• Central Africa: The Twa Alienation from their Forests Impact Doubly on Women
• Liberia: A Proposal From Liberian Civil Society to Reform the Forest Sector
• Swaziland: Timber Plantations Impacting on People and Nature
• Uganda: The plague Has Come to Eucalyptus Plantations

LOCAL STRUGGLES AND NEWS

- Central Africa: The Twa Alienation from their Forests Impact Doubly on Women

The Twa were the first inhabitants of the equatorial forests of the Great Lakes region. Originally a high-altitude forest people, inhabiting the mountains of the Albertine Rift Area in Central Africa, they specialized in hunting and gathering. At present, the Twa of the Great Lakes region of Central Africa live in Burundi, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda and southwest Uganda.

They identify themselves as indigenous and share many of the characteristics of indigenous peoples. However, over decades they have suffered from the loss of their traditional forest habitat and its natural resources through war as well as through wildlife conservation and commercial exploitation. Also, the Twa’s landlessness results from their historical occupation of forests where, like hunter-gatherer or ‘Pygmy’ peoples throughout Central Africa, their land rights were not recognized in customary or statute law.

In most of their traditional territory, the Twa have been forced to forsake their forest-based hunter-gatherer culture and economy. The demographic and political processes that have caused this include: deforestation by incoming farming and herding peoples, which started centuries ago in Burundi and Rwanda; and forest clearance for agri-development, infrastructure, logging, military zones and mining during the last century. In the last 50 years, Twa communities have been forcibly expelled from forest areas designated for “development” projects, and from conservation areas including the Parc des Volcans and Nyungwe forests in Rwanda, the Mgahinga and Bwindi Impenetrable Forest mountain gorilla parks in south-western Uganda and the Kahuzi- Biega National Park and Virunga National Park in DRC.

A central element of recent Twa history is the deeply entrenched discrimination and marginalization they experience from neighbouring ethnic groups. This has increased as the Twa have become alienated from their forests and have been forced to live on the margins of the dominant society.

Many Twa communities are transient squatters, constantly looking for land where they can lodge until they are moved on. Currently, the Twa are one of the most disadvantaged ethnic groups in the Great Lakes region in terms of land ownership. A study of Twa exclusion in Burundi showed that 53 per cent of Twa households were landless, and in Rwanda, 58% are landless. In 1995, 82 per cent of Ugandan Twa were entirely landless.

‘These people who let us stay on their land, they call on us to cultivate [it]. If we refuse they say ‘Move away, we no longer want you.’ We are not settled here, because other local people are pressing the landowners saying ‘What do you need Twa for?’ and at any time we may have to shift and settle elsewhere. […] The landlords don’t let us put up toilets because they don’t want anything permanent on their land, or holes which could be a problem for cultivation later. But if they catch us defecating in the fields, they are angry. My daughter was caught and was forced to remove the faeces with her hands.” (Middle-aged Twa woman, Nyakabande/Kisoro, Uganda, May 2003)

Central African forest-based hunter-gatherers who are still able to maintain a traditional lifestyle consider themselves to be in an intimate, nurturing relationship with the forest. The abundance of the forest is maintained by sharing between people, and between people and forest spirits, also by singing and dancing rituals, which ensure the support of spirits to help them satisfy all their needs. These peoples do not conceive of individual “ownership” of land and resources. People are free to use the natural resources they need and in whatever quantity. Clan membership, friendship and marriage give individuals access to a wide range of different areas in which they can hunt and gather food and other forest products.

In the few areas where the natural resources have not been captured by conservation interests, dominant ethnic groups or entrepreneurs, such as on Idjwi Island and the forested areas of eastern DRC outside national parks, the Twa have more livelihood choices based on the use of diverse natural resources, and are not as destitute. But in the remaining areas, Twa traditional livelihood systems, based on flexibility and mobility, and immediate returns from the exploitation of renewable natural resources are almost impossible to maintain. In today’s market economy, the Twa’s alternative strategies, based on the selling of labour or craft products, are scarcely able to meet the most basic daily needs of Twa households placing them among the poorest of the poor.

In these traditional forest-based societies women’s autonomy is assured by the collective nature of rights over resources, and their ability to access these resources freely and independently, in their own right and not as a consequence of their relationships with men. Overall, the factors that have contributed to the chronic landlessness of the Twa as a whole explain also the land situation of Twa women. However, they have lost opportunities for access to land, not only through the loss of traditional land rights of the Twa as a whole, but also due to the adoption of new attitudes to land ownership, especially within Twa communities dispossessed of their forest lands who have been drawn into the land tenure systems of neighbouring farming and herding groups. Women’s land rights in the few Twa communities that have secured some form of land ownership or use rights outside the forest are weaker than those under forest-based communal land tenure systems.

As indigenous people, Twa women suffer from social, economic and political marginalization, and as women they suffer unequal opportunities with respect to access to land, social services and representation.

“Now, we, the women of the forest, don’t have access to the forest. […] We cry because we have a miserable life. Then, we could live, we had enough to eat, all our needs were satisfied. Now there is nothing.” (Middle-aged Twa woman from Buyungula/ Kabare, DRC at Women’s Rights Conference organized by the Congolese Twa organization PIDP in 2000).

Excerpted and adapted from: “Twa Women, Twa Rights in the Great Lakes
Region of Africa”, Dorothy Jackson, 2003, Forest Peoples Programme, e-mail: djackson@gn.apc.org . For the full text see http://www.forestpeoples.gn.apc.org/Briefings/Africa/twa_women_nov03.pdf

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- Liberia: A Proposal From Liberian Civil Society to Reform the Forest Sector

Since 1990, logging companies, rebel groups, criminal networks, various interim governments and the regime of former president Charles Taylor have colluded to plunder Liberia’s natural resources. During this period the timber sector witnessed a plethora of illegal activities and practices. Logging companies operated in rebel held territories without any form of regulation from the Forestry Development Authority; none of the revenue generated during this period benefited the Liberian people. Following the election of former President Charles Taylor, he began rewarding former allies, financiers and associates with logging concessions without going through the due process as established by Liberian laws. It has been established that most of the logging companies that operated during this period did not have their concession agreements ratified by the Liberian legislature. Additionally, various United Nations Panels of Experts established that revenue from the sector was being used to provide military support for armed groups within and outside of Liberia and other illegitimate purposes to the exclusion of the vast majority of Liberians.

In 2003 the United Nations imposed sanctions on the importation of Liberian timber for various reasons including the use of timber revenue to provide military support for armed groups within and outside of Liberia, thus destabilizing the country and extending the armed conflict to neighboring countries of the West African sub-region; the lack of an audit regime to curb the high incidence of extra-budgetary expenditures, political corruption and diversion of sector revenues towards illegitimate purposes by the Taylor Government, and the lack of good governance, transparency, and the acceptance of the rule of law in the sector. The timber ban came into effect on July 7, 2003.

The United Nations Security Council, however, in November 2003 mandated the National Transitional Government of Liberia (NTGL) to reform the timber industry before sanctions are lifted.

To facilitate civil society participation and contribution to the process, the Sustainable Development Institute, under the auspices of the Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) Coalition for Liberia, on April 8, 2004 organized a civil society planning workshop aimed at developing a civil society proposal, detailing key issues that the reform process must address and develop recommendations as to how the identified issues could be addressed.

The proposal was drafted at the civil society planning workshop organized under the theme “Increasing Transparency and Promoting Public Participation to Enhance Forest Law Enforcement and Governance”. The draft was published for two consecutive days in one of Liberia’s leading dailies inviting public comments and input. Following a review of comments and suggestions, the proposal was finalized by the civil society Forest Sector Reform Working Group on April 21, 2004.

The proposal, which highlights the issues of transparency and accountability, public participation and equity in the sharing of risks and benefits from the sector stressed that increasing transparency and accountability, promoting public participation and equity in the sharing of risks and benefits should form the basis of all actions to address the problems of the forestry sector.

The problems identified by participants as affecting forest law enforcement and governance in Liberia included the lack of transparency and accountability, limited public access to information about the chain of operation of concessionaires and the overall management of the sector by the Liberian Forestry Development Authority (FDA). Participants at the civil society planning workshop lamented the centralization of forest management structures to the exclusion of civil society especially forest dependent communities, which has led to inadequate public participation in decision making about and management of forest resources. They said this has been ensured by the lack of provisions within the FDA regulations or the standard concession agreements to provide for independent monitoring of the chain of operation of the forestry sector by Liberian civil society, especially local non-governmental organizations and forest dependent communities in order to support national forest law enforcement and governance efforts.

Political interference and conflict of interests, lack of capacity or inadequate capacity within the FDA and civil society for forest law enforcement and governance were also identified as key problems facing the sector. Looking back, participants deplored the granting of logging concessions and other forest exploitation rights to companies and individuals during the conflict period, which gave rise to uncontrolled and illegal logging and the militarization of the timber sector from 1990 to the present.

To address these situations the proposal called on the National Transitional Government of Liberia to adopt the recommendations as measurable objectives for the reform process and take immediate steps to implement them. The recommendations included immediately auditing the sector and putting into place mechanisms to prevent the diversion of sector revenue towards illegal ends and amending the existing concession agreement to provide for independent monitoring of forestry and logging operations, especially by local NGOs and forest dwellers, in order to support and enhance national forest law enforcement and governance efforts, granting the public access to information relating to the entire chain of operations of the timber industry, and making available all concession agreements, including maps and management plans, annual coupe, etc. within the public domain. The civil society proposal also called for incorporating new provisions in the concession agreement that would require logging companies to publicly declare all monies paid to the government including taxes, fees or fines. This provision would also require concessionaires to make information about their production, processing, export, etc. directly available to the public. This would help to reduce the high level of corruption in the sector.

Excerpted and adapted from: “Increasing Transparency and Promoting Public Participation To Enhance Forest Law Enforcement and Governance”, developed at the Civil Society Planning Workshop and Finalized by the Forest Sector Reform Working Group, sent by Silas Kpanan’Ayoung Siakor, Director, Sustainable Development Institute, e-mail: director@sdiliberia.org (alternative email: sdi_liberia@yahoo.com )

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- Swaziland: Timber Plantations Impacting on People and Nature

In many respects, there is very little difference between Swaziland and South Africa. Climate, topography, and geology are similar, so it is no wonder that the natural vegetation is much like that found in the South African Provinces of KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga, that virtually enclose the Swazi Kingdom.

Before the arrival of large-scale timber plantations in Swaziland, the area that they now occupy was grassland, interspersed with patches of evergreen ‘mist-belt’ forest in moist, sheltered spots. The characteristic climax grasslands evolved over thousands of years with human influence and fire playing a big part in their development. A mischievous theory has claimed that the whole region was originally forested, and that grassland is a secondary vegetation type that manifests where forests have been destroyed. This has been used to help justify so called “afforestation” which aims to plant alien monoculture timber plantations wherever conditions will allow, in particular in grasslands.

It is known that there were Bushmen in these parts from the evidence of rock paintings in caves. Swazi people farmed cattle and other livestock as well as some food crops. Their domestic crops and animals, hunting, and natural resources from the forest and grassland provided all they needed to survive. Establishment of more than 100,000 hectares of plantations meant the displacement of these people and their livestock to adjacent steep, rocky and dry land, where they would be more prone to disease and attack by wild animals.

The issue of industrial timber plantations in Swaziland must be viewed within the larger southern African context. The timber industry in Swaziland could not survive if it was not linked to the extensive (1, 6 million ha.) plantations in South Africa, and heavily dependent on capital from that country. This anomaly is supported by the way the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) lumps certified Mondi plantations in Swaziland together with those in South Africa. From the FSC website, it appears Mondi has no certified plantations in Swaziland!

About 9% of Swaziland is under timber plantations. Sappi Usutu, owning more than half the plantations in Swaziland (70,000 ha), and the only pulp mill, employs about 3,000 people directly and indirectly. 1044 people are employed by Mondi Peak in two sawmills and 19,000 ha of plantations. Shiselweni, the third largest plantation area covers about 12,000 ha. The Mondi and Sappi plantations were originally established about 50 years ago by the Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC) that also started the Usutu pulp mill at Bhunya. These were sold to the present owners quite recently - Mondi in 1984, and Sappi in 1992. The Shiselweni plantations were established in 1967, also by CDC, but later sold to the Transvaal Wattle Growers Co-operative (TWK) also based in South Africa.

How do these plantations benefit the Swazi people? Swaziland imports most of its finished timber products from South Africa, whilst nearly all of the local timber production leaves the country as logs, pulp or rough cut planks.

The extent to which plantations impacted on water resources must have had serious consequences for people relying on water from streams and rivers flowing from the highveld catchment area. People born in the area before plantations remember waterfalls and deep streams that no longer exist.

An analysis of the negative impacts of plantations shows that there are two main categories: Ecological, and socio-economic, or more simply put – impacts on biodiversity and impacts on people. Further analysis shows that within these two main groups, some can be direct or primary, and many others indirect, consequent or secondary. Examples of primary impacts: destruction of natural vegetation; loss of grazing for livestock; loss of medicinal plants, depletion of water resources. Secondary impacts: increase in grazing pressure elsewhere; conflict over access to resources.

Impacts that manifest over time can be described as cumulative, downstream or tertiary – such as the accumulation in organisms of toxic agricultural chemicals, used to kill plants and animals that are an obstacle to plantation establishment; and invasion into wetlands, streams and forests by alien trees and weeds.

All of these impacts come with a cost, sometimes easily quantifiable, but mostly causing long-term losses to the natural environment and to people’s health, welfare and wealth that are difficult to put a value to. Like the future cost of the loss of a wetland, or poisoning of a river, or the effect of toxic fumes on workers in a pulp mill. One thing that is clear however is that the timber industry does not cover these costs. This ‘externalisation’ of costs by the industry enables them to continue to operate profitably, keeping their shareholders in some distant city happy, and no doubt increasingly wealthy. On top of this, it seems that timber companies have benefited from special deals that exempt them from paying certain taxes, and also receiving cash handouts from government if they plead poverty! All the plantation companies in Swaziland claim to be struggling to remain profitable. If they were to carry the full true costs of their operations, whilst operating on the current basis, it could mean they would no longer be viable.

The reality is that it would be virtually impossible to undo what has been done. However, new approaches that ensure most proceeds generated by the plantations remain in Swaziland and benefit local people are needed. Ownership and control of the plantation resource should revert to the people of Swaziland. Maximum beneficiation at the local level is needed to ensure the greatest possible number of work opportunities is created in Swaziland.

The CDC needs to take responsibility for the mess it has left. Ideally they should instigate and finance a process to restore ownership of the plantation areas to the communities that were displaced. The CDC should fund the costs of restoration of the natural areas that became degraded as a consequence of the establishment of plantations. This could create much needed employment for many people in the future, especially those that suffered as a consequence of losing access to land and water.

The social and ecological debt of the Sappi Usutu Pulp mill will need to be carefully assessed and remedied. Community health will need special attention. The workers’ village at Bhunya should be flattened, and workers provided with alternative opportunities for accommodation away from the polluted environment near the mill. The three schools at Bhunya, where young people are exposed to polluted air, should be relocated as a matter of urgency. An alternative would be Mhlambanyatsi, where there is good infrastructure, and a healthier environment.

On a final note, I feel compelled to comment on the attitude of disdain and disrespect for local communities displayed by management at all the three timber plantation companies where interviews were held. It seems that as is still often the case in South Africa, the rightful owners of resources being exploited for foreign profit are viewed and treated as second-class citizens in their own land. The natural environment has been abused in a similar way, and the land under plantations overexploited.

All of this must change.

By: Wally Menne, e-mail: plantnet@iafrica.com . Article based on research and fieldwork carried out from November 2003 to April 2004

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- Uganda: The plague Has Come to Eucalyptus Plantations

In September 2003, we informed about an exotic pest which had attacked eucalyptus trees in Western Kenya (see WRM Bulletin Nº 74), and reflected on the inherent risk of the monoculture pattern.

Now, the harm has reached neighboring Uganda, with Mpigi, Luweero, Masaka, Kasese, Mbarara, Bushenyi, Mbale, Kapchwora, Tororo, Lira and Apac being the worst hit districts.

The gall-forming wasp, Blue Gum Chalcid (Ophelimus eucalypti), becomes a pest for the exotic eucalyptus (kalitunsi) trees growing in large scale monoculture plantations. The wasp lays eggs in the tender parts of the plant, which react by forming galls (swellings). The attacked leaves fold and remain tiny leading to stunting of the whole plant, says Peter Kiwuso of the Forestry Resources Research Institute.

Eucalyptus, originating from Australia, has been planted in Uganda for about a century now. A study by Philip Karugaba, from The Environmental Action Network (TEAN), identifies the introduction of this exotic tree as one of two major factors (the other being grasses) that have replaced virtually to disappearance the indigenous species of trees --including the shea butter tree, whose seeds produce cooking oil used locally throughout Northern Uganda.

In Uganda, environmental conditions allows the eucalyptus to mature in just four years. This circumstance has fostered the large scale commercial plantation of this tree, which has been reported to be “spreading in the countryside like wild bush fire”. And like a wild fire, it is becoming destructive. Indeed, this is what typically has been going on all over the planet.

“The eucalyptus tree is thirsty and anti-social. Its fast growth rate places great demand on soil water and nutrients while its shed leaves do not permit growth of any other vegetation around the tree”, reads the paper. Anyway, maybe the same could be said about any other fast growth species. The ultimate problem is the model, the large scale monoculture pattern which worsens any effect, transforms insects into plagues, goes against the diversity of nature, and eventually proves expensive and weak. For tree farmers who have invested heavily in the fast growing trees, an event like this means a disaster.

For the approach that sees the forest ecosystem exclusively from its wood component, equating monoculture tree plantations with forests, we think the phrasing may be reformulated to say: “Can’t see the plantations for the trees”.

Article based on information from: “Ugandan Eucalyptus trees have an uninvited guest”, Gerald Tenywa, New Vision (Kampala), March 9, 2004; Paper prepared by Philip Karugaba, The Environmental Action Network (TEAN), Uganda, for the San Francisco Tobacco Free Project, http://tobaccofreekids.org/campaign/global/casestudies/uganda.pdf