Issue 178 – May 2012

According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), an estimated 160 million people suffer from work-related diseases, 270 million are involved in work-related accidents annually, and two million workers die from work-related diseases and accidents every year. ILO Director-General Juan Somavia has stated that the “green economy” – promoted by the UN itself and the central theme of the Rio+20 conference next month – should work towards greater protection of the health and safety of workers across the world. But will the activities that will be promoted as part of the so-called green economy actually contribute to achieving this goal? The “green economy” of monoculture tree plantations

In Asia, as in many other parts of the world, forest areas have been inhabited by successive generations of indigenous communities. For these peoples, the forest has come to play a central role in their socio-cultural identity and their survival as a community. But today, many of these forests are being cleared and replaced by industrial oil palm plantations – in many cases, on lands granted to companies by the state on the pretext that they were vacant or idle lands!

Over the past several decades, large-scale monoculture oil palm plantations have spread throughout the tropical regions of Asia, Africa and Latin America. We spoke with Giorgio Trucchi, a correspondent for the Latin American regional branch of the International Union of Food Workers (Rel-UITA, its acronym in Spanish) in Central America. Rel-UITA has been involved in numerous cases of denunciations of human rights violations and union conflicts connected to oil palm plantations. - Rel-UITA has member unions in most of the countries of Latin America. Are there any oil palm sector unions among its affiliates in Central America?

Nothing likes eucalyptus. If you let cattle loose among the eucalyptus, they start grazing around the outside, which is supposed to be a reserve. The cattle don't like it, neither do the birds, or the wasps. The hardest thing about a place like that is the wasps, but not even the wasps like to be where the eucalyptus is. (Video interview with Manuelzão, a character from the novel "Corpo de Bailes" by João Guimarães Rosa)

The International Labour Organization (ILO) is the UN agency that oversees labour issues, shaping policies and programmes mainly related to labour standards for the protection of workers. However, the right to work is wider than the right to a job. The ILO has also incorporated the concept of decent work which recognizes that “work is central to people's well-being. In addition to providing income, work can pave the way for broader social and economic advancement, strengthening individuals, their families and communities. Such progress, however, hinges on work that is decent. Decent work sums up the aspirations of people in their working lives” (ILO, http://www.ilocarib.org.tt/index.php?option=com_c ontent&view=article&id=1096&Itemid=952).

WRM joins in the call for a global mobilization on June 5, World Environment Day, to expose and denounce the structural causes of the crises facing the planet and the false solutions that the creators of these crises are seeking to impose as a means of refounding the capitalist system. This mobilization will also serve to present and promote the real solutions proposed by the peoples to eradicate social, economic and environmental injustice. This worldwide mobilization will be followed by two others in the framework of the People’s Summit at Rio+20: the global day of action against the G 20 (focusing on “green growth”) and the People’s Summit March on June 20, to be held in Rio de Janeiro and cities around the world.

Up to now, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has focused on the pursuit of “food security” and consequently on actions to generate enough food for the entire planet. However, for several social movements this definition has served well agribusiness and does not consider the issue of who produces the food, how it is produced and for what. Following the La Via Campesina’s initiative, social movements from around the world have proposed instead the concept of “food sovereignty” as “a necessary precondition of genuine food security and as a real solution to food, climate and fundamental human rights crises.”

Several months ago (see WRM Bulletin 172) we reported on the plans of Suzano Papel e Celulose S. A. – the world’s second largest pulp producer – to invest in biomass plantations. Biomass energy is one of the market-driven false “solutions” to climate change. It promotes land grabbing and diverts attention from the need to effectively reduce carbon dioxide emissions at the source.

Veracel is expanding its operations in Brazil, with the consent of the government. The decision of the Institute of the Environment and Water Resources (INEMA) to grant preauthorization for the expansion of Veracel Celulose S.A. – a joint venture between Stora Enso and Aracruz – runs counter to a 2008 Federal Court ruling that revoked the environmental licence granted to the company in 1993. Under that historic ruling, Veracel was ordered to reforest 96,000 hectares of Mata Atlântica (Atlantic Forest) destroyed by its eucalyptus plantations, in addition to paying financial compensation for the environmental damages caused and a daily fine until these dispositions were fulfilled (see WRM Bulletin 132).

EJOLT (Environmental Justice Organisations, Liabilities and Trade) is an ambitious collaborative project that brings together 23 environmental organizations and academic institutions to catalogue ecological distribution conflicts and produce material for use by environmental justice organizations in their struggle against environmental injustice (see www.ejolt.org).