By Elder Andrade de Paula
On the eve of another world conference on the environment – Rio+20 – which places emphasis on the climate crisis, we are witnessing major efforts by the centres of world power to promote a discussion with no real discussions. The worn-out model of “sustainable development”, now recycled under the new name of “green economy”, is being put forward as the only alternative to “save the planet”.
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“Sustainable on Paper”, a documentary film by journalists An-Katrien Lecluyse and Leopold Broers released in Belgium in 2011, is now available on the internet. The film broadly denounces the FSC certification of plantations owned by one of the biggest eucalyptus and pulp companies in Brazil, Veracel Celulosa, a joint venture of Brazilian-based Fibria and Swedish-Finnish transnational Stora Enso.
On September 21, the International Day against Monoculture Tree Plantations, organizations, networks and movements around the world celebrated the annual resistance campaign that continues to grow every year demanding to stop the expansion of monoculture tree plantations, which threaten the sovereignty of our peoples.
Here follow some activities registered by WRM.
International
On 15 and 16 September, representatives of community networks from northeastern Thailand gathered in Bangkok to protest against the Xayaburi hydropower dam, whose construction on the mainstream of the Mekong River in the territory of Laos is being strongly pushed.
The traditional communities known as geraizeiras at the Vale do Guará Settlement, in the town of Rio Pardo de Minas, north of Minas Gerais, denounce that an airplane spraying poison on a major eucalyptus plantation has hit the community, intoxicating 30 people, including children, elderly, youth and adults. They felt nausea, fever, vomit and itching skin. Airplane spraying is increasingly common in Brazil – the world's champion in pesticide use.
Press release - International Day Against Monoculture Tree Plantations.
On September 21, the International Day against Monoculture Tree Plantations, organizations, networks and movements around the world celebrated the annual resistance campaign that continues to grow every year demanding to stop the expansion of monoculture tree plantations, which threaten the sovereignty of our peoples.
Here follow some activities registered by WRM.
International
ACTION ALERT - THE PHILIPPINES
The indigenous peoples (Higaonons) and peasants of Opol in Misamis Oriental in Southern Philippines are currently struggling against land grabbing resulting from a monoculture oil palm plantation, promoted by the A Brown Company, Inc (ABCI). Since the beginning of the plantation’s operations, Higaonons and other villagers have experienced severe human rights violations such as forced eviction, illegal arrest, strafing and harassment.
Declaration by the Latin American Network Against Monoculture Tree Plantations
September 21, 2012
ACTION ALERT - GABON
As many countries in Africa, Gabon is facing an alarming rate of expansion of oil palm and rubber plantations. The government has given the Singapore based company Olam 300,000 hectares of land to establish monoculture tree plantations.
The Japanese paper-making company Oji Paper Group runs a paper mill in Nantong, East China, and had plans to build a pipeline for wastewater discharge from the mill. However, in July, thousands of residents in the neighbouring coastal city of Qidong took to the streets in protest amid growing concerns over the pollution the project would cause. They feared that wastewater containing contaminants and toxic matter would be dumped into the sea, polluting the area and killing the local fish stock. The pipeline would discharge around 150,000 tons of wastewater per day.
A short animated film about the takeover of nature by financial markets and the real alternatives coming up from civil society. An initiative of SOMO, European ATTAC Network, Food & Water Europe, Friends of the Earth, Carbon Trade Watch, WEED, Ecologistas en Acción, AITEC and Campagna per la riforma della Banca Mondiale.
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