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WRM ACTION
ALERTS
DECEMBER 1999
Indigenous peoples are being threatened by pending forest concessions |
| Indigenous peoples in the Alta Piedras region of Madre de Dios in Peru, namely the Mashco Piro, Yora, Amahuaca, and Yaminahua peoples, are being threatened by pending forest concessions. These peoples have chosen to remain in isolation from Peruvian society and their way of life, as well as health and natural resources will be severely impacted by logging in this region. The Peruvian government will decide on the licensing of the concessions sometime at the end of December. We ask you to please take a moment to urge President Fujimori and other officials to prevent the licensing of these concessions. Sample letter: Ing. Alberto Fujimori, Presidente de la Republica, Fax: (511)
426-6770 Dear Sirs: We write to express our grave concern regarding the licensing
of forest The concessions to international logging companies in the Alta Piedras region will have a devastating impact on the Mashco Piro, Yora, Amahuaca, and Yaminahua peoples who remain in voluntary isolation from Peruvian society. We understand that one transnational logging company has already begun construction of a 180 kilometer road into the region and that there have already been confrontations with one of the uncontacted peoples of the area. In addition to threatening the natural resources which sustain indigenous communities, logging operations will inevitable expose these peoples to new diseases and violence that could cause great suffering. We remember the Kugapakori-Nahuas of the Urubamba and Manu basins who lost half of their community members in violent confrontations with loggers and petroleum workers. The Mashco Piro, Amahuaca, Yaminahua, and Yora peoples' lives depend upon the forest and they protect it and all of its wealth. For these reasons above, we strongly urge you to prevent the licensing of concessions in the forests of Alta Piedras and seriously consider the Operative Plan for defining and protecting the ancestral territories of the indigenous people in this region put forth by the Federacion Nativa de Madre de Dios (FENAMAD). Yours Sincerely, Cc: |
| The last Primeval Forest in the Central European Lowlands needs your help! The proposed enlargement of the world famous Bialowieza Forest National Park from 105 to 600 square kilometers is seriously threatened: The National Forest around the current National Park just obtained the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certificate. This could mean that the Polish Ministry of Environment and Forests plans to continue timber use in this forest. Two years ago the same Ministry promised to declare the entire forest as National Park and thus protect the ancient trees and stands of primeval forest in the woods around the current National Park. The decision-making for or against the National Park enlargement might take place very soon. It is expected that Parliament will follow the proposal of the Ministry of Environment and Forests. Your opinion could be critcal, please send a polite letter and fax to the adress in the letter sample below. Letterheads and signatures of environmental organizations, scientific institutes or touristic groups could help to emphasize the importance of your letter/fax. Please send a copy of your letter or a short e-mail notice as reference to: Society for Bialowieza Forest Protection (TOPB) LETTER SAMPLE Mr Marian Cieslak Director of Department of Forestry, Nature Protection and
Landscape (DLOPiK) Dear Mr. Cieslak, We would like to express our deep concern about the fate of Bialowieza Forest. We are impatiently waiting for the National Park to be enlarged to cover the whole forest complex. The entity of Bialowieza Forest represents the last large complex of natural and seminatural forests of the Central European lowland. Its extremly high conservation value and importance is internationally well known. Already two years ago, the Polish Minister for Environment, Resource Management and Forestry declared officially, that the National Park enlargement to the whole Bialowieza Forest is the goal of the Ministry?s policy. National and international organisations and institutions, such as the Polish National Council for Nature Conservation, the Polish Academy of Sciences PAN, the Coalition for Bialowieza Forest Protection, WWF and IUCN gave their opinions in favour of a National Park enlargement. According to our information by the Society for Bialowieza Forest Protection (TOPB), the Regional Forestry Department of Bialystok (RDLP Bialystok), that is responsible for Bialowieza Forest, is actually granted the Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC) certificat. Although we hereby congratulate to this decision for sustainable timber production in the exploited forests of Bialystok region, we are very concerned about the possible negative effect on National Park enlargement. We are irritated about the information, that the FSC argument was misused to fight the National Park idea, even more than two weeks before FSC certificat really was granted. FSC is meant as a label for "sustainable timpber production" to minimise environmental damages by destructive forestry methods. As such, FSC focuses on exploited forests with the purpose of economic benefit by timber production. The FSC certificat can by no means replace a National Park! Bialowieza Forest as a precious natural world heritage should not be regarded as a timber production site. It has to be maintained with the focus on ancient forest conservation, including acceptance of natural processes, and hence deserves the status of a National Park. Please make sure that all of the Bialowieza Forest obtains protection as a National Park this year. We would greatly appreciate to be informed about your further activities in this matter. Yours sincerely, |
| Gerson de Souza Melo (a leader of the Pataxo Ha Ha Hai indigenous group) has been arrested as a result of his indigenous rights activities. He was arrested without a warrant while he was returning from a special session of the Bahian Legislative Assembly's Human Rights Commission during which he had denounced the current conflict between the Pataxo and military police regarding the legal status of their territory. Please send letters expressing your concern to: Minister of Justice Bahia State Governor Bahia Public Security Secretary With copies to: FUNAI (Fundacao Nacional do Indio - National Indian
Foundation) Indigenous Rights Organization Ambassador Rubens Barbosa Sample letter: Exmo. Sr. Ministro da Justica do Brasil 20/12/99 Your Excellency: We are writing to you to express our deep concern at the apparent arbitary arrest of Gerson de Souza Melo. He has been arrested solely as a result of his indigenous rights activist. We call for his immediate release, and for a prompt and independent investigation into allegations that members of the Pataxo Ha Ha Hai were attacked and beaten by military police during an eviction operation on November the 17th. , and 12 of them were ill treated in detention following the eviction operation. We are also concern about the risk of violence of the Pataxo communities and we call for federal police to be dispatched to the area in order to prevent furthur conflicts between Pataxo communities and the state police. Finally, we would like to highlight that the indigenous groups are particullary vulnerable to violent attacks where there is uncertainty regarding the legal status of their territory. We call upon the authorities to end this uncertainty by completing the legalisation of the Pataxo territory without further delay. Yours sincerely, |
| The Urra hydroelectric dam megaproject on the Sinu River, at the Cordoba Department in the Atlantic region of Colombia has provoked concern and resistance since its very start in 1977. The Embera Katio indigenous people, ancestral dwellers of the affected area, who live on fishing and hunting, and whose livelihoods and existence are severely menaced by this project are fighting an unequal battle against both the company Urra and the Colombian government which openly supports it. More than 7,000 hectares of forests will be flooded by the dam reservoir of the projected dam, whose total cost will reach the sum of U$S 800 million. In spite of the conclusions of two decisions of the Constitutional High Court of Colombia, the filling up of URRA 1 dam on the Sinu River began last 20 November, following Resolution 0965 of the Ministry of the Environment. This situation constitutes both an environmental catastrophe and a genocide. Downstream from the dam, the river level has already decreased dramatically, resulting in the collapse of the river's banks and the entailing destruction of the peoples' houses. The most valuable fish for the Embera's diet -a species called "bocachico"- is massively dying in the suddenly drying wetlands. At the same time, the Embera Katio indigenous peoples living upstream are powerless to prevent the flooding of their fields, sacred sites, cemeteries and houses, with the consequent destruction of their traditional culture. The violation of the indigenous peoples' environmental rights is accompanied by that of their and their supporters' human rights. Many of such violations have ocurred since the starting of project in 1977. Most of the more prominent opponents of the project -Embera Katio leaders, fishermen representatives, scientists and intellectuals, advisers of the indigenous people- have been either murdered, threatened or forced into exile. Almost two hundred Embera Katio have begun a 700-kilometer march on foot to Bogota from the Alto Sinu area to demand the immediate suspension of the dam works and to protest against the permanent insecurity and violence that menaces them. Another group of 40 Embera Katio families, composed by some 200 women, men and children, moved to an area facing imminent flooding by the Urra 1 hydroelectric dam and began settling in for a long-term occupation to accompany the 20 families who have been traditionally living in the site. Another 50 families are expected to join them. The Embera Katio are also asking supporters from outside their community to participate in the occupation. The Embera Katio indigenous peoples, together with the communities of fisherfolk and farmers living in the Sinu River basin are asking for solidarity and request supporters to publicly denounce these facts to the Colombian authorities, urging them to immediately stop the works in accordance with the two relevant decisions of the Constitutional Court, and to undertake the necessary steps to effectively protect biodiversity and indigenous peoples' rights in Colombia. You can send your messages to: President Andres Pastrana Environment Minister Juan Mayr |
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Between 70 and 80% of Nigeria's original forests have disappeared and nowadays the area of its territory occupied by forests is reduced to 12%, even if the entire country is located in the humid tropics. All of the country's remaining primary rainforest watersheds, covering about 7,000 km2, are located in Cross River state. This region also contains 1,000 km2 of mangrove and swamp forest, being oil exploitation an important cause of their degradation and destruction. Commercial logging and hunting of wildlife are important threats to Nigerian primary rainforest and its dependent species. Cross River state is very rich in biodiversity. It harbours several species of primates, migratory and resident birds, and 950 species of butterflies -a quarter of the number to be found in tropical Africa- 100 of which are endemic. Many of Africa's rarest trees, such as mahogany, ironwood, camwood and mimosup, grow in this forest, that is connected to a larger forest area in neighbouring Cameroon. Exports of roundwood of valuable species -such as afzelia (Afzelia africana), ekki, idigbo (Terminalia ivorensis), obeche, and teak (Tectona grandis)- to Europe, the USA and Japan is depleting Cross River's forests. Social aspects concerning the region are also relevant. NGOCE -a coalition of Cross River conservation groups- is promoting activities for a sustainable use of the forests to the benefit of the local dwellers, as an alternative to the present depredation by foreign actors. Among them: education programmes for the local communities regarding the importance of a healthy forest to their self-sufficient lifestyle, assistance to the communities in developing alternative income-generating projects that will alleviate pressure on the forest, and support to fundraising efforts and provision of technical assistance to NGOs. Recently Cross River state's new Governor, Mr. Donald Duke, suspended all forest logging concessions that were granted under the previous administration. The cancellation of logging licenses is connected with the reckless manner in which the forest reserves had been exploited and a response to the continuous demands of environmental and social NGOs, as the above named NGOCE. An international campaign is in course aimed at supporting these conservation efforts. Those interested in contributing to it can address Cross River's Governor, asking him to permanently revoke WEMPCO's forest concessions and wood processing permits, which are currently a major threat to the state's rainforest. Hong Kong-based WEMPCO plans to log and export hundreds of thousands of board-feet of Nigerian lumber. Indicate that sustainable, small-scale, diversified community businesses are far healthier for communities and their economies than cut-and-run export schemes, and that tree monocultures absolutely cannot replace complex and rich forest ecosystems. Your messages are to be send to: Mr. Donald Duke |
The future of the Chachi indigenous people and their forests |
| Mache-Chindul rainforests and mangroves, located in the Province of Esmeraldas in the Ecuadorian Pacific region hold high levels of biodiversity. Additionally, this province is a multicultural complex formed by different ethnic groups -indigenous, black and "mestizos", as the Chachi, the Emperas, the Awa, Afro-Esmeraldian population and landless peasants who arrived there as colonists expelled from other regions of the country. For about three decades the province has been suffering a deforestation and forest degradation process: in 1958 there were 2,750,000 hectares of forests and nowadays only 500,000 remain, having the rest been transformed into agricultural or pasture lands. The forests of Mache-Chindul are part of these relicts, most of which are located in the indigenous Chachi territory, occupying an area of some 18,000 hectares. The communities of San Salvador, Balzar and Chorrera Grande, together with more than 30 scattered colonists' settlements live there. When the first Chachi families arrived there, in the decade of 1930, the area was completely void. Until the end of the 60s the Chachi lived in relative isolation, using the rivers for transportation, and developing sustainable production practices based on shifting agriculture, hunting, fishing, handicraft production and the gathering of products from the forest. A colonization process started in the decade of 1970, being its agents the poor peasants displaced from their original lands. Later on, the situation increasingly worsened because of the expansion of banana cultivation, logging and further land invasions. The ensuing confrontation over land was very violent and on June 22 1988 the Chachi Lorenzo Anapa was murdered. As time went by the situation became more and more serious. On August 7 this year another murder occurred: that of a Chachi youth -Norberto Anapa de la Cruz- from the community of San Salvador to the hands of still unidentified colonists which had invaded the indigenous territory. Additionally, it has been denounced that displaced peasants from the neighbouring Province of Manabi are harassing members of the Chachi communities by destroying their crops, stealing their cattle and even assaulting them in the roads of the area. This situation of every day violence that the Chachi are undergoing is not just the sum of isolated events. From the beginning of the present decade they are suffering an aculturization process caused by their forced integration into the commercial circuit, which has led them to increase use pressure on their forests. At the same time, the continuous advance of land invasion and colonization has undermined their material basis of existence and weakened their traditional way of life. In Ecuador successive governments have completely disregarded the protection of the environment and natural resources as well as the safeguard of indigenous peoples. The Chachi have also been abandoned to their fate. Direct and indirect causes that give way by this state of affairs are not addressed and no steps are taken to halt the violence that the Chachi have been suffering for years. Only initiatives from civil society have been undertaken in order to make coexistence possible between colonists and indigenous peoples -both victims of the present situation- in a framework of sustainability. Nevertheless, such efforts are not enough and will not work if the authorities continue to ignore the problem. To express your solidarity with the struggle of the Chachi people you can address the following Ecuadorian authorities, asking them to put an end to the present situation and to investigate the recent murder: Crnl. E.M. Dr. Wladimir Alvarez |
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