Bulletin Issue 35 – June 2000

OUR VIEWPOINT

• 

  Sinks that stink

  As nearly everyone knows, the world is heating up, and one of the main causes of climate change is the use of fossil fuels. Under pressure, the industrialized countries most
  (Read More)

LOCAL STRUGGLES AND NEWS

• 

  Chad-Cameroon: the World Bank again shows who it serves

  Facing strong opposition from civil society representatives, the World Bank recently approved a controversial oil and pipeline project led by Exxon-Mobil, that will link oil fields in Chad to Cameroon’s
  (Read More)
• 

  Mozambique: Floods that originated in South Africa

  After the tragic floods in Mozambique, the time is ripe for people to start asking questions on what went wrong. What turned those floods into an epic disaster? What can
  (Read More)
• 

  South Africa: Grassland ecosystem destruction by tree plantations

  South Africa boosts an area of 1.5 million hectares of tree plantations, mostly composed of eucalyptus and pine trees, as well as a lesser area of Australian wattle. These plantations
  (Read More)
• 

  Zimbabwe: a different type of top-down approach

  Decentralization policies regarding forest management is being considered in the last decade an alternative to the centralized model in use in most countries, which has proved to be unable to
  (Read More)
• 

  Laos: Vanishing forests and growing corruption

  The Lao People’s Democratic Republic -the only landlocked country in Southeastern Asia- occupies an area of 236,800 square kilometres with a still large coverage of forests. These forests hold high
  (Read More)
• 

  Malaysia: Penan indigenous people and protected areas in Sarawak

  The concept of nature without -and in most cases excluding- people, which fed natural areas conservation theory in the past decades, is still being applied in as different countries as
  (Read More)
• 

  Thailand: For the authorities, reality at the Pak Mun dam does not exist

  Dam megaprojects have been and are being strongly resisted in Thailand due to their adverse effects on local villagers’ livelihoods and lands. One paradigmatic example is that of the Pak
  (Read More)
• 

  Vietnam: highway project would gravely affect protected areas

  On February 21st, Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Van Khai approved the construction of a project to transform the historic Ho Chi Minh Trail into a 1,690 kilometres long National Highway,
  (Read More)
• 

  Mexico: False accusations of “eco-terrorism” and “ecological crimes”

  Local indigenous and peasant communities are usually accused of forest degradation and are either evicted from their lands, or repressed, or both. At the same time, logging companies which benefit
  (Read More)
• 

  Bolivia: Indigenous peoples’ forests menaced by oil exploration

  Bolivia hosts 440,000 sq.km of rainforests, which represent 57% of the lowlands total surface in the country. Deforestation rate reaches 168,000 hectares/year, being the promotion of export crops and logging
  (Read More)
• 

  Brazil: Historic victory to save the forests

  The National Agricultural Council (NAC) -representing the interests of big landowners in Brazil- had been trying by all means to oppose any legal initiative to protect the country’s forests, which
  (Read More)
• 

  Illegal crops in Colombia: when the solution is worse than the problem

  Aerial spraying to control and eradicate illegal crops in Colombia are creating severe problems to rural communities and forests, similar to those provoked by the crops themselves and by the
  (Read More)
• 

  Guyana: Malaysian investment in oil palm plantations

  Following a recommendation of the Privatisation Unit’s Board, the government of Guyana is considering a proposal under which Primegroup Limited and Matthews Associates would take over the Wauna Oil Palm
  (Read More)
• 

  Peru: logging and cocaine destroy Amazon forest and threaten forest peoples

  During the past months, Peru has occupied the international news headlines because of the political and institutional deterioration that is affecting the country. In line with such situation, the Peruvian
  (Read More)
• 

  New Zealand: Environmentalists victory save precious forests

  A 30-year campaign led by environmentalist organizations in New Zealand (see WRM Bulletin 30) has at last reached its goal, since the new government has recently introduced legislation to stop
  (Read More)
• 

  Cambodia: Discussion on forest (mis)management

  A recent report on sustainable forest management in Cambodia, funded by the Asian Development Bank, has prompted the discussion of this important issue among stakeholders. The report states that the
  (Read More)

PLANTATIONS CAMPAIGN: THE CARBON SHOP FILES

• 

  The Mount Tamalpais Declaration

  In May this year, the WRM held a meeting in the Mount Tamalpais area near San Francisco, California. Among many other important issues, the meeting addressed the increasing pressure to
  (Read More)
• 

  Argentina: Oil companies try to “green” their image

  Following an existing trend at the global level, oil companies in Argentina have enthusiastically embraced the idea of entering the carbon permits market, as an effective way to increase their
  (Read More)
• 

  Australia: “carbon sink” plantations invade Tasmania

  The expansion of tree monocultures in Tasmania -which is paradoxically the centre of origin of Eucalyptus globulus, one of the most widely used species for establishing monocultures throughout the world-
  (Read More)
• 

  Uganda: Carbon sinks and Norwegian CO2lonialism

  Forestry companies worldwide are enthusiastically trying to implement the idea of establishing tree plantations in Southern countries under the Clean Development Mechanisms of the Kyoto Protocol, signed in 1997, allegedly
  (Read More)