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Issue Number 60 - July 2002

• Argentina: Genetic engineering causes deforestation

• Brazil: While the people are roused to indignation, Aracruz celebrates

• Chile: Resistance against a highway that will destroy forests and peoples

• Paraguay: Civil society in defence of the Concepcion forests
     

- Argentina: Genetic engineering causes deforestation

Genetic engineering is the state of the art output of the Green Revolution. It has deepened a pattern where monoculture, land concentration, and dependence --on the technology, on the seed-- are the rule.

GE has been heralded by the same promises of the Green Revolution: that it will feed the starving. Promoters of GE have even tried to make its critics feel guilty: "The day you look into the eyes of a starving person, your opinion over transgenic crops changes …Today, 24,000 people a day die because of malnutrition. So when the North, Europe, decides not to use this technology, this is morally unacceptable", said Dr Clive James, biotech specialist at International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA).

In 1996, the Argentinian government eagerly approved the introduction of transgenic soy and became a major global producer of Monsanto's Roundup Ready (RR) soy, mainly for export. Meanwhile, hunger keeps on increasing. In spite of record-breaking harvests, nearly half of Argentinians are living in poverty. As of May 2002, 18 million people --almost 50% out of a population of approximately 37 million-- cannot afford to meet their basic needs.

More than twenty years ago, the Nobel Laureate economist Amartya Sen demonstrated that hunger and famine can and often do occur in situations where there is no overall shortage of food. Sen explained that when, even in situations of overall food abundance, a household's 'entitlement' (that is, its ability to acquire food through legal means) is eroded because of a fall in ownership of assets (crops, livestock, property, jobs and so on), households will face hunger and starvation, unless there is some form of social security to protect them.

Also, the arguments of the biotech group has been that GE crops will help protect the environment by increasing yields on land that is already cultivated, and so reduce the need to clear forest or other precious habitats for agriculture. However, the huge increase in Argentinian soybean production --from around 10 million tonnes in 1991 to nearly 27 million tonnes in 2001-- is a result of increasing acreage, not increasing yields. The increase in acreage has come about both through the replacement of other crops --not least on what were once small and medium sized family farms growing food for local and national consumption-- and by deforestation.

A Greenpeace study reveals how GE soybean has contributed to the accelerated destruction of the Yungas forest, in the northern province of Salta --one of the economically poorest but biologically richest in Argentina. The Yungas mountain rainforest, or 'cloudforest', is probably the most biodiverse area of Argentina. The forest can be divided into four zones according to altitude, which ranges from 300m (950ft) to more than 4000m (14,000ft). The first zone, the Selva Pedemontana (forest at the foot of the mountain), is the most threatened. This zone harbours 30% of all biodiversity of this valuable ecosystem. But less than 20% of the Yungas remains in good condition for either conservation or sustainable development activities.

The Selva Pedemontana is the zone at highest risk and has traditionally suffered conversion to sugar cane and orange plantations. More recently, beans and tobacco monocultures have contributed even further to forest destruction. But now Roundup Ready Soy threatens to strike a final blow to this unique and wonderful ecosystem. "At this pace we can forget about the Selva Pedemontana in 5 years" says Dr Alejandro Brown, founder of the Ecological Research Yungas Laboratory at the National University of Tucumán. According to Dr Brown's report,1000 hectares (2500 acres) a year of Selva Pedemontana are transformed to GE Soy in the areas of Orán and Tartagal in the province of Salta.

The rural poor loose an ecosystem which can provide them with numerous goods such as food, medicines, raw material for handicrafts or products that they can trade. Like the Green Revolution, Genetic Engineering has failed to feed the world. For the biotech industry, it has been always all about money.

Article based on information from: "Record harvest-record hunger", Greenpeace, June 2002, http://archive.greenpeace.org/~geneng/reports/food/record_harvestembargo.pdf 

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- Brazil: While the people are roused to indignation, Aracruz celebrates

It is amazing the way in which Aracruz Celulose S.A. is facing the situation in which it is placed, affected by the numerous negative impacts arising from its activities in Espirito Santo and Bahia. At present, the company is finishing the construction of a private airport, sufficiently large for the presidential plane carrying Fernando Henrique Cardoso to land on 2nd August when their third factory will be officially opened, increasing annual eucalyptus cellulose production from 1.3 to 2 million tons.

On the opening day, the highest representatives of the Municipal, State and National governments, faithful allies of the company throughout the whole of its existence in Brazil, will gather around the Brazilian President. The press from that State will be present. It has already begun to disseminate information on the event, praising as ever, the company's contribution to the State's economic development. NGOs such as the "Instituto Terra da Gente," financed by Aracruz itself will also be there. This NGO gave Aracruz, the "Mata Atlântica (Atlantic Forest) Trophy" a joke in bad taste, as this is a company which felled thousands of hectares of the Mata Atlântica. No doubt other associations and societies of forestry engineers, more enthusiastic over the millions of identical, cloned, highly productive eucalyptus, than with the task of understanding the fascinating complexity of a natural forest, will come. Certainly, the National Economic and Social Development Bank will not miss the party, as it has invested thousands of Brazilian Reales in the project for the 3rd factory, instead of investing equivalent amounts in strengthening the State's damaged family agriculture.

It is worthwhile remembering that the 630 million US dollars invested in the new factory were practically all used to purchase machinery made in Europe, which were insured with credits guaranteeing their exports. What remains in Brazil are solely 172 permanent jobs in the new industrial unit. Even so, at the cost of a debt of the State of Espirito Santo with Aracruz of nearly 100 million Reales, referring to credit accumulated by the company as the productive chain for manufacturing cellulose for export does not have taxes levied on it.

The environment prevailing among the company's managers and directors has become even more festive with the news at the beginning of June that the Supreme Federal Tribunal has decided to consider as unconstitutional the State law prohibiting the plantation of eucalyptus for cellulose until an agro-ecological map is made of the State, defining where eucalyptus can be planted. It is certain that the ministers of the Tribunal, on taking this decision, did not consider the desperate situation of over 100 families in the municipality of Vila Valerio who were evicted from their lands, purchased by Aracruz Celulose. Neither did they consider the 230 million US dollars that the company has to purchase new land, 200 times more money than the amount estimated annually in the state for the agrarian reform, an unsatisfied need that the 50 thousand families in the State have been waiting for. And neither did the Tribunal consider the positive results of the regional public audiences on agro-ecological mapping, which managed to restore to the people a little awareness, a small right to voice an opinion on the future of their children and of their region.

It is also worthwhile remembering that Aracruz had the audacity to state that it will consider whether it is going to launch action against the State for the damage this mapping law has caused them. And the newspaper A Gazeta did what no decent newspaper would ever do: it published on its first page that the authorisation to plant eucalyptus would generate 25 thousand jobs, an unfounded figure, without an argument, without the least veracity.

Later, when Deputy Nasser, author of the agro-ecological mapping law prepared a similar law, adopted by the Legislative Assembly on 26 June, his party, the same party as that of President Fernando Henrique, decided to leave him out of their ranks at the next elections. Once more, it is evident that any action against Aracruz Celulose has high costs.

It is in this climate that the opening day for the new factory approaches. On the one hand a mega-company that wants to celebrate, that denies any impact and does not admit criticism or any type of control over its actions by the civil society of which it is part. On the other hand, the great majority of the people of Espirito Santo, and mainly the rural population, increasingly indignant over the way Aracruz operates, conscious that it needs to resist if it wants to have the slightest chance of a decent future.

This is the message that the Movimento Alerta contra o Deserto Verde (Movement to Alert against the Green Desert), congregating sectors representing the rural and urban population, will try to transmit to the whole of society during the First Fortnight of Resistance to the Green Desert. These will be 15 days of activities in parallel to the opening of Aracruz Celulose's new factory and the declaration by Erling Lorentzen, the Norwegian president of the company, to the Parliamentary Commission investigating the long list of irregularities practised by the company. It should be remembered that, as was to be expected, the press is completely boycotting this important and unusual investigation.

During these 15 days, the Fortnight for Resistance will show public opinion that society will continue offering resistance to a model that excludes the majority of the population, although such a model is imposed and dominates public and non-public spheres that, first of all, should defend the people's interests.

By: Movimento Alerta contra o Deserto Verde no Espírito Santo, Bahia e Rio de Janeiro Contact e-mail: fasees@terra.com.br 

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- Chile: Resistance against a highway that will destroy forests and peoples

Hidden in the midst of remote mountains on the South Pacific coast of Chile, is the last remnant of intact coastal forest, one of the most diverse ecosystems of Latin America. It is estimated that one third of the temperate forests existing in the world are to be found in the Southern zone of Chile and Argentina. The Chilean temperate forest, protected from the glaciers by the Coastal Cordillera, is the remnant of what was once the widespread Valdivia forest. The Coastal Cordillera has ecosystems that have existed with minimum human intervention for thousands of years and that are a unique natural and cultural heritage. It is an area that is recognised as one of the 25 ecosystems in the world, concentrating unique elements. In addition to harbouring the huillin (river otter) in its rivers and the only forests of "olivillo" (Aextoxicon punctatum), an endemic species that only exists in the Valdivia forest, the Coastal Cordillera is -- in the context of cultural diversity-- the ancestral home of the Mapuche Huilliche Indigenous communities.

In mid 2001, the Chilean government decided to continue with a project for building the Coastal Highway, resisted for a long time now, both at local and international levels. This highway threatens to destroy large areas of pristine forests in this amazing eco-region, through a combination of clear cutting and substitution by alien species, wood extraction and preparation of lands for cattle-raising.

Important forestry companies are behind the construction of this 320 km long highway, the second to link the country from North to South, which would prouced disastrous impacts on the forests and the people. The Huilliche peoples are strongly opposed to this. "The health of the Mapuche people is in the forest. The logging companies have already done much damage, they have felled and burnt the best wood to replace it with pine and eucalyptus. The pellin oak, the lingue, the laurel trees, the coigüe and the olivillo have all disappeared. We no longer hear the birds singing and the water and the soil have been spoilt. We do not want any more contamination." These are the words of Anselmo Paillamangue, lonko (head) of Cuinco, who is working in defence of eighteen communities and who belongs to the Coalición de Organizaciones Ciudadanas para la Conservación de la Cordillera de la Costa (Coalition of Citizen Organizations for the Conservation of the Coastal Cordillera - CCCC). "We have suffered the most terrible arbitrary treatment from individuals and national and transnational companies; laws favouring us have been abolished and fraudulent purchases have multiplied. The highway will cause great ecological damage and will kill us as a people; for this reason we are not prepared to accept it.

During the winter of 2003, with his poncho wet through from the rain, Martin Paillamanque, lonko of Maicolpi, representative of ten communities of the coastal sector of San Juan de la Costa, came before the Environmental Commission of the National Congress, telling the deputies: "Deterioration and even extermination of the communities is being caused in the name of development. A serious and diligent work of research has been carried out, establishing that the communities are against the construction of the coastal highway through our territory. We will oppose it to the end, and if the State insists, we will know where we stand. We want development, but with identity and we will continue to oppose a project that does not favour us. We will fight to prevent the communities from being split up and to prevent our rights being violated. For this purpose we are proposing alternatives.

Recently and in pursuance of the Agreement on Environmental Co-operation between Chile and Canada, signed by both governments in 1997, various Chilean organisations have lodged a legal petition of an international nature with the aim of achieving that the Commission for Chilean-Canadian Environmental Co-operation (ACACC) investigates the serious violation of environmental legislation with regard to the process of environmental assessment and construction of the Southern Coastal Highway, developed by the Ministry of Public Works (MOP) in the Tenth Region.

According to the petitioners' lawyer, Miguel Fredes of CEADA "so far there is no precedent of any other claim submitted to investigation by the Commission recording such a high rate of violations to environmental legislation as is the case of the Southern Coastal Highway."

Waldemar Monsalve, one of the petitioners, who has been denouncing the illegal operations of the MOP for a long time now, states that the construction of the Coastal Highway has caused serious environmental damage in the Osorno zone. "Furthermore, with the documentation attached to the petition, we can prove that the MOP's Highway Office caused the illegal felling of native forests in the protected area of the Contaco river in Osorno in 1998."

Among other things, it is requested that the MOP be sanctioned for its lack of compliance with the conditions for the approval of the Southern Coastal Highway and that the Highway Office and the Rio Bueno Building Company be sanctioned for the environmental damage caused to the Contaco river and to its hydro-biological resources.

Unless immediate measures are taken to protect it, the story of the native forest of the Coastal Cordillera in the Tenth Region of the Lakes will be the same as that of the Seventh, Eighth and Ninth regions of Chile, where the wealth of temperate forest flora and fauna has practically disappeared, where the forest has been replaced by what are really green deserts of industrial plantations of alien species such as the pine and the eucalyptus.

The Huilliche people do not really trust the authorities who have always relegated them. For this reason they have told the authorities that "Our lonkos have always existed, long before the arrival of the Spanish conquest. We have not just arrived and we will fight for our rights."

Article based on information from: Coalición para la Conservación de la Cordillera de la Costa, e-mail: coalicioncc@terra.cl , http://www.ccc.terra.cl taken from Defensores del Bosque Chileno, http://www.elbosquechileno.cl . Information sent by Miguel Fredes, Centro Austral de Derecho Ambiental (CEADA), e-mail: ceada@entelchile.net , http://www.ceada.org .

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- Paraguay: Civil society in defence of the Concepcion forests

Paraguay covers an area of 406,752 km2 . The Paraguay river divides the country into two well differentiated bio-regions: the Eastern region and the Western region or Chaco. Both regions have a wide diversity of culture and ecosystems.

Due to its greater population density and the constant expansion of the agricultural frontier, the Eastern region is suffering heavy pressure on its ecosystems. In this region, only 0.6% of the area is under some category of protection.

The Eastern region has lost most of its forest cover over the past 40 years. In 1945 it had almost 9 million hectares of forest, corresponding to 55% of the total area of the region. However, in 1991 this forest cover had been reduced to 15%.

The approximate mean rate of deforestation between 1985 and 1991 was 290,000 ha/year, one of the highest in the world. In some zones of the Eastern region, such as the Department of Concepcion, the greatest rates of deforestation are those recorded over the past 10 years.

Deforestation in the Department of Concepcion, as in the rest of the country, is promoted by Brazilian logging companies with sawmills in the frontier zone. The wood is superficially processed in Paraguay and then sent to Brazil, where it is "nationalised" and sold on international markets as wood from Brazilian forests.

The number of sawmills had an astounding increase in the Department (from 8 sawmills, the number has risen to 50, most of which do not comply with legal regulations), adding to the high corruption in institutions like the National Forestry Service (this body is responsible for monitoring and regulating the Forestry Sector), which allows depredation of vast areas of native forest and authorises land management plans in breach of essential civil society participation and information mechanisms established in the Environmental Impact Law 294/93.

Civil society in Concepcion, alarmed by these facts, have organised themselves to struggle against this situation, setting up the Multi-sectoral Commission for the Defence of the Natural Resources of Concepcion. This Commission gathers the association of carpenters and ebanists, students, teachers, trades-people, and small forest landowners. All of them, with the support of the local authorities, promoted the promulgation of a Departmental Ordinance, prohibiting logging of various forest species in the forests of the region, such as trebol (Amburana cearesis), incense (Myrocarpus frondosus) and lapacho (Tabebuia heptaphylla). These three species have the greatest economic value and therefore are the most threatened.

This regulation has come under attacks from the large landowners (mainly cattle ranchers), the owners of sawmills and even the central government itself, alluding to incompatibility between the Departmental Ordinance and the national Forestry Law. As a result, the measure was declared illegal by the government.

The result is that deforestation continues at alarming rates in the whole region, with the complicity of the National Forestry Service authorities. Civil society in Concepcion continues to take new measures, including capacity-building, information and resistance to halt a process that will damage many and benefit very few.

By María José López, Bosques Sobrevivencia/ FoE Paraguay, e-mail: bosques@sobrevivencia.org.py 
 

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