An international workshop on "Business responsibility for environmental protection in developing countries" took place in Costa Rica on September 22-24 1997. WRM International Coordinator Ricardo Carrere made a presentation on "The environmental and social effects of corporate environmentalism in the Brazilian market pulp industry." The aim of the paper was to compare the "green" discourse of the five main market pulp firms with reality at the local level, including social and environmental impacts of large scale tree plantations and pulp production.
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On August 12th representatives of the Tupinikim and Guarani, the federal deputies Nilton Baiano and Joao Coser and CIMI held an audience with the Executive Secretary of the Ministry of Justice Mr. Jose de Jesus Filho, to claim once again the delimitation of the boundaries of indigenous lands. During the audience, the representative of the Brazilian government asked about the possiblity of an exchange and/or a reduction of the claimed lands, with the aim of not jeopardizing the activities of Aracruz Celulose S.A. (ARCEL) and even questioned about the necessity of the claimed lands.
Once again Sarawak natives have been victims of violent actions from the Police: on June 25, 42 Dayak-Ibans -among them 9 women- were arrested at Miri, for resisting the oil palm plantation that is to be implemented within their customary land area. Some of them were even brutally harassed and assaulted by the Police, which caused them physical damages. The Police found it difficult to find any legal reason to accuse them. However, brought to court, the Magistrate ordered them to sign a bond of peace for six months.
To all our friends,
We are writing to all of you from inside the above prison to tell you of our suffering and how we had ended up here. On 24th June 1997 we met with Surveyors from the Sarawak land and Survey Department who came to survey our native Customary Land in Upper Teru River, Tinjar, Baram, Miri Division, Sarawak, Malaysia for an oil palm plantation company to implement an oil palm plantation scheme which was against our consent.
As part of the Plantations Campaign to be launched soon, we have thought that it would be very useful to have a video on the issue. The idea is that the video would be used as an important campaign tool (accompanied by a script translated into English, French, Spanish and Portuguese, which could also be translated into many other local languages). A close friend from an NGO (Hilary Sandison from Imagenes) is willing to seek for funds and to produce a video according to our needs.
In our last Bulletin we informed about the inprisonment of 42 Dayak-Ibans at Miri for resisting the expansion of oil palm plantations in their customary lands and disseminated their letter from Lambir Miri Central Prison. We are now pleased to inform that all of them have been freed.
On July 7 a group consisting of 11 persons was bailed by their wives and relatives who were worried about their health. One of them -Mangagat Ak Bukong- was sent to hospital due to severe chest pains, while the others are seeking medical treatment as a consequence of the violence suffered in jail.
Even if the Minister of Justice devoted just a few minutes to meet with Indigenous Peoples' delegates and representatives of CIMI on July 15th, they were able to hand him 3800 signatures from 29 countries expressing support to their struggle. A meeting with the undersecretary was arranged for August 12th. In the meantime, Aracruz does not seem to change its attitude towards Indigenous claims.
On April 17th we sent a letter to the Primer Minister and to the Inspector General of Police in Malaysia on the arrest and ill-treatment suffered by four Penan natives, who were claiming against the destructive activities of a logging company (probably Samling). On April 30th messages were sent to the Chief Minister of Sarawak and to the Prime Minister of Malaysia expressing our concern for the arrest of three members of the Dayak Ibans people happened a few days before and requesting that the legitimous rights of indigenous peoples of Sarawak be respected.
Thanks to the letter campaign and the pressure from Brazilian and international organizations and institutions, FUNAI (the State Agency on Indigenous Peoples issues) published in the official gazette -with considerable delay- the identification reports on the extension and demarcation of the indigenous lands of Tupinikim and Guarani on January 13th. Eight days later Aracruz Celulose filed its response, aimed at proving that the company is the legitimate owner of the land presently claimed by the Tupinikim.
Saskia has prepared a draft plan for the plantations campaign. As tools for the campaign, we already have an excellent summary of "Pulping the South", produced by PER (Noel Rajesh). We have also translated (though not yet published) the whole book into Spanish and will also translate Rajesh's summary. Anyone interested in the summary, please let us know and we will send it.
The Oxford Office was actively involved in the preparation of a European NGO statement for the Intergovernmental Panel on Forests. The International Secretariat, with input from the Oxford Office, released a WRM statement also for the IPF (see English and Spanish versions at the end of the Bulletin).
REPORT OF THE UNITED NATIONS CONFERENCE ON ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT
(Rio de Janeiro, 3-14 June 1992)
Annex III
NON-LEGALLY BINDING AUTHORITATIVE STATEMENT OF PRINCIPLESFOR A GLOBAL CONSENSUS ON THE MANAGEMENT, CONSERVATION AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF ALL TYPES OF FORESTS
PREAMBLE