Index - Viewpoint - Conserving the forest - The destructive industrial approach - When tree planting becomes a problem - The appropriation of nature - The changing cllimate

WHEN TREE PLANTING BECOMES A PROBLEM

• Tree Plantations Impact Doubly on Women
• Women Plantation Workers Poisoned and Silenced
• Support Imprisoned Malaysian Human Rights Defender Irene Fernandez

 

- Tree Plantations Impact Doubly on Women

The invisibility of women is perhaps nowhere greater than in timber plantations. Few women are ever seen working within the endless rows of eucalyptus or pine trees. But plantations are very visible to women, who are in fact greatly impacted by them in different ways.

No wonder then that one of the first documented demonstrations against monoculture tree plantations was led by women. This happened in August 1983 in Karnataka, India, when a large group of women and small peasants of the Barha and Holahalli villages marched on the local eucalyptus nursery. The women protested the commercial eucalyptus trees as being destructive to the water, soil and food systems. They pulled out millions of eucalyptus seedlings and planted tamarind and mango seeds in place. They were all arrested, but their action became a symbol of a struggle that continues today.

In forest-dependent communities, women have no doubt that plantations are not forests, because the former do not provide them with any of the non-timber forest products provided by the latter, particularly food, fuel, material for handicrafts, resources used for housing, household items and medicines. Additionally, they deplete the water resources they depend on. Large-scale tree plantations result in:

- Food scarcity. Women are traditional collectors of different types of food found in forests, such as vegetables, fruit, mushrooms and many other edible products. As forests are cleared to give way to plantations, food is no longer available and women find it much harder to collect the necessary food resources.

- Firewood scarcity. Although there is plenty of wood in plantations, collection of firewood by local people is severely restricted in most cases, thereby increasing the hours spent by women in distant forests to collect less wood than before .

- Water scarcity. Fast-growing tree plantations (eucalyptus, pines, acacia) require large amounts of water and can cause the depletion of water resources for consumption and agriculture. As a result, women spend many more hours a day carrying water, thus resulting in added work burdens for women.

- Medicine scarcity. Forests provide a broad array of medicinal plants, which are usually collected by women. These plants disappear after the plantations are put in place, thus increasing the time spent by women in collecting such plants at longer distances.

Even in the few cases where plantations provide women with some employment opportunities, not only do they not compensate for losses such as those mentioned above, but they add new problems to women's livelihoods.

In Brazil, for instance, in the state of Minas Gerais, women are hired to carry out a number of activities on a par with men -except logging which is a masculine activity par excellence. Hiring of women workers is based on their greater aptitude to carry out certain tasks, such as growing plants in nurseries, which requires greater dexterity. In some cases too, women are entrusted with the application of ant-killers to the land planted with eucalyptus. It must be said, however, that in some cases female labour simply becomes a form of direct incorporation of cheap labour, contributing to lower the salaries of men workers. Because, as usual, women's salaries are lower than men's for equal types of work.

The labour conditions of women workers have much in common with those of men –low salaries, bad working and living conditions, seasonal work, outsourcing- but some degree of differentiation may be established with relation to their work in tree nurseries. In the nurseries of two large forestry companies in Minas Gerais, a large quantity of reiterated injuries caused by making great efforts have been observed, in spite of which women continue to work, many of them with swollen or bandaged hands. They also suffer from rheumatic diseases, probably caused by their constant exposure to cold water in the nurseries and to a generally cold environment in the wintertime.

As the vast majority of plantation companies, those of Minas Gerais have no specific gender policies, which is detrimental to women and their children. As there are no day-care centres near the place of work, it is almost impossible for women to breastfeed their babies after their maternity leave, thus increasing malnutrition. They usually leave their homes at 5:30 in the morning and return late in the afternoon, having to return home in the company transport, which takes an hour or more as it goes around, picking up all the workers at the plantations. Many women workers do not receive medical care and they are even made to feel guilty for work-related accidents or diseases. Furthermore, they are afraid to complain because they fear loosing their jobs or not receiving the basic food basket that the Collective Agreement ensures them and that they count on for their family’s basic food.

In sum, the substitution of local ecosystems by monoculture tree plantations result in impacts on local people by eliminating most of the goods and services previously available and impacting more on women through an increase in their work burden and a reduction in the amount of resources collected. At the same time, the scarce jobs provided to women by plantation companies do not compensate for those losses, while adding new problems to their health and livelihoods.

Article based on information from: Shiva, Vandana.- "Staying Alive: Women, Ecology and Survival in India", Zed Books, 1989; “Seeing the Forest for the People, a Handbook on Gender, Forestry and Rural Livelihoods”, Vanessa Griffen, APDC (Asian and Pacific Development Centre), 2001; "Certifying the Uncertifiable. FSC Certification of Tree Plantations in Thailand and Brazil", WRM, August 2003; and information provided by Rosa Roldán, e-mail: rroldan@alternex.com.br

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- Women Plantation Workers Poisoned and Silenced

In 2002, the Malaysian organization Tenaganita, together with Pesticide Action Network-Asia Pacific launched a study that confirmed that women plantation workers were being poisoned by the use of highly toxic pesticides, especially paraquat.

At the launching of the "Study of Pesticides Poisoning in the Plantations", Tenaganita Director, Dr. Irene Fernandez said that “If the Malaysian government had, through its enforcement agencies the Department of Occupational Safety and Health and the Pesticides Board, effectively implemented the laws the women would not have suffered."

What the Malaysian state actually did do in October 2003 was to imprison Irene Fernandez in relation with a previous study carried out by her organization: "Abuse , Torture and Dehumanized Treatment of Migrant Workers in Detention Centres". Accused of "maliciously publishing false news", she is still in prison serving a 12 month sentence (see article below).

When she is eventually released, will she be again accused of "maliciously publishing false news" in relation with the more recent study on the condition of women plantation workers which are "poisoned and silenced" by the oil palm industry? The possibility is very real, given the powerful economic interests involved in the Malaysian oil palm sector.

However, the study's findings can in no way be considered as "false", and they are totally consistent with the information on working conditions in oil palm plantation in both Malaysia and elsewhere. The peculiarity in this case is the strong presence of women affected by standard operations of these companies regarding pesticide use.

The study proves that women sprayers working in plantations in Malaysia are poisoned by the pesticides they spray daily. It also reaffirms that the living conditions in plantations are poor, medical care is inadequate and that estate management is oblivious and often unsympathetic towards the social and health problems faced by workers.

The common symptoms noted among women plantation workers were fatigue, vomiting, back pain, giddiness, difficulty in breathing, skin problems, nausea, eye irritation, headache, tight feeling in the chest, and swelling, which are indicative of exposure to organophosphate and carbamate type of pesticides. Blood samples revealed a depression in the acetyl cholinesterase enzyme activity, which is confirmation of pesticide poisoning. The study also confirmed that the sample population was spraying organophosphate-type pesticides, indicated by a lowering of the acetyl cholinesterase levels in plasma and blood. After a one-month break in spraying, enzyme levels of selected sprayers were elevated, reconfirming that they were poisoned by organophosphate when the readings were taken a month earlier.

The study confirmed that a major pesticide used in the plantations is Paraquat (a herbicide). Poisoning due to Paraquat is clearly demonstrated in the surveys and interviews with workers, and indicated in the medical examinations. The women suffered nose bleeds, tearing of the eyes, contact dermatitis, skin irritation and sores, nail discolouration, dropping of the nails, swelling of the joints, and abdominal ulcerations. This in spite of the fact that Malaysia has classified paraquat as Class I (extremely hazardous) pesticide. To make matters worse, the study noted that the area planted to oil palm is expected to rise from 2.7 million ha (1998) to 4.3 million ha in 2020, with a subsequent rise in the use of agrochemicals. Paraquat use is expected to rise from 5 million litres (2000) to 7.4 million litres in 2020.

The study found that women working in the plantations could not read the labels in English and Malay, and could not read labels on the pesticide containers if these were present. In the majority of cases labels are removed. It was commonly seen that pesticides were used in concentrations in excess of requirements; in ‘cocktails’ whose ingredients were not known; and often the estate management chose not to divulge the names of pesticides used, to the sprayers.

Additionally, the spraying equipment was sometimes leaking, and posed additional dangers of spillage and toxicity to the sprayers. Further, the equipment was stored in workers homes, adding risk to the whole family.

The study also found that estate management did not provide training on safety precautions and procedures to be followed while handling pesticides. There were no training materials available in local languages for workers and medical professionals. The protective gear provided, if any, was inappropriate to the local hot and humid conditions and is thus not used by most sprayers. These factors aggravated the risk factor for working in plantations.

To make matters worse, the study noted that medical professionals were not adequately trained to recognize symptoms of pesticide exposure and often disregarded these as minor complaints of cough, headaches etc. This further underestimated the real picture regarding poisoning attributable to pesticide exposure. There was an alarming lack of sensitivity among medical staff, paramedics and Hospital Assistants, which compounded their inability to deal with the women’s problems. Since the majority of the medical staff were male, the women were unable to express and share their condition and ailments.

Will all the above be considered as "maliciously publishing false news"? Shouldn't the Malaysian government and its enforcement agencies -the Department of Occupational Safety and Health and the Pesticides Board- be instead accused of "maliciously silencing true allegations"?

Article based on information from: "Women Plantation Workers Poisoned and Silenced"., Tenaganita/PAN-Asia Pacific, 2002,
http://www.panap.net/highlightsA1.cfm?id=9&hiliteid=HILITE04#Top
"A Study of Pesticide Poisoning in the Plantations", Tenaganita/PAN-Asia Pacific, 2002, http://www.panap.net/highlightsA1.cfm?id=16&hiliteid=HILITE04

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- Support Imprisoned Malaysian Human Rights Defender Irene Fernandez

On October 16, 2003, Irene Fernandez, the Director of Tenaganita (a women’s non-governmental organization based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment by the Magistrates Court for the Memorandum on "Abuse , Torture and Dehumanized Treatment of Migrant Workers in Detention Centres". The memorandum had been finalized and sent to relevant authorities and the media in August 1995.

Tenaganita compiled the Memorandum from over 300 interviews with former detainees and the information from the Sun Magazine journalists who did their own independent investigation. Irene was consequently arrested and charged in March 1996 under the Printing Presses and Publication Act 1984 for maliciously publishing false news. During the seven and half year trial, seen as the longest in Malaysia, Irene went to court 310 times for full hearing.

The trial conviction demonstrates that there is no protection for human rights defenders to articulate concerns over human rights violations. Such a trend not only curtails constructive criticism but has serious implications for all organizations involved in promotion and protection of rights of people.

The United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Defenders calls on all nations to protect and respect human rights defenders so that they can fulfil their role and responsibilities as defenders.

Tenaganita has launched an international petition to the new Malaysian Prime Minister, Mr Abdullah Badawi. You can support the petition at: http://www.ipetitions.com/campaigns/irene_fernandez/

Alternatively you could write to Mr Badawi asking for a review of Irene's case and a serious investigation into conditions in migrant detention centres. His address is: Prime Minister Dato Seri Abdullah Badawi, Prime Minister's Department, 6502 Putrajaya, Selangor, Malaysia

If you want to send messages of support to Irene, please send them to: Tenaganita,11th floor, Wisma Yakin, Jalan Masjid India, 50110 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

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