Bulletin Issue 57 – April 2002

The Sixth Conference of the Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity has concluded and it is difficult to say whether it was a success or a failure. "Mixed feelings" would perhaps best describe what many people attending the meeting felt, particularly regarding the issue of forests, which was one of the main items of the agenda. The main products of the COP were the Ministerial Declaration and the adoption of a Programme of Work on Forest Biological Diversity.

On 22 March 2002, Master Council William Bourdon placed civil charges in the hands of Investigating Magistrates of Paris filed in the name of seven Cameroonian villagers condemning criminal destruction of property, forgery and the utilization of forgery, fraud, posession of stolen goods, and corruption of officials against both directors of the Doumé Affiliated Forestry Company (SFID) group and the Cameroonian Legal Society, as well as their mother corporation ROUGIER S.A.

The Congo Basin contains the second largest area of tropical rainforest in the world after the Amazon Basin. Renowned for its high biodiversity, this forest is also home to culturally diverse peoples who depend on forest resources for their livelihoods. The Republic of Congo (Congo Brazzaville) is one of the countries situated in the Congo Basin, with approximately 21.5 million hectares of forest. The country has recently emerged from a bitter civil war, during which timber exploitation was dramatically reduced, and as stability has increased in the region, exploitation of natural resources has also increased.

Ghana has created a number of protected areas --managed by the Forestry Commission and the Department of Wildlife-- as a means of ensuring biodiversity conservation. However, the process of creation of some of those areas has generated a number of problems which explains the failure of many protected areas to fulfil the objective for which they were established. Among other problems explaining such situation, mention must be made of issues relating to land tenure, land rights of communities and law enforcement.

Forest restoration has become a necessity in many parts of the world, particularly where local communities are suffering from the social and environmental impacts resulting from deforestation. The success of this activity depends on the involvement of the communities themselves, based on their traditional knowledge regarding resource use and conservation. The following example serves to illustrate this.

Once again the indigenous peoples of Sarawak's rainforests are in the headlines. They have been long suffering and resisting encroachment in their ancestral lands by activities which on behalf of “progress” destroy their livelihoods and culture: logging, mining, oil palm plantations, pulpwood plantations, hydroelectric dams, resorts development (see WRM bulletins 41 and 43).

On 28 February 2002, the International Finance Corporation, the private sector arm of the World Bank, approved a US$30 million loan to develop a gold mine at Sepon in Savannakhet province in Laos. The mine, which will be the largest mining operation in Laos, is 80 per cent owned by Oxiana Resources, an Australian mining company, and 20 per cent by Rio Tinto. Construction of the US$45 million project is due to be completed by the end of 2002. Preliminary works, including upgrading roads and preparations for the gold plant, have already begun at the site and the first gold production from the mine is forecast for December 2002. Oxiana estimates that the gold deposits at Sepon are worth about US$1 billion.

Thailand’s Upper House of Parliament or Senate recently blocked the passage of the draft Community Forest Bill and proposed amendments that would prevent local people having a greater role in managing Thailand’s forests and ultimately lead to the eviction of thousands of forest-dwelling communities. The draft bill was approved by a majority of Members of Parliament (MP) in the Lower House earlier last year. But the senate amendments have forced the draft bill back to the Lower House for review by a committee comprising members of both the Upper and Lower Houses of Parliament.

Under pressure from Thai civil society groups, the Thai government rejected a "forest conservation" proposal by the United States (US) that would establish tree plantations to meet the US targets for reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in return for reducing debt owed by Thailand to the US. The US proposal would transfer US$12.6 million (Bt550 million) comprising repayment of Thailand's debt into a "Tropical Forest Conservation Fund" (TFCF) over a period of 28 years. In return, the TFCF would establish tree plantations in Thailand to absorb CO2 and allow the US to obtain "emission credits" for reducing emissions of greenhouse gases.

From March 21 to 23, men and women from 98 organizations and communities in 21 countries of the world gathered in Guatemala to express the general concern caused by the plans of construction of dams for various purposes in different regions. During the meeting, called “Foro Mesoamericano Por la Vida” (Meso-American Forum For Life) the participants shared information and experiences, and analized the negative environmental, cultural and socio-economic impacts already caused by these projects and the potential damages they entail.

The accelerated destruction of forests is one of the most serious environmental problems of Panama, which at present retains only one third of its original forest cover. The best solution found by the State to tackle this problem has been to define protected areas, under the name of “parks”, which are generally inhabited by indigenous peoples. This is what happened, for instance, in the Darien National Park, where approximately 40 communities of the Kuna people (Pucuru and Paya) live, or in the La Amistad International Park, where both Naso-Teribe and Bri-Bri peoples live.

The Zoque forest stretches over the boundaries of the three states of greatest biodiversity in Mexico: Oaxaca, Veracruz and Chiapas. It is the most compact and best conserved continuous forest of North America, with a million hectares that include pine, holm oak and pine-holm oak forests, cloud or mesophile forests, and high, medium and low tropical forests. Los Chimalapas is the Oaxacan section of the Zoque forest, and its high degree of conservation has been possible thanks to the respectful care of the Zoque indigenous people of Oaxaca. Los Chimalapas communicates with El Ocote in Chiapas and Uxpanapa in Veracruz, through biological corridors.

Since their arrival in the Amazon, “white men” have had an ever-increasing impact on that region. However, it was not until World War 2 that deforestation became a large-scale process. Today, some 80% of the Amazon forest is still standing, but estimations are that its destruction will be completed in the next decades if nothing is done to stop it. The hope that “something” could be done was closer than ever in 1989, when the first meeting of indigenous peoples was held in Altamira.

It is worth noting that many people are not aware of the great diversity of ecosystems of the South American continent. Its great longitude and altitude variation, ranging from sea level to over 7000 metres, as well as its great variety of climates, enables the presence of diverse and different ecosystems, including the largest tropical rainforest (the Amazon Rainforest) and the planet's driest desert (Atacama desert). This variety of ecosystems explains the generalised ignorance of what happens with the region's natural environment, with the exception of the Amazon rainforest. We would hence like to draw attention to the Atlantic Forest, whose very existence is highly threatened, and which is one of the richest in biodiversity.

The systematic loss of Mapuche territory, that covered some 11 million hectares on the Chilean side (not including the historic territory of the Mapuche nation that stretched over an important part of the Argentinean side), as a result of the military invasion by the Chilean State that began in 1883, represents the starting point of the violent plundering of the Mapuche lands, with the loss of nearly 95% of their total territory. Nearly a century later, in 1973, the domains were even smaller. The situation worsened during the military dictatorship of Pinochet, when the territory was reduced even further, mostly due to its transfer to individuals and to forestry companies.

In the Planalto forest reserve in Colombia, the 180 species of diurnal butterflies found until today, can go on flying, the ten genuses of Melolonthidae beetle will go on scratching the soil, and also the ants that live there and form part of all the subfamilies in the neotropics will continue their work. The flight of the 160 different species of birds, 9% of the total species identified in Colombia, will continue uninterrupted. All this will be possible thanks to the action of the people living in the reserve area and those who supported their struggle.

Mining is one of the direct causes of deforestation. In spite of that, not only has this industry continued with its activities, but in the last years it has also managed to introduce changes in national and international legislation and policies, which favour the consortiums of the sector. This has been done to the detriment of the legislation that protects indigenous peoples and the environment.

Papua New Guinea, widely recognised as a country with a great diversity of forests, is now facing the depletion of its forest resources. An Independent Forestry Review identified that 7 million hectares of forests have been allocated for large-scale commercial logging. The Islands region has provided high stocking densities and easy access to logging companies, which led to an increase in concessions that quadrupled between 1982 and 1991 and consequently a rapid depletion of the island resources. The companies shifted then to mainland, where they have been acquiring ever-larger concessions in order to remain profitable.

A coalition of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and Indigenous Peoples’ Organizations (IPOs) commissioned an independent review of the status of implementation, in 21 countries, of the Convention of Biological Diversity commitments related to forests, and came up with a number of recommendations for action.