Issue 153 – April 2010

According to the FAO, halting deforestation is neither a political nor a social nor an environmental issue: it is just a matter of definitions. As evidence of the above, the FAO has just released a report (1) which proves that we and many others have been absolutely wrong: deforestation in Asia is not only not happening; forests have actually expanded during the last decade! The report says: “Asia, which had a net loss [in forest area] in the 1990s, reported a net gain of forest in the period 2000–2010”. Hallelujah!

Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) is a giant pulp and paper company which has long been deforesting Indonesian forests in Riau province, Sumatra, destroying Kerumutan’s and Bukit Tigapuluh’s peat forests. Most of the estimated 25 percent deforestation of the original natural forest cover has taken place on carbon rich soils.

The European Commission claims that the EU Ecolabel is only awarded to “the very best products, which are kindest to the environment”. But when the EU Ecolabel has been awarded to Golden Plus and Lucky Boss, two brands of photocopy paper manufactured by Pindo Deli, a subsidiary of Asia Pulp and Paper, this claim is greenwash.

Madagascar is the world’s fourth largest island and is usually portrayed as being one of the poorest countries in Africa, with over three-quarters of its population mainly dependant on agriculture for their livelihoods. The Anosy region, located in the mountains in the south east corner of Madagascar, is home to approximately half a million inhabitants. It is a wet region with varied biodiversity ranging across littoral, humid, and transition forests to marshlands and wooded bush.

Wetlands are ecosystems having a high biodiversity, temporarily or permanently flooded by fresh water, brackish water, mixed waters or sea water with a maximum depth of 6 metres. In some cases they form swamps, mud flats, peat bogs, lakes or lagoons, usually accompanied by grasses, seaweeds, mangroves or other vegetation. In some cases wetlands remain temporarily dry and devoid of vegetation and desert-like and become productive and full of life during rainy seasons.

Last month, a new Australian-Indonesian Forest Carbon Partnership was announced under the scheme of the International Forest Carbon Initiative (IFCI) - a government initiative, with implementation jointly managed by AusAID and the Department of Climate Change. The A$30 million funded REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation) trial project will be implemented in the Indonesian Jambi province located on the east coast of central Sumatra.

The concept of protected areas, born in the United States in the nineteenth century as an idea of conservation by establishing “national parks,” was part of the colonization of the “Wild West” and, in many cases served as an instrument to appropriate indigenous peoples’ territory, handing it over to the States, research centres or corporate interests.  Although an international organization such as the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has acknowledged that when establishing protected areas, indigenous peoples’ rights to their territories should be respected and the value of their lifestyles recognized, most of the protected areas established since then have violated these rights.  

El Pambilar with its 3123 hectares of native forest, has since 1997 been a matter of dispute between peasant farmers and the logging company Bosques Tropicales S.A (Botrosa), belonging to the Peña Durini group.

On 19 and 20 March this year, peasant, indigenous and quilombola* communities and movements from the States of Espirito Santo and Bahia who are fighting to get back their territory invaded by monoculture eucalyptus plantation companies, paid a visit to Raiz and Vereda Funda in the locality of Rio Pardo in the north of Minas Gerais, in solidarity and to exchange experiences with these two communities struggling to regain their traditional territory. 

GeaSphere and EcoDoc have just launched a report by Liane Greeff of EcoDoc Africa, “Thirsty alien trees, no water left and climate confusion – what version of sustainable development are we leaving our children”. The paper highlights the dramatic contradiction of the expansion of water intensive industrial timber plantations in South Africa under planned development programmes, and the scarce water resources of the country. It is a thorough report that we highly recommend and which can be read at:Http://www.geasphere.co.za/articles/thirstytreesnowater.htm 

Over the past few decades, oil palm plantations have rapidly spread throughout Asia, Africa and Latin America, where millions of hectares have already been planted and millions more are planned for the next few years. These plantations are causing increasingly serious problems for local peoples and their environment, including social conflict and human rights violations. In spite of this, a number of actors – national and international – continue to actively promote this crop, against a background of growing opposition at the local level.

On 16 March 2010, Henrique de Souza Pereira, 24-years old, was killed by a team of guards of the private ‘security’ company hired by Fibria, former Aracruz Celulose and partner of Stora Enso in the Veracel Celulose company.

Following the resounding and anticipated failure of the United Nations Convention on Climate Change held in Copenhagen in December 2009, the president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, has taken the initiative of calling another type of summit meeting in search of solutions. The World Peoples’ Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth will be held from 19 to 22 April 2010, in the Bolivian city of Cochabamba (http://cmpcc.org/). It is expected that some 10,000 people will attend, mainly members of social organizations and movements, although there will be official delegations from countries all over the world. 

Criticism of the ineffective and unjust solutions to climate change which under carbon compensation and trading pretend to continue business as usual, are mounting amid global civil society.