Bulletin Issue 82 - May 2004

The Fourth meeting of the United Nations Forum on Forests took place in Geneva. Government delegates spent two weeks pretending to address the problems that affect forests, but the truth is that the few things that deserve mentioning happened outside the official meeting rooms (see section on UNFF below). The International Alliance of Indigenous and Tribal Peoples of the Tropical Forests, the Global Caucus on Community Based Forest Management and a group of organizations which presented an open petition for the UNFF to establish a global ban on genetically-modified trees, did the best they could to put the real issues on the table, but deafness prevailed and only some few government delegates appeared to be listening.

Since 1990, logging companies, rebel groups, criminal networks, various interim governments and the regime of former president Charles Taylor have colluded to plunder Liberia’s natural resources. During this period the timber sector witnessed a plethora of illegal activities and practices. Logging companies operated in rebel held territories without any form of regulation from the Forestry Development Authority; none of the revenue generated during this period benefited the Liberian people. Following the election of former President Charles Taylor, he began rewarding former allies, financiers and associates with logging concessions without going through the due process as established by Liberian laws.

When Secretary of State Colin Powell presented the US State Department’s 2003 human rights country reports earlier this year, he obviously hoped that the scandal of US forces’ systematic torture of Iraqi prisoners would never see the light of day. “President Bush regards the defense and advancement of human rights as America’s special calling,” Powell said. Putting aside the Bush regime’s staggering hypocrisy, the US 2003 report on human rights in Laos makes disturbing reading. The Lao government’s “human rights record remained poor, and it continued to commit serious abuses”, the report states.

The Vietnamese government responded brutally to peaceful demonstrations by Indigenous Peoples in the Central Highlands of Vietnam in April. Police used tear gas, electric truncheons and water cannons to prevent demonstrators from entering Buon Ma Thuot, the capital city of Dak Lak province. The police were helped by men armed with metal bars, shovels, and machetes. At least 10 people were killed and hundreds of people were wounded. Many people did not return to their villages after the protests and are still missing. The Indigenous Peoples, collectively known as Montagnards in Vietnam’s Central Highlands, are demanding religious freedom and the return of their ancestral land.

On April 17, more than 400 special troops of the Ecuadorian army entered the detachment of Tigre, on the South Eastern border of the Province of Pastaza, frontier with Peru, allegedly to "capture, neutralize and annihilate armed elements" in the area. This territory belongs to the Kichwa Yana Yaku community, where the Pastaza Indigenous Peoples Organization (OPIP) is based. On that same date, 80 soldiers unexpectedly occupied its premises, accusing it of being the “centre of logistic support” for allegedly subversive groups.

We have just received the good news that on Friday, 21 May, Floresmilo Villalta regained his freedom and immediately travelled to the community of Las Golondrinas to be reunited with his family and friends. Representatives of the Ecuadorian NGO Acción Ecológica made know their gratefulness, on behalf of Floresmilo, for the “incredible response” to the international campaign organized in favour of the 63-year old peasant, whose only “crime” was to try to defend the forests of his region against timber exploitation by the powerful BOTROSA company. Our best wishes go to Floresmilo and we effusively thank all those, who with their support, collaborated towards his liberation. Many thanks!

The Twa were the first inhabitants of the equatorial forests of the Great Lakes region. Originally a high-altitude forest people, inhabiting the mountains of the Albertine Rift Area in Central Africa, they specialized in hunting and gathering. At present, the Twa of the Great Lakes region of Central Africa live in Burundi, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda and southwest Uganda.

In many respects, there is very little difference between Swaziland and South Africa. Climate, topography, and geology are similar, so it is no wonder that the natural vegetation is much like that found in the South African Provinces of KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga, that virtually enclose the Swazi Kingdom.

In September 2003, we informed about an exotic pest which had attacked eucalyptus trees in Western Kenya (see WRM Bulletin Nº 74), and reflected on the inherent risk of the monoculture pattern. Now, the harm has reached neighboring Uganda, with Mpigi, Luweero, Masaka, Kasese, Mbarara, Bushenyi, Mbale, Kapchwora, Tororo, Lira and Apac being the worst hit districts. The gall-forming wasp, Blue Gum Chalcid (Ophelimus eucalypti), becomes a pest for the exotic eucalyptus (kalitunsi) trees growing in large scale monoculture plantations. The wasp lays eggs in the tender parts of the plant, which react by forming galls (swellings). The attacked leaves fold and remain tiny leading to stunting of the whole plant, says Peter Kiwuso of the Forestry Resources Research Institute.

Asia's forests are being destroyed at a staggering rate. China, which has become, virtually overnight, the second largest importer of logs in the world, trailing only the United States, has a lot to do with it. (The volume of uncut logs arriving in China has more than tripled since 1998 to over 15 million cubic meters.). Domestic consumption is growing fast, as China's burgeoning middle class buys new homes and Beijing undertakes huge civil-construction projects. China's entry into the World Trade Organization has also driven tariffs for most timber imports down to zero, fueling imports as well as a rapidly expanding export industry in everything from pulp and paper to furniture and decorations, most of it destined for the United States and Europe.

Argentine Patagonia is a vast region covering 800,891 km2, encompassing a great variety of ecosystems. Topographically, two environments may be identified: the Andean area (comprising the Southern Andes Cordillera, with forests, lakes and rivers) and the extra-Andean area (steppes and plateaux). For years now, Patagonia has been thoroughly explored from the air and hundreds of geologists of every nationality have prospected the land. The result is a mining concession map. This process –in addition to the creation of networks of influence within the provincial governments allowing laws favouring investing companies to be adopted– has been carried out behind the back of the population.

With the presence of a delegate from the Brazilian Ministry of the Environment, the third Meeting convened by the Alert Against the Green Desert Network took place in the city of Belo Horizonte on 6 and 7 May. This Network, comprising over 100 member organizations, gathered many representatives of the Landless People's Movement, peasants, indigenous peoples, Afro-Brazilian communities, small farmers and social movements from the States of Minas Gerais, Espirito Santo, Bahia and Rio de Janeiro.

On April 17, more than 400 special troops of the Ecuadorian army entered the detachment of Tigre, on the South Eastern border of the Province of Pastaza, frontier with Peru, allegedly to "capture, neutralize and annihilate armed elements" in the area. This territory belongs to the Kichwa Yana Yaku community, where the Pastaza Indigenous Peoples Organization (OPIP) is based. On that same date, 80 soldiers unexpectedly occupied its premises, accusing it of being the “centre of logistic support” for allegedly subversive groups.

The Galibi Nature Reserve is world famous as a nesting site for four endangered sea turtles. Established in 1969, it covers about 400 hectares and receives a steady flow of tourists from the United States and elsewhere. However, less highlighted is the fact that it is also an integral part of the ancestral territory of the Lower Marowijne River Kalinya people, who have been directly suffering the consequences of the establishment of the protected area. Ricardo Pané, village chief of the Galibi, one of the largest indigenous villages in the northeast coast of the country, speaks loud and clear about it:

Melanesia, which includes Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Kanaky (New Caledonia), Fiji, East Timor and West Papua (Indonesia), is unique in the world in that 95% of land is still under community ownership by the indigenous people. The forests they control are part of the largest remaining rainforest in the Asia Pacific region and the 3rd largest tropical forest on Earth after the Amazon and Congo. Illegal and destructive industrial logging is rampant, mainly by Malaysian companies who have moved from Sarawak and elsewhere in Asia as the forests were exhausted.

From May 3 to 14, 2004, governments from around the world met in the hallowed halls of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland for the fourth session of the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF4). Eleven members of the Global Caucus on Community Based Forest Management attended the first week of UNFF4, with the aim of learning about the UNFF process, and where possible, to advocate for community based forest management. It is fair to say that the Caucus’ expectations for UNFF4 were low in terms of what we anticipated governments would achieve through their deliberations. However, the Caucus had high expectations of what civil society could and should achieve at UNFF4, and through other avenues – in the sidelines and in the margins, perhaps entirely outside of the UN system.

Freddy Molina is a board member of the Asociacion Coordinadora Indigena y Campesina de Agroforesteria Comunitaria Centroamericana (ACICAFOC). In English, this translates into the Coordinating Indigenous and Peasant Farmers Association on Community Agro-Forestry in Central America. ACICAFOC is a non-profit, social community-based organization from Central America, which brings together associations, cooperative societies, federations and grass roots organizations lead by small and medium agro forestry producers, indigenous peoples and farmer peasants. These groups work for the access, use and management of the natural resources, seeking food security and economic sustainability for their communities in harmony with the environment.

Maybe it's something in the water in Geneva that causes temporary memory loss. Or maybe it's the coffee. Whatever, the participants at the fourth meeting of the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF-4) held in Geneva in May seemed to be suffering from a form of collective amnesia. Five months ago, the ninth Conference of the Parties (COP-9) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) reached a decision that will promote industrial forestry projects and genetically modified (GM) tree plantations. COP-9 decided to allow the North to establish plantations, including GM tree plantations, in the South under the Kyoto Protocol's "Clean Development Mechanism". The plantations are supposed to absorb carbon dioxide and store carbon.