Bulletin Issue 34 – May 2000

Jacques Ngoun is one of the 'Pygmies' of Cameroon. His people, the Bagyeli, are in danger; their forest is being invaded, and the hunting and gathering on which they depend ruined, by logging companies and settlers. On 23 May the World Bank will decide whether to continue to back a controversial oil pipeline from Chad to Cameroon. This pipeline will go through the Bagyeli's territory, and will not only destroy the crops and trees that they depend on, but also drive away the animals that they hunt. The pipeline plan is widely attacked for damaging the environment and local development and benefiting only the elite. Oil companies involved include Exxon and Chevron. Jacques says: 'The Pygmies were not informed; many only heard of the pipeline when they saw the machines.'

Rainforests in the centre and northern regions of Congo Democratic Republic (ex-Zaire) occupy more than half of the country's total area of 2,345,409 square kilometres and represent 82.5% of the original forest cover. About 47% of the whole dense tropical forests of Africa and 6% of the Planet's forests are in Congo DR. The long distances between the forests and commercial harbours, as well as the political crisis and the armed conflict between domestic groups and with neighbouring Rwanda and Burundi during the decade of 1990 caused that most of the country's forests remained untouched, which constitutes a difference with respect to other countries of the region. However, logging concessions are now threatening those forests.

  The World Bank first and the Hutu-Tutsi civil war later have led the Batwa pigmies to near extinction and years of suffering, without this being reported by the world mass media.

The Timberwatch Coalition of South Africa is organizing a symposium -that will take place on June 10th in the city of Pietermaritzburg- to discuss the issue of timber plantations. These constitute a cause of concern in that country since they are occupying vast areas of grassland -and are still expanding- provoking negative social and environmental impacts (see WRM Bulletins 7, 22, 23 and 26). Representatives from the environmental, academic and official fields will take part in the event. The WRM has been invited to present the Plantations Campaign. A visit to four plantation areas has been programmed for June 11th. Those interested in participating can contact Timberwatch at the below email address. Source: Timberwatch, 9/5/2000;

A research recently performed on oil palm plantations in Indonesia studies the past and future trends of the sector, reveals its effects on the country's economy, local communities and forests and proposes recommendations to this regard. The rapid growth of the sector from 1967 to 1997 (planted areas increased 20-fold and crude palm oil production augmented at an average annual rate of 12%) can be considered a success from the point of view of conventional economy. Nevertheless, the author stresses that, "the rapid growth of the oil palm sub-sector has displaced local communities, resulted in social conflict, contributed to the devastation caused by the 1997/98 forest fires, and posed a significant threat to Indonesia’s existing forest cover".

For years, the Dayak indigenous peoples of Sarawak have been defending their forests and livelihoods from the depredatory activities of logging, oil palm and eucalyptus plantations promoted by the Malaysian and the Sarawak state governments. In an unequal struggle, local communities -supported by Malaysian and international social and environmental NGOs- have been resisting the destruction of their forests and the installation of plantations. The issue of land tenure and the recognition of their Native Customary Rights is in the background of this dispute, and local villagers have frequently suffered pressure and brutality from the government's forces while defending their rights.

Thailand’s villagers are fighting to prevent a 120,000 hectares (ha) eucalyptus plantation project that would lead to widespread forest clearance and threatens the farming livelihoods of hundreds of rural communities in eight eastern and northeastern provinces. In February 2000, Thailand’s Cabinet gave approval in principle for the US$ 1 billion joint venture between the Chinese government and Advance Agro Company. Thailand’s Royal Forestry Department (RFD) will provide 40,000 ha of “degraded” forest reserves and the Agricultural Land Reform Office another 80,000 ha for the project.

Together with the alarming destruction of primary forests in tropical South and Central America, in Costa Rica something positive is happening: an increase in the area of secondary forests, which are those that are starting to regenerate after having suffered a degradation process. These forests have a great potential for the production wood and non-wood products, as well as in the provision of environmental services.

Every event happening in Brazil in relation to forests can be considered important, taking into account its huge area, the diversity of forests present in its territory, and the opposing interests at stake.

 

In spite of the experiences accumulated during all these years with regard to the damages caused by large-scale tree plantations, the draft bill of the so-called Special Law for Sustainable Forestry Development in Ecuador is inspired in the Chilean legislation of the 1970s, which has been the model for the legal framework that regulates forestry activities in other South American countries. Such model is based precisely on the promotion of tree plantations, while forests occupy a secondary place in importance.

Malaysian logging companies have recently expanded to a large number of Southern countries. Even if Malaysian authorities have publicly urged their home-based companies to operate within the law and to be sensitive to environmental issues in their activities abroad, this expansion -that has been promoted by the government itself- has proved detrimental to the people and the forests in host countries' remaining rainforests. Countries in different continents, like Papua New Guinea, Brazil, Guyana, Belize, Cameroon and Cambodia have witnessed the way these companies work.

The big landowner Bishop Estate, which owns the sugar lands of Hamakua, has 12,000 acres planted and 4,000 acres more to expand its eucalyptus plantations. The company is also planting 5,000 acres down south in Ka'u. Also Parker Ranch is beginning to lease another 10,000 acres to eucalyptus. Additionally, concern is increasing among ranchers, since ponds are diminishing their yield because of the presence of eucalyptus monocultures, which can be intensifying the effects of drought. Ranchers are extremely upset that eucalyptus is taking over much of the land. Now the state is letting go of some of the cattle lease land to conservation efforts and not replacing available acreage for pasture.

Meeting in Moruya over the weekend the National Forest Summit, Australia's major body representing forest campaign groups, has roundly condemned the federal Government's push for an Australian Forestry Standard in the face of growing calls for "certified" wood. Internationally, consumers are demanding wood products that can be certified as having been sourced from forests that have been managed sustainably. The most well known of these management standards is that developed by the Forest Stewardship Council, which has now certified over 18 million hectares worldwide.

Indiscriminate logging has been the main cause for the decline of Papua New Guinea's rainforests, that the government has been unable to stop in spite of the announced moratorium on the activities of timber companies. Unfortunately, this is not the only depredatory economic activity that affects the country's forests. Mining is also producing important impacts at the local level. For example, Freeport-Rio Tinto's mining operations at Ajkwa River's watershed has had severe effects on the environment and the level of mercury in this river is four-times higher than the maximum allowed. Local communities are strongly opposing this kind of activities as well as the attempts of Freeport to bribe them with "development" projects (see WRM Bulletin 7).

On a group of Melanesian islands in the South Pacific, a tragic plunder is taking place. Logging by mainly Malaysian companies has escalated in the last five years to more than 3 times the estimated sustainable yield. In other words the forests are being logged at more than three times faster than they are growing. In less than ten years all the productive lowland forests will be logged. The forests are rich tropical rainforests with thousands of unique plants and animals. As well, a diversity of cultures and people who customarily own and rely on the forests are under threat.

The Conference of the Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity will be meeting for its fifth time in Nairobi, Kenya, from 15-26 May, to work on a number of issues in which forest biodiversity is high up in the agenda. However important this convention is and however open it has been to civil society participation -as compared to other international processes- it is important to stress that it does not seem to be having a real impact on the conservation of biodiversity, not because of its own misdoings but because of actors and processes outside its scope. There are a number of reasons for this, among which we wish to highlight some: