WRM Bulletin Nº 45 / May 2001

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OUR VIEWPOINT

- The FAO forest assessment: Concealing the truth

The FAO recently presented the results of its Global Forest Resources Assessment 2000, which it characterises as being "the most comprehensive, reliable and authoritative baseline survey of forest reources to date". But the main question is: is it useful?

The main message of the FAO's assessment is that the situation has improved compared to previous global forest surveys. Current deforestation is described as happening at "a significantly lower net rate compared to FAO's previous report for the period 1990-1995", and adds that "net deforestation has likely decreased since the 1980s at the global level." So it appears that the situation is --at long last!-- improving. But when one takes a closer look at the study, it becomes clear that the situation has not improved at all, and that those conclusions result from manipulating the data in different ways:

1) By changing the definition of forests. The study itself is self explanatory on this in the case of Australia, whose forest area now appears to have increased from 41 million hectares in 1995 to 150 million hectares in the year 2000! The reason is that "the dramatic increase of over 115 million hectares of forest is a consequence of the application of a 10 percent canopy cover threshold for defining forest, as opposed to the 20 percent threshold used for industrialized countries in previous assessments." The forest area has thus not necessarily increased --it may have even decreased-- but the change in definition has made it to appear much larger than before.

2) By not including logging as deforestation. According to the FAO, "by definition, logging does not in itself result in deforestation, if the forest is allowed to regenerate." While they are regenerating they are still considered to be forests and defined as "temporarily unstocked areas." This means that a country may have logged most of its forest, but --unless it converts the area to other productive activities-- it will appear as having the same forest area as before.

3) By continuing to include plantations as "forests" in the FAO definition. This allows the study to show "reductions in net deforestation", but which are "mainly due to significant increases in forest plantations and the succession of forests on abandoned agricultural lands." According to the study, the current annual rate of plantation establishment is 4.5 million hectares worldwide, which means that the same area of forests may disappear annually, but the "forest" area will appear as not having changed at all.

4) By including even further types of plantations as forests --such as rubber tree plantations-- which were not included in previous FAO assessments and thus artificially increasing the "forest" area.

But even with all those manipulations, the FAO has to recognize that "net deforestation rates were highest in Africa and South America, whereas afforestation through forest plantations, significantly offset the loss of forests in Asia". Which means that if plantations were to be considered as what they are --tree crops and not forests-- the picture in those three continents would show that the situation has either not improved or has further deteriorated.

In spite of all the above, everyone knows that few countries --if any-- can say that none of their primary forests have been degraded and that secondary forests are being allowed to regrow. Everyone knows that monoculture tree plantations have nothing in common with forests. Everyone knows that --among other-- the Amazon forest, the Central African forest and the East and Southeast Asian forests are being destroyed at at least the same rate as before.

Whether willingly or unwillingly, the FAO is sending out the wrong messages. It is suggesting that deforestation is slowing down, which according to its own data is not true. It is telling governments that they can log all their forests, which will only be considered to be "temporarily unstocked." It is approving the substitution of forests and grasslands by monoculture tree plantations, which will "offset net deforestation." It is artificially increasing the forest area of industrialized countries by simply changing a definition. It is completely ignoring the issue of forest degradation.

The world needs to know the truth about the real state of the forests. Not as an academic exercise but as a tool to adopt and implement policies to ensure the conservation of its imperiled forests. Unfortunately, the FAO has missed the opportunity to provide the world with such tool.

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LOCAL STRUGGLES AND NEWS

AFRICA

- Chad-Cameroon: Oil revenues versus human rights and environment

"This is the world’s most scrutinized and controlled project," retorted a senior French official in Chad to representatives of Chadian human rights organizations who went to see him in March 2001. "There is absolutely nothing to worry about", he added. However, many people are very worried and have been fighting against the project for a very long time.

Indeed, the international campaign on the Chad/Cameroon Oil and Pipeline project which was spearheaded by African NGOs and supported by NGOs throughout the world, has been very successful in terms of getting the project to include numerous pre-cautionary measures designed to make the project environmentally and socially more responsible. For example, the pipeline was re-routed to avoid some of the biodiversity-rich areas, an Oversight Committee which includes civil society representatives was established in Chad to ensure that the oil revenues be used for poverty alleviation and, overall the role of civil society, local communities and indigenous peoples has been highlighted in the official documents. Furthermore, an International Advisory Group has been established whose task is to monitor the environmental and social impacts of the project as well as "governance" issues, which include human rights. At least on paper, all these measures indicate a serious departure from the previous laissez-faire approach in which the World Bank and the private companies it supports would leave it to recipient governments, no matter how corrupt, to manage the projects according to their own interests.

Despite these impressive changes on paper, there are serious doubts about what all these measures amount to in practice, since they cannot be considered in isolation from the countries’ overall political situation. The most recent U.S. State Department’s Reports on Human Rights confirm that both governments continue to commit serious human rights abuses with impunity and that citizens do not have access to an independent judicial system.

Chadian and Cameroonian NGOs demanded a moratorium on the funding decision until proven safeguards were in place to ensure that the project would not lead to further human rights violations and environmental destruction. However the governments, the oil companies and their international financial backers were in a hurry and the project was approved in June 2000.

The fears of the NGOs were soon thereafter confirmed when the Chadian government used a part of its first payment from the oil companies for weapons purchases (see WRM Bulletin 41). Despite World Bank claims that the Oversight Committee is working, no regulations concerning its functioning have been published. In addition, the government’s draft implementation decree proposes a decision-making process based on a simple majority system which would assure that the government would always have the majority. Furthermore it severely reduces the area of intervention for the Oversight Committee and requires that it only report to the government.

Construction of the pipeline of Cameroon will destroy biodiversity, especially in the littoral rainforest which is inhabited by the indigenous Bakola people. As required by World Bank environmental policies, the World Bank requested that the Government create a protected area to compensate for the loss of biodiversity. However, the off-set area, the Campo Reserve, is now being threatened by a French logging company which is part of the well-known Bollore Group which has close connections to the Cameroonian government.

The International Advisory Group, which is headed by a former Senegalese Prime-Minister, is about to make its first field visit to Chad and Cameroon. The effectiveness of the group will depend on its ability to cut through the public relations efforts that are likely to surround its visit and establish independent relationships with the affected communities and the NGOs on-the-ground.

Independently of the IAG’s work, the World Bank’s Inspection Panel has just registered a claim presented by a Chadian member of parliament who represents the oil-producing region and 120 local residents. The claim states that local people and their environment have or are likely to suffer as a result of the World Bank violating its own policies. It is only after World Bank management has had a chance to respond to the allegations that the World Bank Board of Executive Directors will decide whether the Inspection Panel should be allowed to investigate the claim or not. Given the controversial nature of the project and climate of political oppression in both Chad and Cameroon, the World Bank’s credibility would be seriously damaged if it should fail to get to the bottom of the allegations made by the claimants who are risking jail, torture and assassination for speaking up.

Perhaps the most positive outcome of the international campaign on the project so far has been the strengthening of civil society organizations in Chad and Cameroon. Despite enormous difficulties and danger, there are plans for a coordinated NGO-effort to monitor the oil fields and pipeline construction with the goal of preventing a humanitarian and ecological disaster. These efforts deserve the international community’s full support.

By: Korinna Horta, e-mail: Korinna_Horta@environmentaldefense.org

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- Kenya: Pollution and deforestation caused by Pan African Paper Mills

The large-scale monoculture pulpwood plantation model being implemented in the South not only results in negative social and environmental impacts in the forest areas, but has also additional impacts from pollution resulting from the industrial process for the production of pulp as well as deforestation linked to logging for supplying the pulp mill with raw material.

Such is also the case of Pan African Paper Mills (Panpaper), based in Webuye town, in the Western Province, with a population of some 60,000 people. The mill is situated in an environmentally sensitive area on the bank of River Nzoia, which flows into Lake Victoria. It has been denounced that the factory belches out smoke and sludge, polluting air, water, and nearby rivers. So strong has been the impact provoked by this plant, that the iron sheets within Webuye town are rusted, and people passing through the town, on the Nairobi-Kampala Road, have to lock the windows of their vehicles and close their noses until they are well passed the town.

Problems caused by Panpaper in the region are not new. According to a survey performed in 1994, pollution provoked by this mill is believed to be responsible for a number of health problems: more than 60% of the children born after 1974 --when the plant began to operate-- have had breathing problems from the age of one to five years. Other health problems verified in Webuye are chronic coughing, flu, nervous disorders, diarrhoea, typhoid and migraine, which health officials attribute largely to the air and water pollution produced by the mill.

At the same time, the mill's wood supply needs constitute a powerful incentive to deforest the remaining forests in the region --Kakamega and Mt. Kenya forests in particular-- which are being plundered at alarming rates. Pan African Paper Mills is one of the main buyers of the wood extracted from them. At the same time, the company is one of the three firms that have been exempted from the partial logging ban in force in the country. To the official viewpoint, this step was taken because "the government has shares in it and is important to the economy". The record of Panpaper regarding forest conservation is terrible. From 1972 --when the mill was built-- to the present day, the whole forest cover of the area --as well as that of Turbo and Mosorit, located 200 km far away-- has disappeared.

The argument that this is the price to be paid to achieve "development" is no more acceptable nor accepted. As a result, local dwellers and activists have organized themselves in the Panpaper Anti-Pollution Lobby Group, and have organized a protest to stop such abuses. Those interested in expressing their support to this initiative can send e-mails to the company (accounts@panpaperkenya.com or nmohalta@panpaper.ke.com) expressing their concern for the present state of things and their support to the defence of local people's environmental rights.

Article based on information from: Eusebius Mukhwana, 27/3/2001, e-mail: sacred@africaonline.co.ke ; "Death mill". A case study of Pan African paper Mills (EA) Limited, Webuye, Kenya by Oduor Ong’wen, May 1994.

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- Liberia: Forest destruction backed by the government

Liberia hosts the last two significant blocks of the remaining closed canopy tropical rainforest within what is known as the upper Guinea Forests of West Africa, which spans Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. The original extent of tropical rainforest in the upper Guinea forest is estimated at 727,900km², but has shrunk to about 92,797km², which represents only 12.7% of its original size. Liberian forests account for 44.5% of the remaining 92,797km² followed by Cote d’Ivoire with 29.1%. This region holds a rich biodiversity, with over 2000 species of plants of which 240 are valuable timber species (see WRM Bulletin 44).

In the case of Liberia, the deforestation process is the result of the greed of international logging companies that invaded the country in the last decade, coupled with the attitude of the Liberian government that promotes their activities. Almost every significant national forest land, including areas previously designated as national parks or forest reserves, has been granted as concessions to logging companies, while those yet not granted are being encroached upon by various other companies. Monitoring and regulation by the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) exist only on paper. Logging operations have reached an unprecedented proportion, with approximately 60% of the country's forests now severely degraded. The country’s biodiversity and the livelihoods of rural communities are further threatened, because deforestation has effectively separated the northern/northwestern and eastern/southeastern portions of the rainforest.

In January 2000 the government announced it was cancelling all concession agreements and that only applications for concessions of more than 300,000 acres would be granted. While the FDA insisted that this new measure was aimed at maximizing national income and promoting the sustainable utilization of the forest, it is now apparent that the actual motive was to grant larger concessions to few foreign giant logging companies. This is proven by the fact that areas seized from smaller companies were immediately redistributed amongst giant companies.

Even though there is very little difference in the modus operandi of the logging companies, the case of Oriental Timber Company (OTC) is paradigmatic (see WRM Bulletin 30). In the 1990s, during the Liberian civil war, a Dutch businessman --Mr. Gus van Kouwenhaven, known in the official circles as "Gus" and closely connected to Charles Taylor, who would become President of the country-- succeeded in acquiring several concessions in southeastern Liberia, --a significant portion of the forest block stretching from Grand Bassa through River Cess and into Sinoe County. Even though the agreement was kept in secret, the concession's present size is estimated to range between 900,000 hectares and 1.44 million hectares. In 1999 a Malaysian company registered in Liberia as the Oriental Timber Company (OTC) and --surprisingly enough-- had "Gus" as its president. In addition to its logging operations, OTC manages the port of Buchanan and upgraded the road connecting the ports of Buchanan and Greenville, originally constructed by "Gus" during the Liberian war to transport logs.

The OTC agreement has been and still is subject of much speculation and criticism. Ownership of the OTC is yet somewhat uncertain, and while some believe that the Indonesian Djan Djanti Group is the OTC’s parent company in Asia, others point at the Hong Kong-based Global Star Group.

No environmental impact assessment was ever carried out regarding its logging activities. Clearcutting is practised in vast areas using more than 140 assorted caterpillars/bulldozers and about 75 trailers which work seven days a week, day and night, each trailer making at least two daily trips to the port of Buchanan to deliver logs. Given the speed at which OTC operates, a realistic estimate of log extraction can be put within the range of 2500 – 3000m³ of logs/day, or 75,000m³ - 90,000m³/month. These practices are in flagrant violation of established FDA regulations.

All OTC production is exported as round logs. According to OTC Director Joseph Wong, the company exports some 60,000-70,000 m3 per month to southeast Asia to supply its plywood factories. This comes to 720,000-840,000 m3 per year. The excess production is sold in the port of Buchanan to buyers mostly for export to Europe --France and Spain being the most frequently cited.

As usually happens, the arrival of OTC to the region was trumpeted as something positive because it would result in the creation of thousands of new jobs and in the building of roads, hospitals and schools to assist rural dwellers. Nevertheless, residents of rural communities where OTC operates complain of numerous abuses, among which the destruction of houses, crops and sacred forests belonging to local communities. At the same time, local dwellers have in several instances been subjected to harassment, intimidation and even unlawful detention by officers of the OTC’s militia. Some 600 Asian labourers (mostly from the Indonesian island of Sumatra) have been imported and were all given free work permits. All skilled jobs are operated by Asians with reportedly few going to Liberians. Only unskilled jobs at the port, or spotters and chainsaw operators in the forest are reserved for Liberians.

All the above proves that OTC and the Liberian government are close partners and this partnership is enhanced by the controversial Strategic Commodity Act, whereby the President can declare any of the country’s natural resources --from forests to mines-- as a "strategic commodity". He has the sole power to execute, negotiate and conclude all commercial contracts or agreements with any foreign or domestic investors for the exploitation of any of those commodities. In one of the most high profile incidences, President Taylor dismissed Grand Bassa county's Superintendent when he criticized the OTC and threatened to arrest its top management for failing to respond to complaints against the company by locals. In another incident, the president granted the OTC permission to log 114,935 hectares of forest which had been designated to be used by the University of Liberia for scientific studies and research purposes only.

The result of this de facto "joint-venture" between the private and the public sector is apparent: it is OTC and a reduced group of officials who win, while Liberian forests and people continue to loose.

Article based on information from: "Living Dangerously. An Assessment of Multinationals in Liberia Logging Industry (August 2000-January 2001)" by The Agenda for Global Trade Project (AGTP) & Save my future (SAMFU) Foundation, February 2001. Sent by: Ronnie Siakor, 1/3/2001, e-mail: samfu1@yahoo.com ; Investigative Report on Oriental Timber Corporation: http://www.theperspective.org/otc.html

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- South Africa: Quo vadis FSC?

Certification of monoculture timber plantations as "sustainably managed forests" by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) makes an absolute mockery of the concept of sustainable environment and ecosystem management.

In recent years vast tracts of industrial tree plantations in South Africa and many other countries, have been given the FSC stamp of approval.

How can this be possible? The natural vegetation in the areas where these plantations have been established was originally highly bio-diverse grassland or woodland. After conversion to plantations, these areas stand little chance, if any, of being able to revert to the natural climax vegetation type. The environment is subjected to a terrifying range of harmful impacts, starting with the construction of primitive roads and ending with huge, computerised mechanical harvesters compacting the soil, thereby destroying its function.

In between these environmentally catastrophic events, the land and its rightful inhabitants are subjected to an extensive suite of chemical, physical, biological and demographic alterations to their natural state. This all as part of the process that is imposed to meet the demands of first world greed for wood-fibre products:

1.- As a first step, the natural vegetation is either bulldozed or killed with herbicides to prevent competition with alien plantation trees for water, light and nutrients.

2.- Alien tree saplings are artificially fertilised to speed up their rate of establishment and other unnatural chemicals that absorb moisture are added to the soil to prevent the young plants from drying out.

3.- Spills of herbicides, insecticides, diesel fuel, engine oil and other human trash enter the natural environment without invitation.

4.- Alien invasive plants carried as seeds on vehicle tyres and worker’s boots become established in the vacuum created by the destruction of the natural groundcover.

5.- Plantation contractors do not normally provide appropriate toilet facilities for their workers. Human faeces are deposited in the field, leading to pollution of streams, rivers and lakes with bacteria such as that which causes cholera. The recent cholera outbreak in the eastern region of South Africa could well have originated from this source.

6.- Contract workers are poorly paid and have little choice but to build makeshift homes within areas of natural forest near the plantation sites where they work, causing substantial ecological damage in the process.

7.- Animals and birds that are disturbed by the plantation establishment activities either flee the area or are hunted and snared as food for the contract workers.

8.- Local people who would have had access to the area if plantations had not been established, could have used the area to graze their cattle and sheep, harvest thatch grass for roofing their homes, and collect food and medicinal plants for their own limited use. They are now deprived of this resource and are forced to move into previously undisturbed areas in search of these commodities. This often leads to conflict with the management of protected natural areas.

9.- Surface water in the vicinity of new plantations is soon depleted and is usually only evident during the rainy season. People have to turn to the use of boreholes and wells that often are saline, or polluted with bacteria from pit toilets.

10.- Timber plantation contract workers are commonly unmarried men from other parts of the country and to a large extent from neighbouring countries. This can often lead to the problem of women in local communities being sexually harassed. Outcomes of this situation include unwanted pregnancies, sexually transmitted diseases and destroyed relationships. There is a high likelihood that the increasing incidence of HIV infection in the rural areas of KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) can be attributed in part to the employment practices of the timber plantation industry.

11.- Contract workers add a new dimension to local health care needs. Those that are recruited from remote rural parts of neighbouring states can be carriers of diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis. Coincidentally both these diseases have been increasing proportionately during the period that industrial timber plantations have been expanding (over the last 15 to 20 years).

12.- The loss of beneficial soil organisms in timber plantations has been well documented. Monocultures are inherently prone to the rapid spread of pathogens. Natural buffers that are present in bio-diverse ecosystems cannot be replicated in the timber monoculture environment.

13.- The establishment of timber plantations upsets the natural balance of species. These plantations create barriers that disrupt the normal migration and breeding patterns of birds, animals and insects.

14.- Community food security is one of the first victims of timber plantations. Areas used traditionally for growing fruit and vegetables become too dry or are shaded out when plantations are established too close to the fertile areas along streams and rivers. The remaining residents are left in a position where they have to use their limited financial resources (usually state pensions) to buy processed food from trading stores.

15.- Transport systems, especially roads, are subjected to high levels of usage for which they were not designed. The cost of upgrading or maintaining rural roads is usually borne by the state, which means that the timber industry benefits from an indirect subsidy.

16.- Negative effects on non-timber neighbouring farms are numerous. In much the same way as genetically engineered food crops will pollute fields of nearby non-GMO or organic crops, there are off-site impacts that undermine the economic viability of other farmers. These include an increase in alien invasive plants, loss of ground water, increased crime and poaching and the disruption of normal pasture management by burning, due to the risk of fire spreading to the timber plantations,

Large-scale timber plantations destroy whole ecosystems and rural economies. For some strange reason this calamity is virtually ignored by governments and research institutions. The onus should be on an organisation like FSC to insist that thorough, impartial research is conducted before certification can be considered.

In place of the natural landscape is a new visage dominated by fake forests. Fake not only in that their owners pretend that they can substitute meaningfully for the real thing, but truly fake in terms of how their economic benefits are exaggerated and inflated at the local level.

There is no doubt that a consumer commodity like paper, or pressboard, has great value in modern society. What is not acceptable is that the rate of consumption of paper products is increasing whilst the living standards of poor communities where the timber is produced do not. The growth of the throwaway culture of so-called developed countries has a direct correlation to the eroding natural environment, and standards of living in the countries that have been colonised by the tree plantations of the multinational corporations concerned.

The FSC must take a large share of the responsibility for this social and environmental injustice.

Plantations are not forests !!!

By: Wally Menne, member of the TIMBERWATCH Coalition. E-mail: plantnet@iafrica.com

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ASIA

- China: Exporting deforestation and promoting tree monocultures

The growth of the Chinese economy, measured in conventional economy terms, is astonishing: its National Gross Product jumped to U$$ 4 trillion, which represents a 22-fold increase of its value in 1978. Whether this phenomenon can be considered a success for China and the region is doubtful since, on the one hand, it has been accompanied by important environmental problems in the country itself --among which the loss of significant areas of the country's forests and the expansion of tree monocultures-- and, on the other hand, it has led to deforestation in other countries of the region in order to satisfy the increasing demand for wood of its domestic market.

To face deforestation and subsequent soil erosion, the Chinese government put in place in 1998 a logging ban in 12 provinces, which was extended to 18 in 2000. As a result, national timber production decreased 97% from 1997 to 2000. But wood consumption increased and is currently leading to deforestation in neighbouring countries.

One of those such cases is Burma, where the town of Pianma, located 1,500 miles southwest of Beijing on the far edge of Yunnan province, is currently one of China's gateways into the forests of northern Burma. A massive, unregulated and largely unnoticed timber trade had been depleting the ancient tropical forests of the region. It intensified in 1998 after the above-mentioned logging ban. More than 350,000 cubic metres move through Pianma alone each year. Large amounts also come into China from Burma at towns farther south along the border, like Tengchong, Yingjiang, Zhangfeng, Ruili and Wanding. A Malaysian timber firm is building a bridge across the Salween River, 60 miles north of Pianma near Fugong, to bring in still more logs. According to official statistics, Burma supplies almost 10% of China's imports (740,000 cubic metres) but trustworthy estimations consider that the real volume is twice that high. In Burma, forest cover has dropped from 21% of the country's area in 1949 to less than 7% nowadays. The military dictatorship that rules the country since 1962 has paved the way to transnational logging companies that are devastating the forests and local peoples' livelihoods.

Unfortunately, Burma is one of several examples of deforestation linked to China's economic growth. Imports of Russian softwood logs have also considerably increased over the past two years and Russia now accounts for 42% of all logs that enter China.

Preparations for China's entry into the World Trade Organization have also sparked a further increase in timber imports. In a move for a more open trading system, tariffs on forestry products have fallen drastically, and in many places along China's borders, no tariffs are charged for logs. China's imports of logs have grown from less than 5 million cubic metres in 1998, to more than 10 million in 1999, and to some 15 million in 2000. The country has become the world's second largest importer of wood.

Within such context, the logging ban appears to be but a way of diverting the burden of China's economic growth to other countries. At the same time, the measure is leading to a dramatic increase in monoculture tree plantations within the country.

"As China gets richer, it's natural that it will consume more wood" stated recently a World Bank official. Is that the only answer? Is not the problem more based on the adoption by China of a development model based on a consumption style which results in unsustainable use of internal and external resources?

In the 1940s, India's Mahatma Gandhi was asked by a supporter how long it would be before India was as rich as England. Gandhi's response was: "if it took half of the world to make England as rich as it is, how many worlds will it take to make India that rich?" Is not the same applicable to China?

Article based on information from: EnviroNews Service, 6/3/2001, e-mail: newsdesk@envirolink.org; Glen Barry, 26/3/2001, e-mail: gbarry@forests.org

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- India: Reports of Forest Department involvement in violence against the Adivasi people

The Adivasi indigenous people have lived in India since time immemorial. Today they constitute an ethnic minority referred to pejoratively as "tribals". These people, even though being descendents of the original inhabitants of India, over the course of time, have been pushed aside to more marginal areas, sloping areas, and forestland. Only some decades ago the Adivasi still lived in slavery, without any political or civil rights, obliged to work in the factories owned by the Indian and European people. Nowadays their territorial rights continue to be ignored. Moreover they are victims of violence and all kinds of abuses to expel them from the forests they inhabit.

Local communities report that during March and April 2001 the police and members of the Van Suraksha Samities (Forest Protection Committees) attacked a group of unarmed Adivasi people in the Dewas district of Madhya Pradesh. The aggression resulted in the deaths of four unarmed villagers.

This is not the first case reported in Madhya Pradesh regarding these sorts of human rights violations against indigenous forest peoples. On 23 September 1999, forest officials fired on the village of Kadudiya causing the death of adivasi Roopsingh Bhilala. There have been reports of numerous cases since the middle of March 2001 in which forest officials, police and armed teams of the Special Armed Force (SAF) have attacked Adivasi villages, demolished homes, looted property and assaulted people including women. Among the atrocities committed to the detriment of the Adivasi there have also been reported cases of kidnapping and contamination of food and water with herbicides. Despite a large peaceful protest on 29 May 2000, the Dewas administration has failed to act on complaints about such abuses. No judicial inquiries have been established and local people continue to suffer further repression. Additionally, no compensation has been granted to the affected villagers and their families.

Local villagers and activists in Dewas refute the allegations made by the authorities that they are armed and incite people to violence. They also reject any allegations that they are involved in harmful illegal timber extraction. As a matter of fact the recent atrocities are a consequence of their resistance to the predatory and corrupt practices of some Forest Department officials that allegedly practice illegal timber extraction on a commercial scale. Local activists point out that they have encouraged local people not to pay bribes to forestry officials for the right to continue with their customary livelihood activities. Activists claim that the recent violent campaign by local officials is a direct backlash against their opposition to the corrupt forest administration and the repressive practices of the newly formed Forest Protection Committees that have been formed under Joint Forest Management schemes established in recent years, with the support of the various organizations, including the World Bank.

Article based on information from: Tom Griffiths, Forest Peoples Programme, 18/4/2001, e-mail: tom@fppwrm.gn.apc.org; http://www.rfb.it/icc99/adivasi.htm;

http://www.caritas.org.nz/Update/sept2000/update24land.htm

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- Thailand: A step forward in the resolution of a conflict

A conflict exists in Northern Thailand between certain groups of highland and lowland people over the use of natural resources. Many lowlanders accuse some highland minority groups of affecting their water supplies as a result of unsustainable agricultural practices which lead to deforestation, which itself is said to decrease water supply and increase sedimentation of watercourses due to soil erosion. The solution put forward: removal of the minority groups from the area. This being obviously unacceptable to the latter, the conflict has persisted for several years.

With the aim of achieving equitable solutions to the problem, a number of organizations --including the World Rainforest Movement -- organized an international symposium in March in Chiang Mai. Participants included international experts in watershed management and protected areas, as well as representatives from the Royal Forestry Department, government officials, academics, conservationists and local peoples organizations. Once the symposium was over, the participants were able to visit one area in which conflict has occurred and to hear the viewpoints of both highland and the lowland people.

The main achievement of the meeting was to open up a space for discussion of the different viewpoints and to bring to the debate experiences from other countries as well as the results of new research. The symposium concluded that the problem was not as simple as it had first appeared to be to some lowland groups and that therefore the solution could not be a simplistic one.

From the visit to the conflict area we reached the following conclusions:

1) Soil erosion in the mountain area does constitute a major problem for downstream water users, but the major cause of erosion appears not to be deforestation but a badly- built road system.

2) Part of the problem in mountain areas has been the forced resettlement of peoples who used to carry out sustainable shifting agriculture practices but are now confined to carrying out permanent cultivation, which does entail some environmental impacts.

3) Water usage, particularly by lowlanders, has dramatically increased as a result of the expansion of cash crop cultivation and large-scale fruit orchards for export in the lowlands. The water shortages experienced by downstream users during the past years are to a large extent attributable to this increased lowland agricultural use.

4) A number of dams have been built along the lower reaches of the river tributary system in question and many irrigation canals divert the water, which has an impact on water supplies in downstream areas.

What is thus clear is that even if the hill people were removed from their homes, this unfair solution would not solve the problem. It is therefore necessary to continue efforts to bring people together and to facilitate a process for the achievement of true and equitable solutions to an issue which is creating problems to both lowlanders and highlanders. We sincerely hope that the recently held international symposium will mean a step forward in that direction.

By: WRM International Secretariat

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- Vietnam: Carbon sink plantations to avoid emission reductions in Australia

During the intergovernmental negotiations on climate change (COP-6) at the Hague last November, the Australian government sided with the US, Japan and Canada in refusing to negotiate reductions of its own carbon emissions. Five months later, the Australian government announced five projects aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Predictably enough, the projects, which are funded through the government's International Greenhouse Partnerships (IGP) Programme, are not aimed at reducing Australia's emissions, but are to be carried out in Peru, Fiji, Malaysia and Vietnam.

Launched in May 1998, and working from within the Department of Industry, Science and Resources, the IGP Programme aims "to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through projects overseas" that will in future be considered as carbon off-set projects under the Kyoto protocol.

Announcing the projects, Nick Minchin, the Australian Minister for Industry, Science and Resources, said "Not only will the projects be addressing global climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, they will be helping to develop Australia's expertise in clean, green technologies through sound, commercially viable projects."

One of the IGP Programme projects will establish fast-growing tree plantations in Vietnam. The US$242,000 project is to be carried out by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) with the Research Centre for Forest Tree Improvement of Vietnam. According to Minchin, CSIRO "will increase the carbon dioxide uptake of planted forests [sic] in Vietnam through the use of genetically improved planting stock."

CSIRO will supply acacia and eucalyptus seeds --the favoured trees of the pulp and paper industry-- and will establish four seedling orchards, each covering five hectares, two in Quang Tri province in central Vietnam and two in Binh Thuan province in the south. Seedlings from these orchards will be planted over a total area of 8,250 hectares on a range of sites in Vietnam.

CSIRO estimates that the plantations will remove "an extra 21,500 tonnes of CO2" from the atmosphere per year compared to other tree plantations. The calculation is based on a 15 per cent increase in volume growth, which CSIRO expects from using improved tree seeds. Recent research published in the journals "Nature" and "Science", however, indicates that forests are much better than plantations at absorbing carbon dioxide (see WRM bulletin 39). Yet, the publicly available information on the IGP project makes no mention of any attempts to compare the amount of carbon stored in natural forests to that stored in plantations.

CSIRO also anticipates developing predictive models for "other major plantation species", and argues that "such a capability will assist in the successful growth of plantations, enabling higher yields from the forests [sic] planted and greater carbon sequestration in the longer term." Even assuming plantations are useful in absorbing carbon dioxide, the logic is flawed -- higher yield plantations make no difference if the trees are cut after five years to produce short-lived commodities like woodchips, pulp and paper.

Elsewhere in Vietnam, private investors are finding it difficult to find enough land for their tree plantations. For example, the US$14 million Japanese-funded Quy Nhon Forest Plantation in Binh Dinh province aims to plant 13,000 hectares of acacia and eucalyptus plantations to produce wood chips for export to Japan. So far, in the seven years since the project was licensed, the company has received only around 8,000 hectares of land. "The land problem is increasing the risks for projects in plantations," Hironobu Ohara, the director of the project told the Vietnam Investment Review.

According to a recent article in the Thai newspaper, the Nation, the Vietnamese government stated that any carbon sequestration plantation projects in Vietnam must include support for communities that would be affected by the plantations. No such support is mentioned in the publicly available information on the IGP plantation project in Vietnam.

CSIRO receives 75 per cent of its funding from the Australian government, and is explicit about where its loyalty ultimately lies. In the organisation's own words: "CSIRO's primary functions are to assist Australian industry, contribute to Australia's national objectives and facilitate the application of the results of research."

The message is clear: the Australian government will not negotiate reductions in Australian carbon emissions, but CSIRO will "assist Australian industry" through planting eucalyptus and acacia trees in Vietnam -- supposedly to absorb those emissions.

Further information on this project should be available from IGP (e-mail: igp.office@isr.gov.au) and CSIRO (e-mail: stephen.midgley@ffp.csiro.au).

By: Chris Lang. E-mail: http://chrislang.org

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CENTRAL AMERICA

- Honduras: World Bank involvement in mangrove destruction

Industrial shrimp farming is a main cause for the loss of mangroves in the tropics. Even though private companies are the direct agents of such destruction it is important to highlight that governments and multilateral development agencies play a very active role in paving the way for this to happen.

The expansion of the "San Bernardo Marine Farms" (SBMF) shrimp company in the Gulf of Fonseca in Honduras is provoking grave concern. In June 1999 the International Finance Corporation (IFC) --private sector branch of the World Bank-- granted a U$S 6 million dollar loan to SBMF, where U.S. investors hold majority shares. The justification for the loan was apparently to "reactivate the shrimp production and recover from the damages caused by Hurricane Mitch". Such arguments do not seem to be very solid. On the one hand, it makes little sense with regard to the prevention against natural catastrophes --such as hurricanes-- to support an activity that implies the destruction of mangroves which, among other valuable functions, act as a natural barrier for the protection of the coastline. On the other hand, the infrastructures of the company had not been severely affected by this climatic phenomenon and thus the new funds are being used by the company to expand its operations, causing further negative environmental impacts on neighbouring wetlands and on the livelihoods of local fishing communities.

As a result of the struggle of local fisherfolk and supporting organizations to protect the local ecosystems and to stop shrimp farming development, the area was declared a Ramsar site at the end of 1999. However, neither that nor the World Bank's own environmental guidelines were taken into account by the IFC. As a result, the IFC itself now shares responsibility for the social conflict and environmental destruction that are resulting from the investment. Recently members of the local community who implemented an action to cut the access roads to the SBMF shrimp farm were subject to a savage repression by the national police. Additionally, the Environmental Impact Assessment carried out to obtain the environmental license to expand shrimp farming operations is under severe questioning.

The World Bank Group --to which the IFC belongs-- has a number of guidelines regarding environmental protection. In spite of that, the IFC appears to chose to ignore them when providing funds to this investment. Will the World Bank do something to make the IFC comply with its own rules?

Article based on information from: Late Friday News, March 2001, e-mail: mangroveap@olympus.net ; CODEFFAGOLF, 27/3/2001, e-mail: cgolf@sdnhon.org.hn

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NORTH AMERICA

- Accusations at logging giant Boise Cascade during its annual meeting

The US-based Boise Cascade has been practising unsustainable logging both in Southern and Northern countries, including the US itself. One of the most outstanding conflicts in which the company was involved is that of the community forests ("ejidos") of the Sierra of Petatlán in the state of Guerrero, Mexico, that resulted in the detention and prosecution of Rodolfo Montiel and Teodoro Cabrera, two peasants who organized resistance against Boise Cascade (see WRM Bulletins 26, 35 and 38).

Boise Cascade has also been criticized in Chile, where it has been the seventh largest importer of old growth wood from that country, thus affecting unique temperate forests. As a result of strong resistance from local communities and environmentalists, the company recently announced it would abandon the country. Boise Cascade is actively logging old growth forests in the USA, and in central Canada, serving also as a prime distributor of wood from British Columbia's Great Bear Rainforest, where a logging ban has recently been declared.

The company’s annual meeting that took place last March in Idaho was the scenario for criticism towards its environmental performance. The meeting was totally unusual, because it focused on the questions posed by members and supporters of the Rainforest Action Network (RAN) on the negative environmental performance of the corporation. Enrique Rodriguez, a member of the Association of Peasant Environmentalists of the Sierra of Petatlán, blamed Boise Cascade for destroying forest land in Mexico and for the arrest of activists Rodolfo Montiel Flores and Teodoro Cabrera, who are still in prison. As a means of trying to avoid the issues raised by the environmentalists, a company spokesperson accused RAN of not being "a serious-minded environmental organization", defining the organization as "a group of reckless, lawless radical activists who lash out at modern society."

Outside the meeting room, RAN supporters marched from a rally at the Idaho Capitol to Boise Cascade's headquarters, chanting and waving signs. A huge banner was displayed denouncing the company’s "dinosaur" logging methods. Patricia Vera, international coordinator of Defenders of the Chilean Forests, present at the protest, asked that the company put in writing its plans to terminate a proposed logging venture in the temperate rainforests of her country.

One thing is certain: this year, Boise Cascade's shareholders, employees and journalists were not bored at the annual meeting and perhaps, maybe, they will have gone home with some questions in their minds.

Article based on information from: "Protesters criticize Boise Cascade's actions.
Activists draw caustic response from spokesman" by Beth Bow
http://www.idahostatesman.com/news/daily/20010420/LocalNews/105861.shtml

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SOUTH AMERICA

- Argentina: Monoculture tree plantations impact on grassland bird populations

In Argentina, the invasion of tree monocultures is destroying the country's grassland-related biodiversity. Subsidised by the government with backing from the World Bank, plantations are expanding in the eastern Provinces of Misiones, Corrientes and Entre Rios, while significant areas are also being planted in the Provinces of Buenos Aires, Córdoba, Cuyo, Chaco and Patagonia. According to unofficial figures, the plantation area in Argentina has increased five fold from 1995 to 2000, and continues growing. The Argentinian authorities are keeping in line with neighbouring Chile and Uruguay, ignoring the social and environmental impacts that this plantation model is generating in those countries.

A study recently published by the ornithological association "Aves Argentinas" (Argentinian Birds), reveals that "the increase of plantations promoted through State subsidies has provoked a reduction in the populations of endangered bird species in the eco-region Los Campos, located in the northeast of the country". Many crucial areas for the conservation of bird species are being converted to large-scale pine and eucalyptus monocultures, which constitute a uniform and food-poor habitat for birds. Some of the grassland habitats of endemic bird species in the Argentinian Mesopotamia (a region located between the Paraná and Uruguay rivers), are disappearing. The area of Los Campos is dominated by subtropical herbaceous vegetation, transitional between the savannah of the Chaco, the grasslands of the Pampa and the Atlantic Forest. It is a biodiversity rich environment where grasses, subtropical forests, riverine forest and wetlands coexist. It is the richest area in the country concerning the number of grassland bird species, of which more than ten are considered in danger of extinction at the global level, for example the ochre-breasted pipit (Anthus nattereri), the safron-cowled blackbird (Xanthopsar flavus), four species of seadeaters (Sporophila sp.) and the strange-tailed tyrant (Alectrurus risora).

The survey carried out in the area reveals that the destruction of the grassland natural habitats in the area of Los Campos and their substitution by eucalyptus and pine plantations has led to the loss of bird populations. Other practices related to afforestation --like the elimination of wetlands and the use of pesticides-- are resulting in further impacts to local bird populations. The study thus proves that large-scale tree plantations in grassland ecosystems have similar negative impacts on biodiversity as those implemented in forest areas, and that the larger the scale the more widespread are the impacts.

Article based on information from: Carlos U. Leoni, 8/4/2001, e-mail: focal@infovia.com.ar

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- "Forward, Brazil" . . . towards further destruction of the Amazon

From 27 to 29 March Brazilian politicians, forestry officials, industry and NGO representatives got together in the city of Brasilia during the seminar "Amazonia XXI Century: Perspectives for Sustainable Development", to discuss the future of the Amazon forest, the largest tropical rainforest in the world. In spite of the dramatic process of deforestation and forest degradation that has for years been affecting this vast and rich geographical space, an optimistic vision reigned during the meeting. The basis for such optimism was the idea that "sustainable forest management" is the tool that can solve every problem.

The industry sector, represented by the Confederaçao Nacional das Industrias (National Industrial Federation), defended selective logging as the adequate technical tool to reach "sustainable development" of the Amazon region, and warned against catastrophistic and alarmist visions in relation to its future. The NGO representative basically shared the idea of the adequacy of sustainable forest management as the way to conserve the forests. Even though both groups mentioned the need to control illegal logging, social and cultural aspects were not part of their interventions.

The optimistic meeting was interrupted when a group of dozens of indigenous people representing different nations, invaded the auditorium and expressed their viewpoints. They said that they wished to continue being indians, that they wanted to preserve their forest and their cultures and that for that aim they needed support. The Kayapó leader O-Kiaboro reminded the audience that the arrival of the Europeans to the territory that would become Brazil had meant the beginning of the destruction of nature and indigenous cultures. His people have no reasons to be optimistic with regard to the future of the Amazon. On the contrary, they perceive that they are losing their home and that the authorities do nothing to protect their rights. He advocated for the strengthening of the status and functions of FUNAI (government agency for indigenous affairs), which is currently being dismantled. Another indigenous representative expressed plainly how they felt about FUNAI by saying: "They say that FUNAI is not useful. But all the indigenous people have told me: it's bad to have it but much worse not to." Once all the indigenous representatives had expressed their positions, they left and the discussions continued in more or less the same optimistic vein as before: sustainable management is the solution to the problem.

But among the many issues not discussed in the meeting was that of the consequences of this "management" for forests. One of the consequences would be the opening of the forest canopy --resulting from selective logging-- which would make the forest even more prone to the forest fires which are currently destroying vast areas of the Amazon.

But probably the worse aspect of the selective logging approach is that it is being used by the government to support its largest industrial plan for this century to exploit the resources of the Amazon. Incredibly enough, after the environmental and social disaster which resulted from the programme "Pra frente, Brasil!" ("Brazil to the front!"), implemented during the military dictatorship of the 60’s and 70’s, and to the criticism raised in 1997 by the "Brazil in Action" plan, regarding investments in infrastructure, new settlements and the expansion of the agricultural frontier in the Amazon region, the government insists now in the so called "Forward, Brazil!" plan. This new grandiose scheme will --among many other negative projects-- open up the Amazon forest by doubling the road network in the region. This would make possible the exploitation of the entire stock of wood and would lead to the final liquidation of the forest.

In sum, the conservation of the Amazon forest is not a technical issue which can be solved by focusing on "sustainable forest management" methods. In the current political context, to focus on those issues in fact implies playing to the hands of the government-backed corporations that are currently preparing to exploit the remnants of what 50 years ago remained basically untouched and which was being used in a truly sustainable manner by the indigenous peoples that inhabited it.

Article based on information from: "A morte da Floresta Amazônica no século XXI" by Rodolfo Salm, Correio da Cidadania 239, abril 2001, Special Edition, http://www.correiocidadania.com.br/ed239/geral.htm and further information sent to the WRM by the same author on 15 April.
E-mail: rodolfosalm@alternex.com.br

http://www.geocities.com/pinkaiti/amazoniaxxi.html;

http://www.geocities.com/pinkaiti/questao.html

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- Chile: Tree monocultures threaten unique forest type

The fragmentation of habitats resulting from human activities --among which industrial tree plantations-- provokes restrictions in the supply of resources and the spacial needs of animal and plant species, which can even lead to the extinction of entire ecosystems. Once landscape structure has been altered the persistence of both plant and animal populations is menaced.

The central and southern regions of Chile have been and are being extensively planted with fast-growing tree monocultures. These regions gather in their temperate forests the highest diversity and endemism in the country. Plantations' present area is estimated in some 2.5 million hectares, with Monterrey pine (Pinus radiata) representing 80% of the total. A study carried out by the government agency CONAF in 1997 already showed that the annual deforestation rate during the 1985-1994 period had been of 36,700 hectares and that almost 40% of such area was destroyed to clear land for industrial tree plantations.

Additionally to the social conflicts that such development has generated, several studies since the decade of 1980 point out that changes in the landscape provoked by plantations have caused negative effects on the environment, included the affection of the habitats of native species. Independent research coincides in stating that the degree of perturbation caused by plantations of P. radiata is high. Ecological alterations have sometimes affected the plantations themselves as happened during outbreaks of defoliating insects and rodents registered in plantations in Chile.

A research published by a group of researchers of the Universidad de Chile and the Carleton University of Canada analyses the deforestation and fragmentation of the ruil forest (Nothofagus alessandri), a temperate and endemic formation restricted to 100 km of the coastal range of Central Chile, in association with Nothofagus glauca, Nothofagus obliqua and other species. The ruil forest area was estimated as comprising 825 hectares in 1981, but had shrunk to 352 hectares in 1991, mainly due to the expansion of plantations of Monterrey pine. The remnants of the ruil forest now have the configuration of an archipelago --composed of several small, regular fragments and few large, irregular ones, relatively isolated-- and surrounded by a matrix of pine plantations. Despite being a unique and severely threatened ecosystem, only 45 hectares of the ruil forest are under protection in the Chilean System of Protected Areas, and such protection --even without taking into account that the area is insufficient considering the present state of the ruil forest-- is not actually implemented.

The research considers that the situation is critical, since the effects of deforestation and fragmentation imply, in the short term, the loss of species and that of this unique ecosystem: "The ruil forest as an ecosystem is heading toward extinction. If the current rate of deforestation remains unabated, even ignoring deleterious effects other than area reduction, the ruil forest as a recognizable biome will disappear within the next decade due to the extinction of many species associated with this forest", expresses the document.

Additionally, Monterey pine presents further threats to the ruil forest: it is an invasive species intruding on the fragments of ruil forest; due to its higher ability to obtain water, it could outcompete native trees; Monterey pine is also fire-prone and since the ruil forest is embedded in a pine matrix, any fire in plantations may obliterate the ruil remnants.

The authors conclude that land use in central Chile is not sustainable. "Sustainability implies economical, ecological and socio-cultural issues. Even when pine plantations may offer a profitable economical income (under current market interests), this benefit is reached at the expense of socio-cultural and ecological aspects. From a socio-cultural point of view, extensive forest plantations increase poverty and unemployment as plantations demand low workforce. The increasing local unemployment has triggered the emigration of peasants (Lara & Veblen 1993, Unda et al. 1997). Furthermore, the loss of native forest because of an inappropriate management is considered by local people to be one of the main environmental problems of the region (Hajek et al. 1990). From an ecological point of view, land management is definitively unsustainable. We have no evidence that Monterey pine is degrading the land where it is planted, but as discussed above, this exotic species is the main reason for ruil forest loss and fragmentation, and ultimately for its current endangered status."

Article based on information from: "Landscape Ecology, Deforestation, And Forest Fragmentation: The Case Of The Ruil Forest In Chile." by Audrey A. Grez, Ramiro O. Bustamante, Javier A. Simonetti and Lenore Fahrig (http://www.brocku.ca/epi/lebk/grez.html)

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- Ecuador: Call for action to stop oil pipeline

The Ecuadorian government has signed a contract with the company Oleoductos de Crudos Pesados (OCP) to build a pipeline that will cross the country from east to west, through the three geographical regions that form its territory. It will affect fragile areas of great importance from an ecological and agricultural point of view.

The 500 km long pipeline will transport low quality crude oil. Most of this oil will come from an oil block situated within the Yasuní National Park, which has not yet been leased for exploitation. This constitutes the last pristine area in the Park, which is the most important of continental Ecuador, and the home of the Huaorani indigenous people. There is also the risk that the oil frontier will reach the Amazonian territories of southern Ecuador, still relatively unaltered, where the Quichua, Shuar and Achuar indigenous people live.

OCP Ecuador is a consortium formed by Agip, Alberta, Kerr Mc Gee, Occidental, YPF, Perez Companc and Techint. The works would be carried out by the Argentinian company Techint, whose environmental record is abysmal. The total cost will exceed U$S 1,100 million, but according to local sources this cost is overvaluated, taking into account that the cost for the same oil pipeline was estimated in U$S 400 million in 1999. In the long run, the difference in cost will be paid by the Ecuadorian people.

The route of the pipeline was approved before an environmental impact assessment was carried out, which is a legal requirement under the Environmental Management Law. The National Constitution establishes that prior to such kind of works a consultation among affected people needs to be performed, which did not take place in this case. After the approval of the project, the consultancy firm ENTRIX was given only two months to produce an environmental impact assessment, which is obviously insufficient taking into account that the 500 km pipeline will pass through extremely complex ecosystems.

Given that the pipeline will cross the entire country from east to west, it will also cross all the geological fault systems affecting Ecuador, which contains at least 94 faults. Several active volcanoes are in the way of the projected route of the pipeline, among which the Reventador, Antisana, the volcanic complex of Chacama, Guagua Pichincha and Pululahua. The Guagua Pichincha is of particular concern given that it erupted recently. A violent eruption would mean that the pipeline would be exposed to ashes, landslides and lava flows.

The pipeline would be built on vulnerable and prone to erosion soils, in regions of heavy rainfall where landslides frequently occur. Part of the pipeline would pass through an area with a high concentration of schools, which would endanger the most vulnerable part of the population: the children.

The pipeline would also pass through other fragile and ecologically important areas and would in fact cross all the country's ecosystems, including the sources of creeks and rivers, high quality agricultural zones, areas composed of unstable and seismically active land, primary tropical forests, etc. Almost 40 villages would be affected by the project.

The projected route would pass through the valley of Mindo, considered by many ornithologists to be the World's Bird Capital because of it being the area with the highest bird concentration per unit in South America. The pipeline would destroy important wildlife corridors, affecting the local fauna. Local people's livelihoods depend on cattle raising and tourism and both activities would be seriously affected by both the construction and the future functioning of the pipeline. The pipeline would also cross other protected areas and forests which prevent erosion processes in the foothills of the Andes.

The proximity to Colombia implies an additional risk, since more than 760 attacks have been carried out against pipelines in that country during the past 10 years. Since Ecuador is participating in the Plan Colombia and given that violence in that country is increasing, the new pipeline could become an important military target. In fact, during the past year the Trans Ecuadorian Pipeline System (SOTE) has already been the target of four attacks.

The consequences of inadequately planned pipelines are already well known in Ecuador. Such is the case of SOTE, built by Texaco 30 years ago, which has collapsed several times, provoking the loss of human lives.

Acción Ecológica has for several years been promoting a moratorium to the expansion of oil exploitation in the tropics and is now urging all those individuals and organizations who believe that the Amazon must survive to support the campaign against the construction of this pipeline and against the expansion of oil exploitation to the last primary forests in the Ecuadorian Amazon. If you wish to support this campaign, please address a letter to the Ministry of Energy and Mines (eiaocp@andinanet.net) with copy to: amazonia@hoy.net

By: Acción Ecológica. E-mail: amazonia@hoy.net

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OCEANIA

- Tonga: The underlying causes of forest loss

The Kingdom of Tonga is located in the central south-west portion of the Pacific Ocean. Its territory comprises more than 175 islands, with a total of about 750 square kilometres of land, inhabited nowadays by about 100,000 people residing in 166 villages on 43 islands. The climate of Tonga is sub-tropical. It has an annual temperature range of 17 – 30ºC, with annual rainfall of approximately 2,700mm.

It can be reasonably assumed that Tonga was at some past time completely covered by forests, which according to studies performed in today's remnant forest areas, were very diverse in species. Remaining natural forests are confined to small areas, typically on land with physical constraints that preclude human use. The largest portion of natural forest is found on the steep east coast of 'Eua. Other remnants are scattered throughout the country, on several relatively remote islands of difficult access --like Kao, Tofua and Late-- in mangrove swamps, and a few small remaining segments elsewhere in Vava'u and Tongatapu.

A study carried out in the country identified two primary and interconnected causes for the serious deforestation and forest degradation process: population growth and monetarisation of the economy. Ecological and spatial restrictions would be the reason for the effect of population growth (from about 20,000 inhabitants in 1891 to 100,000 in 1996) on the forests. Nonetheless, the effects of population pressure have been accelerated and further exacerbated by economic change, and its impact on patterns of land-use. The most important overall economic change has been the transition of Tonga from a non-monetary economy --based primarily on subsistence agriculture-- to a monetary economy, with a wider and more commercial economic base. The entrance of Tonga into the globalized economy started about fifty years ago, and nowadays, with the registered demand for cash, the economic transition can be considered complete.

As the interaction between Tonga --which had been a rather isolated country-- and the outside world increased, so did the risks of the intensification of pressure on natural resources, forests included. In fact, from 1980 to 1992 the level of exports tripled. Since agriculture based on monocrops --especially aimed at the Japanese market-- accounts for 75% or more of export earnings it is not surprising that the advance in the agricultural frontier has provoked the loss of forest lands.

Article based on information from: "Deforestation and Forest Degradation in the Kingdom of Tonga", Denis Wolff, Tonga Community Development Trust (The full study is available at: http://wrm.org.uy/deforestation/Oceania/Tonga.html)

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GENERAL

- World Resources Institute critical to FAO forest assessment

A new study by the World Resources Institute of the UN Food and Agriculture's (FAO) latest assessment of the world's forests reports that deforestation may not be slowing down and may have even increased in the tropics.

"FAO's own data show that the loss of natural forests in the tropics continues to be rapid," said Emily Matthews, author of the new WRI study, Understanding the Forest Resources Assessment 2000. "For FAO to say that global deforestation is slowing down is misleading given the differences in the regional and subregional conditions of the world's forests."

Deforestation rates have increased in tropical Africa, remained constant in Central America, and declined only slightly in tropical Asia and South America. The WRI report, which was endorsed by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), points out that understanding the true rate of deforestation is made more confusing because FAO's "net rate of change" measures the combined change in natural forest area and plantation area. During the 1990s, an average of 3 million hectares of new plantations were planted globally each year, and FAO counts these as offsetting natural forest loss.

If new plantations are excluded from consideration, it appears that natural forests in the tropics are being lost at the rate of nearly 16 million hectares a year. "The extent of tropical deforestation appears to be higher in all tropical regions except Latin America," says Matthews. "More tropical forests were lost in the 1990s than the 1980s."

The full WRI report is available at http://www.wri.org/wri/forests/pdf/fra2000.pdf

Article based on information from: WRI study reports deforestation may be higher than FAO estimates, Washington, 12/3/01 http://www.wri.org/wri/press/fao_fra5.html

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