The Tenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) will be taking place in Nagoya, Japan, from 18 - 29 October 2010. This meeting provides the CBD with a good opportunity for responding to the increasing demand to come up with a serious definition of one of the most biodiverse ecosystems on Earth: forests.
Until now, most national and international bodies have uncritically adopted the FAO’s definition of forest, which not only fails to adequately describe what a forest is, but also allows the inclusion of monoculture tree plantations as such. Though by no means intentionally, the FAO has recently published a report that could not be more timely for convincing the CBD about the necessity of seriously addressing this issue.
Issue 159 – October 2010
CBD at the crossroads
Download the complete bulletin as pdf
THE FOCUS OF THIS ISSUE: CBD AT THE CROSSROADS This issue of the bulletin has a special focus on the 10th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 10) to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) that will be held in Nagoya, Japan on October 18 to 29, 2010. As a contribution to COP 10, the Convention on Biological Diversity Alliance (CBD Alliance) – an international network of which WRM forms part – has facilitated the development of a series of briefing papers by representatives of civil society and indigenous peoples’ organizations, which focus on the top ten issues that they believe should be urgently addressed in Nagoya, along with the paths that should be avoided and those that should be followed. In this bulletin we present three of the ten issues put forward by the CBD Alliance (to see all ten, visit: http://undercovercop.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/CBDA_10briefings_ENG_v8.pdf).WRM Bulletin
159
October 2010
OUR VIEWPOINT
CIVIL SOCIETY'S MESSAGE TO CBD
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31 October 2010In 2010, we face compounding biodiversity, food, fuel, economic and climate crises. The conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity is fundamental to addressing these crises, and charting a truly sustainable path for humanity.
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31 October 2010The world’s forests face many threats. Parties to the CBD must take serious, immediate action on deforestation, addressing the drivers of deforestation, in line with the rights of Indigenous Peoples. Parties must not blindly accept the terms of market-based REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation), and should establish a definition of forests in line with the objectives and principles of the CBD. What is at stake? Deforestation and climate change
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31 October 2010The role of biodiversity in climate change policy is receiving increased attention: both how the loss of biodiversity worsens climate change and how the protection of biodiversity needs to be central to any effective adaptation or mitigation strategy. Parties must ensure that the CBD principles (e.g. precautionary principle, ecosystem approach, Indigenous Peoples’ rights) are upheld and applied in all strategies for combating climate change. The conservation of biodiversity will not be accomplished through the market mechanisms and techno-fixes that are dominant amongst contemporary public policy options—indeed there is a danger that over reliance on market approaches and unproven technologies might worsen the protection of biodiversity.
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31 October 2010Industrial scale biofuels and bioenergy, with their new demands for wood, agricultural products and other plant biomass, are having serious and irreversible impacts on biodiversity, especially forests. Driven by overseas investment, large tracts of land are changing to bioenergy feedstocks in the global south, undermining the rights of Indigenous Peoples, food sovereignty, agrarian reform and land rights. CBD language “to promote the positive and minimise the negative impacts of biofuel production” must be replaced by a call to end all perverse incentives that promote the further expansion of industrial bioenergy production. What is at stake?
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31 October 2010A group of social and environmental networks and organizations, concerned about the possibility that the United Nations finally endorse policies that accept and promote genetically engineered trees, warned of their potential harm, that would be aggravated within the model of large-scale monoculture. Below is the “Open letter to participants at the 10th Conference of the Parties to the Convention (COP 10) on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the 5th Meeting of the Parties of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (MOP 5) to be held in Nagoya, Japan in October 2010 Stop the Extermination of Biodiversity-- Stop Genetically Engineered trees
COMMUNITIES AND FORESTS
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31 October 2010The ITT oil exploration block, located within the borders of Ecuador’s Yasuní National Park, is an area of extraordinary biological diversity. The Ecuadorian proposal to leave the estimated 850 million barrels of oil reserves in this block untouched, in perpetuity (see WRM Bulletin Nº 157), marked a change of course in the right direction towards biodiversity conservation.
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31 October 2010In defiance against Burma’s ruling military junta, farmers in the northern state of Kachin are fighting against a plantation company from destroying their lands and livelihoods. The farmers accuse the Yuzana Company of large-scale destruction of forest in the Hugawng Valley, an area that also happens to comprise the world’s largest tiger reserve. The Yuzana Company conglomerate, whose chief Htay Myint is said to be close to the Burmese military rulers, was given the license to operate plantations in the Hukawng Valley in 2007.
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31 October 2010With a population of some 150 million people, the Nigerian economy has been relying for more than 50 years on oil extraction by foreign large corporations - with Shell at the top - in the Niger Delta remote region of mangrove creeks. The country’s oil production is mainly to feed the energy demands of industrialized countries – it supplies 8.2% of all US crude oil imports. Oil companies reap huge benefits while most local people bear the environmental burden left by gas flaring and oil spills - 300 major oil spills have poured about 8 million barrels of oil into the once lush area.
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30 October 2010“The forest dependent people of India are raising their voice strongly against the loot of natural resources in the name of delivering development, saving the environment and combating climate change. They are bringing forth the issues of people’s political economy of protection of natural resources and protection of livelihood vis-à-vis the elite and capitalist interests on the natural resources.
COMMUNITIES AND TREE MONOCULTURES
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30 October 2010Endless rows of tree trunks pass before our eyes behind the car window. In the utmost south of the Brazilian state Bahia, eucalyptus plantations are a common sight. Sometimes we can see the remains of the Mata Atlântica, the majestic Atlantic Rainforest that used to cover the region. Now there is only four percent left. Logging companies and sawmills have made huge profits here. After the deforestation, something new was introduced to the region: eucalyptus, the new green gold. The plantations we pass are all owned by Veracel.
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30 October 2010Two previous WRM Bulletins (January and September 2009) reported on the “biochar” concept – the idea of producing charcoal on a large scale and applying it to soils on the assumption that this will store carbon for thousands of years and slow down if not reverse climate change as well as making soils more fertile, producing ‘renewable energy’ and doing all sorts of other magical things.[1]
ARTICLES AVAILABLE ONLY IN OTHER LANGUAGES
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30 October 2010Recientemente se acaba de difundir un nuevo trabajo del Profesor Walter de Paula Lima (WPL) titulado “A silvicultura e a água: Ciência, Dogmas, Desafios”, que parece cuestionar la experiencia de numerosas comunidades que han vistos afectados sus recursos hídricos por la instalación de grandes monocultivos de eucaliptos. Sin embargo, en realidad el trabajo de WPL aporta una serie de elementos que –a pesar de los objetivos del autor- de hecho confirman lo que las comunidades ya saben: que los grandes monocultivos de eucaliptos efectivamente afectan el agua.
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30 October 2010Au milieu d’un désert vert de 60 000 hectares de plantations de palmiers à huile se trouvent 150 hectares de terres agricoles et boisées qui appartiennent au village d’Apouh A Ngog de la région d’Edéa, au Cameroun. Le village en question, comme tant d’autres, est encerclé par les plantations et, depuis des années, est en conflit avec Socapalm, filiale locale du groupe français Bolloré [1].