Ten years after the Earth Summit, deforestation continues to advance in most of the countries of the world, and in particular in tropical regions. In our successive bulletins we have abundantly recorded cases and processes of destruction, behind which in one way or another, it is possible to perceive the hand of the North.
Bulletin articles
It is worth remembering that during the 1992 Earth Summit (or United Nations Conference on Environment and Development) two processes took place simultaneously: the official summit and the parallel forum of non governmental and indigenous peoples organisations.
With this issue the WRM bulletin will be five years old and we want to congratulate you and ourselves on this occasion. This double congratulation is not a mere formalism. In fact, for us the Bulletin is basically the result of continuous and fruitful interaction among individuals and organisations who, throughout the world, with reasoning and feeling, work for the defence of tropical forests and those who live in them. Therefore it reflects shared visions and objectives and is fed by the experience of thousands of people who, on different levels struggle to achieve them.
The village of Zaïpobly is located in Southeast Côte d’Ivoire, in the western outskirts of Taï National Park. This park covers an area of 454,000 hectares and is the largest remnant of the original humid tropical forest in West Africa. It was designated Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO in 1978 and was inscribed on the Natural World Heritage List in 1982, because of its extraordinary specific wealth and because of the numerous endemic species inhabiting it.
Gambia used to be covered by very dense forests. However, the country has undergone a severe deforestation and degradation process. In 1981, about 430,000 hectares were classified as forests --45% of the total land area. Seven years later, the forest area was reduced to about 340,000 hectares.
Gambian forests have also undergone a degradation process that implied the conversion of many closed forests into a poor quality tree and shrub savannah category, according to the national forest inventory of 1998.
A country with an annual deforestation rate of 1,71%, which in 17 years (1955-1972) lost one third of its forests and further 5,6 million hectares from 1977 to 1997, Ghana also holds ancient keys for a meaning model of forest conservation.
The major environmental problem reportedly faced by Zambia is deforestation. A case study carried out by the European Forest Institute in 2000 gives figures: the annual rate of deforestation ranges from 250,000 to 900,000 hectares representing 0.5 to 2.0 % of the country's forest area.
Apart from other social and environmental impacts, the consequences of this process are felt on water supplies, since forests regulate much of the catchment area of the Zambezi river and are essential during the annual seven month long dry season.
The NGO Down to Earth has recently concluded a special report titled "Forests, people and rights", which provides very detailed analytical information on the forest situation in Indonesia. The following paragraphs have been extracted from the chapter "Community forest management: the way forward" and we recommend our readers to access the full document (see details below).
The upland forests of north Thailand have become an arena for intensely contested perspectives on forest protection as state forestry officials and some nature conservation groups attempt, in the name of forest conservation, to remove local communities, particularly hilltribe people living in and using these forest areas, with the argument that upland forests act as watersheds for lowland rivers and must therefore be kept free of human interaction.
Built at a cost of $1 billion on the Se San River in Vietnam, the Yali Falls dam has caused devastating impacts on downstream communities in Cambodia (see WRM Bulletin 42). At least 32 people have drowned in flash floods caused by sudden releases of water from the dam and villagers have lost livestock, crops and fishing equipment. Poor water quality in the river has led to skin rashes and stomach problems for downstream communities. Fisheries in the Se San River have been dramatically reduced.
The new President of Costa Rica, Abel Pacheco would seem to have good intentions regarding the environment, but at the same time, shows some gaps in knowledge of the native tree species of his country.
In fact, such contradictions became evident on 2nd June, on occasion of a ceremony at the Presidential Residence, celebrating the donation by the government of Japan (through the World Bank), of US$300,000 aimed at promoting commercial tree plantations. During the ceremony President Abel Pacheco stressed the need to fight for native species and halt plant “Nazism.”
The United States is also affected by the predatory scheme that is elsewhere replacing forests by monoculture tree plantations. In the state of Tennessee, the sorrow is also felt by those who know the peril behind the short-term profit driven projects.