Alvaro Gonzalez participated in a Seminar on Rural Development organized by the German foundation DSE, from 24/11 to 5/12. The Seminar included a journey to Mindo -a small town to the West of Quito- where the Project Mindo-Mandillo Protective Forest was evaluated. This Project is being implemented by a local NGO -”Amigos de la Naturaleza” (Friends of Nature)- with support from WWF. Their aim is to protect a 19000 hectares of natural forest -90% of which still primary- from logging for coal production and clearing for cattle raising.
Bulletin articles
The Forest Stewardship Council has suspended the forest certification activities of SGS Forestry, an FSC-accredited pioneer of independent forestry assessments. The suspension may indicate a rift at FSC Board level. The decision was taken despite an earlier finding by the Council´s executive director Dr Tim Synnott that SGS had "identified and addressed" weaknesses in the West African Leroy-Gabon forestry operation.
Nnimmo Bassey, President of Oilwatch Africa, was detained on Sunday 26 October, when returning to Nigeria from the meeting of the International Committee of Oilwatch in Ecuador.
UPM-Kymmene of Finland and Singapore-based Asia Pacific Resources International Holdings Ltd.(APRIL), have agreed to establish a strategic alliance to develop jointly their respective fine paper operations in Europe and Asia. In Europe, UPM-Kymmene will hold 70% and APRIL 30% of a new company called UPM-Kymmene Fine Paper, which will comprise UPM-Kymmene's fine paper units, Nordland Papier in Germany and Kymi in Finland. This new company will be the largest fine paper producer in Europe with a combined annual capacity of 1.7 million tonnes of paper and 460,000 tonnes of related pulp.
Extensive mangrove areas at Pazhayangadi, Kannur District in Kerala, are under threat of logging. Local groups and activists have been taking legal steps like getting a stay order from the court and writing to various Government bodies on such destructive practises.
About 30 transnational corporations are in the process of developing projects for gold exploration and exploitation in Costa Rica. Included in this list of mining companies are the Canadian Placer Dome Inc. and American Barrick Gold, listed among the six largest gold mining corporations in the world.
The Rainforest Action Network is embarked on a new campaign to drive old growth wood products out of the marketplace. The term “old growth” refers to products derived by logging any primary forests worldwide.
The campaign started during World Rainforest Week '97 (October 18-26) with demonstrations and other activities taking place in every state in the United States and in other countries. Its goal is to project the vision that the planet's remaining primary forests -that in fact occupy a very limited area- must no longer be viewed as resource extraction zones.
Fulgencio Manuel da Silva, Brazilian union leader, and leader of dam-affected peoples' movement died in Recife on October 23 after having been shot the night before in Santa Maria da Boa Vista. Fulgencio had received death threats from drug traffickers in the region, for he had waged a crusade in favour of the farmers of the Sao Francisco River valley, and for the cease of the violence at the “caatinga”, the impoverished Northeastern region of the country.
In 1997, the Brazilian government defined its new policy strategy, in coordination with the recently launched “Brazil in Action” plan, regarding investments in infrastructure and new settlement and agricultural frontier in the Amazon region. The initiatives contained in the plan are designed to stimulate the expansion of the Mercosur (Southern Common Market, formed by Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay) and to improve conditions for increased exports to the northern hemisphere.
The Steering Committe of Oilwatch was meeting in Quito on October 21st, when it received news that a group of indigenous women from the province of Pastaza -who had walked to Ecuador’s capital to demonstrate against oil exploration in their territory by the state-owned Tripetrol corporation- was being repressed by the police. The steering committee immediately suspended its session and went to express its support to the protesting women.
In previous issues of our Bulletin (Nr. 2 of 10/7/97 and Nr. 4 of 8/9/97) we included information about the conflict at Imataca Rainforest Reserve, where concerned Venezuelan NGOs and citizens have been playing an important role.
On October 7 Suriname's Minister of Natural Resources and the Dutch Embassy to Suriname signed a contract worth US$30 million for the Forestry Production Control Project, intended to monitor logging activities by using mobile inspection units. This is one component of a larger project that will support reconstruction of the Forest Service's infrastructure that was destroyed in the Civil War (1986-92) and the establishment of a Timber Institute to control logging and promote investment in the Forestry Sector.