When the 1992 Earth Summit took place, it seemed as though governments had finally recognized that the world's environment was in trouble and that something needed to be done to save it. A number of important conventions were agreed upon regarding biodiversity, desertificaction and climate change, while forest conservation was taken up by the UN Commission on Sustainable Development. Although economic interest was present in all those processes, it seemed to be in relative balance with environmental concerns.
Bulletin articles
Deforestation has become one of Angola's most important environmental problems, also resulting in freshwater shortages and soil erosion. The long civil war that affected Angola from 1975 to 1991 and the continuous hostilities among rival groups that have persisted since then, have determined not only human and material losses but also brought with them severe consequences on forests. Deforestation is considered one of the major environmental results of this state of violence and devastation.
Logging is one of the most important direct causes of the accelerated loss of tropical forests. However, macroeconomic strategies implemented by Southern countries' governments under the pressure of powerful actors such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) provide an even stronger incentive for increasing unsustainable logging practices. Cameroon is but one of many examples showing the impacts of such policies on the disappearing rainforests.
Gabon is one of the few countries in Central Africa where most of its forest still remains unlogged. But unless something is done soon, it will follow the path of neighbouring Cameroon, where two thirds of its forests have been logged at least once during the past few years. As loggers deplete African forests, they turn their attention to the few remaining frontier forests and Gabon seems to be the ideal candidate for those activities. Log production has already increased from 1 million cubic metres in 1975 to almost 3 million by the late 1990s.
The Urhobo National Assembly (UNA), which represents the Urhobo nation in the Nigerian federal state, stopped all oil exploration activities in the region of the Niger Delta, where an oil spill fire destroyed last September a large area of fragile ecosystems. Once again the involved oil company is Royal Dutch Shell. It will remain expelled from several affected communities until an independent investigation on the explosion has been satisfactorily conducted and made known by experts from several Southern countries.
In the 1980s and early 1990s the monoculture plantations scheme -based on eucalyptus- faced strong opposition from farmers and environmental groups in Thailand, especially by the more than ten million people inhabiting National Reserve Forests, due to their detrimental social and environmental effects. Such massive protests led in 1992 to a ban on afforestation activities in those lands, and to the discouragement of both foreign and domestic investments in relation to large-scale eucalyptus plantations.
Inhabitants of Mae Mun Man Yuen Village #2 affected by Rasi Salai Dam are demanding that the government reexamines the impacts of the project and compensate 1800 families that are in danger of loosing their farmlands. The protesters, who belong to the Assembly of the Poor, are prepared to stay in their village until their demands are met Dam megaprojects have provoked severe concern and led to directs actions in different regions of Thailand
(see WRM Bulletins 22 and 27).
Even if logging has been the most important direct cause of deforestation in The Philippines archipelago -whose tropical forest area has been dramatically reduced to only 3% of the original cover- mining is also relevant for its depredatory effects. It is estimated that already 40% of the entire territory of the country has been given away by the government under the form of concessions to multinational mining companies.
Nowadays only 3% of the once dense area of tropical forests that covered the territory of the Philippines is still standing. Most of them occupy reduced patches and have even suffered a severe process of degradation (see WRM Bulletin 27).
Palma Tica is a company working in the area of cultivation, processing and production of oil palm products. It owns thousands of hectares of oil palm plantations (Elaeis guineensis) in the Central Pacific Region (Quepos Division) and in the Southern Region (Coto Division). To face the rapid advance of its competitor Agroindustrial Cooperative of Oil Palm Producers (Coopeagropal R.L.), Palma Tica started in 1995 an aggressive campaign of land purchasing in the communities of Colorada and La Palma de Corredores, located in the extreme south of the Coto Division.
Last September Canada reached a controversial deal to "buy" oxygen from Honduras within the framework of a "debt for nature" swap and the Clean Development Mechanisms of the Kyoto Protocol. CIDA (Canadian International Development Agency) will "forgive" about U$S 680,000 of Honduras' U$S 11 million debt with Canada. In exchange, a so-called joint implementation office will be established in Honduras to promote tree plantations and monitor forest conservation programmes in that country.
When the European conquerors arrived in America, they made a clear distinction between white people, black people and indians. While the former were human beings, the African slaves were declared animals. Although the indians were declared human beings, they were considered as children, whose lives needed to be governed by adults, who were those of European descent.