Bulletin Issue 27 – September/October 1999

Four years have passed since the judicial murder of Ken Saro Wiwa together with other eight human rights activists to the hands of the Nigerian military dictatorship on November 10th 1995, that generated condemnation and outrage worldwide. Nevertheless -and in spite of the political changes that occured in the country- environmental destruction and human rights abuses associated to oil exploration and extraction in the Niger Delta region continues. A delegation of US social and environmental organizations' representatives who visited that region during this month reported that the irresponsibility of the multinational oil companies operating in the area -e.g.

  The Tourism industry has done, and is doing much more for Responsible Environmental Management than the "forestry" industry. Maybe for this one reason only. . . It is rooted in Biodiversity. Alien tree plantations destroy the indigenous vegetation they replace. The basis of the food chain destroyed, local fauna and flora can not adapt and live in a plantation. When calculating the profit associated with tree farms, is the cost of the destruction to the natural environment ever brought into consideration?

Tanzania's 33.5 million hectares (129,310 square miles) of forests are increasingly at risk, mostly as a result of illegal logging, which is destroying some 500,000 hectares (19,300 square miles) of the country's pristine forests every year. Government officials admit that illegal exploitation is occurring almost all over the country, both in Forest Reserves and in unreserved forest areas. Illegal trading in timber products acquired illegally is especially rife in cross border areas. An example is the illegal trading in Brachylaena Hutchinsii (Muhuhu) on the Tanzanian-Kenyan border, in which most of the timber is both illegally harvested and exported.

According to the official viewpoint, India holds favourable climatic and social conditions for the set up of tree plantations. Forestry officials state that more than 60 million hectares of "non-forest wastelands and open scrub forest lands" can be considered available for undertaking tree plantation activities. The Ministry of Environment and Forests is promoting the use of clonal disease-resistant plants of fast-growing eucalyptus. Clones of acacia, poplars, gmelina and teak are also being included in the menu.

More than 150 Indonesian and international NGOs -among them the WRM- have endorsed a sign-on letter addressed to the authorities of that country denouncing the situation of two national parks and proposing solutions. The initiative was launched by Telapak Indonesia and the Environmental Investigation Agency. The letter reads:

Two weeks ago, nineteen persons, including a 17-year old, all Iban, from two long-houses in the Niah area, were provisionally charged with murder under Section 302 of the Penal Code. The charge carries a mandatory death sentence if convicted.

Dam megaprojects are being strongly resisted by local communities worldwide since they mean the loss of their lands and forests, and their forced displacement. In Thailand massive protests have been organized to halt this kind of projects undertaken in the name of "progress" (see WRM Bulletin 22). A group of 500 villagers belonging to the Forum of the Poor has settled in the middle reservoir of Rasi Salai Dam to support the struggle of their relatives of the Moon Basin Forum for compensation since their lands will be flooded by the dam project. The works would affect more than 600 peasants' lands. But the Department of Energy Development and Promotion is putting their lives at risk menacing to start operating the flood gates soon, by the end of the rainy season.

 

The Philippines archipelago was once covered by dense tropical forests. Nowadays only 3% of them survive and even those are mostly degraded. Less than 1% of the former forest is still in a pristine state. Primary forests, left in only tiny patches, still exist in remote mountain regions on Palawan island, Mindoro and Mindanao and in the mountain range in northeastern Luzon called "Sierra Madre."

A forum took place in the northern region of Costa Rica on September 16-17 to reflect on and analyse the experiences regarding secondary forests and tree plantations developed in that region. Participants in the event included government officials, professional foresters, peasant organizations, forestry companies and environmental organizations. The Northern Region, which is affected by a severe process of deforestation is at the same time the area with more extensive tree monocultures (gmelina, teak, laurel and "terminalia") in the country. Such plantations have been subsidised at U$S 500 per hectare with public funds originated in a selective tax on the use of petrol. The total amount devoted to these subsidies has reached U$S 20 million in the last 10 years.

Just one year after the destructive arrival of hurricane Mitch, Honduras is suffering the consequences of storms and flooding that have provoked the evacuation of thousands of peasants and the death of eight people until now. Hundreds of homes and crops have been destroyed. The media reproduce tragic images of suffering people and emphasize in the fury of nature as a cause of such disasters. The poor conditions of disaster prevention and the high level of vulnerability that affect the country -especially the poorest- are rarely mentioned as factors that enhance the effects of destruction caused by nature. One of the activities most clearly connected with vulnerability to natural phenomena is deforestation and even protected areas continue being logged, thus increasing the problem.

A recent publication on the effects of forest fires in the Brazilian Amazon shows that selective logging followed by the use of the logged area for agriculture and cattle raising is resulting in much more than just forest degradation.

The Mapuche people, who inhabit the southern region of Chile, have been historically victims of social and cultural exclusion. The invasion of their territories by huge plantation companies -with the support of the state- has resulted in the destruction of large areas of forests and their substitution by pine and eucalyptus monocultures. The Mapuche have recently increased their struggle, demanding effective solutions to the Chilean state, which after decades of complete indiference with regard to this conflict has now reacted through a combination of repression and charitable aid. A so called development programme aimed at combatting poverty in the Mapuche indigenous communities, approved in August 1999, was strongly criticized by Mapuche representatives (see WRM Bulletin 26).

  From the Spanish Conquest onwards, the Colombian Pacific Region has been subject to the relentless extraction of its natural resources -such as gold, clay, balsam and several precious woods- in a process that did not generate any benefits to local people. When big logging companies entered the region in the sixties, a period of social, cultural, economic and environmental devastation started.

The recent resolution of the Colombian government, in agreement with the U'wa leaders, according to which their legally recognized territory was increased in 120,000 hectares -now comprising 220,275 hectares- was celebrated as a great victory. Nevertheless, the consideration by the Ministry of the Environment of a request of environmental license for exploratory drilling by Occidental Petroleum just outside the newly created Unified U'wa Reservation is a pending menace on them (see WRM Bulletin 26).

The environmental NGO Accion Ecologica, with headquarters in Quito and working in several locations of Ecuador has been accused of being involved in the recent kidnappings of eight oil company technicians that occured near Lago Agrio in the Amazonian region of the country. This organization has released the following statement: "Accion Ecologica, an environmental organisation which works in the area in the north east of Ecuador where hostages were taken on the 11th of September, wishes to make public its indignation, and rejection of rumours regarding the existence of eco-terrorists in the country.

Japan's Tokyo Electric Power Co. (Tepco) has recently signed a letter of intent to participate in a tree plantation project promoted by the state agency State Forests of New South Wales, Australia, allegedly as part of its efforts to tackle global warming. New South Wales established a legal right last November on carbon sequestered from plantations. State forestry bodies in Australia have been looking to market their projects as sinks in the newly created "carbon offsets market" by the Kyoto Protocol. Such initiative is not the only one in the push of Australia to enter this market.

In 1997 Friends of Hamakua -a local NGO- together with local farmers and community organizations successfully resisted a project of Prudential Insurance Co.and Oji/Paper Marubeni to set up a big eucalyptus plantation and a pulp mill in the Big Island of Hawaii. The project was finally rejected by the Hawaiian authorities (see WRM Bulletins 3 and 7).

Every time we visit an area covered with large scale monoculture tree plantations we find local people faced with the same or very similar problems. In Thailand and Chile, in Brazil or Venezuela. And each time we find foresters denying that those problems even exist. Our most recent experience on the above matter occured a few days ago in the country where the WRM secretariat is currently based: Uruguay. In this country, the vast majority of foresters actively support and benefit from the large scale plantation model, mostly based on eucalyptus plantations. Confronted with the negative impacts, they resort to any argument to deny reality. But reality cannot be killed with words.

On October 4th, Greenpeace called on wood product consumers to end their role in ancient forest destruction by not purchasing from companies involved in destructive logging in ancient forests. Greenpeace launched a global report, ‘Buying Destruction: a Greenpeace report for corporate consumers of forest products’, naming more than 150 companies producing or trading in forest products coming from ancient forests.

A group of 87 indigenous peoples organizations, NGOs and networks signed last July in Geneva, Switzerland, an indigenous peoples' statement on the trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights (TRIPS) of the WTO Agreement. The signatories strongly criticise the Western logics underlying TRIPS in the WTO Agreements, since they establish monopoly rights to individuals and transnationals on life forms and processes, to the detriment of the indigenous resources and cultures. They warn about the various negative impacts of the TRIPS Agreement on their lives, and make proposals for the revision of its Article 27.3(b). Source: BIO-IPR, GRAIN,  24/9/99,

Joint ventures of giant corporations created to carry out research in the tree biotechnology field are mushrooming as the global paper demand increases and tree plantations are regarded as possible carbon sinks by the Kyoto Protocol. Environmental groups -such as the recently formed GE-Free Forests (GEFF)- and representatives of the academic sector have already expressed their concern on the impacts of these "Terminator" or "Frankentrees" and this concern has even led to direct action (see WRM Bulletin 26).

On September 17th and in the framework of an international campaign we addressed Mr Hiroshi Yasuda, Governor of the Export-Import Bank of Japan, urging him to reconsider the agency's support for the San Roque Dam project in The Philippines (see article above). On October 1st a fax was sent to Mr Ranayan Rane, Chief Minister of Mantralaya, India, in defence of the Narmada villagers and environmental activists which are in serious risk of drowning because of their determination to oppose the submergence of the Narmada Valley by the unfinished dam.

Almost everyone agrees that humanity is facing many threats, among which the greenhouse effect. There is also general agreement on the main causes of the greenhouse effect: use of fossil fuels and deforestation. International agreements to address those two causes have until now proved -to say the least- inadequate. Fossil fuel consumption is still increasing and deforestation continues unabated. The economic interest of the ever more powerful corporations is still more powerful than the survival instinct of humanity.