Bulletin Issue 24 – June 1999

NGO and Indigenous Peoples Organizations' representatives at the Intergovernmental Forum on Forests shared a common feeling in Geneva last May: that of frustration. At its third session, the IFF discussions seemed to be going nowhere; even worse, at times they appeared to be moving backwards. After a number of meetings, NGOs and IPOs decided to present a common statement to the IFF plenary, which began by saying:

Oil exploitation is responsible for the destruction of mangroves, local community displacement and suffering, as well as environmental degradation of water sources and soil in Nigeria. This depredation is usually accompanied by brutal actions against local community members and activists, during which armed corps constitute the executive arm of the companies. The Niger Delta is an area where oil prospection and exploitation are especially active. Environmental destruction and human rights abuses in this region to the hands of Shell and Chevron have been repeatedly denounced (see WRM Bulletin 22).

International "aid for development" is a major cause of forest destruction in many countries. This is exemplified in the case of Cameroon by the European Union, which plans to give a 55 million ECU grant to the government for road projects in the Southern region of the country. Cameroon has not explained which roads are to be built or rehabilitated and no environmental impact assessment studies have been carried out for these projects.

The South African government announced last March that the state-owned timber plantations company SAFCOL, would be privatized. The company owns 332,000 hectares of commercial tree plantations and other assets valued at between 1 and 1.5 billion Rand (some160-250 million US dollars). Although a number of social concerns are said to be part of the move (job creation, human resources development, promoting greater diversity of ownership and developing downstream activities), the fact is that the true beneficiaries will be the large national and transnational corporations.

The expansion of monoculture tree plantations in the temperate region of the globe is provoking concern due to its negative effects on grasslands that are essential for the world's food production and biodiversity conservation. The shortage of water is one the most important negative effects of this development in temperate countries and South Africa is a good (bad) example.

After the seizure of the Pak Mun Dam in Ubon Ratchathani Province that occured on March 23th to the hands of five thousand people from eight different groups affected by existing or planned dams, false charges have been made against the demonstrators. The Government has alleged that opposition parties are supporting the demonstration, with the ultimate aim of bringing the government down. While local officials state that they don't have the ability to address the problems, the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT), which administrates the dam, has requested that the demonstrators be arrested for unauthorized access to the dam site. Because of these reactions, the Assembly of the Poor (AOP) has thus far refused to negotiate with either the government or EGAT.

As part of the 'reform movement' since President Suharto was ousted last May, the interim Indonesian government has introduced several important pieces of new legislation on natural resources exploitation. One of these is a controversial new Forestry Law.

Most fires that destroyed vast areas of the Indonesian tropical forest in 1997 were deliberately set by plantation companies to clear land. The government itself accused several companies as responsible for the fires. The consequences of the fires reached the regional level, producing concern in the neighbouring countries. Nevertheless, the most affected were local populations whose lands were apropriated by huge national and transnational corporations, converting forest and agricultural land into pulpwood or oil palm plantations (see WRM bulletin 9)

Pulp wood and oil palm plantations expansion in Indonesia has been a direct cause of forest destruction by land clearing. During the 80's the government promoted the creation of large-scale industrial pulp plantations of fast-growing species, mainly acacia, pinus and gmelina to feed the pulp and paper industry. At the beginning of this decade, as timber resources were becoming rapidly exhausted, oil palm began to be regarded by private companies and national authorities as an interesting commodity for export and plantations started to expand. Nowadays Indonesia has 2.4 million hectares (3.2 according to other sources) of oil palm and in the next few years this could reach as high as 5.5 million hectares.

Friends of the Earth-Bangladesh is seeking international support to halt Sundarbans destruction. Sundarban is the largest mangrove in the world, situated in a land where three of Asia's mightiest rivers -the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna- mingle before flowing into the Bay of Bengal (see WRM Bulletin 15). Extending at the border between India and Bangladesh, this mangrove comprises a more than 10,300 square kilometre area. The forest floor is crossed by a complex network of rivers, creeks and canals which flood twice daily as the tide rises, creating a rich habitat for the many species of fish and invertebrates that move into the forest with the tides.

The Solomon Islands, an archipelago of Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean, are an independent state since 1978. The country's economy is based on agriculture, fisheries and forestry. Its territory has undergone a severe process of deforestation and consequent soil erosion in exposed areas. For example, in 1995 the government ordered the logging of all trees on Pavuvu island and their residents were relocated under protest. A relevant actor behind the scenes have been the forestry industry, concentrated in a few hands -mostly foreigners- and very influent over the national timber policy. At the same time, the government has promoted unsustainable logging practices seeking the benefits derived from the taxes applied to the timber industry.

Papua New Guinea (PNG) possesses one of the planet's largest remaining tropical rainforest biomes. At least seventy-five percent of its original forest cover is still standing, occuping vast, biologically rich tracts over 100,000 square miles in all. Nevertheless, lately the government of PNG has been taking steps to revive the dying timber industry, which favour a small group of companies, weaken forest sector governance and accelerate logging in these precious remaining forests (see WRM Bulletin 22).

The Argentinian government is definitely aimed at transforming the country in an investors paradise for forestry projects, adopting the same scheme already operational in the Southern Cone of South America -Chile, Uruguay and Paraguay- based on large scale tree monocultures. This position was made clear at the COP IV on climate Change held in November 1998 in Buenos Aires. Plantations as carbon sinks under the Clean Development Mechanisms of the Kyoto Protocol are regarded as an excellent opportunity for the development of this model. Environmental impacts on grasslands, that have already been proven in other regions in which the prairie is the major ecosystem, are ignored (see WRM Bulletin 17).

For centuries, the inhabitants of the Amazon lived in balance with nature. The groups had small areas of land, the idea of property was unknown to them, and they were able to find everything they needed to live well. This style of life was destroyed by the arrival of the first Europeans, and ever since the exploitation of nature and its inhabitants has caused the extinction of species, loss of livelihoods and cultures, and more widespread poverty.

Mapuche Press Release. The national march for the recognition of the Mapuche Nation and its rights is advancing towards Santiago and more than one hundred Mapuche have walked 200 kms in seven days. After seven days, more than one hundred Mapuche have walked some 200 kms from Temuco, Wallmapuche -Mapuche Territory- heading towards Santiago de Chile with the aim of achieving the recognition of the basic rights and freedoms of the Mapuche People.

A second grade teacher in a Chicago inner-city school says she received six or seven phone calls from an official in the Boise Cascade Corporation who wanted to know why she was teaching "bad things" about his company. The teacher, Maria Gilfillan, had been teaching her second-graders about rainforests. As a class, they talked about how they could help conserve forests. One way, they decided, was to stop using paper towels. They use the drip-dry method instead!

The recent murders of three activists - Ingrid Washinawatok, a member of the Menominee tribe from New York, Terence Freitas, from Oakland, and Lahe'ena'e Gay, from Hawaii- who were assisting the U'wa indigenous people to protect their land from oil drilling, illustrate the high level of violence in conflicts concerning the use of resources and territorial issues in the South American rainforests and calls into question U.S. foreign policy (see WRM Bulletin 21)

Given that both deforestation and the expansion of tree monocultures are negative processes affecting people and the environment in Paraguay, local NGOs are actively involved in the monitoring of such processes. Paraguay has the highest deforestation rate in South America (2,4 % for the period 1981-1990) and one of the highest in Latin America. Clearcut and illegal exports of precious wood -especially by foreign logging companies- are the most important causes of this state of affairs. The promotion by the State of an export oriented model based on the production of soybean and cattle raising has been another relevant destructive factor regarding forests.

Growing opposition to monoculture tree plantations has forced the forestry sector to respond to NGO claims that this type of forestry model is detrimental to the environment and that it does not benefit the country or its people. They chose to use "science" as a weapon to counteract such claims. In spite of the fact that no governmental institution has carried out research on the impacts on soils, water or biodiversity of large scale eucalyptus plantations, the forestry lobby managed to produce --through the National Institute of Agricultural Research, INIA-- a short booklet titled "Forestry development with eucalyptus: its impacts on natural resources and the environment in Uruguay."

The communities of Morador and Tierra Buena in Venezuela's continue struggling against pulp and paper transnational Jefferson Smurfit, responsible for deforestation activities and for the set up of vast tree plantations in Portuguesa State, and questioning the authorities' attitude in relation to this conflict. The WRM has been actively supporting this struggle (see WRM Bulletins 18, 20 and 22).

Placencia Lagoon in southern Belize separates the Placencia Peninsula from the southern Belize mainland. Mangroves in the Lagoon are an essential component of the Placencia Peninsula estuary system, filtering inland water, protecting the coastline and serving as home to large numbers species of the tropical wildlife. However, a proposal in course to build a two-lane causeway and a bridge across the Lagoon to connect it with the village of Independence in the mainland practically ignores environmental issues and just considers that the works will not upset the water flow of the lagoon nor threaten mangrove life.

The Tehuantepec Isthmus is home to the most important humid tropical forests in a country considered one of the five most megabiodiverse countries in the world. The area is also the only natural bridge between tropical subhumid and humid forests of the Pacific and the Golf of Mexico coasts. It is also the region with the greatest availability of accessible water.

The community of Ejido Pino Gordo, in the State of Chihuahua, formed by Tarahuamaras (or Raramuris, as they call themselves) indigenous peoples, is struggling against illegal logging that is destroying the 200-year old forests that surround their village in the Sierra Madre, about 850 miles northwest of Mexico City. Members of the community expressed their demands to the State authorities in Chihuahua. "We don't want our forests felled" said Francisco Ramos, a Raramuri-speaking Indian leader. "We didn't plant the trees; God did, to collect water from the rain and give homes to the animals. The trees are not our property. We're just taking care of them", he added.

Andrew Gray, a life-long campaigner in support of the rights of Indigenous Peoples was lost in an air accident in the sea off Vanuatu on May 8th. Andrew was in the middle of a networking trip in the South Pacific linking up with Indigenous Peoples and their organisations in the region as part of IWGIA's expanding programme in support of the rights of Indigenous Peoples. Andrew, who had trained as an anthropologist at the Institute of Social Anthropology in Oxford, and had spent years living with the Harakmbut people of the Madre de Dios region in the Peruvian Amazon, was also Policy Adviser to the UK-based Forest Peoples Programme and member of the board of Anti-Slavery International. He was also vice-Chairman of the IWGIA and an affiliate of the World Rainforest Movement.

The WRM will soon publish in hard copy this Plantations Campaign Briefing Paper in English, Spanish, Portuguese and French. In the meantime, it is available in electronic format in our web page (in English), under Plantations Campaign/Plantation Campaign Materials/Briefing Papers. Anyone wishing to receive it through email please let us know and we will send it immediately. This briefing is based on a summary of "Pulping the South: Industrial Tree Plantations and the World Paper Economy" (Carrere & Lohmann, 1996), and is aimed at reaching a wider audience of people concerned with the problem of the expansion of industrial tree plantations in the South.

Fletcher Challenge Forests, International Paper, Monsanto Company and Westvaco Corporation announced on April 6th their intent to form a forestry biotechnology joint venture to produce and market tree seedlings that will allegedly improve trees' health and productivity for the forestry market worldwide. The four companies will spend U$S 60 million for the joint venture over five years. The companies also announced their intent to contract with Genesis Research and Development Corporation Limited -a New Zealand biotechnology research company- to provide genomics research. The joint venture also will acquire forestry intellectual property rights from Genesis.

The International Forum on Globalization's newsletter (IFG NEWS) called the American Forest and Paper Association (AF&PA), the main lobby arm of the U.S. timber industry, to clarify a few things about the World Trade Organization (WTO) wood prodcuts agreement now being negotiatied for finalization in Seattle, December, 1999. In AF&PA, Communications Director Barry Polsky gave us an explanation of how great the WTO agreement would be for the industry and he cited a study they commissioned by Jaakko Poyry, the global forestry consultant based in Finland. The study projects a 3-4 percent increase in wood consumption world wide as the result of total tariff elimination, which is exactly what they are pressing for via the WTO.

Forests Monitor is an NGO which aims to provide detailed, accurate information on the corporate structures and environmental and social records of forestry sector companies. This information is intended to be used as a tool by civil society at local, national and international levels to help promote sustainable and equitable use of forest resources. Apart from this specific corporate information, Forests Monitor also seeks to contribute to international policy debate through presenting research on key global themes, such as institutional investment in unsustainable forestry sector activities; property rights implications of forest use and control; and issues of corporate control in the forestry sector.

On May 6th we sent a fax to Mr. Martín Villa, president of Endesa Spain, expressing our support to the campaign of RIAP (International Network of Support to the Pehuenche People and the Biobio) in their long conflict still pending against the hydroelectric project of Ralco in Chile. The International Secretariat of the WRM supported the campaign for the conservation of Papua New Guinea's rainforests by sending faxes dated May 19th to Mr Bill Skate, Prime Minister of that country, and to Senator Robert Hill Australian Minister for Environment and Heritage.