We have received the following contribution from Leonardo Acurero, through our Venezuelan friends from AMIGRANSA, related to the actors behind the scenes involved in the recent fires that devastated the Brazilian state of Roraima . A providential rain has extinguished it but the danger of future fires is still looming.
“The fire of development and occupation covers Roraima.
Bulletin articles
One of the more widely publicized arguments for the promotion of industrial tree plantations says that fast growing plantations help to alleviate the main pressures on native forests and consequently help to preserve them. This argument was been proven false in all cases and Chile is no exception.
In WRM Bulletin No. 10 we included the article "Comments on WWF's 'Forests for life' campaign", as having been produced by Paul Romeijn, Director of Treemail. We have now learned that those comments -which we had received through Paul Romeijn- were actually written by Prof. Julio Cesar Centeno. We apologize to both for the confusion.
Ricardo Carrere was invited to participate in the Environmental Forum of the Peoples' Summit of the Americas, held in Santiago, Chile from 15 to 18 April. In his presentations he emphasized on the underlying causes of deforestation and on the need to implement policies which ensure the conservation of forests and the respect of the rights of peoples that inhabit or depend on them for their survival. He also participated actively in the Forest Group discussions, which resulted in a document aimed at influencing the region's governments (see under Americas)
We have recently created the WRM web page as an effort to facilitate the dissemination of the Movement's viewpoints and relevant information to a wider audience. At the same time, it is our aim to put the web page at the service of our affiliates and friends, who can use it as a means to both access relevant information and to feed it with information about their own specific concerns.
The tenth issue of our Bulletin has been published in Spanish and distributed to Spanish and Portuguese-speaking people. Future issues of the Bulletin will be published in both languages. We hope that this innovation will contribute to broaden our contacts in this linguistic area of the world. We are now producing two mailing lists -one for Spanish-speakers and another for the rest. Those who wish to receive both versions of the bulletin are requested to let us know.
The March-April issue of "World Watch" (published by the Worldwatch Institute) includes an article by Ashley Mattoon on pulpwood plantations ("Paper Forests"), which constitutes an important contribution to clarify this issue to a wide audience. The WRM Internacional Secretariat contributed with comments to the author's first draft.
We have received a letter signed by Mr. Stephen Kakfwi, Minister of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development of Northern Territories, Canada, as a response to the one sent by WRM International Secretariat on February 25, 1998, expressing our concern on the issuance of logging rights in the Cameron Hills, a territory occupied by the Deh Cho indigenous people. Mr. Kakfwi assures that his Government "will not permit any operation to cause serious ecological damage" and is "quite prepared to work with the Deh Cho First Nations."
Responding to a request of our friends of CIMI, the WRM International Secretariat disseminated among WRM members and friends the more recent news about the long struggle of the Tupinikim and Guarani for their traditional lands (see below). We also sent letters to Brazilian authorities -including President Fernando Henrique Cardozo- expressing our concern for this situation and asking them to review their decision to expel the missionary Winfried Overbeek from the country, whose only “crime” has been to defend the indigenous peoples in their claims.
The Kruger National Park is to be enlarged by 5,000 hectares, while by the same agreement recently concluded, the Makuleke community regains its right to 25,000 hectares of Kruger Park lands. Settlement of the Makuleke land claim came just in time for the celebration of the centenary of Kruger National Park on March 25. In 1968 the Makuleke community was forced to leave their lands now falling within the borders of the Kruger National Park.
News of huge forest fires -as the ones that affected Indonesia and those that are spreading in Roraima in the Brazilian Amazon- are disseminated worldwide. Nevertheless, fires at a smaller scale have also terrible consequences for local communities. This is the case of the fire that has affected the forest of Aleibiri, a village of 6,000 inhabitants in the Niger Delta in Nigeria. The carelessness of the Shell contractor was the cause for this desaster.
A group of Dayaks recently toured Australia to promote solidarity with their struggle for land rights and compensation from Australian-based mining companies, which account for more than 60% of Australian investments in Indonesia.