Bulletin Issue 25 – July 1999

OURVIEWPOINT

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  Plantations campaign: a call for coordinated action

  Carrying out a campaign against plantations is not easy, particulary in places located far away from the plantation areas. How can you be against tree planting? Doesn’t the world need
  (Read More)

PLANTATION CAMPAIGN

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  Opposition to plantations at the root and in the forefront

  Opposition to plantations is not an academic exercise, but a direct result of the impacts of plantations in many countries. All of the research carried out on this issue is
  (Read More)
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  The Biodiversity Convention should take action

    The impacts of industrial tree plantations on local plants and animals are very well known. They are particularly clear when tree monocultures replace forests -as happens in many tropical
  (Read More)
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  Carbon sinks or the sinking of the Climate Change Convention?

    Northern countries, which are responsible for most of the world fossil fuel-related emissions resulting from their unsustainable production and consumption patterns, are seeking to buy a way out of
  (Read More)
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  The Intergovernmental Forum on Forests: a foresters’ forum

  The Intergovernmental Forum on Forests (IFF) was established in 1997, being its first task that of promoting and monitoring the implementation of the 135 Proposals for Action agreed by the
  (Read More)
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  The child of the Food and Agriculture Organization

  The FAO holds major responsibility regarding monoculture tree plantations, having been the first international organization to actively promote -since the 1950s- the present plantation model. In spite of all the
  (Read More)
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  The World Bank makes plantations possible

  The World Bank is one of the major actors directly and indirectly promoting industrial tree monocrops in many countries, especially in the tropical region. The Bank directly promotes plantations through:
  (Read More)
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  Forestry consultancies: business for their home countries

  Forestry consultancy firms are crucial actors behind the scenes in the implementation of pulpwood plantations. They are in charge of promoting, investigating, planning, designing and setting up pulp and paper
  (Read More)
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  Bilateral aid agencies: aid upside down

  There is a variety of bilateral aid agencies. The work of some of them may actually contribute to improve the quality of life of the population of Southern countries and
  (Read More)
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  Southern production for Northern overconsumption

  The increasing paper and wood demand at the global level, together with the need to preserve the remaining forests, are used to justify the expansion of tree plantations for the
  (Read More)
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  Southern governments’ sad role

  Southern governments are ultimately responsible for the adoption of the plantation model and for its implementation at the national and local levels. Even when the idea for the promotion of
  (Read More)
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  Forestry professionals and academics: the need for change

  Modern forestry science -silviculture- arose in the North as a result of the Industrial Revolution: forest management was separated from agriculture and cattle breeding and focused exclusively on the production
  (Read More)
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  The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)

  Ongoing certification programmes are the result of successful consumer awareness campaigns against the unsustainable exploitation of forests. The public reacted by demanding the possibility of being able to know which
  (Read More)

CAMPAIGN MATERIAL: TOOLS FOR ACTION

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  Two new briefings

  The WRM has just published two new plantations campaign briefings (“Pulpwood Plantations: a Growing Problem” and “Ten Replies to Ten Lies”) which are available free of charge from the International
  (Read More)
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  Other material in printed format

  “Pulping the South: industrial tree plantations and the world paper economy.”, by Carrere, R. & Lohmann, L. Book. Published by Zed Books, UK. Provides a detailed overview of the pulp
  (Read More)
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  Other material in the WRM web page

  “Tree plantations: impacts and struggles.” (also in paper) “Pulpwood plantations: a growing problem.” (also in paper) “Ten Replies to Ten Lies.” (also in paper) “Briefing on Finnish Consultancy Firm Jaakko
  (Read More)

OPPOSITION AT THE LOCAL LEVEL

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  Hawaii: plantations stopped before starting

  In August 1997 we received bad news from Hawaii: Oji Paper/Marubeni -Japan’s largest paper supplier- was about to receive a lease for 4,150 hectares of public land at Hamakua County
  (Read More)
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  South Africa: resistance to tree monocultures in grasslands

  Even if natural forests in South Africa do not occupy more than 300,000 hectares, this country is an important exporter of wood products. They come from pine and eucalyptus plantations
  (Read More)
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  Venezuela: an isolated giant

  Smurfit Carton in Venezuela, a subsidiary of giant Jefferson Smurfit, is a good (bad) example of how depredatory the activity of a company can be, and of how local people
  (Read More)
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  Chile: a severely questioned model

  Nowadays pulp plantations in Chile cover more than 2.1 million hectares, 75% of a single species – radiata pine- and the rest mainly composed of eucalyptus. The Chilean forestry model,
  (Read More)
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  Indonesia: the struggle against oil palm plantations

  Indonesia is undergoing an accelerated process of plantation of oil palm. In a process promoted by the government -that wants the country to become the first palm oil producer in
  (Read More)