|
|
WRM Campaign Material
|
Tree Plantations:
Impacts and Struggles Asia A shady bussiness in East Timor One of the main reasons why Indonesia continues occupying East Timor after its invasion in December 1975 and based upon a continuous repression of the Maubere people are the business interests of president Suharto’s family in that country. The Indonesian Army is heavily involved in protecting the First Family’s interests in the occupied land, that cover many different economic activities, from coffee and sugarcane plantations to textiles and mining. Since 1995 they are also planning to enter the forestry sector. The company PT Fendi Hutani Lestari, which is directed by businessman Bob Hasan, one of Suharto’s best friends, has planned to establish nearly 50,000 hectares of tree plantations in an area covering eleven villages in the district of Viqueque. Even if not much has been heard since the official launching of the plantation in July 1995, the strong popular opposition to other projects of this company in East Timor seems to have prevented the plan to reach its target. Source: George J. Aditjondro (21/8/97) and The World Guide 1997/98 Indonesian forests under threat An enormous pulp mill - PT TEL- is being established in South Sumatra by a syndicate of foreign banks and export credits from Europe, North America and Japan. The agreement for nearly US$ 1billion was signed in March. PT TEL involves a number of Barito Pacific subsidiaries, President Suharto’s daughter Tutut and Japanese companies. Mature rainforest, local people’s plantations and farms are being destroyed to make way for the paper pulp mill at Tanjung Enim and the industrial timber estates to supply it. Local communities have been forced off their land with little compensation and no alternative means of making a living. Source: Down to Earth Newsletter Nr. 32, February 1997 The Indonesian military are putting pressure on the indigenous people of the island of Siberut to allow a 70,000 hectare oil palm plantation and associated transmigration scheme to go ahead, regardless of the fact that the island has been designated as a Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO. Indonesia's palm oil industry is currently undergoing a boom. The Indonesian government wants the country to overtake Malaysia as the world's largest palm oil producer early next century. All over Sumatra, mature rainforest is being felled to make room for more plantations. There are signs the boom may already be peaking. Earlier this year the government put a stop on new foreign investment in this sector in Western Indonesia. But the speculators cannot lose. Whether or not they plant oil palms, the timber from the forest sites they have cleared will earn them billions of rupiah. Source: Down to Earth 33, May 1997 PT Tanjung Enim Lestari (PT TEL) has plans to establish a huge pulp mill in South Sumatra. Despite protests from local communities and NGOs the project continues. Although PT TEL has not still received the necessary government license (which is to be taken for granted since President Suharto’s eldest daughter, Tutut, is a shareholder in the project herself), the company has already cleared 800 hectares of the 1,250 hectares of forested lands the factory site will occupy. On June 23 -with the strong opposition of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (WALHI)- the Environmental Impact Assessment of the project was approved. This study completely ignored several important issues, e.g.: the source of raw materials; the way local farmers, rubber tappers and villagers were forced by the company to give up their lands for the developing of the project; how wastes will be treated before their disposal in the River Lematang, which is the only source of water for domestic use for the surrounding communities and source of livelihoood for local fishermen. Source: Down to Earth. 34. August 1997. UPM-Kymmene and APRIL destroy rainforest UPM-Kymmene of Finland and Singapore-based Asia Pacific Resources International Holdings Ltd.(APRIL), have agreed to establish a strategic alliance to develop jointly their respective fine paper operations in Europe and Asia. In Europe, UPM-Kymmene will hold 70% and APRIL 30% of a new company called UPM-Kymmene Fine Paper, which will comprise UPM-Kymmene's fine paper units, Nordland Papier in Germany and Kymi in Finland. This new company will be the largest fine paper producer in Europe with a combined annual capacity of 1.7 million tonnes of paper and 460,000 tonnes of related pulp. Similarly, in Asia, APRIL will hold 70% and UPM-Kymmene 30% of a new company, APRIL Fine Paper, which will comprise APRIL's paper mills under construction in Sumatra, Indonesia and China. These mills are expected to come into production in 1997 and 1998. Even if APRIL states that it is not involved in logging in rainforests, the fact is that the material basis of the new alliance is the nearby Riau Pulp pulpmill, whose production is almost completely based on rainforest wood. The mill, which started operations in 1994, produced last year about 600,000 tonnes of short-fibre pulp from natural forests. Until now the company has only planted 7,000 hectares of acacia, which are not only totally insufficient to feed the giant mill, but additionally will only be ready for logging by the year 2002. It is expected that the mill will run on rainforest wood, which will be needed at a rate of over 3 million m3/year. This will mean clearcuts of at least 25,000 hectares of rainforest each year and a total of 200,000 hectares. APRIL has also a bad reputation in the social area. Land acquisitions by the company have caused serious conflicts with local communities and working conditions in its pulp and paper mills are poor. Source: Friends of the Earth-Finland Forest Group. Press release 15.9.97. For further information, please contact: Marko Ulvila +358 3 212 0097; ulvila@iki.fi Alliance of UPM-Kymmene-APRIL under siege The alliance between UPM-Kymmene of Finland and APRIL of Singapore to develop jointly their respective fine paper operations in Europe and Asia has been severely criticized by environmental and human rights groups. A letter, whose text is included below, was addressed to the owners and managers of UPM-Kymmene and APRIL, as well as to the Finnish press as a part of a campaign aimed to stop the alliance. Friends of the Earth-Finland has also compiled an Internet page on the UPM-Kymmene/April case. The page includes documents and links to the company sites as well as relevant links to related topics such as forests fires, human rights and labour union concerns. The address is: http://www.kaapeli.fi/~maanyst/link-upm.htm The text of the letter follows: "Friends of the Earth Finland et alia
7.12.1997 UPM-KYMMENE'S COOPERATION WITH APRIL Dear Mr. Juha Niemelä, We, the undersigned environmental citizens' oganisations are deeply concerned about the alliance UPM-Kymmene announced in September with Asia Pacific Resources International Holdings ltd (APRIL) on fine paper production. As the planned joint venture April Fine Paper would base its production on pulp supplied by April's Riaupulp mill, and probably also Indorayon mill, UPM-Kymmene will actively participate in converting natural rainforests - partially so called logged-over - to exotic monoculture plantations. This causes irreversible loss of ecological values and destruction of the environment of local communities. Due to Indonesian oppressive labour regulations and practices, UPM-Kymmene will also involve itself in a violation of basic labour standards. For these reasons we find UPM-Kymmene's alliance with April unacceptable. Therefore we urge you to cancel the announced alliance and abstain from cooperating with April until the following changes are made in its Riaupulp (Riau) and Indorayon (North Sumatra) mills: 1. no more natural forests (even so called logged-over or degraded) are clear-cut and converted to monoculture plantations; 2. the traditional land tenure rights (adat) of the local communities are fully recognised within the concession area and in other areas where the company is active; 3. if the communities agree in a democratic and open process to allow logging, plantations or construction on their lands, they must be fully compensated; 4. land alienated in the past are returned to the communities or the losses are fully compensated; 5. the basic labour standards, including right to free union association and collective bargaining, are observed in the mills and the companies make an effort to promote such policy nationwide. We would like to get a substantial reply from you as soon as possible responding on our concerns and indicating your intentions regarding the alliance. Sincerely yours SE Asia menaced by renewed fires in Indonesia Concern is growing in Singapore and Malaysia that the region will again be smothered in smoke pollution from uncontrolled forest fires in Indonesia. Last year, such fires caused widespread health problems, disrupted air and sea traffic, and affected tourism in the region. Indonesian fires cannot merely by considered a "natural disaster" but the result of both an economic policy based upon the over-exploitation of natural resources and government corruption. If the fires continue to gain a strong foothold in Indonesian Kalimantan and Sumatra, then Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore, southern Thailand and the Philippines could see a repeat of the pollution that blotted out the sun for days at a time in the worst-affected areas between August and November 1997. Indonesian officials have recently identified through satellite images more than 90 "hot spot" areas in Kalimantan. Last December Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia agreed on a joint action plan to prevent a recurrence of the smoke pollution, under which Jakarta agreed to improve its fire-fighting capabilities. Nevertheless the apparent inability of Indonesian authorities to control the fires, despite an official ban on burning and evidence that most fires are deliberately set by plantation companies to clear land, are causing increasing concern in neighbouring countries that have to bear the consequences. A reforestation fund that was intended to help replant and protect the country's tropical forests -the second largest in the world after Brazil- was not used last year to fight the fires. According to Gerry van Klinken, editor of "Inside Indonesia", a magazine published from Melbourne, this money administered via presidential decree, has been diverted to provide cheap loans to commercial timber plantation companies, which replanted cut forests with quick-growing eucalyptus, pine or acacia trees for pulp factories. What international press agencies tend to forget, however, is the terrible problems that local populations are facing with these fires that affect their lives, health, homes and livelihoods. Neither do they emphasize on the fact that local peoples' lands are being appropriated by huge national and transnational corporations, converting forest and agricultural land into deserts of trees for feeding pulpmills instead of people. The disappearance of forests and their biodiversity and the regional and global problems stemming from the Indonesian fires seem to be more important than the lives and livelihoods of the local people of Kalimantan, who are seldom mentioned at all. Source: Michael Richardson, International Herald Tribune, 13/2/1998. Comments: WRM secretariat Local people burn oil palm plantation company's base camp A land dispute between local farmers from Kuala Batee and the oil palm plantation company PT Cemerlang Abdi has erupted into violent conflict. After several months of attempts to negotiate over land rights, hundreds of angry villagers went to PT Cemerlang Abdi's base camp and told the staff to leave. They took away vehicles, heavy machinery and a generator before burning the base camp to the ground. A security police post was also burnt down. No-one was killed, but six people were shot and injured (two seriously) and 49 were held in custody after security forces moved in. The villagers claim that the company has violated their land rights. The Government of South Aceh, where the conflict is taking place, is seemingly moving to find a solution to the controversy. According to the local administrator, the government has settled a fair compensation to the farmers, which would also be given 1,000 hectares of land to make up for that taken from them by the company. Source: Down to Earth, 37, May 1998. Jaakko Poyry: more than mere consultants Jaakko Poyry is one of the actors involved in creating the conditions for establishing plantations. This consulting company was born in Finland 40 years ago. It grew up together with the the boom of Scandinavian forestry after the war, when Finland, Sweden and Norway became one of the superpowers of industrial forestry. Jaakko Poyry was there, helping them to do it. It's role was to provide special expertise about planning pulp mills, paper mills, plantations, logging, how to plan industrial operations. At first its clients were Sweden, Finland, Norway and the rest of Europe. In the last couple of decades it started to expand globally and this has followed the pressures to expand plantations to the South, the pressures to exploit the forests of the South. This is a result of that but it is also one of the things that has facilitated this move to the South. Because as a consultancy, Jaakko Poyry plays an important role to get the land together with the machines, to get the officials together with the executives, to get the consultants together with the Forestry Department, so that the land can be converted to something which will support industrial forestry for pulp and paper. Its role in the South especially --although obviously in the North as well-- is essentially political. They advertise themselves as technicians, but their role is largely networking, getting people together, getting the industry together with the officials, selling pulp and paper machinery, selling forestry machinery from Scandinavia and other countries, getting together the technology with the political infrastructure in each country. That's basically what they do. They have offices in 25 countries around the world and employ almost 5,000 people. Indonesia provides a clear example of Jaakko Poyry's work. First hired by the World Bank to do surveys, assessments and planning for the entire forestry sector in Indonesia, this later resulted in contracts to help the specific private firms who were involved in plantations and industrial forestry in Indonesia, where many pulp mills are now being built. In 1988 Jaakko Poyry did a study of Indonesia's timber resources for the Asia Development Bank and this was to identify sites for the development of the pulp industry in that country. As a result of that there are now 65 big pulp mills planned for Indonesia, with another 15 with permision to operate. Since then, the Finnish government agencies have provided guarantees, bank loans, technical advisors and equipment for the pulp and paper development in Indonesia, and this includes setting up the plantations and then setting up the pulp factories which work from that. A number of other Finnish agencies and companies benefitted later from this. Jaakko Poyry did the feasibility study for Indorayon in the North of Sumatra, and advised and supervised the plantations, the nursery and the equipment that went into that. It was also involved in Indah Kiat, which is another huge development in Riau, including pulp mills and paper production and in the Riau Andalan plant as well, where UPM/Kymmene (from Finland) is now involved. The PT TEL pulp mill also included Jaakko Poyry involvement, as well as the Finantara Intiga project in West Kalimantan, which is a joint venture between ENSO (The Finnish forestry state agency) and the Indonesian cigarette company Gutam Garang, who established a large plantation and there's a factory due for construction there in East Kalimantan. Those are just some examples within the whole pulp industry and the plantations on which they depend, that are a result of Jaakko Poyry's work. These pulp mills are at the moment using native forests because the plantations are not yet mature. In the case of Indorayon the plantations are mature now, but to create those plantations they destroyed the forest. The only example where mills have not been built first and then the plantations set up is the case of Finantara Intiga, where they have set up the plantations before they even built the mill. But the general pattern is the other way round: they build the mill, they get a timber concession, clear-fell and then establish the plantation. In spite of all the above -which are only some examples in one single country- Jaakko Poyry is now trying to promote itself as a "green" consultancy. However, its activities are being challenged, not only by the people directly affected, but also by Finnish NGOs, who have organized a number of seminars to show this to the Finnish public, on whose support the company depends to a large extent. A depredatory economic "miracle" Indonesia’s forests occupy about 120 million hectares. Although at least 2-3 million families of indigenous peoples live in or around the forests and many of the 220 million inhabitants of the country depend directly or indirectly on forests for their livelihood, the government’s approach has been to consider forests as "empty" land. Logging and plantation companies are responsible for the high deforestation rates (1 million hectares a year according to the World Bank, but 2.4 million according to Indonesian NGOs). The depredatory activities of such companies are a token that Indonesia’s economic "miracle" has been driven by ruthless exploitation of natural resources and by the use of cheap labour. In the last 20 years logging and associated industrial plantations -for pulp, plywood and palm oil- have been increasing in Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Moluccas and West Papua. The whole of the timber, pulp and oil palm industry has been closely tied to the political situation. Former President Suharto, his family and the military have controlled the economy and benefitted from it. According to the Industrial Plantation Scheme (HTI) companies are supposed to establish plantations in degraded forest areas. But what really happens is that once they get the concession they clear forests, extract the valuable timber, set fire to the rest and then plant introduced species, as acacia, eucalyptus and pines. The government itself has recently accused several logging-plantation companies for the destructive fires that affected the country´s forests this year. The present crisis in South Asia has diminished the international demand for Indonesian timber, plywood, pulp and minerals. But in the long run, the economic crisis can mean that more people are going to be pushed into becoming spontaneous migrants, relocate in other islands and possibly establish tree plantations to supplement their incomes. During the 1990’s there has been a boom in the creation of oil palm plantations as Indonesia plans to replace Malaysia as the first South East Asia’s producer in the XXI century. Private palm oil plantations are dominated by big conglomerates. The economic crisis is pushing smallholder transmigrants to establish oil palm plantations hoping to receive the benefits of the so called Nucleus Estate Smallholder or PIR-trans System. The case of Indonesia shows clearly that the much publicized myth that plantations help to alleviate pressures on native forests and consequently helping to preserve them is totally false. On the contrary, they are a major factor for their destruction. Forests are actually being cut and set on fire to make way for pulpwood and oil palm plantations. From an environmental point of view, the increasing substitution of forests by plantations means a loss of biodiversity, in this case coupled by the atmospheric pollution produced by the heavy smoke arising from forest fires. Socially, plantations are having the effect of destroying indigenous and forest-dependent peoples' livelihoods, by usurping their land and undermining their means of living derived from their biodiverse forests. For many other Indonesian people, forests have always been a valuable survival resource in times of crisis. In the current situation, where many people are suffering from a crisis they are not responsible for, much of the original forests have been depleted, many of them to make way for monoculture plantations, which provide practically nothing in terms of useful products for survival. The changes that occured in May 1998 -which led to Suharto's resignation- could mean the beginning of a reform period. Indigenous peoples and local communities openly oppose plantations. A recently formed alliance of NGOs is calling to stop any new plantations and to carry out a review of the social and environmental impacts of the existing ones and of the concessions already granted. However, the problem of industrial plantations is part of the wider issue of land reform, that can possibly be discussed in the near future, and therefore it is expected that plantations will be analysed under such wider approach. The struggle against Indorayon in Indonesia On July 20 over 1,000 security forces arrived to break through a blockade set up by villagers and students at Indorayon's paper and rayon pulp factory (PT IIU) in Porsea, near Lake Toba in North Sumatra. Demonstrations have hampered production since mid-June. Hundreds of local people supported by university students and members of environmental groups had blocked roads leading to PT IIU's mill, forcing the factory to stop production since its supplies of timber and fuel have been cut off. After the violent confrontation at least 13 local people are reported seriously injured and some are missing. That of Indorayon is a long history of actions undertaken by local people and environmental groups in defence of the environment. It became a landmark case after the environmental NGO WALHI brought a court case against the company and the government which sanctioned its construction in 1989 for the high pollution it was provoking. Powerful interest soon moved in, but the villagers continued their struggle against the company. Some 300,000 people are thought to have been affected by the mill and the plantations that feed it. By 1997 the company had established approximately 41,000 hectares of eucalyptus and acacia plantations . The Finnish company Jaakko Poyry was responsible for the feasibility study for the PT IIU plant and acted as consultant for the feeder plantations. Last February people from four villages affected by pollution caused by the plant formed a campaign group against PT IIU with others from the island of Samosir in Lake Toba. This is one of the areas where forests are being felled, since natural wood is the second supply of raw material for the pulp plant. The company has cleared 150,000 hectares of rainforest. The group, called KAPAL, refused to be placated by company officials or intimidated by local officials and issued an ultimatum to PT IIU on Environment Day (June 5th) to stop logging on Samosir. Huge popular demonstrations took place in June in front of the Governor of North Sumatra. The Environment Minister himself, Panangian Siregar added to the debate by stating that the Indorayon plant should be closed due to public complaints over many years, which surprised the Indonesian public opinion. Nevertheless the plant did not close. Indorayon’s response was limited only to temporarily suspending logging on Samosir island. In view of the company's unwillingness to respond to local communities' grievances regarding its operations, people reacted blocking the street in Porsea and preventing supplies of raw materials from reaching the Indorayon factory. Resisting local communities are facing harsh problems in relation to this issue. There is some tension between local activists and larger city-based NGOs. While local people feel having suffered all the costs, without enjoying any of the benefits in terms of employment and development the company promised that the factory would bring, city-based NGOs consider closure of the mill is an unrealistic demand and that the community would gain more from campaigns to make the company take responsibility for its negative impacts. A second point is that the strategy PT IIU has adopted since 1996 to neutralize opposition is to set up new community organisations through which to channel contributions and organise social events instead of recognising traditional community leaders. Source: Based on an extended version of an article in the Down to Earth newsletter No. 38 (now at the printers). Sawit Watch: an Indonesian network against oil palm plantations Oil palm (know as "Sawit" in Indonesia) is an increasing problem for people and the environment in that country. In May this year, the Minister of Forestry and Plantation Estates stated that the government had allocated 30 million hectares of forest for oil palm plantations. Indonesia has already 3.2 million hectares of oil palm plantations, mainly located in Sumatra (1 million ha). Every year 330,000 hectares of forest is targeted for conversion into new plantations and 650 investors --75% of which foreign companies-- are applying for converting forest into oil palm plantation. The negative impacts of oil palm plantations Oil palm plantations have resulted in numerous negative impacts on the environment, on indigenous peoples, on people's livelihoods, on the national economy, and have resulted in the concentration of land in the hands of few companies. Negative impacts on the environment are a consequence of this being a large-scale industrial monocrop which therefore reduces biodiversity. At the same time, it implies high levels of agrochemical inputs --fertilizers and insecticides-- that have polluted many rivers, and have directly and indirectly caused deforestation and forest fires. Much of the land allocated to oil palm plantations are not even technically appropriate for such crop. According to a study carried out in 1998 by JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) and BAPENAS (National Development Planning Board), only 15% of the 3.2 million hectares of land earmarked for that purpose by the provincial government of West Kalimantan are suitable for planting oil palm. But, even within this 15%, the environmental impacts will be enormous: land erosion of 57-1,500 ton/year, loss of soil nutrients of 386,000 ton/year, pollution caused by 145,000 liters/year of insecticides and 5,900 ton/year of other chemical substances. Plantation projects ignore the existence of indigenous peoples and expropriate their lands. For example, in West Kalimantan oil palm plantations are developed in the productive gardens of Dayak people, which include rubber trees, fruit trees, etc. The government of Indonesia has encouraged companies to cut down hundreds of thousands of trees in Dayaks' gardens and to replace them with oil palm. As a result, local peoples' economy, based on local resources is destroyed. If millions of hectares of lands are converted to oil palm plantation, the regional and peoples' economy will be very dependent on a single commodity that is subject to international price fluctuations. On the other hand peoples' economy, that is based on non -timber forest products such as honey, medicinal plants, fruit, etc., is destroyed by the expropriating process. The Central Bureau of Statistics (1996) has noted that 457 large oil palm companies control already more than 3.2 million hectares of land. In the future, 650 new companies will control 30 million hectares more. This means that there is and will be high concentration of land holdings. Experience shows that when indigenous and local peoples' lands are expropriated for this purpose, many more people become landless and are thus pushed into a massive poverty process. - The creation of "Sawit Watch" Many Indonesian NGOs are very concerned about this trend and have conducted activities during the last six years to empower indigenous and local peoples to fight for their rights in their respective regions. Given the need to work and develop plans together for strengthening all efforts at the local, national and international levels, some Indonesian NGOs initiated on July 25, 1998 Sawit Watch and since then more NGOs joined the initiative. The Sawit Watch has three main goals: 1). To support local and indigenous peoples' struggle against large-scale oil palm plantation companies; 2) To campaign against the IMF/World Bank's Sectoral Adjustment Loan for liberalizing oil palm plantation; 3) To raise public awareness at the local, national and international levels on the social and environmental impacts of oil palm plantations. For achieving those goals, Sawit Watch will carry out activities such as: 1. Support local and indigenous peoples' struggle against large scale oil palm plantation companies: Land expropriation and environmental destruction caused by oil palm plantation are major problems to local and indigenous peoples. Advocacy and empowerment activities are carried out to support them to reclaim their expropriated land. More than 10,000 people regained last month control over about 10,000 hectares of land in North Sumatra that had been given to military and bureaucrats. Reclaiming activities by indigenous and local peoples in Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi and Java over large-scale plantations and forest concessions range from taking to court land right cases to the direct occupation of lands. Sawit Watch's support consists of providing legal advice, putting political pressure on provincial governments and the military, and litigation at court. Compensation for environmental destruction is also being demanded from the companies. People are poor and don't have funds to cultivate their land after reclaiming and therefore fund-raising activities are also carried out to support, for instance, the purchase of seeds. People are encouraged to cultivate alternative crops, so in the future they are not dependent on one crop (oil palm), to develop mixed crops and to increase biodiversity. People-based management of the forest that was once destroyed by large-scale oil palm plantations, could therefore be developed again. 2. Campaign against IMF/World Bank's Sectoral Adjustment Loan for liberalizing oil palm plantation. The Indonesian government stopped new foreign investment in oil palm plantation in early 1997, because 1.5 million hectares of land had already been allocated for oil palm plantation to Malaysian and other foreign investors. The IMF/World Bank's 50 point programme package for Indonesia to counter the economic crisis included liberalization of oil palm plantation. This means that Indonesia will have to re-open for new foreign investment in the oil palm sector. The IMF/World Bank's crisis program for Indonesia comprises lending of US$ 4.5 billion, divided into US$ 2 billion for fast disbursing support and US$ 2.5 billion for regular investment lending support, among which an Agricultural Sectoral Adjustment Loan of US $ 400,000 that will be disbursed in November 1998. It is important to note that this programme for liberalizing oil palm plantation is not based on any social or environmental studies carried out by the World Bank. This loan therefore increases new investments in the oil palm sector, ignoring the social and environmental problems that people will have to face. To campaign against it will therefore be an important part of Sawit Watch activities to stop new investment in oil palm plantation. 3. Raise public awareness at the local, national and international levels on the social and environmental impacts of oil palm plantations by implementing activities such as: - Policy study on oil palm plantation in Indonesia. The aim of the policy study is to draw a picture of the whole "sawit" complex for monitoring, campaigning and advocacy purposes, and also to predict its trends in the future. The policy study includes a number of aspects such as the ecology (analysis of biodiversity loss, soil erosion, pollution, etc.); social and economic aspects (analysis of impacts of oil palm plantation to the social and economic condition of people at the local, regional and national levels); legal and policy aspects (analysis of regulations on oil palm plantations, trend of policy adopted by government in relation with the intervention of institutions such as the IMF/World Bank and other multilateral banks); political aspect (analysis of main actors --e.g. government and private sector, multilateral banks-- and respective interests); supply-demand analysis in relation with consumer patterns and foreign trade. - Compiling investigated data/facts from local level. Many NGOs have conducted investigations in oil palm plantation areas that affected indigenous and local peoples' life. For the purpose of raising public awareness, all data and facts will be compiled as evidence of the negative impacts of oil palm plantation, in different formats such as slide packages (in Indonesian and English) and video films. - Providing data and facts (newsletters, fact sheets, slides, video films and online information in Indonesian and English) on social, economic and environmental impacts of oil palm plantations. - September 24 is Agrarian Day in Indonesia. On September 24, 1998 rallies in all regions in Indonesia will be organized simultaneously by members and supporters of Sawit Watch, together with indigenous and local people affected by oil palm plantations. This will be part of the activities to put political pressure on the provincial and national governments. - A national seminar on oil palm plantation will be held in October 1998, with presentations of the policy study, the compiled investigated data/facts from local and regional levels, testimonies of indigenous and local people. A press conference will be also held during the seminar. The seminar will not only be aimed at raising people's awareness on the impacts of oil palm plantations, but also at putting pressure on the IMF/World Bank, which will disburse the agricultural sector adjustment loan in November 1998, as well as on the Indonesian government for stopping new investments in this sector. To date, the following organizations are participating in Sawit Watch: Bentayan, Palu, Central Sulawesi; Bioforum, Bogor; Community Based Forest Management (East Kalimantan), Samarinda; Community Based Forest Management (West Kalimantan), Pontianak; Consortium for Supporting Community Based Forest Management (KPSHK), Bogor; ELSAM, Jakarta; Institute for Dayakology Research and Development (IDRD), Pontianak-West Kalimantan; International NGO Forum on Indonesian Development (INFID), Jakarta; Lembaga Alam Tropika Indonesia, (LATIN) Bogor; Lembaga Bela Banua Talino (LBBT), Pontianak-West Kalimantan; LRA, Padang-West Sumatra; Plasma, Samarinda-East Kalimantan; RMI-Institute for Forest and Environment, Bogor; WALHI Aceh, Aceh; WALHI, Jakarta; Warung Informasi (WARSI), Jambi; WATALA, Lampung; Yayasan Alam Hijau Indonesia (YAHI), Bogor; Yayasan Evergreen Indonesia, Palu-Central Sulawesi; Yayasan Lingkungan Hidup Irian Jaya (YALI), Jayapura-Irian Jaya; Yayasan Padi Indonesia, Samarinda-East Kalimantan; Yayasan Telapak Indonesia, Bogor Source: Titi Soentoro, Coordination Office of
Sawit Watch. Conflict over oil palm plantations Since the Indonesian government wants this country to become the first world exporter of oil palm --overcoming Malaysia-- this industry is currently undergoing a boom. To face the negative effects that oil palm plantations are producing at the local level on the environment and on peasants and their livelihoods, last July a group of Indonesian NGOs created Sawit Watch. Several actions have since then been carried out. Oil palm plantation companies PT Batanghari Sawit Sejahtera (BSS) and PT Dasa Anugerah Sejati (DAS) expropriated lands of people in Tanjung Katung and Lubuk Bernai villages in Jambi province, in Sumatra. Local people are now demanding that the Ministry withdraw the license given to those companies. M. Haris Yatim, one of the villagers, said that PT DAS expropriated lands of the people with help from the military and local government officials, by intimidating villagers. Protesters also met the Agrarian Minister and Head of the National Board for Lands. At the meeting the Minister offered them to work as contract farmers of the estate owned by PT. DAS. Taking into account that this scheme --aimed at cash crops, including oil palm-- has resulted in the deprivation of small farmers of control over their land and production factors, they rejected this offer and reaffirmed their demand of getting back their lands. The Minister then promised them to send a fact-finding team. After waiting for a whole week, and in the absence of an effective response, people from eight villages went to the House of Representatives of Jambi Province. Once again they received promises that a team would be sent to the conflict area as soon as possible. At the same time, local villagers have been trying to negotiate directly with PT DAS. Both parties agreed to go to court to settle the dispute. The company however --with assistance from the police-- started to intimidate the farmers who had taken the case to court. During these intimidatory actions some of them were even arrested under the false accussation of stealing rubber in platation areas of PT DAS. Several demonstrations have been programmed by Sawit Watch for September all over the country, from Jakharta to Bali, to protest against the expansion of oil palm plantations. Source: Sawit Watch: Campaign Against Big Scale Oil Palm Plantations in Indonesia, September 1998. Finnish and Indonesian NGOs have repeatedly denounced that UPM-Kymmene’s partner -the Singapore-based APRIL (Asia Pacific Resources International Holdings Ltd.)- is violating human rights and causing severe environmental problems in Indonesia. The company has converted rainforests to exotic monoculture plantations, to feed their pulp mills and NGOs demand that the project is abandoned. Four representatives of the human rights group of the Finnish Parliament recently visited APRIL's pulp mill in Riau Province to check the situation in situ. Even if all of the parliamentarians were at the same place, not all of them were able to see the same things . . . While the representatives of the Greens and the left wing parties concluded that the logging of thick rainforest looked ruthless, the deputy of the Conservatives considered that population pressure is the cause for forest destruction and that acacia plantations in Indonesia are similar to Finnish fields in their homogeneity. UPM-Kymmene stated that the methods used by APRIL are the best option for supplying the mill. UPM also reminded that last Spring APRIL committed itself to a wide environmental programme. APRIL is still in financial trouble and hasn't been able to find finance for the second paper machine in Riau. Before that machine is ready, its full alliance with UPM will not take place. Even if Finnish export credit has in some way already granted some US$500 million loan for APRIL, the loan has not been awarded yet, probably due to conditions in Indonesian markets. The above is not the only conflict created by APRIL in Indonesia. The holding owns 61.3% of the shares of Inti Indorayon Utama, a pulp mill in North Sumatra Province. Indorayon produces up to 240,000 tons of pulp and 60,000 tons of viscose fiber for the production of paper and rayon by APRIL. The company was hurt by the 1997 economic crisis and decided to close down the mill, which would mean the loss of their jobs for about 7,000 workers, who thereby oppose the closure. At the same time, villagers of Porsea demand that the factory remains closed, since the company’s activities had been causing acid rain, damaging water supplies and fisheries, and plundering natural forests. Residents of Porsea continue to live under military intimidation. Environmental groups and university student organizations support this struggle and state that the eucalyptus trees in Indorayon's reforestation programme are draining water reserves. On the opposite side, APRIL's shareholders in New York have recently addressed president Habibie warning about the "negative effects" of the closure on the confidence of foreign investors in Indonesia. The conflict has even resulted in direct confrontations between workers and villagers. On November 22nd, villagers burned logging trunks and workers’ accomodations in Porsea. The case of APRIL can be considered an example of how workers and villagers are held hostage by a situation created by the economic interest of investors and central government decisions. Given that neither local people nor the environment were taken into account when the mill and the plantations were set up in the area, this has resulted in environmental degradation and social conflict, where workers tring to protect their jobs confront villagers trying to protect their livelihoods. Comfortably seated in Jakharta or New York, APRIL's shareholders use the dire needs of the workers to serve their purposes. Sources: Otto Miettinen, Friends of the Earth/Finland, Forest Group, 8/11/98 (based on Minna Asikainen, "MPs disagree about environmental impacts of April. Finnish MPs visited mill of UPM's partner", Helsingin Sanomat, 5/11/98); Tom Bannikoff, "A company copes in post-Suharto Indonesia", Asiaweek, 8/11/98, Liz Chidley, 23/11/98 (based on SiaR WEBSITE: http://apchr.murdoch.edu.au/minihub/siarlist/maillist.html) Students break up meeting to promote transmigration and oil palm plantations in the Mentawai islands For perhaps the first time since Indonesia's independence, the West Sumatran authorities called together 120 Mentawai people for negotiations with the local government in Padang. The representatives were community leaders, religious figures and village heads from the whole Mentawai island chain (off the West coast of Sumatra.) The subject of the meeting was how to bring 10,800 transmigrant families to the Mentawai islands for a commercial oil palm development (PIR-Trans) by PT Citra Mandiri Widya Nusa -owned by ex-Employment Minister Abdul Latif. The thirty or so students from the Mentawais who attended managed however to break up the meeting. The students said that if their demands had not been met that day, the entire school and university student population of Padang would have come and forced the meeting to be dispersed. The chronology of the events was as follows: On December 8th at around 10.30 am local time, some thirty demonstrators (Mentawai young people and students who jointly formed the Mentawai Reform Movement GERAM) held a protest outside the building in Padang which was the venue for a 'consultation meeting' organised by the provincial Transmigration & Forest Resettlement Department, local government officials and about 120 community representatives and village heads from all the Mentawai islands. The meeting was opened at 8.30 am by head of the West Sumatra transmigration office, Dr. Ngumar Prayitno. Speakers on the platform were then to give the following presentations: - The head of the West Sumatra Transmigration Department: "The Transmigration Programme in the Mentawai islands during the current Five Year Plan"; - The head of the West Sumatra Forestry & Agriculture Department: "Forestry Development in the Mentawai islands"; - Local (district) government official: "Development of the Mentawai islands in this Era of Reform"; - Yuhirman from SPKM (an NGO selected to speak for the Mentawai people by the provincial Transmigration Department head): "Integration and cultural assimilation"; - Suhaimi, an investor from PT Citra Mandiri Widya Nusa: "The development of oil palm plantations on the island of Siberut". When it was the turn of the speaker from SPKM, the demonstrators shouted that he should step down and that the meeting should be closed. His speech and that of the company representative were drowned out by the microphones of the demonstrators outside, so the meeting was stopped temporarily. The students then entered the building and spoke directly to the audience. They said that transmigration was not needed in the Mentawai islands. The many transmigration schemes which had been tried had created many problems and the condition of the surrounding communities was a cause of concern. The government used the Transmigration Programme as a Trojan horse, as means to exploit natural resources in the Mentawais, especially timber. Government officials, in this case from the Transmigration Department, were cooperating with logging concessionaires and timber companies to prepare sites and generating all kinds of problems in the process. The GERAM demonstrators pointed out that it was clear that PT Citra Mandiri Widya Nusa had been invited to speak at this 'consultation meeting' because the oil palm plantation company was going to take on transmigrants in Siberut, even though the indigenous community had rejected these plans. The Minister of Forestry and Agriculture had already issued an official letter (No 850/Menhutbun -VI/1998) which recommended that the planned plantation was located elsewhere. The demonstrators threatened to continue their speeches and to bring more protestors along unless the meeting was closed. Some of the Mentawai representatives went outside to try to pacify the demonstrators and invited them to discuss matters with the government officials. The members of GERAM completely refused to enter the meeting room and said they would not stop their protest until the Transmigration Department came to talk with them outside and declared the 'consultation' officially closed. The rest of the Mentawai participants started to drift outside to the demonstrators. The government officials suggested the protestors joined the discussion inside, but they refused. The protestors also demanded that the company representative spoke to them outside. When he did, the demonstrators bombarded him with questions and gave him a copy of the Minister's letter. In his response, Mr Suhaimi said he would convey their rejection of its plan to the head of the company. The demonstrators replied they didn't want to know about the head of the company. The demonstrators then read a statement to the government officials who had come outside. The main points were that: - The Mentawai islands should become an official district as soon as possible so they were no longer administered as part of the mainland; - They refuse to be part of any Transmigration Programme schemes until the Mentawai islands were given district status; - The Transmigration Department must immediately rectify the problems on existing transmigration sites in the Mentawai islands; - The authorities should immediately withdraw all operating permits from PT Maharani Puri Citra Lestari, PT Citra Mandiri Widya Nusa and PT Sagu Siberut Perkasa, as these companies have caused conflict and damaged the cultural and natural environment of the island of Siberut. - All the Mentawai village heads and community representatives should be careful not to be deceived or misled by the pretext of development for the Mentawais at the expense of the indigenous community. The head of Transmigration for West Sumatra, Dr Ngumar Prayitno Winota said that he understood the demonstrators' position. Transmigration policy in the current era of reform had changed because the local community had input into every scheme. He declared the meeting officially closed and said that the presence of the company was outside his department's authority. The demonstrators accepted his statement and dispersed straight away. The meeting was initially planned to take 2 days. * Note Source: Translation by Liz Chidley (dtecampaign@gn.apc.org) from news received from Indonesia MalaysiaSarawak: violence against natives continues Once again Sarawak natives have been victims of violent actions from the Police: on June 25, 42 Dayak-Ibans -among them 9 women- were arrested at Miri, for resisting the oil palm plantation that is to be implemented within their customary land area. Some of them were even brutally harassed and assaulted by the Police, which caused them physical damages. The Police found it difficult to find any legal reason to accuse them. However, brought to court, the Magistrate ordered them to sign a bond of peace for six months. The Ibans refused to do so, arguing that they were just defending their customary land. So on June 27 they were sent to prison. Their appeals for medical treatment -both under remand and in prison- have been ignored. Responding to the urgent call for action of the Borneo Resources Institute, to denounce this new abuse against the Dayak-Ibans people, the International Secretariat of the WRM sent faxes to the governments of Malaysia and Sarawak as well as to police and judicial authorities of the country, expressing our concern about these facts and claiming for justice to be done. What follows is the letter written from prison by the detainees: 30th June 1997 LETTER FROM MIRI CENTRAL PRISON AT LAMBIR SARAWAK, MALAYSIA To all our friends, We are writing to all of you from inside the above prison to tell you of our suffering and how we had ended up here. On 24th June 1997 we met with Surveyors from the Sarawak land and Survey Department who came to survey our native Customary Land in Upper Teru River, Tinjar, Baram, Miri Division, Sarawak, Malaysia for an oil palm plantation company to implement an oil palm plantation scheme which was against our consent. We told them to stop their survey work so they told us to wait for their boss to come the next day. At about 3.30 pm on 25th June 1997, it was not their boss who came but about not less than forty Para-Military Police or Police Field Force. As soon as they arrived they immediately proceeded to arrest us without telling us our crime. We refused to be arrested. But they resorted to assaulting and beating us by kicking, punching us and butting us with their M16 rifles. As a result many of us were bruised and suffered cuts and pains all over our body. They took us into their trucks and brought us down to Miri and locked us up in the cell at Miri Central Police Station. On 26th June 1997, they produced us before the Miri magistrate Court and applied for us to be released on bond to keep the peace for six months with two sureties in the sum of RM3000.00. The Miri Magistrate, Monica Ayathi Litis then ordered us to execute the said bond despite of our protest as we were innocent and the Land belongs to us and also that we refused to accept the oil palm plantation on our said Land. And further, the Police admitted in their application that "it was difficult to charge us for any offence" (which clearly shows we are totally innocent). The Police accused us that we have criminally intimidated the Surveyors and are likely to do so if we are released hence the need to bind us to keep peace. But as the Police themselves had admitted, there is no evidence to charge us for any offence. And most pertinently, they did not even produce the alleged Police report supposedly lodged by the Surveyors against us or called the Surveyors to come to the Court to testify to confirm whether or not we had indeed criminally intimated (and will do so after our release) the Surveyors. Therefore the Police application and complaint against us was baseless and the order made by the Magistrate was completely unjustified. On the 27th June 1997 at about 4.00 pm, we were brought to prison here for detention which according to the Magistrate was because we failed to get sureties which is again not true. There are more than enough sureties for us. But that is not the point here. Our case is that it is simply wrong and most unfair for the Police to arrest, detain, assault us and then apply for the Order. And further, it is against all principle of justice for the Magistrate to make the said order against us. And most important of all, it is very undemocratic and an abuse of our most basic human rights for the Sarawak government to systematically force, harass, intimidate, suppress and sabotage us to accept the oil palm plantation on our customary Land which is the only source of our livelihood. Since our arrest and detention, some of us who are suffering from body pain that being beaten, kicked, punched and butting us with M16 rifles could not be able to have medical treatment as the Police purportedly denied their requests from obtaining medical/health treatment in the nearby hospital. Worse still, our young children who are breast-fed have been left alone in our longhouse in the interior of Baram, which is about one hundred miles from this prison. This is because our husbands are also here detained with us. We know siblings are crying for our breast milk, our mother care every day and night not knowing where their parents are or what is happening to us here. But to us, it is a very painful choice. Either we make some sacrifices by fighting to protect our land now or we just let the plantation company take it away from us which means we will have no more land to live on for the rest of our life and those of our generations to come. And therefore we now appeal to all of you to urgently protest and appeal to the Malaysian and Sarawak governments to leave our land alone and also not to simply and very cruelly arrest and detain us like this. We know our voice and protest alone will just be swept under the carpet by the Malaysian and Sarawak governments as has happened in the arrests and detentions of our other indigenous brothers and sisters in similar protests previously. This is the reason we make this urgent appeal to you. We sincerely and earnestly hope you will respond to our appeal because if we lose our land that is the end for our community as we have no where to go to live. We thank you for your support and we appreciate very much for any possible assistance or welfare-in-kind for our children and siblings while we are here in the prison. Thank you. Regards from the Prison, We informed about the inprisonment of 42 Dayak-Ibans at Miri for resisting the expansion of oil palm plantations in their customary lands and disseminated their letter from Lambir Miri Central Prison. We are now pleased to inform that all of them have been freed. On July 7 a group consisting of 11 persons was bailed by their wives and relatives who were worried about their health. One of them -Mangagat Ak Bukong- was sent to hospital due to severe chest pains, while the others are seeking medical treatment as a consequence of the violence suffered in jail. Additionally, on August 5 the Miri High Court revoked a lower court's decision that three Dayak Ibans had acted illegally by protesting an oil palm plantation being developed on their Native Customary Land. They are Longhouse Chief TR. Riggie Ak Beloluk, Gengga Ak Timbang and Ungkok Ak Atau, all of them from Rumah Riggie, Sungai Nat, Tinjar in Baram area in Miri Division. The above three, together with six Ibans who had been arrested and detained on April 17 this year, were ordered by the Miri Magistrate's Court to execute a six month "bond to keep the peace," before they would be released. Three of the nine individuals chose to remain in prison for 18 days to protest the court's original decision. According to their statement at the time, "We do not agree with the Order because we never committed any criminal offense . . . the thing that is uppermost in our mind is the fact that by signing the bond to keep the peace as ordered, we are also accepting the Sarawak government and the oil palm plantation companies' baseless allegation that we do not have any right over our native customary land." On August 6 the High Court granted an appeal filed by the Ibans immediately after their imprisonment and squashed an order made by the Magistrate's Court for them to execute a bond to keep the peace. The High Court considered that the 42 Ibans had not been accorded the statutory protection provided under the Criminal Procedure Code for a fair hearing. Therefore the order to keep peace was considered illegal. This case can be considered an important victory for the Ibans of Riggie Longhouse and an important precedent for Dayak-Ibans communities throughout Sarawak, as the High Court's decision finally seems to consider their right to protest against the illegal entry of oil palm plantation companies into their customary lands. About 300 Iban of Rumah Bangga longhouse, about 100 kilometres from the town of Miri, put up a blockade to protect their Native Customary Land after two companies, Segarakam Sdn Bhd, and Prana Sdn Bhd. -which are contractors to Empresa (M) Sdn Bhd.- trespassed on and cleared their land, which resulted in extensive damages to their property. Without notice or consultation with the Iban, the land and Survey Department -a Sarawak State government department- had issued a provisional lease to Empresa (M) Sdn Bhd, an oil palm plantation company. Even if according to the law a survey must be done first over the leased area to determine whether other people have rights over the same area of land, the area covered by the lease includes the Native Customary Land of the Iban. However, the Iban first and only came to know of the issue when the machines of Segarakam Sdn Bhd and Prana Sdn Bhd trespassed and started clearing their customary land. Then the Iban lodged a police report at Beluru Police Station, in Bakong, Sarawak. They also addressed the Land and Survey Department and other government departments requesting that the lease be withdrawn or revoked or that a survey be done so that their land could be excluded from it. Their requests were completely ignored by the authorities. Worried that the companies would continue to destroy more of their land and crops, the Iban reacted and put up a barricade, that was rapidly destroyed. Left with no other alternative, they were forced to detain three bulldozers belonging to the companies which they kept safely at their longhouse. The companies, instead of going to the court apparently went to the police and Police Field Force (PFF). On December 19, acting without any court order, warrant or summons, the police and PFF took it upon themselves to retrieve the bulldozers from the Iban at their longhouse on behalf of the said companies. On their arrival at the Iban longhouse they immediately proceeded to arrest and detain the Iban, that turned from victims into criminals. Naturally they refused to be arrested since they were just exercising their rights to private defense to prevent their properties from the offences committed by the companies on their customary land. The police and the PFF reacted violently: several of the Iban were beaten-up with batons, punched and kicked. Without any warning or warning shots, three of the Iban were shot, one in the head. He is now in the intensive care unit of the Miri General Hospital and in critical condition. On December 21 the police surrounded the longhouse,and a helicopter is patrolling the area. The PFF from Sibu and other parts of the State have been called to the area. The area around the longhouse and the only road leading to the longhouse is heavily patrolled by police and people trying to get to the longhouse have been denied access. Eleven people of the longhouse have been menaced by the Baram district Chief of Police to be arrested and taken to Miri town. The people in the longhouse are scared of what is to follow. For more information contact Borneo Resources Institute (Fax: 00 60 85 438 580, e-mail : bri@tm.net.my) or Kazuko Matsue (e-mail: mkazuko@sanmedia.or.jp) "A fortune for the people" of Sarawak? The Malaysian Ministry of Economic Affairs has announced an increase in pulpwood plantations throughout Malaysia, Sarawak included. At present, an area of 10,000 hectares is occupied by tree plantations in Sarawak and it is increasing as in other regions of the country. While in the past most of the tree plantations were established by the State, at present private companies are becoming more and more involved. The role of the State is changing: Dr. Haji Abdul Taib Mahmud -Sarawak’s Chief Minister- has recently announced that "a part" of the 64,000 km2 forest reserve will be declassified and this land will be devoted to tree plantations. The intention of transforming Malaysia into one of the most important world producers of cellulose seems to be a relevant factor in this policy. Taib Mahmud announced this at the ceremony marking the start of construction of "Borneo Pulp and Paper Sdn. Bhd", a new pulp mill, situated in Ulu Tatau, near Bintulu, that will cost U$S 600 million. The project is a joint-venture between the Sarawak Timber Industry Development Corporation and the Asia Pulp & Paper Company Ltd. In this case it is the government itself who is going to establish 200,000 hectares of fast-growing species to supply the paper factory, that will start production in 1999, with an initial annual production of 750,000 tons of cellulose. According to the Chief Minister, "such projects could mean a fortune for the people who have lived in poverty for generations." Such statement is contradicted by reality. The development of large scale monocultures -both oil palm and industrial tree plantations- is together with logging, dam building and tourism resorts another activity that severely threatens the customary land rights of the Dayak Iban. The Sarawak State Government plans to "develop" 1.5 million hectares of native customary land (NCL) as oil palm plantations. In implementing the land development programme, the government mainly grants provisional leases to the State statutory bodies/agencies or private companies for a period of 60-90 years. Once the land has been leased, the agencies or the private companies become the proprietors of the land. Without the knowledge or consent of the native communities, most of their NCL has been appropriated to companies which are either state owned or owned by the same people who were granted the logging licences or permits to develop these land areas into oil palm plantations. The native communities are opposing and resisting these activities. The Government has also targetted one million hectares of land for industrial tree plantations. Some 10 timber companies have met with the Sarawak Timber Association and the Forest Department to carry out a scoping exercise to identify the concerns of potential investors in this venture. In Tatau in Bintulu Division, the Borneo Pulp & Paper Sdn. Bhd. has been provided with 373,700 hectares of land for the planting of acacia, eucalyptus and other fast-growing tree species. The site for the pulp and paper mill is affecting 12 Iban longhouses in Upper Tatau. The Ibans are challenging the extinguishment of their NCR and also filed an arbitration in the High Court. It is very clear that -unless stopped- there projects could certainly "mean a fortune" to a few powerful people, but will result in poverty for the people who have lived in harmony with nature for generations. Sources: Roger Graf, Bruno Manser Fonds Newsletter, January 1998; Forest Peoples Programme, January 1998. A Japanese tree planting tour group called "Green Mission" is planning to visit Malaysia in March 1998. The tour is organized by Kumon-Child Institute and Forest Culture Association of Japan, and backed up by the Ministry of Education of Japan, the Environment Agency of Japan, the Forest Agency of Japan, and the tourism department of the Malaysian Government. There will be around 60 children and adults participating in the tour. They will stay in Kuala Lumpur on the 25th, and then travel to other regions of the country, where tree planting activities will take place. A visit to elementary schools and to the mangroves area is also planned. It would be interesting to know the aims behind this unusual interest of Japanese governmental organizations to promote "green" activities, as well as their real nature. The Japanese cooperation agency JICA has been very active in promoting the large-scale fast-growing species plantation model in several countries of the Third World, as for example in Uruguay. At the same time, Japanese companies have been performing unsustainable logging activities worldwide. Source: Kazuko Matsue, Forest Research Center
Japan, e-mail: Oil palm plantations in Sarawak: promotion and resistance Sarawak will open up some 50,000 hectares of land every year for the next few years to be developed into oil-palm plantations due to rising demand for edible oil. Business will be developed and managed jointly by state development agencies and publicly-listed companies that have the experience and expertise in plantations. According to the government, the state is prepared to invest heavily in the palm-oil sector because the products would remain attractive despite the economic downturn, as can be seen from the increasing demand for edible oil worldwide. Local communities strongly resist the installation of oil palm plantations in their lands, since they mean the destruction of the forest and the loss of their livelihood. For example, on December 29th 1997, Iban Headman Banggau and two other chiefs, on behalf of themselves and all the members of their longhouses, filed a suit to stop the activities of the oil palm plantation companies, Empresa Sdn. Bhd, Prana Sdn. Bhd, and Segarakam Sdn Bhd within their native customary land. Source: Stephen Then, The Star, December 1997; BRI, 23/1/1998. Two opposite approaches to forest conservation What has been happening in Thailand during the past years has developed into a showroom of some of the best and worst practices as respects to forest conservation. Local people and their allies have been fighting -in many cases successfully- against powerfull actors who are denying them their rights and destroying their means of subsistence. At the same time, they have been creating an alternative approach to forest conservation and use. What follows are some comments from a field trip which took place last November to the Northeastern provinces of Thailand, hosted by the Project for Ecological Recovery, a Thai NGO affiliated to the WRM. These comments are restricted to observations in the visited areas and do not pretend to give an overall view of the problem as a whole. The logging ban and "reforestation" After years of large scale logging, forest cover in Thailand declined from almost 60% to only 25%. Such extensive destruction derived in devastating floods, which in turn resulted in the loss of human lives and the destruction of villages and people's means of subsistence. In answer to public outcry, the Thai government approved in 1989 a logging ban which is still in force. At the same time, forestry academics came up with the idea that the country needed to increase its forest cover to 40% and began working in that direction. However, what they understand by forest cover is completely different to what most people understand as such. For these -and most- foresters, forest cover means simply to have a canopy of trees -any trees. So they chose one tree from Australia to increase Thailand's forest cover. The chosen tree was the fast-growing species Eucalyptus camaldulensis, the activity carried out was called "reforestation" and the result was "planted forests". At the beginning, villagers didn't have any opinion about this tree, so there was no opposition. In short time opposition began to grow due to different factors. In the first place, because eucalyptus started to be planted in the communities' lands, thus depriving them of a number of vital resources such as grass for grazing, food from wildlife and flora, medicines, fibres, fish, etc. Secondly, because plantations began to modify the environment in a way that resulted in impacts on their production, particularly due to a decrease in the availability of water for their crops and animals. It thus became very clear to villagers that "planted forests" were not forests, because these provide water and a number of other products and services which these plantations not only do not provide but on the contrary they deplete. Now only foresters believe -or try to- that they are "reforesting" the country. The pulp and paper industry Plantations are however not only being implemented with a stated environmental objective of increasing forest cover: there are other more concrete interests at stake. Northern forestry consultants (particularly the Finnish Jaakko Poyry) and "aid" agencies (for instance, Australian), as well as local and transnational actors working with and for the pulp and paper industry, as well as the pulp industry itself have played a major role in the expansion of this type of plantations. The main objective is to produce large amounts of cheap raw material to feed an export-driven pulp industry. As elsewhere in the world, the Thai pulp industry is highly destructive, both in terms of pollution and in terms of the dramatic social and environmental changes it imposes on the surrounding area. The industry needs to feed its mills from nearby sources because the cost of transport is a limiting factor, so plantations are concentrated in the surrounding area. Pressure is put on the local people to either sell their land or plant it with eucalyptus or suffer the consequences. If people have no land titles, then they are simply dispossesed. It also applies the same policy of initiating its activities with no pollution control. Over the years, organized opposition forces the industry to implement some measures with the least costs possible and then tries to show them as an example of corporate responsibility over the environment. In the case of Phoenix Pulp and Paper in Khon Kaen, the latter is shown through something they euphemistically call "Project Green", where eucalyptus planted in small holdings are irrigated with effluents from the mill. While eucalyptus grow very fast, other existing trees and vegetation die and the polluted water contaminates the water table and reaches the surrounding paddy fields destroying the crops. Certainly not a very "green" attitude. The unpopular national parks The "increase forest cover" policy is complemented with national parks aimed at ensuring the preservation of forests. The approach is however that people are seen as outside dangerous actors, which need to be excluded. The boundaries are defined by the government, with no consultation with the people, who see that their lands are being encroached by government officials. But people don't see forests in that way. They see forests as part of their means of subsistence and they don't view -as foresters do- forests as only composed by valuable wood. When I asked the people we met why forests were important to them, they seldom mentioned wood, except for firewood. Vegetables, mushrooms, ants, medicines, meat, fruit, water, were always mentioned before wood. Absurd as it may seem, monocultures of eucalyptus and teak are also being planted inside the boundaries of the national parks. The intention is probably twofold: to increase "forest cover" and to plant what they consider to be "valuable" wood. Although perhaps the reason is even more simple: eucalyptus and teak are easy to grow and the technical package is well known by foresters, who know little about the majority of the numerous species which grow in Thailand's diverse forests. The peoples' struggle Local people have suffered and resisted imposed "solutions" such as exclusive national parks and eucalyptus plantations. The pattern has been similar in all areas. Firstly, the government tries to convince people that its projects are either not going to affect them negatively or that they will benefit from them. The second stage is when people begin to realize that they are being affected and try to do something about it. The third stage implies organization and capacity building (where NGOs have played a major role.) Finally, the affected communities get together and carry out a number of actions to defend their rights. These actions have ranged from dialogue to confrontation and from local to regional and national. Cutting, uprooting and setting eucalyptus plantations and nurseries on fire have gone hand in hand with meetings, peaceful demostrations and discussions with government officials. Numerous meeting have been held at village and regional level and huge demonstrations have been held for many days in front of the provincial government house. They have created a wide range of networks on different issues. They have travelled to the provincial capitals and to Bangkok to hold meetings with government officials and private enterprise managers. They joined their different struggles in the Assembly of the Poor, which organized a nationwide demonstration in Bangkok. All this has meant that thousands of people have had to dedicate an enormous amount of their time and effort to defend their rights. They have had to travel long distances to make their voices heard by provincial and national government officials. Many have received life threats and some have been imprisoned. Among these, I would like to mention the following people from one of the villages we visited: Chom Sutponit, Som Jorjong, Visit Rotchanasom, Won Ponpruek, Bunnaaw Pairao, Noopha Mekdon and Sai Jaroen. Although none of them are currently in prison, they still face charges in relation to their anti-eucalyptus campaigning activities and could still face imprisonment. A different case is that of Kam Butsri from Burinam province, who has been in prison for over 3 years and could be kept in prison for 4 more years. His major "crime" was that of cutting down eucalyptus trees that were damaging his community's livelihood. Comparing the offense with the punishment, I tend to see him as a political prisoner, whose imprisonment is meant to serve as an example to bring fear to other possible opposers. The people's struggle has been successful in many places. In one of them, the powerful Asia Tech company has agreed not only to stop planting eucalyptus, but also to cut them down. In another case, the government has agreed to pay for the removal of the stumps of the eucalyptus. Phoenix Pulp and Paper has had to pay damages to local villagers affected by its effluents. Shell company decided to withdraw from a large scale plantation project. All these are positive examples to show the power of apparently powerless villagers once they organize and fight for their rights. The people's approach Widespread deforestation has not only had negative impacts on the environment; more importantly, it has impacted on people's livelihoods. Many local communities are thus striving to bring their forests back, but with a totally different approach from that of mainstream professional foresters. Forest regeneration is not seen as increasing forest cover but as increasing the numerous products and services that forests provide. Forests and agriculture are not viewed as opposed: on the contrary, they constitute an interactive system. People need food and other products, and the forest not only provides many of them, but also supports crop production and cattle raising. This approach -called community forest management- is completely different from most forest conservation policies and practices. Trees do not have an abstract environmental -and even less commercial- value: what is valuable is the forest as a whole, including water, grass for grazing, vegetables, fruit, etc., all linked to the satisfaction of local human needs. Local people are the decision-makers over their forests and establish democratically agreed rules and regulations on forest use. Shared satisfaction of local needs and shared decision-making and monitoring ensures forest conservation. Such forest management compares favourably with the "biosphere reserve" approach. For example, one of the community forests we visited had a central strict conservation zone, surrounded by what experts would call a "buffer zone", which is in fact the forest production area, where grazing and gathering activities take place. The approach differs, however, in that biosphere reserve management is imposed on communities, while community forest management is decided by them. Such difference is essential, because the latter ensures peoples livelihoods as well as forest conservation, while the former only aims at controlling that local people don't destroy the forest. The hated tree As a forester, can you tell us how to kill eucalyptus trees? This question was posed to me by villagers in the province of Sakhon Nakhon. In another village, a man put very strongly forward the idea of a world-wide anti-eucalyptus day. An Australian colleague visiting the area with us felt very embarassed by questions posed accusingly to him by villagers about this terrible tree from his country. Although a long time opposer of large scale eucalyptus plantations myself, I have never heard such a deeply rooted hatred towards a tree as I felt during my visit to the northeastern provinces of Thailand. Neither Australia nor its tree are of course guilty of the way in which the tree is being used. But given that eucalyptus are being planted in numerous countries in a way that disposesses local people of their basic resources and in a way that depletes those same resources, it has become a symbol of destructive forestry. People in Spain and Portugal are fighting against this tree in similar manners as in Thailand and India. Hawaian people have recently succeeded in halting a eucalyptus development project. Organizations from Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Colombia, Venezuela, South Africa, Malaysia, Indonesia, New Zealand, Spain and from many other countries are getting together to fight against the spread of this type of plantations. While all this is happening, the FAO, the World Bank, the "experts" and forestry officials continue promoting a forestry model based on this tree and trying to prove that people are wrong. What's happening is exactly the contrary: more and more local people are proving, not only that they are right but also that they have positive solutions to the local and global problem of deforestation. The message from Thailand The long and increasingly successful struggle of the Thai people is enlightening and needs to be shared with other people facing similar problems in other parts of the world. The main message is that success is possible. They have experienced failures, but learnt from them. People have learnt to organize themselves at the village, local, regional and national level and to build a shared leadership. They have put an emphasis on capacity building in order to acquire the necessary skills for effective action. They have used different tactics at different stages of the struggle. But furthermost, they have been convinced, not only that they were right, but that they could succeed. And that's just what they are now doing. For more information on the plantations' issue in Thailand, you can consult Larry Lohmann's chapter 12 (From "reforestation" to contract farming) in "Pulping the South: Industrial Tree Plantations and the Global Paper Economy", Carrere, R. and Lohmann, L., Zed Books, 1996 The strong muscle of the pulp industry Phoenix Pulp and Paper Company in Khon Kaen province in northeastern Thailand is the recipient of a large credit extended by the Finnish DIDC (Department of International Development Cooperation of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs), former FINNIDA. Between 1990 and 1994 Scandinavian companies including Ahlstrom, Sunds Defibrator, Valmet and Jaakko Poyry delivered most of the machinery, equipment and services for the Phoenix P&P's second pulp line and waste water treatment plant. The second pulp line increased the mill's production capacity to some 200,000 tonnes per year, using kenaf (sister plant to jute), bamboo and eucalyptus as raw materials. This second pulp line is the first mill in South East Asia producing Elemental Chlorine Free pulp. One of the main arguments for Finnida's concessional credit was that by supporting the construction of the waste water treatment plant, the effluents of the pulp mills discharged into the Phong river would be reduced despite the increase in production. As part of the solution, Phoenix P&P Co decided to establish a scheme where the treated effluents would be discharged as irrigation water to the nearby eucalyptus plantations. This scheme, begun in 1995, received the name of "Project Green". Although Phoenix Pulp and Paper Co argues that the effluent-treatment plant was built to world-class standards and that the effluent quality even exceeds many Western countries' standards, serious problems have been reported since Project Green was launched. The waste water discharged to the eucalyptus fields spreads to the adjoining rice fields, wetlands and groundwater, harming the agriculture and causing health hazards to the people. The company has also regularly been accused by local villagers of the death of a large number of fish in the Phong River. The Industry Ministry of Thailand on July 20 ordered Phoenix Pulp and Paper Co to close the first pulp line of the plant for 180 days. "The closure will last until the company fixes the treatment facility and prevents untreated water discharged into the plantations from spilling into Huay Chote, a tributary of Nam (River) Phong", said the decree. Earlier in July, thousands of fish raised by riverside villagers were found dead after heavy rain flushed the waste from the ponds and Project Green areas into the river. The order was based on the company's poor performance in handling its waste, since the quality of treated water was below standard. Phoenix executives rejected the decision and argued that the closure was politically motivated and would mean the ruin of the company and that of 60,000 farmers who supply it with raw material. The company also considers this will lead to a total closure of the company, affecting exports and disrupting the lives of about 4,000 workers and farmers. Surprinsing as it may seem, even the Science Minister Yingpan Manasikarn warned that the closure would cause serious economic damage to the country and thousands of workers would lose their jobs. He said verification of the cause of pollution was needed before such drastic action was taken against the company. Local environmental activists have a different view. They say that the closure order was a temporary measure when what was needed was a long-term solution to a problem that has persisted for more than a decade. Saneh Wichaiwong, manager of Ecological and Development Project of Watershed Phong River, said the problem would persist without a total overhaul of the plant and the introduction of environmentally-sound technology. Activists consider that since a large number of villagers depend on the plant, the government should come up with long-term solutions and the company should compensate villagers who lost their fish. The decision was implemented on July 29. Two days later the company, giving no reasons, informed that the second pulp line would also be shut down. Later the same day, Industry Minister Somsak Thepsuthin visited the firm to check the situation, and later declared the water in the Phong River was clean and that it wasn’t Phoenix that was creating its pollution. Such "environmental assessment" was carried out --according to George Davidson, the chairman of the company-- in the following manner: "The minister took a glass of water from the canal and said that it was very clean and good quality water." Local sources said the closure of the firm's second pulp line was a pressure tactic to force the ministry to allow the company to open its first line, considering that the new closure would mean the loss of a source of income for more than 1,200 employees and some 60,000 northeastern farmers. At last the company's pressure on the government had the desired effect and the plant was reopened on August 11, with the main problem still remaining unsolved. Source: Based on a summary of press articles performed by PER (Project for Ecological Recovery), August 1998. The pulp industry tries to strike back The pulp and paper industry, which lost a number of battles to peasants opposing both plantations and pulp mills in Thailand, is now putting pressure on the government for the approval of an expansion of eucalyptus plantations. The Thai Pulp Industry Association is suggesting the Agriculture Ministry ammend the existing forestry law which curbs the planting of eucalyptus. The reasoning is simple: that "the law should acknowledge that eucalyptus is an economic plant." The already well-known social and environmental impacts don't seem to be a major source of concern for the industry. The Association is saying that the existing two million "rai" of eucalyptus plantations (some 320,000 hectares) are insufficient to supply the industry with raw material and that some 160,000 additional hectares of plantations would need to be planted within the next 10 years. It is not known whe |
