Indonesia has the third most extensive area of tropical forest on earth and is one of its richest centres of biodiversity. It is also the world's second largest palm oil producer with an output of over 11 million tonnes of Crude Palm Oil (CPO) in 2004. With Indonesia’s forests disappearing at 3.8 million hectares per year, the land area converted to oil palm plantations has doubled during the past decade to nearly 5 million ha - an area roughly the size of Costa Rica. Most oil palm plantations in Indonesia are established on land which was, until very recently, mature rainforest.
Bulletin articles
Back in 1989, when Australian company Snowy Mountains Engineering Corporation was hired to produce a World Bank-funded feasibility study of Nam Theun 2 hydropower dam, the project under study was a dam to generate electricity for export to Thailand.
Letter to the President of the World Bank: Mr. James D. Wolfensohn
cc’d to:
- Executive Directors and Alternates
- Bank Group Senior Management
- Vice Presidents, Bank, IFC and MIGA
4 April 2005
President Mr. Wolfensohn,
In Brazil, in the past 60 years, soya agriculture has expanded from nought to over 21 million hectares of cultivated land. Soya cultivation was initiated in the more arid Southern states of Brazil, but has now extended to the central and western areas, encroaching principally upon the cerrado (the Latin American savannah woodland) and to a lesser extent the Amazon Rainforest. Driving the expansion of soya agriculture, amongst others, has been the huge expansion of cattle ranching in Brazil, primarily in the states of Mato Grosso, Pará and Rondônia.
The Forest Stewardship Council's Plantations Review is finally under way. The 12 member committee elected to implement the first part of this process (the “policy phase”) held its first meeting from 9-11 March in Stockholm, Sweden. Four members –two northern and two southern- from each of the three chambers (social, environmental and economic), will have the task of leading this process and elaborating clear guidelines for future certification of plantations. A possible second “technical phase” is now being discussed by the committee members.
Oil is a big problem at the global level, where its use is resulting in climate change through the accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. At the same time oil is an even bigger immediate problem in the areas where it is extracted, particularly in the tropics. In these regions, oil exploration and exploitation impact heavily on local peoples, whose lives and livelihoods are destroyed though deforestation, forest degradation and coastal ecosystem destruction, all accompanied by widespread human rights violations and impoverishment.
With an area of 27,834 sq km, landlocked Burundi is a battleground between the Rwandan army and militia from the Congo, and is plagued by a protracted civil war, which has claimed the lives of thousands of Burundi civilians.
The over 5 million Burundi population is unevenly distributed geographically, with large populations displaced by economic crisis and war, forced to change their livelihoods.
Nigeria holds the largest mangrove forest area in Africa, most of which is found in the Niger Delta, where 11,700 square kilometers of swamp forests host several unique plant and animal species.
However, that invaluable wealth is being jeopardized by oil business controlled by transnationals such as Shell, Agip, Mobil, Texaco and Chevron. Those companies have contributed not only to the destruction of the forests but to the exploitation and human rights violations of local communities, spreading conflicts and death (see WRM Bulletin Nº 56).
A meeting of the Mpumalanga Civil Society was held on 5 March, 2005, in a barn at Tim Brewer's trout farm, Katrinasrus , near Machadodorp . This somewhat out-of-the-way venue provided most of the participants with an opportunity to explore roads less travelled . About 50 people attended, some from as far afield as Gauteng and KwaZulu Natal.
The Mro (also Mru) are one of the indigenous peoples inhabiting since long Chittagong Hills. They are totally dependent on the forest, where they not only hunt but also engage in local varieties cultivation, collective farming and gardening.
On 31 March 2005, the World Bank's Board of Directors will decide whether to support a series of loans and guarantees for the Nam Theun 2 hydropower dam in Laos.
On 18 October 2004, Samling Plywood, the Malaysian timber corporation, was granted a Certificate for Forest Management under the Malaysian Timber Certification Council (MTCC) for the alleged sustainable logging of one of Sarawak's last remaining contiguous areas of primary rainforest.