Bulletin Issue 5 – October 1997

A new pulp mill that will produce between 400,000 and 500,000 metric tonnes a year, largely for export, is being planned for the Umtata-Kokstad-Ugie triangle. According to Enoch Gogongwana, provincial MEC for Economic Affairs, Environment and Tourism, such project would create 600 direct and 1000 indirect jobs. The total investment would involve some 1.5 billion Rands. The above implies a cost of 937 000 rands per job -direct and indirect- created. By comparison, a non forestry-related community project put together at Mkambati, will provide 138 jobs at a cost of 6000 rands per job, and all enterprises (more than 10) participating in the project will be owned and run by the community, with the result that the money will stay in the community.

At the same time as the Indonesian delegate sat at the Intergovernmental Forum on Forests –a UN body aimed at the sustainable use of the remaining world’s forests- the Indonesian forests in Sumatra and Borneo were going up in smoke. As many other country delegates in international fora –both Northern and Southern- the Indonesian delegate spoke about sustainable forest management as if it were something that was really happening or about to happen in his country. He even stressed the need for NGO participation in Indonesia!

Analysis of NOAA satellite data indicates that burning in the Brazilian Amazon increased 28% between 1996 and 1997. The average number of fires per day increased from 466 to 599. The actual increase for the year may be even greater, since 1997 is drier than 1996 and burning continues. Analysis of the NOAA-12 data under-counts the actual number of fires, so the situation is in reality worse.

The "yungas" are forest lands that spread along the Andes from northern Argentina to Venezuela, and from an altitude of 500 to 3,000 metres, according to their latitude. From the floristic point of view they belong to the Amazonian Domaine and their typical formation is the so called misty forest. These montain forests maintain high levels of endemism and biodiversity, but they are being threatened by increasing deforestation, especially for crop production.

Indigenous women, some of them accompanied by their men and children, initiated a march on September 28 in Pastaza province -northern Ecuador- with the aim of joining the National Constitutional Assembly to be held in Quito on October 12.

Advance unedited text (New York, 1-3 October 1997) 1. The Forum considered suggestions regarding its future activities as contained in the report of the Secretary-General (E/CN.17/IFF/1997/2).

According to a report from Datuk Seri Dr. Lim Keng Yaik, the Malaysian Minister of Industry, illegal logging offenses are declining as a consequence of the 1993 revision of the forestry law. This norm establishes that illegal logging can be punished with inprisonment or a maximum fine of 500,000 Ringgit (ca. U$S 172,000). If the rule of the law were applied, the Minister himself would soon be in jail. Even if the State of Sabah has prohibited the export of logs since 1993, on January 18 1997 the Forestry Department of Sabah stopped the freighter “Able Helmsman” in the harbour of Tawau, which was transporting 16,000 cubic meters of wood in the form of 3,056 tree trunks valued at ca U$S 2,1 million.

The Executive Commission of the Tupinikim and Guarani had met in the village of Comboios on 13 September to evaluate the visit of representatives of FUNAI’s Regional Administration (ADR) and FUNAI’s officials on September 9 and 10. The visitors allegated that ADR was not well-informed about the land matter and also that they had some useful information to support the indigenous struggle.

An international workshop on "Business responsibility for environmental protection in developing countries" took place in Costa Rica on September 22-24 1997. WRM International Coordinator Ricardo Carrere made a presentation on "The environmental and social effects of corporate environmentalism in the Brazilian market pulp industry." The aim of the paper was to compare the "green" discourse of the five main market pulp firms with reality at the local level, including social and environmental impacts of large scale tree plantations and pulp production. The paper focused on Aracruz Celulose -widely publicised as an example of environmental responsibility- and to a lesser extent on Bahia Sul, CENIBRA, Jari and Riocell.

This forum met for its first time in New York (1-3 October), with the participation of an important number of NGOs and indigenous peoples organizations. The IFF is the continuation of the process of the Intergovernmental Panel on Forests (IPF), which presented its conclusions to the CSD in April 1997. The IFF discussed the terms of reference of its future work and grouped it under the following categories (see full text at the end of this bulletin): CATEGORY I: Promoting and facilitating the implementation of IPF's proposals for action, and reviewing, monitoring and reporting on progress in the management, conservation and sustainable development of all types of forests

On September 4 we addressed a letter to president Suharto and Mr Robert Wilson, chairman of Rio Tinto Co., expressing our concern for the death -possibly murder- of four Ekari tribal people around Freeport and Rio Tinto’s mine, as well as for the obligation of Ekari villagers to hand over their working tools to the police. We also demanded that abuses of foreign mining companies in the region cease.

Alvaro Gonzalez, from the WRM secretariat, participated in an International Workshop that took place in Reykjavik and Klaustur, Iceland last September. Even though forests were not the central theme of the workshop, it was a good opportunity to get to know in situ the harmful effects of woodland destruction and overgrazing in the fragile icelandic ecosystems. According to studies performed on remnants of former vegetation, traditional Sagas, historical records and farm surveys, birch (Betula pubescens) may have covered 25% to 40% of the country before human settlement that started in 874 A.D. Willows (Salix spp.) and other dwarf shrubs also dominated the vegetation in large areas. Most forests were felled for timber and woodlands were cleared for agriculture and grazing.