Bulletin Issue 119 – June 2007

The main aim of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) is the conservation and sustainable use of the world’s biological diversity. It would thus seem obvious that anything that threatens biodiversity should be adequately addressed by signatories to the convention. Given that the Convention’s Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA) will be meeting in Paris at the beginning of July, we believe this can be a good opportunity for addressing the impacts of monoculture tree plantations, genetically modified trees and agrofuel development on biodiversity.

In May this year, a group of indigenous people who had remained in voluntary isolation established contact with the outside world. This happened in the north of the State of Para. The indigenous people walked for 5 days for over 100 kilometres through the dense Amazon forest, crossing the frontier from Mato Grosso until unexpectedly appearing in an indigenous Kayapo village. It should be noted that this contact was not the result of a free decision but because of loggers invading their territory, forcing them to flee and make this long and difficult journey until they reached this village.

The Indigenous hunter-gatherers of the central African forests, so-called Pygmy peoples, consist of at least 15 distinct ethnolinguistic groups including the Gyéli, Kola, Baka, Aka, Bongo, Efe, Mbuti, western Twa, and eastern Twa living in ten central African countries: Angola, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Central African Republic, Gabon, Republic of the Congo (Congo), Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi. Their estimated total number is from 300 000 to 500 000 people.

The Ecuadorian communities affected by mining convened a Mining Uprising to take place on 5 June, World Environmental Day. Different points of resistance were established covering the national geography in Imbabura, Quito, Chimborazo, Cañar, Azuay, El Oro, Zamora and Morona. Although the protest was peaceful, law enforcement agents repressed the communities protesting during the first days, particular in Tarqui, Victoria del Portete, Molleturo and San Carlos-Balao, causing the indignation of the population over the police’s brutal and arbitrary treatment. Investigations and sanctions regarding their responsibility are being demanded.

Indonesia has the world’s third largest area of tropical forest, after Brazil and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Although only 1.3 per cent of the world’s total forest area, Indonesia’s forests are home to 10 per cent of the world’s flora species, 12 per cent of the world’s mammals, 17 per cent of the world’s reptiles and amphibians, and 17 per cent of the world’s birds. Indonesia is the second country in the world in terms of wildlife richness. Indonesia’s forests are also home to endangered species such as orangutan, tigers, rhinos and Asian elephants.

Over the past decade, tens of millions of dollars have been invested by funding agencies to improve forest management in Laos with the stated aim of aiding rural development and livelihood security. Despite these investments – including multi-million dollar projects backed by the World Bank, the Government of Finland and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), among others – mismanagement of Laos’ production forests remains the norm.

The certifying firm SGS has launched a consultation process for the FSC certification of Veracel Celulose’s eucalyptus plantations. This company is owned by the Swedish-Finnish company Stora Enso and the Norwegian-Brazilian company Aracruz Celulose and its plantations are established on 78,000 hectares of land in the extreme south of the State of Bahia. The negative impacts of those plantations are resulting in considerable local resistance (see Bulletin No. 109). The main assessment will be made between 23 and 27 July 2007. Here below is an Open Letter aimed at preventing Veracel from obtaining FSC certification, which reflects indignation over the attempt at certifying a company that has caused, and continues to cause, so much pain and suffering.

Through various programmes and state incentives, under the auspices of international cooperation agencies, monoculture tree plantations of fast growing species have been established in the three continental regions of Ecuador and are rapidly becoming widespread, generally destroying primary ecosystems.

Members of twenty-five Indonesian NGOs and community organisations met in Riau, Sumatra, on 13th January 2007, to give voice to their serious concerns about the impacts of the pulp and paper industry and its fastwood plantations on people and forests. Under the program referred to as HTI (Hutan Tanaman Industri), “Industrial Timber Plantation and Pulp Industry Development” launched by the government in the early 1980s, more than 5 million hectares were allocated for fast growing monoculture tree plantations (Acacia mangium and Eucalyptus) to support the pulp, paper and rayon industry. This massive expansion is underway to convert primary forest into timber --as well as rubber and oil palm plantations.

The web page http://www.southafrica.info, published for the International Marketing Council of South Africa, included in March an article which stated that “South Africa has identified the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal provinces as key for development in the forestry, wood and paper sector, with reforestation a vital part of the strategy”. For those who don’t know the forestry language, it is important to note that in South Africa the word “reforestation” really means planting vast monocultures of alien tree species on native grassland ecosystems. The article was accompanied by a photo with the following text: “South Africa is looking to the forestry, wood and paper sector to boost investment and employment in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.”

Advance Agro is one of Thailand's largest pulp and paper companies, producing 427,000 tonnes of pulp and 470,000 tonnes of paper a year. The company markets its "Double A" brand of photocopy paper with a series of environmental claims. In May 2007, an Australian company called Access Economics added to these claims with a report titled "Environmental Benefits of Double A Paper".

The entrance to the bank has nothing to do with human scale. Built of steel and glass, the building towers over visitors like a spotlessly cleaned, giant machine. A machine for swallowing people and making money, perhaps.

With much song and dance, Agro-fuels have quickly found a place on the agendas of the governments of the North…and of the South. They promise energy independence, business, a solution to global warming, business, more foreign currency, business!!! They also give rise to new political and regional positioning. During a controversial trip through Latin America, the United States was seeking to strengthen a partnership with Brazil regarding ethanol. Cuba has stated its rejection of agro-fuels, together with Venezuela and Bolivia. Others look, listen and remain silent…but have agro-fuels on their agendas and the enabling legal frameworks are being established.

More and more the rush to use biomass as an alternative source of energy allegedly to reduce CO2 emissions is concealing the unsustainable consumption pattern that underlies global warming and climate change. Reduccionist approaches focus on solutions which create even greater harm. That is the case of a major European project which has enthusiastically identified industrial-scale eucalyptus plantations as an answer for so said less polluting steel manufacturing processes. Led by the main European steelmakers, the European Ultra Low CO2 Steelmaking (ULCOS) project involves the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD) and its central theme is to replace fossil fuels with biomass, notably from monoculture tree plantations in the tropics.

To the disappointment of some and the relief of others, tree plantation projects, particularly those involving large-scale monocultures, have been struggling to access a new subsidy offered by the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism: in the three years since the rules for afforestation and reforestation projects were adopted, and after twelve rounds of baseline methodology submissions, only one plantation, in China, has been registered as a CDM project.

Registered on last January 22, the “Project 0143 : UTE Barreiro S.A. Renewable Electricity Generation Project” of Vallourec & Mannesmann (V&M), the world's largest manufacturer of seamless hot-rolled steel tubes, is the third try of the company to get funds under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) scheme. The registered project will provide V&M with 67954 carbon credits it can sell to companies in the North who prefer buying such carbon credits to reducing emissions at home.