To download the bulletin in RTF format click here
For free subscription
Previous issues

Issue Number 58 - May 2002

• The road to Johannesburg

top 

We wish to warmly thank the many of you who replied to the questionnaire on the bulletin. Your answers have provided us with very useful input for assessing our work and will be taken into account for future improvements. Thank you!

The last preparatory conference for the World Summit on Sustainable Development is now taking place in Bali, Indonesia and people around the world are increasingly concerned about the process and asking themselves questions about the relevance of the upcoming Johannesburg Summit to address the problems being faced by humanity.

Those questions are the result of what has (not) happened during the past ten years after the 1992 Summit, when governments agreed on implementing a large number of actions to address the Earth's environmental problems. Sadly enough, the fact is that, apart from holding numerous international meetings and signing a number of agreements, very little has been done. "Sustainable development" appears to have simply become a meaningless catchword tossed around by governments and corporations in their intent to fool the public.

However, reality cannot be hidden so easily. The articles included in this and every single WRM bulletin show a pattern of forest loss --and of local peoples' resistance-- resulting from the socially unfair and environmentally destructive economic model that has been imposed by the North on the South. This does not mean that southern governments hold no responsibility over the problem --which they certainly do-- but it does imply that this responsibility is to a large extent shared by northern governments and their transnational corporations which --assisted by multilateral financial institutions-- benefit the most from the prevailing situation.

Within that context, the World Summit on Sustainable Development is in danger of becoming more akin with virtual than with on-the-ground reality. For instance, none else than Shell and Rio Tinto --both notorious for global and local destruction-- are now sponsoring a "Virtual Exhibition" that will "bring the world to Johannesburg - and take Johannesburg to the world." In the website ( http://www.virtualexhibit.net ), they modestly state that "if you want to be a part of the Johannesburg summit, you have found the perfect vehicle" --run with Shell's petrol and build with materials from Rio Tinto's mines?

The next thing we know, they will be talking of virtual sustainable development!

But in spite of corporate efforts, the fact is that reality is very real at the ground level, where countless peoples are struggling very hard to protect their forests against the greed of those and other corporations. These are the examples that need to be brought to Johannesburg. Corporate fairy tales about voluntary codes of conduct need to be exposed. For Johannesburg to be a useful starting point, the road leading to it must not be allowed to be paved with virtual reality. If you want to be a part of the Johannesburg summit, then please take a different vehicle!

top

AFRICA

Six Central African countries --Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Congo (Brazzaville), the Democratic Republic of Congo (former Zaire), Cameroon and the Central African Republic-- share the rainforest ecosystem of the Congo Basin, which is home to one of the world’s largest contiguous blocks of tropical rainforest, only second to that of the Amazon Basin in South America in terms of not fragmented forest areas.

Already well-known are the ecosystem services --watershed protection, maintenance of water quality and supply, regulation of local climate patterns and conservation of biological diversity-- provided by such region, which is also home to a whole range of peoples with diverse cultures who depend on those forests for food, shelter and medicines.

Central African rainforests have also gained outstanding importance after the depletion of neighbouring West Africa’s rainforests through logging, fragmentation and clearing for agriculture. However, worrying as it may be, the governments of Central African countries, pressed by multilateral and bilateral creditors, are following a similar path by promoting industrial timber exploitation for export under structural adjustment and liberalisation policies. Meanwhile, local peoples have been excluded from decision-making processes which disregard their needs and lead to the destruction of their homes and livelihoods.

Commercial logging has been eroding more easily accessed coastal Central African rainforests for more than 40 years, and now is expanding to the remote interior forests of the Congo Basin. According to available data, Central Africa’s forests cover 1.863.000 km2, of which 68% in large contiguous blocks unbroken by public roads. However, it is important to underscore that the situation is rapidly changing for the worse, because 41% of those pristine areas have been allocated to commercial logging concessions, ranging from 33% in Congo (Zaire) to 68% in Equatorial Guinea.

Although focused on the most commercially valuable species, logging implies large-scale operations and has been identified as one of the primary causes of global deforestation, mainly because it entails the construction of roads to access forests and to transport logs extracted from them. The expansion of commercial logging opens a network of access routes into previously remote areas, with negative ecological impacts -- deforestation, forest fragmentation, microclimate changes, biodiversity loss, changes in quality and quantity in local hydrology--, negative social impacts --dispossession of local peoples' lands, loss of livelihoods, human rights abuses-- and unsustainable economic activities such as clearing for large scale agriculture and commercial bushmeat hunting. In all regions, commercial logging becomes the first step in deforestation processes.

Along the 1990s, timber exports (logs, sawnwood, veneer and plywood) from Central Africa steadily increased, with Europe as major importer from 1993 to 1999, though surpassed in 1996-97 by Asian countries. Given the financial and logistic resources required to carry out long-term, large-scale operations, most of the logging activities are in the hands of foreign multinational groups working within a complex web of subsidiaries, involving local and foreign companies.

National policies actually promote the same forest exploitation model brought about earlier by colonial powers to exploit forests as a source of timber under logging concessions. This heavy heritage, coupled with minimum standards in terms of forestry management practices as well as weak regulating, monitoring and enforcement capacity, has turned governments of Central Africa into an easy prey to the greed of transnational corporations, which find their way to concessions through the conditionalities imposed on governments by multilateral financial institutions and the World Trade Organisation.

The forest-for-export pattern does not have room for hunter-gatherers, small farmers and fisherfolk, nor for biodiversity conservation. It does not have room for the spiritual and cultural identities of the forest peoples or for long-term benefits equitably shared by local populations. It is high time the economic powers and the governments at least stop telling lies when arguing that industrial timber production contributes to poverty alleviation, when it is widely known and well documented that exploitation of forests cause an increase in poverty and that forestry development and deforestation generally go hand in hand, with a redistribution of wealth that benefits a minority (national elites and foreign companies), widening the gap between the rich and the poor.

The international community has acknowledged the key role of forests and has committed itself to conserve them through global processes such as the Convention on Biological Diversity. The international community obviously includes the governments of the six countries of the region, but also the governments of the European, Asian and other countries where most of the wood extracted is consumed, as well as those from the home countries of the logging corporations currently destroying and fragmenting this unique forest ecosystem. In this case, complying with commitments clearly implies the recognition that action to protect these forests must prevail over actions which destroy them, and that a concerted effort must be made by the international community to ensure that end.

Article based on information from: "An Analysis of Access into Central Africa’s Rainforests", Susan Minnemeyer, World Resources Institute (WRI), http://www.wri.org/pdf/gfw_centralafrica_full.pdf ; and "Sold down the river", by Forests Monitor, March 2001, http://www.forestsmonitor.org/reports/solddownriver/cover.htm

top

Environmental degradation seems to have taken a sad toll in Kenya. As many as 12 people were killed in a landslide at Kanyakine, Meru Central District, where deforestation has laid bare hill slopes where trees used to perform the function of holding the soil together. That and other concerns related to environmental degradation has put conservation of forests as one of today's hottest items on the national agenda. Deforestation has been so intense that some people believe that the estimate that only 10 per cent of Kenya's original forest cover remains, is optimistic.

Parallel to this, General Peter Ikenye has been appointed to deal with forest conservation, in what may appear to be a move to appease public concerns. He will have to deal, on the one hand, with the strong clique involved with legal and illegal logging which has led Kenyan forest to depletion, and on the other hand with hundreds of thousands of displaced forest peoples as well as squatters, settlers and landless people who have been forced into the forest out of very poor living conditions.

However, the greatest stumbling block to forest conservation appears to be the lack of political will to save the Kenyan forest and the simple explanation is that the most powerful peoples in this country are also the biggest enemies of its woodland (see WRM Bulletin 55).

Within that context, the Kenyan government will have to identify new mechanisms to protect forests --if it has the political will to do so. Those new mechanisms will necessarily entail some type of symbiotic relationship between forests and neighbouring communities and examples on sustainable management of forests by local communities certainly exist: among others, the Ogiek people can provide a very good example on this.

At the same time, many forest areas need to be restored and in this sense a local journalist points at the right direction by saying that "there is no point in filling our country exclusively with exotic trees", while calling on Environment minister Joseph Kamotho to lead the nation in establishing nurseries of indigenous trees and planting them. The question is: will the Kenyan government apply the prevailing large-scale monoculture alien tree plantation scheme so strongly advocated by corporate economic interests? Or will it take a bold action and promote a genuine reforestation programme with native trees in partnership with local communities?

Article based on information from: "Can Our Forests Breathe At Last?", Mutuma Mathiu, The Nation (Nairobi), May 5, 2002; Project Report, Community Awareness on Indigenous Forests and Their Value; The Mau Forest Project, Forest Action Network (FAN), http://www.ftpp.or.ke/docs/mauproj.doc

top

Liberia is a biodiversity rich country with rocky cliffs and lagoons facing the Atlantic Ocean, with plains covered by forests and savannahs, and rainforests in the highlands, crossed by rapids and waterfalls, all of which are home to the Kpelle, Bassa, Gio, Kru, Grebo, Mano, Krahn, Gola, Gbandi, Loma, Kissi, Vai, and Bella peoples. The evergreen and semi-deciduous rainforests of Liberia also harbour many and even rare and unique plant and animal species.

Despite all its wealth, Liberia is an impoverished country, burdened by a large external debt. As such it has been conditioned to follow the path of so many other southern countries: to sell its resources. Nature has become a commodity and as such is being not used but abused along the lines of market demand: forests are now Liberia’s second largest foreign exchange earner.

Forest clearance by caterpillars and bulldozers to "prepare" the field for cocoa, coffee, rubber and oil palm plantations; mining for gold, diamonds or iron ore usually using open cast polluting methods; road building to access commercially valuable trees; logging and deforestation; are the activities through which forests are being siphoned to meet consumerist demand mainly in European and US markets, where high living standards allow people to indulge in luxurious whims. Big corporations through concessions and even encroachment, implement the destruction.

Recently, a Greenpeace action has put on the table the Liberian issue, denouncing Greek Shelman company of being one of the gateways into the European Union for imports of West African timber. Greenpeace activists boarded the company’s vessel to find logs suspicious of coming from the notorious Malaysian Oriental Timber Company (OTC), which controls the Liberian port of Buchanan. OTC is accused of corruption, illegal logging and participation in the cross-border arms trade that has fuelled the civil war in neighbouring Sierra Leone. Shelman boasts on its website of being "a world leader in African wood products" for hardwood flooring made of valuable species including mahogany, iroko, aniegre, limba, and denies knowingly buying from OTC, but declined to make any comments on Greenpeace's accusation.

Liberian forests are being depleted, and there is more than one responsible for that. It’s not only the government seeking cash, but also those at the final end of those goods --Northern consumers-- and in between, the trade companies and the financial sources providing funds for the whole process.

When talking of forest conservation at international conferences, will all the involved countries --from Liberia and Sierra Leone to Europe and the US-- take on their share of responsibility and agree to take the necessary steps to address the issue?

Article based on information from: "Greece is latest gateway for rape of Africa's rainforests", The Independent - United Kingdom; May 2, 2002, by Daniel Howden; Investigative Report on Oriental Timber Corporation - Special To The Perspective - The Perspective, March 20, 2000, http://www.theperspective.org/otc.html ; Greenpeace Exposes Greek Links to Liberian Ancient Forest Crimes, 22 March 2002, http://www.greenpeace.org/pressreleases/forests/2002mar22.html

  top

Biodiversity rich and varied African ecosystems, including tropical rainforests in central and western regions, were disrupted when the European powers landed and encroached on those territories. This disruption extended to customary social structures which were subordinated to a central decision-making organisation to handle regulation and management of natural resources exploitation.

Later, independent processes in many African countries failed to change this imposed centralised model. However, Tanzania is an exception. In the 1970s, during post-independence, the government began to devolve power and control over natural resources back to local authorities for community based development. Through a process of "villagization", the management authority was vested in elected local governments of village lands. The 1975 Villages and Ujamaa Villages Act, further supported by the 1982 Local Government Act, regulated the village system for community-based natural resource management encouraging common property a legal form of ownership.

According to 1998 data, out of a population of 30 million people, 25 million live within one of the 9,000 registered villages. Each village has a legal and institutional base, a defined perimeter boundary, and an elected village council --which acts as Trustee or "Land Manager" of communal village lands, and is the controlling authority over management decisions on water sources, grazing land and forests.

Village Forest Reserves cover more than 19 million hectares. A number of Public Land Forests and National Forest Reserves are being transferred to communities for management. The 1998 National Forest Policy promotes Village Forest Reserves and inter-jurisdictional collaborative management regimes between local communities; the 2000 draft forest bill goes even further providing delegation of authority "to the lowest possible level of local management", further empowering the community.

The new law sets out three types of community-based forest management:

- Village Land Forest Reserves: forest land ownership is vested in the entire village community;

- Community Forest Reserves: forests owned and managed by a sub-group of the village community; and

- Village Forest Management Areas: areas of government reserves placed under community management, not ownership.

Within this pattern, the village is the "manager" of the forest, while the central government provides technical advise, liaison between central and local governments, and mediation in dispute among village forest managers, acting as a watchdog on progress.

The restoration of the deteriorated Duru-Haitemba national Forest Reserve under the community forest management approach demonstrates the success of the Tanzanian model: the state Forest Department agreed to work with the eight neighbouring communities which began to manage the forest themselves, upon discreet management areas governed by local by-laws. The communities have successfully monitored and enforced these rules with visible improvement in the forest.

The Tanzanian experience shows a promising way ahead for a conservation pattern which takes into account power relationships and control over land – it tries to decentralise management, regulation and control—while increasing citizen participation at the community level.

Article based on information from: "When there’s a Way, there’s a Will", Report 2: Models of Community-Based Natural Resource Management, by Brian Egan, Lisa Ambus, POLIS project on Ecological Governance, University of Victoria, Canada, and the International Network of Forests and Communities, 2001 For more information see: http://www.polisproject.org and http://www.forestsandcommunities.org

top

ASIA

Over the last decade the area of fast-growing tree plantations in the Mekong region has expanded dramatically. Villagers throughout the region have seen their forests, fallows and grazing lands replaced with eucalyptus, acacia and pine monocultures. A new World Rainforest Movement report, "The Pulp Invasion: The international pulp and paper industry in the Mekong Region", written by Chris Lang, gives an overview of the industry, profiles the actors involved and documents the resistance to the spread of plantations.

The report looks into the current plans to expand plantations in the region. In Thailand, a US$1 billion Chinese-Thai project aims to create a new 700,000 tons a year pulp and paper mill, with 96,000 hectares of plantations. The Phoenix pulp and paper mill is looking to cheap loans from the Finnish and Swedish governments to fund its plans to double the capacity of its mill. In Cambodia, the Taiwanese-Cambodian joint venture, Pheapimex, aims to build a US$70 million pulp and paper mill, with 300,000 hectares of plantations. In Laos, BGA Lao Plantation Forestry is planting 50,000 hectares of mainly eucalyptus plantations to feed a wood chip mill, for export to Japan. In Vietnam, Sweden's aid agency, Sida, with support from the Swedish Export Credit Corporation, is funding the expansion of the Bai Bang pulp and paper mill. Recently, the Vietnamese government announced plans for a new pulp mill project in Kontum province.

Plantation proponents put forward several arguments to justify the expansion of industrial plantations to feed the pulp and paper industry. Depending on the situation, and the audience, they describe plantations as a way of preventing soil erosion, of protecting watersheds, of reducing pressure on native forests, of absorbing of carbon, of alleviating poverty, of reforestation or of afforestation. Plantations have been promoted as a source of fuelwood, as an alternative to "slash and burn" or as a means to "sedentarise" local communities.

Almost invariably, however, the real reason for the expansion of industrial plantations is the exploitation of the cheap land, cheap labour, rich soils, warm climate, and freely available subsidies --which vested interests close to the pulp and paper industry work hard to maintain. For example, the Phoenix pulp and paper mill in Thailand claims to have the cheapest supply of eucalyptus pulp in the world. Behind this boast are cheap loans in the form of "aid" from the Finnish, Swedish and Austrian governments, and an eight year tax holiday from the Thai government. The European Overseas Development Corporation (EODC), the company that established Phoenix, was set up specifically to benefit from projects funded through European export credits.

A wide range of organisations promotes and supports the expansion of industrial plantations and the pulp and paper industry, including "aid" agencies, export credit agencies, forestry consulting firms, suppliers of pulp and paper making machinery, pulp and paper industrial associations, forestry educational establishments, research institutions and even NGOs.

A few examples: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) funded a US$12 million Industrial Tree Plantation project in Laos, and is coordinating the Five Million Hectare Reforestation Programme in Vietnam (one million hectares of the proposed five million are to feed the pulp and paper industry). In the 1990s, three new mills started operations in Thailand. All three use eucalyptus as raw material and all use technology and machinery from the North to produce pulp. Consulting firms, such as Jaakko Poyry provide "expert" advice on these projects. Poyry has won consultancies on approximately two-thirds of all new pulping operations in Southeast Asia since 1981.

In the Mekong region, Poyry has benefited from a vast range of pulp and paper projects, many backed by aid funding. Poyry's consultancies include the ADB Industrial Tree Plantation project in Laos, the Thai Forest Sector Master Plan, consultancies for Phoenix, Advance Agro, Siam Pulp and Paper in Thailand, and (perhaps most notoriously) the Bai Bang pulp and paper mill in Vietnam, funded by Sweden's Sida.

In 1998, Sida produced a brochure celebrating 30 years of Swedish aid involvement in Vietnam. In it Sida explains who benefits from its aid:

"Sweden has benefited a lot from development cooperation with Vietnam. Development aid has cleared the way for Swedish companies. The Bai Bang project, with its many branches, has produced a lot of spin-off effects."

Between 1974 and 1991, Sida handed out US$1 billion out on the 55,000 tons-a-year Bai Bang mill. Of this, 40 per cent went to Swedish workers at the project site and to consultancy headquarters in Sweden. Around 80 per cent of the goods and services for Bai Bang were bought in Sweden. Yet, despite (or perhaps because of) Sweden's aid, the cost of paper produced at the mill is 10 to 20 per cent above the international price of paper.

In an attempt to promote discussion of the issues surrounding the pulp and paper industry and the associated expansion of plantations, WRM's new report looks at government and international support to the industry and profiles the major companies and consulting firms operating in the region.

The report "The Pulp Invasion: The international pulp and paper industry in the Mekong Region" is available on WRM's web site at: ( http://www.wrm.org.uy/countries/Asia/mekong.html ). Individual country reports (Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam) are available under the relevant country sections on the web-site.

By: Chris Lang, e-mail: http://chrislang.org

top

In the mid 1980s, the plight of the indigenous peoples of Sarawak got visibility when they staged peaceful protests against depletion of their home --the forest-- to logging activities or agroindustrial plantations for the benefit of commercial groups.

Among the groups that inhabit the Sarawak forest, the Penan are the last nomadic hunter-gatherers of Borneo. Their population is close to 10,000 with more than 5,000 of them concentrated in Baram (Miri Division), followed by some 1,500 in Belaga (Kapit Division), around 1,000 and 700 in Mulu and Bintulu respectively and 200 in Limbang. About 21% of them today are permanently settled while another 75% are considered to be semi-settled, leaving their permanent homes for the forest from time to time. The rest, around 5%, are still nomadic.

They have suffered untold hardship when game, fish, fruit trees and wild sago palms, which is their staple food, started to disappear. Ngot Laing, 53, Chief of Long Lilim, Patah River recalls: "In the past our life was peaceful, it was so easy to obtain food. You could even catch the fish using your bare hands --we only needed to look below the pebbles and rocks or in some hiding holes in the river."

Many years after promises were made to them by the government, their lives have not changed for the better. They are hungrier, sicker and poorer than ever. Urin Ajang, 23, from Long Sayan, Apoh River says: "In the past, we did not fall sick, we did not have scabies, the water was clean. We did not have all these puddles that breed mosquitoes." Ngot also says: "The people are frequently sick. They are hungry. They develop all sorts of stomach pains. They suffer from headaches. Children will cry when they are hungry. Several people including children also suffer from skin diseases, caused by the polluted river. Upper Patah used to be so clean. Now the water is like Milo, sometimes you can even find oil spills floating downstream."

Even for the settled communities, food supply isn’t safely steady since agriculture is a new invention that they have been trying to master without adequate technical and resource assistance. Farming productivity is low, seed access is limited and attempts to grow crops like vegetables often simply fail. Lep Selai, nomadic, from Limbang River, says: "Living a settled life is just not our way. We are used to the forest. Besides, I do not know how to farm."

Failure is rooted in the top-down scheme of projects. The importance of community participation in the decision-making process is neglected, so their main demand, which is to halt all logging operations on their land, is not taken into account. Johnny Lalang, 37, from Long Lunyim, Pelutan River, says: "The taukeh (boss) talks to us like we are kids. He talks down to us like we are stupid. He would ask us: ‘why are you asking these things from me? Go and ask from the government for these things. I don’t come here to satisfy your needs.’ They have totally no respect for us at all. Try to feel what we have felt, for 16 years."

The Penan are urged to settle down as a sign of progress. But they know the vested interests behind that. Peng Megut, nomadic, from the Magoh River, says: "We know that if we agree to settle down, it would in effect be a trade-off for our forest. The government is asking us to settle down, as if once when we are settled, they can do anything to our forest."

They, the guardians of the forests, are being deprived of their land. Ayan Jelawing, 64, from Long Beluk, says: "We were the first people of this Apoh area. The waters did not have a name then, not until we gave it a name in our language. We first settled down and attempted to farm after the government asked us to do so. We moved to Sungai Jemalin in the 1950s. This is where Malaysia first entered into our area and where I made my Identity Card. The logging companies first entered into the Apoh area in the 1980s. When the Penan communities went to meet the companies’ managers they would simply say that the Penan do not have any rights to this area. How could this be?" Ajang Kiew, 50, from Long Sayan, says: "We asked for forest reserves. We asked for school for the village. We asked for clinics. Instead they gave us the logging companies. Now it is oil palm plantations. We would end up as labourers for hire. The profits would only make other people rich. But the land they work on is land belonging to the Penan."

After years of waiting, the communities have struck back taking on the logging roads again at four separate locations, blocking them with wooden structures and human barricades, demanding the powerful timber companies to stop plundering their land.

Nyagung Malin, nomadic, from Puak River, demands: "We are used to living in the forest. And life did not use to be difficult. If we needed to build our huts, we could easily find the leaves in the forest. If you really want to give us development, then do not disturb our forest."

Article based on information from: "Baram’s Penan community -hungry, poor and sick"; series of interviews with representatives from nine Penan communities in Baram, Miri Division, that appeared in the Utusan Konsumer May 2002 edition, sent by Shamila Ariffin, e-mail: shamila73@yahoo.com

top

Many community-based forest management projects are implemented in the Philippines aiming at increasing community involvement in forest management and at providing employment and livelihood. Although there are many examples of successful cases, we decided to choose a less positive one, as a means to show how the exclusion of women or lack of gender awareness can lead to increasing gender inequalities, both within communities and in households.

An evaluation of a community-based forest management project in Pagkalinawan, Jala-Jala, in effect since 1972, shows that despite several positive impacts on peoples’ livelihoods, the project had negative impacts for women.

Its failure was rooted in the fact that it did not recognise women’s knowledge and the gender divisions of labour in the community and in the household. The project issued land use certificates and land titles --to improve land tenureship-- only to men, who thus became the ones to have access to and control over resources.

The project had the insidious effect of reinforcing patriarchy and establishing gender inequality in the community:

- Men had more opportunities to become representatives of the community and the market and to become powerful leaders in Pagkalinawan.

- Men, and not women, had links to external agencies (e.g., markets) through the credit facilities of the project.

- Men, and not women, had links to other economic and educational opportunities.

Community customary rights, land use and allocations were undermined upon the implementation of a pattern of privatisation of resources. Gender unbalance was thus linked to a hierarchical and male model rooted in dominion and control of nature along the lines of the globalisation "development" goal. From this experience it becomes clear that for a community-based forest management project to succeed, the inclusion of the gender dimension based on acknowledgement of women’s knowledge, views and participation is a must.

Article based on information from: "Seeing the Forest for the People. A Handbook on Gender, Forestry and Rural Livelihoods", Vanessa Griffen, APDC (Asian and Pacific Development Centre), 2001.

top

Together with many other organizations, we have once and again insisted on the need to remove tree plantations from the definition of forest, for the simple reason that plantations are not forests. But once and again the forestry establishment has insisted on including them as "planted forests" to adequate the definition to vested interests regardless of its scientific absurdity. The following extracts from a recent article by Ranil Senanayake sheds more light on the issue (the full article is available at: http://www.wrm.org.uy/countries/SriLanka/loans.html ):

"One of the reasons for the current debacle may stem from the fact that the 'Forestry' establishment still does not understand a forest. A forest, as all modern research is demonstrating, is an ecosystem where trees account for just 1% of the total biodiversity. Yet all forestry action in this nation is still focussed on cutting or growing trees. While the forestry institutions happily accepts all the money and responsibility of attending to our national obligations under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) the recognition of a forest as being comprised of other things than trees is still long in coming.

The international response to the loss of natural forest ecosystems is similar and can be seen in the massive global investment in forestry. However, a great majority of these revegetation programs around the world do not provide an environment that is hospitable for sustaining local biodiversity. A situation brought about by neglecting the potentials of local knowledge and local species. This neglect ensured that institutional forestry activity was centered on the growing of even aged monocultures of fast growing trees only.

This raises some interesting questions, what is a forest? what should be its social and ecological attributes? It seems that the word forest means different things to different people. Early in recorded history, Gautama Buddha (250 BC) provided an intriguing meaning when he observed that "A forest is the most benevolent of all beings, giving generously of all its life processes. It even affords shade to the axeman who would fell it". This reference to a forest as an entity reflects the current view of a forest as a complex integrated system or the view of the global, environment as an organized, self-regulating system. Very different to today's economic models, where it is seen only as a source of revenue. In an economic sense forests are collections of trees of varying timber value. This narrow perception has allowed application of monoculture, even aged plantations to meet with most global forestry needs."

Extracts from: "Trees, Energy and Loans", by Ranil Senanayake, Sri Lanka, The Island National Newspaper, 23.03.2002

top

CENTRAL AMERICA

In Guatemala deforestation processes are in rapid acceleration; every year around 90,000 hectares of forests are lost and less than twenty percent of the original forest cover is left. The Department of El Quiché in the west of the country, has been one of those most affected by deforestation. However, to the north, in the municipalities of Chajul, Uspantan and Chicaman, a major remnant of relatively well conserved cloud forest is to be found.

The 45,000 hectares of municipal forests in Chajul were designated as a protected area in 1997 with the name and category of Ixil Visis Caba Biosphere Reserve. The other forested area, covering almost 20,000 hectares is just next to Visis, between the municipalities of Chicaman and Uspantan and is rated as a tropical rainforest area, known as the mountains of La May or El Amay. As from 1992, the municipality of Chicaman launched a process for the legal protection of these mountains and it was that year that a municipal agreement was issued, declaring them National Park. In spite of this, the legal requisites were not completed and therefore the area was not recognised within the Guatemalan system of Protected Areas (SIGAP).

Chicaman shows a high rate of deforestation --almost 402 hectares per year-- placing at serious risk the integrity of these forests. However the main threat is a project submitted by the Uspantan Municipality, involving the construction of a 24 km highway from the village of Lajchimel to the village of Lancetillo, that would divide the "La May" mountain system in two. The project has an important antecedent. Last year the same initiative was submitted to the Ministry of the Environment, through an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). It was not approved, under the consideration that the negative impacts on the environment were greater than the positive ones. In spite of this, the Uspantan Municipality insists on carrying out the project and submitted a new Environmental Impact Assessment in April this year. The Assessment is a scantly technical, contradictory and deficient document, with many gaps in subjects that should be included, and a modified replicate of the previously submitted document.

According to Guatemalan legislation, following submission of an EIA, 20 working days are given to receive comments and observations. The Chicaman Municipal Corporation, interested in protecting the area, submitted a memorandum opposing the project, as it violates the Chicaman territory and will cause inevitable destruction of the forest. Furthermore, they add that a highway bordering the mountain already exists and communicates the same place where the new one is planned to be built. We have been following this case from the NGO Madre Selva, accompanying the Chicaman Municipality in the process of declaring a reserve and of opposition to the highway project, as we consider that the damage to the ecosystems will be irreversible and that with it, a significant sample, of great importance to the natural Guatemala heritage, will be lost.

Presently the Ministry of the Environment has already received the observations from the Chicaman Municipality and Madre Selva, together with a file containing 5,000 signatures from the neighbours of Uspantan, who oppose the project. The company carrying out the assessment has been given a further 20 days to make changes in it. During this time we have been communicating with the people at the ministry to find out the drift and decision taken on the case. If it were to be approved, we will be implementing legal action to contest the process.

Letters opposing the highway and in support of the declaration of the La May mountains as a protected area can be sent to: Ministerio de Ambiente y Recursos Naturales, 10a. Calle 6-81 zona 1, edificio 7 & 10 4to piso, Oficina de Gestión Ambiental Fax. 220-44-77, with copy to: Colectivo MadreSelva al e-mail: Mselva@intelnet.net.gt

By: Carlos Salvatierra, Colectivo MadreSelva, e-mail salvatierra@rocketmail.com

top

SOUTH AMERICA

For many years now the indigenous Mbya Guarani communities from the villages of Tekoa Yma and Capii Yvaté (Pepiri Guazu) have been inhabiting lands located at El Soberbio, in the Municipality of San Pedro, Province of Misiones, where the Uruguay river descends the Mocona falls.

As Guarani people, their destination is to be eternal forest wanderers, seeking Mbaporenda, the land of no evil, where the bread tree reigns, where there are no lies and life flourishes. In addition to being their home and their destiny, the forest is the place of their ancestors, the punishment room for those who betray it and also their temple. They do not believe that the land can belong to anyone. Human beings are only passing through life, how can they be owners?

One day, in 1999 the Mocona S.A. Forestry Company started cutting the forest using machinery and heavy vehicles, opening up paths, building houses and illegally occupying the lands that belong to the ancestral territory of the Guarani indigenous communities, to exploit native forests.

The company offered the communities 30 hectares to settle them. These rejected the possibility that the land could have an owner and that they were being offered 30 hectares of those communal lands where their ancestors had lived and where they were living, borrowing them from their children. Subsequently the offer went up to 200 hectares. The company still did not understand the essence of the Guarani culture.

The situation has generated criminal and civil action in the courts of the Province of Misiones, but has not managed to curb the irrational exploitation of native forests and invasion of the indigenous communities lands. Justice has sentenced in favour of the powerful and the community lawyers are presently appealing this decision.

A campaign in support of the defence of the territorial rights of the indigenous peoples has been promoted, requesting that the National Constitution, article 75, item 17 and ILO Convention 169, addressing indigenous people’s rights, be respected and inviting those who would like to join and collaborate with this campaign to send a letter of support to the indigenous Tekoa Yma and Capii Yvate communities of the Mbya Guarani People. The following address: http://www.wrm.org.uy/alerts/Argentina1505.html contains a model letter and the addresses of the authorities to whom the Guarani communities would like it to be sent.

Article based on information from: ENDEPA Press Release "Forestry Company invades Indigenous Lands in Misiones" sent by Ecos Rioplatenses, e-mail: ecosrioplatenses@hotmail.com ; "Donde vive Dios", Tabaré de Pompeya, http://www.cta.org.ar/prensa/conexion/con123.html

top

Starting at different points of Bolivia, peasants and indigenous peoples have been carrying out marches in favour of the right to lands and natural resources, arriving in the city of La Paz in the next few days.

In spite of recent efforts to clarify the situation regarding land and forest ownership, there is still an overlap between protected areas, indigenous territories, logging concessions, farms, mining concessions and areas used by the informal sector in the production of wood and gathering of nuts and heart of palm. The deforestation rate in Bolivia is 168.000 hectares a year.

The local peoples, seeing that their rights regarding community property were not recognised, while the estate owners occupied more and more lands, threatening their subsistence, went from local resistance to co-ordination with other regions in the country, attempting to achieve benefits on a national level. Thus, for the past few years, women and men, people from high lands and low lands have been uniting their forces and demonstrating their discontent, trying to be taken into account when political decisions are being made on subjects which will directly affect them and which will benefit the large scale ranchers, logging and oil companies that are appropriating their lands.

The objectives of the on-going struggle are: the establishment of a Constituent Assembly with the participation of all social sectors, the definitive filing of the Sustainable Development Bill and the Reform to Forestry Law and the public and written commitment by the Executive that they will not adopt the projected regulations set out in the so-called "Agrarian Package".

The demonstrators have denounced that this "Agrarian Package" consists of legal instruments that will benefit the most powerful sectors in agriculture: loggers, ranchers, estate owners. Through an Administrative Resolution, the risk of the process of land ownership deeds ending in favour of the estate owners is increased: it contains provisions establishing that companies carrying out oil exploitation, mining or electrification activities, and which already have concessions for the exploitation of natural resources, may also obtain property rights on the land where they are settled, submitting documents of acquisition or possession that are very easy to obtain in rural areas.

Legislation presently in force sets out that peasants who are individually legal owners of lands – having lived and worked on them for years but who do not have agrarian deeds – may consolidate them in their favour at much lower concession values than the market values, considering that they are small farmers who do not have any great net worth or heritage. The modifying decree abolishes this, and stipulates that these farmers must purchase their lands from the State at market values established by the Agrarian Superintendent’s Office. Furthermore, the present law establishes at 500 hectares the minimum unit per family in peasant and indigenous communities devoted to the extraction of non-woody products (nuts, almonds) in the Bolivian northern Amazon zone. The modifying decree converts this minimum unit into the maximum one, something like turning the floor into the ceiling.

Regarding forestry, application of the Sustainable Development Bill and Reform of the Forestry Law will imply a drop in the price of the forestry license paid annually to the State. This will only benefit the major logging concessions presently paying their license on the basis of the area actually being used annually, and not on the area covered by the forestry concession. As an example, a logging company having a concession of 150,000 hectares, will pay a tax on the 50,000 hectares that have been used during the year, but will maintain rights over the remaining 100,000. Furthermore, the logging companies obtaining these benefits are the very same ones that owe large amounts of money to the State for unpaid licenses.

The pressure is making itself felt. Although the peasants and indigenous peoples are carrying out a peaceful march, they have denounced that they have felt the permanent harassment of military helicopters flying overhead and, during parts of their journey, the intimidating passage of lorry-loads of armed and threatening soldiers.

During the march and as a result of their mobilisation the first objective was achieved: failure of the Constitutional Reform Bill. At all events, the indigenous leaders have stated they will not halt their march until the Constitutive Assembly is called, during which the Reforms to the State Political Constitution should be analysed with the participation of the indigenous peoples, peasants and civilian society.

With the forthcoming elections almost a month away and after having achieved failure of the Reform and withdrawal of the Sustainable Development Bill and Reform to the Forestry Law, the struggle continues to avoid the regulations foreseen in the "Agrarian Package" being adopted and in favour of the indigenous peoples and peasants’ right to the land, the territory and the natural resources.

Article based on information from: Fobomade (Foro Boliviano sobre Medio Ambiente y Desarrollo) e-mail: fobomade@mail.megalink.com , http://www.megalink.com/fobomade ; "Un paquete agrario viene en camino" by Alfredo Rada Vélez at Pulso digital, http://www.pulsobolivia.com/edicion/020503/opinion/opinionhoja3.htm

top

After five weeks of functioning, the Parliamentary Commission of Enquiry (CPI), created to investigate irregularities related to Aracruz´ activities in the state of Espirito Santo, has already revealed a large number of complaints, irregularities and illegal activities of the multinational over the past 30 years.

João Batista Marré, representative of the Movement of Small Farmers and the first person to testify, denounced that during the last year more than 100 farmers in the municipality of Vila Valério were expelled from their lands by Aracruz Celulose and their houses were destroyed to give way to the plantation of eucalyptus in their extremely fertile agricultural lands. He also handed over a 500 pages file that shows that about 22,000 hectares of lands, possessed today by Aracruz, were "bought" by 29 (ex-) employees of the company during the period 1974-1975. These people never lived on the lands, but were used by the firm just to buy the lands. These lands, for the greater part covered by native forest at that time, were mostly inhabited by Afro-Brazilian traditional communities, but these people did not have land titles. Some persons, including military personnel --at a time when there was a military dictatorship in the country-- were used by the company to evict those communities from their lands.

One of those 29 (ex-) employees of Aracruz, Mr. Oreildo Antônio Bertolini, who was questioned during the last meeting of the CPI, confirmed that he bought 600 hectares of lands for Aracruz, without even knowing where those lands were located and also without receiving a penny for it. These 600 hectares, without land titles, were owned by the state of Espirito Santo and only individuals -- and not corporations like Aracruz-- could request this type of lands for cultivation, paying a symbolic price. Mr. Oreildo also confirmed that he went to Aracruz one day before the land purchase to be instructed by the firm´s lawyers on how to carry out the operation.

Mr. Luciano Lisbão, the only representative of the company interrogated until now by the CPI --and accompanied by three laywers-- took back his words that NGO´s who were part of the Movement Alert against the Green Desert are being financed by commercial competitors of Aracruz. This false statement, just as many other ones, was made by him on a local radio news station.

Fabio Villas from the Indigenist Missionary Council (Conselho Indigenista Missionário) accused Aracruz of occupying illegally, at present, around 10,500 hectares of indigenous lands, already identified by official governmental studies. He also presented aereal photographs from 1965 and 1975, proving that thousands of hectares of indigenous native forests were substituted by eucalyptus plantations during that period.

Amazingly enough, the local press is not publishing any news about the CPI's proceedings, but is instead carrying huge propaganda advertisements from Aracruz Celulose, which shows the influence of the company with the media. This has been also evident with the publication of a one page letter in the two main newspapers of Espirito Santo with the title: "Let the state grow!", which cost some 15 thousand dollars, totally in favour of Aracruz Celulose. Among other organizations, the letter was signed by the Agriculture departments of all the 75 municipalities in the State. Afterwards, many of them declared that they did not know anything about this letter. And the question is: who paid the 15 thousand dollars for this one-page notice? As a result, the CPI decided to send letters to all secretaries of agriculture asking them if they had been consulted about signing this letter.

Things are no better for Aracruz in the neighbouring state of Espirito Santo. As a result of the banning of eucalyptus planting in Espirito Santo, the company is trying to get the approval of the Rio de Janeiro State government for the plantation of 42,000 hectares in this state. To achieve this goal, the firm signed an agreement with the state government, without discussing this with civil society. This was one of the reasons that led to the creation of a Movement Against the Green Desert in Rio de Janeiro, involving rural workers' movements, trade unions and environmental organizations. In the state Parliament of Rio de Janeiro, a similar law as the one recently passed in Espirito Santo is being analysed, proposing to prohibit eucalyptus plantations until an agro-ecological zonation has been carried out. Additionally, the National Land Reform Institute (INCRA) has publicly supported the resistance movement against Aracruz's plantations, saying that the expansion plans of the company will make it impossible to implement any land reform in Rio de Janeiro. At present, opposition to Aracruz is increasing in Rio de Janeiro and, differently from the situation in Espirito Santo, the press is following and disseminating the debate.

Article based on information from: Newsletter 2002/01 of the Movement Alert Against The Green Desert, Vitória, 14/05/2002, e-mail: fasees@terra.com.br

top

Tragic events have recently taken place at the mouth of the Babataro river in Tiguino, the thick Amazon Pastaza basin, resulting in the death of an indigenous inhabitant and of three loggers. According to Luis Awa, former president of the Ecuadorian Amazon Huaorani Nacionality Organisation, the problem started with the coming of loggers to the Tagaeris territory. Awa stated that the permanent noise of chainsaws felling the forest annoyed the indigenous people, who have no contact with mestizo society. For this reason, they finally attacked the loggers, who repelled the attack with firearms. As a consequence of this clash, one of the members of the Tagae family was killed. Subsequently, the loggers took up their work again.

A few days later, the loggers were attacked and killed by the Tagaeris’ lethal and heavy chonta lances. Awa stated that the event came to a tragic end due to "the lack of respect towards these people" shown by the loggers. Awa also said that at a meeting his father had had with the Tagaeris, these told him of their concern over the constant presence of loggers in the zone and the excessive noise in their forest habitat. "We told the loggers that they could come across the Tagaeris and have problems; unfortunately, they didn't take notice," said Awa.

Later it was known that the loggers came in by way of Auca, from Coca. They continued down river by canoe or raft to the mouth of the Babataro river, where they log the timber. This route is part of the route to the Yasuni National Park and crosses the Tagaeris’ sanctuary. The civilian and military authorities had been informed of the invasion of prohibited zones by the loggers and oil companies. These zones are inhabited by the inheritors of Tagae, a leader who was killed by oil workers in Tiputini en 1981. They are called Tagaeris (which means red feet) because they paint their feet that colour.

The Minister of the Environment, Lourdes Luque, said that her State Secretariat was working with indigenous leaders in a system of territorial management. Commenting on these events, she considered that the Tagaeris "are tremendously jealous of their territoriality and are very radical. It was very imprudent to intervene in zones belonging to them." Carlos Borja y Borja, defender of the Pastaza people stated that six cultures live in Pastaza, among them the Huaoranis. The Tagaeris ethnologically belong to these people. According to the ancestral customs and laws of this culture, anyone violating their territory, which is their home and who does not respect their autochthonous practices, is sanctioned – sometimes with death.

This type of confrontation --and death on both sides-- must and can be avoided. To achieve this it is essential to establish a relationship of respect among the different cultures and the legal and practical recognition of the territorial rights of the indigenous peoples living in the forests. In the specific case of the Amazon, it should be understood that most of the peoples already lived in the region long before the present national states were created. What is more, many of them only learnt during the second half of the twentieth century that they were considered to be Ecuadorians or Brazilians or Peruvians, by countries whose very existence they had no knowledge of. It is the task of the peoples of these and other Amazon countries to find an equitable solution to a problem that should not be "solved" --as in so many other cases-- by the law of the strongest at the expense of the rights of the weakest. In this case, despite their violent reaction, the Tagaeris are undoubtedly the weakest.

Article based on information from: "Los tagaeris se enfrentan a un grupo de madereros", El Comercio, 20/3/02, http://www.elcomercio.com , sent by: Osvaldo Pimpignano, e-mail: inradial@arnet.com.ar

top

OCEANIA

In April, the fifth edition of the Roger Award took place. This prize is given to the worst transnational corporation operating in Aotearoa/New Zealand and is organized by the Campaign Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa (CAFCA) and GATT Watchdog, two local activist/campaign organizations.

Although run on a tiny budget, the award has attracted overseas attention from organisers in other countries who are confronting corporate power and control. It is a very concrete way of raising awareness about a global problem by concentrating on the impacts TNC`s activities have on local communities and the environment.

The award is given to the transnational corporation operating in New Zealand judged to have the most negative impact in each or all of the following: unemployment, monopoly, profiteering, abuse of workers/conditions, political interference, environmental damage, cultural imperialism, impact on Maori indigenous peoples, running an ideological crusade, health and safety of workers and the public, and impact on women.

This year's winner was: Carter Holt Harvey (CHH). It was once one of New Zealand's 'own' transnational corporations, but some years ago the US-based timber titan International Paper took over it and now has a 50.1% share. As well as in New Zealand, CHH has operations in Australia and Fiji. It is one of the southern hemisphere's largest producers of wood and paper products. Like its parent company, it is virulently anti-worker, anti union, and, in spite of its attempts at greenwashing its image it is a menace to the environment. It owns approximately 330,000 hectares of predominantly plantation radiata pine in New Zealand.

There are too many reasons of why this prize was given to this company. CHH history regarding workers rights and working conditions leaves a lot to be said. On the one hand, it has tried to casualise workers, it has also been fined for not providing safety equipment to workers. On the other hand, the Roger Award judges have found that in New Zealand the only pulp and paper mills that still use dioxin-producing chlorine bleaching processes --proved to be carcinogenic-- were those owned by CHH.

During its existence as a New Zealand-owned company, Carter Holt Harvey had invested in Pinochet's Chile and, before the radical labour market deregulation that took place in 1991, its chairman, Richard Carter, argued for Chilean-style labour laws in New Zealand. Since its takeover by International Paper, the operations of CHH's Chilean subsidiary, Bosques Arauco rode roughshod over Mapuche peoples' rights.

The Roger Award report also highlighted CHH's role in a joint venture to grow genetically modified pine trees in secret locations, which it dubbed "Frankenpine".

Additionally, along with other big players in the forestry sector, CHH has been pressuring the New Zealand government not to ratify the Kyoto Protocol. In a press release of November 5 2001, its chief operating officer Jay Goodenbour claimed that recent "independent assessments" suggest that implementing the Kyoto Protocol "will hurt our ability to export, will increase costs and cost jobs."

"The only responsibility that Carter Holt Harvey has shown has been to generate, or more accurately, attempt to generate, profit for its shareholders", wrote the judges in their statement.

The full report can be read at: http://canterbury.cyberplace.co.nz/community/CAFCA/publications/Roger/Roger2001.pdf

Article based on information from: Aziz Choudry sent by Brad Hash, Action for Social and Ecological Justice, e-mail: gaaget@gaaget.org , http://www.gaaget.org

top

The Pacific Ocean country of Samoa includes the islands of Savai'i, Upolu, Apolina and Manono, the two former being the largest and more populated. As in many other countries, forests are declining and according to a study carried out by Groome and Poury in 1995, approximately one-third (23,885 hectares) of the country's forests were cleared between 1977 and 1990. The forest clearance rate during that period of 3% per annum was one of the highest in the world. While the clearance rate for Upolu stood at 50 hectares per year, for Savai'i it was estimated at an unsustainable of 1,000 hectares per annum.

According to the Assistant Director of Forestry, Afamasaga Sami Lemalu "merchantable forests will be logged out if the current rate of forestation continues," adding that "there is a need to stem such a crisis and introduce policies to ensure we have forestry reserves for the future."

As is happening elsewhere, there are different approaches to forests in different government departments. While the Environment Department calls for the conservation of the natural environment, the Forestry Department does not advocate a halt to the logging industry and works under the premise that "forestry is a renewable resource and we believe it should be exploited to generate important revenue to our economy. Provided that the forests are sustainably utilized."

From the Forestry Department's viewpoint, there are "far too many" saw mills in Savai'i and the manner in which the trees are being logged leaves much to be desired. "The logging machines used in Savai'i do not utilize the full marketing potential of the trees. There is far too much log wasted." Four logging companies are operating in Savai'i: Bluebird Lumber at A'opo and Gataivai, Strickland Brothers at Taga, TVC at Letui and Savai'i Saw Miller in Pu'apu'a. The villages receive a meagre 22 cents per cubic foot in royalty payments from the logging companies, while a third of the royalties are paid to the government in forestry fees.

The Forestry Department is pushing to legislate a reforestation levy on logging companies. At the moment, says Afamasaga, "the companies are just cutting down trees without assisting in replanting the barren land it leaves behind. The saw millers should also contribute to the Forestry Department in its efforts to replant the depleted trees." However --as also happens elsewhere-- the Forestry Division seems to confuse trees with forests and has introduced other exotic tree species like mahogany and eucalyptus to compensate the loss of native trees. In spite of the fact that there is a high demand for native wood like ifilele (Intsia bijuga) and tava (Pometia pinnata) and in spite of the fact that ifilele is listed by the Environment Department as an endangered flora species, all would seem to be well if this species were to be substituted by eucalyptus or mohogany, because there would still be "forest cover."

However, it needs to be stressed that probably the most threatened timber tree in Samoa is ifilele, a highly valued hardwood traditionally carved into wooden handicrafts such as tanoa (kava bowls) and walking sticks. The tree is used for similar purposes in Fiji (called vesi) and in Tonga (fehi). Ifilele is considered to have the finest wood in Samoa because of its hardness, rich golden brown grain, and high durability. It is clearly absurd to pretend that this type of tree can be "compensated" by planting alien species and even more absurd to promote the substitution of Samoa's diverse forests with monoculture tree plantations. Not all "forest covers" are equal and tree monocultures are definitely not forests.

Article based on information from: "Forestry boss calls for 'sustainable logging", by Terry Tavita, Samoa Observer Online, 20 February 2002, http://www.samoaobserver.ws/news/local/ln0202/2002ln004.htm ; "Sustainable Management of Ifilele in Uafato Conservation Area, Samoa", by James Atherton, Francois Martel & Associates, Apia, Samoa, Casolink 7, January 1998, http://202.4.49.28/newsletter/casolink/nlca07/09_.htm

top 

Eduardo Galeano, one of the most profound and committed writers on the situation of Latin America and its peoples, is widely known within and outside the continent for his classic work "The Open Veins of Latin America", published over 25 years ago. However this was not the culmination but rather the starting point of an untiring and relentless activity towards a freer and more equitable Latin America, reflected in many of his works published since then. Among them is the book "Úselo y tírelo," (Use it and throw it out). From this book we have extracted his critical vision regarding monoculture tree plantations. Galeano says:

"The world is being stripped of its plant skin and the land can no longer absorb nor stock the rains. Droughts and floods multiply, while the tropical forests succumb, devoured by cattle ranching and export crops that the market demands and bankers applaud. Each hamburger costs nine square metres of Central American forest. And, when we learn that sooner or later the world will be bald, with some remnants of forest in Zaire and Brazil and that the Mexican forests have been halved in less that half a century, one asks oneself:

Who are dangerous? The indigenous peoples who have taken up arms in the Lacandona forest or the cattle and timber companies that are decimating the forest and leaving the Indians with no homes and Mexico treeless? And what about the bankers who impose this policy, identifying progress with maximum profitability and modernization with devastation?

However, it seems that bankers have given up usury to devote themselves to ecology and the proof is here: the World Bank grants generous loans for tree plantations. The Bank plants trees and reaps prestige in a world that is scandalised by the destruction of its forests. It is a moving story, fit to be shown on television: the ripper distributes orthopaedic limbs among the victims of his mutilations.

In these new tree plantations the birds do not sing. The aniquilated natural forests, that used to be peopled with different trees, in their own way hugging themselves, sources of a diverse life that wisely multiplied itself, have nothing to do with the armies of trees that are all the same, planted like soldiers in line and aimed at industrial service.

Tree plantations for export do not solve ecological problems, but only create them and they create them at the four corners of the world. Just two examples: in the Madhya Pradesh region, in the centre of India, famous for the abundance of its springs, the felling of natural forests and extensive eucalyptus plantations have acted like implacable blotting paper, finishing with all the water; in Chile, at the south of Concepcion, the pine plantations provide wood to the Japanese and provide drought to the whole region. The President of Uruguay is swelled up with pride: The Finns are producing wood in our country. To sell trees to Finland, a wood producing country, is a feat, like selling ice to the Esquimos. But what happens is that the Finns are planting in Uruguay the artificial forests that are forbidden in Finland by laws for the protection of nature."

Taken from: "Uselo y tírelo. El mundo del fin del milenio visto desde una ecología latinoamericana", (Use it and throw it out. The world at the end of the millenium, seen from a Latin American ecology) by Eduardo Galeano. Buenos Aires, Planeta, 1994

top

On July 20, 1999, Biogenetic S.A., a joint venture between Fundacion Chile (Santiago, Chile) and InterLink biotechnologies, (Princeton, NJ) announced the creation of a new venture for the development of "improved" forestry species: GenFor S.A.

The idea follows what biotech firms are already doing with corn, potatoes and soybeans. Using Bacillus thuringiensis, or Bt, a naturally occurring soil bacterium that kills pests if inserted into growing plants, researchers at Genfor in Chile say they are near to producing a commercially viable genetically engineered tree.

The reasons for doing this are several, but all linked to a socially and environmentally unsustainable forestry model based on fast-growth, large-scale tree monocultures. Eighty percent of Chile's tree plantations are composed of one single --and alien-- pine species: Pinus radiata. These plantations have been infested by the European shoot-tip moth (Rhyacionia buoliana), and being monocultures they have become a huge food supply for this tiny insect. The moth larvae burrow into the main stem and secondary branches of Radiata pine and cause the death of the tips of both stem and branches, leaving timber companies with a stunted bush instead of a healthy tree. The shoot-tip moth ruins about 30% of the harvest when it goes untreated, and 10% even with treatment, according to Chile's National Forestry Corp. Chile's forestry companies currently spend US$3 million annually to control the moths through the release of wasps that prey on the larvae.

Genfor says it has successfully implanted seedlings with the Bt protein, which kills moth larvae before they can do damage. The company predicts that its insect-resistant pine will be ready for the market in 2008.

But resistance to insects is not the only aim of Genfor. Even more significant is Genfor's joint efforts with Canadian biotech company Cellfor to raise the level of cellulose and modify lignin in Radiata and Loblolly pine (Pinus taeda), key traits to Chile's enormous cellulose pulp production. Lignin is an element that must be removed to make cellulose and its removal is the most expensive stage of pulp production. The industry would thereby very much welcome a raw material with a larger cellulose content.

The joint research in Cellfor's Canadian lab achieved a 20% cellulose increase in poplar and is now transferring that experience to the pine species. By 2003, concrete results are expected. Because Loblolly is planted extensively in Argentina and Brazil (as well as the southern United States), the project will be Genfor's entry into its larger target market of South America.

In sum, it's all about money and power for the already wealthy and powerful. If these GE trees are allowed to be used, the current social and environmental impacts caused by tree monocultures --in Chile and elsewhere-- will only be exacerbated. Unless something is done to prevent their release in the environment, their yet unknown impacts will be borne by future generations of people, animals and plants. If corporations are allowed to play God, then God save humanity!

Article based on information from: "Here Come the Super Trees", LatinTrade, April 29, 2002, http://www.latintrade.com/newsite/content/archives.cfm?StoryID=1669 ; Global Alliance Against GE Trees. The Players: GenFor, http://www.gaaget.org/players/genfor.html

top