Bulletin Issue 72 - July 2003

Two weeks ago, the WRM and Oilwatch disseminated an open letter to David Kaimowitz, Director of the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), expressing our concern over a CIFOR research paper "which appears to give green credentials to two activities that are at the core of deforestation and forest degradation: oil and mining." (see letter at http://www.wrm.org.uy/deforestation/oil/Cifor.html )

We have already reported extensively the pervasive environmental and social impacts that the Chad-Cameroon oil-pipeline is likely to have (see WRM Bulletins 66, 45, 41, 35, 14 and 2), but there's already a lot to be said of the present impacts of the three-year long World Bank-sponsored project to build a 670-mile pipeline. The pipeline will channel oil from fields in Chad, through thick rainforests inhabited by Pygmy people in Cameroon up to this country's shores at the Atlantic Ocean.

Madagascar is widely recognised as one of the most ecologically rich countries in the world, hosting unique plant and animal species. However, dating from French colonisation, the export-led production pattern was introduced in the country. Logging of primary rainforests for use in railroad construction and timber exports, and major forest clearance of the most fertile areas for cash-crop plantations was carried out, throwing a mainly subsistence farming society into famine and scarcity (see WRM Bulletin 66). Now, Madagascar is amidst the poorest countries. However, it would be wise that language reflects the truth: the Malagasy people are not poor but have been impoverished, as has happened with most of the southern peoples.

Sao Tome and Principe is an archipelago covering 1001 km², a tropical paradise located in the oil rich Gulf of Guinea, approximately 300 km from the west coast of Africa. It is made up of the islands of Sao Tome and Principe, which are 150 km apart. The islands of the Sao Tome and Principe archipelago are of volcanic origin, with steep slopes clothed in dense and varied vegetation due to the high rainfall. The country gained its independence from Portugal in 1975.

Senegal has announced it will not grant any new permits for quarrying and mining in the country's 233 forest conservation areas. The government of Abdoulaye Wade has said it will encourage companies already operating there to move out as part of efforts to reduce deforestation and protect the environment.

The Bangladeshi organisation BanglaPraxis, together with other local groups, have reacted against a reported move from Shell Bangladesh to conduct an aerial and seismic survey in the Sundarbans mangrove forest from September 27. Bangladesh is primarily agricultural, although urbanisation is proceeding rapidly, and it has moved increasingly towards a market-oriented economy since the mid-1970s, making industrial development a priority and following a path towards privatisation, free market reforms and incentive to foreign investment, most of which goes to the natural gas, electricity, and physical infrastructure areas.

The "Coalition to oppose mining in Indonesia's protected areas" has issued a media release to expose how mining activities are encountering strong and mounting opposition at various levels. The Coalition is composed of the following ten groups: JATAM; WALHI-Friends of the Earth; Indonesian Center for Environment Law; WWF Indonesia; Kehati; PELANGI; Forest Watch Indonesia; MPI; POKJA PSDA; PELA. Reactions at open pit mining in protected forests have been coming from civil society in Sumatra, Kalimantan, Java, Sumbawa Besar (south-east Indonesia), Sulawesi. These include letters of protest, postcards, demonstrations, declarations and statements by provincial governments, students, academics, indigenous peoples, ordinary Indonesians and by the international community.

Electricité de France has pulled out of the Nam Theun 2 dam project in Laos. EDF announced its departure on 17 July 2003, a day before the consortium developing the dam, the Nam Theun 2 Power Company, was to have signed a power purchasing agreement with the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT). The French state-owned EDF was the biggest investor in the proposed dam. In June 2001, EDF and Harza Engineering (now Montgomery Watson Harza) formed a joint venture as head contractor to build the dam.

Two plantations managed by Thailand's Forest Industry Organisation (FIO) are currently certified as well managed under the Forest Stewardship Council system (see WRM Bulletins 48 and 64). When FSC's assessor SmartWood awarded a certificate for FIO's plantations at Thong Pha Phum and Kao Khra Yang in July 2001, it also issued 26 conditions which FIO had to meet in order to retain the certificate. The following year, SmartWood's auditing team found that FIO had failed to meet five of the conditions and had only "partially met" seven more conditions. However, instead of revoking the certificate, SmartWood issued 13 "corrective action requests" (CARs), six of which had to be met within six months.

Around the year 2002, the forests in the department of Olancho were being devastated by the action of logging companies. Forest destruction was done to feed many saw-mills (both legal and illegal), and in some of them, several parliamentarians were directly involved. While the companies got richer, the local populations received the impact of timber exploitation, in particular the disappearance of water resulting from felling the forest and the ceasing of its function regulating the water cycle.

The Second Meso-American Forum against Dams "For the Peoples' Water and Life" was held from 17 to 20 July in Honduras. One hundred and fifty delegates participated, "concerned over the increasing invasion by dam-building projects imposed by large transnational companies and multilateral bodies, in partnership with the corrupt governments of the Meso-American region." The Forum's main objective was to "share and analyze our experience to strengthen the struggle in defence of our natural resources, our culture, our territories and even our very life, which are being threatened by the imposition of economic and military plans attacking the self determination of our peoples."

Chiapas, in southern Mexico, is home to peasants, mestizos and indigenous Tzontal, Tzontzil, Chole, Zoque and Tojolabal peoples. There, bananas, cacao, sugar cane, and rice are planted. Each family has its own agricultural plot, where they plant maize and beans for subsistence.

One hundred organizations from Espirito Santo, Bahia, Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais gathered on 28 and 29 June in Porto Seguro, Bahia, at the Second National Meeting of the Alert Against the Green Desert Network. These organizations prepared a letter which shall be sent to President Lula, parliamentarians and to the World Bank, demanding that greater attention be paid to the problem we describe here below.

Lying to the population is one of the tools most commonly used by governments and forestry companies all over the world to impose the model of large-scale monoculture tree plantations. Chile has wide experience in this type of deception. However, increasingly people are becoming organized to struggle against the unjust government policy which favours the companies and to defend the true Chilean forests.

The last uncontacted Indians south of the Amazon basin are being squeezed from all sides. With their last refuge being gradually overrun, they have nowhere left to hide. But if the Paraguayan government acts, the Indians can keep hold of their land and avoid the diseases that threaten to decimate their population. The Indians are members of the 5,000-strong Ayoreo tribe which once occupied much of north Paraguay and south-east Bolivia. This region is part of the Chaco, a sparsely-populated expanse of scrub forest, grasslands and swamp. The Ayoreo are hunter-gatherers, living off the abundant natural resources of their homeland; they hunt wild pigs and armadillo, collect wild honey, and plant squash, corn and beans in the rainy season.

Over the past 15 years, the Colina municipal authorities backing tourism development have granted lands bordering the De la Vela Mangrove. The consequent building of housing and shops has implied that these lands were filled with rubble at the expense of the ecosystem and the space necessary for mangrove growth.

Two tiny moths are at the centre of a social and environmental confrontation in New Zealand. In West Auckland, people and the environment are being subjected to aerial spraying with dangerous chemicals to protect pine plantations against the attack of the painted apple moth (Teia anartoides). In South Auckland, eucalyptus plantations are under attack from the gum-leaf skeletoniser (Uraba lugens) and it is yet unknown if chemical control will be used there.

It sometimes takes many little pieces to recognize the full picture. In the case of the continued debate about the benefits or otherwise of carbon sinks projects linked to the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), many still like to envisage it as the long-sought-for funding source for community-driven, small scale forest restoration projects. However, recently published information about feasibility studies carried out by Japanese Sumitomo Forestry and the Asian Development Bank's involvement in promoting carbon sinks projects in Indonesia provide further indication of what the future CDM carbon sinks market will have on offer: carbon credits generated by industrial monoculture tree plantations.

What's wrong with a company pursuing a green seal for 'sustainable forest management' and a climate-friendly credit for planting trees that help soak up carbon from the atmosphere? Potentially a lot, especially when both of these claims are rather dubious, as the WRM Bulletin coverage on the Brazilian company Plantar S/A indicates. And even more problematic if a company, when faced with criticism about its carbon sinks project, resorts to such tactics as the distortion of facts to discredit its critics.