For perhaps the first time since Indonesia's independence, the West Sumatran authorities called together 120 Mentawai people for negotiations with the local government in Padang. The representatives were community leaders, religious figures and village heads from the whole Mentawai island chain (off the West coast of Sumatra.)
The subject of the meeting was how to bring 10,800 transmigrant families to the Mentawai islands for a commercial oil palm development (PIR-Trans) by PT Citra Mandiri Widya Nusa -owned by ex-Employment Minister Abdul Latif.
Bulletin articles
Last October, Sahabat Alam Malaysia (Friends of the Earth Malaysia) went on a field trip to Sarawak to interview Dayak Ibans that were affected by the Hydroelectric Batang Ai Dam and relocated in nearby districts during the past decade.
The pulp and paper industry, which lost a number of battles to peasants opposing both plantations and pulp mills in Thailand , is now putting pressure on the government for the approval of an expansion of eucalyptus plantations. The Thai Pulp Industry Association is suggesting the Agriculture Ministry ammend the existing forestry law which curbs the planting of eucalyptus. The reasoning is simple: that "the law should acknowledge that eucalyptus is an economic plant." The already well-known social and environmental impacts don't seem to be a major source of concern for the industry.
Western Forest Products (WFP), a Canadian logging company with a long record of clearcutting ancient temperate rainforest, has applied for FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certification for an operation in a watershed on British Columbia's central coast called the Ingram-Mooto. WFP is seeking the FSC stamp of approval to combat the international market campaigns targeting the company's customers in Europe and the United States. WFP has already clearcut, blasted and bulldozed a logging road several kilometers deep into the once pristine Ingram-Mooto.
Smurfit Carton of Venezuela, a subsidiary of the Dublin-based transnational Jefferson Smurfit, which recently merged with Stone Container, thereby becoming the world’s largest producer of paper and paperboard, is both creating and facing big problems in Venezuela.
Melvis Molina, president of the Environmental Group of the village of Morador in the state of Portuguesa was arrested. The Environmental Group stated that the judge's decision was the result of pressures from Smurfit's lawyers and accused the company of responding with judicial terrorism to the recent visit of WRM's international coordinator, which they hope will result in raising international awareness about the ecological and social disaster caused by this company.
By means of this letter, we would like to comment the article of Mr. Julio Cesar Centeno, published in the October edition of 'Aracruz News', bulletin of the pulp and eucalyptus plantation company Aracruz Celulose. In his article, Mr Centeno praises the eucalyptus plantations at Aracruz Celulose because of their "capacity to have a significant impact on local and national economies".
The Kolla indigenous people, that live in the northern Argentinian Provinces of Jujuy and Salta, have been defending the “yungas” -one of the last remaining mountain forests in Argentina- against a pipeline project that would transport natural gas from eastern Salta to the northern Chilean copper mines. In April 1998 ENARGAS –the Argentinian regulatory entity- approved the project presented by Consorcio Norandino SA, according to which the pipeline would cross Finca San Andres, inhabited by 350 Kolla families, who oppose it.
The Climate Change Convention meeting held in Argentina is a good opportunity to highlight the issue of forests and tree plantations in Latin America. We have therefore focused this issue of the Bulletin on a number of representative examples of the problems and struggles which are currently occuring in the region.
After the attempt of the Argentinian authorities during the recent COP4 on Climate Change in Buenos Aires to gain the favour of Annex I countries putting forward the polemic issue of voluntary reductions of greenhouse gases by developing countries, the Argentinian government continues its efforts to pave the way for the entry of the country into the globalized economy. Last September the Lower House passed a forestry promotion bill that offers tax breaks and subsidies for foreign investors interested in establishing tree plantations in that country.
At the COP4 of the Climate Change Convention held in Buenos Aires, Brazil, together with China and India, led the position of developing countries demanding the acknowledgement of historical responsibilities by countries in relation to climate change. The Brazilian delegation also underscored the need for the protection of the Amazon forest. However, domestic forest policy does not seem to go in the same direction.
In WRM Bulletin nr 14 (August 1998) we informed about the blockade of the highway Venezuela-Brazil by a group of indigenous peoples of the Imataca and Gran Sabana regions to stop a high voltage electrical transmission line (Macagua II-Santa Elena de Uairen), that is being built through the Imataca Forest Reserve. This is a particularly rich in biodiversity and vulnerable area, menaced by mining projects promoted by the controversial Decree 1850, which was highly resisted by indigenous communities, environmental NGOs and academics (see WRM Bulletin nr 12).