- Argentina: A respite in the commercial assault against forests

On 26 November 2004, the Province of Santa Fe legislature adopted an emergency environmental law placing an absolute moratorium on land clearing, logging, deforestation, burning or destruction of woodland and native forests for a period of 180 days, which can be extended a further 180 days by the executive.

Furthermore, on 17 December, the Civil and Trade Court No. 6 of the Chaco Province, presided by Dr. Iride Isabel Maria Grillo, ruled favourably in an action for the protection of a collective right guaranteed by the Constitution, lodged by the indigenous communities in defence of their territories. In this respect, she declared the forest law reform permitting unlimited logging to be unconstitutional, based on the violation of the duty to consult with the indigenous communities and on the violation of environmental obligations by the Chaco State. In view of the effects caused by this violation, she ordered that an evaluation be made of the damage done to the Chaco forest together with an assessment of the environmental and social impact if such action were to persist.

In this ruling she quoted, among the justifications, part of the document prepared by the Foro del Buen Ayre, a coalition of NGOs that was present at the 10th Conference of the Parties (COP 10) to the Convention on Climatic Change held recently in Buenos Aires. This document demanded that all forest clearing should be halted, maintaining that “both for reasons of biodiversity protection and for the multiple environmental services that they offer, in addition to climatic change mitigation, we must protect the last forests remaining in Argentina.”

In this document, the Foro del Buen Ayre demands that the Argentine National State act to protect the communities and indigenous peoples who are being stripped of their lands and whose natural reserves are put up for bids for private benefit. It states: “The National State cannot continue to be absent from this process of devastation of our forests.”

The member organizations of the Foro del Buen Ayre maintain in this document that “Land planning is necessary, ensuring that criteria of sustainability are foremost in the preservation of native forests and their biodiversity and in the use of land. The State must engage itself with an active and responsible policy and not leave forest preservation to the unequal correlation of forces that exists among the business community, vulnerable peasant communities and provincial governments.”

The causes of one of the greatest climatic catastrophes of the twenty-first century faced by Argentina between March and April 2003 were identified. The Province of Santa Fe suffered one of the worst floods ever recorded: in 10 days the rainfall amounted to 400 mm, affecting 220,000 hectares, causing prejudice to the population and to the main economic activities in the area. The balance of the catastrophe was 130,000 victims, 30 dead, 28,000 homes damaged and losses amounting to over 1,500 million dollars.

One of the factors that went to make the floods turn into a real tragedy was the continued loss over the past decades of forest cover in river basins, such as that of the Salado river (see WRM Bulletin No. 85). This deforestation is mainly caused by the expansion of agriculture. Since 1999, the unceasing work of the lumberjacks in the provinces of Santiago del Estero, Chaco, Salta, Tucuman, Cordoba, Santa Fe and Entre Rios has enabled soybean crops to increase by over 2,000,000 hectares. In one of the most affected regions, the Chaco, it is estimated that if this practice were to continue, by 2010 some 4,300,000 hectares will have been cleared of trees.

In turn, this deforestation is a considerable contribution to the release of carbon emissions and therefore, to global warming. In a recent paper by the Forest Office of the Secretariat for the Environment and Sustainable Development of the Argentine Nation, an assessment was made of releases of gases from deforestation in the various forest environments. The data presented point out that presently Argentina possesses a great source of released gases arising from deforestation in the Northeast of the country, Parque Chaqueño and the Yungas forest.

In a discouraging situation in which native forests now occupy a mere 14 per cent of the national territory – while in 1914 they covered 39 per cent of the area – local organizations consider both resolutions to be positive, giving a respite from the assaults by commercial interests that devastate life itself.

It is now a matter of benefiting from this respite to work socially in visualizing productive models that bridge the separation between production and nature and that make it possible to unearth local knowledge and its ways of relating to the world, that certainly has much to contribute to achieve reciprocal system integration.

Article based on information from: “Urgente, Santa Fe declaró la emergencia ambiental y frenó los desmontes por ley”, http://www.greenpeace.org.ar/noticia.php?contenido=4432&item=&seccion=4; “Chaco: fallo a favor de comunidades indígenas”, http://www.argentina.indymedia.org/news/2004/12/248289.php; “El Cambio Climático y la agenda local”, documento del Foro del Buen Ayre, e-mail: marem@lq.com.ar, www.foroba.org.ar, sent by Dr Anna Petra, e-mail: annapetra@cabledosse.com.ar

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- Brazil: Open letter of social organisations rejecting the certification of Aracruz Celulose

In an open letter signed by several social organisations and personalities from Brazil, the Rede Alerta contra o Deserto Verde (Alert Against the Green Desert Network) denounces and rejects the certification of the huge plantation company and one of the biggest producers of bleached eucalyptus pulp in the State of Espirito Santo, Aracruz Celulose, through the Brazilian government programme CERFLOR.

The Alert Against the Green Desert Network feels indignation about the CERFLOR process of certification of “forest management” of Aracruz Celulose. Such company owns 146 thousand hectares of land in the State of Espirito Santo, 93 thousand hectares of which are planted with eucalyptus monocultures.

Once again we state that an industrial monoculture, in large scale, may not be certified for being unsustainable. Eucalyptus plantations are “sustainable” only in the opinion of Aracruz, that increases its productivity, at the expense of high consumption and pollution of water resources, death of fish and animals, and many other socio environmental impacts, involving indigenous and quilombola (African slave descendants) communities and small farmers that used to live in the region that has turned to be known as Green Desert. The way of life of such communities has changed only for the benefit of Aracruz, that has ruined the Atlantic Forest, thus destroying the source of a real sustainability for such communities.

We think that CERFLOR does not deserve to be relied upon by the organizations, movements, communities and citizens of the civil society. The civil society has been expressly excluded from the discussion about objectives, principles and criteria of this certification system. At present, we do not even know which are the principles and criteria that the certifying company, BVQI is going to use in this process of certification, and to learn about it, we have to buy the documents referred to the procedure of certification established by CERFLOR, and this makes it non transparent. Apart from that, there are no minimum social or environmental requirements regarding the CERFLOR certificate. It basically makes reference to Brazilian laws.

In the case of Aracruz Celulose, the attempt to certify its areas in the State of Espirito Santo seems even provocative for all those who know closely the behaviour and position of the company’s executives towards local communities and their environment, along the last 35 years. We list some examples of conflicts below, some of which are more recent than others:

* Aracruz Celulose continues to occupy around 10,500 hectares of Tupinikim and Guarani indigenous lands in the municipality of Aracruz. These are lands that have already been recognized as indigenous lands by the federal government; however, they were excluded from the last demarcation in 1998. At that time, the federal government itself, pressed by Aracruz Celulose, committed an illegal act when reducing the area of land to be demarcated. Therefore, there remains the question: how can a company that occupies and exploits indigenous lands be certified?

* Aracruz Celulose invaded the lands of quilombolas (African slave descendants) in Northern Espirito Santo, evicting thousands of people and planting eucalyptus. In recent years, 34 quilombola communities are in a process of rearticulation and reorganization to guarantee their recognition, the return and demarcation of their lands, with the support of Fundação Palmares, INCRA (Agrarian Reform Institute) and of the organized civil society. However, CERFLOR intends to grant a certificate to a company that occupies and exploits lands of quilombola communities.

* Furnaces of inhabitants of Vila do Riacho, who used to make coal with the remains of eucalyptus of Aracruz, were destroyed in an action articulated between the Municipal Government of Aracruz, the company, policemen and the “armed militia” of Aracruz: Visel. The remains of eucalyptus –remains of branches and logs- are the only source of income for communities that were deprived of their livelihoods. At present, such company is considered as environmentally sound because it has a machine that crushes such remains so that the organic material is reincorporated to the soil. It would be incredible that Aracruz be awarded an environmental prize for that... Now, how to certify a company that deprives landless families, quilombola and indigenous communities of their only source of income, pushing them into starvation?

* In October this year, Aracruz destroyed four houses of inhabitants in an area of Barra do Riacho, near their industrial complex. This inhuman and criminal act took place in accordance with a preliminary judgment issued by a Judge of the Aracruz municipality. The lawyers of the company claimed that the families were “intruders” in the land of Aracruz. Upon destruction of the houses, it was evidenced in Court that the families had been living in the area for more than 10 years. In a barbaric action, Aracruz destroyed the houses and uprooted all the crops of banana, manioc and pineapple. Pursuant to an appeal, filed by the counsel for the families, the judge considered that she had been deceived by the multinational Aracruz and demanded that Aracruz should rebuild the houses within 10 days. Aracruz still has to indemnify the families for the emotional distress and damages. Is this a company that deserves to receive a certificate of forest management while it continues to commit violent acts against local inhabitants, as well as indigenous and quilombola communities and small farmers along the last 35 years, even with the support of the military dictatorship?

* In Northern Espirito Santo, hundreds of families continue camping and wait for a plot of land, while the major landowner of the State, Aracruz, is able to continue purchasing and leasing lands, at prices above the standards of the market and planting eucalyptus. How to certify a company that hinders even more the agrarian reform?

These are only some examples of the violence applied by Aracruz with the support of governments, against fundamental rights of local communities, rights that are guaranteed to such communities by the Brazilian Constitution and by international agreements about Economic, Social, Cultural and Environmental Rights, signed and ratified by Brazil. Examples show that, if CERFLOR takes at least Brazilian laws seriously, Aracruz should never receive such seal.

And lastly, it is not worthwhile to discuss conditions for so much unsustainability. Local communities are tired from the impacts of eucalyptus monocultures. They want alternatives based on the production of food in the land through an ample agrarian reform, they want reforestation with species that improve local environment and offer multiple options of use; indigenous and quilombola communities want their lands back and, above all, they want their most fundamental rights to be respected.

By: Alert Against the Green Desert Network, December 2004, sent by Winfridus Overbeek, FASE – ES, e-mail: winnie.fase@terra.com.br