Curitiba,
2006
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The member organizations of
the Latin American Network against Monoculture Tree Plantations
deem it advisable to transmit to the Conference of the Parties to
the Convention on Biological Diversity meeting in Curitiba, Brazil,
their concern over the continuous substitution of ecosystems rich
in biodiversity by monoculture plantations of eucalyptus, pine and
other exotic species, in particular in the countries of the South.
Fourteen years have gone by
since the governments committed themselves, in this same country,
to implement measures to protect biodiversity. Since then hundreds
of national reports have been prepared showing the advance of deforestation,
the substitution of forests and grasslands by large scale monoculture
tree plantations and the consequent loss of biodiversity. These
documents have been analysed at numerous international meetings
and national processes. However, the advance of these monoculture
plantations continues with the support of many governments –
from the North and from the South – that have participated
in this Convention, such as in the case of the recently adopted
General Forestry Law in Colombia.
There are increasingly more local communities and indigenous peoples
who find themselves forced to oppose the monoculture tree plantations
that are attacking their environment, their resources and their
biodiversity in countries such as Chile, Ecuador, Argentina, Uruguay,
Colombia and Brazil. The recent action taken by 2,000 peasant women
against the Aracruz Celulosa nursery in Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil),
clearly shows the level of rejection that this forestry model generates
and the need for governments and this Convention to adopt measures
to prevent this type of socially and environmentally negative monoculture
from continuing its expansion.
At previous meetings, this Convention
affirmed that biodiversity continues to be destroyed and that “response
has been too scarce, too little and too late.” The ministers
engaged themselves to “pass from dialogue to action,”
and to “the full implementation” of the Working Programme
on Forests. They even admitted that agreements on trade were contradictory
to the conservation of forest biodiversity and in consequence set
out the need to achieve “synergies and mutual support between
the CBD and international trade agreements,” in particular
with the World Trade Organization.
However, none of this has been
expressed by action due to the lack of political will to pass from
words to deeds. Economic interest has prevailed over the commitments
taken on regarding biodiversity conservation. The countries of the
South destroy their forests to increase their exports aimed at paying
off their foreign debt and achieving a type of “development”
increasingly distant from being reached. The countries of the North
benefit from this destruction by obtaining cheap raw material –
timber, pulp, minerals, oil, agricultural goods – and financial
benefits from their investments in the South resulting in forest
destruction.
In this context, this Convention continues without making a clear
determination against monoculture tree plantations and in fact,
continues to assume that they are “planted forests”
thus concealing the essentially destructive nature of these large
scale plantations. At the same time, the Convention on Climate Change
promotes monoculture tree plantations of this type even further
under the false assumption that they are “carbon sinks”
and therefore help to counteract climate change.
To make matters worse, the biotechnology
industry has already entered into the business of transgenic trees
to make them grow faster, to make them more resistant to herbicides,
to lessen the lignin content in the wood and thus increase profitability
of the pulp industry. In spite of the fact that the liberation of
transgenic trees implies a clear threat to forest biodiversity and
in spite of the fact that their use will worsen the impacts of monoculture
tree plantations, this Convention continues without making a clear
pronouncement against them.
Consequently, the Latin American
Network against Monoculture Tree Plantations appeals to this Convention
to:
1) Clearly define forests,
excluding from such definition large-scale monoculture tree plantations.
2) Include the substitution
of natural ecosystems by monoculture tree plantations as one of
the main causes of the loss of biodiversity.
3) Ban the transgenic
trees release.
