Bulletin articles

In a letter sent to President Lula on 20 March, numerous institutions warn on possible socio-environmental risks involved in increasing the area of tree plantations recently demanded by the sector, unless appropriate planning is established.

The Mapuche held off European incursions onto their land for centuries. Now, relegated to reservations --called "reductions"-- most Mapuche work as impoverished farmers or field hands or live as a marginalized minority in Chilean cities. However, they are fighting back. "Our objective is the recuperation of the territory of the Mapuche people," Ancalaf, 40, said in a jailhouse interview with journalist Héctor Tobar of the Los Angeles Times. "We want to control our destiny and shape our future according to the cosmology of our people."

Imagine an oil spill twice the size of the Exxon Valdez disaster. It happened indeed in the Amazon region of Ecuador between 1971 and 1991, when Texaco routinely dumped toxic wastes from its operations into the pristine rivers, forest streams and wetlands. As a result, 2.5 million acres of rainforest were lost (see www.amazonwatch.org/megaprojects/ec_chevtox/).

The forestry plan launched in 1988 by the government --based on the promotion of large-scale tree monocultures-- promised the generation of jobs and the entry of foreign currency from increased exports. To achieve these objectives, the Uruguayan State made considerable investments, including direct subsidies, tax breaks, soft loans and investments in infrastructure. By the year 2000, the State had allocated 69.4 million dollars to the sector under the form of direct subsidies.

Last year I attended a conference in Capetown on the above subject, where the push appeared to be for the involvement of the Private Sector in the ownership and management of Plantations. As an Indigenous person from a country with huge areas of monocultural exotic plantations, I had never thought much about the ownership of these plantations. In my country they had a history of state ownership, although recent times had seen the sale of some of these plantations. Ethically, I am opposed to the privatization of state assets by any government and regard it as a false economic measure.

Several PNG and Pacific Groups, Australian Groups and International Groups have published a sign-on letter addressed to the Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, Sir Michael Somare, raising their "deep concern and increasing frustration over the current state of governance in Papua New Guinea's forests sector and its debilitating impact on the economy and security of the Nation", presenting evidence that uphold their concern, and calling on the government to act.

The World Social Forum surpassed all expectations. Fifty thousand people were expected and some 100,000 attended. Participation in the numerous activities organised in Porto Alegre was very active and we all came out strengthened in our endeavour to work for "another world is possible," as announced by the Forum.

"We are born in the forest and we do everything there, gather, hunt and fish. Where do they want us to make our lives? They say we cannot go to the forest - where are we supposed to live?" Baka community member from the Lobéké and Boumba region.

Some years ago, wildlife photographer and bushmeat activist Karl Ammann had presented World Bank's President Wolfensohn with evidence linking industrial logging with the commercialisation of the bush meat trade throughout most of Central Africa. Wolfensohn replied that "preventing the types of abuses you describe is a clear responsibility of the industry, as well as the government authorities concerned."

The total number of hunter-gatherer Mbuti 'Pygmies' who live in the Ituri tropical forest is not known, although it has been estimated at 30,000 occupying 50% of the 37,860 sq km of Mambasa. Their existence is already extremely fragile: their land rights are not recognised either in law or in the customary rights systems of neighbouring peoples, and the authorities of the 13,000 sq km Okapi Wildlife Reserve no longer permit them to hunt large game. Instead, they survive by hunting small animals and bartering labour, firewood and game with the surrounding Bantu in exchange for food.

Two different natural ecosystems go to make up the Popenguine-Guéréo natural reserve, located 45 km to the south of Dakar, capital of Senegal: a continental part with rugged hills covered by a primary forest and a maritime part, mainly consisting of a rocky habitat where fish come to spawn. The zone was classified in 1986 as a natural reserve with a view to reversing degradation from deforestation, depletion of meadows and successive droughts that had led to a considerable loss of biodiversity.

For the global pulp and paper group Sappi, money does grow on trees. Indeed, the company's latest annual report suggests that it grows most efficiently in South Africa. The report noted that Sappi's southern Africa division, Sappi Forest Products, represented 15% of group sales, but contributed 36% to the group's operating profits in the year to September 2002. "We have an extraordinarily low cost base in South Africa, which has unique competitive advantages in fibre production because of the speed at which trees grow and low inherent energy costs," the report noted.