In July 2001, Thailand’s chief logging agency, the state-owned Forestry Industry Organisation (FIO), received “sustainable management” certification of two teak plantations. Undertaken by SmartWood, a forest management certification organisation that is accredited by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), the certification would help solve the agency’s financial troubles as well as cover up its infamous past.
Bulletin articles
It is common for people living far away from the forests to perceive deforestation as an exclusively environmental problem. However, for people whose livelihoods depend directly on them, forest loss is more a social than an environmental tragedy. And what is seldom perceived is that women suffer the consequences more than men. The following extracts from a case study on community forest management in India can be useful to begin to understand the issue:
It is well-known that the pulp and paper industry in Indonesia – and in the world – is environmentally and socially destructive. One of the most important companies in pulp and paper production is the Asia Pulp & Paper Company, ranking tenth in the world. One of its branches is Indah Kiat Pulp & Paper, which has a pulp and paper mill located in Perawang to the south of Sumatra.
Since the beginning of May, the Champerico community has been denouncing contamination of wetlands, the logging of mangroves (activity prohibited by the Environmental Law), closing of access to public wetlands, acts of repression against fishermen (about 70% of the local population’s diet is fish) and death of fish caused by the operations of Camarones del Sur, S.A. (Camarsa).
An alliance of Honduran peasants is asking the Government to halt the construction of a hydroelectric dam being built by the Energisa company in the area of Gualaco, Olancho, some 240 kilometres to the north-east of Tegucigalpa. The inhabitants affected by the project consider that it is causing damage to the environment and that the construction of the dam will prevent water being supplied to thousands of inhabitants, in addition to the fact that they may be obliged to leave their lands.
No one can doubt that the world is becoming increasingly mad. The Uruguayan forestry plan was prepared by the Japanese, the Thai plan by Finns and now, the “Strategic Forestry Plan for Mexico 2025” will also be prepared by Finns.
Large-scale eucalyptus plantations in the State of Espirito Santo --and their related pulp production activities-- have generated opposition since the very beginning. They were first opposed by the people more directly affected by them: the Tupinikim and Guaraní indigenous peoples, Afrobrazilian communities (quilombos) and local farmers, whose lands were appropriated to give way to the plantations.
A few days ago, serious events took place in the city of Temuco, ending in over 125 community members in jail, many injured and serious destruction. These incidents are the result of a long chain of encroachments that the Mapuche people have suffered throughout the whole of the twentieth century and that have not been recognised either publicly or fundamentally by the State, which continues to act in favour of forestry companies, providing them with all kinds of support, among which, placing the police force at the companies’ service.
Eucalyptus Pacifico S.A. - EUCAPACIFIC is a new company set up at the end of 2000 to carry out a major eucalyptus plantation project on the Ecuadorian coast, in the Province of Esmeraldas, specifically in the Tonchigüe and Sua sector. This company, composed of transnational capital, has received approval by the Ministry of the Environment to carry out large scale plantations.
"People in the Rainforest of Ecuador" is an exhibition currently running in Frankfurt's municipal botanical garden, the Palmengarten. The exhibition describes some of the vast knowledge indigenous people have of plants and ecosystems in the rainforest. The posters advertising the exhibition are sponsored by Aventis CropScience and feature the company's name and logo. As a piece of public relations it is brilliant. Aventis CropScience hopes to gain from having its name associated with indigenous expertise.
Papua New Guinea's (PNG) rainforests are of global significance, comprising one of the last major tropical rainforest wildernesses in the World. Within a mere 1% of the world's land mass, it is estimated that PNG contains 5-8% of global biodiversity and that seventy five percent of this valuable forest is still standing. However, these forests are once again under threat.
Oil palm plantations currently extend over millions of hectares of forest lands throughout the tropics. Further plantations are either being implemented or promoted in almost every Southern country where soil, water and solar energy fill the requirements of this palm. From Mexico to Brazil, from West to East Africa and from Asia and Southeast Asia to Oceania, governments are being urged to create conditions for the expansion of this crop.