Crime, Power and Impunity in Forests | Bulletin 253 – November / December 2020

OUR VIEWPOINT

• 

  Naming the crimes (and criminals) for what they are

  The tactics and strategies employed to impose land control and extractive operations in the forests are many. Most of these tactics and strategies are criminal acts.

CRIME, POWER AND IMPUNITY IN FORESTS

• 

  Legal but corrupt

  The boundary lines between the “legitimate” and the “criminal” have long been paper thin. Indeed, mainstream capitalist enterprise arguably only prospers because its particular forms of looting, theft, fraud and cheating have been blessed with the holy water of “legality”.
• 

  Sexual Exploitation and Violence against Women at the Root of the Industrial Plantation Model

  Patriarchal oppression is inseparable from the industrial plantation model, and it is at the base of how companies generate profits. Companies target women, including due to their fundamental role in community life.
• 

  Organized land theft for industrial tree plantations in Brazil: The case of AMCEL

  Land grabbing in Brazil is a clear example of organized crime, of land theft from small farmers.
• 

  Indonesia: Legalizing Crimes Under the Slogan of “Creating Jobs”

  The government of Indonesia endorsed the criticized Omnibus Law by saying that it is “crucial to attract investment and ultimately create jobs.” The Law is a direct attack on the territories and communities resisting the increasing destruction that has been ongoing for decades in Indonesia.
• 

  (Bahasa Indonesia) Indonesia : Legalisasi Kejahatan di balik slogan ‘Penciptaan Lapangan Kerja’.

  Pemerintahan Indonesia mengesahkan Omnibus Law yang kontroversial dengan berdalih bahwa ‘Ini penting untuk menarik investasi dan menciptakan lapangan kerja sebanyak-banyaknya’. Undang-Undang Ciptaker merupakan serangan langsung terhadap teritori dan komunitas – yang terus mengalami kehancuran dari dekade ke dekade di Indonesia.
• 

  Law, Crime and Deforestation in the Thai Countryside

  How are forest crimes defined? In Thailand, forest-dependant communities, rather than the government and companies carrying out large-scale deforestation, became scapegoats for this destruction.
• 

  (Thai) กฎหมาย อาชญากรรม และการตัดไม้ทำลายป่าในพื้นที่ชนบทของไทย

  อาชญากรรมป่าไม้ มีนิยามอย่างไร ? ในประเทศไทย ในขณะที่รัฐบาลและบริษัทต่างๆ ตัดไม้ทำลายป่าไปเป็นจำนวนมหาศาล ชาวบ้านกลับต้องกลายเป็นแพะรับบาปต่อการทำลายล้างดังกล่าว นโยบายอนุรักษ์ของรัฐบาลมุ่งเน้นไปที่การใช้กฎหมายกับประชาชนที่อยู่ในป่า ด้วยการใช้ความรุนแรงและการก่ออาชญกรรมต่อพวกเขา
• 

  RSPO: outsourcing environmental regulation to oil palm businesses and industry

  The RSPO certification scheme used the palm oil industry’s legitimacy crisis to strengthen the terrain to the industry’s own advantage by issuing certificates that supposedly guarantee sustainability standards.

RECOMMENDED

• 

  African Peoples Tribunal against Industrial Plantation Companies

  Friends of the Earth organised the First session of the African Peoples Tribunal in Lagos, Nigeria, in November 2020. Affected communities and civil society presented testimonies on cases of human rights
  (Read More)
• 

  2020: A year of resistance and defiance

  Focus on the Global South recently released its newsletter with a message from Asia, where, despite the pandemic and all its consequences, the dominant mood is defiance—not despair. Braving the
  (Read More)
• 

  An explanation of the new financial markets on nature’s destruction

  Recent calls to action to address critical loss of biodiversity are both long overdue and very welcome, but a parallel debate on the ‘how’ is missing. Yet the ‘how’ is
  (Read More)