The Tourism industry has done, and is doing much more for Responsible Environmental Management than the "forestry" industry. Maybe for this one reason only. . . It is rooted in Biodiversity.
Alien tree plantations destroy the indigenous vegetation they replace. The basis of the food chain destroyed, local fauna and flora can not adapt and live in a plantation. When calculating the profit associated with tree farms, is the cost of the destruction to the natural environment ever brought into consideration?
Bulletin articles
Tanzania's 33.5 million hectares (129,310 square miles) of forests are increasingly at risk, mostly as a result of illegal logging, which is destroying some 500,000 hectares (19,300 square miles) of the country's pristine forests every year.
According to the official viewpoint, India holds favourable climatic and social conditions for the set up of tree plantations. Forestry officials state that more than 60 million hectares of "non-forest wastelands and open scrub forest lands" can be considered available for undertaking tree plantation activities. The Ministry of Environment and Forests is promoting the use of clonal disease-resistant plants of fast-growing eucalyptus. Clones of acacia, poplars, gmelina and teak are also being included in the menu.
More than 150 Indonesian and international NGOs -among them the WRM- have endorsed a sign-on letter addressed to the authorities of that country denouncing the situation of two national parks and proposing solutions. The initiative was launched by Telapak Indonesia and the Environmental Investigation Agency. The letter reads:
Two weeks ago, nineteen persons, including a 17-year old, all Iban, from two long-houses in the Niah area, were provisionally charged with murder under Section 302 of the Penal Code. The charge carries a mandatory death sentence if convicted.
Dam megaprojects are being strongly resisted by local communities worldwide since they mean the loss of their lands and forests, and their forced displacement. In Thailand massive protests have been organized to halt this kind of projects undertaken in the name of "progress" (see WRM Bulletin 22).
The Philippines archipelago was once covered by dense tropical forests. Nowadays only 3% of them survive and even those are mostly degraded. Less than 1% of the former forest is still in a pristine state. Primary forests, left in only tiny patches, still exist in remote mountain regions on Palawan island, Mindoro and Mindanao and in the mountain range in northeastern Luzon called "Sierra Madre."
A forum took place in the northern region of Costa Rica on September 16-17 to reflect on and analyse the experiences regarding secondary forests and tree plantations developed in that region. Participants in the event included government officials, professional foresters, peasant organizations, forestry companies and environmental organizations. The Northern Region, which is affected by a severe process of deforestation is at the same time the area with more extensive tree monocultures (gmelina, teak, laurel and "terminalia") in the country.
Just one year after the destructive arrival of hurricane Mitch, Honduras is suffering the consequences of storms and flooding that have provoked the evacuation of thousands of peasants and the death of eight people until now. Hundreds of homes and crops have been destroyed. The media reproduce tragic images of suffering people and emphasize in the fury of nature as a cause of such disasters.
A recent publication on the effects of forest fires in the Brazilian Amazon shows that selective logging followed by the use of the logged area for agriculture and cattle raising is resulting in much more than just forest degradation.
The Mapuche people, who inhabit the southern region of Chile, have been historically victims of social and cultural exclusion. The invasion of their territories by huge plantation companies -with the support of the state- has resulted in the destruction of large areas of forests and their substitution by pine and eucalyptus monocultures. The Mapuche have recently increased their struggle, demanding effective solutions to the Chilean state, which after decades of complete indiference with regard to this conflict has now reacted through a combination of repression and charitable aid.