Issue Number 65 – December 2002

Three important international forest-related events took place during 2002: the Sixth Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity; the World Summit on Sustainable Development; and the Eighth Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Climate Change. They were not much use. Beyond the rhetoric and the commitments agreed on at these and previous meetings, no positive impact can be noted. On the contrary, every day reality is showing how the forests continue to be destroyed and monoculture tree plantations continue to expand to the detriment of forests and other native ecosystems.

Burdened by a mounting foreign debt and pushed by globalisation and trade liberalisation, Ghana, as many other West African countries, has had its ability to finance domestic public spending severely constrained. In addition most of the exports of African countries suffer decline in prices leading to overall poor returns in revenue and contributing to huge budget deficits. In a desperate bid to service debt and face their deficit, many countries in Africa including Ghana have been relying on the aggressive extraction of primary resources and not only plunder forest resources but also neglect budgeting for sustainable forest management practices.

A traditional hunter, gatherer and honey collector culture, the Sengwer are an indigenous ethnic group from Kenya's Rift Valley, who used to live in small scattered groups spread over large areas in the plains of Kapchepkoilel (Trans Nzoia) and part of Uasin Gishu.

The cuddly tree logo of the Forest Stewardship Council adorns the products of alien industrial tree plantations, as well as those of the real thing (forests, that is). It could mean virtually anything to the average person buying those products, but it is clear that the intention of the logo is to enhance the marketability of the timber products in question.

According to a paper produced by the Tanzanian Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, Forestry and Beekeeping Division, the Forest Policy in Tanzania identifies deforestation as the major problem in forest management, which is believed to proceed at the rate from 130,000 to 500,000 hectares per year. The main areas affected are unreserved lands belonging to the government. The reasons for deforestation are clearing for agriculture, overgrazing and wildfires, charcoal burning and over exploitation of wood resources.

The WRM have been denouncing the extensive destruction of forests in Burma through deforestation processes --among which commercial logging plays a major role-- resulting in serious impacts on the environment and on the livelihoods of local people. One of those impacts is the sedimentation of rivers. Deforestation occurring in highland forests throughout central Burma triggers off several environmental alterations such as landslides and soil erosion. Once the soil is deprived of the several protective, cohesive and integral functions provided by the forest, it is prone to run off and deposit in the bed of the rivers, causing sedimentation and consequent impacts downstream. One of them is the impact on mangroves.

Of the more than 10 million Cambodians currently living in rural areas, over 8.5 million depend on natural resources to support their livelihoods. Although most rely on rice farming, they have just one crop of rice per year which they complement with a range of forest products that also play a critical role in supporting livelihoods.

Mangroves are a primary coastal biologically diverse ecosystem in tropical and subtropical regions which has traditionally supported local livelihood providing food --since the mangrove area is spawning and nursery area for many marine species-- firewood, charcoal, and timber, among other products.

Southeast Asian countries --particularly Indonesia and Malaysia--, have over 20 million hectares or 60 percent of the world's tropical peatlands. Peat swamps occur inland just beyond coastal mangroves and often spread over some 3km to 5km on the floodplain of rivers. They are characterised by an 8m to 20m thick layer of peat, which is mainly semi-decayed plant material accumulated over some 8,000 years. As long as the peaty soil is saturated with water, the swamp ecosystem is in balance. Peat swamps are like sponges that absorb and soak up excessive rain and river water, thus controlling floods during the rainy season and releasing much needed water supplies during the dry season.

At the beginning of the nineties, the introduction and cultivation of eucalyptus, a species originating in Australia, was promoted as a major timber business. However, at the end of the decade, this model of large scale tree monoculture has finished by causing big economic losses to the State and to a large number of farmers. The following report by Tierramerica reaffirms our position that alien species cannot be introduced on a large scale without a prior study on how they will react in an environment that is foreign to their nature and above all, on what environmental and social impacts they may cause, when all these efforts and incentives could have been devoted to investigate and promote the sustainable use of native species.

Bertha Oliva's life was indelibly marked by the kidnap and disappearance of her husband Tomás Nativí, in June 1981, by government security forces. In 1982 she founded the Committee of Families of the Detained-Disappeared in Honduras (COFADEH), an organization she still heads today. But two years ago she took on a new cause: defending the environment. The decision came after two ecologists were assassinated in the northeastern department of Olancho. A fierce battle against deforestation is under way there. An average of 80,000 hectares of Honduran forest disappears each year. The journalist Thelma Mejía, contributor to the publication Tierramérica, interviewed Bertha Oliva.

The US conservation group, Conservation International (CI) is requesting the Mexican government to use its armed forces to crush the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) once and for all, according to reports in the Mexican newspaper "La Jornada." The organisation maintains that the guerrilla group and the "illegal" invasion by peasants of the Lacandona forest are destroying the tropical forest, and therefore military intervention is necessary. The Lacandona forest in Chiapas has undergone innumerable types of exploitation over the centuries, ranging from deforestation for timber, the establishment of large cattle ranches, oil exploitation and hydroelectric dams, to more recently, the privatisation of biological diversity.

The PCF (Prototype Carbon Fund) is the World Bank's fund that mobilizes resources to promote the carbon dioxide trade, whereby contaminating companies --mainly located in the countries of the North-- can "negotiate" with forestry producers which supposedly trap carbon --mainly located in the countries of the South. And it is to the PCF that, representatives of dozens of bodies, citizen movements, churches, parliamentatians, city councillors and citizens of the Brazilian States of Minas Gerais, Espirito Santo, Bahia and Rio de Janeiro will be sending a letter. In this letter, they state their concern over the expansion of large-scale monoculture eucalyptus plantations, which has caused a series of negative social, economic, environmental and cultural impacts.

The more that is planted, the more rights that are lost. In Colombia, there are approximately 170,000 hectares of oil palm plantations. Testimonies by a delegate of the palm sector workers' organisation, connected to the Bucarelia and Las Brisas Palm Oil companies, denounce the poor working conditions in the oil palm plantations in the department of Santander, in addition to pressure and incentives to weaken the trade unions in the sector. Oleaginosas Bucarelia has 4,700 hectares and the other company some 2,800, all located at Puerto Wilches, Santander.

The Amerindian Peoples Association (APA) has expressed deep concern about the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to establish Southern Guyana as a protected area, saying it was "gross disrespect" to local tribes.

The Ministry of Agriculture of Peru has recently stated that the illegal logging of timber, particularly of mahogany, operates like drug trafficking or smuggling, with an organised and powerful network threatening the process of forest planning that the Government has launched. According to the ministry, the problem is rooted in the fact that a firm decision had never been taken to struggle against illegal logging and that controlling the marketing chain --the financial support to the activity-- had been overlooked.

Samoa has a 2,935 square kilometre of land area comprising two main islands, Upolu and Savaii, and seven smaller islands. More than two thirds of the 178,000 population live on Upolu. The central highlands of Upolu and Savaii are sparsely populated. Most people live on the coast. Over 81% of the land is held under customary tenure, the remainder is held by the government (11%), Samoa Land Corporation (5%), and freehold (3%). Of the 283,700 hectares of land in Upolu and Savaii, some 158,700 hectares retain indigenous forest, while 106,600 hectares are classified as cropping land, 9910 hectares are used for extensive livestock production, and 5,379 hectares support established tree plantations.