Bulletin articles

 

  Millions of hectares of industrial oil palm plantations have been expanding in many countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America with a well documented history of tropical deforestation –including enormous fires- and a sad toll of human rights violations. However, the powerful interests behind this business continue actively promoting this crop, against a background of growing opposition at the local level.

 

  Hevea brasilensis, known as the Pará rubber tree or, most commonly, the rubber tree, is native to South America. It is the member of the genus Hevea most frequently exploited industrially, as the milky latex extracted from the tree is the primary source of natural rubber.

(Photo: Greenpeace International) Mangroves, which are a type of forest, could be considered the most forgotten or invisible tropical forests on the planet. And their inhabitants, in turn, could be the most forgotten or invisible of the communities who directly depend on forests for their survival.

In June 2013, delegates from Brazil, Cuba, Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras, Peru, Venezuela and Guatemala joined together in Monterrico, Guatemala for the 6th Meeting of the Board of Directors of Redmanglar Internacional for the Defence of Marine Coastal Territories and Community Life.

The community of Isla Chicales, located in the municipality of Nueva Concepción in the department of Escuintla, is made up of 140 families who benefit directly and indirectly from fishing and other activities in the mangrove ecosystem where they live. Several years ago, when they observed signs of the degradation of the ecosystem, they undertook action and measures for its conservation, including community-based regulation of fishing and hunting, and reforestation in the degraded areas of the mangrove forest.

Brazil’s coasts are seriously threatened by a range of large-scale projects. The privatization of waterbodies, concessions over public waters for free to big consumers, and installation of fish farms are some of the activities that are endangering the mangroves and the livelihoods of local communities.

(Photo: C-Condem) The décima is a poetic form that has been used for many years as a tool of protest by Afro-Ecuadorians, who keep this cultural traditional alive while denouncing the trampling of their rights by greedy and powerful interests like the shrimp farming industry and others that are destroying the mangroves.

The shrimp industry has boomed over the last 20 years as the result of production on large industrial shrimp farms, which have devastating impacts on mangroves as well as causing countless human rights violations against the people who live in and depend on these ecosystems.

According to The World's Mangroves 1980-2005 (FAO 2007), Indonesia has the largest mangrove area in the world in terms of the extent of the region. However, the condition of mangroves has declined both in quality and quantity from year to year. In 1982, Indonesia's mangrove forests covered an area of 4,25 million ha, while in 2009 it was estimated to be less than 1,9 million ha (KIARA, 2010).

(Photo: SSNC) The negative patterns of land grabbing and intimidation recorded by a Swedish Society for Nature Conservation (SSNC) investigating team in shrimp farming areas around Khulna, Bangladesh clearly affect entire families whose lands and livelihoods have been destroyed.