Bulletin articles

The Cayapas-Mataje Ecological Mangrove Reserve in the Province of Esmeraldas covers an area of 51,300 hectares and within it is the Majagual mangrove covering 28,367 hectares. The mangrove is the habitat of crustacean species including oysters, blue crabs and shrimps and of tree species such as the red, black, white and jeli mangroves.

At a cost of 1,600 million dollars, the Camisea mega project for natural gas extraction from an area located on the banks of the Camisea River -one of the world’s richest areas in biodiversity- has the Inter-American Development Bank as its main public financer. However, it has not brought any benefit to the local communities. As denounced in WRM Bulletin No. 95, the Camisea project will be carried out at the expense of forest destruction, river contamination and noise pollution, soil erosion and the consequent degradation of flora and fauna in the project’s area of influence.

Earlier this year, a rare thing happened: West Papua hit the headlines. The news was the discovery of a new species of honeyeater bird, a "lost" bird of paradise, a nearly extinct tree kangaroo, 20 new species of frogs, four new butterflies and five new species of palms. The species were found during an expedition to the Foja Mountains organised by Conservation International and the Indonesian Institute of Sciences. "It's as close to the Garden of Eden as you're going to find on Earth," said Bruce Beehler, co-leader of the group.

In many cases, forest destruction has created situations of such gravity that company managers and officials -finding themselves cornered by complaints, social pressure or pressure from business sectors whose interests are threatened by the discredit of their activities- are developing their own discourse regarding environmental solutions.

For many years people have been hearing about climate change and the terrible impacts it would entail. In spite of warnings of the pending disaster, a group of scientists in the service of corporate interests has been trying to cast doubts on the scientific evidence. At the same time, another group of academics and technocrats has been inventing absurd mechanisms to “compensate” for carbon emissions in order to allow fossil fuel use to continue. Among these mechanisms are large-scale plantations of fast growing trees – located in the South, of course.

On 6 December, 23-year-old Pascual Pichun Collanao, a member of the Antonio Nirripil community from the Temulemu sector in the southern Chilean commune of Traiguen, formally requested political asylum in Argentina. The young man had been on the run since November 2003 when, with his brother Rafael they decided not to give themselves up to justice after being refused the right to freedom under surveillance because they were unable to pay a court fine. The brothers had been given a 5-year jail sentence for setting fire to a truck belonging to Forestal Minico in March 2002.

A new report by Friends of The Earth International; “Campagna Per La Riforma Della Banca Mondiale”; CEE Bankwatch Network, and World Economy, Ecology & Development issued in January 2006, highlights the role of the European Investment Bank as financer of so called “development” projects in the South, including Africa. The question raised is: development for whom? The research, entitled “The European Investment Bank In The South. In Whose Interest?”, gives insights around that question.

On February 15, 2006, Kinshasa was the venue of a National Forest Forum where global financial institutions, government authorities, environmental experts, human rights campaigners and local people discussed ways to protect the rainforests of the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire), the world’s second largest after the Amazon. National and international NGOs participated in the event reaffirming the need for a sustainable management of forest ecosystems in the DRC, respectful of the rights and interests of local communities.

Ongoing heart-rending stories of starving people in Kenya are highlighting the problem of drought and its causes. Kenya, east Africa's richest nation and a top attraction for tourists who flock to its reserves and parks for safari holidays, is under a severe crisis of poor rains that hits its harvests. The number of people who face starvation is spiralling ever higher: from 2.5 million in December to 4 million now, according to Kenya's minister for emergency operations.

Although miles and miles of pine monoculture can be visually appealing to those of us with a more northern hemisphere way of looking at things, they can also be seriously bad news environmentally. Exotic tree plantations have earned the name ‘green death’ from eco-activists, who point out that they displace native species, very few of which can live in plantations. Plantations in the eastern parts of South Africa are particularly notorious for consuming grassland, now considered our most threatened biome due to 60% (ACTUALLY 80%) of its area being lost.

Burma, with a population over 40 million, is endowed with a great variation of rainfall, temperature, soil and topography, resulting in many different forest types, from temperate to tropical landscapes that range from the Himalayas in the north and east to the lowland forest, mangroves and coral reefs in the south. Part of Burma’s global conservation significance derives from the fact that it contains ecotypes, such as lowland peninsular rainforest, that are already depleted in neighbouring countries. The forests of this region are unusually rich in plants and animals.

At the recent "Seafood Summit" conference event in Seattle organized by Seafood Choice Alliance (January 29-30, 2006), the WWF’s “Aquaculture Specialist”, Aaron A. McNevin, PhD, announced that WWF has formed the Sustainable Aquaculture Alliance, which is itself working towards some sort of farmed shrimp certification based upon Best Management Practices.