Bulletin Issue 21– March 1999

Three good human beings -Terence Freitas, Ingrid Washinawatek and Lahe'ena'e Gay- were murdered on March 4th in Colombia. A FARC guerrilla commander committed this outrageous and senseless crime, which has deserved universal condemnation. We strongly adhere to that condemnation.

A workshop on “Petroleum and Local Resistance”, organized by Environmental Rights Action, took place at Port Harcourt, Nigeria, from 9 to 14 February. Oilwatch Africa also held its assembly in the same place. Delegates from several countries in the region --Cameroon, Ghana, Gabon, Chad and Nigeria-- as well as representatives of Oilwatch International attended both events, after which the group made a trip to oil fields in the Niger Delta, where a strong conflict between Shell and the indigenous Ogoni people is ongoing.

The expansion of the paper industry worldwide is provoking severe social and environmental problems through three types of activities which are part of its production chain: the chipping of native forests, the plantation of extensive monocultures --that generally follow the previous clearcutting of the forest-- and the pollution of water and air caused by the industrial process itself.

Forests of Cambodia are being menaced by Vietnamese loggers (see WRM Bulletin 18). However, this not the only problem that Cambodian forests are facing. Half of the mangroves of the province of Koh Kong have been cleared either for shrimp farming or for high quality charcoal production. Of the province's original 10,000 hectares of mangrove forest, only 5,000 remain nowadays. Five years ago, the Ministry of the Environment had warned that the clearing of the mangroves would irreparably damage fisheries and wildlife in the area. Initially, clearing the land for shrimp farming was the major problem, but with the collapse of that industry, now charcoal production has become the activity responsible for mangrove destruction.

Industrial shrimp pools are increasingly occupying mangroves areas (see article above and the one related to Ecuador in this issue) and agricultural lands in many Southern countries. Their expansion is being strongly resisted by local peasants who have to suffer repression together with the loss of their land and livelihood. Sometimes peasants are forced to become exploited workers at the service of the companies. One example is coming from Indonesia. The Oxford Office of the WRM has addressed Indonesian authorities in relation to the arbitrary arrest of a group of small farmers who opposed industrial shrimp farming in their lands:

For years, environmentalists have accused Indorayon's paper and rayon pulp factory (PT IIU) in Porsea, near Lake Toba in North Sumatra, of polluting the lake and its rivers, clearing the surrounding forests and setting up monoculture plantations of eucalyptus and acacia to obtain raw material. Countless demonstrations and protests have accompanied the company's activity and an Indonesian NGO (WALHI) even brought up a court case against both the company and the government which sanctioned its construction in 1989, for the high level of pollution it was provoking. The problem generated by Indorayon's unsustainable production has proved difficult to solve, due to the different interests and viewpoints of the several actors involved.

Carmelita and Uaxactun are two communities who for over 80 years have been living within the boundaries of the Maya Biosphere Reserve in Guatemala (created in 1989), which is currently menaced by oil concessions. The Reserve involves an area of 16,000 sq.km, and constitutes the largest protected tropical forest in the country. Both communities have traditionally lived on the extraction of “xate” (Chamaedorea spp.), the exploitation of "chicle" (chewing gum, Manilkara achras) and the commercial use of pepper (Pimenta dioica), having established a sustainable use pattern of the resources.

At the end of October and the beginning of November 1998, the Northwestern region of Nicaragua was devastated by hurricane Mitch. The consequences of this natural disaster were enhanced by the extreme vulnerability of the country, by the lack of organization to face this kind of phenomena and by a historically unsustainable use of the land. For example, in the Western Region almost 80% of the rivers have dried up during the last 30 years because of the felling of dry tropical forests (see article below).

The Nicaraguan territory lies in a zone of the Earth especially prone to natural phenomena such as hurricanes, floods and earthquakes. Their consequences are generally presented as the result of the rage of nature, without taking into account that the negative effects of natural agents depends not only upon their intensity but also on the vulnerability of the affected society and territory. The case of hurricane Mitch, that affected the NW region of Nicaragua (Occidente and Las Segovias) can be considered paradigmatic in this regard, since economic policy, poverty, bureaucracy, corruption and unsustainable use of land and natural resources had put the country in the worst possible conditions to face this kind of phenomena.

Statistics of year 1997 show that the deforestation rate in Costa Rica reached 16,400 hectares a year while the reforestation rate was by that time of 12,600 hectares a year. These figures could make us think that there is only a slightly negative balance in annual forest cover. Nevertheless it needs to be underscored that “reforestation” is based upon monocultures of exotic species as gmelina, teak and pine, and the regrowth of secondary forests, while primary forests continue to disappear. The case of forests at Osa Peninsula has recently drawn international attention due to the repression suffered by the environmentalists that are struggling to protect them (see WRM Bulletin 20).

Critics to tree plantations mostly refer to eucalyptus or pine monocultures and to their negative environmental and social impacts. Here we present a different case, based on interesting comments whose more relevant fragments we transcribe- we have received related to a recently published book on a teak plantation project in Costa Rica, written by Dr. P. Romeijn: "An interesting new book is out: "GREEN GOLD - On Variations of Truth in Plantation Forestry". It methodically recounts the technical, legal, political and ethical aspects of a teak plantation established in Costa Rica by the Dutch company "Flor y Fauna", and its astonishing sequel of events.

The Chilean forestry model has been publicized as an example of modern forestry development and has been exported as such to the countries of the region. However, such forestry development style, implemented during the military dictatorship and resulting in economic concentration, the displacement of thousands of peasants and indigenous people and negative environmental impacts is now being severely challenged --through direct actions-- by those affected. In this case, by the Mapuche indigenous peoples.

Indigenous communities of the Sierra de Perija and a group of organizations gathered at the Federacion Ecologista del Zulia are calling for a national march to denounce the problems that are affecting indigenous peoples in that country. The demonstration, that is being organized simultaneously in Caracas, Maracaibo, Trujillo, Barinas, Cabimas and Machiques, will take place next Earth Day (22 April) The organizers invite all Latinamerican NGOs and individuals interested in the defense of indigenous peoples' rights and the environment to take part in this event. Those interested in providing support to the march, please contact Jorge Hinestroza.

Oil prospection and exploitation is one of the most destructive activities affecting tropical forests and local communities worldwide. He are happy to announce that -at last- something positive has happened in Ecuador, where the Government has issued two decrees declaring the territory of Tagarei (773,220 hectares) and the zone of Imuya in Cuyabeno (435,000 hectares) as protected areas in perpetuity.

Ecuador is currently facing an extremely serious social situation as a result of a number of unpopular economic measures adopted by the government -in line with IMF and World Bank recommendations- which have resulted in workers' strikes, peasant and indigenous peoples' demonstrations, road blockades, violence in many parts of the country, rumours of a possible military coup and generalized caos within the country. Among those measures, there is one which has received strong opposition from the environmental community and from the affected communities and which would further affect the country's mangrove ecosystems, many of which have already been destroyed by commercial shrim farming.

The destruction of the Amazon forests is strongly related to the violence that indigenous people and local communities have historically suffered to the hands of big landowners and with the compliance of local authorities. On February 22nd the Oxford Office of the WRM sent letters to several Brazilian authorities expressing concern for the assaults and murders recently happened against Macuxi indogenous people in Roraima State. The text of the letter is as follows: “The World Rainforest Movement is deeply concerned by the news concerning ongoing assaults and murders of the indigenous Macuxi people in the Roraima State.

The provision of political risk insurance for a natural gas pipeline that will cut through a primary tropical forest and a pristine wetlands area at Ipias, in the Bolivian Amazon, is under consideration of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC). Amazon Watch, Friends of the Earth, and WWF tried to influence OPIC's Board of Directors for them to deny funding to this project (see WRM Bulletin 20) On March 9th the Board voted to delay a decision on the questioned loan guarantees. Spokespersons of the organizations that are resisting the construction of the pipeline consider that this is “a small victory” and are committed to go on putting pressure for the project to be significantly improved or definitively withdrawn before the next OPIC vote.

What follows is part of the statement made in Rome by Mia Siscawati, from the Indonesian Institute for Forest and Environment, on the impacts of industrial tree plantations on people and forests in Indonesia. "As a forester working for environmental NGOs in Indonesia I am glad to have the opportunity to visit the FAO and to join this COFO meeting. I would like also to thank ITFF for the opportunity to have a special meeting with NGOs.

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is negotiating a new international agreement to eliminate all tariffs on forest products worldwide, and to consider eliminating non-tariff forest protection measures. The terms of the agreement, that is to be formalized during a Ministerial Meeting to be held in Seattle, USA, from November 30 to December 3 this year, have been strongly critizised by the international environmental NGO community. Actions are being planned to denounce it. What follows is an article which we believe can shed light into this obscure issue: