Bulletin Issue 17 – November 1998

The Climate Change Convention meeting held in Argentina is a good opportunity to highlight the issue of forests and tree plantations in Latin America. We have therefore focused this issue of the Bulletin on a number of representative examples of the problems and struggles which are currently occuring in the region.

After the attempt of the Argentinian authorities during the recent COP4 on Climate Change in Buenos Aires to gain the favour of Annex I countries putting forward the polemic issue of voluntary reductions of greenhouse gases by developing countries, the Argentinian government continues its efforts to pave the way for the entry of the country into the globalized economy. Last September the Lower House passed a forestry promotion bill that offers tax breaks and subsidies for foreign investors interested in establishing tree plantations in that country. The government hopes that an average of 200,000 hectares a year will be planted between the year 2000 and 2009.

At the COP4 of the Climate Change Convention held in Buenos Aires, Brazil, together with China and India, led the position of developing countries demanding the acknowledgement of historical responsibilities by countries in relation to climate change. The Brazilian delegation also underscored the need for the protection of the Amazon forest. However, domestic forest policy does not seem to go in the same direction.

In WRM Bulletin nr 14 (August 1998) we informed about the blockade of the highway Venezuela-Brazil by a group of indigenous peoples of the Imataca and Gran Sabana regions to stop a high voltage electrical transmission line (Macagua II-Santa Elena de Uairen), that is being built through the Imataca Forest Reserve. This is a particularly rich in biodiversity and vulnerable area, menaced by mining projects promoted by the controversial Decree 1850, which was highly resisted by indigenous communities, environmental NGOs and academics (see WRM Bulletin nr 12).

While government officials were politely exchanging speeches in Buenos Aires at the 4th Conference of the Parties of the Climate Change Convention, -all of them refering to the need of conserving the world's forests as a way of mitigating the impacts of climate change- a group of indigenous people, in a much less comfortable situation, were doing in Ecuador something far more concrete to this end.

The opening of Guyana to foreign companies from the mid-1980s has caused destruction in the country’s tropical forests -a rare case of virtually untouched ecosystems until then- and the complete disregard of the Amerindians that have lived in these forests for centuries using their resources in a sustainable way. This process continues to the detriment of Guyana’s forests and indigenous peoples, who are carrying out actions to revert such situation.

High rates of deforestation contributed to the flash floods and mudslides which caused most casualties due to Hurricane Mitch, Central America's deadliest disaster. More than ten thousand perished, and thousands more are still missing in Nicaragua and Honduras. According to Father Miguel d'Escoto, a member of the FSLN National Directorate, "This is the worst natural disaster in our [Nicaragua] history; even more so than the earthquake [in 1972]." In Nicaragua every year, 150,000 hectares [approximately 375,000 acres] of forested land are destroyed by commercial timber cutting, the advancing agricultural frontier, slash and burn farming and forest fires. The country has lost nearly 60% of its forest cover in the last 50 years.

Gloria Sofia Zapata, Hernando Duque and Eder Alexander Valencia were murdered on October 14, October 20 and November 9. They were members of the environmental organization "Hojas de Hierba" (Herb Leaves) of the municipality of Belen de Umbria in the province of Risaralda. Hector Ivan Escobar and John Jairo Lopez, of the same organization, have had to leave the country.

By means of a letter dated October 22 a group of environmental NGOs addressed Mr Henri Djombo, Minister of Forest Economy of the Republic of Congo, to express their disapproval regarding a number of actions carried out by him, believed to be aimed at undermining the Brazzaville Process. As informed in WRM Bulletin nr 11 the Brazzaville process is trying to build a concertation framework open to all actors participating in the sub-region's forest sector, aiming at the sustainable management of forest ecosystems in Central Africa. The second meeting of the Conference on Central African Moist-Forest Ecosystems (CEFDHAC) took place in Bata, Equatorial Guinea from 8 to 10 June 1998.

Finnish and Indonesian NGOs have repeatedly denounced that UPM-Kymmene’s partner -the Singapore-based APRIL (Asia Pacific Resources International Holdings Ltd.)- is violating human rights and causing severe environmental problems in Indonesia. The company has converted rainforests to exotic monoculture plantations, to feed their pulp mills and NGOs demand that the project is abandoned (see WRM Bulletins nr. 6 and 8).

A policeman was rushed to hospital in Medan with a serious head injury after being beaten up in a confrontation on Monday 23rd November between security forces and local people at Porsea, North Tapanuli, North Sumatra. Another police officer suffered wounds to the back and leg. A police patrol vehicle and a government official's car were destroyed by the crowd and three other cars plus 23 homes and shops were smashed up and burnt.

In June 1998 we published a special WRM bulletin focused on the environmental and social problems affecting the lives of highland people in Northern Thailand, including a critical response regarding a previous article published in WRM bulletin 11. We are pleased to inform that a number of people, both from within and outside Thailand, got together on October 2nd in London, with the aim of clarifying the differences in analysis and approach of the wide number of actors involved directly or indirectly with this very complex situation. The meeting, designated as "A Consultation on Conservation and Conflict among Tribal Peoples, Lowlanders and the State in Northern Thailand" also discussed a number of possible ways forward.

A group of 22 organizations sent a letter dated 10 November 1998 to the German Development Minister, Ms. Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, in order to express their concern over the environmental and social impacts of the European Commission's development aid programme and demanding clear actions from the forthcoming German Presidency of the European Union.

Nothing much seems to have happened during the 4th Conference of the Parties held in Buenos (COP4) Aires from 2 to 13 November. From a broad perspective, this can be regarded as very bad news, given that climate change is happening and will increasingly affect the lives of millions of people. From a more concrete perspective, the same news can be seen as positive, given that the majority of governments don't seen to be willing to make the difficult decisions that need to be made: subsitution of fossil fuels by renewable, clean and low impact energy sources and worldwide forest conservation.

One point that is not being sufficiently taken into consideration in the debate about plantations as carbon sinks is the production end of the issue. That is, most of these monocultural non-native species plantations are being grown for either of two products: paper or fiberboard. In both cases, the trees will be turned into chips and then made into something else. How much of the actual wood fiber grown on the plantation is sequestered? Very little, especially in the case of paper.

Press release. Buenos Aires, 9 November 1998. NGO Forest Working Group expresses strong concern about inclusion of forests in the Clean Development mechanism.

Ricardo Carrere participated in the Africa Workshop of the Joint Initiative to Address the Underlying Causes of Deforestation and Forest Degradation held in Accra, Ghana, from 26 to 30 October. The case studies presented at the workshop will be shortly available in our web site, where we have already included some of the studies presented in other regional processes, such as Latin America, North America and Western Europe.