Bulletin Issue 24 – June 1999

OUR VIEWPOINT

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  IFF: enough is enough

  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
  (Read More)

LOCAL STRUGGLES AND NEWS

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  Oil and violence in Nigeria

  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
  (Read More)
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  Cameroon: EU fosters rainforest destruction

  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
  (Read More)
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  Privatizing plantations in South Africa

  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
  (Read More)
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  South Africa: “Around me, despite good rains, countless fountains are drying up”

  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
  (Read More)
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  Peoples’ demonstrations in Thailand

  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
  (Read More)
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  Indonesian Indigenous Peoples question new forestry law

  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
  (Read More)
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  Dayak people win lawsuit in Indonesia

  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
  (Read More)
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  New book on impacts of tree plantations in Indonesia

  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
  (Read More)
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  Bangladesh: support required to protect mangrove

  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
  (Read More)
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  Solomon Islands: small-scale scores much better

  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
  (Read More)
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  Action for Papua New Guinea’s rainforests

  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
  (Read More)
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  Argentina: tree monoculture expansion supported by World Bank

  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
  (Read More)
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  Brazil: Support for Extractive Reserve on islands of Tucuruí Dam reservoir

  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
  (Read More)
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  Chile: Mapuche indigenous peoples’ march to the capital city

  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
  (Read More)
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  Chile: Chicago school children frighten Boise Cascade

  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
  (Read More)
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  Colombia: U’wa victory at Occidental’s shareholder meeting

  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
  (Read More)
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  Paraguay: network created to monitor plantations

  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
  (Read More)
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  Uruguay: citizens’ network challenges official “research” on plantations

  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
  (Read More)
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  Venezuela: resistance to Smurfit continues

  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
  (Read More)
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  Belize: villagers defend their mangroves

  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
  (Read More)
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  A destructive megaproject for Tehuantepec Isthmus in Mexico

  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
  (Read More)
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  Mexico: opposition to deforestation in Chihuahua

  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
  (Read More)

GENERAL

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  Andrew Gray, lost in air crash in Vanuatu

  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
  (Read More)
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  Briefing Paper: “Pulpwood plantations: a growing problem”

  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
  (Read More)
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  Super Trees: the biotech nightmare is already here

  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
  (Read More)
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  World Trade Organization to increase wood consumption by 3-4%

  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
  (Read More)
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  Want to know about forestry corporations? Ask Forests Monitor

  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
  (Read More)
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  News from the International Secretariat

  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
  (Read More)