In 1992, governments acknowledged that climate change was real and that something needed to be done to avoid a major catastrophe. As a result, they signed and ratified the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Fifteen years have passed and the Convention’s Conference of the Parties will meet for its 13th time in Bali, Indonesia, from 3-14 December 2007.
How much has this convention achieved to counter the problem it was created to address? Have the main emitters reduced their emissions? The press release prepared for this event by the Convention’s secretariat gives a clear answer to both questions, when it says:
Bulletin Issue 124 - November 2007
Climate Change and the Expansion of Tree Plantations
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THE FOCUS OF THIS ISSUE: Climate Change and the Expansion of Tree Plantations
Climate change is not only already happening and impacting on the lives and livelihoods of millions of people, but is set to accelerate if actions to address the problem are not urgently implemented. The resulting extreme winds and temperatures, floods, droughts and rise in sea levels will affect increasing numbers of people, millions of which will be forced to migrate and become environmental refugees.
Within such dramatic scenario, governments have until now refused to focus on the real problem –fossil fuel emissions– and have centred their attention on cheap false solutions. Many of those “solutions” are linked to the promotion of tree plantations as either carbon sinks, as sources of biodiesel (oil palm) or aimed at the production of cellulosic ethanol (eucalyptus, poplars, willows, etc.). The biotechnology industry has also contributed to these plans with research on genetically engineered trees able to either store more carbon (with more lignin content) or produce more ethanol (more cellulose content).
To effectively counter those policies, it is important to learn about the different mechanisms used by governments for the promotion of tree plantations and about those used by local populations and organizations to oppose them. We hope that the information provided in this issue of the bulletin will serve that purpose.
WRM Bulletin
124
November 2007
OUR VIEWPOINT
GREEN DESERTS IN THE MAKING
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8 November 2007The present expansion of monoculture tree plantations has not happened by chance or just because some governments got this idea. On the contrary, it is the result of the action of a group of actors that set out to promote such plantations. In the fifties, the FAO became the main ideologist behind the large scale monoculture eucalyptus and pine plantation model in the South (as part of the so-called Green Revolution, promoted by this organization), as a response to the needs of large industrial companies that were exhausting their traditional sources of raw material.
BRAZIL: A FLAGSHIP CASE
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8 November 2007With the ideological discourse of big capital masquerading as sustainable development and as saviours of the poor, the pulp giants advance on the State of Rio Grande do Sul. With their capital they finance electoral campaigns, pay for misleading advertising and twist public power around their little fingers. These are documents to adjust conduct (TAC) to allow for the development of plantations from now on, with the argument that the companies should not suffer economic losses. This involves financing electoral campaigns and changes of directors in environmental bodies, in addition to putting pressure on the experts of these institutions to accelerate environmental authorizations.
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8 November 2007The Government of the State of Bahia, through the Centre for Environmental Resources, (CRA) held a seminar on 7 and 8 November with the purpose of “initiating a process of discussion and reflection on the environmental, social and economic prospects of eucalyptus plantations in the South and Extreme South of the State, taking a territorial approach as a basis, centring on the construction and consolidation of public policies for the region.” This event represented the continuity of a process of discussion launched in June this year by the CRA, seeking participative and negotiated solutions for the main environmental and socio-economic conflicts associated with this activity in the region.
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8 November 2007In order for vast extensions of industrial plantations to be viable in Brasil direct interactions where established between the government, companies, banks, universities, media, as well as with international and financial institutions, producers and buyers. A broad political orchestration resulted in the creation of a number of mechanisms related to legal, taxation, financial, technical, scientific, agrarian and logistic support. In the same manner articulations opposing those policies increased as monocultures expanded.
AN EYE ON REGIONAL SCENARIOS
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8 November 2007Based on an analysis of the evolving legislation on plantations, it is possible to identify five phases in government policies for palm oil development in Indonesia. We shall call these the PIR-Trans phase (up until October 1993), the Deregulation Phase (1993-1996), the Privatisation Phase (1996-1998), the Cooperatives Phase (1998-2002) and the current Decentralization Phase (2002-2006). It should be noted, however, that these phases were neither wholly discrete nor did the initiation of a new phase imply the ending of the previously launched processes.
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8 November 2007Over the last two years, Laos has seen a dramatic increase in foreign direct investment for commercial tree plantations. The Lao Committee for Planning and Investment shows 21 projects worth US$17.3 million value were approved in 2005, which rose to 39 projects approved with a value of US$458.5 million in 2006 and by February 2007, 9 projects had been approved and 16 were pending, with a total value of US$342 million. To give a somewhat simplified overview: Chinese investors are investing in rubber plantations in the north of Laos, Vietnamese rubber companies have set up in the south of Laos and four companies are establishing pulpwood plantations in the central area (Japan's Oji Paper, Thailand's Advance Agro, India's Grasim and Sweden-Finland's Stora Enso).
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8 November 2007One of the main characteristics of Cameroon’s economic policies since independence is their institutional promotion of large-scale industrial plantations. Between 1971 and 1981, the state allocated to them no less than 60% of the public funds reserved for agricultural development. The most important feature of these large-scale plantations was – and still is – their domination by only a few agro-industrial firms, highly protected, oligopolistic, and dependant on capital-intensive technologies. The establishment and the expansion of these plantations involved big investments (loans) and created a strong dependency on foreign capital as well as on foreign technologies and management.
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8 November 2007The disappearance of the forest would seem to be the premise in the various political instruments created in Colombia for the forestry sector. However, most of them euphemistically set out objectives for conservation and protection.
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8 November 2007A short while ago on the international tourist scale, Tasmania was voted the second most beautiful location to visit in the world. It has spectacular mountains and ancient forests, pristine beaches, an abundance of unique wildlife, a cool temperate climate and a low population. Much of this has been declared World Heritage and there are walking and hiking trails that are breathtakingly beautiful. Despite its small size, it also has some of the best farmland in Australia enjoying a generally good rainfall, and is proud of its 'clean, green image'.