In response to the global economic crisis that erupted late last year, Chilean President Michelle Bachelet has announced a series of measures to foster job creation and economic recovery. One of the most surprising measures is the decision to temporarily increase the subsidies granted to tree plantations under Decree Law 701.
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Eucalyptus plantations have become a harsh issue for Chinese farmers of the villages north of the city of Hepu in the province of Guangxi, south of China. Their collective land has been expropriated to make way for monoculture tree plantations.
Behind the move is the Finnish-Swedish forestry giant Stora Enso, that plans to lease 180,000 hectares of land for half a century to plant eucalyptus that will feed the company’s pulp mill near the city of Beihai.
Back in 2003, we said that “using the term reforestation for the establishment of a monoculture tree plantation has historically conferred on this type of activity all of the positive characteristics that people rightly associate with a forest, although this is far from the actual reality” (Ambientico magazine, issue 123, December 2003,www.una.ac.cr/ambi/Ambien-Tico/123).
In comparison, Guatemala is a relatively small country but it is very rich in biodiversity. The country is located in the Meso-American* region, the centre of origin of traditional maize and bean landraces, as well as of various species of pumpkins among others.
The Southern African organization GeaSphere has produced the online video “Earth Matters” which can be viewed (in two parts) athttp://www.wrm.org.uy/Videos/Earth_Matters.html
On International Women’s Day in Brazil, once again women lead the struggle against monoculture tree plantations.
Starting in 2006, when close on 2 thousand peasant women from Via Campesina destroyed greenhouses and nearly 8 million eucalyptus saplings belonging to the pulp mill company Aracruz Celulose (see WRM Bulletin No. 104), 8 March has now become a day for mobilization and complaints against monoculture tree plantations.
The entrance of China into the global capitalist market with the ensuing accelerated expansion of its economy has been marked by a growing hunger for timber.
Thirty-one families from the districts of Lichinga and Sanga in northern Mozambique have not been able to harvest any crops this 2008/2009 season due to their obligatory withdrawal from their crop areas (machambas) to other new areas because of a “reforestation” megaproject. The inhabitants are blaming the reforestation projects for the devastation of their machambas.
In 1999, shortly after he was elected, President Hugo Chávez received a letter from WRM (seehttp://www.wrm.org.uy/bulletin/22/Venezuela2.html) in which we expressed our deep concern over the serious impacts on peasant communities in the state of Portuguesa generated by the monoculture tree plantations operated by Smurfit Cartón de Venezuela (a subsidiary of the Smurfit Kappa Group, a leading producer of cardboard for the European market)
April 17 has been declared by La Via Campesina the “International Day of Peasant’s Struggles” to commemorate the slaughter by the Brazilian police in 1996 of 19 peasants of the “landless” movement while they mobilized to get access to some land.
The land issue has becoming a major one in Brasil and the Movement of Landless Rural Workers MST have been very active.
If after reading the above articles you (as a woman within an organization, as a member of a women’s movement, as an activist on human rights issues, as an environmentalist, as a journalist, as a member of a consumer’s association, as a campaigner on climate issues, trade issues, health issues, etc) are wondering what you can do to start making changes to the current situation, we have some ideas that we hope may be of use.
WRM has a special section on Women, Forests and Plantations in its web site, which can be accessed at http://www.wrm.org.uy/subjects/women.html