The Solomon Islands have been devastated by Australian and Asian logging companies; which have swept through the country's forests, leaving a trail of disintegrating communities, flattened and degraded forests and silted coral reefs from runoff of exposed fragile soils.
Bulletin articles
The Sixth Conference of the Parties of the Convention on Climate Change is finally over and nothing much appears to have been achieved to address global warming. This doesn't come as a surprise, given that the majority of government delegates -- with a few exceptions -- focused more on how to obtain profits for their countries and corporations from the new carbon trade than on finding true solutions to the looming climate disaster.
The draft Forestry Law being discussed by the Gabonese Parliament encourages the industrialization of wood within the country. According to the Ministry for Waters and Forests, the new law will establish more strict rules concerning the exploitation of the country's forests. Concessions to private companies will be granted for a longer period of time, allegedly to favour the regeneration of the forest.
Even though indigenous peoples and rural communities are the ones directly bearing the brunt of the destruction of rainforests by intruders, most national governments portray them as squatters and responsible for the destruction of the forest and the extinction of wildlife, and threaten them with eviction or undertake direct actions to expel them from their homeland.
Shell is continuing its clever misleading propaganda orchestrated through advertisements circulating in the most influencial press media of the North, in order to revamp its tarnished image and convince public opinion that it is an environmentally friendly company. The campaign "Profits and Principles: Is there a choice?" is based on beautiful photographs of wild animals, lush forests, and tender faces of African people accompanied by texts like: "Time and again at Shell we're discovering the rewards of respecting the environment when doing business".
The Rufiji Delta in South Eastern Tanzania holds some 53,255 hectares of unspoiled mangrove forest. These mangroves are not only a key element for the environment in the region by stabilising the coastline, building land through accumulation of silt and the production of detritus, preserving the quality of water, and serving as windbreaks for the hinterland, but also constitutes the source of livelihoods for thousands of people living there (see WRM Bulletin 12).
The temporary work permit given to the Kudremukh Iron Ore Company (KIOCL) to continue the extraction of iron in the Kudremukh National Park, located in the Western Ghats region of the state of Karnataka, has given place to severe criticism from national and international environmental NGOs, which had been putting pressure on the authorities for the company's request to be denied.
On 7th November 2000 the formal opening of a US$2.9 million laminated-wood processing factory took place at Nabong Farm, 30 kilometres from Vientiane, the capital of Lao PDR. The factory will initially sell timber pallets to IKEA, the Swedish retailing giant, and in future will produce furniture under the trademark Vicwood. Financing came from a series of loans --US$550,000 from IKEA, US$800,000 from the International Finance Corporation, the private sector arm of the World Bank, and US$300,000 from Swedfund, the Swedish IFC counterpart.
A plantation project that would occupy about 3% of the area of Sabah, in northern Borneo, and provoke the clearcutting of 6% of its dwindling primary forests is being promoted in Kalabakan by a joint-venture between the State-owned company Innoprise Corporation Sdn Bhd, Lions Group of Malaysia and the China Fuxing Pulp and Paper Industries of China.
Since May 2000 Bruno Manser is missing. This human rights activist wanted to visit his friends, the Penan forest nomads in Sarawak, who are surrounded by logging companies, the army and the police. It seems he never arrived. Search parties have had no luck. Now the Swiss Diplomatic Corps has stepped in. Manser could have been arrested, had an accident or could have been murdered. We sincerely hope that none of those situations occured. In the meantime, we extend our wholehearted support to Bruno's family and friends.
Among at least 400 modern "community forest" systems in the hilly upper Northern region of Thailand is that of Mae Khong Saai village in Chiang Dao district of Chiang Mai province. The system features 57 hectares of agricultural fields in which at least 10 different types of paddy rice are grown in stepped fields in the valley bottoms. Some 10 varieties of dryland rice are also cultivated in hill fields, which rotate on a cycle of 3-5 years.
A new type of forest conservation initiative is being implemented in Guatemala since 1995. According to its promoters, it attempts to couple community-based sustainable development with the protection of the Petén forests in the multiple use zone of the Maya Biosphere Reserve, the largest protected area in Central America.