Forests are big news these days. Preventing deforestation will help us address climate change (at least if the carbon stored in the forests isn't traded, allowing emissions to continue elsewhere). Yet forests have never been under such serious threat.
Bulletin articles
For over a decade, the World Rainforest Movement has been denouncing that -by certifying large scale tree plantations- the FSC is greenwashing the destructive activities of plantation companies in Southern countries (for further information seehttp://www.wrm.org.uy/actors/FSC/index.html).
The indigenous people of Teluk Meranti in the Kampar Peninsula, Riau, Sumatra, are resisting efforts by a pulp and paper company to take over their customary lands.
An internal audit has revealed that the World Bank’s private sector arm – the International Finance Corporation (IFC) – has allowed commercial interests to override its social and environmental standards in making major loans to the oil palm sector in Indonesia.. The uncontrolled expansion of oil palm plantations in Indonesia has become synonymous with widespread clearance of forests and peatlands, massive CO2 emissions and the theft of indigenous peoples’ lands.
On the World Indigenous Peoples Day – 9th August 2009 – the Malaysian Indigenous Peoples Organisations Coalition called on for Malaysian State governments “to stop large-scale plantations and other extractive activities on our customary lands until effective measures to safeguard our rights and the environment are in place”.
On 1 August 2009, members of the Latin American Network against Monoculture Tree Plantations (RECOMA) met in the locality of Villa Serrana, Uruguay, to examine the reasons for the alarming expansion of monoculture tree plantations aimed at the production of charcoal, pulp, timber and agrofuels (agrodiesel and ethanol derived from wood), mainly intended for export.
The governments of some of the world’s most powerful countries (1) recently met in Italy and produced a document titled “Responsible Leadership for a Sustainable Future”. In their statement, they inform the world that they are “determined to ensure sustainable growth and to tackle the interlinked challenges of the economic crisis, poverty and climate change.”
Mangrove Action Project (MAP) has been working since 1992 to halt the rampant destruction of the earth's mangrove forest wetlands that are threatened by unsustainable development. Such industries as charcoal and petroleum production, tourism and urban expansion, golf courses and marinas are all threats to mangrove forests today. Still, the largest threat stems from industrial shrimp aquaculture production, which is the largest contributor to current mangrove loss.
The Muisne canton, province of Esmeraldas hosted the “First Meeting: Women of the Mangrove Ecosystem of Ecuador, our dreams, our rights, our challenges,” held in May this year.
Mangroves are “an original habitat and a specific environment” consisting of trees with aerial roots that bury themselves in the mud but also of other shrubs and tree-like bushes that are distinguished by their ability to adapt to the environment and particularly to water salinity. This explains the specific location of each species within the ecosystem, known as zonation.
Industrial shrimp farming has been a major cause of mangrove wetlands destruction in Bangladesh –some 45%- and has led to biodiversity loss as well as to the loss of livelihood for millions of people who have depended on mangroves.
One year ago, Judson Barros, Coordinator of the Piaui Environmental Network stated that “the south of Piaui has been destroyed, its rivers and streams poisoned to satisfy the voraciousness of some companies that seek easy profit through the destruction of ecosystems, with their coal, soybean, timber, castor-oil and eucalyptus activities. The wealth produced remains in the hands of a few people, while most of the population continues living but not enjoying the assets offered for free by Mother Nature.