Africa: Forests under threat

 
Contents 

About this book

Africa: general articles

Africa: forests under threat
Central African Conference on Forests
In defence of Central African forests
Have small farmers deforested West Africa?
Resistance to oil industry
Carbon sinks and money needs
Nothing much at the Central African forestry ministerial conference held in Cameroon
European Union's major responsibility over deforestation
Logging one of the world's largest areas of primary rainforest
NGO statement at Ministerial Meeting on illegal logging

Angola

War destroys forests

Cameroon

Who conserves and who destroys forests?
EU fosters rainforest destruction
Timber ban relaxed
Structural adjustment promotes deforestation
Forest sector development in a difficult political economy
Tree plantations: a false alternative to deforestation in Cameroon
Research questions myths about fuelwood use and deforestation
Oil palm, people and the environment
Unequal equality between community forests and logging companies
The trees beyond the forest
Social and environmental impacts of industrial forestry exploitation
French companies' illegal practices in the forest
Forestry Group Rougier accused in French Tribunal

Chad - Cameroon

Menacing oil exploitation
The oil pipeline: response from the World Bank
The World Bank again shows who it serves
Oil revenues versus human rights and environment

Central African Republic

Transnational loggers in the forest
IMF, logging and mining
Logging companies destroy "Pygmies'" livelihoods

Congo DR

The uncertain fate of forests
The case of the Twa of the Kahuzi-Biega National Park
Pillage certified in Uganda?
Will Zimbabwe become a member of the logging club?
Millions of acres of forest under unsustainable logging
Forests Open for Business

Congo R

Shell's eucalyptus plantations now provide even fewer jobs
Foreign loggers deplete forests and livelihoods
Increased logging activities

Cote D'Ivoire

World Bank promotes oil palm and rubber plantations in Liberia and Cote d'Ivoire
Increasing conflict between smallholders and oil palm estates
IMF, cocoa, coffee, logging and mining
The sacred forest, a community protected area

Equatorial Guinea

Logging ban and logging on the rise
Transnational loggers in the forest

Eritrea

Sustainable forest use threatened by government policies

Ethiopia

Deforestation and monoculture plantations behind the fires

Gabon

Logging: The French colonial approach
The endangered primary forests
Logging companies' promised "development"
Rich forests or cheap source of wood?
Polemic agreement on the Lope Reserve
Forests and the climate debate
The new Forestry Law and transnational companies
More logging concessions in the hands of foreign firms

Gambia

A different type of forest degradation
A case of community forest management

Ghana

FAO supports private plantations
The impacts of mining
What's hidden behind the Bui Dam Project?
The documented impacts of oil palm monocultures
IMF, mining and logging
Protected areas at the expense of people do not guarantee conservation
Ancient tradition in community forest management

Kenya

Violence against forest activists
Ogiek people's fight to protect their forest
The future of the Ogiek and their forests
Mangroves threatened by Canadian mining company
Local peoples' land rights ignored
Resistance to the Sondu Miriu Dam project
International campaign for the Ogiek
Who favours and who destroys forest biodiversity?
Pollution and deforestation caused by Pan African Paper Mills
Is the government serious about forest biodiversity conservation?
Forest destruction for the benefit of government cronies
Forest degradation and the way ahead for conservation efforts

Liberia

World Bank promotes oil palm and rubber plantations in Liberia and Côte d'Ivoire
The silent destruction of the forests
Concerns over World Bank's promotion of rubber plantations
Civil war and transnational profit making
At the centre of it all is the indigenous community
Forest destruction backed by the government
Danish firm DLH violates its own principles on wood purchasing
The long chain of responsibility in forest destruction

Madagascar

Communities defend rainforests against Rio Tinto
Mangrove importance and threats
IMF opens up the country to mining
IMF-promoted mining threatens littoral forests

Malawi

Too many people?
Forests, health and life

Mali

The value of biodiversity in a fragile environment

Mozambique

Floods that originated in South Africa

Nigeria

Nnimmo Bassey imprisoned and released
WRM "unwittingly subversive"
Human rights abuses continue
Threatened mangroves
Oil and violence
Victory of local communities over Texaco
The struggle continues
A positive change in oil activities?
Cross River's forests need your help
Environmental racism
Shell sets forests on fire
Poverty, oil pipelines and death
At whose expense is oil drilled in the Niger Delta?
Shell's choice between profits and principles
Malaysian corporation to invest in palm oil production
Gold Medal to Shell: A mockery to the people
Palm oil deficit in a traditional palm oil producing country
People protect mangroves against shrimp farming
Godforsaken by oil

Rwanda

The un-reported plight of the Batwa

Senegal

The hidden impacts of charcoal production

South Africa

More pulp industry development
"Social benefits" of industrial tree plantations
Good news
The ways of the powerful pulp industry
Exotic tree plantations are green wastelands
Privatizing plantations
Resistance to tree monocultures in grasslands
Industrial timber plantations - asset and liability
The Big Lie
What are the true costs of woodlots?
Just poetry and emotion?
Grassland ecosystem destruction by tree plantations
Quo vadis FSC?
The sad figures of employment generated by plantation companies
Where impact of plantations on water is accepted as fact
Tree plantations' impacts on bird populations
FAO forest definition a threat to biodiversity

Tanzania

Preservation results in human rights abuses
Where illegal logging is almost legal
Afforestation, reforestation and the real causes of forest destruction
Local people benefit from forest products
Another case of Norwegian "CO2lonialism"
Gold mining adds new problems to lake Victoria
Human rights, social justice and conservation
The death of the Rufiji Delta Prawn Project
Biodiversity loss linked to IMF-promoted commercial agriculture and mining
Traditional knowledge in forest restoration
Community-based forest management as a way forward for conservation

Togo

Community rights and forest conservation

Uganda

Carbon sinks and Norwegian "CO2lonialism"
The same old story about dams
The Bujagali Dam: A useless giant
Bujagali dam project questioned by World Bank's Inspection Panel

Zambia

The Minister's silence on the timber business
Causes of deforestation linked to government policies
Deforestation, timber industry and free trade

Zimbabwe

A different type of top-down approach
Demystifying the role of "the poor" in forest destruction

About this book:

This book gathers a selection of articles published in the monthly electronic bulletin of the World Rainforest Movement (WRM), addressing the issue of the processes leading to the destruction of African forests and the struggles developed there to protect and use these forests adequately.

The level of detail and analysis in the articles varies greatly, as a consequence of the nature of the bulletin, which is intended to serve as a tool, both for individuals and organisations acting on a local level and for those working on an international scale. However we have included most of the articles as we consider that in some way they can all serve to generate resistance and solidarity movements regarding a subject such as this, of vital importance both for the survival of the African people and for the future of humanity as a whole.

We have not included the numerous sources of information on which the various articles were based, due to a lack of space. However, those who are interested in accessing these sources may do so through our web page, entering the "bulletin" area and looking for the year and month corresponding to the article in question.

Responsibility for this publication is shared between the editor of the bulletin Ricardo Carrere (international coordinator of the WRM) and the numerous individuals and institutions who contributed articles or relevant information for the preparation of articles. Errors that may have been made are the exclusive responsibility of WRM.

Beyond the authorship of the different articles - which finally is of scant importance - the true protagonists of this work are the thousands and thousands of people who suffer from the impacts of deforestation and forest degradation, who resist appropriation of their territories and who generate environmentally and socially appropriate alternatives for its use. The articles attempt to reflect the struggles of these protagonists, with the central aim of supporting them. To all of them, we pay our most sincere homage.

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