Bulletin Issue 105 - April 2006

In 1729, Jonathan Swift –who devoted much of his writing to the struggle for Ireland against English rule- published his satire “A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People in Ireland from Being a Burden to their Parents or Country, and for Making them Beneficial to the Public” (he suggested that they should be well fed and then eaten). Had he been alive today, he would have probably had something satirical to say about the US government and Earth Day (April 22).

The New Zealand Institute of Forestry is organizing its 2006 conference under the title of “absolutely positively forests”. Although the title is open to discussion about its true –and probably very profound- meaning, our understanding is that it could either mean that the meeting will: 1) be absolutely and positively focused on forests or 2) will try to convince everyone that Radiata pine plantations are absolutely and positively forests.

The Omo National Park in Southern Ethiopia is being taken over by the Dutch conservation organization, African Parks Foundation (APF) and 50,000 tribal people are in danger of being displaced and/or of losing access to their vital subsistence resources. The 1570 square mile Omo National Park is home to the Suri, Dizi, Mursi, Me'en and Nyangatom tribal peoples. These tribal peoples live in or use nearly the entire park for cultivation and cattle grazing. They have made this land their home for centuries.

The Omo Forest Reserve –located in the South west of Nigeria- was legally constituted as a forest reserve by Order No. 10 of 1925 and the Order was amended in 1952. The forest was practically unexplored by then. The forest was ceded to Government for reservation on the 8th of October, 1918. The agreement was made between the District Officer, Ijebu Ode on behalf of the British Colonial government and the Awujale of Ijebu Ode on behalf of the Ijebu Native administration. The Omo Forest Reserve, which is 1305.5km2, is divided into Area J1 –J3 (519.3km2), Area J4 (565.8km2), Area J6 (220.4km2), and enclaves (65km2) (Ola-Adams, 1999).

As part of a two-year process to review FSC policy on the certification of timber plantations, members of the policy review working-group (PWG) recently visited South Africa for their final meeting. What follows are some quotes from the report on the field trip to visit plantation areas, produced by Wally Menne (member of the local Timberwatch Coalition).

Aung Ngyeh, a 31 year old Karenni, fled to Thailand in 2002, forced out of his home in Karenni State by the Burmese military’s war against ethnic populations. He now lives in the refugee camp along the Thai border working with the Karenni Development Research Group (KDRG) campaigning to stop foreign investment in the Burmese regime’s “development” projects. For Aung Ngyeh and thousands of other displaced people like him, the Burmese military dictatorship’s “development” projects such as the planned dams on the Salween River (as well as railway lines, highways, mines and natural gas pipelines) are tools of war used by the junta to harass and evict ethnic peoples.

When the British invaded India 250 years ago, they found the sub-continent covered with a mosaic of vegetation they did not comprehend. Tall dark trees, gnarled and knotted creepers, wild grasslands…the sheer tropical abundance of India’s forests shocked, overwhelmed them. Ultimately, forests came to signify a number of simpler issues (or things): snakes, tigers, barbarians/rebels, pests, and adventure. British colonizers/traders never neglected the mundane and practical, though, which lay beyond this ‘exotic’ and ‘orient’. The East India Company went on ‘empirebuilding’ and the first 100 years of British rule witnessed a colossal plunder of half of India’s forest vegetation. Resultant timbers went to feed the railways and the new and old shipyards in both India and England.

Another new FSC certificate of a major logging operation, this time in Indonesia, has got forest watchers scratching their heads. Near the top of the Mahakam River in East Kalimantan one of four logging operations of the Jakarta-registered company PT Sumalindo Lestari Jaya has been awarded an FSC certificate by SmartWood, the forest certification arm of the New York-based Rainforest Alliance, (as well as a complementary certificate issued under the Joint Certification Protocol by the Indonesian certification body, PT Mutuagung Lestari, under the national Lembaga Ekolabel Indonesia certification scheme).

In Malaysia, women plantation workers appear to have been neglected in the Government’s plans to eradicate poverty and enhance the status of women. The progress achieved so far in empowering women has been unequal. Women plantation workers still lag behind, since they are unable to free themselves from the vicious cycle of poverty they find themselves in.

The world is becoming aware of the situation of the Indigenous Peoples living in isolation in the Amazon. It seems incredible, but some animals are better protected than the human groups seeking to preserve their isolation. There is no doubt that this is a basic human right that the peoples in isolation have the faculty to exercise and defend and we to respect. However, and in spite of the recommendations made by the UN, the OAS, the COICA, the IUCN and other global and regional institutions, the situation of these peoples inhabiting the continental Amazon –the greatest world reserve of uncontacted peoples– is alarming. All these peoples, without exception, are in danger of forced disappearance. Urgent action must be encouraged to avoid further genocide.

According to Recommendation no. 01 of 18 November 2005, the Federal Public Ministry, through the Attorney of the Republic in Ilheus-Bahia, is demanding the removal of eucalyptus plantations in a radius of 10 (ten) kilometres in the buffer zones of the Conservation Units of the Do Descubrimento, Monte Pascoal and Pau Brasil National Parks, as determined by Brazilian legislation. The document also sets out that in order to restore the environment these enterprises, that is to say the pulp companies, must prepare a Plan for the Restoration of Degraded Areas (PRDA), immediately following the removal of the eucalyptus plantations.

Following the adoption of the Forestry Bill in Congress, it was sent for presidential sanction on 13 December 2005. President Alvaro Uribe objected to 12 of the articles of the Law and it was expected that the text would be returned with the objections for discussion by Congress as set out in the procedure. Although the government’s objections – in the case of being adopted – do not solve the problems involved in this Law designed to hand over the country’s forests to the logging companies, it was expected that these objections would at least be given time for debate by the members of parliament. However, this was not the case.

A new FSC certificate of a major logging operation has again raised eyebrows among foresters, environmentalists and human rights activists. In Guyana, the Swiss certification company SGS Qualifor has just granted an FSC certificate to the Malaysian-Korean logging giant, Barama Company Limited (BCL), which operates a 1.69 million hectare concession in North West Guyana. BCL is co-owned by the South Korean trans-national Sun Kyong and by the controversial Malaysian logger, Samling Timbers Sdn Bhd, whose logging on the ancestral lands of the Penan people in Sarawak, Malaysia, continues to spark protest.

This month WRM is launching a new occasional section to the bulletin: "Pulp Inc". The series will consist of profiles of companies involved in the pulp and paper industry. In order to campaign effectively on the industry (and certainly before NGOs start talking about collaborating or cooperating with companies), we need to take a careful look at how the industry is structured and the nature of the companies involved in the industry: what they are and what they are not. Corporations are becoming increasingly powerful. This is true of all corporations, not just those involved in producing pulp and paper. But the pulp and paper industry provides one example of how corporations are attempting to wield their power over governments.

The Eighth Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity ended on March 31st with two important and related decisions: an upholding of the moratorium on the use of so-called “terminator technology,” and a recommendation that countries exercise caution when approaching the potential use of genetically engineered trees. The issues became related during the deliberations over the issue of extending the moratorium on the use of the dangerous “terminator technology,” the genetic engineering of plants to produce sterile seeds that cannot be replanted. The connection emerged when industry made the argument that they needed terminator technology to enable them to address the contamination problems of commercializing GE trees.