-
The power of corporate groups. The case
of the local Ecuadorian FSC
Ecuador
is a country with one of the highest rates of deforestation in
the world. In this process various actors are involved, not only
the major timber companies that typically carry out both lawful
and unlawful timber extraction activities, but also companies
undertaking deforestation to install vast monoculture tree plantations,
ranging from African palms to pine and eucalyptus.
In
order to appease world opinion that has become aware of these
problems and rejects them, the market has found a solution: certification.
It is thus that today in Ecuador both projects causing major environmental
impacts as well as very destructive companies now have FSC certification,
as is the case with the PROFAFOR del Ecuador S.A.'s
large scale monoculture tree plantations for carbon
sinks
and the ENDESA and BOTROSA industrial tree plantations.
The national group legally
recognized by FSC in Ecuador is the Ecuadorian Council for Voluntary
Forest Certification (Consejo Ecuatoriano para la Certificación
Forestal Voluntaria -CEFOVE). As is the case
with FSC, it comprises environmental, economic and social chambers.
The presidency of the Board of Directors of CEFOVE regularly rotates
among each of the three chambers and in theory power of decision
is equitably spread among the three chambers. However, no measures
have been taken to ensure that the members of the chambers really
occupy their corresponding posts and it is thus that various irregularities
exist in addition to arbitrary action undertaken by the logging
companies of the Durini Group (Setrafor, Endesa, Botrosa, Acosa)
and its lobbying organizations: Fundación Forestal Juan Manuel
Durini (FFJMD),
Corporación de Manejo
Forestal Sustentable (COMAFORS) and Asociación
Ecuatoriana de Industriales de la Madera (AIMA). Furthermore,
the economic chamber is totally dominated by the Durini Group
which, through membership of four of its companies and two of
its lobbying organizations, holds the absolute majority of votes
in the chamber.
As an example,
PROFAFOR del Ecuador S.A., responsible for generating and negotiating
carbon bonds on the stock-market is involved in the environmental
chamber, when in fact its place should have been in the economic
one. The other members of the environmental chamber have protested
but PROFAFOR has refused to change. In 2006 the presidency of
CEFOVE corresponds to the environmental chamber and PROFAFOR has
been appointed as its president. Last year Juan Carlos Palacios
from COMAFORS was president on behalf of the economic chamber,
which means that for two consecutive years economic groups have
predominated.
Furthermore,
the coordinator of CEFOVE works half time at CEFOVE and the other
half time in the office of the National Forestry Director in the
Ministry of the Environment. This situation leads to a serious
conflict of interests and the possibility that the Ministry of
the Environment’s public interests can influence CEFOVE policy
and vice-versa.
Mid-2005,
Acción Ecológica and WRM published the book “Sumideros de Carbono
en los Andes Ecuatorianos” (Carbon Sinks in the Ecuadorian Andes),
a thorough study on the impact of PROFAFOR plantations. However,
the study has not been addressed by the members of CEFOVE and
no comments have been formulated regarding the question revealing
that the granting of certification to these monoculture plantations
ought to be impossible. On the contrary, the election of PROFAFOR
to the presidency of CEFOVE’s Board of Directors can only be explained
as institutional endorsement for this very debatable company.
The
economic chamber now holds the power in CEFOVE, a fact that was
clearly reflected when in 2005 the Federation of the Ecuadorian
Awa Centre (Federación del Centro Awá del Ecuador - FCAE) (a member
of the environmental chamber) lodged a complaint against Setrafor,
Endesa/Botrosa (members of the economic chamber) and against Plywood
Ecuatoriana and CODESA (indirectly members of CEFOVE through membership
of COMAFORS and AIMA). The complaint involved the invasion of
their territory and their forests legally recognized as the Ancestral
Awa Settlement’s Ethnobotanical Reserve, causing serious environmental
and social damage within the Awa territory and immediately surrounding
areas considered as the buffer zone, and for removing trees without
the corresponding permits from FCAE legal representatives.
Ironically,
in this case it was FCAE that ended up by being challenged for
denouncing one of the members of CEFOVE. No measure was adopted
to halt the timber companies. On the contrary, CEFOVE resolved
that “SETRAFOR, CODESA and PLYWOOD do not have absolute control
over the procedures and attitudes of their employees and contractors
in the field.”
Worse still, Endesa/Botrosa, with the endorsement of CEFOVE received
FSC certification this year, issued by the GFA Consulting Group
for its monoculture tree plantations. This certificate wipes off
the board the record of 40 years of violation of Human Rights
of the local peoples and systematic environmental degradation
by the Durini Group companies. The vast international market is
now open to one of the companies that does the most to destroy
Ecuadorian primary forests.
However,
CEFOVE’s lack of credibility has become evident with the recent
resignation of FCAE and the Altropico Foundation, one of the founding
and promoting members of this initiative. Jaime Levy, its executive
director in his public letter sent to the members of FSC and CEVOFE
on 13 July 2006 explains that: “We consider that it is impossible
to continue sharing a space where the objectives are framed in
achieving better environmental forest management, true respect
for its owners and an equitable sharing of economic benefits from
forestry operations, with members such as COMAFORS and companies
producing plywood, who to our way of thinking are responsible
for the almost complete disappearance of the Choco forests of
Esmeraldas”. “This Heritage belonging to Ecuadorians and to the
world is now seriously threatened by the action of these companies
and in spite of their discourse on conservation and sustainable
management of the remaining forests and in spite of being members
of CEFOVE and FSC, what we have seen over the past few years in
the north of Esmeraldas is a completely
different situation. And presently exploitation with heavy machinery
in the remnant forests continues at a fast pace and with scant
control by the Ministry of the Environment.”
The
certified plantations in Ecuador are a sample of the system’s
shortfalls. It is in the hands of economic powers that dominate
the Ecuadorian FSC group – CEFOVE. Its enormous power and influence
is detrimental to the local inhabitants and to the need for forest
conservation.
By Nathalia
Bonilla, Acción Ecológica, e-mail:
foresta@accionecologica.org
and Klaus Schenck, e-mail: klaus@regenwald.org
