Bulletin Issue 89 – December 2004

OUR VIEWPOINT

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  The illusion of the Kyoto Protocol

  The Conference of the Parties of the UN Convention on Climate Change will be meeting in Buenos Aires, Argentina this month. Through the media, the public will receive the good
  (Read More)

LOCAL STRUGGLES AND NEWS

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  West and Central Africa: False words and corruption in the logging business

  It seems that the road to the global market is paved with good intentions. And it utters void statements, it should be added. The industrialized world tears its clothes off
  (Read More)
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  Congo: Forest communities and forests destroyed to pay debt

  Like many other Third World countries pushed by the global policies of colonialism and later neocolonialism to poverty and indebtedness, Congo has a current debt of $4.9 billion. Like many
  (Read More)
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  Democratic Republic of Congo: After the war, the fight for the forest

  Following decades of despotic rule by Mobutu Sese Seko, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC, formerly Zaire) descended into a ‘civil war’ that claimed the lives of an estimated 3.5
  (Read More)
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  Kenya: The controversial ‘shamba system’ of exotic tree plantations

  Kenya’s ‘shamba’ or Tongya system has been generally defined as a form of agroforestry, where farmers are encouraged to cultivate primary crops (maize, bananas, beans and cassava) on previously clear
  (Read More)
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  Bangladesh: The Sundarbans under siege by megatourism

  A project earmarked for the biodiversity rich Sundarbans is being firmly opposed by environmentalists and local population, who fear that it will harm the world’s biggest mangrove forests. The Lucknow-based
  (Read More)
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  Cambodia: Pheapimex resume deforestation for a projected pulp and paper mill

  In Cambodia, more than 80% of the population lives in rural areas and 36% lives in extreme poverty, earning less than 50 US cents per day. Though many villagers make
  (Read More)
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  India: Report from Kalpavriksh on mining on ecologically sensitive areas

  The Indian Environment Action Group Kalpavriksh has recently reprinted the report titled: ‘Undermining India – Impacts of mining on ecologically sensitive areas’, which it had published in March 2003. While
  (Read More)
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  Malaysia: Charged logging company Rimbunan Hijau strikes back

  Malaysia is one of the world’s major producers and exporters of tropical timber. It is the home base for a number of major transnational logging companies, including Rimbunan Hijau, a
  (Read More)
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  Andean countries: NO to the FTA that ravages forests and takes over natural resources

  The World Trade Organization (WTO) has been one of the main instruments in the advance of economic and power groups that support privatization, globalization and de-regulation of the economy in
  (Read More)
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  Brazil: The Ashaninka Resistance Movement meets the future

  Deep in the interior of Brazilian Amazon, a logger crosses the border from Peru and invades Ashaninka tribal land, felling another ancient mahogany and dragging it toward the river to
  (Read More)
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  Chile: Contamination from a pulp mill causes death in the wetlands

  The Nature Sanctuary Carlos Anwandter at Rio Cruces is the Site that Chile incorporated as Wetland of International Importance when it adhered to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International
  (Read More)
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  Venezuela: Will Chavez intervene in the communities’ dispute over Smurfit plantations?

  Exactly six years ago we had the opportunity to visit the State of Portuguesa in Venezuela to obtain first hand information on the situation of the local populations in Morador
  (Read More)