To UNFF or not to UNFF
There is an increasing and worrying gap –in international processes– between stated objectives and actual action. This was clearly perceived during the recent Climate Change Convention conference in the Hague, (Read More)
Bulletin Issue 41 – December 2000
OURVIEWPOINT
LOCAL STRUGGLES AND NEWS
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Nothing much at the Central African forestry ministerial conference held in Cameroon
The first conference of Central African forestry ministers took place in Yaoundé from 4-7 December, within the framework of the follow-up of the implementation of the decisions of the Heads (Read More)
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Chad: The World Bank, weapons and oil “development”
By mid 2000 the World Bank approved a polemic 650-mile oil pipeline project to link the Doba oil fields in southern Chad with the Cameroon’s Atlantic coast. The project, led (Read More)
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Ghana: The impacts of mining
In many tropical areas mining is a major cause of deforestation and forest degradation, generating a large number of social and environmental impacts. A recent study published by Third World (Read More)
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Nigeria: Malaysian corporation to invest in palm oil production
Malaysia is the world’s top producer and exporter of palm oil, generating fifty percent of the global output, of which 85% is exported. Within the African continent, Nigeria is the (Read More)
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Indonesia: The pulp and paper sector’s unsustainable growth
A recent study, sponsored by CIFOR and WWF International’s Macroeconomics Program Office, provides an in-depth analysis of the features and consequences of the rapid expansion of the pulp and paper (Read More)
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Laos stops World Bank forestry programme
The Government of Laos (GoL) has halted the Forest Management and Conservation Programme (FOMACOP) after the first five-year phase because of difficulties between the GoL and external actors including the (Read More)
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Malaysia: The true responsible for the ‘Penan problem’ in Sarawak
Nowadays only about 10,000 Penans remain in Sarawak and very few of them are still able to carry out their nomadic lifestyles. As well as other Dayak people, they have (Read More)
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Malaysia: Penan letter on Bruno Manser, missing in Sarawak
Bruno Manser is still missing. The Swiss Ambassador to Malaysia officially requested now the Government of Malaysia to assist in the search and rescue of Bruno Manser, the indigenous peoples (Read More)
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Thailand: State-owned forestry industry fuels controversy with forestry certification
Thailand’s main logging agency, the state-owned Forestry Industry Organisation (FIO), is looking to certification of its tree plantations and ecotourism as a way out of its financial troubles as well (Read More)
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Vietnam: Road-building threatens Phong Nha Nature Reserve
The Vietnamese government is currently negotiating with a range of bilateral and multilateral “aid” agencies to raise funds for its five million hectare reforestation programme. So far, little of the (Read More)
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Honduras: Struggle against shrimp farming gaining ground
After nine months of denouncing the destruction of wetlands at “El Carey”, Marcovia, Choluteca; after several months after members of CODDEFFAGOLF (a local environmental organization) and the Environment Attorney were (Read More)
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Mexico: International appeal for the release of Montiel and Cabrera
Mexico was urged in an international declaration released on 27 November in Wellington, New Zealand, immediately to release tortured farmer environmentalists, Rodolfo Montiel Flores and Teodoro Cabrera Garcia who have (Read More)
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Argentina: Public pressure halts carbon sink project
In the last issue of the WRM bulletin we included an article –“Argentina: A shady carbon sink project”– detailing an absurd and destructive tree plantation project in that country. Now (Read More)
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Brazil: The struggle of the Pataxó indigenous peoples in Bahia
More than a year ago, the Pataxó indigenous peoples re-took an important part of their traditional territory located in the state of Bahia (see WRM Special Bulletin May 2000). Since (Read More)
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Chile: The debate about tree plantations heats up
In order to revamp its deteriorated image, the Chilean forestry sector launched in August the multimillion-dollar campaign “Forests for Chile”, consisting of propaganda in mass media aimed at convincing public (Read More)
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Uruguay: No transgenic trees … for the time being
For more than 10 years Uruguay has been implementing an unsustainable forestry model, substituting its natural prairie ecosystems with large-scale eucalyptus and pine tree plantations. Apart from the already proven (Read More)
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Papua New Guinea: NGOs call for reform of forest industry
A coalition of non-government organisations is calling on the Government to make some fundamental changes in the forest industry. They are calling for the continuation of the current moratorium on (Read More)
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Solomon Islands: A sustainable alternative to unsustainable logging
The Solomon Islands have been devastated by Australian and Asian logging companies; which have swept through the country’s forests, leaving a trail of disintegrating communities, flattened and degraded forests and (Read More)
GENERAL
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World Bank foresters deny that plantations alleviate pressures on forests
One of the major myths about tree plantations is that they help to alleviate pressures on forests by providing alternative wood sources. This has been proven false in practically all (Read More)
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International Prize awarded to two Mapuche women
The Heinrich Böll Foundation awarded the Petra Kelly Prize 2000 to two Mapuche women –Berta and Nicolasa Quintremán Calpán– as a recognition of their struggle to protect the Mapuche Pehuenche’s (Read More)