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WRM Bulletin
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OUR VIEWPOINT The need to raise awareness on the true character of tree plantations One of the main reasons which explains why large-scale industrial tree plantations can be promoted at the global level while they are being strongly opposed at the local level, is the manipulation of concepts and information to feed the uninformed public. Trees -any trees- are presented as sinonimous to forests and forests are rightly perceived by most people as good and necessary to humanity. The fact that plantations have nothing in common with forests is not that easy to be understood by the general -particularly the urban- public. On the contrary, local people can easily see the difference. Shortly after large-scale tree monocrops are planted, they begin to perceive -and suffer- that difference. Wildlife begins to become scarce in the area and almost inexistent within the boundaries of the plantations. Changes in the hydrologic cycle leads to water scarcity and in some cases also to over-flooding after heavy rains. Useful plants disappear. Water courses are damaged through increased siltation due to soil erosion originating in the plantations. Plantation management results in chemical pollution due to the widespread use of agrochemicals. Such changes have strong implications for local peoples’ livelihoods. Wild animals, fish, mushrooms, fruit, honey, vegetables, form an important part of their diet. Water security is basic for their agricultural and animal husbandry activities. The forest provides fodder, firewood, medicines, wood for housing, grasses for thatching, fibres and many other products and services. Plantations do not provide any of those and, to make matters worse, deprive people from most of the available agricultural land, which is taken over by one large company. However, plantations are being promoted throughout the world as "planted forests". As if a forest, in its complexity of interactions involving people, energy, climate, soil, water and biodiversity, could be planted. Sooner or later, people begin to perceive that plantations are not "forests" and plantation companies then resort to a different set of arguments, trying to convince people that plantations are good, even accepting they are not forests. One of the more widely used arguments is that which states that "plantations help to alleviate pressure on native forests", by providing goods that would otherwise be obtained from forests. This argument sounds appealing, particularly to the increasing number of people concerned about deforestation. . . only that it is not true. All plantations in tropical countries have directly or indirectly resulted in increased destruction of native forests. Most plantation companies clear the existing forest to make way for their tree crops. On the other hand, fast-growth tree monocrops are mostly oriented to the pulp industry and therefore do not alleviate any pressure from the logging of tropical timber for the sawnwood and plywood industry. Additionally, many pulp and paper companies which implement plantations to feed their pulpmills also use wood from tropical forests, either prior to the moment when the plantations mature or simultaneously use wood from the forest and from plantations (see for instance article on Venezuela in this bulletin). As each argument falls apart, the companies’ hired "experts" invent another one, trying to make this unsustainable forestry model acceptable by different audiences. For example, that plantations create employment. The fact that plantations destroy more jobs than the ones they create and that the quality of employment they provide is dismal seems to be irrelevant to such "experts". Or that plantations are necessary to supply an increasing demand for paper in an increasingly literate world. This hides the fact that some 40% of the paper produced ends in packaging and wrapping, as well as the fact that pulp-exporting Southern countries with extensive plantations (such as Indonesia, Brazil, South Africa or Chile) consume 10 times less paper than industrial countries. The inventive of these "experts" to prove the impossible seems to be inexhaustible. The truth is that plantations are simply tree crops aimed at ensuring the future supply of the pulp and paper industry once its traditional resource base -native forests- becomes depleted. As with any other industry, its purpose is to produce, and sell, and make a profit. The difference is that this industry -which is in fact one of the most destructive and polluting in the world- tries to portray its tree plantations, as a "greening the earth" operation. Trees are green . . . and so is the American dollar, which is the only colour they are interested in.
LOCAL STRUGGLES AND NEWS AFRICA Have small farmers deforested West Africa? Not according to British researchers James Fairhead and Melissa Leach. Their recent book 'Reframing Deforestation, Global Analysis and Local Realities: Studies in West Africa', published by Routledge Press, uses extensive historical evidence from archives, travelers' reports, and oral accounts for Benin, Cote D'Ivoire, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Togo to show claims of massive forest loss in these countries have been greatly exaggerated. Specifically, they find that: * These countries have lost some 10 million hectares of
forest since 1900, not 25-50 million hectares as previously claimed, The authors do not deny significant deforestation has taken place or that small farmers sometimes degrade their environments. They simply argue the extent of destruction has been over stated and farmers' positive roles largely ignored. Existing myths persist, in part, because forestry and conservation agencies find them useful. By claiming small farmers threaten forests they did not create these groups can justify their own control over forest resources and limiting farmers' access to those resources. Exaggerating the extent of deforestation and forest degradation can help obtain political support and funding. If you would like to send comments about the topic of this message to the authors or find out how you can purchase a copy of their new book, you can write Melissa Leach at: M.Leach@ids.ac.uk Source: David Kaimowitz <D.KAIMOWITZ@cgnet.com>
Ghana: new book on the forest sector The International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) has recently published a report on Ghana's forests and forest policies titled "Falling into Place", produced in collaboration with the Ghanaian Ministry of Lands and Forestry. Authors include Nii Ashie Kotey, Johnny Francois, JGK Owusu, Raphael Yeboah, Kojo S. Amanor and Lawrence Antwi. The book provides a historical analysis, a description of the different types of forests, the stakeholders involved and the evolution of government forest policy, ending with conclusions and suggestions for the future. The report is available at the Faculty of Law of the University of Ghana (lawfac@ug.gn.apc.org) and at IIED (bookshop@iied.org).
The Gambia: a different type of forest degradation As in many other countries, Gambia's forests are facing a type of forest degradation which implies the substitution of native species by an exotic. But this is not the common situation where plantation companies substitute native forests by eucalyptus, pines or palm oil plantations. In this case, the villain is a "good" tree, brought into the country by Indian immigrants: the Neem tree (Azadirachta indica). In India, this tree has a number of positive features, among which the production of a useful natural pesticide. In Gambia, it is becoming a pest. But not because native forests are being cut to plant neem: the tree is slowly invading the forest and getting increasingly out of control. Such situation is not unique to Gambia. Many non-native trees and shrubs are becoming invasive in many of the world's forests, leading to dramatic changes in forests' floristic composition and subsequent changes in local wildlife and peoples' livelihoods. For a more detailed description of this process worldwide, we recommend Chris Bright's chapter on forests in "Life out of Bounds: bioinvasion in a borderless world" (New York, Norton, 1998, www.wwnorton.com). Source: Jato S. Sillah (pers. comm.)
AMERICAS "Forest-Americas" is a list for forest activists in North, Central and South America who want to work together to protect forests and counter the growing threats posed by trade liberalization and globalization of the timber trade. The purpose of the list is to help activists build wider networks to share information and develop joint strategies. The idea for this list was generated at a meeting of grassroots forest activists at the People's Summit in Santiago, Chile concurrent with the FTAA Summit in April, 1998. Activists came together to discuss the impacts to forests and communities of the movement of transnational timber corporations within the Americas, the loss of native forests and biodiversity, the expansion of tree plantations and chip mills, and the threats posed by free trade agreements like the FTAA, APEC and NAFTA. At a meeting to plan for how we could work together, it was decided to increase our interaction and cooperation through a listserve. To subscribe to the list, send a message to: Pat Rasmussen prasmussen@igc.apc.org
ASIA APRIL and UPM-Kymmene move into China APRIL (Asia Pacific Resources International Holding Ltd.) –partner of the Finnish UPM-Kymmene- is known for its permanent violations to human rights and depredatory environmental practices in Indonesia. Lately APRIL has been the cause of local conflicts between villagers and workers in Indonesia (see WRM Bulletin 17, November 1998). In face of the severe difficulties that the Indonesian economy is currently facing, APRIL has not been able to find financing for a second paper machine in Riau Province. The transnational is therefore trying to expand to a new and potentially huge market: China. UPM Kymmene and its partner APRIL recently signed a loan agreement of U$S 250 million with Chase Manhattan Bank and Citicorp International for their Chinese joint venture: Asia Pacific Forest Products (Suzhou) Pte. Ltd. (AP Suzhou). AP Suzhou will establish a 350,000 tonnes per year fine paper mill that is expected to start operating early next year in Changshu, China and has already a 30,000 tonnes per year converting plant, currently in operation in Suzhou, both near Shanghai. UPM-Kymmene and APRIL hold equal 49% positions in AP Suzhou. Source: Otto Miettinen, Friends of the Earth/Finland, based on: "UPM-Kymmene and its partner April took a billion-loan for their Chinese plants", Helsingin Sanomat, 2/12/1998; UPM-Kymmene Corporation and APRIL Press release, 1/12/1998.
Vietnam invades Cambodian forests. In previous issues of the Bulletin we informed on the expansion of tree monocultures and the pulp and paper industry in Vietnam, under a scheme not aimed at attending the needs of farmers, villagers, or even the country’s economy in the long run (Bulletin 7, December 1997; Bulletin 15, September 1998). The unsustainability of Vietnamese forestry policy becomes evident once again: from July 1998 the Government is allowing imports of Cambodian timber, and even encouraging the re-export of both logs and sawn wood made out of Cambodian and Laotian timber. Under the disguise of "regional cooperation" in the framework of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), Vietnamese loggers are illegally felling trees in Cambodia, especially in Ratanakiri province. It is presumed that large scale land exports will take place during the 1998/99 dry season. The minimum volume of Cambodian logs illegally felled and exported to Vietnam in 1997 and early 1998 has been estimated in 260,000 cubic metres.. The annual export of Vietnamese manufactured garden furniture to Europe reached in 1998 a minimum of U$S 70 million. According to the law, exclusively imported wood can be used to this aim, and this raw material comes from the neighbour countries Cambodia, Laos, Burma, Malaysia and Indonesia. "Since the July 1997 coup Vietnam, with the go ahead from Cambodian Prime Ministers Hun Sen, Ung Huot and Military Region 1, appears to regard eastern Cambodia as its own property and absolutely advocates the import of Cambodian logs", said Simon Taylor, spokesperson of Global Witness. Based on the World Bank suggested economic rent for Cambodian timber of US$75 per m3, the loss to the national budget through illegal logging operations from January 1997 to February 1998 is US$184.2 million. Cambodian forests had already suffered significant degradation during the Vietnam War, due to bombing and the use of defoliants. If deforestation in this country’s forests continue at the present rate, by 2003 all of them would have dissapeared. -Sources: Global Witness, Press Release, 14/12/1998; "Cambodia’s future on the move", A Briefing Document by Global Witness, March 1998 -web site: http://www.oneworld.org/globalwitness/reports/GoingPlaces/index.htm ; -The World Guide 1997/1998.
For perhaps the first time since Indonesia's independence, the West Sumatran authorities called together 120 Mentawai people for negotiations with the local government in Padang. The representatives were community leaders, religious figures and village heads from the whole Mentawai island chain (off the West coast of Sumatra.) The subject of the meeting was how to bring 10,800 transmigrant families to the Mentawai islands for a commercial oil palm development (PIR-Trans) by PT Citra Mandiri Widya Nusa -owned by ex-Employment Minister Abdul Latif. The thirty or so students from the Mentawais who attended managed however to break up the meeting. The students said that if their demands had not been met that day, the entire school and university student population of Padang would have come and forced the meeting to be dispersed. The chronology of the events was as follows: On December 8th at around 10.30 am local time, some thirty demonstrators (Mentawai young people and students who jointly formed the Mentawai Reform Movement GERAM) held a protest outside the building in Padang which was the venue for a 'consultation meeting' organised by the provincial Transmigration & Forest Resettlement Department, local government officials and about 120 community representatives and village heads from all the Mentawai islands. The meeting was opened at 8.30am by head of the West Sumatra transmigration office, Dr. Ngumar Prayitno. Speakers on the platform were then to give the following presentations: - The head of the West Sumatra Transmigration Department:
" The Transmigration Programme in the Mentawai islands during the current Five Year
Plan"; When it was the turn of the speaker from SPKM, the demonstrators shouted that he should step down and that the meeting should be closed. His speech and that of the company representative were drowned out by the microphones of the demonstrators outside, so the meeting was stopped temporarily. The students then entered the building and spoke directly to the audience. They said that transmigration was not needed in the Mentawai islands. The many transmigration schemes which had been tried had created many problems and the condition of the surrounding communities was a cause of concern. The government used the Transmigration Programme as a Trojan horse, as means to exploit natural resources in the Mentawais, especially timber. Government officials, in this case from the Transmigration Department, were cooperating with logging concessionaires and timber companies to prepare sites and generating all kinds of problems in the process. The GERAM demonstrators pointed out that it was clear that PT Citra Mandiri Widya Nusa had been invited to speak at this 'consultation meeting' because the oil palm plantation company was going to take on transmigrants in Siberut, even though the indigenous community had rejected these plans. The Minister of Forestry and Agriculture had already issued an official letter (No 850/Menhutbun -VI/1998) which recommended that the planned plantation was located elsewhere. The demonstrators threatened to continue their speeches and to bring more protestors along unless the meeting was closed. Some of the Mentawai representatives went outside to try to pacify the demonstrators and invited them to discuss matters with the government officials. The members of GERAM completely refused to enter the meeting room and said they would not stop their protest until the Transmigration Department came to talk with them outside and declared the 'consultation' officially closed. The rest of the Mentawai participants started to drift outside to the demonstrators. The government officials suggested the protestors joined the discussion inside, but they refused. The protestors also demanded that the company representative spoke to them outside. When he did, the demonstrators bombarded him with questions and gave him a copy of the Minister's letter. In his response, Mr Suhaimi said he would convey their rejection of its plan to the head of the company. The demonstrators replied they didn't want to know about the head of the company. The demonstrators then read a statement to the government officials who had come outside. The main points were that: - The Mentawai islands should become an official district as
soon as possible so they were no longer administered as part of the mainland; The head of Transmigration for West Sumatra, Dr Ngumar Prayitno Winota said that he understood the demonstrators' position. Transmigration policy in the current era of reform had changed because the local community had input into every scheme. He declared the meeting officially closed and said that the presence of the company was outside his department's authority. The demonstrators accepted his statement and dispersed straight away. The meeting was initially planned to take 2 days. * Note Source: Translation by Liz Chidley ( dtecampaign@gn.apc.org ) from news received from Indonesia
Sarawak: field trip to interview people resettled by dam Last October, Sahabat Alam Malaysia (Friends of the Earth Malaysia) went on a field trip to Sarawak to interview Dayak Ibans that were affected by the Hydroelectric Batang Ai Dam and relocated in nearby districts during the past decade. People interviewed expressed different opinions on whether their situation had improved or if they were now worse off than before. Among the positive aspects, the main one was the possiblity of access to modern amenities such as electricity, road, school, clinic and water supply. However, money is needed to sustain all these and their sources of income come from tapping rubber and working in oil palm plantations, which means that incomes are meager. At the same time, the land allocated for every family is inadequate for their future survival and many don't have any land titles. People are therefore demanding that: 1. Padi farmland should be allocated immediately to all the
respective settlers. Source: Sahabat Alam Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia, e-mail: sam77@tm.net.my
Thailand: the pulp industry tries to strike back The pulp and paper industry, which lost a number of battles to peasants opposing both plantations and pulp mills in Thailand , is now putting pressure on the government for the approval of an expansion of eucalyptus plantations. The Thai Pulp Industry Association is suggesting the Agriculture Ministry ammend the existing forestry law which curbs the planting of eucalyptus. The reasoning is simple: that "the law should acknowledge that eucalyptus is an economic plant." The already well-known social and environmental impacts don't seem to be a major source of concern for the industry. The Association is saying that the existing two million "rai" of eucalyptus plantations (some 320,000 hectares) are insufficient to supply the industry with raw material and that some 160,000 additional hectares of plantations would need to be planted within the next 10 years. It is not known whether the recent purchase of shares of Advance Agro (a major local pulp and paper manufacturer) by the ENSO Group from Finland and a preliminary agreement to buy shares by Oji Paper from Japan, have something to do with the mounting pressures to develop eucalyptus plantations. Sources: 'Producers want more eucalyptus plantations', Bangkok Post, 10/11/98; 'Finns pay for shares in Advance Agro', Bangkok Post, 12/11798
NORTH AMERICA Canada: birds of a feather in certification process Western Forest Products (WFP), a Canadian logging company with a long record of clearcutting ancient temperate rainforest, has applied for FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certification for an operation in a watershed on British Columbia's central coast called the Ingram-Mooto. WFP is seeking the FSC stamp of approval to combat the international market campaigns targeting the company's customers in Europe and the United States. WFP has already clearcut, blasted and bulldozed a logging road several kilometers deep into the once pristine Ingram-Mooto. What WFP has done there can only be described as an environmental atrocity, yet has been able to contract SGS from the UK to act as its certifier. SGS was involved in a controversial certification process in Gabon and as a result was suspended as a certifier by the FSC for its non-compliance to FSC principles and criteria. According to Greenpeace Sweden, SGS has also recently been involved with another questionable certification process in Arvliden in northern Sweden. WFP also has publicly stated its intention to clearcut eight other intact river valleys throughout the Great Bear Rainforest over the next year. The widespread clearcut logging WFP has planned for key ecological areas on the coast such as the Aaltanhash River, Pooley Island, and Green Inlet is generating worldwide concern and condemnation. WFP's clearcutting and industrial forestry practices have had severe impacts on coastal rainforest habitat for grizzly bears, Spirit bears, wolves, and wild salmon throughout the Great Bear Rainforest. The Ingram-Mooto falls within the traditional territory of the Heiltsuk First Nations. WFP constructed the logging road in the Ingram-Mooto over the objections of the Heiltsuk hereditary chiefs. In fact, the hereditary chiefs have repeatedly asked the company to agree to a one-year moratorium on all new logging in Heiltsuk territory, but WFP refuses to heed their requests. Many NGOS are concerned that before FSC regional standards in BC can be established and before a trusted BC based certifier can be accredited, SGS could very well undermine all future eco-certification efforts in the province. An assessment of WFP's logging plans by Greenpeace and consulting biologist Dr. Rick Zammuto found WFP in "serious non-conformance with 22 individual FSC criteria." SGS has essentially adopted the BC government's "Forest Practices Code" as its initial certification checklist for WFP. The "Code," which has been universally criticized by BC NGOs, enshrines clearcut logging, does nothing to address the unsustainable rate of cut in BC, and fails miserably as a mechanism to protect biodiversity. Yet SGS has chosen to hold it up as the FSC standard for WFP's certification bid. Canada has already been saddled with one certification debacle on the east coast where Irving was given the FSC stamp of approval by the US based Scientific Certification Systems. NGOs on the east coast have now been forced into the painstaking process of appealing the Irving certification. NGOs on the west coast do not want to see a repeat of that unfortunate situation. What You Can Do: Please contact SGS Qualifor, and request that SGS terminate the certification process for Western Forest Products or at the very least suspend the process until such time that the BC FSC Steering Committee has developed credible regional standards for the province. SGS Qualifor Source: Chris Genovali, Raincoast Conservation Society, Victoria, British Columbia. Web site: www.raincoast.org E-mail: chrisg@raincoast.org
SOUTH AMERICA Venezuela: the struggle against Smurfit’s plantations Smurfit Carton of Venezuela, a subsidiary of the Dublin-based transnational Jefferson Smurfit, which recently merged with Stone Container, thereby becoming the world’s largest producer of paper and paperboard, is both creating and facing big problems in Venezuela. A previous merger with the US-based Container Corporation in 1986, led Jefferson Smurfit to becoming the major shareholder of Carton de Venezuela, changing its name to the current Smurfit Carton de Venezuela. Until then, the company’s mill had produced pulp from sugarcane bagasse (a by-product in sugar production). In 1994 it switched its pulp production to wood, to be supplied from plantations and primarily from tropical forest. The company’s operations in Portuguesa state have resulted in overt or hidden confrontation with local communities, whose lives and livelihoods have suffered -and are still suffering- from its activities. At the base of all this lies the issue of the concentration of land and power in the hands of a transnational, against a background of lack of land by poor peasants. The company began buying lands back in 1986 and currently holds 15 properties involving some 27,000 hectares in the state of Portuguesa and 7,000 additional hectares in the states of Lara and Cojedes. At least half of those lands are classified as agricultural. According to Venezuelan law, those lands could have not been planted with trees. But they have and much of them is now covered with eucalyptus, pines and gmelinas. In 1997, the relationship between Smurfit and local peasant communities was already at a critical level, as a result of aerial spraying of herbicides, which had destroyed 190 hectares of peasant’s crops and even intoxicated school children in the village of Tierra Buena, when the situation erupted dramatically. That year, Smurfit purchased a large estate (La Productora, with 2,700 hectares), which had until then been dedicated to commercial agriculture and cattle raising. Peasants from two adjacent communities (Morador and Tierra Buena), had expected to receive this estate as part of the government’s agrarian reform programme. Smurfit changed the whole situation, not only by planting trees in land that peasants needed to grow crops, but also by changing the relationship which peasants had had with the previous owner, which allowed them free access to his property, including fishing and hunting. Within this context, Smurfit fenced the whole estate with barbed wire and brought in guards to keep people out. On July 14th 1997, local peasants occupied La Productora, demanding the government to asign part of those lands to them. The answer was to bring in the National Guard. The repression was ruthless, and hundreds of men, women and children were brutally beaten, shot at and imprisoned. Many of them still suffer from the injuries received and those considered to have led the occupation are still lacking freedom of movement and must report regularly to the authorities. Although there is ample evidence of the torture inflicted on people (including photographs and written testimonies), those responsible have not been sentenced in court and remain unpunished. On the contrary, repression is still rampant in the area and terror is the basic tool used to try to keep people out of the company’s properties. Especially trained dogs (complete with trainers) have been brought in from Colombia; machine-guns are fired during the night; squads of masked "vigilantes" on horseback patrol the area; houses are searched without warrant; people are shot at in front of their homes; they are detained on the road and beaten if they are found with matches in their pocket (which is considered near-arson by the company). To make matters worse, plantations are not only occupying the land peasants desperaterly need, but are also impacting on other resources they depend on, such as water and wildlife. The company has been as ruthless with the environment as it has been with local people. Impacts on forests and water are a direct consequence of its activities, while impacts on biodiversity are a by-product of the industrial plantation model. Deforestation is part of the company’s policy. In spite of having extensive plantations, it’s pulp mill has until now been mostly fed with tropical wood, extracted both from its own properties and from other forests in the region. Although such activity is illegal, the company manages to "legalize" it with the assistance of some government officials. There is ample proof that the company has deforested many of its land holdings. In the case of its estate La Productora, it obtained a permit from the government to deforest 600 hectares of highly diverse tropical forest. In other of its properties, logging has been carried out illegally. Additionally, anyone can observe trucks loaded with "firewood" (a denomination to avoid control of protected tree species) moving along highways all night in the direction of the of the company's Mocartel pulp mill in the state of Yaracuy. Impacts on water are not only the result -as happens elsewhere in the world- of high intake of water by fast-growing trees. They are also the result of the destruction of water courses with bulldozers, which flatten the terrain to give way to more trees (particularly Gmelina arborea). Every inch of the land must be planted. Impacts on water are also the result of the destruction of riparian forests that protect water courses. Local animals, fish and plants, which provided to many of the local peoples’ food needs are disappearing at an increasing rate, as their natural habitats are substituted by green deserts of trees and more forests are cleared to feed the pulp mill. In spite of all the problems it is causing, the company does not seem to be succeeding in breaking people’s will to oppose its operations and there is a question mark as to for how long its plantations will be able to survive -even protected by barbed wire, dogs and armed men- while at the same time being surrounded by hundreds of people who hate those trees and the company they represent. If plantation forestry is unsustainable in general, in this case it seems to be more unsustainable than ever.
Venezuela: detention linked to Smurfit Melvis Molina, president of the Environmental Group of the village of Morador in the state of Portuguesa was arrested. The Environmental Group stated that the judge's decision was the result of pressures from Smurfit's lawyers and accused the company of responding with judicial terrorism to the recent visit of WRM's international coordinator, which they hope will result in raising international awareness about the ecological and social disaster caused by this company. It is also believed that the arrest is a revenge on Molina and his family, for his persistent criticism in the local press regarding the social and environmental impact of Smurfit's plantations. The Group added that local people will continue confronting the environmental destruction and human rights violations, as well as the deforestation of natural forests which the multinaltional continues carrying out with the complicity of the Ministry of the Environment. Upon receiving news about this situation, the WRM secretariat, in direct contact with the Environment Committee of the Venezuelan Senate, circulated the information contained in this bulletin within the country prior to its publication. We are pleased to inform that, with the active participation of the Land Committee's lawyer, Dr Rafael Gonzalez, Melvis Molina was finally released on bail after having been in detention for several days. Source: El Regional, 9/12/98; Environment Committee of the Venezuelan Senate
Brazil: response to article published in 'Aracruz News' By means of this letter, we would like to comment the article of Mr. Julio Cesar Centeno, published in the October edition of 'Aracruz News', bulletin of the pulp and eucalyptus plantation company Aracruz Celulose. In his article, Mr Centeno praises the eucalyptus plantations at Aracruz Celulose because of their "capacity to have a significant impact on local and national economies". Although the author admits that plantations have both positive and negative implications, he merely considers the positive implications, clearly supporting the interests of Aracruz Celulose in promoting its tarnished image. Unfortunately, in spite of the 'objective' tone of his article, Mr. Centeno is one more of the group of so-called 'specialists', that plantation companies need to justify their activities and to cover the well-known negative impacts that their plantations have on local people and environment. We would like to make some remarks: - It should really be a principle, as Mr. Centeno suggests, that "plantations should not involve the replacement of the natural tree cover on a particular site". However, Aracruz Celulose cleared extensive areas of native forests to implement its eucalyptus plantations, as has been proven by aerial photographs and local testimonies, and causing a disaster for local biodiversity. - The author states that 'plantations can significantly improve the livelihoods of surrounding populations'. However, the more Aracruz company occupied intensively the geographical space, the more it contributed to the loss of structure in the socially, culturally and economically valid forms of production, organisation and land use, especially of the Tupinikim and Guarani indigenous communities. - For sure 'plantations of eucalyptus must carefully match water demand to availability', because in the Aracruz case the water levels of the streams and brooks in the few native forest which was left, have dropped, often resulting in the complete disappearance of these streams, which anyone can check in the region, just asking elder Tupinikim and Guarani Indians to show these places. - Finally, if what Mr Centeno means by 'significant impact' of Aracruz on the local and national economy is that it had had a significant negative impact, then such assertion is especially true, for instance in the number of people employed by the company, which dropped from 7.400 in 1990 to around 2.000 at present (in spite of the continuous growth of the company), having severe consequences for the local economy. Inversely, it must be stressed that the national economy has had a strong positive impact on Aracruz, which has received all sorts of economic support from the Brazilian state since it began its operations and is even exempted from most taxes because its production is export-oriented. Conselho Indigenista Missionario-Espirito Santo
Argentina: battle over gas pipeline in the long struggle of the Kolla peoples The Kolla indigenous people, that live in the northern Argentinian Provinces of Jujuy and Salta, have been defending the "yungas" -one of the last remaining mountain forests in Argentina- against a pipeline project that would transport natural gas from eastern Salta to the northern Chilean copper mines. In April 1998 ENARGAS –the Argentinian regulatory entity- approved the project presented by Consorcio Norandino SA, according to which the pipeline would cross Finca San Andres, inhabited by 350 Kolla families, who oppose it. Last June a Federal judge ordered the suspension of the pipeline construction, considering that the project lacked an adequate environmental impact assessment, as well as of any social and cultural impact evaluation, ignoring the existence of the Kollas in the area. But supporters of the gas pipeline are powerful and influential: The Salta Provincial Government gained the support of the population of the nearby town of Oran, because of the jobs that Techint -the company in charge of building the pipeline- had promised to create; Güemes Radio has even instigated violence against the Kolla; many Argentinian judges have strong links with the government and are suspected of corruption. In July the Federal Court of Appeal revoked the Federal judge's decision and authorized the project. One week later the heavy machinery of Techint was opening a 12 metre wide trail in Finca San Andres, destroying the yunga and threatening Kolla cemeteries and archeological sites. Affected Kollas' protests got the original project route diverted a couple of metres to avoid further destruction. Nevertheless it is also feared that the removal of sectors of the mountain will provoke landslides. During floods, rock materials tranported by the San Andres River could damage the pipeline itself, provoking gas escapes. During the opening of the recently celebrated XI Global Biodiversity Forum (see article in this issue and in Bulletin 17) the Secretary for the Environment and Natural Resources Maria Julia Alsogaray stated that during the present administration the protected area of the yungas had been increased to 300,000 hectares. Her declarations are in total contradiction with what is actually happening on the ground. The battle over the San Andres pipeline seems to have been lost. However, the struggle continues. "The Government has everything on his side: judges, politicians, mass media. But they have forgotten that we have fought for 500 years to recover our lands and natural resources. For the non pollution of the water, the air, the soil. For our cultural values and cosmovision. In sum, for our existence as human beings in harmony with the surrounding nature" stated Festo Chausque, one of the Kolla leaders. Sources: Glenn Switkes, Latin America Program, International Rivers Network, December 1998; Festo Chausque, Centro Indigena Kolla de Salta, 14/12/1998.
GENERAL Ten years without Chico Mendes The destruction of Acre, in the Western Brazilian Amazon began in 1877, with the arrival of peasants from Brasil's Northeast, escaping from drought and misery. They were brought to the forest as cheap labour to exploit rubber for the benefit of the so called "seringalistas", composed by powerful Brazilian and foreign economic groups. They were even forced to fight against the indigenous peoples that inhabited that land: only ten out of the sixty indigenous nations that lived in the Jurua valley, in Acre, survived and their population decreased dramatically. As time went by, the "seringueiros" –workers in rubber production- had to adapt to that new environment, learning from the ancestral traditions of indigenous peoples how to live in the forest. Francisco (Chico) Mendes, as well as his own father, was one of them. He was born in 1944 at Pote Seco in the Porto Rico "seringal". He was able to overcome the environment of misery and illiteracy were he lived thanks to Euclides Fernandes Tavora, a political refugee that lived in the Amazon, who tought him to read at the age of nine in a land without schools. By that time, after the Second World War, Brazilian rubber production was suffering a severe crisis due to the competition of the South Asian production. The worse for the Amazon was still to come. In 1965, the Brazilian Government began to promote the "development" of the Amazonian region, trying to attract investors from the industrialized Southern Brazil through colonization programmes. The propaganda stated that in Acre land was abundant and cheap. At the beginning of the seventies the Transamazonic highway started to be constructed and with it the desintegration of the whole region accelerated. Between 1970 and 1975 the "fazendeiros" –big landowners- purchased 6 million hectares of land in Acre, with support from the state. They imposed terror to intimidate the one thousand families of seringueiros that lived there: their houses were set on fire, their cattled was killed, their women abused. At the same time, the forests were rapidly destroyed. By 1975, 180.000 rubber trees ("seringueiras") and 80.000 chestnut trees ("castanheiras") disappeared because of logging and fires, to clear up land for commercial agriculture and cattle raising. Newcomers received illegal land titles on the territories occupied by the seringueiros or ancestrally inhabited by indigenous peoples. The serigueiros began to organize resistance against this depredation. The famous "empate" movements were created and Chico Mendes was one of the people’s leaders. They consisted of groups of seringueiros and their families that moved into the different places where logging or fires were to take place, opposing peaceful resistance. Considering their material forces, they achived great success, since 15 out of 45 "empates" carried out from 1977 to 1987 resulted in victory and in those places the forest was saved. However, their greatest impact was at the international level. What seemed to be only a local fight for survival began to be perceived as a broad environmental movement, involving political, social and economic aspects. The policy of the Brazilian government, promoting an unsustainable development model based upon the destruction of the forest and the misery of the poorer, as well as the support from the multilateral banks, that financed the opening of roads in the region, –for example the BR 364 Porto Velho–Rio Branco, built with money lent by the Inter-American Development Bank- were publically denounced. Chico Mendes and the seringueiros promoted the idea of the so-called extractivist reserves. These are areas where the production of rubber is complemented by the gathering of native fruits, herbs and other products. "We, the seringueiros, don’t want to transform the Amazon in a sanctuary; we just want the forest not to be destroyed. To the question of what our proposal is, we answer that, besides discussing about our fight to stop destruction, we have started to think of an alternative proposal for the conservation of the Amazon forest. This proposal is based on the creation of extractivist reserves. The seringueiros are not interested in or want property rights, we don’t want to be owners of the land . . . We present an economically feasible alternative, that gives priority to the extractivist products that exist in the Amazon, which are nowadays menaced and were never taken into account by the Brazilian Government" said Chico in 1990. In the meantime, violence in Acre increased. After the murder of a leader of the seringueiros in 1988, the Federal Government established the first extractivist reserves at Cachoeira and Sao Luis do Remanso. The rage of the fazendeiros reached a climax and on December 22nd 1998 Chico Mendes was murdered by one of them, while at home in Xapiru. During a speech a few days before his murder Chico already knew what awaited him. He said: "I only want that my death contributes to halt the impunity of the killers, who count on the protection of the police of Acre, and which have already killed 50 persons like me, seringueiro leaders, committed to save the Amazon forest and to show that progress without destruction is possible." Ten years after that tragic day some things have changed. Jorge Viana, who worked very closely with Chico, has been recently elected as governor of Acre. But the international price of rubber has continued to drop, thus destimulating its production. Some of the seringueiros have therefore been forced to clear the land for planting rice, corn or beans. The destruction of the Amazon forests not only continues but has even accelerated: in 1978, 13 million hectares were deforested, but the figure reached 37 million in 1988 and 41 million in 1990. Nevertheless the new government of Acre is thinking of promoting the diversification of production at the extractivist reserves, as a way of making them viable to save the forest and the seringueiros. That is what Chico lived and died for. Sources: Chico Mendes, "A luta dos Povos da Floresta", Geografia, Pesquisa e Pratica Social, Terra Livre 7, 1990; Rodrigo França Taves, "O Acre dez anos depois da morte de Chico Mendes", O Globo, 29/11/1998; Fundacion Proteger, "¿Quien era chico Mendes?", 4/12/98.
Forests, plantations and the multilateral banks A workshop on Forests, Plantations and the Multilateral Development Banks was held from 2-4 December in Montevideo, Uruguay, organized by the Latin American and Caribbean NGO Network on the Multilateral Development Banks. Representatives from 18 NGOs -most of them from Latin America- participated in the event. Presentations on the Forest Policy of the World Bank, the situation of forests and tree plantations in the region and case studies on several Latin American countries were made (see article in this issue). Participants addressed a letter to Mr. Ian Johnson,Vice-President of the Department for Social and Environmental Sustainable Development of the World Bank, expressing their concerns about the review of the Forest Policy that the Bank is undertaking. They demanded that instead of reconsidering such policy as a whole, the WB should take into account the most innovative and representative aspects of the Forest Policy agreed in 1991, to evaluate its implementation on the ground. "Since the approval of the Forest Policy the situation in Latin America has changed, due to the devastating environmental impacts of structural adjustment, trade liberalization and other globalizing measures. We are especially concerned about the negative effects of commercial tree plantations on forests, which are promoted by the WB by means of subsidies, to the detriment of the protection of forests" states the letter. For more information on this workshop, please contact Vivianne Garcia < vivianne@chasque.apc.org >
ITTO moving to tree plantations? B.C.Y Freezailah, executive director of the International Tropical Timber Organization compared in Tokyo sustainable management of tropical forests with tree plantations and concluded that tropical forestry will need to switch to tree plantations. He stated that 'tropical timbers from natural forests are increasingly facing competition with timbers from temperate forests, against which tropical timber from sustainably managed natural forests is at a distinct disadvantage.' (the 'temperate forests' mentioned are in fact plantations in Chile and New Zealand.) 'It is quite clear -he said- that any further increase in the management costs for tropical timber due to rigid standards for the sustainable managemente of natural tropical forests, timber certification, and other costs will render it increasingly uncompetitive with the large quantities of commodity timbers becoming available especially from plantation-grown timbers from temperate countries.' He thereby concluded that 'the future of tropical timber based on the sustainable management of natural tropical forests, is regretfully, more than bleak. It is in forest plantations that tropical countries have certain comparative advantages.' Therefore, tropical forestry must focus on 'wood production from intensively managed plantations of species selected for timber production.' Contrary to what one might think, the above thinking is bad news for tropical forests. If logging is bad, plantations are even worse, both to people and to the environment. As an indigenous person from Sarawak, with years of experience fighting against logging companies, said: the logging companies come in, degrade our forest and leave; plantation companies come in, destroy the whole forest and stay! Source: ITTO information from CIFOR 19, June 1998
Scandinavian groups monitor their home-based companies abroad Scandinavian NGOs are requesting information on Norwegian, Swedish and Finnish pulp and paper-related firms' activities in the South. Such assistance can be very valuable for all, given that it may result in a collaborative relationship to support local struggles in the South. Many of these companies are crucial actors in pulp and paper projects, many of which are being resisted by local peoples. For example, the Norwegian multinational company Kvaerner Pulp & Paper is one of the major actors profitting from large pulp and paper projects in the South, by selling equipment to projects such as the following: - PT Tel, Indah Kiat and Riau Andalan in Sumatra (Kvaerner is
also trying to get a contract with Borneo Pulp & Paper in Sarawak) Information requested includes: 1) Conflicts with local population on land issues because of
plantations/plants, forced relocation, lack of compensation, court cases, etc. If you have any information to share on the above, please contact Harald Eraker, NorWatch-FIOH, e-mail: <harald.eraker@fifi.no> or <norwatch@fifi.no> Regarding Swedish and Finnish companies, the following are of particular interest: * AssiDoman Any information on these companies involvement in "controversial" operations is welcome (please send it to wrm@chasque.apc.org). Sunds Defibrator, for instance, is heavily involved in South East Asia, for example in the construction of Riau Andalan in Indonesia and the Advance Agro Public CO Ltd pulp mill in Thailand.
Can expansion of plantations be a solution to combat Global Warming? Large scale overseas plantation projects planned by Japan's paper industry cannot be accepted in joint implementation or in the Clean Development Mechanisms of the Kyoto Protocol to combat climate change. What is actually resulting from plantations is forest degradation and related carbon emissions. At the same time, carbon contained in the wood that is extracted from plantations is released almost immediately in the case of pulpwood plantations, because wood is transformed into paper, much of which is short-lived, thereby releasing the stored carbon back to the atmosphere. Before assessing any CDM projects, it is therefore necessary to close a number of loopholes contained in forestry accounting. 1. The expansion of plantations was part of 'forest degradation' in the 1980s, causing loss of closed forests and carbon emissions. In order to achieve high precision estimates of deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries, the FAO conducted a satellite sampling research ("Forest Resource Assessment 1990", FAO 1995). This land use change measurement by the FAO can be utilized in the context of Global Warming. Estimates are based on the concept of Carbon Stock Change method accounting, which is one candidate to be used in the Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol. According to the satellite image analysis, in the 1980s, 75% of the new tree plantations in developing countries in the tropics were made by replacing closed natural forest that had existed there ten years earlier. Plantation projects therefore serve as agents of destruction for natural forests. Most of these new plantations may be for oil palm or pulpwood production purposes. Original tropical forest stores biomass at average rates of 220 tonnes per hectare. Typical plantations store biomass at average rates of 120 tonnes per hectare. A decrease of 100 tonnes of biomass is equivalent to roughly 50 tonne-carbon, or 183 tonne-CO2 emission. Therefore, the 3.95 million hectares of forest converted to plantations in the 1980s means 725 million tonnes of CO2 emissions. The result of initial logging and subsequent plantation is therefore an increase in the net carbon emissions that contribute to global warming,and accounted for as 'forest degradation'. Although remaining plantations can sequester carbon dioxide, part of that carbon is extracted as timber or other products, while net Carbon Stock remains constant in the remaining plantations. High expansion rate of plantations is expected in the future, just as the case in the 1980s, which expanded plantation area 25% within the decade, so the total plantation related carbon accounting is net 'emission' of carbon dioxide. 2. Consumption patterns are essential for Carbon Stock estimates Most afforestation schemes such as those initiated by Japanese paper companies are large scale and involve profitable non-native species. This extension overseas of Japan's "expanded forestation" paradigm is causing social, environmental and human rights problems in many targetted areas. In the process of pulp and paper production, more than half of the carbon stored in the woodchip is consumed as a biomass energy resource and emitted into the air as CO2. Paper products are subsequently used for only one year on average. Half of these products are then recycled, but the other half are burned as waste producing further CO2 emissions. Wood used for pulp and paper production is therefore fundamentally different from timber products that are used on a longer term basis as the timber industry claims. Rather it should be treated as the same usage as fuelwood. 3. IPCC's guideline of Sink inventory is contradictory, thus causing a loophole. Cutting activities are accounted for the host country's activity by now, while part of planting credit will be given to the donor country. This is a carbon leakage problem, which allows the developed country to abandon its emission reduction target. A trade related cost internalization scheme, such as traded timber vs Annual Allowance Unit barter trading or simply barter accounting scheme should be developed to close the loophole. Reference: Forest Resources Assessment 1990 (Global Synthesis, 1995, FAO Forestry paper No. 124) Source: Tadashi Ogura, Japan Tropical Forest Action Network (JATAN) < PBC00720@nifty.ne.jp > < oguogu@jca.ax.apc.org >
Glyphosate in tree plantations is harmless: true or false? "Glyphosate is less harmfull than table salt", stated one of Aracruz Celulose's managers at a public meeting in Brazil. Artur Duarte Branco, leader of the company workers' trade union SINTICEL, offered to drink there and then a large glassfull of water with table salt if Aracruz's manager drank himself a small glass of glyphosate. The man's loyalty to the company did not go as far as that and he laughed away the challenge. Which was a wise move on his part. The herbicide glyphosate (or Roundup) is widely used in plantation forestry, both to eliminate weeds during the initial period and to kill the trees themselves (in the case of eucalyptus plantations) after the second harvest. The "table salt" argument is used as a means to neutralize the growing environmental concerns over the wide use of Roundup in entire regions being converted to large-scale tree monocrops. However, such publicity has been shown false by independent studies which have concluded that: 1. Glyphosate can be persistent. In tests conducted by Monsanto, manufacturer of glyphosate-containing herbicides, up to 140 days were required for half of the applied glyphosate to break down or disappear from agricultural soils. At harvest, residues of glyphosate were found in lettuce, carrots, and barley planted one year after glyphosate treatment. 2. Glyphosate can drift. Test conducted by the University of California, Davis, found that glyphosate drifted up to 400 meters (1300 feet) during ground applications and 800 meters 12600 feet) during aerial applications. 3. Glyphosate is acutely toxic to humans. Ingesting about 3/4 of a cup can be lethal. Symptoms include eye and skin irritation, lung congestion, and erosion of the intestinal tract. Between 1984 and 1990 in California, glyphosate was the third most frequently reported cause of illness related to agricultural pesticide use. 4. Glyphosate has shown a wide spectrum of chronic toxicity in laboratory tests. The National Toxicology Program found that chronic feeding of glyphosate caused salivary gland lesions, reduced sperm counts, and a lengthened estrous cycle (how often an individual comes into heat). Other chronic effects found in laboratory tests include an increase in the frequency of lethal mutations in fruit flies, an increase in frequency of pancreas and liver tumors in male rats along with an increase in the frequency of thyroid tumors in females, and cataracts. (the fruit fly study used Roundup; the other studies used glyphosate.) 5. Roundup contains toxic trade secret ingredients. These include polyethoxylated tallowamines, causing nausea and diarrhea, and isopropylamine, causing chemical pneumonia, laryngitis, headache, and bumps. 6. Roundup kills beneficial insects. Tests conducted by The International Organization for Biological Control showed that Roundup caused mortality of live beneficial species: a Thrichgramma, a predatory mite, a lacewing, a ladybug, and a predatory beetle. 7. Glyphosate is hazardous to earthworms. Tests using New Zealand's most common earthworm showed that glyphosate, in amounts as low as 1/20 of standard application rates, reduced its growth and slowed its development. 8. Roundup inhibits mycorrhizal fungi. Canadian studies have shown that as little as 1 part per million of Roundup can reduce the growth or colonization of mycorrhizal fungi. 9. Glyphosate reduces nitrogen fixation. Amounts as small as 2 parts per million have had significant effects, and effects have been measured up to 120 days after treatment. Nitrogen- fixing bacteria shown to be impacted by glyphosate include a species found on soybeans and several species found on clover. 10. Roundup can increase the spread or severity of plant diseases. Treatment with roundup increased the severity of Rhizoctonia root rot in barley, increased the amount and growth of take-all fungus, a wheat disease), and reduced the ability of bean plants to defend themselves against anthracnose. Source: Compilation by Caroline Cox, Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides- (NCAP), from an article published in NCAP's Journal of Pesticide Reform. Copies of the article, with complete references for all of .the information presented, are available from NCAP for $2.00. NCAP, PO Box 1391; Eugene, OR 97440; (541) 344-5044.
Global Biodiversity Forum casts doubts on measures to mitigate climate change The conclusions of the XI Global Biodiversity Forum, held last November in Buenos Aires -attended by Alvaro Gonzalez of the WRM Secretariat- reveal significant coincidences with some of WRM's viewpoints. One point in common is that which states that even if the increasing number of multilateral agreements on the environment could mean greater concern on the issue, this could also lead to a fragmented and ineffective approach to reality. On the contrary, a holistic vision is needed, that takes into account natural, social, economic and cultural factors working together. Another important point in common is the one that stresses that "done incorrectly, the forest-based measures to address climate change . . . could result in negative impacts on forests and other natural ecosystems, communities and the climate system.". This is exactly the case of tree plantations as carbon sinks: while their effectiveness in this respect is doubtful, their negative environmental and social impacts –including impacts on biodiversity- have been proven worldwide. Participants of the Forum underscored that "protecting the ecological integrity of nature and sustaining the societies which are supported by it is vital to addressing the climate change issue".
News from the International Secretariat - Ricardo Carrere went to the state of Portuguesa in Venezuela following an invitation from AMIGRANSA and from Alfredo Torres, advisor to the Senate's Environment Committee. The objective of the trip was two-fold: 1) To get in contact with local communities affected by large-scale plantations implemented by the Irish-based transnational Jefferson Smurfit to feed its pulpmill in Venezuela and 2) To share WRM's findings on the reasons behind the spread of such plantations in the South, the impacts they are having and the struggles that are taking place against them. Part of the findings of the trip are registered in a short article published in this issue of the bulletin, while a more in-depth publication will be forthcoming shortly. Few days after the above travel to Venezuela, we received news about the detention of a local activist, apparently linked to WRM's visit (see article on Smurfit). We immediately offered our support and disseminated information within Venezuela as widely as possible. Particularly important was that a local internet service (Venezuela's Electronic News) carried the news. The person was finally released on bail. - As a contribution to the workshop "Forests, Plantations and the Multilateral Development Banks" recently held in Montevideo (see article in this issue), Alvaro González –member of the WRM International Secretariat- made a presentation on the situation and trends of forests and tree plantations in Latin America. The presentation was focused on the direct and underlying causes of deforestation and forest degradation, and examples were provided regarding some of the different types of forests existing in the region: the Amazonia in Brazil, Guyana and Suriname, the montain forests of Honduras, the temperate forests of southern Chile and the Argentinian yungas. A critical analysis of present trends related to the Clean Development Mechanisms (CDM) was also made. In relation to commercial plantations, it was pointed out that the region was undergoing an increase in the tree monoculture plantation area, under the general scheme applied worldwide, causing negative environmental and social impacts. The cases of Aracruz Celulose in Brasil, Smurfit in Venezuela and Forestal Arauco in Chile were shown as examples of this negative model. It was also stated that the risk exists that plantations will probably be promoted in the framework of the CDM. Those interested in receiving a complete version of the presentation, please contact: alvarog@chasque.apc.org - On December 1st, the WRM International Secretariat sent a fax to Dr. Jamil Mahuad, President of Ecuador, to express its concern over the declarations of the Ambassador of that country to the USA, according to which the Ecuadorian State should not take part in the trial against Texaco for the destruction the company provoked in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Environmentalist organizations demand that the trial takes place in the New York Court and that Texaco is obliged to pay for the environmental rehabilitation in the affected communities and territories.
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