Freeport, a huge US-based mining company that operates in Indonesia, owns the Grasberg gold mine in Irian Jaya, the biggest open-pit gold mine in the world. This mine is producing a significatively negative environmental impact both on the water courses and on the forests of Irian Jaya. Ajkwa River -into which Freeport dumps 125,000 tons of rock waste every day- was considered by the provincial environmental bureau in April 1997 as not filling the required public health standards because of contamination from mining waste.
Bulletin articles
The alliance between UPM-Kymmene of Finland and APRIL of Singapore to develop jointly their respective fine paper operations in Europe and Asia has been severely criticized by environmental and human rights groups (see WRM Bulletin nr. 6).
A letter, whose text is included below, was addressed to the owners and managers of UPM-Kymmene and APRIL, as well as to the Finnish press as a part of a campaign aimed to stop the alliance.
In a letter signed by Aviva Imhof -Mekong Program Coordinator of International Rivers Network (IRN)- as a response to the Asian Development Bank (ADB) regarding the Sekong-Se San and Nam Theun River Basins Hydropower
Development Study, IRN has expressed once again its concern on these megaprojects for Laos. IRN considers that the ADB should focus its attention on identifying and quantifying the impacts of existing or already committed projects, and on evaluating their economic returns to the Government of the host country, rather than proposing yet more dams for the region.
In 1991 the World Bank adopted a forest policy that resulted from a process of extensive consultation with the international NGO community. One of the main points of this policy was that it bans direct funding for logging in primary forests. These represent only 20% of the forest cover of the Planet and are to be found in the Amazon, Canada’s Pacific Northwest and the taiga in Siberia. As a request of the Bank’s Board, the policy was to be reviewed three years after its entry into force, but this period proved to be too short for a complete review. The review has not been accomplished yet.
As a response to the violents events of last December in Sarawak (see WRM Bulletin nr. 7) faxes were sent to political, Policy and Justice authorities of Sarawak and Malaysia expressing our concern for the arrest and shooting of Iban natives that resulted in the death of one of them, and the violation of their custommary land rights. We appealed to conduct and inmediate and fair investigation on these facts that would lead to the punishment of this offence against Iban engaged in peaceful protests, and to make sure that Native Customary Rights are definitevely respected.
The main trade union of Aracruz Celulose (SINTICEL) has a project to monitor the pulpmill's effluents. The union is convinced than the company is tampering the results of the chemical analysis of its effluents, thus subjecting the whole community to health hazards and impacting on the ecosystem. SINTICEL has the technical capacity to establish its own laboratory to carry out the chemical analysis of effluents, but lacks the financial resources to do so.
The Forest Owners' Association recently released a report from results of a survey during the first nine months of last year on "crime and violence" in the so-called South African forests (in reality large industrial eucalyptus and pine tree plantations) in the Kwazulu Natal area. The survey covered 54% of total afforestation in the country -over 800.000 hectares.
According to a company's forest manager, plantations "were increasingly becoming safe heavens for people who lived in violence-torn rural townships, which mostly neighboured the plantations."
Between 1974 and 1990 the Swedish International Development Agengy (SIDA) invested over U$S 1 billion in a project for a pulp and paper mill in Vietnam, as a way of showing the opposition of former Prime Minister Olof Palme and his government to the United States policies towards that nation. After a feasibility study performed by the Finnish forestry consultant group Jaakko Poyry in 1974, SIDA hired the Swedish company WB Systems AB to build Bai Bang pulp and paper mill in Vinh Phu province, northern Vietnam.
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.
Deforestation and widespread burning of the vast Amazon rainforest are on the rise and air quality in the region is suffering. According to satellite data, burnings in the region -whose consequences are similar to those that affected Southeast Asia- are up 28% since last year; combined with logging, about 5,800 square miles of land are deforested each year. Deforestation figures for 1994 -the most recent officially available- show a 34 percent increase since 1991. Another 4,200 square miles are thinned out due to logging alone.
Resolution nr 007 of INEFAN -the Ecuadorian Forestry Agency- shows that, surprising as it may seam, it is in the way to permitting mining activities in forests that are part of the State National Forest Heritage. According to the Forestry Law, mining is not included among the authorized activities to be developed within Protective Forests.
The Venezuelan Guayana Corporation (CVG) and Venezuela's Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM) are shown to have given questionable authorizations to 12 ghost companies to mine within the Imataca Rainforest Reserve. At the same time, the Ministry of the Environment and Renewable Resources (MARNR) is claimed to have topped the irregularities by handing out permits to gold mining companies that didn't even bother to back up their bids for lots showing studies on the impact of mining activities on the eco-system.