International Day of Struggle Against Monoculture Tree Plantations 2020
It is a day for organizations, networks and movements to celebrate resistance and raise their voices to demand, “Stop the Expansion of Monoculture Tree Plantations!”
read moreEnergy Plantations
These are large-scale tree plantations aimed at the production of timber for energy generation, for example eucalyptus for charcoal production for the pig iron industry or timber plantations for the production of wood chips or pellets to be used for heating and/or electricity production. The increasing trend in the European Union to use woody biomass tends to drive more tree plantation expansion, not only in the global North but also increasingly in the South.
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Articles from the WRM Bulletin
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The African Development Bank and the Tree Plantations Industry
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From Tanzania: Promoting Monoculture Tree Plantations for Firewood is a False Argument
2020
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Plants designed for deconstruction? The use of wood cellulose for fuels
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EU support for wood-based ‘bioenergy’ fuels forest destruction and land-grabbing
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10th Anniversary of the International Day of Struggle against Monoculture Plantations
2014
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The green economy and labour: Will “green jobs” protect workers’ health and safety?
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Sustainable Energy for All – or another scheme to increase energy corporation profits?
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Mozambique: Monoculture tree plantation projects foster land grabbing, threaten food security
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Genetically engineered eucalyptus plantations: And then there were four…
2012
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The new trend of biomass plantations in Brazil: tree monocultures
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Liberia: The case of Vattenfall – African timber to save the climate in Germany?
2011
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Myth No. 9: Oil palm plantations help mitigate climate change through the production of agrodiesel
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Myth No. 15: Planting trees to produce biochar can help to mitigate climate change
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Myth No. 10: Timber plantations help to address climate change through the production of ethanol.
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Destroying with one hand, taking with the other: Biomass, REDD and forests
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Charcoal disguised as “biochar” sold as another profitable climate tech-fix
2009
Books and Briefings
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What could be wrong about planting trees? The new push for more industrial tree plantations in the Global South
This publication aims to alert community groups and activists about the corporate push for a new round of large-scale tree plantation expansion.
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Mashamba makubwa ya miti kwa ajili ya viwanda yanavyovamia Mashariki na Kusini mwa Afrika
SWAHILI. Taarifa hii ya pamoja kati ya Timberwatch Coalition na World Rainforest Movement inalenga katika mambo mbalimbali ya ndani na nje yanayojulisha kuhusu hali ya mabadiliko ya mashamba makubwa ya miti kwa ajili ya viwanda katika...
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Industrial Tree Plantations Invading Eastern and Southern Africa
Also available in Swahili
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Nuevas tendencias en la expansión de los monocultivos industriales de árboles en América Latina
Only available in Spanish and Portuguese. Download here the full document in pdf format in Spanish or in Portuguese Documento informativo del Movimiento Mundial por los Bosques Tropicales (WRM) Desde la década de 1960 está en curso el...
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Eucalyptus Plantations for Energy: A Case Study of Suzano’s plantations for wood pellet exports in the Baixo Parnaíba region, Maranhão, Brazil
Also available in Portuguese. This is the first documented case of a land-grab in Brazil for biomass destined for power stations in the UK. The authors of the Brazilian case study are Ivonete Gonçalves de Souza (CEPEDES) and Winfridus...
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Tree plantations in the South to generate energy in the North: A new threat to communities and forests
Apparently out of concern over climate change and the urgent need to reduce carbon dioxide emissions produced by the burning of fossil fuels, the governments of the North – particularly those of the member states of the European Union,...
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An overview of industrial tree plantations in the global South: conflicts, trends, and resistance struggles.
After many years of supporting local struggles and disseminating information from different countries on tree monocultures and its impacts, WRM presents a new report to all those involved in these struggle (1). No better time than the...
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Ethanol from cellulose: A technology that could spell disaster
Switching from fossil to alternative liquid fuels would appear to be a good idea, particularly in the context of climate change. Such is the case of converting the cellulose contained in plants into different types of fuels, among which...
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Oil Palm. From Cosmetics to Biodiesel, Colonization Lives On
Selection of articles published in the monthly electronic bulletin of the World Rainforest Movement, addressing the impacts of the oil palm plantations in the forestss. Oil Palm. From Cosmetics to Biodiesel, Colonization Lives...
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Other Relevant Information
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International Declaration: Large-scale bioenergy must be excluded from the Renewable Energy definition
Declaration from February 2016. The EU is provoking a global expansion in industrial bioenergy use and the rapid development and expansion of a global trade in biofuels and wood-based bioenergy. The EU already bears great responsibility...
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Destructive biofuels and wood-based biomass out of next Renewable Energy Directive say 120 organisations to EU renewables consultation
Press Release. 10th February 2016 – 120 civil society organisations and networks from across the globe have published a declaration today, calling for bioenergy to be excluded from the next EU Renewable Energy Directive (RED) [1]....
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Declaration: Large-scale bioenergy must be excluded from the renewable energy definition
We, the signatories of this declaration, are calling on the European Union (EU) to exclude bioenergy from its next Renewable Energy Directive (RED), and thereby stop direct and indirect subsidies for renewable energy from biofuels...
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The global biomass robbery
A new report by EJOLT, an alliance of academic and activist groups struggling for environmental justice, analyses the increasing global biomass trade and highlights its impacts. The report examines the global evolution of food production...
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Biomass: The Chain of Destruction
Biofuelwatch has released a new report, Biomass: The Chain of Destruction. It explores the global impacts of the UK’s biomass boom, looking at what the current the demand for biomass for electricity, supportive Government policy and...
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Public Meeting: A Burning Issue – biomass and its impacts on forests and communities
Tuesday, 29th October 2013 at 7pm. Speakers from Brazil and the US will present first-hand experience of the impacts of the UK’s biomass policies on forests and people in their countries. This includes a presentation about the first ever...
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Open Letter: The Committee on World Food Security must not allow itself to be captured by biofuels interest groups
The 40th session of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS), which will meet from 7th to 11th October, will be discussing recommendations on “Biofuels and Food Security”. This should be an important opportunity for the CFS to...
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The Dark Side of the Green – VIDEO
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...
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Land grabbing for biofuels must stop
“Land grabbing for biofuels must stop”, a new report from GRAIN athttp://www.grain.org/e/4653
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Nothing Neutral Here: Large-scale biomass subsidies in the UK and the role of the EU ETS
A Carbon Trade Watch report that links the demand for biomass in the UK, the role of the EU’s Emissions Trading System and the destructive expansion of industrial monoculture tree plantations around the world. Available...
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Agrocombustibles: Energía que extingue a la Pachamama
Only available in Spanish – Por Elizabeth Bravo y Nathalia Bonilla. Las nuevas políticas de agrocombustibles en el Ecuador – Setiembre 2011 Download as...
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Agrofuels in the Americas
Edited by Richard Jonasse, PhD. Institute for Food and Development Policy, 2009 Download as...
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Don’t Log the Forests for the Fuel
A Position Paper on the Potential Environmental and Economic Impacts of the Cellulosic Ethanol Industry in the Southern United States. By Scot Quaranda Research Assistance by Mollie Petersen, Siara Cowan and Kathryne Crane Download full...
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Agrofuels and the Myth of the Marginal Lands
A briefing by The Gaia Foundation, Biofuelwatch, the African Biodiversity Network, Salva La Selva, Watch Indonesia and EcoNexus, September 2008 Download as...
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Biofuel land grabbing in Northern Ghana
By Bakari Nyari, Vice Chairman of Regional Advisory and Information Network Systems (RAINS), Ghana and African Biodiversity Network Steering Committee member This is the story of how a Norwegian biofuel company took advantage...
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Apart from used chip fat, there is no such thing as a sustainable biofuel
Even capitalists now admit the oil crisis is real. But their solutions border on lunacy as they avoid the obvious answer By George Monbiot, The Guardian, February 2008 This article appeared in the Guardian on Tuesday February 12 2008 on...
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The Geopolitics of Agrofuels
Position Paper of the Global South on Food Sovereignty, Energy Sovereignty and the transition towards a post-oil society. Quito, September 2007 A first meeting of groups from the South was held in Ecuador-0 latitude 27th June-1st July...
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The Dark Side of Agrofuels: Horror in the “Brazilian California”
By Raúl Zibechi. Source: Programa de las Américas – www.ircamericas.org Brazil is staking its claim as a great emerging power thanks to the leadership it maintains in biofuel production. The price of this ambition is paid by the...
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Open letter to SBSTTA on the issue of GM trees
The undersigned participants of SBSTTA or of meetings leading up to SBSTTA wish to share their concerns about the issue of genetically modified trees within the process of the Convention of Biological Diversity. As you know, the last...
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Large Alliance of NGOs and Indigenous Peoples Calls for Ban on Genetically Modified Trees for Biofuels
Paris, France, July 4th 2007 — Over 50 Indigenous Peoples Organizations and Non-Governmental Organizations involved in meetings surrounding the Convention on Biological Diversity, presented an open letter today recommending a ban...
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Agrofuels – Towards a reality check in nine key areas
By Various Organizations, June 2007 Foreword This paper has been published on the occasion of the twelfth meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA) of the Convention on Biological...
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Food security, poor farmers, and environmental impact are not often discussed when talking about bio-fuels
By Daniel Cassol, March 2007 – MST Informa – Revista Sem Terra (Ed. 38) The discussion around clean, renewable energy production is not new, but now it has become more urgent, especially after the beginning of February when the...
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Noticias del Cambio Climático, Nº 2 – Edited by Entrepueblos
Only available in Spanish – Durante más de una década los políticos y científicos al servicio de las grandes transnacionales calificaron de alarmistas y poco fundamentadas las previsiones sobre la incidencia de...
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Open letter: Palm Oil for Biofuels Increases Social Conflicts and Undermines Land Reform in Indonesia
Open letter to the European Parliament, the European Commission, the governments and citizens of the European Union Sawit Watch. Bogor, 26 January 2007 Hereby Sawit Watch expresses before the European Parliament, the European Commission,...
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Biofuels: A Disaster in the Making
Call to immediately suspend forms of support for the import and export of biofuels – November 2006. The undersigned NGOs, Indigenous Peoples Organizations, farmer’s movements and individuals call upon the Parties to the Framework...
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Videos
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Women and Climate Change
Produced by Gender CC, Women for Climate Justice , with the support of the WRM International Secretariat Directed by Flavio Pazos Voice: Lori Nordstrom Based on the work of: Ana Filippini – WRM Andrea Guzmán – CENPROTAC,...
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