United
States: Opposition to U.S. Conference on Fast Growing Plantations
The International Union of Forest Research
Organizations (IUFRO) conference “Forest Plantations Meeting:
Sustainable Forest Management with Fast Growing Plantations” 10-13
October, 2006 encountered heavy opposition by several environmental
and ecological justice groups.
The groups involved in the opposition
acted in solidarity with those in the Global South who are suffering
due to large-scale monoculture timber plantations –from Asia (including
India, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, Laos, Burma, Vietnam)
to Africa (including South Africa, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Uganda,
Ghana), Latin America (including Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile,
Ecuador, Peru), and Oceania (including Aotearoa/New Zeland, Australia).
The southern U.S., where the IUFRO conference
took place, is the home of some of the largest timber plantations
in the world, with one out of every five tree covered acres in
plantations, mainly loblolly pine. The area has seen tremendous
conversion from native forest to industrial timber plantations
and the rural poor have been heavily impacted. South Carolina
is also the international headquarters of ArborGen, a joint venture
of International Paper, MeadWestvaco, and New Zealand’s Rubicon.
ArborGen was one of the conference sponsors and is the leader
in the research and development of genetically engineered (GE)
trees. South Carolina is home to the most GE tree test plots
in the U.S.
Here are some of the highlights of the
opposition:
• A month prior to the conference, Dogwood
Alliance, Global Justice Ecology Project, ForestEthics and the
STOP GE Trees Campaign traveled on a speaking tour around the
southeastern U.S. to raise awareness of the effects of large scale
monoculture timber plantations in that region and in the Global
South including the threat of GE trees being introduced into those
plantations.
• Immediately prior to the IUFRO conference
we held our "A Tree Farm Is Not A Forest" Public Forum.
It was originally booked at the Science Building of the College
of Charleston, but the Dean objected when she learned that industry
would not be presenting. She blocked us from using
the building. Undeterred, we held the opening night of the
forum in the auditorium of the College’s Business Center.
The controversy generated by the Dean helped increase our attendance.
•
On the opening day of the industry conference, Earth First! and
Rising Tide joined us to send an anti-plantations (and GE trees)
message to the industry conference. On a ferry ride to tour
Fort Sumter — the first official event of the industry conference—
protesters rode alongside the ferry in boats displaying several
banners including some in Spanish and Portuguese in solidarity
with our friends in Chile and Brazil. The action created quite
a stir on the ferry among both the conference attendees and the
200 other tourists. The ferry captain apparently approved
as he gave the banner crew a big thumbs up.
• Next our report "The Ecological
and Social Impacts of Fast Growing Timber Plantations and Genetically
Engineered Trees" was presented inside the industry conference.
Danna Smith of the Dogwood Alliance spoke on the impact of large-scale
loblolly pine plantations on the ecosystems and rural communities
of the U.S. South and Neil Carman of the Sierra Club discussed
the wholesale ecological destruction that would occur if native
forests were contaminated by GE tree pollen and seeds. Global
Justice Ecology Project Co-Director Anne Petermann discussed the
active resistance to existing large-scale tree plantations by
indigenous communities like the Mapuche people in Chile and the
Tupinikim and Guarani peoples in Brazil, and by social movements
like the Brazilian Landless Workers’ Movement (MST). Petermann
also described the potential social impacts on indigenous and
rural communities from genetically engineered eucalyptus and pine
plantations in those countries.
The presentation included photos taken
last November of villages built by indigenous Tupinikim and Guarani
peoples on land they had reclaimed from vast eucalyptus plantations
owned by Aracruz Cellulose, the world’s largest exporter of bleached
eucalyptus pulp. There were also photos of the annihilation
of these villages by governmental forces using Aracruz Cellulose
equipment. The presentation also included images of Mapuche
resistance to plantations in Chile and of the repression they
have faced at the hands of the government—which has dredged up
old laws from the Pinochet era to use against Mapuche activists.
The presentations generated much controversy
at the industry conference. A representative from Aracruz
Cellulose took exception to the portrayal of his company —especially
in Petermann’s presentation, that included the International Women’s
Day action earlier this year in Brazil at an Aracruz Cellulose
nursery where 2,000 masked women form Via Campesina destroyed
approximately 8 million eucalyptus seedlings. He responded
by offering a tour of his company’s facilities and plantations
in Brazil to allow people to see for themselves. We forwarded
his offer to our allies in Brazil, who may wish to take him up
on it.
• A local group formed out of the Charleston
activities and its first official action was the day they did
guerilla theatre against ArborGen at the DoubleTree breakfast
for the industry conference participants. This local group
will be extremely important, especially with ArborGen located
around 20 miles from Charleston.
• All of these efforts helped conceptualize
a potential “South-to-South” network to oppose to large scale
monoculture timber plantations and GE trees (basically a network
between the U.S. South and the Global South), which are linked
due to the threats each faces from timber plantations and GE trees.
We believe it’s important for the resistance in the Global South
to know that there are people in the southern U.S. also struggling
against plantations and showing solidarity with communities in
the Global South. This South to South initiative can help
bridge some of the gaps internationally and there are tremendous
movements underway in the Global South that are inspiring to people
in the industrialized north.
By Orin Langelle and Anne Petermann,
Global Justice Ecology Project, e-mail:
langelle@globaljusticeecology.org, globalecology@gmavt.net
