Issue 191 – June 2013

The news reports out of Europe and the United States describe situations of severe financial-economic crises, with little or no economic growth, a lack of investment and high unemployment. Yet since this crisis began roughly five years ago we have also seen intensive and increasingly greater investment in land and industrial plantations of trees and other crops in Latin America, Africa and Asia, through a variety of investment funds, most of them based in the crisis-stricken industrialized countries of the global North. These include pension funds and funds specifically geared to “timberlands” investments. So what kind of crisis are we talking about?

The expansion of large-scale monoculture tree plantations in the global South dates back to the 20th century, becoming particularly marked in the 1960s, and is expected to continue at an ever increasing rate in the 21st century alongside the growing globalization of the economy and markets.

The emergence of “Paper Dragons”. (Available in Indonesian).

It was recently reported that the pulp and paper consortium Montes del Plata, a joint venture between Swedish-Finnish forestry giant Stora Enso and the Chilean corporation Arauco, has sold 45,000 hectares of land in the departments of Tacuarembó and Rivera, most of it covered by tree plantations, to the U.S. investment management firm GMO. (1)

Focusing on the claims made by the oil palm industry to “sell” their industrial plantations, the World Rainforest Movement (WRM) has produced a new booklet: Oil palm: 12 Replies to 12 Lies about Oil Palm monocultures plantations

India Climate Justice, a collective of social movements, trade unions, other organizations and individuals, has issued on last June 25 a statement stressing that the devastating loss of life, livelihoods, and homes in Uttarakhand and beyond, caused by extreme unseasonal rains in North India, is a tragedy that indicates a global warming induced climate change phenomenon.

Members of the National Peasants Union, known as UNAC, in Mozambique, and representatives of international nongovernmental organizations following the Tokyo International Conference on African Development have called on the governments of Japan, Brazil and Mozambique to halt the ProSavana program. Sponsored by Japan and Brazil, the ProSavana program will facilitate foreign investment for large-scale farming in a vast area of savanna in northern Mozambique, encompassing more than 10 million hectares in three provinces. UNAC warns that the project will jeopardize the local production system based on family-run agriculture and will result in land-grabbing.

More than 100 organisations (including a number of coalitions representing many more groups) signed up to an Open Letter to EU decision makers on EU biofuels policy - and from every continent.

After the Ecuadorian president announced plans to carry out an evaluation on securing financing for the Yasuní-ITT project, reflecting a clear interest in oil drilling, the ‘Guardians of Yasuní’ initiative organized a vigil in defence of the national park and its forests. The organizers stated: “Sumak Kawsay (Living Well) is possible without oil, as has been demonstrated by the great diversity of life in Yasuní alongside the peoples who have coexisted with it for thousands of years. No amount of money can make it worth destroying this piece of paradise in Ecuador. The country and the entire world have already decided: We want to leave the oil in the soil in Yasuní.”

"Carbon discredited: why the EU should steer clear of forest carbon offsets", published by FERN and Friends of the Earth France, explains why forest carbon projects fail to provide climate, environment, development or financial gains. The organisations demand that the EU, California and any other carbon markets to steer clear of international forest offset credits. The document is available athttp://www.fern.org/nhambita

“El modelo forestal pinochetista y los intentos expansionistas de irresponsables políticos y empresarios” (The Pinochet forestry model and the expansionist efforts of irresponsible politicians and business owners), by Mapuexpress Informativo Mapuche, an independent news agency operated by a Mapuche indigenous organization. A selection of news stories, opinion pieces and background material related to the discussion of a bill presented by the Chilean government for approval with “great urgency”, which seeks to extend Decree Law 701 for another 20 years. This law, adopted during the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, established the conditions for the expansion of monoculture pine and eucalyptus plantations.