Bulletin Issue 32 – March 2000

The prevailing development model is to a large extent based on oil, which has been imposed as one of the main energy sources for most human activities (industry, transportation, heating, cooking, etc.). However destructive its extraction and use may be, the main reason for its success is its cheapness. Because it is cheap, its continued use is enhanced and because its use increases, so does its extraction. In theory, oil companies should be extracting less oil to achieve a higher price and hence more profits. However -as happened during the past oil crises- a more expensive oil opens up opportunities for other sources of energy (e.g. solar, wind, biomass) to become economically competitive. And this is something oil companies fear very much.

The U$S 3.5 million loan that the International Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank Group is about to award to the Liberian Agricultural Company (LAC) to develop a rubber plantation of 120,000 hectares in the Grand Bassa county is provoking growing concern in Liberia (see WRM Bulletin 29). The project is aimed at restarting operations and initiating a rehabilitation program of the plantation, which had been abandoned because of the civil war that affected the country between 1989 and 1997.

There is ample proof that oil prospection and extraction constitutes a major cause of forest degradation and destruction, which brings with it also the loss of forest dwellers' livelihoods and territories. In tropical countries oil companies generally act with strong support from local governments. Nigeria, and especially its Niger Delta region, is a paradigmatic case of this situation, that we have addressed in previous WRM Bulletin issues (see nrs. 22, 23, 27 and 28).

Due to a decline in log supply in their own country -as a consequence of years of depredatory practices- Malaysian logging companies have recently and rapidly expanded abroad. Some of them, together with oil palm plantation companies, are well known to the indigenous peoples of Sarawak for having negatively affected their livelihoods and promoted the destruction of the native forests. The Malaysian government has publically expressed the need for its country's companies to operate responsibly abroad, but reality seems far away from such concern.

  Indonesia is a good (bad) example of how a country can increase exports and GNP through the depletion of its natural resources -particularly forests- and the violation of human and territorial rights of vast sectors of its population. It is not only concerned social and environmentalist organizations who have been denouncing this. The Report on Indonesia published last January by the Operations Evaluation Department of the World Bank (see WRM Bulletin 31) reads: "The gains in economic growth, however, have come at a significant environmental cost: sustained and rapid destruction of natural forests".

The case of Sarawak is probably one of the best ones to show the importance of definitions. Tree plantations have been defined by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) as "planted forests" and the entire forestry profession -the "experts"- is totally unwilling to revisit such definition. The reason is that it serves their purposes -including their image and budgets- very well. This also applies to the government of Sarawak, which has for years been handing over the forests of the indigenous peoples to logging companies, and has recently discovered the importance of embracing the "planted forest" approach. Its idea is to continue business as usual -destroying the forests- but promoting itself to the world as an environmentally conscious state.

The greenery, wet soil and pure water springs brings you the impression of virginity. Darkness in the forest and sounds of birds and insects create a different world. You can experience this in Sinharaja, which is the most famous virgin forest in Sri Lanka. It houses the highest number of species and the highest endemism rates in Sri Lanka. The National Conservation Review of the country's natural forest carried out from 1991 to 1996 recorded 337 species of woody plants in the sample plots that were inventoried. Of these species, 192 (57%) are endemic and 116 (34%) globally threatened. Because of its importance, Sinharaja Man and Biosphere site was declared a World Heritage site by the UNESCO in 1989.

The Maya Biosphere Reserve, located in the northern region of Guatemala constitutes the largest protected tropical forest in the country. The Reserve is at the heart of the Maya Forest, which is shared by Guatemala, Belize and Mexico, and is considered the second most important remaining tract of tropical forest in the Americas, second only to the Amazon. This precious area has suffered depredation because of oil concessions granted by the government regardless of their expected negative impacts, taking into account that oil prospection and extraction has proved to be a major cause of deforestation and forest degradation in the tropics.

The Pataxó-Hã-Hã-Hãe indigenous peoples of the Southern region of the State of Bahia are fighting to recover their traditional territories, demarcated in 1936, and consisting of an area of 53,000 hectares that are occupied by nearly 400 ranchers who got their titles illegally from the successive governments of Bahia since the decade of 1960. These lands, which house remnants of the once dense atlantic forest ("mata atlántica"), have been mostly converted into pastures and cacao plantations. In 1983 the Brazilian Agency of Indigenous Peoples' Affairs (FUNAI) went to court to defend the Pataxó-Hã-Hã-Hãe's territorial rights. In August and November 1999 they carried out a direct action to recover part of their usurped lands, and were violently expelled by the military police.

Last February deputy Eugenio Tuma denounced that several terrorist attacks against tree plantations in the southern 9th Region, which took place during the last months, could have been carried out by employees of security firms hired by the forestry companies to guard their properties, with the aim of blaming the Mapuche indigenous peoples and thus justifying the need for their presence in the region. Some time ago Leonardo Espinoza, an ex-employee of Osepar -one of such security firms- who was dismissed for setting ablaze a property of a forest company- could not stand the burden of guilt and committed suicide.

As part of their struggle to prevent the occupation of their lands by Occidental Petroleum (Oxy), a group of about 200 members of the U'wa indigenous peoples established in November 1999 a camp in the area where the company is planning to drill the oil well "Gibraltar 1" with the approval of the Colombian Environment Ministry, which all along this conflict has disregarded the U'wa's rights and defended the interests of Oxy (see WRM Bulletin 30).

In December 1999 ravaging storms, floods and landslides caused the tragic death of more than 30,000 people and the loss of houses, belongings and livelihoods of many other Venezuelans. Such terrible loss of human lives, crops, livestock and infraestructure can be seen as a misfortune provoked by the fury of nature. Nevertheless, as usually happens in the so called "natural disasters", there is a human-induced component, whose importance is in most cases not taken into account.

Genetically modified crops have been hogging the limelight of public opinion due to the controversy arising on their unpredictable consequences on health and the environment. Nevertheless, the genetic engineering of trees has been largely in the shadows. In the meantime, joint ventures of giant corporations were created to carry out research in the tree biotechnology field. This "development" means but the intensification of the prevailing industrial plantation forestry model, which has proved to have negative environmental and social impacts, and which is consequently being resisted worldwide by affected local communities.

The announcement by Papua New Guinea (PNG) Prime Minister Mekere Morauta in December 1999 of his intention to impose a moratorium on new logging and extensions, and to review existing logging concessions was enthusiastically received by national and international environmental NGOs, as well as by local small sawmill operators, which consider that any new large-scale logging concessions should be stopped in a country that has already lost more than 10% of its forests because of this depredatory activity (see WRM Bulletin 30).

The Tupinikim and Guaraní of Espirito Santo, Brazil, have been struggling for years against powerful Aracruz Celulose in order to defend their traditional lands, that the company started to occupy in 1967. After having suffered intimidation and violence to the hands of the company and the military, and having taken direct actions of occupation of the lands that historically belong to them, in April 1998 the Tupinikim and Guaraní were forced into signing an agreement with the company, which was valid for a period of 20 years. According to it, the indigenous peoples "accepted" to exchange the limits of their traditional lands -occupied by Aracruz Celulose's huge eucalyptus plantations- for financial assistance to be provided by the corporation.

The World Bank is not a monolithic structure and many staff members are increasingly aware about the impacts that large-scale tree monocultures have on people and the environment. However, there are signs that within the Bank's higher hierarchies there is a will to promote such plantations, either as carbon sinks or as providers of raw material for the paper, timber and palm oil industries.