WRM Action Alerts - November 2000

Sign-on Letter to World Bank on Sardar Sarovar Project

DEMAND WORLD BANK ASSUME RESPONSIBILITY FOR SARDAR SAROVAR PROJECT
Endorsements Needed by Friday - December 1, 2000!

Please endorse the letter below demanding that the World Bank assume responsibility for its role in the destructive Sardar Sarovar Project in India. This project will displace at least 320,000 people and destroy the lives and livelihoods of hundreds of thousands more. On October 18, the Indian Supreme Court authorized renewed construction on the project despite the fact that there is no land available for resettlement and no resettlement plans or comprehensive environmental impact assessments have been completed.

Although the World Bank withdrew from the project in 1993, the Bank is still legally obligated to make sure the Indian government complies with the conditions of the original loan agreements. These conditions require that a proper resettlement plan and environmental impact assessment are carried out. The Bank approved the project in 1985 despite glaring violations of its own guidelines and dispersed $280 million before cancelling its loan.

Click here to read the letter to World Bank.

Please send here your endorsement **BY FRIDAY, DEC. 1**

President of Ecuador vetoes "Trole Bus III" Law passed by Congress

Last Friday afternoon, October 27; the President of Ecuador, Gustavo Novoa, vetoes (veto presidencial) the decision of Congress which withdrew article 164 that gives the president the authority to sell the country's mangroves. The Congress took that decision because the article was against the National Constitution.

The President announced that he refused the proposal of the Congress because the prohibition to sell the mangroves was a barrier against foreign investment.

With that decision, the President has now all the power to do that he wants with the Ecuadorian mangroves.

According to some local analists, including the National Coordinator to Defend Mangroves and Greenpeace, the final intention of that article (164) of the Law Trole Bus II is that all the shrimp ponds built in national lands (lands with mangrove ecosystems) become privatised lands and that owners could receive credits and other advantages that they need in this moment when White Spot Virus and other problems are affecting shrimp production. Moreover, mangrove ecosystems will be more threatened by shrimp industry which is looking for new and virgin areas to use trying to avoid the White Spot
Virus. The shrimp industry will now have all the mangrove area in their hands.

Only the power of local communities and national and international pressure could stop the irrational goal of that article of the law Trole Bus II.

PLEASE ACT NOW. IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT ALL OF YOU TAKE A TIME TO WRITE TO THE PRESIDENT OF ECUADOR. Click here to read and send sample letter

e-mails you need:
President of Ecuador, Gustavo Noboa Bejarano
despresi@presidencia.ec-gov.net

With cc. to the Ministries.
llerenaa@presidencia.ec-gov.net
rrendon@ambiente.gov.ec
despacho1@micip.gov.ec
jmaguirrec@hotmail.com

Please, send faxes to:

Presidencia de la República +593 2 580774
Ministerio del Ambiente +593 2 565809
Ministerio de Gobierno +593 2 580067
Ministerio de Defensa +593 2 580431

Sign-on letter to the World Bank on its ‘Forest Policy Implementation Review and Strategy Development’

The undersigned Indigenous Peoples and NGOs tracking the World Bank’s ‘Forest Policy Implementation Review and Strategy Development’

Considering that:

destructive forestry practices continue to have severe social and environmental impacts and deny the rights of forest-dependent peoples;
the contribution of industrial forestry to poverty alleviation has been negligible;
as much as half of all timber extracted in southern and transition countries is harvested or traded illegally;
forestry malpractice is a major contributor to corruption, bad governance, social injustice and human rights abuse;
our global future, including a healthy climate, clean air and water, our spiritual well-being, cultural and biological diversity, and sustainable economies, depend on healthy forests;
it is vital to safeguard forests and the rights of their inhabitants;

Aware that:

the World Bank is now considering a revised forest policy, which will include safeguards to prevent it financing potentially destructive projects and programmes in all forest types;
many participants at the World Bank’s regional consultation for the FPIRS have called on the World Bank to extend its policy to prohibit the financing of logging in all old growth forests;
the lifting of the existing prohibition on Bank financing of logging of primary, moist tropical forests could signal a new ‘open season’ for logging malpractice.

Therefore call on the World Bank to adopt a new forest policy which includes clear safeguard provisions that:

prohibit World Bank Group financing of logging in all old growth forests;

prohibit World Bank Group financing of other operations that directly or indirectly lead to old growth forest destruction;

protect the rights of indigenous peoples and other forest-dwellers;

ensure inclusive, effective, informed, transparent, participatory decision-making;

include an outright ban on negative impacts in forests defined as ‘high conservation value forests’;¹

require social, environmental and ecological assessments of proposed operations affecting all forest types by an independent institution not related to the planning agency.

We also call on other governmental and multilateral agencies, transnational corporations and development banks to adopt similar policies.

Sign on here, endorsements needed by Monday - November 20, 2000!

¹ The World Bank’s working definition of HCVFs includes forests that: are fundamental to meeting the basic needs of local communities and/or are critical to local communities’ traditional cultural identity; provide basic services (e.g. watershed protection, erosion control); contain globally, regionally or nationally significant concentrations of biodiversity or contain rare, threatened or endangered ecosystems. Such areas are to be determined locally through consultation processes and based on internationally accepted standards.

Action needed at EU level: forest protectors, Rodolfo Montiel Flores and Teodoro Cabrera Garcia need to be released

On 23 November Mr Lamy, the EU's trade commissioner will hold a meeting
with NGOs. FERN would like to present the following appeal as a joint NGO
statement with as many sign-ons as possible.

"Please let us know by Friday Novemnber 17th if your organisation can sign on. Contact Chantal Marijnissen, fern@arcadis.be , tel: +322 742 24 36 Brussels.

DRAFT Urgent appeal to Commissioner Lamy
23 November 2000

In the middle of the night on 28 August, environmental activists Rodolfo
Montiel Flores (45) and Teodoro Cabrera García (50) were notified that they
had been convicted on the false charges for which they have been imprisoned since May 1999. Judge Maclovio Murillo Chávez, Fifth District Judge of Iguala, Guerrero, convicted Montiel and Cabrera for alleged weapons possession and marijuana cultivation. Montiel was sentenced to 6 years, 8 months; Cabrera was sentenced to 10 years. Amnesty International declared both men Prisoners of Conscience on 31 March 2000 and Rodolfo Montiel was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize on 6 April 2000 in recognition of his efforts to prevent destructive logging operations in the Costa Grande region of Guerrero.

In response to uncontrolled logging in the Sierra de Petatlán mountain
range, Montiel co-founded the Organization of Campesino Ecologists of the
Sierra de Petatlán and Coyuca de Catalán (1998) to protect the area's
old-growth forests and prevent the widespread soil erosion that was
endangering local farms. They call themselves farmer-ecologists. The Sierra
de Petatlán, with mountains reaching nearly 10000 feet above sea level,
contains some of North America's most pristine forest-lands. When the
forest is healthy trees capture rainwater and boost the water supply that
farmers rely on for irrigation. As trees are cut down, there is less water
and farmers have trouble growing crops. Seeing their land dry up, Montiel
and others began to take action.

Months of successful non-violent demonstrations angered land owners, many
of whom have close ties to the military and to corrupt government
officials. Three members of the environmental organization had already been
killed before 2 May 1999, when the Mexican Army illegally detained Montiel
and Cabrera. On the day of the arrest, another farmer, Salomé Sánchez Ortiz
was shot on the head and killed as he tried to run away from the soldiers
storming into Pizotla.

After being held incommunicado for five days and suffering torture and
death threats, Montiel and Cabrera were forced to sign false confessions.
The Federal Attorney General denies the allegation of torture, although a
Danish medical team confirmed it.

The health of both men is deteriorating. Montiel has complained of intense
pain in his abdomen since being tortured and Cabrera had to undergo an
operation because of severe beatings to his back he suffered during army
detention. Prison conditions are bad and food is scarce. Furthermore
Montiel has a wife and six children to maintain and Cabrera has a wife and
a daughter. Montiel's family has twice been forced to flee their home
because of threats and are now living in hiding.

Now is the time that action is taken in Europe to ensure that justice will
be done. In the US, over 50 members of the US Congress sent a letter to
Judge Murillo urging him to make an impartial ruling on the case. Many US
NGOs, such as Sierra Club, the Goldman Foundation, and Amnesty
International USA, have urged a range of Mexican officials, including
President Zedillo, Judge Murillo, Federal Attorney General Madrazo, and
appeals Judge Villa, to release Montiel and Cabrera. In August,
representatives of these NGOs met with President-Elect Fox and expressed
their concern about the case. On October 12 and 13, vigils were held in
front of the Mexican Embassy and Consulates in over 15 US cities to demand
the immediate and unconditional release of Montiel and Cabrera.

Action is now needed at the EU. The EU is Mexico's second largest trading
partner and the EU's share of Foreign Direct Investment to Mexico has
increased by 252% bringing the EU's share of total FDI to Mexico to 19% (1996)

The co-operation agreements and contractual relations between the EU and
Mexico have respect for human rights as their basis, as well as the
principles of the rule of law and good governance and the proper
implementation of the principles of sustainable development. It is clear
that currently in Mexico none of this is implemented in a proper way.

We therefore would like to ask you to urge President-elect Fox:
· to recognize Montiel and Cabrera as Prisoners of Conscience and
release them immediately and unconditionally once he takes office.
· to guarantee the prisoners in Iguala jail their fundamental rights
to food, medical service and dignified treatment.
· to ensure that the soldiers responsible for the illegal detention
and torture of Montiel and Cabrera are investigated and tried by civilian,
not military, authorities, as required under Article 13 of the Mexican
Constitution and various inter-governmental human rights instruments.
· to order an investigation into the charges of torture by the Public
Ministry rather than the military jurisdiction, and that those responsible
be brought to justice.
· To Take measures to conserve the remaining forests in the state of
Guerrero

We would like to ask you to ensure the European Commission:
· Recognizes the principles of respect for human rights, democratic
principles and the rule of law, in the Economic Partnership, Political
Co-ordination and Co-operation Agreement as well as the Interim Agreement
on Trade and Trade related matters and take measures to ensure that the
Mexican government upholds these principles.
· discusses these cases of violent human rights abuses with the
Mexican Government at the highest level.
· does not enter into any further trade agreements with Mexico until
the Mexican Government has taken steps to release its prisoners of
conscience and mitigate further human rights abuses.
· ensures that the Mexican Government takes adequate measures that
the remaining forests in the state of Guerrero will be preserved.

Signed by:

Saskia Ozinga,
Fern UK

Chantal Marijnissen
Fern, Brussels

Sign-on letter to the World Bank on the West African Gas Pipeline

Environmental Rights Action and Oilwatch Africa sent us a copy of their petition to the World Bank asking it to withdraw all support for the proposed West African Gas Pipeline because of the serious threat the project poses to the communities and the environment of Niger Delta area, Ghana, Benin and Togo. We appeal to all concerned individuals and organisations around the world to quickly study the petition and sign-on it.

Click here to read the "Open Letter to the World Bank on the West African Gas Pipeline".

As the petition will be released in different locations around the world in early November, we urge all those endorsing the petition to do so before November 13, 2000.

To sign-on click here or send a e-mail to oilwatch@infoweb.abs.net and a copy to disera@infoweb.abs.net

For organizations, the following information will be needed:
Name of organization, address, name and title of person signing for the organisation.