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LOCAL STRUGGLES AND NEWS Brazil: Aracruz - Sustainability or business as usual? Six months ago, indigenous Tupinikim and Guarani people reclaimed just over 11,000 hectares of their land from the Brazilian pulp giant Aracruz Celulose. They chopped down thousands of eucalyptus trees to demarcate their territory and built two indigenous villages with a large meeting house and several other houses on the land. Several indigenous families are living in the houses. Earlier this month, 300 Tupinikim and Guarani and their supporters occupied the central administration building of Aracruz's pulp mill complex for 30 hours, to protest against Aracruz's interference in the official recognition of their land rights. Tupinikim and Guarani people have been attempting to recover their lands from Aracruz since 1979. In 1997, FUNAI recognised 18,071 hectares as belonging to the Tupinikim and Guarani people. However, they were only able to reclaim about 7,000 hectares of this land because of pressure from Aracruz on the federal government. Aracruz Celulose started its plantation operations in the Brazilian state of Espírito Santo in 1967, during the military dictatorship which ruled Brazil from 1964 until 1985. "When the company came, the people left. They weren't able to defy it. They were forced to leave and even threatened," Eugenio Francisco, a Tupinikim of the village of Lancha told researchers from FUNAI, Brazil's indigenous affairs agency in 1994. "The company took everything," he said. Aracruz built its first pulp mill on the site of a Tupinikim village called the Village of the Monkeys. Aracruz forced approximately 7,000 families to move from the land it occupied. Today, Aracruz is the world's largest producer of bleached eucalyptus pulp. In 2004 the company produced 2.5 million tons of pulp, 97 per cent of which was exported. Aracruz's largest customers are Procter & Gamble and Kimberly Clarke, accounting for 45 per cent of the company's sales. Aracruz owns 252,000 hectares eucalyptus plantations in the states of Minas Gerais, Bahia, Rio Grande do Sul and Espírito Santo. In addition, the company runs a "Forestry Partners Programme" covering 71,000 hectares of eucalyptus trees, managed and planted by farmers. To make way for its plantations, Aracruz destroyed more than 50,000 hectares of Mata Atlântica forest. Pairs of tractors with a chain tied between them drove through the forest, destroying everything in their path. Animals were crushed by falling trees or machinery. Aracruz has also been fined by IBAMA, Brazil's environmental protection agency, for planting in protected areas. Rivers and streams have dried up as a result of Aracruz's eucalyptus plantations. The company has dammed rivers and diverted water from the Doce River to its mills, further impacting water flows in the region. Fishing has largely disappeared from many of the rivers in the region. In January 2004, in an attempt to improve its image, Aracruz hired a UK-based consulting firm called SustainAbility. SustainAbility was founded in 1987 by John Elkington, the author of such books as "The Green Capitalists" and "The Green Business Guide". He describes his work over the last 25 years as "focusing mainly on trying to achieve sustainability with business, through markets." SustainAbility is developing a Sustainability Plan for Aracruz. Jodie Thorpe of SustainAbility explained that SustainAbility "identified three areas of Aracruz's framework as initial priorities for improvement: stakeholder engagement, transparency and governance." But SustainAbility's web-site includes very little information about Aracruz and nothing at all about Aracruz's record. It makes no mention of the Tupinikim and Guarani's struggle for land. None of the reports that SustainAbility has produced are publicly available. "While we encourage and support transparency, I hope you can appreciate that we are not at liberty to share this work publicly," explained Thorpe. Far from criticising Aracruz, SustainAbility's web-site states that "Aracruz Celulose has a long-standing commitment to sustainability." I wrote to Elkington to ask him how he responds to the criticism that SustainAbility is helping to greenwash a controversial company. "That absolutely is not the intent" he replied. Elkington explained that the SustainAbility web-site refers to Aracruz's "clear corporate commitment" to sustainability. "In my mind," he wrote, "there is no question that Aracruz still has a huge amount of work to do before it can claim to be anything like a 'sustainable company'". On this last point, then, we agree. I visited Aracruz in August 2001. I was there to take part in an international seminar on the impacts of eucalyptus plantations. Aracruz was also invited. I was looking forward to hearing how Aracruz staff would respond when faced with hundreds of community members who live with the impacts caused by the company. Aracruz, however, declined to attend the seminar. While I was there, I visited Tupinikim and Guarani villages, and listened to the problems they had faced since Aracruz had taken over their land. I saw the vast areas of sterile, industrial eucalyptus plantations. A Tupinikim village I visited was surrounded by plantations. I saw Aracruz's massive, stinking pulp mill. I heard about how the company releases its waste water at night. And I took part in a march with hundreds of people through Espiríto Santo to protest against Aracruz's activities. A few years ago, Elkington wrote that "Much of what passes for sustainable development looks very much like business more or less as usual." Elkington's consulting firm, SustainAbility, it seems, is currently proving this statement to be true. By Chris Lang, E-mail: chrislang@t-online.de
Chile: Pulp mill takes death to the sea Celulosas Arauco and Constitución pulp mill, better known as Celco, located in Valdivia, belong to the Chilean Angelini group. It recently re-launched their operations after having been closed for 64 days following the scandal arising from the mass death of black-necked swans in the Rio Cruces sanctuary where it discharged its effluents. Days before it reopened, the company had received the backing of President Ricardo Lagos and the local environmental authorities in taking this decision. On announcing its reopening, the company stated that it had “gained experience” and begged the “pardon of the community of Valdivia for the trouble and concern that it had had to face.” “The plant is in a condition to restart operations, but with its capacity limited to 80% as it must make changes and technological investments to adjust to the new demands established by COREMA [regional environmental authority] X Region and return to its originally authorised production,” stated the company. Celco also adopted other provisions. To start off with, it decided to implement the project of building a pipeline to the sea, alleging that this solution had been “reiterated by the President of the Republic during his recent visit to Valdivia.” The project also has the approval of the Corema. The management of Celco recently acknowledged the alternative of transporting and dumping liquid industrial waste in the sea, using pipelines that would flow into a sector between the Queule cove zones or in the vicinity of Puerto Saavedra, in exchange for participating in the construction of a new sea port in the area, benefiting the plantations companies that would be able to take their products out of the zone directly for export. The project would impact on the Mapuche Lafkenche communities, inhabiting the coast, and extending to the southern zone of the VIII Region, for whom the sea provides for their livelihood. The Mapuche and environmentalist organisations of the IX Region had announced this during a mobilisation under the slogan of “Meeting in diversity for the defence of environmental rights” which took place in Temuco on 9 July. Furthermore, a demonstration at the port of Valdivia, with the participation of vessels from various coves in the province, the trade unions and fisher-people associations, social organisations and Mapuche-Lafkenche communities in the region expressed their rejection of the pipeline from the factory flowing into the sea. “The alleged spearhead technology announced by the pulp mill has already left its mark on the Cruces River and now they intend it to reach the sea. I am telling Mr. [President] Ricardo Lagos that this pipeline will not empty into the sea because we will oppose it,” expressed Eliab Viguera, of the Committee for the Defence of the Sea. A document submitted by the demonstrators states that “The high danger of the pulp mill pipeline which, even with tertiary treatment caused the death of the wetlands (...) was demonstrated in a study undertaken by the Austral University of Chile, the only serious scientific study of public domain.” For many companies and governments, this evidence is only a public relations problem. They hire public opinion consultants, scientists and social workers but to study “how to sell the product better,” in this case the investment project, because their decisions are immovable. Thus the crises are postponed, the companies make money and the affected peoples, to make themselves heard, must take their demonstrations to the extremes of confrontation. When they explode the powers are “surprised” and ask for moderation. Article based on information from: “Chile, Celulosa Arauco ‘pide disculpas’ y reabre su planta”, Víctor L. Bacchetta, e-mail: vbacchetta@redcalc.org, http://www.rel-uita.org/agricultura/ambiente/celulosa_arauco.htm; “Celulosa Celco ahora va por el litoral Lafkenche”, Alfredo Seguel, Mapuexpress Informativo Mapuche, http://www.mapuexpress.net
Colombia: A forestry law for the foreign capital business Of the 3,500 million hectares of forests existing in the world, close on 63 million are to be found in Colombia and half of these are located in territories enriched by the cultures of indigenous peoples and Afro-descendent communities. These forests are also host to the richest forms of biological diversity in the world and support the numerous cultures that inhabit them. They are also the location for climatic and water regulation and the habitat of complex and irreplaceable life forms. However, in what is an unfortunate common feature of numerous countries in the South, the forest-culture relationship and the living conditions of numerous communities have been dramatically affected by the implementation of productive forest chains promoted by USAID through the Colombia Forestry Programme. Other factors have also had an impact: the Colombian State’s interest in converting biodiversity and the rest of the indigenous people and Afro-descendent communities’ environmental heritage into merchandise at the service of international capital and particularly that of the United States in the FTA; the implementation of highway and port facilities, mining and bioprospecting mega-projects; the establishment of large-scale oil palm plantations on indigenous and Afro-descendent community territories and vital spaces. The Forestry Law Bill that is presently being debated in Congress falls within the framework of these policies. It has already been adopted by the Senate and is going through a last debate in the Chamber of Representatives Plenary. Several Colombian social organizations have stated their criticism of this Bill, basically regarding the fact that it does not achieve the purpose of putting order in the chaos presently existing in the country regarding the harnessing of forest resources, but on the contrary, it is likely to generate further legal chaos leading to non-application both of existing laws on this subject and of new ones. In the first place, they claim that, regarding the formulation of the Bill, no participation has been given or consultation made with the Afro-descendent, Indigenous and Mestizo communities, or for that matter with any other social actors involved. Furthermore, the Forestry Law Bill states that it will regulate tree and forest plantations, but the social organizations declare that “Its contents are primarily to promote timber production in the country through plantations, discarding the possibility of a law for natural forests. This is a policy that lacks a comprehensive environmental perspective, and does not consider forests as an ecosystem as established by the Biodiversity Convention because it modifies the sector’s policy planning and formulation bodies and radically changes the corresponding institutions to the extent that most of the control will lie exclusively in the hands of the Ministry of Agriculture and private agents.” They also accuse the Bill of facilitating access by international companies to forestry business by establishing legal figures that enable access to the native forests of the main Pacific and Amazon areas, affecting Indigenous shelters, collective territories of Afro-descendent communities and peasant settlements. The organizations point out that “the marked eagerness in the discussion process and rapid adoption of the Bill in Congress do not agree with the enormous impact that it will have on the country’s forest wealth and on the rights of many Colombians. On the contrary, the influence of foreign bodies and logging companies interested in the promotion and adoption of the project is well-known.” “The prompt adoption of this Bill on the eve of the signature of the Free Trade Agreement with the United States promoting the environmental services market, makes the catastrophic results we are warning about even more expeditious.” The support of numerous individuals and organizations has endorsed the public letter setting out the above arguments. It can be accessed at: http://www.censat.org/Biodiversidad_Bosques_PL_Forestal.htm. Those wishing to give their support to the letter should contact the CENSTAT organization at the following e-mail address: bosques@censat.org. Article based on information
from CENSAT: “Declaración sobre el proyecto de Ley
Forestal”, “Carta abierta al Congreso de la República”,
http://www.censat.org/Biodiversidad_Bosques_PL_Forestal.htm
Logging is highly selective in the Peruvian Amazon. That is to say, out of the great diversity of species only a few are used, causing reductions in the existence of some species. The consumption of certain woods – such as mahogany – does not forgive even reserve zones. Illegal logging taking place in these zones resorts to various strategies ranging from extraction contracts in the so-called buffer zones (roughly 15 km wide strips surrounding the reserve area, which help the loggers to pass off the timber logged in the reserve as coming from the buffer zone), to permits for river transport inside the reserve of timber supposedly logged outside the reserve. Timber is also “laundered”: it is legalized by sawing it with a belt saw to remove the marks of chainsaws which are prohibited as they imply a great waste of wood and papers are drawn up as if the timber were to come out of the zone under contract. The noise and visibility of these activities, involving people established in well-known, permanent camps, flat barges that transport timber, and cranes, make this illegal activity anything but clandestine. In the Pacaya Samiria National Reserve, located in the triangle formed by the joining of the Marañón and Ucayali Rivers, it has been observed that an average of 20 men work in each camp and there are about 50 camps operating annually. It is precisely in this sector of illegal logging where labour systems abound that are associated with non-payment, remuneration in kind, prostitution of women in logging camps and sub-human working conditions. Twenty-first century slavery takes place under the name of forced labour and its victims are the most underprivileged – children, women, and native communities. Those who seem to be invisible. Competitiveness drives the companies to seek cost-cutting in production processes and so these modalities of exploitation occur that should offend peoples’ consciences. Isidoro Chahuán, a chain-saw operator from the Quichua ethnic group told us “I work for soap, salt, a cartridge, a shirt.” He is what is known as an authorised worker. In the Amazon, over 30 thousand Peruvians from the most distant indigenous communities are in the same inhuman situation. A report for ILO on forced labour in timber extraction in the Amazon by the anthropologist Eduardo Bedoya and the social science expert Alberto Bedoya, tells us of up to three ways it occurs. In two of them the common denominator is the system of inflated debts and meagre pay for the timber extracted. Although this is a long standing phenomenon going back to Colonial times, with the cedar and mahogany boom the timber industry has had to gain ground and for this reason has entered virgin territories, community reserve zones, national parks and localities where non-contacted or incipiently contacted groups reside. The most frequent case is that of the “authorizing logger” linked to large logging companies, handing out a quantity of money in the town to “trapping bosses” to obtain timber. These offer money or advance food or goods (such as rice, salt, rifles, chainsaws, etc.) to the indigenous communities under the condition that the community members, who know the area and its trees better than anyone else, deliver cut timber. Generally these agreements are made through verbal or written contracts, where no reference is made to the market value of the timber, which the indigenous people are unaware of and they are easily deceived. Thus, when the workers deliver the timber to the “trapping boss” he argues that the timber is no good and arbitrarily reduces payment. As the money is not enough, the indigenous people ask for further loans and increase their debt. Peasants are “trapped” and even sign ten-year contracts. In the case of logging camps, workers are gathered, usually from outside the communities, to extract timber. The report explains that in the towns they are given an initial amount of money to recruit them and then they are taken to work in the most remote zones of the Amazon. These regions are too distant for them to escape, their documentation is taken from them, they are far from the canoes and they are threatened that they will not be paid if they attempt to run away. The salaries are very low and goods are very expensive. A soda water at a logging camp can cost 10 soles (3 USD), a small sack of sugar 50 (15 USD), a sack of rice the same amount. Thus the vicious circle of debts is started “The major problem at these camps is the incapacity of the workers to mobilize. Labour inspectors do not reach them because of the inaccessibility of the area. The inhabitants cannot pay their debt by seeking another camp as in many cases they receive physical threats” says Bedoya. This is forced labour as there is a loss of freedom. In many cases, those ending up in a logging camp, formed by between 10 and 40 workers, take their family with them. The wife cooks, the children help but no one is paid. According to this study, there is a high rate of teen-age boys and women are found as cooks and prostitutes, earning planks of wood for their services. This is the timber curse. Fooling the peasants is not hard for the “trapping bosses” who work for the authorizing loggers, who in turn work for large logging companies. They only have to take advantage of the misery generated by the very system of timber exploitation that has depredated their local economies, displaced the communities from their lands or harrassed them in, taking away the forests that were part of their subsistence for food, medicines and housing. The great forestry business thrives under these miserable conditions, in close connivance between legal and illegal activities to the point of merging together, and in some cases even enjoying the endorsement of certification seals. Article based
on information from: “30 mil peruanos son víctimas
de trabajo forzoso en la Amazonía”, Gabriel
Gargurevich, Diario La República, May 2005, and
“Controles y descontroles: Extracción ilegal
de madera en el Pacaya-Samiria”, Alberto Chirif,
Actualidad indígena Nº 99, March 2005, Servicio
de Información Indígena SERVINDI, www.servindi.org,
sent by Carlos Arrunátegui, FAdAmazon (Fundación
de Adhesión con los Pueblos Amazónicos),
e-mail: carrunategui@fadamazon.org;
“Esclavos de la madera”, Jimena Pinilla
Cisneros, El Comercio, http://www.elcomercioperu.com.pe/EdicionImpresa/Html/2005-05-12/impCronicas0305152.html
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