A Japanese tree planting tour group called "Green Mission" is planning to visit Malaysia in March 1998. The tour is organized by Kumon-Child Institute and Forest Culture Association of Japan, and backed up by the Ministry of Education of Japan, the Environment Agency of Japan, the Forest Agency of Japan, and the tourism department of the Malaysian Government. There will be around 60 children and adults participating in the tour. They will stay in Kuala Lumpur on the 25th, and then travel to other regions of the country, where tree planting activities will take place.
Bulletin articles
Oil industry is one of the most polluting worldwide and its activities have caused extensive damages in the Amazon. Now news from Asia arrive.
The communal forest of Totonicapan is located at an altitude of about 3,000 metres a.s.l at the mountain chain Sierra Madre del Sur in western Guatemala. The lowest side of the mountains used to be covered by native oak tree forests. Nowadays they have been substituted by pine trees. However, in the highest parts there still exist thick forests of white pine (Pinus ayacahuite) and fir (Abies guatemalensis) accompanied by a great variety of tropical forest species resistant to the cold.
The fishing community of Mehuin in the 10th Region of Chile is opposing the project of Celulosa Arauco y Constitucin S.A. (CELCO) -a huge pulp and paper company- to build a pulp mill coupled with a pipeline that would discharge toxic pollutants resulting from the production process in the bay where they live. More than 600 lts. of effluents a second would be poured into the waters, causing severe environmental effects on the population of fish that is the livelihhood of this community, and on their own health.
"The agreement between Rainforest Action Network, Mitsubishi Motor Sales America and Mitsubishi Electric America is a testament to the efficacy of consumer boycotts! In this age of corporate supremacy, this is an unprecedented success in consumer activism. The far reaching programs and the potential of grass roots movements to bring adversaries to the negotiating table will serve as the template for other consumers to stand up for their rights." - Ralph Nader, Consumer Rigths Advocate and 1996 Presidential Candidate
We have received the following message from the Forest Peoples Programme, requesting assistance for preparing a document to submit to the Intergovernmental Forum on Forests at its July-August meeting, on 'Human Rights violations against Forest Campaigners':
As was informed in WRM Bulletin Nr.5, a group of NGOs present at the Intergovernmental Forum on Forests' (IFF) first meeting in October 1997, initiated a solution-oriented process to address the underlying causes of deforestation and forest degradation, to be considered by the IFF. A number of governments were approached and their reaction was very positive to the initiative. The government of Costa Rica officially accepted to host a global workshop by the end of 1988.
The WRM International Secretariat endorsed a letter sent by a number of environmental organizations to the FSC Board Committee on February 4th, requesting that the deadline of the comment period of Principle 9 (January 28th, 1998) is extended. Principle 9 deals with the issue of how and under what circumstances, the FSC should choose to endorse logging in primary and high conservation value forests.
In WRM Bulletin nr. 3 (8/8/97) we informed about a megaproject of industrial tree plantations in Eastern Cape province of South Africa by Malaysian forestry companies. The activities of the Malaysian in Africa continues, also in the logging sector. In September 1997 Innovest Bhd began logging in a 3,360 km2 concession in the southwest of Congo-Brazzaville. The company, that holds 92% of the shares of the Congolese subsidiary Innovest Congo SA, is planning to cut 100,000 m3 of timber each year.
It seems that problems for the Dayak people in Central Kalimatan do not cease. While they are still suffering the consequences of this year's enormous forest fires, the mega-project launched by President Suharto at the beginning of 1996 to convert around 1.5 million hectares of peat swamp forests into rice-fields keeps on going, in spite of the local and international protests, and of the recommendations made two months ago by the EIA carried out in the area.
Brazilian NGOs FASE and IBASE, the National Commission for the Environment of CUT (Brazilian Workers Union), Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth, addressed a letter to the Federal Government expressing their doubts about the promise made by President Fernando Henrique Cardozo during his visit to the UK last December, to guarantee the protection of 10% of the Brazilian forests until year 2000. The organizations demand effective measures to protect the Mata Atlantica and the Amazon.
For the first time in Brazilian history the Federal Government has been condemned by the Court to pay a compensation to the Panara -also called Krenhakarore- indigenous people of Mato Grosso because of the damages and deaths suffered as a consequence of interethnic contacts. The Panara were forced to abandon their lands, which were to be crossed by the new highway Cuiaba-Santarem, and reestablished at Xingu National Park. In the period 1973-1976 a total of 186 persons died of influenza, diarrhoea and other illnesses.