OUR
VIEWPOINT
-
Pulpwood Plantations: All roads lead to Rome
Whenever
the expression “planted forests” is used, the concept can be traced
back to the Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
The more the concept is challenged by local peoples and NGOs struggling
against plantations, the more the FAO builds up support to maintain
it.
The
reason is simple: the FAO has chosen to be at the service of northern
corporations that benefit from tree plantations –particularly
from the pulp and paper sector. Presenting monoculture tree plantations
under the guise of “planted forests”, has proved to be a good
marketing tool which serves to hide the social and environmental
disaster that large-scale, fast wood, monoculture tree plantations
imply.
But
the role of the FAO does not stop at the definition level. It
has been actively promoting the establishment of such plantations
since the 1950s and continues doing so. Between 1990-1995 it even
supported research in China on genetically engineered trees, that
later resulted in the massive and uncontrolled planting of GE
poplars in that country.
The
latest case is the FAO-led process that resulted in the adoption
of the “Voluntary Guidelines for Responsible Management of Planted
Forests”, which are now in their implementation stage at country
level.
What
is the aim of these guidelines? Even before reading the guidelines
themselves, it is clear that they are aimed at supporting plantation
expansion for the pulp industry. For instance:
-
The report’s cover photo is that of a “Planted forests landscape,
Bahia, Brazil, courtesy Veracel Company, Brazil”. The negative
social and environmental impacts of precisely Veracel’s plantations
have been very well documented and local people are campaigning
against them. By placing the picture in the report the FAO is
providing support to these and similar destructive plantations
that are being challenged in the South.
-
The acknowledgements. The report says that “FAO wishes to acknowledge
its major partners in preparing the early concepts and drafts”.
The partners mentioned from private-sector associations are all
linked to the pulp and paper industry: “International Council
for Forest and Paper Associations, Brazilian Paper and Pulp Association/Sociedade
Brasileira de Silvicultura, American Forest and Paper Association,
Confederation of European Paper Industries, Portuguese Paper Industry
Association, Japanese Paper Association/Japanese Overseas Plantation
Centre for Pulpwood, Corporación Nacional de la Madera – Chile,
Swedish Federation of Forest Owner’s Associations and New Zealand
Private Forest Owners Association.” Why should these corporate
associations support this FAO-led process if it were not that
they plan to benefit from the resulting guidelines?
-
The absences. Not one single Southern organization is mentioned
in the “acknowledgement”. Given that the main critics of plantations
are based in Africa, Asia and Latin America, this means that the
FAO chose to exclude critical voices that would have certainly
opposed guidelines for the promotion of “fast wood” plantations
–which are the ones needed by the pulp industry.
-
The bibliography: Not one single document critical to plantations
is mentioned. In the case of WRM, the FAO chose to ignore, not
only the countless articles disseminated over the last 10 years
–based on local peoples’ testimonies of impacts- but also our
published research findings on plantations in Brazil, Cambodia,
Chile, Ecuador, Indonesia, Laos, South Africa, Swaziland, Thailand,
Uganda, and Uruguay. Turning a blind eye on this and other documented
evidence about plantations’ impacts proves the FAO’s role in supporting
plantation-related corporate interests.
The
following quote from the guidelines is also very illustrating:
“Governments
should create the enabling conditions to encourage corporate,
medium- and small-scale investors to make long-term investments
in planted forests and to yield a favourable return on investment”
and “facilitate an environment of stable economic, legal and institutional
conditions to encourage long-term investment …”
This
is not new. Many southern governments have already created those
“enabling conditions” –following recommendations from FAO, World
Bank, Asian Development Bank, Latin American Development Bank,
bilateral agencies such as JICA, GTZ and others- which have resulted
in “favourable returns” to pulp and paper corporations and in
very painful “returns” to local peoples and their environments.
The
pulp industry is at present migrating to the South and planning
to dramatically increase its production capacity over the next
five years by more than 25 million tonnes. This means that it
will need extensive areas of fast-growth plantations to feed its
pulp mills. Within this context, the “Voluntary Guidelines for
Responsible Management of Planted Forests” will assist them in
putting governments at their service and in weakening opposition
to their expansion.
It
is therefore necessary to be aware about this new threat and to
oppose the implementation of these guidelines at country level.
The FAO should be reminded that its mandate is not to promote
tree plantations but –according to its web page- to “lead international
efforts to defeat hunger”.
Given
that the theme chosen this year for the FAO-created World Food
Day –16 October- is “The Right to Food”, it appears to be necessary
to remind the Food and Agriculture Organization that pulpwood
plantations can not ensure “that every girl, boy, woman and man
enjoys adequate food on a permanent basis”, though they will certainly
aim at ensuring that every pulp mill enjoys adequate wood supply
on a permanent basis.
Unfortunately,
when looking at the promotion of pulpwood plantations, all roads
continue leading to Rome.
(*)
The full FAO report is available at
ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/009/j9256e/j9256e00.pdf
index
COMMUNITIES AND FORESTS
-
Argentina: Chaco – land clearance, undernutrition
and death
During
the first fortnight of July, a wave of very cold weather crossed
Argentina. In the warm lands of the Chaco Province, where the
mean annual temperature is around 20ºC, temperatures fell below
freezing. This abrupt drop highlighted by deaths the full dimension
of the health and food emergency affecting Toba, Mocovi and Wichi
indigenous peoples in that north-eastern district of the country,
where health is undermined by malnutrition, tuberculosis and Chagas’
disease. In a matter of days 10 people had died, by 2 October
the toll went up to 16, mainly from the Toba people. All the victims
lived in El Impenetrable, a forest region which has been suffering
from the ransacking of its quebracho (Schinopsis balansae),
algarrobo (Prosopis nigra) and lapacho (Tabebuia ipe)
trees for the past hundred years. Over the past decades, they
have disappeared under mechanical diggers and the fires of those
seeking the high profitability of soybean cultivation.
As
from 1995 the Province started selling most of its public land.
At that time it had 3 million hectares and presently only some
580 thousand remain. The transfer of public land to large
landowners was a prior requisite to its subsequent clearance.
The Chaco human rights organization Centro de Estudios Nelson
Mandela (Nelson Mandela Centre for Studies) reported in November
2006, that over the past years, the Province’s Forestry Office
had dismantled its administrative and operational structure. “The
State has a laisser-faire policy regarding the sector. The law
is a closed book. Decree 1341, which suspended the granting of
land clearance permits until the finalization of the Chaco land
planning operation, is neither applied nor respected. Not only
does land clearance continue but it is stepped up.
It is all a scandalous picture, marked by destruction and impunity,”
warned a public declaration of this same organization on 20 October
2006.
This
process mainly affected El Impenetrable forest, which stretches
from the west of the Province and is the ancestral land of the
Toba and Wichi. The disappearance of the forest has led
to the disappearance of animal and plant proteins from the diet
of these peoples. “The algarrobo symbolizes almost everything
because the indigenous peoples obtained most of their proteins
from its fruit. The disappearance of these trees has meant that
they must now sustain themselves with fat, flour, sometimes a
little pasta, not always and less and less with some rice, and
hardly ever with some meat. So this diet has led to undernutrition,
to hypertension and diabetes. Because of malnutrition or undernutrition,
of never having enough food or only scantly nourishing food, this
has led to infectious diseases, to tuberculosis and Chagas’ disease,”,
stated Rolando Nuñez, coordinator of the Centro Mandela,
during an interview last August.
Since
April last year, the Toba, Wichi and Mocovi peoples have been
denouncing this situation and demanding public policies from the
Provincial government. They have been blocking roads, camping
outside the local Government seat. They have also gone on a hunger
strike. After decades of silence, the ‘levantamiento’
(uprising) – as they call it – highlighted the extreme
poverty and discrimination affecting the approximately 60 thousand
indigenous people in the Chaco. They came out of their silence,
but the agreements signed with the government in August 2006 were
not complied with.
The
extreme situation in which the communities find themselves was
denounced by the Peoples’ Defender, who brought action before
the Supreme Court of Justice against the national and provincial
States for their responsibility in this situation. The Inter-American
Human Rights Commission has requested further documentary information
over a report of genocide. Three months after the start of the
death wave, the authorities have only bothered to implement temporary
food assistance, without addressing the roots of the emergency.
By
Hernan Scandizzo, Colectivo Pueblos Originarios – Indymedia Argentina.
Contact:
originarios-arg@indymedia.org
–
www.argentina.indymedia.org/pueblos
index
-
Cameroon: Community forests in a sea of
industrial logging
I
visited Cameroon in December 2006 and again in September 2007.
In both trips I was shocked by the sheer number of trucks loaded
with huge logs of tropical trees that could be seen on almost
any road. Most of them were on their way to the ports from where
they would be exported –unprocessed- to mostly northern countries.
Seeing
those “ancient forests on wheels” traveling along the roads reminded
me of Eduardo Galeano’s book “The open veins of Latin America”.
In this case, these are Central Africa’s open veins (Cameroon,
Congo, DR, Congo, R., Gabon) and the logs represent the life of
Africa’s forests and peoples being mined for northern consumption.
In
Cameroon, logging is carried out in an industrial scale by large
corporations –national and foreign- linked to foreign capital
and export-oriented. Paradoxically, the country appears to be
-on paper- quite progressive regarding the promotion of community
forest management. In this respect, a community forestry law was
passed in 1994 which enables communities to manage their own forests
–although with a maximum of 5,000 hectares- under a contract agreed
upon with the Ministry of Environment and Forests and valid for
25 years.
However, the government
continues to support destructive and lucrative industrial logging,
and has apparently no intention of substituting it by community
forest management. A visit made to a community forest proved the
point.
On
12 September we visited the COVIMOF (Communauté Villageoise de
Melombo, Okekak, Fakele 1&2, Ayos et Akak.) community forest,
where the first thing we learnt was that the process for approval
of community forest management is very slow. In this case, the
five communities involved started the process in 1996 and only
in 2004 they managed to comply with all the requirements for the
approval and signing of the necessary legal agreement. They complain
that even now, when they present the annual management plan, the
Forestry Department takes months to approve it, which means that
the community is left with a very short period of time (1-2 months)
to implement it.
A second lesson is
that communities are on their own regarding protection against
illegal logging in their forest. While the community was still
waiting to receive authorization to begin forestry operations,
a group of illegal loggers started cutting trees in the community
forest. The relevant authorities were informed but no action was
taken. Later on the loggers came back with heavy machinery and
piled up the illegal logs beside a road. Pictures and videos of
the operation were made available to local authorities, but nothing
happened. Finally, the logs were loaded on trucks and taken away
–passing through a government forestry control post- without any
problems.
Forest restoration is another activity where communities cannot
count on government support. This community forest had been already
“creamed” of the best trees by previous logging activities. The
local people are now replanting native trees, but with no government
support. They have established a small tree nursery where they
are producing some 5,000 saplings
of 12 tree species. Last year they planted
more than
1000 trees, with support from CED (Centre pout l’environnement
et le développement) and Greenpeace.
A
third lesson is that they are also on their own in harvesting,
transport, industrialization and commercialization of wood. Technical
support and training is not provided by government but by civil
society organizations such as CED. The machinery for transforming
logs into lumber has also been acquired with NGO support, but
much more would be needed for improving the current industrialization
process. Commercialization is difficult and subject to frequent
abuses from buyers. In all this the government is totally absent.
This
example seems to show that in Cameroon community forests need
some type of outside support, in this case provided by NGOs. However,
NGOs lack the capacity to support many such cases and this role
should be played by government agencies. For this to happen there
is one basic necessary condition: the government’s political will
to shift from industrial logging to community forestry. This is
the main issue, which implies seeking answers to the crucial question
of how to begin a process for achieving changes in that direction.
Success stories –and even failures- from existing community forests
can be extremely useful as part of that process.
In
the case of the COVIMOF community forest, it is important to stress
that, in spite of all the problems, the local people are proud
and happy about their achievements. Most of them can already show
a technical skill in some forestry-related activity which they
lacked before. They are committed to using the forest in a sustainable
way and to equitably share the benefits. In their hands, the forest
has a real chance of being protected.
By
Ricardo Carrere, based on observations
and interviews made during a field trip in Cameroon, September
2007
index
- Ecuador:
Major
success against mining in the Intag zone
Intag, the subtropical
anti-mining area in the northwest of Ecuador will not find 26
September 2007 an easy day to forget. After months of waiting
for a resolution on the issue, the Ministry of Mines and Oil announced
suspension of mining activities of Ascendant Copper,
the Canadian mining company owner of the concessions in the area.
The legal base for Minister Galo Chiriboga’s decision is that
the company breached the law when it launched its work, because
it had not requested the corresponding authorization and reports
from the Municipality of Cotacachi.
This
decision affects 9,504 hectares and implies that the mining company
cannot carry out mining, administrative or community relations
activities. Unfortunately, the decision is not final but, according
to Minister Chiriboga, it is to be maintained until the company
renegotiates the contract and its presence in the area. Other
concessions are also under government scrutiny.
These
facts show that when grass-roots have a firm will and political
circumstances go along with it, people can succeed in defending
their sovereignty and interests. Similar decisions could
be taken regarding other mining concessions in other parts of
the country.
The
feelings of Intag communities regarding the mining project and
the presence of the company were initially pessimistic as, in
the words of Councillor Luis Robalino from Intag “this is the
fourth time that the same decision has been announced, but the
company continues in the area.” Now, following the arrival
of government officials in the area to close the company offices,
they are more optimistic.
During
a press conference called at the beginning of October to show
satisfaction over the government decision, some of the circumstances
leading to the population’s rejection of mining activity in the
area and of the mining company were recalled. According
to the Mayor of Cotacachi, the economist Auki Tituaña, together
with the President of the Community Council, Polibio Pérez and
other leaders from the area, right from the start of the company’s
activities, its purpose was to divide the communities to facilitate
its entry in the area and its expected operations.
The
presence of Ascendant Copper in the area over the past three years
involved paramilitary forces shooting peasants, using trained
dogs and tear gas. Furthermore, a hundred peasants or so were
intimidated through the filing of complaints and legal processes
that sought to silence resistance, but they were not successful.
Many of them were firmly acquitted by judges from the Province
of Imbabura. None were sentenced.
For
his part, the Mayor denounced the company’s links with “former
military forces, hired murderers, drug traffickers and corrupt
politicians.” He also stated that “they thought that with the
offer they once made of 60 or 70 million US dollars, they were
going to obtain my support, but my price is much higher, it is
the value of the mine” (according to the company manager AC, Francisco
Veintimilla, a minimum of 110 billion dollars). “But sincerely,
I prefer them to leave the trees, the fauna and flora untouched
and for them to respect the development model that we have chosen
for ourselves in Intag and Cotacachi.”
He
refers to the tropical cloud forest of immense biological value
that is located precisely over the copper mine. Since the arrival
of mining activities, “we have even managed to halt the traditional
logging that our parents’ generation was implementing,” stated
Polibio Pérez. “Nowadays we grant conservation much more value.”
Ascendant
Copper
has been in the area since 2004, although anti-mining resistance
goes back to 1997. In this period many initiatives have been consolidated
in the area, making Intag a model of alternative production: agriculture,
tourism, crafts, cooperatives, organizations and other initiatives
occupy hundreds of families in the area. Following the incidents
caused by this and other mining companies in other locations in
Ecuador, a Coordinating Office for the Defence of Life and Human
Rights has been set up.
It
is estimated that close on 95% of the inhabitants of Cotacachi,
including the authorities, are against mining (see WRM Bulletin
No. 118). “This is in defence of the interests of the State, the
Province, the Canton and the area,” they say. Questioned about
the possibility of a grass-roots consultation, they say they are
open to it, but obviously this would have to be done in a clear
and transparent way, organized by the Ecuadorian State and not
by a transnational company.
For
the time being, the company is departing, leaving behind it division
and conflict among brothers and sisters, family members, neighbours
and old friends. According to reports some community members “had
a salary of US$ 300 to play volley-ball.” While the copper deposits
remain in the area, the threat of mining is still latent.
Meanwhile,
a Constitutional Assembly is being prepared in Ecuador to draw
up the new Constitution. Alberto Acosta, who was Minister of Energy
and Mines for a brief period during the current legislature, and
who will most probably preside the Assembly, has on several occasions
firmly stated his desire to make Ecuador a country free from large-scale
mining.
By
Guadalupe Rodriguez, e-mail:
Guadalupe@regenwald.org
index
-
Honduras: The reasons for defending the
forest
In
Honduras, every year between 80,000 and 120,000 hectares are deforested.
Our
forests are multi-diverse: pine forests, with a variety of seven
species; broad-leafed forests, with 200 species of trees and rich
biodiversity, particularly in the lowlands; broad-leafed cloud
forests: pine or mixed forests in the highlands; broad-leafed
in dry climatic areas; and mangroves.
Forestry
policy in Honduras is not formulated by civil society or by citizen
power but by the dictates of multinational capital through the
World Bank and the Free Trade Agreements linked with the local
oligarchy who, through their representatives in Congress and in
other State powers, adopt laws and policies aimed at forest exploitation
on the basis of imperial and globalizing capital.
In
order to implement these policies they have the military forces
that are given the power to “look after” the forest. Is it possible
that those who destroy the forest during armed confrontations,
by art of magic turn into environmental heroes? Furthermore, the
“sicariato” – hired murderers – is a concealed way of aggression
towards the indigenous, peasant and garifuna* communities.
In
our country, timber exploitation has always been related to corruption,
violation of human rights and impunity. The persecution of Father
Tamayo and other leaders and the murder on 20 December 2006 of
Heraldo Zuñiga and Roger Ivan Cartagena, members of the Olancho
Environmentalist Movement by the security apparatus of the State
of Honduras, are a reflection of the terror involved in the struggle
to defend the forest in Honduras. A recent event is the
murder of Mario Guifarro in the community of Parawasito, Municipality
of Dulce Nombre de Culmí, in the Patuca Medio, while he was carrying
out tasks for the ICADE project for forest demarcation, following
the mandate of the Honduran Indigenous Tawahka Federation (FITH).
The
governments and most of their technical personnel have always
blamed poor people for forest destruction. However, they have
never mentioned deforestation caused by mining, shrimp farming,
pineapple and banana agro-industries, large sugar-cane plantations,
transgenic corn and African oil-palm, (the latter two intended
for the new agro-fuel super-business). To these are added accidental
forest fires or arson, particularly to justify the exploitations
of timber and extensive cattle ranching aimed at beef exports
to make hamburgers.
Forestry
policies are geared to turn trees into simple merchandise, without
considering that, due to deforestation of the river basins and
micro-basins, erosion, cave-ins and land slides are on the rise
and for this reason the consequences of tropical storms and hurricanes
and climatic distortions are more serious and the damage irreparable.
Unfair
trade treaties and the immoral and unjust capital rationale promote
the promulgation of laws and the application of forestry policies
divorced from water and energy policies and from those foreseen
regarding climate change. These are the laws that impose
privatization of forests, energy, water, education and health.
The National Congress shamefully allocates over one third of the
national territory to the mining industry which destroys the forest
and affects animal, plant and human health.
The
loss of biodiversity due to deforestation and heavy metal pollution
caused by mining and pesticides from agro-industries favour dengue,
malaria, parasitic and mental disorders which, in addition to
producing disease and death, cause multimillionaire losses to
the country.
The
development of human, comprehensive and planetary policies is
an urgent challenge for each and every Honduran. The linking of
the forest, health and human rights in an educational programme
for young people is an important strategy in the training of leaders
to create awareness about deforestation in the country and to
set up forest protection laws.
Consequently,
at the level of the Mother Earth Movement (a member of Friends
of the Earth International) and the organizations Central America
is Not for Sale, Oilwatch International and the Honduran Committee
Action for Peace (Comité Hondureño Acción Por la Paz - COHAPAZ),
we are suggesting that one million trees should be planted and
continuously tended in Honduras. Our urgent task is to unite the
whole social and environmental movement against predatory policies
and companies. Let us incorporate all our awareness to this splendid
task in defence of the life, dignity and health of our people!
By
Juan Almendares, e-mail: juan.almendares@gmail.com
*Black-Carib
culture
index
-
Laos: Damming the Sekong Norconsult wipes
Cambodia off the map
A
series of large dams are currently proposed for the Sekong River
Basin in southern Laos. In addition to the tens of thousands of
people in Laos who would be affected by these projects, the livelihoods
of 30,000 people living along the Sekong River downstream in Cambodia
are also under threat. Yet the dams are being planned with no
consideration of the impact on people and the environment in Cambodia.
In
June 2007, the Norwegian consulting firm Norconsult completed
two initial environmental examinations for two of the proposed
dams: Sekong 4 and Nam Kong 1. A recent report, written under
the pseudonym of Anurak Wangpattana, welcomes the fact that the
studies recognize many of the impacts that these dams will have
on people, forests and fisheries in southern Laos, but criticises
Norconsult for completely ignoring the impacts of these projects
on people living downstream in Cambodia.
The
two dam projects, which are both being developed by the Russian
Region Oil Company, are about 100 kilometres apart. The 600 MW
Sekong 4 dam would flood 150 square kilometres of land, including
forests and other land used to collect non-timber forest products,
grazing land and land used for rotational swidden agriculture.
About 5,000 people would be evicted from their homes to make way
for the reservoir, of whom about 98 per cent are Indigenous Peoples.
The Katu and Nge ethnic minorities make up 80 per cent of the
population in Kaleum District, the capital of which would be flooded
by the reservoir.
The
importance of the forest to villagers living in Kaleum District
is clear from a 2004 report written by Charles Alton, a UN consultant,
and Houmphan Rattanavong, of the Lao National Science Council.
The report notes that in four Katu villages in Kaleum District,
about 76 per cent of villagers' income comes from collecting non-timber
forest products and a further 16 per cent from raising livestock.
The
150-200 MW Nam Kong 1 dam, planned for a tributary of the Sekong
River, would flood 21.8 square kilometres. Anurak Wangpattana
notes that more than 1,600 people living downstream of the proposed
dam would suffer the impacts of the dam. Many of these people
used to live in the reservoir area, but were moved out by the
Lao government during the 1990s.
Fish
provides an important part of diet of villagers living in the
reservoir area of the proposed Se Kong 4 reservoir. "All
villages in the reservoir flooding area have robust fisheries
primarily for subsistence, contributing a large part of the protein
in their diet," reports Norconsult. Constructing the dam
will wipe out these fisheries.
Communities
living downstream of the dam will also see severe impacts to their
fisheries. The reservoir behind the Sekong 4 would take 14 months
to fill. Once the dam is operating, the flow of the river would
be completely changed. "There is potential for a loss of
aquatic biodiversity and productivity in the Se Kong River downstream
due to these changes in flow," in the dry language of Norconsult's
experts.
Anurak
Wangpattana explains that Norconsult's Initial Environmental Examination
is the first step in the environmental impact assessments of the
Se Kong 4 and Nam Kong 1 dams and suggests that a cumulative EIA
would be possible. But what's missing so far from Norconsult's
studies, Anurak points out, "is an explicit recognition that
these impacts will extend along the Sekong River in Cambodia."
For
ten years, villagers living along the Sesan River in northeastern
Cambodia have seen the devastating impacts of dam construction
upstream in Vietnam. Dozens of villagers have drowned following
sudden releases of water from the Yali Falls dam. Villagers have
lost livestock, crops and fishing equipment. Poor water quality
has caused skin rashes and stomach problems. More than 3,500 people
have now abandoned their homes near the Sesan River and moved
upland to get away from the river's floods and unpredictable flows,
according to recent research by the Cambodian NGO 3S Rivers Protection
Network ("3S" refers to the Sekong, Sesan and Srepok
Rivers). "Villagers have lost their hopes and dependencies
on this river, because nearly all of the
river resources are gone," Roman Mal, an Indigenous Jarai
village chief, told the researchers.
Many
of the 30,000 people living along the Sekong River in Stung Treng
province, Cambodia, belong to Lao, Khmer Khe, Kavet, Lun, and
Kuy ethnic groups. The Sekong River's fisheries and riverbank
vegetable gardens are a vital part of their food security and
livelihoods.
Anurak
Wangpattana warns that "The experience with the trans-boundary
impacts of large hydroelectric dams elsewhere in the Mekong Region
clearly indicates that the impacts of the Sekong 4 and Nam Kong
1 dams on Cambodia and in Laos must not be ignored, and should
not be allowed to happen, no matter how easy it is for the proponents
of dams per se to dismiss these impacts."
By
Chris Lang,
http://chrislang.org
index
-
Paraguay: So the forest does not become
extinguished – the struggle of the Isolated Ayoreo Groups in the
Paraguayan Chaco
In
March 2007 a national and international appeal was launched against
the imminent clearance and total destruction by the company UMBU
S.A. of 24,000 hectares (240 Km²) of untouched pristine forest
in the heart of the area known as “Amotocodie” in the North of
the Paraguayan Chaco. Amotocodie is part of the ancestral
territory of the Indigenous Ayoreo People and continues to be
inhabited permanently by two Ayoreo groups living in voluntary
isolation. They are groups that have never had contact with modern
society and live in their traditional way, in a close relationship
of interdependency and mutual support with nature and the forest.
It
should be borne in mind that the North of the Paraguayan Chaco
is almost entirely in the hands of private owners who are acknowledged
by the law and modern world practices to have the right to alter
or destroy the Chaco forest, practically with no restrictions
or control. The company’s project for land clearance –which
is a representative example of many others presently being implemented
or in the pipeline in the area- overlaps with and ignores – as
if they did not exist –the particular features and contours of
the sensitive nature of the Chaco forest and, in this case, interrupting
one of the two greatest river courses of Northern Chaco. At the
same time, the project overlaps with another nationally and internationally
recognized legal right in force: that of the indigenous ownership
of this territory as originating and prior to that of modern states.
Amotocodie is indigenous territory. However, the all embracing
national and international society has chosen to ignore indigenous
territorial rights. If they were to do so, vast stretches
of the Chaco forest in Paraguay – presently some 10 million hectares
remain intact and pristine – would have the chance to survive
our predatory present and would have a future. The Ayoreo
are vehemently distant from the wasteful and destructive use that
white people have made of Ayoreo territory. “We look after
it better. We know how to care for it.”
The
onslaught of forest clearance for cattle-raising has increased
over the past few years as a result of international markets opening
up for Paraguayan beef. Additionally, over the past few months,
pressure generated by the calamitous expansion of soybean and
agro-fuel crops in the Eastern Region of Paraguay, has displaced
the expansive interests of the cattle ranchers towards the Western
Region, the Chaco, where “available forest still exists.”
The
national and international appeal against UMBU S.A.’s project
for forest clearance has encouraged numerous people, eminent persons,
networks and entities - mostly foreign - to send letters to the
Paraguayan authorities asking them to suspend the corresponding
clearance permits immediately and to adopt strong and forceful
measures to ensure protection of the area and the integrity and
rights of the isolated indigenous groups that live there.
However, international pressure has had no effect: since the month
of August UMBU is clearing the forest at a fast pace. Two
months after the onslaught of the bulldozers, 3,000 hectares –
30 Km²., had already been devastated and wiped out.
These
3,000 hectares wiped out were forest areas previously untouched
- and still less, violently transformed - by human activities.
The river course crossing them brought in abundant water in the
rainy season, water that not only gave life to the zone but also
to an extensive river basin that stretched from the West of Amotocodie
to the Paraguayan Pantanal in areas close to the Paraguay River
in the East. This forest clearance has cut off this river
flow over a stretch of more than 5 km. With this cut, the flow
has been interrupted and stopped functioning as a vital artery
of a whole ecosystem condemned to dry up and with it, the wide
areas that it irrigated. The violent intervention of the water
course also left without its life base a numerous population of
very varied water fowl that visited the area and nested in the
gallery forest on both sides of the water course.
However,
most importantly with these 3,000 hectares, the forest clearance
has touched the very heart of one of the most esteemed territories
of the Ayoreo People: the Chunguperedatei – a region stretching
into the forest on both banks, along the river course. It contains
legendary lagoons that never dry up, even during the worst droughts.
From time immemorial various local Ayoreo groups spend lengthy
periods in this territory, when they interrupt their constant
nomadic wandering to plant their summer crops in the fertile sandy
soil of the river sediments on both sides of the water course.
The 5 km that have been cut, eliminate numerous amotoco
– the small natural clearings that are used for these plantations
– and annul 5 well-known simijnai, waterholes with fish
and ponds which, in the dry season, can be vital for survival.
A
land thus annulled, left empty, becomes “extinguished” according
to those Ayoreo who had already been deprived of territories with
similar forests and who today live precariously in the belts around
modern society. With 3,000 hectares already cleared now, part
of a whole population’s living places, not only previous ones,
but current ones, are becoming extinguished, and with them the
paths that marked the migratory routes, the areas to hunt turtles
or boars, those to collect honey and those of the caraguata fibre
with which the women weave their dreams and visions of life, converting
them into bags. Many forest huts used for camping and shelter
are extinguished and also the places that marked their lives and
told the story of generations: the tree where Orojoide* – former
leader of a forest group contacted by force in 1986 – found twenty
years later the mark that he had made with his axe when he lived
in the forest, before contact, will now also disappear. The living
and material references of the life and history of a whole people
are being extinguished.
With
such extinction, once again the delicate and irreparable unity
formed between humans and the world – we call it nature – is broken.
It was, or is, a vital unity for both parties.
While
this text is being written – 12 October – the isolated groups
must have withdrawn to places further West or further South that
still have life and are intact. However a look at the satellite
map of Amotocodie shows that there are various forest clearances
going on, and even with a compact centre of intact forest, there
must be few places left where the forest Ayoreo people do not
hear the distant noise of the bulldozers working day and night.
They still determine their wanderings, but in an increasingly
conditioned way. Modern society is gradually eating away their
self-determination.
From the “outside,”
from our world of the all-embracing society, the UNAP (Union of
Paraguayan Ayoreo Natives) and the OPIT (Organization of the local
Ayoreo Totobiegosode group) are unrelentingly struggling for the
protection and legal recognition of the territories that are theirs
because they always have been theirs. And they endeavour to give
strength to their invisible brothers and sisters, who are carrying
out the same work “from the inside”: preventing the forest from
becoming extinguished.
*name
changed by the author.
By
Benno Glausere-mail:
bennoglauser@gmail.com,
www.iniciativa-amotocodie.org
index
-
Latin America: Redmanglar International
Assembly
Between
8 and 13 October, fisher-folk organizations, artisanal gatherers,
environmentalists and academics from 10 Latin American counties
organized in Redmanglar International, met in the locality of
Cuyutlan, State of Colima, Mexico.
During
a whole week of work, it was reported that a policy for appropriation
and use of coastal and marine spaces is being reaffirmed and strengthened
worldwide, placing the economic interests of a few before ecosystem
conservation sustaining the life and fundamental rights of local
communities.
During
the first day, representatives from each of the Redmanglar International
member countries presented the current local situation of marine-coastal
ecosystems and the work carried out in their defence. The efforts
made by countries such as Guatemala, Peru and Venezuela are noteworthy
as they have achieved, over the past year, to set up national
networks of organizations linked to the Redmanglar International
mission: that of defending mangrove ecosystems and marine-coastal
ecosystems, guaranteeing their vitality and that of the ancestral
user populations who live in association with them and are faced
by threats and impacts likely to degrade the environment, alter
the natural ecological balance and/or violate the local communities’
human rights.
On
the following days the presentation by Fernando Lopez, Professor
at the Central University of Ecuador on the present political
and economic situation and on the natural and cultural heritage
of Latin America, launched the discussion of general issues affecting
the region. “The situation we are facing is enormously complex
due to the intertwining of powerful global interests, the magnitude
of the hazards threatening populations and the environment and
to the political and social communities and organizations’ scant
capacity for resistance,” explained Fernando Lopez. He also made
an analysis of the Integration of South American Regional Infrastructure
(IIRSA), showing how this implies market integration and a serious
threat to the peoples.
Subsequently,
at the University Picture Gallery in the city of Colima, a talk
was given on “Marine-Coastal Ecosystems, Water and Food Sovereignty”
by Jorge Varela Marquez, delegate of the World Forum of Fisher-Folk
Peoples, Dolores Gonzales of the Central University of Venezuela
and Alberto Villarreal from Food and Water Watch.
Sessions
continued throughout the week, with reports on the network’s participation
at international fora, campaigns, mobilizations and signing of
declarations as effective and legitimate tools for ancestral coastal
peoples. A statement was also made against coastal privatization
and governments were required to guarantee access by fisher-folk
and artisanal gatherers to their territories. At the same time,
joint rejection of the commercialization of environmental goods
and services was proclaimed. .
An
analysis of shrimp farming certification made by Jeovah Meireles
from the Federal University of Ceara, Brazil, moved the Assembly
to ratify its position against organic certification of industrial
shrimp farming, regarding it to be a green masquerade, which attempts
to conceal environmental, social and economic crimes committed
by the shrimp industry.
Furthermore,
the Assembly made statements on various specific issues regarding
the member countries of the network. One of these was a request
to the President of Mexico, Felipe Calderon, to cancel the project
for the Manzanillo Liquid Gas Terminal, considering it to be highly
hazardous for the Cuyatulan Lagoon ecosystems.
As
a result, during their last day in Mexico the participants at
this III General Assembly of Redmanglar International paid a field
visit to the Cuyutlán Lagoon and also met with the fisher-folk
from the community of Ventandas to find evidence of how this project
is a threat to the lagoon system and mangrove ecosystem.
Lider
Gongora Farias, outgoing Executive Secretary and the Ecuadorian
C-CONDEM team installed Juan José López, in representation of
the Colombian Association of Producers for Community Development
of the Bajo Sinu Cienaga Grande (ASPROCIG), as new Executive Secretary
of Redmanglar International for the three-year period 2008-2010.
The
Declaration of Cuyatlan was signed at the end of the Assembly
and it’s available at:
http://redmanglar.org/imagesFTP/8221.declaracion_cuyutlan.pdf
index
COMMUNITIES AND TREE
MONOCULTURES
-
Brazil: Women and Eucaliptus;
stories of life and resistance
The invasion of local
peoples’ territories by Aracruz Celulose S.A.’s agro-industrial
project, established in the sixties and seventies in Espirito
Santo, caused enormous material and symbolic losses to the indigenous
and quilombola peoples. Some are irrecoverable.
“They are my cousins.
When Aracruz came here and evicted them... it arrived by invading.
When it arrived, they were afraid and abandoned their lands and
left. It arrived with a lot of tractors and rode over their little
houses. The houses were made of mud and straw, where they lived.
So, they are my cousins who would like to come back to the village
again.” (Maria Loureiro, from the Tupinikim village of Irajá).
The arrival of this
agro-industrial project was demolishing for the local peoples:
out of 40 indigenous villages, today only seven are left. According
to information from the Quilombolas (*),
of the 100 communities existing in the northern region of Espirito
Santo - comprising some 10,000 families - only 1,200 families
are left, distributed in approximately 37 communities, surrounded
by eucalyptus trees and sugar cane for the production of alcohol.
Many of these peoples
became scattered. A group took refuge in the margins of their
old territory, others sought out a place to live in the cities
of the metropolitan region of Vitoria (the State capital).
The new territorial conformation drastically interfered with the
division of work by sexes, and as a consequence, in the social
and family roles of men and women. Indigenous people and Quilombolas
had to suffer the dispersion of their relatives. The families
that managed to remain in their territory crowded together in
small plots of land.
Paradoxically, with
the sadness of the violence and genocide that these peoples have
had to support, there is also a beautiful story of resistance
over the past six centuries. The most evident proof of this resistance
is the presence of Indigenous people and Quilombolas in all the
regions of Brazil.
With modern and developmental
components, the relationship between the traditional peoples of
Espirito Santo and Aracruz Celulose S.A. replays colonial history
and imposes irreparable material and symbolic losses on the Indigenous
and Quilombola communities.
In this new context,
men and women experience both common and different impacts. With
the loss of territory, women have lost their space to plant, rear
domestic animals and produce medicinal plants.
And for us, women,
it was also a very strong impact. We have this feeling, this feeling
of loss of our wealth. (Maria Loureiro,
Commission of Indigenous Tupinikim and Guarani Women).
The replacement of
forest by eucalyptus plantation caused the loss of foodstuffs
that previously had come from fruit-gathering, fishing and hunting.
The end of the tropical forest also caused the extinction of rivers
and streams, which had been places where women used to gather
and provided a privileged opportunity to exchange feminine knowledge.
It was very hard
for us because we lived off it...we used the river to fish.
Now, this difficulty... the river dried up because of the eucalyptus,
right? And we can only blame the eucalyptus. It was very hard
for us. But we women always suffer with this, with the lack of
water. Before, there was channelled water, but it did not reach
our houses properly and we suffered a lot. (Marideia,
Pau-Brasil Tupinikim village).
Indigenous and Quilombola
people had to live with environmental pollution due to the agrochemical
products used by the monoculture industry.
Then they started
to spray the pesticides, as this young woman said, they started
to finish everything off. The pesticides killed the animals we
used to hunt, the birds; the water also became polluted, killing
fish, crabs such as those in Pau-Brasil. There is a little
river there that went up to Barra do Sahy. So, that river disappeared.
The fish also disappeared because of the poison they put down;
they killed our fish, our crabs. Nothing is left in the mangrove.
You can go and look and you will see nothing, crabs, blue land
crab, all this was our food, what fed us. We lacked nothing, we
fed our children (Rosa, Pau-Brasil
Tupinikim village).
The disappearance
of the forest also caused the end of the raw material used in
making utensils and crafts which, in the case of the Indigenous
people, is an activity mainly carried out by women.
The loss of biodiversity
meant the loss of a considerable number of medicines derived from
forest plants, roots and animals. In the case of Guarani indigenous
women, who had previously used herbs to stimulate or to reduce
fertility, this meant the loss of their right to family planning
and becoming hostages of contraceptive devices and having their
tubes tied. Indigenous and Quilombola women no longer find the
lianas, the trees and the fat from animals they used in practicing
their medicine.
Without the ecosystems
that ensured reproduction of the way of life of these traditional
peoples, the masculine role, within the family and the community/village,
was undermined. Great hunters, farmers and fishermen, the indigenous
men found themselves forced to sell their work-force to Aracruz
Celulose’s outsourced companies and in the case of Quilombola
men, they were also forced to work for companies producing alcohol,
such as the Disa- Destilaria Itaúnas S.A. However, most of them
became unemployed as the companies’ have a policy of not hiring
indigenous and quilombola labour, as a means of forcing those
who stayed in the region to leave. The weakening of the male role
has exposed women to live with their partners’ alcoholism and
with domestic violence.
[...] So,
it ruined part of our lives, our freedom and our culture, our
daily harmony, our health. This arrival of the large companies
here ruined everything, it took away a piece of ourselves, it
is like a piece, as if we had one part alive and another dead,
as if we were living-dead, do you understand? Due to the large
companies that came here. We were happy, not now, we are unhappy
with this life, we need to fight for what is ours, for our territory,
for what they have snatched away from us, and with that everything
left, everything that was ours, so all that is left is for us
to protest, that’s right, on behalf of us all, of all the community.
(Eni, from the Quilombera Community
of São Domingos).
Some indigenous women,
bearers of a rich knowledge of the fauna and flora, became maids,
daily workers, nannies and cooks for the officials of Aracruz
Celulose. The obligation to carry out new tasks has affected the
exercise of motherhood, obliging mothers to stop breast-feeding
earlier and to leave their babies in order to look after the children
of city women.
Faced by these transformations
in their lives, these peoples have established alliances with
movements and NGOs supportive of their struggle. Today, they are
joined in a network, seeking to increase their capacity to resist.
Thus we have been
struggling, uniting with the other 36 communities to fight for
the issue of our lands; lands that were taken from our people,
from our predecessors, today in the hands of Aracruz Celulose.
So the struggle that unites us today is against the expansion
of eucalyptus plantations within our communities. (Katia
from the Divino Espírito Santo Community).
The women, who are
also protagonists in these struggles, have started a process of
organization in specific spaces, with the objective of discussing
the impacts of eucalyptus monoculture on them and the ways of
contributing to recompose the way of life of their people. They
intend to take up their place in this process of struggle in an
increasing way. When “[...] the environment starts
to affect their children, many women will take action.”
The process of women
organizing in specific spaces is recent. For example, in the case
of indigenous women, there are organized groups in each village
devoted to the production of crafts and recovering knowledge and
use of medicinal herbs. Some are in a more advanced process
of organization, others are just starting. In order to strengthen
their process of organization, a little over a year ago they set
up the Commission for Indigenous Tupinikim and Guarani Women,
which seeks to link indigenous women from all the villages and
to develop activities and struggles in their interest.
It is noticeable
that the organizational movement involving women has encouraged
public recognition of the various tasks they carry out: on the
battle-front, in the self-demarcation of the territory, in confrontation
with the police on occupying the Aracruz factory (in 2005), in
the kitchen, on preparing food for the large indigenous assemblies.
In this way, they are increasingly broadening their opportunity
to socialize, and seek partial replacement of the spaces that
were taken from them. Organization has also contributed to increase
their self-esteem.
Indigenous and Quilombola
women, who for so many decades shared the impacts of eucalyptus
monoculture plantations, now want to share their experience of
organization and to discover together the path of freedom.
They are women who are increasingly united, fighting against the
oppression of agro-business and patriarchy.
Exerpted from “Women
and Eucaliptus, stores of life and resistance”, WRM’s research
commited to Gilsa Helena Barcellos, e-mail: gilsahb@terra.com.br,
and Simone Batista Ferreira (members of the Alert against the
Green Desert Network), e-mail:
sibatista@hotmail.com
* Quilombolas: the
descendents of runaway slaves
index
-
Colombia: Is the FSC Seal Applied to Blood-Stained
Timber?
Between
2001 and 2005, plywood panels manufactured by Pizano S.A.,
one of the largest timber companies in Colombia, could be purchased
in the U.S. The panel was manufactured in part using timber from
one of the plantations certified by Forest Stewardship Council
(FSC), and in part from the natural forests in northeast Colombia,
forests in which guerrilla organizations, paramilitary groups
and the army fight for control of the territory and its natural
resources. Consequently, these plywood panels were stained with
blood.
How
is it possible that the FSC permitted itself to be tainted with
blood? The Pizano S.A. group is a major shareholder in
Maderas del Darién, S.A., a timber company which heavily
exploits forests in the watersheds of the Río Atrato tributaries
in the Department of Chocó, which crosses the Colombian Pacific
Reserve, a region noted for its high level of biodiversity. Forty
percent of the timber supplies with which Pizano S.A.
manufactures its plywood panel comes from these forests of such
high ecological value. Moreover, illegal and destructive exploitation
has significantly reduced the natural areas of “cativo” (Priora
copaifera, sometimes referred to as Spanish walnut),
a threatened species used to manufacture the plywood.
This
company has worked at the same time and in the same space in which
armed conflicts and military operations have taken place, causing
the displacement of thousands of people beginning in 1997. Human
rights violations, including murder, have been frequent and remain
unpunished. Illegal logging is a serious problem and ownership
of the land is the object of disputes frequently settled in court.
With all of these ingredients, logging and the armed conflict
have caused destruction to communities of African descent, deforesting
their lands or turning them into oil palm plantations.
In
2000, during a preliminary evaluation of Pizano S.A., Smartwood
met with Iniciativa Nacional de Colombia, and members
of its executive board questioned the possible certification of
this company. At that time, Pizano S.A., was already implicated
in the conflict in the Department of Chocó. In the follow-up evaluation
of 2005, the inter-ecclesial Justicia y Paz Colombia, an
organization committed to defending human rights throughout Latin
America, filed a formal complaint in which it stated that Maderas
del Darién was responsible for human rights violations and
environmental destruction in Darién, citing various documents
and court rulings.
The
complaint filed by Justicia y Paz Colombia was supported
by numerous social and environmental organizations in Colombia
and Spain (Greenpeace Spain and Ecologistas en Acción,
among others). Later in 2005, these organizations asked Smartwood
not to renew FSC certification for Pizano S.A. In addition,
we informed FSC Executive Director Heiko Liedeker of these facts.
The
links of Pizano S.A.’s subsidiary to the conflict have been made
public in recent months. In May 2007, several news media outlets
in Colombia published the accounts of former members of paramilitary
groups who acknowledged that they had received financial support
from Maderas del Darién. Smartwood was immediately
informed of these facts.
However,
all of this was not enough. On 17 July 2007, Smartwood informed
the complaining organizations of its intentions to grant the FSC
seal to the plantations of Pizano S.A. again. According
to Smartwood, there is no evidence that the reported activities
“have been carried out in the present or recent past.” This statement
makes it clear that neither Smartwood nor the company deny that
these activities did occur in the “non-recent” past,” such as
in 2005, when the company also had the FSC seal and Smartwood
turned a deaf ear to the complaints of civil society.
According
to Smartwood, Pizano S.A. has now pledged to adopt the
FSC controlled wood standard under which timber of illegal origin,
timber from forests of high conservation value or timber exploited
in violation of traditional and civil rights, is unacceptable.
Smartwood’s
failure to keep illegal and destructive wood out of the FSC supply
chain in Colombia is another hard blow to the credibility and
prestige of the FSC. To date, no Smartwood auditor has visited
the Darién region and there is still no established mechanism,
registry or system to ensure that timber resulting from the destruction
of forests of high ecological value, illegal logging or violence,
is not mixed with timber from the certified plantations of Pizano
S.A. to manufacture the plywood panels – plywood panels on
which the FSC label may be stained with blood. Furthermore, FSC
International has failed to give clear guidance on the exclusion
of highly controversial companies such as Pizano, from the FSC
system.
By
Miguel Ángel Soto, Greenpeace Spain,
e-mail:
masoto@es.greenpeace.org, and Tom
Kucharz, Ecologistas en Acción, e-mail:
agroecologia@ecologistasenaccion.org
index
-
Kenya: Pan Paper plans to expand its polluting
operations
Earlier
this year, in an attempt to discourage the use of plastic bags,
the Kenyan government slapped a 120 per cent tax on plastic. While
the tax may look like an environmentally friendly decision, it
could result in severe impacts on the environment. One of the
beneficiaries of the decision will be the partly government-owned
Pan African Paper Mills.
Pan
Paper has reported huge losses in recent years and has debts estimated
at US$100 million, according to The East African. Much of the
debt will mature in the next two years. In April 2007, the company
appointed a new management team after the company's lenders hired
consultants McKinsey to suggest ways of reviving the company's
fortunes. The plastic tax could provide a lifeline to Pan Paper.
Packaging
company Tetra Pak is already expanding production in Kenya. "We
would like to increase our sourcing of raw materials from Pan
Paper. We are discussing with them to find if they can produce
more of the raw materials that we need," Anders Lindgren,
Tetra Pak's managing director told Business Daily in July 2007.
Pan Paper recently announced plans to spend US$1.19 million planting
six million trees over the next year.
Pan
Paper currently has a production capacity of 120,000 tonnes of
paper a year at its mill in Webuye. Established in 1974, the company
is a joint venture between Orient Paper and Industries (part of
India's Birla Group) the Kenyan Government and the World Bank's
International Finance Corporation.
The
involvement of the IFC means that, in theory at least, the pulp
and paper mill should meet the IFC's social and environmental
guidelines. But IFC's own staff admit that there is a conflict
of interest between protecting the environment and the economic
interests of company's in which IFC is a shareholder.
In
1996, when IFC lent a further US$15 million to Pan Paper for an
expansion of the pulp and paper mill, IFC did not demand a full
environmental assessment. Instead IFC relied on information provided
by the company. IFC noted that Pan Paper "has made commitment
to fully comply with World Bank policies and guidelines".
IFC
promised to "monitor Panafrican Paper's ongoing compliance
with World Bank policies and guidelines during the life of the
project." In 2003, IFC promised more financial assistance
for the restructuring of Pan African Paper Mills. Unfortunately,
IFC's monitoring of Pan Paper only involves reading reports submitted
by the company and "periodic site reviews during project
supervision".
Pan
Paper is, of course, keen to keep its problems hidden. For example,
at a conference on "sustainable consumption and production"
in 2004, Pan Paper's John M. Khaoya talked about "maintaining
a delicate balancing between environment and profits". He
talked about best available technologies, best environmental practices,
pollution prevention and waste minimisation. He talked about employee
training and awareness. He talked about corporate social responsibility
and the community projects Pan Paper has funded. He talked about
sustainable use of renewable resources. He talked about compliance
with environmental regulations and of working "hand-in-hand"
with the promoters of cleaner production. He talked about a "'win-win'
situation for industry and environment".
Michael
Ochieng Odhiambo, of the Kenyan NGO RECONCILE, has a different
view of Pan Paper's operations. Writing earlier this year in the
newsletter of the Western Kenya Environmental Law Centre he describes
the "noxious stench" from the mill: "Many regular
travellers on this route will close the windows of cars or buses
as they approach the factory in order to avoid the stench. But
for the residents of the town this is something they have to live
with."
Odhiambo
lists the health problems that residents of Webuye complain of
as a result of the pollution from Pan Paper's operations: "irritation
of the eyes and respiratory tracts, dry mouths and scratchy throats,
gross accumulation of fluid in air spaces impairing the functioning
of the lungs, cancer of the lung and throat, asthma, bronchitis,
bronchial pneumonia, conjunctivitis, hepatitis, dermatitis, tuberculosis,
impotence, babies born with stunted reproductive organs, retarded
intelligence among children, and high levels of respiratory diseases."
But
pollution from the pulp and paper mill is not the only problem
that Pan Paper creates. Further problems come from the supply
of raw material to the mill. In 2001, the Ogiek people living
in the Mau mountain forest accused Pan Paper of logging in their
forest areas. For the last four years, the problems caused by
Pan Paper's mill, logging and plantations operations have been
raised in the Kenyan Parliament.
Today,
industrial tree plantations cover about 160,000 hectares in Kenya.
Three-quarters are planted with cypress and pine trees but eucalyptus
trees are increasingly planted in Kenya - using seedlings from
South Africa. A recent article in The Nation (Nairobi) notes that
"eucalyptus and other exotic species are fast replacing indigenous
trees in many . . . parts of the country". The result has
been drying up springs and streams. The article suggests that
eucalyptus plantations have made droughts in the country even
more severe.
By
promoting the polluting pulp and paper industry, the government's
plastic tax will end up having some very unpleasant environmental
and social impacts.
By
Chris Lang,
http://chrislang.org
index
-
Swaziland/South Africa/Uganda: The illusion
of storing carbon in tree plantations goes up in smoke
Wild
fires blazed through parts of
Swaziland and eastern
South Africa in the end of July.
The fires had a death toll of over 20 people, killed thousands
of cattle and wild animals, incinerated homesteads and destroyed
crops and plantations. In both countries, fire fighters
and emergency personnel were being overstretched. It was a huge
catastrophe.
Reports from IOL (Independent
Online) informed that about 80 percent of the countryside
surrounding the South African northern KwaZulu-Natal town of Paulpietersburg
- one of the worst-affected areas and with many timber plantations
- had been devastated.
According
to FSC-Watch, the fires in Swaziland started in the FSC-certified
plantations of the Mondi company --now apparently bought by the
US based Global Emerging Markets Forestry Investors LLC-- in the
Piggs Peak region, and also affected part of an FSC-certified
plantation owned by another South African pulp and paper conglomerate,
Sappi.
The
environmental and social damaging impacts of plantations in
the region have long been denounced
(see WRM bulletins at
http://www.wrm.org.uy/countries/SouthAfrica.html#articles)
and many feared that a disaster was in store for them. Now that
the disaster has arrived, fingers point also at the FSC for having
validated a plantation scheme which renders people nothing else
than havoc.
Quoting
FSC-Watch, “80% of the 19,500 hectare Mondi plantation is reported
to have gone up in flames, and around 7% of Sappi's.” “Mondi's
certifier, SGS , noted in their original certification assessment
that ‘Inherent in good silvicultural practice is the physical
management of fire risks and the implementation of fire controls
supported by well-trained and well-equipped fire-fighting teams.’
Now that one of Mondi's plantations has burned to the ground,
claiming several lives, SGS will no doubt have to conclude that
they were not managed according to 'good silvicultural
practice'.”
This tragedy also exposes the
infeasibility of the concept of planting trees
to store carbon, further reinforced by what has been happening
in Uganda, where farmers cut down considerable part of Dutch CO2
"forests".
The
conflict goes back to an agreement signed in 1994 by the Dutch
FACE (Forests Absorbing Carbon dioxide Emissions) Foundation and
the Ugandan authorities to plant trees on a two to three kilometre
wide strip on 25,000 hectares inside the 211 kilometre-long boundary
of the Mount Elgon National Park, a highly contested zone.
Allegedly
to absorb and store carbon to compensate for the emissions of
Dutch firms and those of air traveling, approximately 9,000 hectares
of trees were planted since 1993. They had to remain standing
for one hundred years.
The
tree planting played havoc with local villagers who not only were
evicted from their land but also lost access to the forest. For
the project to be implemented, people living along the boundary
of the park were beaten and shot at, barred from their land which
was added to the national park, and had their livestock confiscated
by armed park rangers guarding the ‘carbon trees’ inside the National
Park. They were left landless and jobless (see World Rainforest
Movement report ‘A funny place to store carbon’, at
http://www.wrm.org.uy/countries/Uganda/book.html, and WRM
Bulletin Nº 115).
All
along the past year, evicted farmers have retaken their old land,
chopped down the trees and turned them into charcoal, converting
1,300 hectares into farmland. Jeroen Trommelen
from the Dutch De Volkskrant reports that
FACE has stopped the sale of CO2 credits from the Ugandan tree
plantations until the conflicts concerning the land rights have
been solved.
Last
year the credits were sold to a Dutch energy firm to compensate
the climate effect of the use of fossil fuel. FACE does not want
to say the name of the company. Until last year CO2 credits from
the Uganda tree plantation were also sold through the organisation
Greenseat, a Dutch company with clients including Amnesty International,
the British Council and The Body
Shop.
Currently,
of the 3.4 million trees planted, the carbon stored in some half
a million trees has already been released into the atmosphere
(estimated at some 182,000 tons of CO2) following their conversion
into charcoal. As Trommelen put it, “The carbon dioxide that was
stored in the wood to compensate the CO2 emissions, has now therefore
partly gone up in smoke.”
In
the face of the global catastrophe of accelerating increase of
atmospheric CO2 levels -from about 280 parts-per-million
in preindustrial times to about 380ppm in the current day – with
the potential for future temperature increases, the market-based
approach fix has proved not only not to solve the problem but
even to worsen it.
Article based on
information from: “Swaziland: fires in certified plantations spark
national emergency”, FSC-Watch,
http://www.fsc-watch.org/archives/2007/08/28/Swaziland__fires_in_c
ertified_plantations_spark_national_emergency_; “South Africa
Fires”, IOL (Independent Online),
http://www.fire.uni-freiburg.de/GFMCnew/2007/07/0730/20070730_sa.htm;
“Farmers in Uganda cut down considerable part of Dutch CO-2 forests”,
Jeroen Trommelen, De
Volkskrant, disseminated
by Simone Lovera, Global Forest Coalition, email:
simonelovera@yahoo.com,
http://www.globalforestcoalition.org
index
-
Uruguay: Labour conditions in two FSC certified
tree nurseries
For
years now WRM has been documenting the social and environmental
impacts of monoculture tree plantations. However, so far we had
no information on the starting point in this chain: the nurseries
where millions of plants intended for plantation are produced.
Recently research has just been concluded on the labour conditions
and use of agrochemicals in the nurseries of the two main forestry
companies in Uruguay certified by the Forest Stewardship Council
(FSC): Eufores (Ence-Spain) and FOSA (Metsa Botnia-Finland). (1)
Both
companies’ nurseries use the most advanced technology in this
area and basically produce eucalyptus clones. Cloning is done
from branches of the so-called “mother-plants” using them to produce
cuttings, small stalks with a pair of leaves. This production
is carried out using specialized equipment and once the saplings
are produced they remain in the nursery until they are well rooted,
subsequently to be moved outdoors for weathering for the plantations.
Although
the technology for plant production is “advanced” (including modern
irrigation installations, greenhouses and a broad agrochemical
package), it is not quite so “advanced” regarding labour conditions.
The
first thing to draw attention is outsourcing. Approximately 80
percent of both companies’ workforce, occupying 50-70 people (Eufores)
and 130 people (FOSA), work under this system. Outsourcing
is an externalization of labour that implies breaking the direct
labour relationship with the company that takes on production.
In this “triangular labour relationship” people are hired by a
company (contracting company) but in fact work for another company,
on their premises, under their direction and discipline, thus
diluting the figure of the real employer.
According
to the workers, “outsourcing is a way of avoiding possible problems
with the union and with the workers in general” as it divides
them, both regarding benefits and labour projection, thus conspiring
against the possibility of worker organization. Insofar as outsourcing
condemns those hired to seasonal work, labour insecurity and functional
tenure – they will always be “unskilled workers” and paid as such
although they may be carrying out specialized tasks such as cloning
eucalyptus – among the workers the illusion persists that they
will become direct employees. On occasions this leads to their
withdrawal from trade union activities for fear of being “pinpointed.”
Union
organization has been difficult in both companies. At Eufores,
the union was only established four years ago, in spite of company
opposition. However, once established, Eufores unleashed its persecution
against the trade union leader, who reported that he felt “personally
victimized.” Even so, Eufores was certified. It has only been
during the past year that the company seems to have accepted the
fact and the leader reinstated to his normal workstation.
In
FOSA the creation of the trade union is very recent (August 2006),
but its members are almost all workers from the contractor company.
However pressure is felt and some do not join for fear of being
considered as “trouble-makers” by the company and that this might
eventually prevent them from becoming direct FOSA employees. In
spite of this situation, this company was also certified.
Another
aspect showing the companies’ lack of social responsibility is
that, as a principle, the health of the eucalyptus plants comes
before people’s health. In order to avoid the saplings from becoming
infected by pests and diseases, a very high amount of agrochemicals
is applied. In Eufores, two products banned by FSC are applied:
Fundazol (Benomil, an endocrine disruptor, producing genetic mutations,
which is probably carcinogenic for humans) and Flonex (Mancozeb,
banned because it is carcinogenic). Both nurseries use Captan,
a fungicide banned in Finland in August 2001 because it is extremely
toxic: it is considered to be carcinogenic, produces contamination
of soil and groundwater table, and is very toxic to fish, also
affecting frogs, birds and water fowl.
The
workers are continually exposed to agrochemicals in a closed environment
impregnated with such products. Furthermore, the water from washing
out the backpacks or other implements used for spraying agrochemicals
is spilled out in the same place. Because they are unable to take
a shower before going home as the restrooms have no showers, the
workers spread contamination to their family insofar as they go
home with the same clothes they worked in. In this regard,
workers reported that over 90 percent of the children of women
working in the nursery suffer from allergies, spasms and asthma.
As
for medical checkups, these are nonexistent in FOSA. Eufores does
do some, but the workers do not trust the results and are trying
to get monitoring done by an organization that is independent
from the company, such as the Ministry of Public Health.
Some
noteworthy labour conditions in the Eufores and FOSA nurseries
are: the isolation of the location – preventing displacement during
the lunch break that, in the case of FOSA is not paid – the difficult
access to the restrooms – they are distant from the workplace
– and their capacity is totally inadequate in addition to the
above mentioned lack of showers; the absence of extractors in
enclosed places – only the plants have air-conditioning – and
the high temperatures there, in addition to the omission – on
the part of FOSA – of providing articles necessary for the job,
such as latex gloves – the company only provides rubber gloves
as they are cheaper, but this hinders manipulation.
Cases
of skin, eye, hand and neck allergies and allergies in other parts
of the body, with rashes, itching and swelling, are frequent in
workers exposed to toxic products such as fungicides, insecticides,
hormones and chlorine.
The
issue of female labour warrants special mention. The forestry
companies emphasize the generation of jobs for women, but the
jobs they offer are mostly for unskilled labourers which, as we
have seen, are outsourced with no prospects for betterment. There
are some administrative posts, but few women hold managerial positions
– they are generally clerks.
Maternity
is hard to sustain under the nurseries’ labour regime. There are
no day-care centres and the distance and lack of transport lead
to very long working hours away from the children. During pregnancy
these harsh working conditions prevent workers from reaching the
authorized term for leave – 7 and a half months pregnancy – even
though they prefer to work as long as possible because prenatal
leave implies much lower income. However, the prevailing conditions
– temperatures that can rise above 40ºC and long working hours
either sitting or standing – oblige them to take prenatal leave
at between months 4 and 6 of their pregnancy.
It
is interesting to note that the certification of these two companies
had already been questioned in an investigation carried out by
WRM (2). Now this investigation on these companies’ nurseries
is added to such questioning. In fact, in her
summary on the issue, the researcher concludes that “these two
certified companies in no way show themselves to be ‘environmentally
responsible, socially beneficial and economically viable’ (as
defined in the FSC mandate). On the contrary, they enjoy this
seal at the cost of the work and health of their workers and of
the environment of all Uruguayans.
(1)"Labour
conditions and use of agrochemicals in two tree nurseries”, August
2007, RAPAL-Uruguay (only in Spanish)
http://www.guayubira.org.uy/trabajo/viveros.pdf
(2)“Greenwash.
Critical analysis of FSC certification of industrial tree monocultures
in Uruguay”, April 2006, World Rainforest Movement,
http://www.wrm.org.uy/countries/Uruguay/book.html
index
GE TREES
-
ArborGen – the world's biggest GM tree
research company plans to get bigger
In August 2007, ArborGen
signed an agreement which brings the company's aim of being "the
pre-eminent player in the global development and marketing of
bio-engineered trees to the forestry industry" another dangerous
step closer to reality.
When
this US$60 million deal goes through, ArborGen will take over
the tree nursery and seed orchard businesses from its three owners:
MeadWestvaco and International Paper in the USA and Rubicon Limited
in New Zealand and Australia. ArborGen will become the world's
largest producer of tree seedlings, with operations in 20 locations
in four countries. ArborGen estimates the combined yearly sales
at 350 million tree seedlings, bringing in about US$25 million
a year. So far, ArborGen's GM trees are not commercially available,
but when ArborGen starts to sell its GM trees, this deal will
give the company a huge, ready-made market.
Rubicon's
Horizon2 will become part of ArborGen under the deal. Horizon2
produces tree seedlings for the plantations industry in Australia
and New Zealand. Horizon2 is also carrying out research into GM
eucalyptus and radiata pine, aimed at producing trees with less
lignin, faster growth, insect resistance, stress tolerance and
altered flowering behaviour.
Also
in New Zealand, ArborGen has signed a research and development
agreement with Scion, a state-owned forestry research organisation.
The research is aimed at identifying the genes responsible for
faster growth and other characteristics of interest to the plantations
industry.
Rubicon's
CEO, Luke Moriarty sees the potential market as ever expanding.
"The annual unit sales of forestry seedlings are well into
the billions, recur every year, and span the globe," Moriarty
told Rubicon's shareholders in July 2005. What's more, ArborGen
has so far cornered the market in GM trees. "There are no
global competitors to Arborgen in this space," says Moriarty.
ArborGen
is hoping to cash in on the biofuels boom and this year the company
expanded its research to include biofuels. "Renewable energy
can create new markets for green products," says ArborGen's
CEO, Barbara Wells. ArborGen is one of the partners in the BioEnergy
Science Center, a US$125 million project funded by the US government
and led by Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
The
company anticipates that its GM trees with reduced lignin content
will be ArborGen's "first 'next-generation' treestock product
to be commercialised". Trees with less lignin content are
easier to pulp. But lignin is what holds wood cells together.
It is what makes trees stand up. Reducing the amount of lignin
in trees makes them more vulnerable to storms and more at risk
to pests, fungi and disease.
ArborGen
is currently carrying out field trials of reduced lignin GM trees
in Brazil. The company set up operations in Campinas, Sao Paulo
state three years ago. ArborGen started its GM tree trials in
Brazil in 2005. This year, ArborGen won approval from Brazil's
regulatory authority (CTN-Bio) to carry out a second full-rotation
field trial of GM eucalyptus trees.
So
far, the company does not have permission to market its GM trees
in Brazil. "We have submitted all the required forms and
met the government's guidelines for establishing trials. Information
from these trials will be used to obtain the necessary authorization
for commercial use," Fabio Brun ArborGen's director South
America, told the forestry industry website RISI in May 2007.
ArborGen is working in partnership with "some of the largest
forest product companies in the region," according to RISI.
ArborGen
is also researching a GM cold-tolerant eucalyptus which the company
hopes will provide a source of raw material for the pulp and paper
industry in the US South. Earlier this year, ArborGen won a controversial
approval from the US regulatory authority (the Animal and Plant
Health Inspection Service, APHIS) for a full rotation field trial
in Baldwin County, Alabama. APHIS decided that the trial would
have "no significant impact" and that ArborGen need
not even prepare an environmental impact statement.
In
December 2005, Rubicon stated that "ArborGen has been active
with both the Brazilian and US authorities to ensure that any
issues associated with the launching of biotechnology products
in plantation forest trees are understood and that the regulatory
regime implemented is science-based and workable in practice."
ArborGen's
cosy relationship with the regulatory authorities seems to be
paying off. The experts that APHIS turns to for advice about the
risks of such trials are forestry scientists employed in academia
or in pulp and paper corporations. APHIS even turned for advice
to scientists working for two of the companies that own ArborGen:
International Paper and MeadWestvaco. These experts all have one
thing in common: an interest in trials of GM trees going ahead.
Not surprisingly, in their advice to APHIS, they play down the
risks and do not mention the precautionary principle.
By
Chris Lang,
http://chrislang.org
index
-
European Forest Institute chooses to ignore
the "overwhelmingly negative" social
effects of GM trees
The
European Forest Institute recently announced a statement in favour
of research into genetically modified trees. Several of
EFI's 131 member organisations (consisting
of research institutes, universities and
companies) are involved in research into GM trees. EFI's chairman
from 2004 to 2006 was François Houllier, a scientific director
at the French National Institute for Agricultural
Research (INRA) which is carrying out research
into GM trees. Other EFI members involved in GM
tree research include the Finnish Forest Research Institute
(METLA) and the Federal Research Centre
for Forestry and Forest Products (BFH) in
Germany.
EFI's
pro-GM statement starts with the claim that the research on GM
trees is needed, "In order to provide the relevant
public authorities with sound and unbiased
scientific data and information." This might
make sense, except that the GM tree research that is being
carried out is not "neutral"
science aimed at providing information for public
authorities.
GM tree research is carried out on behalf of industry,
mainly the pulp and paper industry, but
increasingly the biofuels industry.
EFI's
statement was produced after a two year discussion within the
organisation. In 2005, EFI commissioned a discussion paper
titled "Biotechnology in the Forest?
Policy Options on Research on GM Trees".
The lead author of the paper was David Humphreys, a senior
lecturer in Environmental Policy at the
Open University and the author of "Logjam:
Deforestation and the Crisis of Global Governance".
While
the discussion paper states that "No clear, unambiguous
arguments emerge either for or against GM trees,"
it does put forward several strong arguments
against the commercial planting of GM trees and
therefore against continued research into GM trees.
"Trees
live longer than agricultural crops," the discussion paper
states, "which means that changes in their metabolism
might occur many years after they are planted.
At the same time, trees are different from
crops in that they are largely undomesticated, and scientists'
knowledge about forest ecosystems is poor compared to their
knowledge of agricultural ecosystems. The
ecological and other potential risks associated
with GM trees could be greater than those of GM crops."
The
paper notes the threat that GM trees pose to forests (although
the concern seems to be the impact on the
forestry industry rather than forests and
people): "The use of GM trees could, over the long term,
seriously damage the forestry sector itself due to genetic
contamination that results in weaker forests that are increasingly
unable to fend off natural stresses, such as attacks from
pests that have become resistant to the
insecticides produced by GM trees."
The
patents involved in scientific research will make GM trees
expensive. The production and commercialisation of GM trees
is an expensive and highly specialised
process. The paper points out that "If
the use of GM trees becomes popular and widespread the forestry
sector itself is likely to become increasingly dependent
on biotechnology companies and GM seed
companies."
The
introduction of new technologies generates winners and losers.
With the introduction of GMOs in the agricultural sector,
the winners "include large GM and
seed corporations, while the losers include many
small farmers", notes the paper. Sterile GM crops
mean that farmers have to buy new seeds
each year. The seeds are more expensive because
they include royalties to the corporations that developed
the GM species. "The net result is
a revenue flow from poor Southern farmers to
rich Northern corporations, with many small agricultural producers
going out of business."
Many
of the research organisations and companies promoting GM tree
technology are based in the North. But the GM tree plantations,
if they are ever established, will be predominantly
in the Global South. "The result is
likely to be a social inequality", notes EFI's
discussion paper, "both in the division of risk, which
will fall mainly on developing countries,
and in the division of the financial benefits,
which will accrue primarily to the developed world."
Humphreys
and his colleagues point out that the impacts of GM tree
plantations would to be similar to those of the large-scale
industrial tree plantations that have already
been established in the South: "Pulp
tree plantations in the South have tended to overuse available
land and water resources, and to pollute the surrounding
environment with fertiliser and pesticides.
GM tree plantations can be expected to place
even greater demands on the environment, since GM varieties are
engineered for faster growth."
The
discussion paper concludes that "There are considerable economic
and environmental benefits to GM trees, but also potentially
serious economic and environmental disadvantages.
The anticipated social effects of introducing
GM trees are overwhelmingly negative. The legal
situation on GM trees is unclear. The whole question of
introducing GM trees raises serious ethical
questions to which there are no obvious answers."
The
explanation for EFI's decision to support GM tree research may
be found in EFI's 2005 discussion paper.
"Most scientists with expertise in
GMOs are employed by research institutes and industrial
corporations," notes the paper. "These scientists,
it can be argued, have a vested interest
in emphasising the benefits of biotechnology,
and in minimising the associated risks."
One
sentence from the conclusion to the discussion paper provides
a clear, unambiguous argument against GM
trees: "The anticipated social effects
of introducing GM trees are overwhelmingly negative." In
supporting GM tree research, EFI is ignoring these overwhelmingly
negative social effects.
By
Chris Lang, http://chrislang.org
index
