related to climate change and tropical deforestation. As a consequence all stakes in the 23 oil palm companies were sold in 2012. For more info see http://www.regnskog.no/languages/english/worlds-largest- sovereign-wealth-fund-divests-from-palm-oil-companies

The native customary land of Penan villagers in Sungai Patah, Baram is now confronted by a double threat coming from the attempt of a logging company to encroach into their communal forest reserve which has been successfully protected since the people’s last blockade in the area in 2008-2009, and the proposed construction of the Baram Dam. The villagers of Long Daloh and Long Lutin are confronted by the threat of deforestation of their communal forest by logging encroachment. In Long Daloh, the villagers set up a blockade on the road leading towards their communal forest reserve to halt logging activities.

On 27 February 2013, Panama’s Indigenous Peoples Coordinating Body, COONAPIP, withdrew from the UN-REDD process in Panama. In a letter announcing the withdrawal, COONAPIP explains that UN-REDD “does not currently offer guarantees for respecting indigenous rights” or “the full and effective participation of the Indigenous Peoples of Panama”.

On 14 March 2013, the Colombian organization Movimiento Ríos Vivos marked the International Day of Action Against Dams and For Rivers, Water and Life by calling on communities to mobilize in different ways and take part in the activities scheduled for the day, in solidarity with the peaceful march being held by people displaced by the Hidroituango mega dam project.

French energy company EDF has dropped their civil lawsuit against a group of UK campaigners involved in the No Dash for Gas group who occupied one of the company’s power plants in October 2012, after a massive solidarity response from civil society. Friends of the Earth EWNI denounced that “EDF’s threat of claiming massive damages from climate activists represented a new low in corporate attempts to stifle the democratic right to protest." Hopefully the public outcry will make other companies think twice before taking similar legal action.

Gathered at a fourth binational meeting, representatives of the Matsés indigenous peoples' from Brazil and Peru expressed their opposition to all oil industry activity within their territories in both countries. The Matsés have already suffered the social impacts of oil exploration and experienced its drastic consequences for the flora, fauna and water resources. This is why they demand that the authorities respect their stance, particularly with regard to the defence of the Yaquerana River basin, which is home to indigenous groups living in voluntary isolation, they stressed. For more information, see http://servindi.org/actualidad/84101

The aboriginal grass-roots movement Idle No More cut off access to the gold-copper-zinc mine of HudBay Minerals Inc, a Toronto-based mid-tier miner, in Lalor for several hours in early March. The group seeks to renegotiate old mining agreements and seize more control over mining developments, whether they are on lands designated as native reserves or not. "We've existed in this territory for millennia. We don't have a land claim - it's beyond that, actually. Our rights exist throughout all of our territories," said Arlen Dumas, chief of the Mathias Colomb Cree Nation. HudBay, which has mined in northern Manitoba for nearly 85 years, made it clear it prefers not to negotiate directly with the community.

The US Department of Agriculture Animal Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) announced that it is voluntarily preparing an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) regarding a petition to deregulate [legalize] the commercial sale of the first genetically engineered tree in the US, a freeze tolerant eucalyptus tree. Eucalyptus trees are not native to the US and are a documented invasive species. They are also highly flammable and known to deplete ground water. The freeze tolerant GE eucalyptus trees will be able to survive in regions too cold for their non-GE relatives.

A rally of indigenous groups demanding the revocation of the law marked the 18th year of the Philippine Mining Act . The groups declared that after 18 years, the country has had more than enough reasons to call for the termination of the disastrous and killer mining law. “Corruption, violence, human rights violations, chilling disasters one after another –these are what Filipinos have suffered as a result of implementing the Mining Act of 1995,” Bayan Muna Partylist Rep. Neri Colmenares said. http://bulatlat.com/main/2013/03/05/on-its-18th-year-philippine-mining-act-still -reviled-as-a-killing-behemoth/

A movie of An BACCAERT, Nico MUÑOZ and Cristiano NAVARRO (Directors) Production of Directors - 2011 32 ' In the south region of Mato Grosso do Sul, in the border of Brazil and Paraguay, the most populous indigenous nation of the country silently struggle for its territory, trying to contain the advance of its powerful enemies.

“Credibility at Stake - How FSC Sweden Fails to Safeguard Forest Biodiversity”, a new report in English by the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation (SSNC), available at http://www.naturskyddsforeningen.se/sites/default/files/dokument-media/rapporter/2013_engelsk_rapport_skog_credibility_at_stake.pdf

“REDD plus or REDD “Light”? Biodiversity, communities and forest carbon certification”, a new report in English by the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation (SSNC), available at http://www.naturskyddsforeningen.se/sites/default/files/dokument-media/REDD%20Plus%20or%20REDD%20Light.pdf