Until the 1950s, countries were just that: countries. During the US presidency of Harry Truman, countries were classified into “developed” and “underdeveloped”, depending on how close or distant they were from the US model. Since then, the negative adjective “underdeveloped” has been replaced by the more positive “developing”. The fact that most of the so-called “developing” countries are now in a worse social, economic and environmental situation than they were when they were classified as such is not even a matter of much debate.
Bulletin articles
Development can provide --indeed, it does-- great opportunities for corporations eager to profit from business in so-called “developing” countries. International Financial Institutions (IFIs) have proved to be extremely good instruments for achieving that, and extremely bad for improving southern peoples’ livelihoods or protecting the environment.
Founded in 1966, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) claims to be "dedicated to reducing poverty in Asia and the Pacific". The Bank's lending to the forestry sector indicates that in fact the Bank's focus is on promoting industry and corporations rather than addressing the needs of the region's poor.
“The worst immorality is a studied ignorance, a purposeful refusal to see or know” (Andrea Dworkin)
When the World Bank approved US$270 million in grants and guarantees for the controversial one thousand megawatt Nam Theun 2 (NT2) hydroelectric dam in Laos on 31 March of this year, most of its Directors were convinced that the project’s economic benefits outweighed its environmental and social downsides.
Camisea is the greatest energy project in the history of Peru. This project involves the extraction of natural gas in an area known as Lot 88, located on both sides of the Camisea River, one of the richest biodiversity areas in the world. The cost of building the whole project amounts to 1,600 million dollars, including the exploitation and processing of gas and the construction of gas pipelines that will pass by the Andes Cordillera before reaching the coast for distribution.
Uruguay is in the sights of the pulp industry. The Finnish multinational company, Metsa Botnia and the Spanish company Ence are proposing to install two pulp mills to produce bleached eucalyptus pulp (using ECF process with chlorine dioxide) for export, with Botnia producing a maximum volume of 1 million tons per year and Ence 500,000 tons. The pulp mills would be installed on the banks of the Uruguay River, which Uruguay shares with Argentina, in the locality of Fray Bentos.
The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) does not have a specific forest policy or sector strategy, as they claim they have covered forests in other policy and strategy documents, including those on rural poverty reduction, rural finance, agriculture, water resources, coastal resources and energy. The IDB’s current draft of its Environment and Safeguards Compliance Policy also touches on protection of natural habitats.
Financial deliberations generally take place between dubious actors in obscure corners of the political arena. This is definitely the case with the European Investment Bank, which has only recently been put in the public spotlight. It is now time to uncover the dirty secrets of the European Union’s house bank.
Last March –on International Women's Day- the WRM paid homage to women’s struggles in forests and plantations. We then said that, in spite of all the difficulties, “women continue resisting both in the forest and in the tree plantations. They are speaking loud telling the world about their knowledge, their wisdom, their own definition of what development is and how it should be undertaken.”
In response, we received the following message from an indigenous woman called Telquaa, which we would like to share with all of you. After thanking us for the statement she said:
Some 2.000 members of Ogiek Community in Enoosupukia region of Narok District were asked to move from the area under warning that “any person found to be inside the trust land area shall be evicted/arrested". With clashes within Kenya's fractious ruling coalition, the Lands and Housing Minister, cancelled all Title deeds issued in the Mau forest, apparently determined to evict more than 100,000 people living in the forest.
The Liberian NGO Save My Future Foundation (SAMFU) has conducted an inquiry into the Firestone Rubber Plantation Company's 69 years of operation, and the result is the report “Firestone: The Mark Of Slavery” (to see the full report: http://www.samfu.org/firestone.html).