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The situation is much the same in many southern countries: people and supporting organizations are trying to protect the forests against government-corporate alliances. Well known causes of biodiversity loss such as industrial logging, fossil fuel exploration and exploitation, mining, hydroelectric dams, industrial monocrops, road opening and shrimp farming continue being promoted for the almost exclusive benefit of large corporations. Furthermore, most of the underlying causes of deforestation and forest degradation not only have not been addressed but have been further promoted through international financial institutions’ impositions on southern governments. Even the World Bank has acknowledged this, but has continued business as usual. And now forests are facing the most dangerous threat: the possible release of genetically engineered trees. At this point of time, when the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) is holding its Eighth Conference of the Parties, people have the right to ask it: what have you done about this situation over the last 14 years? Have you actually tried to stop those well known processes of biodiversity destruction –which is the mandate of this Convention- or have you turned a blind eye on them? Have you supported local peoples’ struggles to protect the forests or have you supported the governments you represent in their repression and/or eviction? The articles below are some few examples of the many issues we would have liked the CBD to be actively addressing ... and hasn’t. They include information about forest destruction and their socio-environmental implications --including biodiversity loss. More importantly, they show local peoples’ willingness and capacity to use and protect their forests. Those countless women and men are trying to achieve --in reality-- what the CBD should have been implementing over all these years. They deserve --at least-- strong support from this Convention for ensuring that their struggles are successful, because forest biodiversity conservation now depends almost exclusively on them.
Cambodia: Sustainable use of the forest by villagers Contrary to the corporate “mining” approach to forests which invariably implies their destruction, stand out the diverse uses transmitted from generation to generation of indigenous and local communities which have developed a wide and deep knowledge (beyond science) of the forest that have allowed them to benefit from it in a sustainable manner. The villagers of the Ansar Chambok commune, nearby Tonle Sap Lake, are a case in point. At present they estimate that approximately half of their income comes from the collection of forest products, in particular resin tapping. What follows are some quotes from a recent WRM report (see details below), which illustrate forest management by a community, now threatened by two powerful tree plantation companies: Wuzhishan and Green Rich. “Dry and liquid resin is collected from Trach and Cheuteal trees respectively, both dipterocarp species. Trees must be mature, usually at least 60 centimetres in diameter, in order to be tapped without harming the tree. In Ksach L’eath village most of the resin tappers are women who inherited their trees from their mothers or grandmothers, as a form of dowry. Dry resin is crushed into a fine powder and mixed with liquid resin. The resulting paste is either fashioned into a roll and wrapped in dried leaves to make torches or mixed with sand and applied directly on the wooden surfaces it is to protect, notably fishing boats. Resin torches are sold for between 300 to 350 riel [0,074 - 0,08 US dollars] and resin paste is sold for between 100 and 150 riel [0,025 -0,037 US dollars] for a kilogramme depending on the quantities and quality involved. The following extracts from interviews with resin collectors indicate how important resin trees are to local livelihoods: Resin collector 1: “I own 35 trees, both cheuteal and trach. I have another 100 trees in reserve, which I will tap once they mature. I visit my trees every three to seven days. Every month I am able to make 350 resin torches. I inherited my big trees from my mother, who inherited them from her mother. Recently some of my trees have been cut down and others marked with red paint by the company [Wuzhishan LS tree plantation giant]…” Resin collector 2: “I have 70 trees. I am 78 years old and I learned to tap trees from my parents. My children are now resin tappers. My trees that are close to the village I tap every three days; the ones far away I visit every week. After each trip I can make 40 torches which I exchange for rice and prahok [a fermented fish paste, a Cambodian staple]. My 2 hectares of land don’t provide enough rice to feed the eight people in my family.” Resin collector 3: “I have 48 trees which are all mature and tapped. I inherited them from my grandmother, who taught me how to tap them. Right after the Khmer Rouge I came back to the area and reclaimed my trees. This is all I know how to do and they are all I have. Every week I can make 50 resin torches.” Resin collector 4: “I am worried that I will lose everything. I have 3 hectares of land, but the village chief told me that they are all in the concession. I had 50 resin trees, but now only 20 are left. Thirty of my trees were cut in the last week. I don’t know who did it, but they were cut with axes and chainsaws and only the stumps and crowns remain – the timber has disappeared.” “Besides resin, local people identified a plethora of products collected from the forest. Several dozens of vine species are collected; their uses are varied and range from material for weaving fishing baskets, to ingredients for traditional medicines, to fibre for ropes. For instance, the vine known as Voar Trey (fish vine) is used by fishers on the Tonle Sap Lake for manufacturing fishing traps. One hundred pieces are sold for 4,000 riel (US$1) and one person can collect on average 200 to 300 pieces in one day. However, fishers are gradually abandoning the use of vines for the manufacture of fishing traps as the supply is becoming unreliable. Traps are now made of synthetic materials: plastic and nylon. Unlike vines, these will not bio-degrade if lost or abandoned by fishers in the lake. Furthermore, the switch to synthetic materials allows for a resulting finer mesh in the traps, thus capturing juvenile fish and impacting on population structures and breeding patterns”. “Over 20 tree species grow in the Ansar Chambok forests. Most objects found in rural Cambodian farms and homes are made by the inhabitants themselves, usually from materials collected in and around farms. Only recently have consumer products and modern appliances started finding their way into Cambodian homes. Timber is used for firewood, housing, furniture, musical instruments and farming implements, such as oxcarts, wooden trucks, ploughs and threshers. Objects of worship such as statues are also made from timber, and in some cases the trees themselves are objects of worship. Despite the intensive selective logging that took place in the commune throughout the 1980s, local people are eager to point out that the forest is regenerating and that none of the tree species has disappeared locally. There is, however a clear understanding and concern that numerous species will become locally extinct as a result of Wuzhishan’s proposed clear-cutting and conversion to monoculture plantations”. “Bamboo and rattan is collected for household use. Bamboo is used for manufacturing small household implements and furniture, often as an alternate to wood. Rattan is used for baskets, twine and furniture. Villagers receive orders from furniture and mat manufacturers from neighboring provinces. A piece of rattan sells for 300 riel”. “Local people identified over 26 varieties of forest fruit, which is collected intensively when in season and consumed by the villagers, any surplus is sold to market vendors or from roadside stalls along the national highway. Many urban Cambodians view, often nostalgically, these fruit as delicacies and are prepared to travel lengthy distances to buy them. Other food found in the forest and consumed or sold by villagers are bamboo shoots, wild potatoes and mushrooms. Local people were able to name 15 varieties of edible mushrooms that occur in the area and which they collect when in season. According to UNDP Human Development Indicators 36 per cent of Cambodia’s people are undernourished, as are 45 per cent of the children under the age of five. The forests provide not only additional food many a Cambodian needs, but often the nutritional variety that humans require in order to remain healthy. Losing the forest and the array of foods it provides would render the inhabitants of Ansar Chambok even more vulnerable to nutritional deficiencies”. “Each village or cluster of villages in Ansar Chambok has a Kru Khmer, a practitioner of traditional Khmer medicine. The Kru Khmer will attend to child births, treat illnesses and injuries, and ward off evil spirits or spells that people sometimes believe have been cast upon them. The ministrations of the Kru Khmer are often a mix of magic rituals, incantations and administration of concoctions whose recipes are determined during dreams. The Kru Khmer’s secrets are jealously guarded and only passed on from generation to generation to the knowing. Most of the ingredients for the medicine are found in the forest”. Wuzhishan is encroaching the forest land of these people, which is to say their livelihoods, their culture, their memory. Still, local resistance has managed to stop –at least temporarily– the damage. On such strength we take example, and pose our hopes. The full report “The death
of the Forest: A Report on Wuzhishan's and Green Rich's Plantation
activities in Cambodia”, December 2005, WRM series on tree plantations
Nº 4”, is available at: http://www.wrm.org.uy/countries/Cambodia/BookCambodia.html
Cameroon: Legal forest biodiversity destruction Industrial logging is one of the main direct causes of forest biodiversity loss. Many organizations and governments have focused on illegal logging and less so on destructive legal logging (see WRM Bulletin Nº 98). In this respect, a recent report (“Legal Forest Destruction. The Wide Gap Between Legality and Sustainability”) provides a broader perspective by looking at the Dutch timber trade, its focus on legality and the impact of legal logging on forests. “Legality is often presented as a necessary first step toward sustainability”, states the report, an idea which it rejects, presenting the negative social and ecological effects of legal logging that results in “legal forest destruction”, defined as “harvesting of timber and/or other forest products in accordance with national legislation, but which is economically, socially and/or environmentally detrimental”. “Legality and sustainability must be combined”, concludes the report. Cameroon is one of the ten cases of legal forest destruction presented by the research. In the Cameroonian forest of the Southwest Province, rich in Azobe (Lophira alata), the national timber company CAFECO has a logging permit for an area of 2.500 hectares over a maximum period of three years --a Vente de Coupe (VC) that can be renewed twice, each for a period of one year-- and without need for a proper management plan. This makes the VC-system a mining-like type of operation in which the logging company feels --and has-- no long-term responsibility for the area, implying inherent unsustainable logging. The Centre pour l’Environnement et le Développement (CED) conducted field investigations in March 2005 and found logging operations in VC 11-06-18 to be ecologically and socially very disruptive and clearly unsustainable. Trees are cut down and abandoned on site, some of them are felled on steep slopes, making it risky and difficult to be removed. Generally, about 18-20 per cent of the felled trees are wasted. This practice, without being necessarily illegal, contributes to the depletion of the forest and consequently to the disturbance of ecosystem functions. Furthermore, huge unplanned forest roads and temporary timber yards (parc à bois) are build in the forest, causing further destruction and fragmentation of the forest. Logging roads built on slopes and the use of heavy bulldozers also increase soil erosion and pollution of water sources, making the water unsuitable for consumption by local peoples. The villages surrounding the area --Dipemda, Koba, Ibemi and Mosanja-- are highly dependant on the forest and its resources in sustaining their livelihoods. A number of socially and culturally useful tree species such as Djabe or Moabi (Baillonella toxisperma), Djanssang (Ricinodendron heudolitii) and Bush Mango (Irvingia gabonensis) have been destroyed by CAFECO. These trees are used by villagers for food and medicine. Furthermore, their farms have been destroyed by roads. Fifteen farmers from Koba village reported the destruction of their farm and notably cocoa stems (the main cash crop for local communities) during road construction. Research on the area has exposed that logging operations in VC 11-06-18 contribute to the impoverishment of local communities, to the destruction of their livelihood and to the ecological degradation of the rainforests. The fact that such logging is legal only makes matters worse. The full report “Legal Forest
Destruction. The Wide Gap Between Legality and Sustainability”
is available at: http://www.greenpeace.nl/raw/content/reports/legal-forest-destruction.pdf
Ecuador: Shrimp farming impacts on a mangrove reserve The Cayapas-Mataje Ecological Mangrove Reserve in the Province of Esmeraldas covers an area of 51,300 hectares and within it is the Majagual mangrove covering 28,367 hectares. The mangrove is the habitat of crustacean species including oysters, blue crabs and shrimps and of tree species such as the red, black, white and jeli mangroves. During the 1950’s the Majagual mangrove had been depredated by loggers who extracted tannin from mangrove bark to use it in the leather industry. Later logging was banned and finally, on 26 October 1995, it became a protected reserve, recognized as having the tallest mangroves in the world (averaging 50 metres tall). However, within the Reserve the existence of two big shrimp farms, El Rosario and Puro Congo has been allowed. The development of industrial shrimp farming is often promoted by governments that are indebted and under pressure from international financial institutions, as a way of increasing exports and enabling hard currency to enter the country. But the facts always show that this accounting does not work in the same way for local economies (See WRM Bulletin No 51). Installed in 1993, the shrimp company Puro Congo S.A., owned by Colombian citizen Carlos Acosta, built concrete walls on the beach and illegally opened up artificial channels 30 metres wide and two metres high to provide water to the ponds. The shrimp farm’s effluents are illegally released into the El Aguacate, Guachalá and Majagual marshes and into the Cayapas River, causing the disappearance of over 20 native and migratory species from the zone, and a drop of at least 70 percent in the marine-coastal resources of the sector. The community organization Association of Artisan Fisher-people and Trading of Bio-Aquatic Products Manglares del Norte (Asociación de Pescadores Artesanales y de Comercialización de Productos Bio-Acuáticos Manglares del Norte - APACOBIMN) has repeatedly complained about the destruction of the mangrove, contamination and salinization of ground and surface water in the Laguna de la Ciudad wetland and of the wells belonging to neighbouring communities due to the shrimp farm’s activities, and its impacts on the fauna, as millions of fish have been poisoned and green iguanas, native and migratory birds and terrestrial and aquatic mammals have been depleted. However, in spite of the constant complaints, the Puro Congo Company now intends to extend over 300 hectares in the Laguna de la Ciudad wetland, in the Majagual and obtain a ten-year concession for the area. The national environmental authorities verified the complaints and recommended that the Ministry should order the closure of the channels and that those responsible for the damage should cover the cost of restoring the wetlands and the corresponding compensation. However the Ministry has not adopted any measure in this respect. For its part, the National Coordinating Office for the Defence of the Mangrove Ecosystem (Coordinadora Nacional para la Defensa del Ecosistema Manglar - C-CONDEM) denounced that in reprisal for the complaints made, various farms in the neighbouring communities had suffered damages. Together with APACOBIMN, C-CONDEM is demanding that the extension of the concession requested by the shrimp company should not be authorized. The two tallest mangrove trees in the world –two colossuses from the Majagual mangrove, of the Rhizophora variety (red mangrove) measuring 65 and 63.8 metres– have fallen, one nine months ago and the other four months ago. Although the version that they had died of “old age” was considered, C-CONDEM denounced that the progressive erosion of marshes and beaches –as they impound enormous masses of water to serve the shrimp ponds, acting as drains for the 630 hectare shrimp farm– is the true cause of the death of these two unique samples. Article based on information from:
“Manglares más altos del mundo no mueren de viejos, los
mata la camaronera Puro Congo”, C-CONDEM, Boletín de
prensa, 13-02-2006, e-mail: manglares@ccondem.org.ec;
“Luto por los mangles más altos del mundo”, Manuel
Toro, January 22, 2006, both articles were distributed by Red Manglar
Internacional, Electronic Bulletin No. 28.
Peru: Camisea gas project is impacting on community and ecosystem health At a cost of 1,600 million dollars, the Camisea mega project for natural gas extraction from an area located on the banks of the Camisea River -one of the world’s richest areas in biodiversity- has the Inter-American Development Bank as its main public financer. However, it has not brought any benefit to the local communities. As denounced in WRM Bulletin No. 95, the Camisea project will be carried out at the expense of forest destruction, river contamination and noise pollution, soil erosion and the consequent degradation of flora and fauna in the project’s area of influence. The project has had four spills in its 15 months of operation. The negotiations to decide the amount of compensation due to the environmental impact of the spills were still an issue for public complaint considering that they had not respected indigenous rights. An example of this is the following document that states that “Through the present Act of Donation, the Community Relations Coordination office for the TGP Forest Region, on behalf of the Camisea project, delivers the following goods: six bags of rice, four bags of sugar, 30 kgs of salt, 50 litres of oil, 100 kgs of dried pasta, eight boxes of tinned tuna, four boxes of milk, 40 kgs. of dried vegetables, 100 kgs. of onions and 20 kgs of garlic. This donation is part of a gesture of solidarity and good neighbourliness on the part of the company towards the families of the native community as a provision for the damages caused by the spill in KP 50 which took place on 24 November 2005. This delivery is made for five days.” This is the document of the supplies delivered to the zones affected by the spill for a community with a population close on half a thousand people. With this event still fresh in public opinion, on 4 March a further spill took place at kilometre 123, in the sector called Manatarushiato, at some five kilometres to the north of the populated centre of Kepashiato, district of Echarati, in the Province of La Convención, Cusco. The international company Transportadora de Gas del Perú (TGP) –responsible for the gas pipeline– confirmed the spill –the fifth for the Camisea project– of approximately 750 cubic metres of liquid gas which were consumed by the fire caused by the fault at the breaking point. The 20 metre high flames burnt Felipe Ticona’s house to the ground and caused second and third degree burns to Nancy Rosalvina Ticona and Carlos and Freddy Huaman Ticona, aged 11 and 7 respectively. The fire also destroyed several hectares of crop lands and forests surrounding the zones and caused the death of animals. The mayor, Martín Huamán, asked the population to avoid consuming water or fish from the Cumperuciato River as its waters had been contaminated by toxic material. The Camisea project is also carried out at the expense of the life and health of the indigenous peoples whose territory overlaps one third of the Camisea gas concession, as denounced by the Inter-Ethnic Association for Development of the Peruvian Forest (Asociación Interétnica de Desarrollo de la Selva Peruana – AIDESEP). A report by the Defence Office for the People of Peru –“The Camisea Project and its effect on people’s rights”– denounces that the fundamental rights of the native communities settled around the Camisea gas deposits have been affected by the foreign companies operating in the Amazon forest. It also contains devastating accusations on the action of the Peruvian State regarding defence of the life of the population of the Nahua-Kugapakori Territorial Reserve in the south of the country, where the Transportadora de Gas del Perú (TGP) company that won the Camisea gas concession intruded. TGP’s partner firms are the Argentine PlusPetrol and Techint, the Texan Hunt Oil, the Algerian State company Sonatrach and the South Korean SK Corporation. The project affects the native communities in voluntary isolation and in a situation of initial contact such as the Nahua, Matsiguenga (or Machiguengas), Nanti and Yora or Kugapakori. These communities “are particularly vulnerable to respiratory and gastrointestinal infections,” furthermore “their cultural identity is being submitted to changes that are undermining their self-esteem” warns the above-mentioned report. The Defence Office states that between 2001 and 2003, 17 people belonging to native communities in initial contact who had received visits from company workers, died of flu. Additionally, 16 cases of syphilis have been recorded in the native communities of Camisea and Shivacoreni. According to the Defence Office report the native communities consider that the opening of brothels close to the Techint company (in charge of building the gas pipeline) camps is responsible for this. For its part, AIDESEP denounces the “lack of consultation or prior and informed consent regarding policies, legislative and administrative measures, programmes or projects involving our indigenous peoples. Faced by these oversights, indifference and negligence we, the indigenous peoples have lost confidence in the validity of the democratic system, and in many cases there are already direct reactions to the affection of our collective rights, in the imposition of ‘negotiable’ grids as concessions on ancestral indigenous territory.” “…the State has imposed exploitation of our natural resources inside our ancestral territories. We have been the owners of these territories since before colonization and before the formation of the present national State, and therefore we declare that our territories are as they have always been: inalienable, indefeasible, they cannot be attached or expropriated.” The so-called “modernization” announced by mega projects such as the Camisea gas pipeline, sooner or later end up by showing their true nature of destruction, disease and death. Article base on information from:
“Proyecto Camisea, muestra de improvisación: atenta contra
los derechos de pueblos indígenas”, Statement by the
Asociación Interétnica De Desarrollo De La Selva Peruana,
distributed by electronic list PERU & WORLD: Amig@s de l@s Ashaninka;
“Piden suspender Camisea luego de quinto derrame ocurrido ayer”,
Servindi, 5 de marzo de 2006, e-mail: servindi@servindi.org;
www.servindi.org; “Derechos
indígenas violados por gasoducto de Camisea”, Ángel
Páez, IPS, distributed by the list [prensaamb-alc]
West Papua: Biodiversity and freedom Earlier this year, a rare thing happened: West Papua hit the headlines. The news was the discovery of a new species of honeyeater bird, a "lost" bird of paradise, a nearly extinct tree kangaroo, 20 new species of frogs, four new butterflies and five new species of palms. The species were found during an expedition to the Foja Mountains organised by Conservation International and the Indonesian Institute of Sciences. "It's as close to the Garden of Eden as you're going to find on Earth," said Bruce Beehler, co-leader of the group. His words were dutifully reported in newspapers around the world. The fact that West Papua is an occupied land rarely makes the news. It should do. The 250 tribes who have lived there for around 40,000 years do not have the right to choose their own government. They have little control over their land and resources. The country is flooded with Indonesian soldiers on the look out for the slightest sign of resistance. Anyone suggesting that the Papuans should be free is tortured or killed. Filep Karma and Yusak Pakage are serving 15 and 10 year prison sentences for raising the West Papua flag. The country is closed to journalists and human rights monitors. West Papua remained under Dutch control when Indonesia became a new nation state in 1949. It remained so until 1961, when West Papua held a congress and declared the country independent. Indonesia invaded a few months later. John F Kennedy approved the Indonesian government's occupation, describing the Papuans as "living in the stone age". The UN intervened. In 1969, seven years after Indonesia invaded their country, West Papuans got to vote. That is, about 1,000 of them, handpicked by the Indonesian military to represent the population of one million, got to vote. Before the vote, the soldiers threatened them and their families with death if they voted the wrong way. The result was a unanimous vote for Indonesian rule. To its shame, the UN ratified the result. Since then Indonesia has attempted to wipe out Papuan culture. Estimates of the numbers killed since the occupation range from 100,000 to 800,000. In an attempt to dominate Papuan culture, the Indonesian government has moved about one million people to transmigration camps cut into the forest. Indonesia sold West Papua's oil, gold, copper, timber and gas to foreign or Indonesian companies. West Papua's forests cover an area of about 34.6 million hectares. Of this, Indonesia declared almost 28 million hectares as production forest. Logging companies moved in with military support and associated human rights abuses. In recent years the logging has accelerated as the forests of Sumatra, Sulawesi and Kalimantan are becoming logged out. In December 2005, the Asian Development Bank approved US$350 million towards a proposed US$5.5 billion gas extraction and liquefied gas processing plant, which is being developed by multinational oil giant BP in Bintuni Bay. BP's project threatens mangroves, fisheries and local livelihoods. It is opposed by many Papuans on the grounds that Indonesia has no right to make decisions over the resources on their territory. The Grasberg mine in West Papua is the largest gold and copper mine in the world. It is operated by a subsidiary of US-based Freeport-McMoRan. Freeport is the largest taxpayer to the Indonesian government. But few Papuans see any benefits. Thousands of people have been displaced or killed to make way for the mine. People living near the mine suffer from human rights abuses carried out by the Indonesian security forces hired by the company to protect its operations. Freeport has removed a sacred mountain, leaving a vast crater and a poisoned river system. On 16 March 2006, five members of the security forces were killed after a peaceful demonstration in the capital Jayapura against Freeport turned violent. A civilian was also killed. Reports on the TAPOL Indonesian Human Rights Campaign website indicate that the violence started when police shot at demonstrators, possibly with rubber bullets, and used tear gas and armoured vehicles to clear the demonstrators. At least 57 people were arrested. In the days following the demonstration, police shot at student dormitories and beat people they had detained. About 1,200 students fled into the mountains around Jayapura to escape reprisals from the police. In a message of support to the UK-based Free West Papua campaign, Noam Chomsky writes, "The crimes committed against the people of West Papua are some of the most shameful of the past years. The Western powers have much to answer for, and at the very least should use their ample means to bring about the withdrawal of the occupying Indonesian army and termination of the shameful exploitation of resources and destruction of the environment and the lives and societies of the people of West Papua, who have suffered far too much." Perhaps Bruce Beehler, co-leader of the Conservation International and Indonesian Institute of Sciences expedition, should take a closer look at West Papua. He might then discover that the country looks a little more like hell on earth than the Garden of Eden. By Chris Lang, e-mail: http://chrislang.org,
www.chrislang.blogspot.com
In many cases, forest destruction has created situations of such gravity that company managers and officials -finding themselves cornered by complaints, social pressure or pressure from business sectors whose interests are threatened by the discredit of their activities- are developing their own discourse regarding environmental solutions. From absolute denial of damages, companies later tried to place responsibility on the victims. They are now attempting to change the true situation through discourse, with statistics showing business success regarding environmental and social matters. However, as the severity of the impacts cannot be concealed, the talk is now of compensation and environmental remediation. The companies have a discourse and proposals to confuse people and many, either because they are naïve or because it suits them, become entrapped. Destructive processes are thus called “environmental risk” (as if the impact might not take place). Overcoming these “risks” is called “remediation” (making a parallel with the solution by remedies). The claims arising from damage to property or irreparable damage are called “compensation.” With these three concepts, an attempt is being made to set aside existing damages, people’s dignity and rights to justice and equity. Their discourse tries to hide the fact that when nature is affected, the consequences can be accumulative, can produce a trickle down effect on the ecosystems, that can go unperceived initially but that are catastrophic in the medium and long term. The argument that people’s claims are due to other conditions (such as poverty, the lack of education and health) no longer works and it returns to them just like a boomerang because now it is clear that those conditions are due precisely to environment-destroying processes. From the communities’ standpoint, reparation is part of the claim. If there is damage to be denounced and it is denounced, it is because damage has to be stopped and if the damage has already been caused then it has to be repaired. However, if reparation is not monitored, the communities can loose twice over. One of the greatest gaps existing, not only in science, but also in politics or in community management, is to understand the meaning of reparation, its scope, who must repair the damage, how the affected zones have to be restored. That is to say, there is no doubt that this is an essentially political problem and not merely a technical one. In this framework, the Oilwatch network has prepared a protocol on civil responsibility and restoration, which has been submitted to the Conference of the Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity that is meeting this month in Brazil, with the aim of it being adopted by that international process. Although the protocol has been conceived for oil exploitation zones, it can be applied to all processes destroying biodiversity. The protocol sets out responsibilities, both for those committing destruction (usually companies), and for those exercising control (the States), without either of them excluding the other. The document is available at http://www.wrm.org.uy/actors/BDC/Oilwatch.html The protocol proposes that once damage has been done, restoration must be a process enabling the reconstruction of the social weave, and not one fragmenting, dividing or disorienting communities, or worse even, exposing them to further pressure. At the same time, getting over the damage must be seen with ecological criteria. It is foreseen that the communities should play a leading role, not only because of their knowledge and rights, but also because restoration must enable them and their organizations to be strengthened. In the same way as it became clear that the complaints should be in the hands of the affected people and that there would be no one better than them to talk about the problems and the social, cultural and economic impacts, it is clear that restoration must be centred on those same communities. Otherwise a fundamental part of the damage (even assuming good intentions and good techniques in repair), would not be overcome: the recognition of people’s rights to decide on their lives and their future. By Esperanza Martínez,
Oilwatch, e-mail: tegantai@oilwatch.org.ec,
http://www.oilwatch.org.ec
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