Smurfit Cartons Venezuela --a subsidiary of the US-based transnational Jefferson Smurfit-- has been operating in Venezuela's Portuguesa state since 1986. Its extensive pulpwood plantations for the production of paperboard have resulted in equally extensive social and environmental problems. This situation has been analysed by the Venezuelan Senate's Environment Commission, which has recently produced a 120-page report documenting such impacts.
Bulletin articles
Mapuche and Pehuenche organizations of Chile are planning a visit to Europe to contact and lobby financial and state agencies involved in the controversial hydroelectric projects that are afecting the Bio Bio watershed (see WRM Bulletin nr. 11). The visit has been programmed for 2 to 20 November and will cover Spain, The Netherlands, Germany, Norway and Sweden. Organizations interested in cooperating to make it possible, please contact the Action Group for the Bio Bio (“Grupo de Accion para el Bio Bio”).
Source: Dario Jana. September 1998.
Boreal Forests of the World IV: Integrating Cultural Values into Local and Global Forest Protection. Tartu, Estonia 5-10 October 1998
Every two years (since its founding in 1992), Taiga Rescue Network has organised an international conference on boreal forests. This year it will be held in Estonia and will focus on: Integrating Cultural Values in Local and Global Forest Protection.
For many years the Australian environmental movement has chosen to "lay off" plantations as an issue, as it was seen that in the Australian context, they could be a useful alternative to native forest logging. This situation has now changed with the Tasmanian Greens, for instance, opposing the establishment of any further plantations.
Invited by GTZ, Alvaro González of the International Secretariat of the WRM, participated at the International Expert Consultation on the Six-Country Initiative “Putting the IPF Proposals for Action into Practice”, that took place in Baden Baden, Germany, from June 29 to July 3.
The Steering Committee of the Joint Initiative to Address the Underlying Causes of Deforestation and Forest Degradation will meet in Geneva on August 22nd. The meeting will be focused on strategic planning for the Global Workshop which will be held in Costa Rica on 18-22 January. At the same time, there will be presentations on the regional and indigenous peoples' workshops whose findings will form the basis of the discussions in Costa Rica.
As informed in WRM bulletin 11, the second meeting of the Conference on Central African Moist-Forest Ecosystems (CEFDHAC) took place in Bata, Equatorial Guinea from 8 to 10 June 1998. We include here the Indigenous Peoples' and NGO declarations presented at that conference.
Indigenous Peoples' Declaration
Declaration by the Indigenous Peoples of Central Africa to the 2nd Conference on Central African Moist Forest Ecosystems (CEFDHAC, or the ‘Brazzaville Process’).
Seven Dayak Iban natives from Rumah Bugah, Tubai, Ukong, Limbang are suing the Police for wrongful arrest and baseless imprisonment.
The ban on the activities of three environmental NGOs -LBBJ; Plasma and SHK Kaltim- in Kutai district, East Kalimantan has caused general concern. LBBJ (better known as PutiJaji) carries out community empowerment through legal rights education, Plasma is a forest campaigning organisation, and SHK Kaltim is a branch of a national network which promotes community-based forest management systems.
Oil palm (know as "Sawit" in Indonesia) is an increasing problem for people and the environment in that country. In May this year, the Minister of Forestry and Plantation Estates stated that the government had allocated 30 million hectares of forest for oil palm plantations. Indonesia has already 3.2 million hectares of oil palm plantations, mainly located in Sumatra (1 million ha). Every year 330,000 hectares of forest is targeted for conversion into new plantations and 650 investors --75% of which foreign companies-- are applying for converting forest into oil palm plantation.
On July 20 over 1,000 security forces arrived to break through a blockade set up by villagers and students at Indorayon's paper and rayon pulp factory (PT IIU) in Porsea, near Lake Toba in North Sumatra. Demonstrations have hampered production since mid-June. Hundreds of local people supported by university students and members of environmental groups had blocked roads leading to PT IIU's mill, forcing the factory to stop production since its supplies of timber and fuel have been cut off.
It seems amazing that tree plantations can be promoted all over the world as a profitable activity, while at the same time they need to receive a number of incentives to make it really profitable.