By Cabinet decree 123 of 4 December 2002, the government of Panama decided to "excuse the Ministry of Public Works (MPW) from the requisite of selecting contractors and authorise it to hire CUSA (Constructora Urbana S.A) directly for the design, funding and construction of the ecological highway Boquete-Cerro Punta." This is the construction of a highway through Paso del Respingo which would cross the National Baru Volcano and La Amistad International Parks, violating the protected status of the zone.
Bulletin articles
Mexico has joined a model giving priority to the needs of transnational industrial capital demand, aimed at exportation. The environmental policy and rights of the indigenous and peasant peoples are subordinated to this demand (see WRM Bulletin 14).
The inhabitants of Esquel, a small Argentine town in the Province of Chubut, have been undertaking an important struggle in defence of their forests and their environment. An increasing number of the city's inhabitants, together with inhabitants of the Andean region and regional and national organisations are opposing an open cast mine project and the installation of a cyanide processing plant for gold mining, to be located at eight kilometres from this town, which is surrounded by lakes and millenary larch trees.
In a document prepared in the framework of FOMABO (Forestry Management in the Tropical Lands of Bolivia) --a project arising from an agreement between the KVL University of Denmark and UAGRM-UMSS Universities of Bolivia, with the support of DANIDA-- the main characteristics of community-based forest management related with the multiples uses given to forests by the indigenous peoples have been identified.
Presented as a "clean" source of energy that does not contaminate the atmosphere with greenhouse gases, as in the case of oil or natural gas, obtaining hydroelectric energy by building dams continues to advance along the Xingu river, the last of the great Amazon rivers in good state of conservation.
The Green Party is concerned at the reported aggressive comments of US company, which outline its plans to grow genetically engineered (GE) redwood trees in New Zealand.
The timber company, Soper-Wheeler, has said it intends to start planting genetically engineered seedlings from the US in its South Island plantation in August. This is despite New Zealand's moratorium on commercial release of GE not being due to be lifted till October. The company says the harvested logs would be sent to mills in the US.
A National Workshop on the Underlying Causes of Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Samoa was held on 17 - 21 December, 2002, in the Village of Aopo, Island of Savaii, organised by Ole Siosiomaga Society Inc. (OLSSI) and hosted by the Global Forest Coalition.
Here follows a Call to Action by the International Rivers Network:
We invite you to participate in the 6th Annual International Day of Action Against Dams and for Rivers, Water and Life on March 14th, 2003. This is a time to act in solidarity to celebrate our rivers, protest destructive development, and enjoy the successes of last year.
The environment department at Skanska, one of the world's largest construction firms, has announced that it is to pull out of dam-building. On 4 February 2003, Skanska's vice President Sustainability, Axel Wenblad revealed that after a strategic review at the company, "We will not be involved in new hydropower projects in the future."
Predominating ideology has tended to divorce social issues from environmental issues and even to make them antagonistic. Such is the case with the question of forests, where while governments recognise their environmental values, they frequently present them as an obstacle to "development", and "poverty" is used as an excuse to carry out deforestation of increasingly wider areas of forests, with the alleged objective of improving people's living conditions.
The Ministerial meeting in the Africa Forest Law Enforcement and Governance process is scheduled to take place in Brazzaville, Congo April 1-4th, 2003. Government delegates as well as representatives from the timber industry, multilateral and bilateral organisations, and civil society are expected to take part in the meeting where a Ministerial declaration will be drafted. The following briefly introduces the FLEG process, then moves on to discuss civil society participation in the up-coming Ministerial.
The Chad/Cameroon Oil & Pipeline project (see WRM Bulletins 45, 41, 35, 14 and 2) is reaching critical milestones. Most construction activities are scheduled to be completed by July 2003 and initial oil sales could take place as early as November 2003. As a result, completion of construction is more than a year ahead of schedule which had initially been planned to be finalised by the end of 2004.