On 9 July 2008 the Brazilian Senate adopted a provision by the Executive known as a “provisional measure,” subject to the subsequent approval of the Legislative. The provision has been harshly questioned by environmentalists and various political and social sectors in Brazil, including the former Minister of the Environment, Senator Marina Silva.
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The “Los Haitises National Park” located between the Provinces of Samana, Monte Plata and Hato Mayor, has been classed as a protected area since 1976. Its distinctive features as a subtropical rainforest make it not only an important sanctuary for the country’s native flora and fauna but also the most important expression of Caribbean mangroves.
On 10-12 June 2009, adivasis, forest workers and other forest dwellers from 16 states of India held a conference on ‘Resisting commodification of Forests; Establishing community governance over forest resources’. After discussing and debating they united in a strong message called the ‘Dehradun Declaration 2009’.
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 see http://wrm.org.uy/browse-by-subject/international-processes-and-actors/fsc/). More importantly, WRM has stressed that by doing so, the FSC is undermining local peoples’ struggles against monoculture tree plantations.
The plans for the establishment of jatropha plantations aimed at the production of biodiesel are based on the alleged availability of “barren and degraded” lands in the country. Within government there is a belief that large areas within forests are wastelands, including degraded forests, pasture and grazing lands, and under-stocked forest land that could be used for jatropha plantation.
BIDCO, the largest and fastest growing manufacturer of vegetable oils, fats, margarine, soaps and protein concentrates in East and Central Africa is investing in a multi-million dollar oil palm plantation on Bugala islands in Kalangala. The company counts with investment partners including Archer Daniels Midlands of America, Wilmar Group of Malaysia and Josovina of Singapore.
Monoculture tree plantations continue to advance over the Uruguayan grasslands and now occupy almost one million hectares of land that was previously assigned to the production of food.
“Eucalyptus is the perfect neoliberal tree. It grows quickly, turns a quick profit in the global market and destroys the earth.”—Jaime Aviles, La Jornada
Australia like all colonial countries was founded upon the theft of indigenous peoples land. However in Australia, the authorities took the theft one step further by declaring the continent to be ‘Terra Nullius’, meaning an empty land or a land belonging to nobody. Terra Nullius guaranteed indigenous people no legal rights, for how could they have rights if legally they did not exist?
In the remote Cambodian province of Mondulkiri, the villagers of Busra feel their future fragile and uncertain since the Cambodian government has decided to grant an economic concession to a project of rubber plantation on their ancestral lands. Some of them have sold their land thinking that money was the only reliable thing they could get after months and months of defiance and mistrust.