The September 2019 Forest Cover newsletter from the Global Forest Coalition focuses on the bioenergy developments and use in West Africa and how they are impacting women and forests. From bioenergy produced in large-scale, requiring huge areas of land to provide the raw materials, to the ubiquitous household and community-scale energy needs, where wood is collected mainly by women. Clean cookstove projects are increasingly being tied to commercial tree plantations that produce “clean charcoal”, and eucalyptus trees are being planted on a large-scale purely to burn in a power station.
Large-Scale Tree Plantations
Industrial tree plantations are large-scale, intensively managed, even-aged monocultures, involving vast areas of fertile land under the control of plantation companies. Management of plantations involves the use of huge amounts of water as well as agrochemicals—which harm humans, and plants and animals in the plantations and surrounding areas.
Other information
5 March 2020
Social organizations from Uruguay, Finland and other countries, together with well-known professionals, presented the results of scientific research carried out over the past 15 years on the impacts of monoculture tree plantations on grasslands, refuting the "green washing" of UPM company, which presents itself as a leading global corporation in the fight against climate change, the defense of biodiversity and the sustainable water management.
Other information
5 March 2020
Other information
5 March 2020
On January 2020, the Dutch National Contact Point for the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) declared a complaint from three Friends of the Earth groups (Milieudefensie -Netherlands, SDI -Liberia and WALHI -Indonesia) against the ING bank, admissible.
Action alerts
3 March 2020
Tell Green Climate Fund Board Members to say NO to funding requests that promote monoculture tree plantations and, in particular, the funding request of the Arbaro Fund for its so-called “Sustainable Forestry Fund”.
3 March 2020
Tell Green Climate Fund Board Members to say NO to funding requests that promote monoculture tree plantations and, in particular, the funding request of the Arbaro Fund for its so-called “Sustainable Forestry Fund”
Action alerts
26 February 2020
Adhere to this letter to denounce the greenwashing of the Finnish multinational UPM, which is trying to install a new pulp mill and expand the monoculture tree plantations in Uruguay.
Publications
19 February 2020
Download the publication.
Action alerts
11 February 2020
Groups call for the immediate release of villagers in the DR Congo imprisoned for over 5 months on false charges related to a land conflict with the Canadian oil palm plantation company Feronia Inc. Sign the letter!!!
Bulletin articles
13 January 2020
Language is never neutral. Certain concepts have historically been used to dominate people and territories. This article highlights concepts that are usually presented in a positive light but that actually serve economic interests that harm forests and communities.
Bulletin articles
13 January 2020
The company, Portucel, considers its thousands of hectares of plantations in Mozambique to be “sustainable,” despite serious problems and conflicts with and among local communities.
Other information
13 January 2020
ARTE, the European TV channel, broadcasted a documentary about FSC entitled: “The exploitation of primary forests: Can an ecolabel stop the forest industry?” Journalists traveled to several countries to investigate what FSC certification looks like on the ground, and whether it protects the forests and the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities that live in and near the forest. The almost one-hour documentary concludes that over the past 25 years of its existence, FSC has failed even to slow down the logging industry.