Tree Plantations: Impacts and Struggles
World Rainforest Movement

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Oceania

Australia

Eucalyptus natural forests under threat

The federal government has handed over the regulation of forests to the state of Tasmania in the country's first state-wide Regional Forests Agreement (RFA). Export woodchip quotas have been abolished in a package giving an unprecedented legally binding guarantee against federal interference in a state's forests. North Limited, the biggest woodchip exporter has already announced plans to raise production from Tasmanian native forests, that currently reaches around 3.4 million tonnes annually.

In exchange, some 50,000 hectares (123,550 acres) of land will be added to National Parks, but it includes few "icon" areas sought by environmentalists to extend the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. Officials defend this decision and stated that general criteria were met, for setting aside 15 per cent of each forest community, 60 per cent of old growth forests, and 90 per cent of wilderness. However, Tasmanian environmentalists say the reservations provided only small patches of additional reserved trees. The very tall eucalyptus forest of Beech Creek in the island's centre has got trees exceeding 80 metres in height, what makes them some of the world's tallest flowering plants. Beech Creek was assessed by scientist advisors to the RFA as possibly the best global expression of the species. Nevertheless, only one third of the proposed reservation was set aside.

A US$95 million compensation package is to help the industry move out of some reserved forests to plantations and forest thinnings. Industry leaders consider that the agreement would lead to hundreds of new jobs. According to the Forest Industries Association of Tasmania, the RFA would give the industry 20 years of stability and resource security, and would mark the end of constant battles with "the Australian Heritage Commission and a host of other (federal) government points of interference."

The Wilderness Society instead states that the industry is being given money and unlimited woodchip and log exports. The new reserves mainly consist of areas already rejected by loggers.

Source: Andrew Darby, Forest deal sets new rules for Australia, Envirolinks, 21/11/97.

Growing concern over plantations in Australia

For many years the Australian environmental movement has chosen to "lay off" plantations as an issue, as it was seen that in the Australian context, they could be a useful alternative to native forest logging. This situation has now changed with the Tasmanian Greens, for instance, opposing the establishment of any further plantations.

This is as a result of the "Regional Forest Agreement" process, which seeks to remove the Federal Government from forestry conflicts with the states, by allowing for unlimited woodchip exports in exchange for a so-called "comprehensive, adequate and representative reserve system" (CAR reserve). Needless to say the RFAs signed to date have produced inadequate and unscientific reserves, while chip exports are rising dramatically.

In Tasmania, massive native forest clearance and replacement by plantations is well underway, with state government targets of 10,000 hectares per annum. Australian mining giant NORTH Ltd has entered into a joint venture with Mitsubishi to alienate 23,000 hectares over a 10 year period. US giant Weyerhaeuser has just bought in to the state of Victoria's recently privatised plantation estate and is looking at investing in Tasmania.

On a government policy level, there is much to be concerned about. A number of schemes have been established to increase native forest clearance under the guise of plantation establishment, particularly the so-called "Plantations Vision 2020" program, which seeks to double plantations by 2020 --with significant Federal support.

The Federal government is now trying to use the Kyoto Protocol as another means of supporting the timber industry by encouraging "carbon sequestration" through plantation establishment. The federal environment minister Robert Hill has been very vague about ensuring that no plantations are established --and exchanged for credits-- at the expense of native forests.

Few people are aware that Australia has a voracious and destructive forest industry that has been granted open slather to export woodchips - currently about 7,000,000 tonnes annually to Japan (Mitsubishi, Daishowa, New Oji, etc.) --or about 40% of Japan's hardwood chip imports-- all from a continent which is only 5% forested. NORTH Ltd is a very large player in the national industry and a large owner of plantation lands (about 150,000 hectares in Tasmania). It is logging oldgrowth forest for plantation substitution.

There is growing concern that the kind of references to "sustainable" native forest management and plantation establishment in the Intergovernmental Panel on Forests' documents will encourage countries like Australia to continue their current rate of clearance and substitution. "Native" trees could still mean that monocultures may proliferate, given that Eucalyptus globulus is "native" to Tasmania, though it has been genetically engineered and established beyond its original range.

Source: Tim Cadman, Native Forest Network, Australia

Hawaii

Eucalyptus plantations arriving

Amid strong local opposition, eucalyptus plantations are coming to Hawaii.

Following a move by Bishop Estate, a huge local landowner, to lease 6400 hectares of ex-sugar lands on the Big Island of Hawaii to a subsidiary of Prudential Insurance company for eucalyptus pulpwood plantations, the state and county of Hawaii are preparing to offer a rental agreement to Oji Paper/Marubeni on an additional 4150 hectares of public land.

Oji/Marubeni are also seeking private land leases on the Big Island and elsewhere. Some 10,000 hectares of state lands, in addition, may soon be taken out of cattle grazing and put into pulp timber.

The eucalyptus would be chipped on the island and shipped to Japan as a raw material for paper production, joining a flow of wood chips to Oji from countries as far-flung as Chile, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, Viet Nam, and Fiji.

State officials have denied any interest in eventually also bringing a pulp mill to the island. But local critics of the plantations, more than 2000 of whom have expressed concerns about Prudential's aerial spraying of herbicides and large-scale field burning, remain unconvinced.

A local non-government organization called Friends of Hamakua, in conjunction with local farmers and community organizations, is in the midst of formulating an alternative land-use plan for the 4150 hectares on the verge of being leased to Oji/Marubeni.

Hamakua County Councilman Dominic Yagong suggests that, instead of turning to tree monoculture, the county lease its lands to 144 landless members of a local agricultural co-op as a way of tapping the diversified potential of these "prime agricultural lands".

Such a move, he claims, would provide far more jobs than would giving over public lands to the pulp industry for 55 years.

A decision on the state and county lands is expected in the next month or two.

Source: Larry Lohmann, August 1997.

For more information please contact: Ada Pulin-Lamme, Friends of Hamakua; PO Box 1060 Honoka'a, HI 96727, USA;email: luana@aloha.net

Resisting pulpwood plantations

Pulpwood plantations being proposed for the Big Island (Hawaii) are a long way from being real forests, full of a variety of different kinds of mixed ages trees, rich with vegetation and wildlife. Tourists who come to Hawaii for its natural tropical beauty will see instead industrial enclaves of mile after mile of one type of tree, planted in straight, easily harvested rows, kept clear of undergrowth. Fast growing eucalyptus are repeatedly aerial sprayed with poisons, and clear-cut every five to seven years, with the field debris burned. Left behind is barren land susceptible to soil erosion and runoff.

Pulptree plantations have noting to do with sustainable forestry, despite a recent propaganda smokescreen by State officials. The leasing of thousands of acres to Oji Paper Co. -Japan's largest paper supplier- will neither improve the environment nor create many jobs. Wherever these industrial plantations have been established they have created major environmental, health, economic, and social problems. The pulptree deal with Oji Paper Co. primarily benefit large multinational corporations and a few locally-connected businessmen and politicians. Hamakua Timber's parent organization is Prudential Insurance Co., which has already successfully developed ex-sugar cane land for commercial purposes on the region. Giant Oji Paper Co. is part of the Mitsui Keiretus industrial group, with strong business connections to the Dai-Ichi and Mitsubishi trading companies.

It is feared that the thousands of acres of monocrops proposed for Hamakua and Kohala will significantly damage existing ecological systems. A grove of eucalyptus trees growing near Kalopa Park on Hawaii Island can be a token of what vast areas in the future are to become: a barren soil with no undergrowth.

On already depleted soils such as those of old sugar cane lands of Hamakua and Kohala, the number of crop rotations before the soil is completely exhausted can be as few as two or three cycles. This brings up the possibility that these lands will be used for only 7 to 20 years and then abandoned for agricultural purposes, because the soil's fertility is exhausted and uneconomical to farm. What then? After the harvesting the landscape will have an unappealing clear-cut look. What about the efforts to promote eco-tourism on Big Island?

Local communities already know how the companies work. Over 1,500 signatures were collected by Friends of Hamakua (FOH) last March and April, pleading with Prudential Insurance - Hamakua Timber to stop their spraying and burning. Hamakua residents gravely worry that Oji Paper Co. will dump even more dangerous toxic insecticides, fungicides, and pesticides into their community if granted leases to more nearby State and county lands. Their fears are confirmed by independent studies.

Source: Pulptree Plantations Are Not Sustainable Forests: Facts About Eucalyptus Estates That Mayor Yamashiro and DLNR Officials Don't Tell You". Ira Rohter Department of Political Science. University of Hawaii - Manoa. 13/10/97.

Good news from Hawaii

This is the latest news about the struggle of Friends of Hamakua, in conjunction with local farmers and community organizations, to stop eucalyptus plantations planned by Prudential Insurance Co.and Oji/Paper Marubeni in the Big Island of Hawaii. The organization also presented an alternative land use plan for the area. A final decision by the regional authorities was expected. We are very happy to inform that Friends of Hamakua has sent us a postcard containing the following text:

"On November 14 the full moon, amidst the howling public. The Hawaii DLNR voted down the pulp proposal! Thank you so much for your help in creating this rare and unusual turn of events. Hamakua residents extend to you our warmest aloha".

New Zealand

Clonal tree monocultures and genetic engineering in New Zealand

Aotearoa (New Zealand) has planted extensive industrial tree plantations (more than one and a half million hectares), mostly based on one exotic tree species: Pinus radiata. In recent decades planting clonal stock has become standard practice. Currently, more than 95% of new planting (this includes new afforestation and planting after harvest) is based on Pinus radiata clones, selected primarily for rapid growth (and thus reliance on fertilisers), tree form to maximise the amount of clear' (knot free) wood, and qualities that suit industrial purposes. Current research focuses indicate that it won't be long before the industry will be attempting to release genetically engineered material, particularly for herbicide (glyphosate) resistance, particular growth form or wood quality traits, and sterility (to stop naturalisation into indigenous ecosystems).

Source: Grant Rosoman, Greenpeace New Zealand, author of "The plantation effect: an ecoforestry review on the environmental effects of exotic monoculture tree plantations in Aotearoa/New Zealand." Wellington, Greenpeace, 1994.

Email: Grant.Rosoman@dialb.greenpeace.org