In many parts of the word, a large number of non-native species are invading forests and other ecosystems, leading to dramatic changes in their floristic composition and related impacts on local wildlife and peoples' livelihoods. The uncontrolled spread of exotic species in natural ecosystems is known as "bioinvasion" (see WRM Bulletins 18 and 24).
Bulletin articles
Papua New Guinea -home of one of the world's largest remaining contiguous rainforests- is being subject to a destructive deforestation process. In an attempt to increase the country's exports to face a severe economic crisis, the government has adopted a policy of opening the country to foreign logging companies -granting them concessions and turning a blind eye to illegal logging- that threaten to deplete its forests.
Organizations all around the world are planning a number of activities for the international Day of Action against the World Trade Organization (WTO) on September 15, 1999. There will be simultaneous press conferences, call-in campaigns to members of Parliaments/Congress, protests, hearings and teach-ins etc., to launch the international campaign against a "New Round" in Seattle. An international sign-on letter will be released on that date. Already 1000 organizations have signed on to it and it is being circulated to receive further endorsements.
The course "Plantations are not forests", organized by the Institute of Ecologist Studies of the Third World (Instituto de Estudios Ecologistas del Tercer Mundo) and the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO) took place in Quito, Ecuador from July 12-16. Alvaro Gonzalez, from the WRM International Secretariat was in charge of the course, which focused on the main characteristics of the plantation forestry model, its promoters, impacts and resistance against it, with a special focus on forests and plantations in Ecuador.
Carrying out a campaign against plantations is not easy, particulary in places located far away from the plantation areas. How can you be against tree planting? Doesn't the world need more trees? These are the type of questions we have to face time and time again. We explain that we are not opposing the plantation of trees but a specific type of activity, characterized by being large scale monocultures of exotic trees which usurp local peoples' forests and lands and result in a large number of negative social and environmental impacts. But the task is not an easy one.
The WRM bulletin has completed its second year and we would like to take this opportunity to share some comments with you all. Since the first issue, our efforts have been geared at supporting indigenous peoples and local communities fighting to protect their forests. We have insisted on the fact that the forest is theirs and that they are the ones most interested in forest conservation.
Opposition to plantations is not an academic exercise, but a direct result of the impacts of plantations in many countries. All of the research carried out on this issue is the direct or indirect result of the identification of a number of problems by local peoples who suffer the consequences. What independent research has done is to put the issue in a broader perspective and to explain academically why local peoples are right. This does not mean that such research is not important.
The impacts of industrial tree plantations on local plants and animals are very well known. They are particularly clear when tree monocultures replace forests -as happens in many tropical countries- and also relevant, even if not so apparent, when plantations are set up on grassland ecosystems. Tree plantations imply a simplification of the previously existing ecosystem, thus resulting in a loss of biodiversity.
The Intergovernmental Forum on Forests (IFF) was established in 1997, being its first task that of promoting and monitoring the implementation of the 135 Proposals for Action agreed by the International Panel on Forests (IPF).
The IPF's proposals for action contain a number of contradictions in relation to plantations, which reflect the different interests at stake among the governments involved in the process, and the presence of a strong pro-plantations lobby within the Forum.
The FAO holds major responsibility regarding monoculture tree plantations, having been the first international organization to actively promote -since the 1950s- the present plantation model. In spite of all the already known negative social and environmental impacts resulting from the Green Revolution in general and from its application in the forestry area in particular, the FAO continues being the main international body promoting such model and providing it with the necessary "expert" support.
The World Bank is one of the major actors directly and indirectly promoting industrial tree monocrops in many countries, especially in the tropical region. The Bank directly promotes plantations through: