|
|
WRM Bulletin
|
|
||||||||||||||||
WRM GENERAL ACTIVITIES - Workshop on Indigenous Knowledge and Forests A workshop on Indigenous Perspectives in Forestry Education, organized by the Faculty of Forestry of the British Columbia University, the National Aboriginal Forestry Association and the First House of Learning, took place in Vancouver, from 15 to 18 June. Representatives of the Cherokee, Sto:lo, Tsleil-Waututh, Ojibway, Stl'atl'imx and Musqueam First Nations, Mam Tribe of the Mayan People and Te Whanau-a-Apanui Tribe, as well as delegates from Universities, research centres and from Canada, USA, Russia, Sweden, Kenya, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Thailand, Venezuela and Uruguay were present. Alvaro Gonzalez, Project Assitant of the WRM, attendend as delegate of the Universidad de la Republica of Uruguay. The workshop included traditional indigenous ceremonies, songs, stories and dances combined with speeches and breakout working groups for discussion on programme implementation and designs, topics and specific courses to be included in the curricula, and principles and techniques for appropriate instruction of Indigenous perspectives. It was a good opportunity to get to know the experiences in course for the inclusion of Indigenous knowledge in academic education, and for relationships-building. Last week Marcus Colchester was in Guyana presenting his new work "Guyana: Fragile Frontier. Loggers, Miners and Forest Peoples", jointly published by WRM and the Latin America Bureau. The book is very comprehensive in its scope, summarizing Guyana's history since the arrival of the European colonizers until the present year and describes the situation of the country after a decade of "development" based upon foreign investment in logging and mining. The destruction of Guyana's tropical forests, that had been a rare case of virtually untouched ecosystems up to the mid-1980s, and the complete disregard of the Amerindians that have lived in these forests for centuries have been the result of such so-called economic development. The book contains the following chapters: Foreword Colchester Marcus.- Guyana: Fragile Frontier. Loggers, Miners and Forest Peoples, UK, LAB/ WRM, 1997, 172 pp. To obtain copies please contact the Oxford Office through e-mail: wrm@gn.apc.org.
WRM CAMPAIGNS - Sarawak: violence against natives continues Once again Sarawak natives have been victims of violent actions from the Police: on June 25, 42 Dayak-Ibans -among them 9 women- were arrested at Miri, for resisting the oil palm plantation that is to be implemented within their customary land area. Some of them were even brutally harassed and assaulted by the Police, which caused them physical damages. The Police found it difficult to find any legal reason to accuse them. However, brought to court, the Magistrate ordered them to sign a bond of peace for six months. The Ibans refused to do so, arguing that they were just defending their customary land. So on June 27 they were sent to prison. Their appeals for medical treatment -both under remand and in prison- have been ignored. Responding to the urgent call for action of the Borneo Resources Institute, to denounce this new abuse against the Dayak-Ibans people, the IS of the WRM sent faxes to the governments of Malaysia and Sarawak as well as to police and judicial authorities of the country, expressing our concern about these facts and claiming for justice to be done. What follows is the letter written from prison by the detainees: 30th June 1997 LETTER FROM MIRI CENTRAL PRISON AT LAMBIR SARAWAK, MALAYSIA To all our friends, We are writing to all of you from inside the above prison to tell you of our suffering and how we had ended up here. On 24th June 1997 we met with Surveyors from the Sarawak land and Survey Department who came to survey our native Customary Land in Upper Teru River, Tinjar, Baram, Miri Division, Sarawak, Malaysia for an oil palm plantation company to implement an oil palm plantation scheme which was against our consent. We told them to stop their survey work so they told us to wait for their boss to come the next day. At about 3.30 pm on 25th June 1997, it was not their boss who came but about not less than forty Para-Military Police or Police Field Force. As soon as they arrived they immediately proceeded to arrest us without telling us our crime. We refused to be arrested. But they resorted to assaulting and beating us by kicking, punching us and butting us with their M16 rifles. As a result many of us were bruised and suffered cuts and pains all over our body. They took us into their trucks and brought us down to Miri and locked us up in the cell at Miri Central Police Station. On 26th June 1997, they produced us before the Miri magistrate Court and applied for us to be released on bond to keep the peace for six months with two sureties in the sum of RM3000.00. The Miri Magistrate, Monica Ayathi Litis then Ordered us to execute the said bond despite of our protest as we were innocent and the Land belongs to us and also that we refused to accept the oil palm plantation on our said Land. And further, the Police admitted in their application that "it was difficult to charge us for any offence" (which clearly shows we are totally innocent). The Police accused us that we have criminally intimidated the Surveyors and are likely to do so if we are released hence the need to bind us to keep peace. But as the Police themselves had admitted, there is no evidence to charge us for any offence. And most pertinently, they did not even produce the alleged Police report supposedly lodged by the Surveyors against us or call the Surveyors to come to the Court to testify to confirm whether or not we had indeed criminally intimated (and will do so after our release) the Surveyors. Therefore the Police application and complaint against us was baseless and the order made by the Magistrate was completely unjustified. On the 27th June 1997 at about 4.00 pm, we were brought to prison here for detention which according to the Magistrate was because we failed to get sureties which is again not true. There are more than enough sureties for us. But that is not the point here. Our case is that it is simply wrong and most unfair for the Police to arrest, detain, assault us and then apply for the Order. And further, it is against all principle of justice for the Magistrate to make the said order against us. And most important of all, it is very undemocratic and an abuse of our most basic human rights for the Sarawak government to systematically force, harassed, intimidated, suppressed and sabotaged us to accept the oil palm plantation on our customary Land which is the only source of our livelihood. Since our arrest and detention, some of us who are suffering from body pain that being beaten, kicked, punched and butting us with M16 rifles could not be able to have medical treatment as the Police purportedly denied their requests from obtaining medical/health treatment in the nearby hospital. Worse still, our young children who are breast-fed have been left alone in our longhouse in the interior of Baram, which is about one hundred miles from this prison. This is because our husbands are also here detained with us. We know siblings are crying for our breast milk, our mother care every day and night not knowing where their parents are or what is happening to us here. But to us, it is a very painful choice. Either we make some sacrifices by fighting to protect our land now or we just let the plantation company take it away from us which means we will have no more land to live on for the rest of our life and those of our generations to come. And therefore we now appeal to all of you to urgently protest and appeal to the Malaysian and Sarawak governments to leave our land alone and also not to simply and very cruelly arrest and detain us like this. We know our voice and protest alone will just be swept under the carpet by the Malaysian and Sarawak governments as has happened in the arrests and detentions of our other indigenous brothers and sisters in similar protests previously. This is the reason we make this urgent appeal to you. We sincerely and earnestly hope you will respond to our appeal because if we lose our land that is the end for our community as we have no where to go to live. We thank you for your support and we appreciate very much for any possible assistance or welfare-in-kind for our children and siblings while we are here in the prison. Thank you. Regards from the Prison,
LOCAL STRUGGLES AND NEWS ASIA On May 29 Sahabat Alam Malaysia - Penang sent an appeal to the government to reconsider the Bakun Hydroelectric Dam Project. SAM claims for a thorough and detailed reappraisal of the project, in the light of the economic, environmental and socio-cultural concerns it has raised. In effect, the present and future energy demand of the country are adequately covered with the electricity produced nowadays. An increase in energy production would mean the promotion of high energy consumption. Besides, one third of Sarawak's remaining primary forest lie in the area to be affected by the dam, so it is expected that some 69000 hectares of the floode area will be logged, forcing the migration of indigenous peoples from the catchment area. With them 60 rice varieties will also be lost. Perspectives for flora and fauna are also threatening: fish stocks will be damaged following the loss of mobility and deoxygenation of river water due to the flooding; 43 protected species of fauna and 67 protected species of flora could disappear because of flooding. Clearcutting could have catastrophic effects on the dam itself, increasing the chance of sediment build up, flood and slope failure. The infrastructure needed for the construction works -which includes an airport- will facilitate the encroachment on Native Customary Rights lands. SAM's appeal to the government urges to: consider a thorough review of the project, establish effective consultation with the affected communities, make public the whole of the information on decisions regarding the project, compensate the residents fairly and equitably for the losses they will suffer, respect the rights of affected people to choose their home and maintain their lifestyle and culture. The Coalition of Concerned NGOs on Bakun (Gabungan) elaborated a Memorandum that was presented to ABB, the main contractor involved in the project, during a meeting held in May 23. Gabungan made clear that its main demand is that ABB definetively abandons the project, considered to be "economically misconceived, financially risky, socially disruptive and environmentally disastrous". However, taking into account that the diversion tunnels are near to completion and the construction of the dam proper is about to begin, the Coalition has put several questions to ABB concerning technical, financial and environmental aspects of the project. They still remain unanswered. Source: SAM - Penang. May 1997. - Oil palm scheme in Siberut, Indonesia The Indonesian military are putting pressure on the indigenous people of the island of Siberut to allow a 70,000 hectare oil palm plantation and associated transmigration scheme to go ahead, regardless of the fact that the island has been designated as a Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO. Indonesia's palm oil industry is currently undergoing a boom. The Indonesian government wants the country to overtake Malaysia as the world's largest palm oil producer early next century. All over Sumatra, mature rainforest is being felled to make room for more plantations. There are signs the boom may already be peaking. Earlier this year the government put a stop on new foreign investment in this sector in Western Indonesia. But the speculators cannot lose. Whether or not they plant oil palms, the timber from the forest sites they have cleared will earn them billions of rupiah. Source: Down to Earth 33, May 1997
AFRICA - Menacing oil exploitation in Chad and Cameroon An international consortium consisting of Exxon, Shell and ELF is planning a multi-billion dollar oil exploitation project that will involve territories of Chad and Cameroon. It is feared that the project brings with it very serious environmental and social risks that may create another Ogoniland, Nigeria's oil-producing region marked by environmental devastation and brutal Human Rights violations. The project plans the development of the Doba oil-fields in southern Chad, and a 600 mile pipeline through Cameroon to transport oil to an Atlantic port for its export. Public funding from international development agencies -mainly the World Bank- is needed to realize the project. The WB intends to fund it both with IDA credits -supposed to help the poorest countries- and through the International Finance Corporation, that supports private sector companies directly. The WB claims that the project will alleviate poverty because revenue from the oil for the Government of Chad and royalties for that of Cameroon for the use of the pipeline would be invested in poverty programmes. However, this strategy has clearly little credibility, since both governments have shown a complete lack of commitment to poverty alleviation and besides are known for their lack of transparency in their financial transactions. So the allocation of aid dollars for these kinds of projects actually diverts scarce resources away from investments for social welfare. From the environmental point of view perspectives are also negative. The projected pipeline will pass through ecologically fragile rainforest areas, including one that is the home of a Pigmy minority of traditional hunters and gatherers. Deforestation, wildlife poaching and the loss of farmland of local villagers, together with the danger of groundwater contamination and pollution of river systems through the expected leaking of oil from the pipeline itself, are points of grave concern. Source: Korinna Horta. Environmental Defense Fund. May 1997. For a formatted version of the report, including maps, please address the author: korinna@edf.org
LATIN AMERICA - Mexico: the beginning of the plantations' invasion Acting under pressure of international forestry companies and funding agencies, the Mexican Government is trying to modify the Forestry Law in order to promote large monoculture tree plantations in several regions of the country. As surprising as it may seem, one of these regions is Chiapas -one of the poorest states of Mexico- which has been the scene of a major armed uprising by the Zapatista movement. In June 1995 Edward Krobacker, from International Paper, a company interested in establishing industrial tree plantations in the state of Chiapas, sent a letter to the Mexican Government, pushing for changes to the national forestry law in order to "create a more secure legal framework" for IP's investments. Two years later, this seems to have been wholly accepted, and the Council of Ministers has presented a project to Parliament, which provides enormous facilities for foreign investment in the Mexican forestry sector, among which a subsidy of 65% of the plantation costs. Other regions targetted by the planned industrial tree monocultures are Veracruz and Oaxaca. In the former, a vast eucalyptus plantation plan is being implemented by Temple Island and Simpson -both American companies- while in the latter, pine plantations are been promoted. The aim of such plantations is the production of pulp and paper and lumber. Not only such kind of "forestry development" is a menace for the ecological sustainability of the territory, but also ignores indigenous and rural communities' rights, since their lands will be occupied by plantations. As Jaime Aviles, journalist from "La Jornada", wrote in May 1st. 1997: "Without the agreements (between the Zapatista National Liberation Army -EZLN- and the Government), disorder will manifest itself in may ways; even if Mr. Krobacker gets his forestry law, nobody can guarantee that it will be applied. The plantations will be invaded, sooner or later, and will be the source of many conflicts... The areas selected for the eucalyptus plantations are simply condemned to desertification". - Forest reserve under threat in Venezuela In an open letter addressed to the President of Venezuela, dated May 17, a group of 20 environmental groups and a large number of prominent citizens, have denounced gross abuse of power and deceitful manipulation of public opinion, in order to approve in Cabinet a management plan for Imataca Forest Reserve, a legally protected area since the early 1960s. Imataca, situated at the foot of the Guayana Shield, occupies an area of 3.6 million hectares -the size of the Netherlands- and is covered with rich, pristine tropical forests. It is also rich in mineral resources, as well as water, energy and biodiversity. Part of the area is also home to the indigenous nations Warao, Karina, Akawaio and Pemon, whose survival and cultural legacy depends on this environment. Under pressure of the powerful international mining lobby, greedy for the large deposits of gold and diamonds located at Imataca, the Ministry of the Environment and the Ministry of Mines prepared a management plan for the reserve, that was presented to the public -as required by law- on May 7. But most of the selected group of organizations invited to this presentation received the document the day before! Even the Government of the State of Bolivar, within whose jurisdiction lies most of the reserve, received it two days before, and was not consulted during the whole process. Even though it was agreed that the participants would have until May 30 to present their observations, surprisingly the Cabinet of Ministers approved the plan on May 14. The plan has received numerous criticisms, due to its deficiencies and omissions in relation to respecting previous legislation for Protected Areas, recognizing territorial and fundamental rights of indigenous communities who have inhabited this territory since ancestral times, the ban on forestry and mining activities in Protected Areas, accepting and enhancing the participation of local populations, environmental groups and other citizen organizations in the process. "The Management Plan for the Forest Reserve of Itacama violates Presidential Decree 2.214, represents an erroneous step with dangerous consequences for this reserve, as well as for other forest reserves in the country. It also contravenes international agreements signed by Venezuela related to the conservation and rational management of forest resources, the protection of biological diversity, and the recognition and respect of basic human rights" states Prof. Centeno. Source: Julio Cesar Centeno. Universidad de los Andes. Merida. Venezuela. June 1997. The Cold War and the "danger of communism" are over. New tasks are needed for the US Army. What could be better than collaborating in the protection of other countries' environment? According to the Washington Times, June 12, 6200 US soldiers are being prepared to carry-out "eco-protection duties" in Central and South America that may require their services. Surprising as it may sound, Timothy E. Wirth, Undersecretary of State for Global Affairs has stated that "this is a legitimate military issue." If such preposterous plans are allowed to be put to practice, it would mean a new chapter in the US's long history of intervention in this region. Why don't they -instead- deploy troops within their own territory to stop loggers from logging, polluters from polluting and transnationals from depleting resources worldwide?
|
 |
|||
|
|||
|
Go to Home Page
World Rainforest Movement
Maldonado 1858 - 11200 Montevideo - Uruguay
tel: 598 2 413 2989 / fax: 598 2 410 0985
wrm@wrm.org.uy
