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Dear friends, We would like to invite you to support the following action, which is being launched as part of the activities for the International Day Against Monoculture Tree Plantations. This action is being coordinated by our friends at CEPEDES in Brazil, who have been working for years to support and coordinate resistance to the expansion of monoculture eucalyptus plantations and the pulp mill owned by Veracel Celulose.

Brazil, September 2011, various organizations. Only available in Portuguese - Read the letter here

Based on a demand of our friends from Geasphere from Southern Africa, we are urging for an end to the financing of the establishment of eucalyptus and pine plantations in Mozambique which are causing negative impacts, especially land conflicts with peasant communities. The letter will be sent to the Global Solidarity Forest Fund which invests in these plantations.

As September 21, the International Day Against Monoculture Tree Plantations, draws ever closer, we continue to collect reflections, experiences and testimonies that capture the prodigious life of forests, so utterly different from the sterile uniformity of industrial tree plantations. Myths, legends and stories comprise a rich treasury of knowledge and collective observation that preserves essential and symbolic elements of everything of significance to human beings.

By the NGO Forum on Cambodia - Final Report. Field Investigations in Koh Kong, Kampong Speu, Pursat, Kampong Chhnang, Mondolkiri, Prey Veng and Svay Rieng Provinces. Download full document as pdf

The tribal villages of Surma and Golbojhi celebrated their liberation on the occasion of International Labour Day on May 1. The freedom came after 107 years of struggle when the tribals got ownership of the forestland they have been dependent on for centuries. Home to about 450 Tharu tribe families, the two forest villages are situated in the core zone of the Dudhwa National Park in Lakhimpur district of Uttar Pradesh (UP).

Women of South Asia working in several areas including health, nutrition, livelihood, environment,  gathered in Dhaka, Bangladesh on July 2 and 3, 2011, for the Third Annual Conference of SWAN (South Asia Women’s Network), which was dedicated to the theme of “Women of South Asia and the Green Economy”.

Only available in Spanish  - By Guadalupe Rodríguez, Salva la Selva.

Only available in Spanish - Por Guadalupe Rodríguez,  Salva la Selva El precio del oro está en alza por décimo año consecutivo, dado que inversores, operadores y bancos centrales lo han buscado como refugio seguro. Se espera que se mantenga esta tendencia. La posesión de oro da seguridad frente a la situación inestable de la economía global, por lo que todos desean el codiciado metal. Y esto tiene consecuencias. Download full document here

We are pleased to announce that we have received a number of translations of the short video we produced to graphically illustrate the mistaken view behind FAO’s definition of forests.

By Blessing Karumbidza and Wally Menne - The Timberwatch Coalition This study dissects a tree plantation carbon sink project at Idete in the Southern Highlands of Tanzania. The Norwegian company that owns the project, Green Resources Ltd, aims to register the project under the CDM (Clean Development Mechanism) so as to be able to generate carbon credits to sell to the Norwegian government.

This year has been declared the International Year of Forests by the United Nations. In response, WRM has initiated a campaign that challenges the definition of “forest” used by FAO. Among other activities, we have drafted the following letter, for which we are seeking signatures from scientists and professionals in different fields related to the study of nature. The letter will be presented to FAO this coming September 21, the International Day Against Monoculture Tree Plantations.