- Brazil: Civil society letter to the Prototype Carbon Fund on Plantar's eucalyptus plantations

The PCF (Prototype Carbon Fund) is the World Bank's fund that mobilizes resources to promote the carbon dioxide trade, whereby contaminating companies --mainly located in the countries of the North-- can "negotiate" with forestry producers which supposedly trap carbon --mainly located in the countries of the South. And it is to the PCF that, representatives of dozens of bodies, citizen movements, churches, parliamentatians, city councillors and citizens of the Brazilian States of Minas Gerais, Espirito Santo, Bahia and Rio de Janeiro will be sending a letter. In this letter, they state their concern over the expansion of large-scale monoculture eucalyptus plantations, which has caused a series of negative social, economic, environmental and cultural impacts. They also stated their perplexity and surprise that the forestry company Plantar S.A. had submitted a project to the PCF.

The forestry sector companies, such as in the case of Plantar S.A., were established in the sixties and seventies, in the midst of the military dictatorship, benefiting from attractive tax incentives. The result was the eviction from their lands of the Tupinikim and Guarani indigenous peoples, the traditional Afro-descendent communities and thousands of farmers, increasing unemployment and the despair of these local populations, left without the land, the biodiversity and the water that enabled them to subsist.

The companies planting eucalyptus in Minas Gerais affirm that their tree plantations are lessening "pressure" on the native vegetation --in this case the Atlantic Forest (Mata Atlântica) and the "Cerrado" ecosystem-- but they forget to mention that nearly two million hectares in the State were planted at the expense of burning a large part of the Mata Atlântica and the Cerrado. Furthermore, as by law the companies could not own a large part of these lands which belonged to the State, they resorted to fraudulent methods and leasing contracts to occupy thousands of hectares of Cerrado, evicting the local populations from their lands, preventing the traditional collective use of this type of vegetation by the local communities and attacking their way of life and subsistence.

The Plantar S.A. Reflorestamentos Company was founded in 1967 and is devoted to three types of activities:

- provision of forestry services to major companies, mainly in the cellulose sector;
- cast iron works (production of iron ingots);
- plantation of eucalyptus on its own lands (it has 280,000 hectares of monoculture eucalyptus plantations --close on 10 million plants, increasingly cloned-- to extract timber and produce charcoal with which it supplies its iron works, thus balancing its business).

The company has FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certification, granted in 1998 by the certifying firm SCS and covering only 4.8% of its lands where it has eucalyptus plantations. This certification is used by Plantar to sell the so-called "carbon credits" and has already been questioned over a number of serious omissions (see http://www.wrm.org.uy/actors/FSC/index.html#stop), one of the main ones being that the local communities were not consulted; thus the seal does not guarantee "sound forestry management."

The Curvelo region, where the Plantar Company intends installing its carbon "sink" project, is a Cerrado region, which has already been affected by eucalyptus plantations that dried up the rivers where their water sources had been planted and contaminated the local fauna with agro-toxic substances used for forestry management. Another important conflict with this company refers to the establishment of a new tree nursery in the year 2000 which implied deviating almost 5 km of a route traditionally used by numerous inhabitants of the zone, to avoid the "dust" from the route affecting the eucalyptus seedlings being produced in the nursery. This caused prejudice to students, teachers and the community in general, who still cover the route on foot. Additionally, to supply its nursery with water, it built three dams on the Boa Morte River, deviating the water consumed by the surrounding population and affecting its quality. The neighbours have gathered to demand that the company install at least a treatment system for the water coming from the nursery.

The denunciations against the company are also aimed at the "special" treatment received by the company from the authorities, insofar as it does not have an Environmental Impact Assessment or Report on its activities, a legal requisite for any undertaking that may potentially cause environmental impacts.

Furthermore, the abominable labour conditions of the company in the production of charcoal and eucalyptus logging have been denounced --illegal sub-contracting and slave and child labour-- leaving a tragic balance of workers who have had accidents and health problems and even cases of deaths. The company has been audited by the Regional Labour Office and summonsed to a parliamentary commission. In turn, the occupation of Cerrado zones has contributed to a crisis in the local economy, which is based on products from that native vegetation. Various food factories in Curvelo closed down through lack of raw material, increasing the unemployment, already generalised while Plantar was adopting strategies to lower costs and ensure profitability of the business.

The denunciations are the result of the testimony of the communities surrounding the Plantar's plantations and conversations with the Federal Public Ministry of Labour, workers and former workers of the company, parliamentarians and trade unionists in the region.

The signatories of the letter state their interest in the promotion of economic activities that respect the interests of the community and of nature, and their opposition to projects representing the contrary --as is the case of the Plantar S.A. project-- and urge other non-contaminating technologies to be sought, that will generate decent jobs and preserve and restore the environment, an essential requisite for survival and consequently for the future of the local communities.

Finally, they affirm that the Plantar project cannot be considered as a "clean development" mechanism and exhort investors not to invest in this project.

Article based on information from: Public letter to PCF, sent by FASE-ES, e-mail: fasees@terra.com.br ; "Relatório de Avaliação da V&M Florestal Ltda. e da Plantar S.A. Reflorestamentos ambas certificadas pelo FSC - Forest Stewardship Council", November 2002, commissioned by WRM/FOEI, http://www.wrm.org.uy/actors/FSC/index.html#stop

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- Colombia: Anti-trade union policy in oil palm plantations

The more that is planted, the more rights that are lost. In Colombia, there are approximately 170,000 hectares of oil palm plantations. Testimonies by a delegate of the palm sector workers' organisation, connected to the Bucarelia and Las Brisas Palm Oil companies, denounce the poor working conditions in the oil palm plantations in the department of Santander, in addition to pressure and incentives to weaken the trade unions in the sector. Oleaginosas Bucarelia has 4,700 hectares and the other company some 2,800, all located at Puerto Wilches, Santander.

According to the words of this worker: "The companies' strategy to weaken and eliminate the trade unions is based on voluntary retirement plans, paying compensation higher than the compensation granted by law. Many companions have left the companies and the trade union too, but return to work in the sector under conditions imposed by the companies through cooperatives. The companies' policy aims at reducing conventional conquests reached over 20 or 30 years of struggles. Some of the company authorities have commented that the companies in which the workers are organised as unions are less competitive and furthermore, the workers are reluctant to accept the working conditions these companies want to impose --conditions attacking the workers health and dignity.

Finally, what they are suggesting is that trade union organisations should disappear. Another modality promoted by the companies is that the peasants become holders of palm plots, thus saving labour costs. In this way, these peasants must sell the raw material to the companies at the price they impose. People earn less and do not have any social security coverage.

By avoiding worker organization, the companies also avoid complaints over low salaries, and over one of the greatest problems facing the workers: the abominable working conditions. "For example, as the palm grows older it also grows taller and therefore the conditions for harvesting the bunches and pruning the trees make accidents likely to occur. The workers carrying out the harvest complain about pains in their spine and accidents are common when they are hit by the leaves that have many thorns on them. Moreover, the plantations are sprayed to control pests and diseases and the impacts on the environment and on health caused by these products are unknown."

All the above, and in particular the companies' policy to try to weaken the trade unions by means of workers employed through cooperatives and individual contracts, have led SINTRAINAGRO, the largest agricultural workers' union in the country, to establish the need to unify the unions in that sector, in order to preserve the conquests achieved so far and to seek the unionisation in those companies that do not yet have a trade union. Thanks to workers' organisation in Bucarelia and Las Brisas, some collective agreements have been signed and the workers in some of the cooperatives are now demanding better labour conditions.

It should be noted that in this article we are only referring to the social impacts of oil palm cultivation, but to these should be added the serious environmental impacts of the large-scale monoculture model, repeated in all the regions and countries where they are installed, and among them, the impacts on biodiversity, soil and water should be mentioned.

Article based on information from: SIREL, Sindicatos, No. 43, 25 November 2002, interview to Gerardo Iglesias, Rel-UITA, to Hernan Correa, General Secretary, SINTRAINAGRO and Secretary for Agrarian Affairs, CUT.

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- Guyana: Conservation International accused of "gross disrespect" to indigenous peoples

The Amerindian Peoples Association (APA) has expressed deep concern about the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to establish Southern Guyana as a protected area, saying it was "gross disrespect" to local tribes.

Southern Guyana is considered one of the anchors of the National Protected Areas System. Conservation International (CI) and the government of Guyana signed the MOU on November 23 in which they agreed to collaborate in establishing Southern Guyana as a protected area. CI under the provisions of the MOU is to provide US$1 million to endow a financial mechanism that would support the long-term costs of managing protected areas in Guyana, among other things. It will provide a further US$1 million should the government declare Southern Guyana a protected area by June 30, 2003. The MOU also commits CI to seek financing from private donors, international agencies and governments to increase the capital of the proposed financial mechanism.

The APA release issued on November 28 (see full document at: http://www.wrm.org.uy/countries/Guyana/areas.html ) expresses concern that the agreement with CI was signed while the government is still formulating the (Draft) Protected Areas Regulations and revising the Amerindian Act. It also accuses CI of not consulting with the six Wapishana communities in Southern Guyana part of whose ancestral lands will be encompassed in the proposed protected area and whose way of life and those of the Wai-Wais are likely to be affected. The six Wapishana communities are at Shea, Maruranawa, Awarenawa, Aishalton, Karuadanawa, and Achiwib.

But according to CI regional director, retired Major General Joe Singh there are Wai-Wai communities at Masakanari and Erefoimo and after visits by CI and a number of government officials and briefings of the other communities by Professor George Mentore who is fluent in the Wai-Wai language, the Touchaus wrote the government requesting that it initiate the process to establish the area as a protected one.

Singh responding to the release says the MOU is the beginning of the process in which it would be consulting with all the stakeholders at the national, regional and community levels. He says that to consult with the Wapishana communities ahead of the MOU would have been inconsistent with its relationship with the government.

He added that during the consultations the views of the various groups identified by the government would be taken on board and presented to the government. He says the process would be similar to that now going on in the Kanuku Mountains to establish that region as a protected area.

The APA release says that on learning of the visit to the Wai Wais and of the letter sent to the government, the Touchaus of the Deep South wrote CI expressing their concern about the proposed site, which overlaps Wapishana ancestral lands noting that CI is yet to visit with the Wapishana communities.

The APA describes CI's actions as "gross disrespect" for the Wapishana communities who "will have to live with a protected area long after the employees of such organisations have retired".

It says too that it hopes that the issue of land titles to ancestral lands and other matters would be addressed in the new Amerindian Act and expressed concern that the communities would not be given a fair chance to have these titles if a protected area system is prematurely foisted upon them.

The APA said it was important to note that Guyana has specific international obligations to recognise and respect the rights of indigenous peoples to own lands they have traditionally owned or otherwise occupied and used. The APA also said it was difficult to understand why the MOU sets June 2003 as a target for establishing the southern forest as a protected area when many issues remain unresolved.

"If these issues are not seriously addressed, protected areas and conservation of biological diversity will not only be at the expense of the rights and ways of life of Guyana's first peoples, they will also be unsustainable", the organisation added.

Source: "Amerindian group slams memo on southern forest protected area. Conservation group says all stakeholders to be consulted", SN, 4 December 2002, sent by Fergus MacKay, Forest Peoples Programme, e-mail: fergus@euronet.nl

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- Peru: The complex issue of illegal logging in the sights of the government

The Ministry of Agriculture of Peru has recently stated that the illegal logging of timber, particularly of mahogany, operates like drug trafficking or smuggling, with an organised and powerful network threatening the process of forest planning that the Government has launched.

According to the ministry, the problem is rooted in the fact that a firm decision had never been taken to struggle against illegal logging and that controlling the marketing chain --the financial support to the activity-- had been overlooked.

In order to start addressing the issue, the ministry decided to set up a multi-sectoral commission --presided by the minister-- commissioned to design and implement a strategy to face the problem. This commission will also design strategies to withdraw illegal forest extractors from reserved zones, forestry concessions and non-contacted indigenous community territories, and propose measures for a legal reform to sanction illegal logging in addition to the actions necessary to control those who market this timber.

However, it is important to stress that all this is clearly insufficient to face an issue of the complexity of illegal logging. Its solution requires the preparation of a strategy covering a wide range of subjects --going far beyond simple legal control-- and among these, we would like to emphasise the following:

- recognition of the territorial rights of indigenous peoples (contacted or not, in protected areas or not)

- land tenure security (both in forest and non forest areas)

- monitoring of the timber industry and in particular the major companies in the sector, main beneficiaries and financers of illegal logging

- the revision of the policy for protected area demarcation, which should have the prior and informed consent of the communities living there (with the exception of non contacted communities) and respect for their right to be the main beneficiaries of forest resources

- macroeconomic and sectoral policies (industrial, energy, transport, etc.), promoting excessive extraction (either legal or illegal) or that generate conditions for unsustainable exploitation

- economic and social policies giving rise to conditions of poverty and social exclusion that make many people involve themselves in illegal timber logging.

The above does not exhaust the diversity of subjects that must necessarily be taken into consideration to address the issue. The government has taken a first step in the right direction by inviting the actors involved in the problem: extractors, indigenous peoples, companies, non-governmental organisations, and the State to take part in the recently established multi-sectoral commission. Over the coming months it will be seen whether this commission is able to address the issue in all its complexity, providing equitable solutions for those who inhabit the forest and depend on it to be able to use it in such a way as to ensure both their basic needs and the conservation of the forest as a whole. We hope that this will be the outcome.

Article based on information from: El Comercio: "Fuerte mafia maneja tala indiscriminada",
http://www.elcomercioperu.com.pe/Noticias/Html/2002-11-05/Nacional4707.html , sent by WWF Peru, e-mail: adriana@wwfperu.org.pe