- Argentina : The destruction of the Misiones forest amounts to the genocide of the Mbya Guarani

In the Province of Misiones, located in the northeast of Argentina, the authorities of the ancient Mbya Guarani people (see WRM Bulletin Nº 87), who inhabit what is today the Yaboti Reserve, have resorted to criminal justice to denounce the governor of the Province, Carlos Rovira, for genocide.

The Mbya Guarani, the ancient inhabitants of the Misiones forest who lived for centuries as part of it, without feeling they were its owners, have seen their territory threatened when the Mocona Forestal S.A. company, with the endorsement of the Provincial Government, started deforesting what is their means of life and subsistence.

At the legal presentation, the Chiefs described how their communities have been organized for centuries, and denounced the government of Misiones for trying to impose on them organizations that the government officials invent “to divide us and thus better control us.”

Raul Montenegro, 2004 Alternative Nobel Prize winner and president of the Foundation for Environmental Defence (Fundación para la Defensa del Ambiente - FUNAM), affirms that “the large number of trees that the Mocona Forestal S.A. company logged in Yaboti, in spite of the ban, shows that the silent genocide and brutal destruction of the forest continue.”

Over the past few months, various children from the communities have died of malnutrition. Since August 2004, Chiefs and members of some 40 Mbya Guarani communities have taken turns to wait in the central square of the provincial capital Posadas to ask for recognition of their rights, the devolution of their ancestral territories and the resignation of the Director of Guarani Affairs. So far, the Governor has refused to receive them.

"While Mbya Guarani children die of malnutrition because white men log their forests and exclude them, the governor of Misiones and various foreign organizations built a Biological Station, with air conditioning, heating and every comfort,” Raul Montenegro recalled ironically. “Conservation is not the launching of a biological station for foreigners, however well-known they may be, to play at being explorers. Conservation is protecting what little is left of the forest through joint work with indigenous communities, the government and other sectors of society,” denounced Montenegro.

Ariel Araujo from the Coordinating Council of Indigenous Peoples and Organizations from the Chaco and Misiones Region (Coordinadora de Pueblos y Organizaciones Indígenas de la Región Chaqueña y Misiones - COPIRECHA), the organization that accompanies the Mbya in their struggle, stated that the government's lack of sensitivity “is overwhelming and incomprehensible. They do not mind seeing children, women and men suffer. All they want is for the indigenous people to continue doing what they are told to do by the white man, what the government says.”

In their presentation to the court, the Chiefs say that “we have settled at the Plaza 9 de Julio in the City of Posadas, which represents ‘the freedom' of the white people, and in the shade of the statue representing ‘their freedom', to ask for the massacre of our children and old people to cease.” .

Facts show that the death of the forest is the death of its people. For this reason, its conservation is a social imperative, and the contrary, as denounced by the Mbya Guarani people, is an environmental crime and genocide.

Article based on information from “Indígenas Mbya Guaraní denuncian penalmente por genocidio a Gobernador Rovira y Ministros de Misiones (Argentina)”, sent by the Indigenous Information Service SERVINDI, Nº 35, e-mail: servindi@amauta.rcp.net.pe ; “ Vergonzoso: el gobernador Rovira recibe a dos ingleses y un estadounidense interesados en Yabotí, pero no a indígenas guaraníes que están en la plaza de Posadas desde hace 52 días”, FUNAM, http://www.funam.org.ar/ingleses.htm

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- Brazil : World Bank loan to Aracruz is in breach of Bank forest policy

The world's largest producer of bleached eucalyptus pulp has plans to become even bigger. Last year, Aracruz Cellulose produced 2.5 million tons of pulp. The company is looking at five possible sites to build a new, one million tons a year pulp mill. Over the next two years, Aracruz will spend US$600 million on upgrading its existing pulp mills and expanding its 305,000 hectare plantation area.

The World Bank is keen to help Aracruz with its expansion plans. In November 2004, the Board of the International Finance Corporation, part of the World Bank Group, approved a US$50 million loan to Aracruz. IFC's Principle Environmental Specialist, Peter Neame, told me that "IFC is pleased to support this leading Brazilian forest sector company and to recognize their environmental and social programs and the progress they have made in these areas."

Aracruz's plantations were established on the lands of local communities, including those of the Tupinikim and Guarani indigenous peoples. Aracruz built their pulp mill in Espirito Santo on a Tupinikim village called the Village of the Monkeys.

In February 2005, WRM received a leaked copy of a report that IFC staff produced to inform the Board about the proposed loan. In the report IFC staff dismissed any criticism of Aracruz: "Aracruz has been the target of allegations concerning its environmental and social practices, typically from non-governmental organizations ("NGOs") with political or anti-plantation agendas." IFC staff apparently did not consider it appropriate to worry the Board with awkward facts such as an occupation by the Movement of Landless Peasants (MST) of Aracruz's plantations which took place in April 2004. IFC staff did not explain to the Board that Tupinikim and Guarani indigenous peoples continue to protest against Aracruz's conversion of their lands to eucalyptus plantations.

IFC staff did tell the Board that they had carried out an appraisal of Aracruz's "sustainability practices", which included meetings with "local authorities, community leaders, market analysts and NGOs", according to IFC's report to its Board. I asked IFC's Peter Neame for a list of all the people and organisations that IFC had met during its appraisal of Aracruz. I also asked for notes of the consultation meetings.

Neame declined to provide any of this information, and instead referred me to IFC's Environmental Review Summary. The summary provides no information about any meetings. Neame's reply, however, does reveal the inadequacy of IFC's consultation with local people. He explained that the Environmental Review Summary "was publicly disclosed here in Washington and also locally in Brazil." He added, "There were no questions raised by local groups or civil society in response to this disclosure."

IFC's loan is in breach of the World Bank's forest policy, which requires that "industrial-scale commercial harvesting operations" must "be certified under an independent forest certification system acceptable to the Bank". IFC has its own forest policy, which makes no mention of certification. But, according to IFC's report to the Board, when the World Bank produced its new forest policy in 2002, IFC "did indicate to the Board . . . that it agreed with the certification approach".

IFC staff did not tell the Board that in 1999 Scientific Certification Systems, a Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) accredited assessor, began an assessment of part of Aracruz's plantations. Aracruz failed to meet FSC's standards. Instead, IFC staff wrote in their report to the Board that Aracruz aims to have all of its plantations certified under a Brazilian certification scheme called CERFLOR.

To be acceptable to the World Bank a certification system must recognise the rights of indigenous peoples. The standards must be developed with the "meaningful participation" of NGOs, local people and indigenous peoples. The certification system must be based on "objective and measurable performance standards". It must be independent. Its decision-making procedures must be "fair, transparent, independent, and designed to avoid conflicts of interest."

CERFLOR meets none of these requirements. CERFLOR's do not even mention Indigenous Peoples. Aracruz took part in drawing up the standard, but no indigenous peoples and very few NGOs were involved. Rather than specifying minimum performance standards, CERFLOR requires that plans and programmes are in place. CERFLOR's standards are only available on payment of a fee. Summaries of assessments are not publicly available. Rather than avoiding conflicts of interest, CERFLOR appears designed to encourage them. Aracruz represents Brazilian Pulp and Paper Association on the Forestry Technical Subcommittee of the Brazilian Certification Committee.

IFC commissioned an "independent forestry specialist" to check whether CERFLOR complies with the World Bank's forest policy. Neame turned down my request for a copy of the consultant's report.

Neame told me that CERFLOR "is generally consistent with the requirements for an acceptable system as specified in the World Bank Forests policy". To Neame, any problems with CERFLOR are simply "areas in which it could be further improved".

Although IFC staff acknowledged in the report to the Board that "CERFLOR does not yet fully comply with the new Bank policy", they decided that "an appropriate way forward would be for both IFC and Aracruz to work cooperatively with the Brazilian accreditation and standard-setting bodies . . . to further improve CERFLOR's standards and procedures to the point where they would be fully acceptable."

This approach, wrote IFC staff, "can be considered to meet the spirit of the new Bank policy". But if the World Bank can simply decide that loans need only comply with the spirit rather than the letter of Bank policies, there is little point having the policies in the first place.

By Chris Lang, e-mail: chrislang@t-online.de

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- Paraguay : Deforestation Zero Law in the Eastern Region

On 13 December 2004, the Paraguayan Congress adopted Law No. 2524 “Prohibiting, in the Eastern Region, Activities Transforming and Converting Surfaces with Forest Cover.” This law was subsequently known as Deforestation Zero Law. This Law mentions that its main objective is to “favour the protection, rehabilitation and enhancement of native forests in the Eastern Region, whereby as from the date of promulgation of the present Law and for a two-year period there is “prohibition to issue permits, licences, authorizations and/or any legally valid document authorizing the transformation or conversion of areas with native forest cover to areas assigned for agriculture or livestock use in any of its modalities or to areas assigned for human settlements.”

Paraguay is a country where decrees have their stories and innumerable actions have been declared, prohibited, permitted or promoted by decree, some of them beneficial and others with catastrophic results for the citizenship. Decree Law 2524/04 does not escape from the pattern in which Laws are prepared and accepted in the country. This situation leads us to consider certain points that bear on the effectiveness of this Law to “favour the protection, rehabilitation and enhancement of native forests” and the temporal and social context in which the Law arises.

- On 2 November 2004, one month before the promulgation of Law 2524, the Environmental Secretariat resolved, through Resolution No. 1133, that “Environmental Licences or Declarations of Environmental Impact granted by the Environmental Secretariat (SEAM) in the Framework of the Environmental Impact Law for land use plans, do not contemplate Authorization for Land Clearing proposed in land use plans.” In this way, SEAM leaves the responsibility for granting permits to clear land in the hands of the National Forestry Service (reporting to the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock).

- The Eastern region of the country has less than one million seven hundred thousand hectares of forests remaining from the over eight million five thousand hectares it had forty years ago. This deforestation was promoted by the Government itself through plans to extend the agricultural frontier, soft credits for large estate-owners and real-estate speculation following the construction of highways and two large dams, all within the framework of plans and credits granted specially for these activities by international funding agencies, such as the Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank, in most cases with the technical advice of FAO. Many of these plans and projects are still on-going today without any changes having been made to them.

- Initially the Law will be in force for two years, a length of time that does not enable changes to be seen or improvements or rehabilitation of any kind in most of the deforested zones, which today are occupied by large cattle-raising estates or soya-bean monoculture plantations.

- The Law makes no mention of the Western Region of the country (representing 61 per cent of the territory), largely covered by forests on exceedingly fragile soils where deforestation is advancing at a great pace, leaving behind it desertification, poverty and the eviction of indigenous communities from their ancestral territories.

- The Law appears at a time of great social tension and peasant mobilizations seeking to claim their right to the land.

The rapid promulgation of this Law, in addition to the points mentioned above, make us have doubts about the real objective of the decree and above all about its effectiveness in halting deforestation, when the real causes are not analyzed, when today the authorities responsible for promoting and enforcing laws are still the first to violate them.

Examples of the above happen every day and yet another occurred on 28 January this year, a little over a month after the law was adopted, when an “honourable” Member of Parliament from the Lower Chamber of Congress, ordered the liberation of a truck illegally transporting logs. Neither the truck, nor its driver nor the logs had any documents, but even so the MP ordered them to be freed and threatened the attorney who had detained the truck, with dismissal from her post. These actions by the MP have given rise to the reaction by civil society which is now requesting his impeachment. However, this will be a very difficult task as the MP in question belongs to the party in power and with a majority in Congress.

All the above, together with other innumerable cases of abuse of power and negligence of the authorities when addressing environmental and particularly, social issues, leave us with many questions to be asked about the Law and its effectiveness as a mechanism to curb the process of deforestation. No other alternatives are given except prohibition; there is no mention of sustainable use processes, land planning and rehabilitation of those areas that have undergone deforestation.

By Maria Jose Lopez, Sobrevivencia, e-mail: bosques@sobrevivencia.org.py , www.sobrevivencia.org.py

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- Peru : Community resistance forces Yanacocha Mining Company to retreat

In Peru, the Departments where mining prevails show the highest levels of poverty in the country. Such is the case of Cajamarca, the location of the Yanacocha Mining Company -with 51.35 per cent of its shares belonging to the US transnational Newmont Mining Corporation; 43.65 per cent to the national group Benavides; and 5 percent to the World Bank's International Finance Corporation.

The Minera Yanacocha Company has been operating in Cajamarca since 1993, and is the second largest gold mine in the world. However, while Cajamarca contributes some 10 per cent to the country's exports, it is the fifth poorest Department in the country, with 77.4 per cent of its population living in poverty and 50.8 per cent in extreme poverty.

On 2 September 2004, some 3,000 peasants marched towards the Yanacocha Mining company's camp (see WRM Bulletin No. 86), located in the Cerro Quilish, demanding that the new exploration works foreseen to be undertaken in Quilich, South Yanacocha and Cuenca Porcon should not take place. This is a zone with a very fragile ecosystem, located in a high part of the catchment area. Quilish is only 8.5 km from the “El Milagro” drinking water plant. According to studies and technical reports, its exploration and subsequent exploitation involve a serious risk of poisoning the water, with the resulting repercussions on the health and life of the population in rural and urban areas, in addition to an increasing shortage of water.

Added to the confrontations between peasants and police forces, was an attack from a helicopter provided by the Army, dropping tear-gas bombs on the demonstrators to disperse them. The confrontation ended with various people injured, among them one with a bullet wound and various other people arrested, including children and old people.

A few days later, during a multitudinous march held on 15 September, the day of a regional strike, the population of Cajamarca proclaimed: “Listen Yanacocha, Cajamarca is to be respected,” “An intelligent people defends the environment,” “Life is a treasure, worth more than gold,” “We want clean water, not contaminated water,!” “This is possible, yes this is possible!”

The resounding civil protest by the people of Cajamarca over their legitimate right to consume clean water free from heavy metals, bore its fruit. Following two weeks of mobilizations and civil protests, the Minister of Energy and Mines shelved the authorization granted to the Yanacocha Mining Company in the Cerro Quilish. A formal Negotiation Dialogue will be installed to discuss concrete alternatives for the concrete problems caused by the Yanacocha Mining Company. Civil society will submit its proposals to the Peruvian State.

They still have before them the task of continuing to inform and organize. However, the people are clear and say “When the cyanide ponds start to infiltrate our rivers, no gold or money will save us. Wake up Cajamarcans!”

Article based on information from: “El retroceso de Yanacocha”, Iván Salas Rodríguez, sent by SERVINDI, Nº 31, e-mail: servindi@amauta.rcp.net.pe ; “ Cajamarca dignidad”, Iván Salas Rodríguez , http://www.adital.org.br/site/noticia.asp?lang=ES&cod=13944 ; “Impacto de la minería en América Latina”, Mines and Communities, http://www.minesandcommunities.org/Action/press545.htm