The cuddly tree logo of the Forest Stewardship Council adorns the products of alien industrial tree plantations, as well as those of the real thing (forests, that is). It could mean virtually anything to the average person buying those products, but it is clear that the intention of the logo is to enhance the marketability of the timber products in question.
Bulletin articles
According to a paper produced by the Tanzanian Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, Forestry and Beekeeping Division, the Forest Policy in Tanzania identifies deforestation as the major problem in forest management, which is believed to proceed at the rate from 130,000 to 500,000 hectares per year. The main areas affected are unreserved lands belonging to the government. The reasons for deforestation are clearing for agriculture, overgrazing and wildfires, charcoal burning and over exploitation of wood resources.
The WRM have been denouncing the extensive destruction of forests in Burma through deforestation processes --among which commercial logging plays a major role-- resulting in serious impacts on the environment and on the livelihoods of local people.
Of the more than 10 million Cambodians currently living in rural areas, over 8.5 million depend on natural resources to support their livelihoods. Although most rely on rice farming, they have just one crop of rice per year which they complement with a range of forest products that also play a critical role in supporting livelihoods.
Mangroves are a primary coastal biologically diverse ecosystem in tropical and subtropical regions which has traditionally supported local livelihood providing food --since the mangrove area is spawning and nursery area for many marine species-- firewood, charcoal, and timber, among other products.
Southeast Asian countries --particularly Indonesia and Malaysia--, have over 20 million hectares or 60 percent of the world's tropical peatlands. Peat swamps occur inland just beyond coastal mangroves and often spread over some 3km to 5km on the floodplain of rivers. They are characterised by an 8m to 20m thick layer of peat, which is mainly semi-decayed plant material accumulated over some 8,000 years. As long as the peaty soil is saturated with water, the swamp ecosystem is in balance.
At the beginning of the nineties, the introduction and cultivation of eucalyptus, a species originating in Australia, was promoted as a major timber business. However, at the end of the decade, this model of large scale tree monoculture has finished by causing big economic losses to the State and to a large number of farmers.
Bertha Oliva's life was indelibly marked by the kidnap and disappearance of her husband Tomás Nativí, in June 1981, by government security forces. In 1982 she founded the Committee of Families of the Detained-Disappeared in Honduras (COFADEH), an organization she still heads today.
But two years ago she took on a new cause: defending the environment. The decision came after two ecologists were assassinated in the northeastern department of Olancho. A fierce battle against deforestation is under way there. An average of 80,000 hectares of Honduran forest disappears each year.
The US conservation group, Conservation International (CI) is requesting the Mexican government to use its armed forces to crush the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) once and for all, according to reports in the Mexican newspaper "La Jornada." The organisation maintains that the guerrilla group and the "illegal" invasion by peasants of the Lacandona forest are destroying the tropical forest, and therefore military intervention is necessary.
The PCF (Prototype Carbon Fund) is the World Bank's fund that mobilizes resources to promote the carbon dioxide trade, whereby contaminating companies --mainly located in the countries of the North-- can "negotiate" with forestry producers which supposedly trap carbon --mainly located in the countries of the South. And it is to the PCF that, representatives of dozens of bodies, citizen movements, churches, parliamentatians, city councillors and citizens of the Brazilian States of Minas Gerais, Espirito Santo, Bahia and Rio de Janeiro will be sending a letter.
The more that is planted, the more rights that are lost. In Colombia, there are approximately 170,000 hectares of oil palm plantations. Testimonies by a delegate of the palm sector workers' organisation, connected to the Bucarelia and Las Brisas Palm Oil companies, denounce the poor working conditions in the oil palm plantations in the department of Santander, in addition to pressure and incentives to weaken the trade unions in the sector. Oleaginosas Bucarelia has 4,700 hectares and the other company some 2,800, all located at Puerto Wilches, Santander.
The Amerindian Peoples Association (APA) has expressed deep concern about the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to establish Southern Guyana as a protected area, saying it was "gross disrespect" to local tribes.