The International Secretariat has received a message from the Brazilian social leaders Wigold Scaeffer and Miriam Prochnow expressing their gratitude for the letter we sent in November 1997 (see Bulletin nr. 6) to the Brazilian authorities, expressing our concern about their situation. They had repeatedly received death threats in relation to their defense of the Mata Atlantica rainforests and their fight against pollution and environmental degradation through APREMAVI -Association of Environmental Preservation of Alto Vale do Itajaí, in Santa Catarina.
Bulletin articles
WRM's international coordinator was invited to present the movement's views on the recent devastating forest fires in the Amazon (see Brazil) in a Uruguayan television channel. The presentation was viewed by a large audience and we have received an important number of positive comments on it.
The Mexican Action Network against Free Trade (RMALC) has just published the Spanish edition of "Pulping the South: Industrial Tree Plantations and the Global Paper Economy", under the title "El papel del Sur: plantaciones forestales en la estrategia papelera internacional". We are working out with RMALC the details of its distribution and purchase mechanisms and we will let you know about how to obtain copies as soon as we sort it out. We wish to warmly thank Alejandro Villamar from RMALC for all his hard work to get the book published in Mexico.
As a response to a fax sent by the WRM International Secretariat requesting information about Baton Mittee, Nigerian activist arrested in connection with the Ogoni Day, we received the following letter from the Embassy of Nigeria in Buenos Aires:
"Mr. Ricardo Carrere
World Rain Forest Movement
Re: Arrest of Baton Mittee in connection with Ogoni Day.
1. I am directed to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 28th January '98 on the above subject matter, and to inform you that its contents have been forwarded to appropriate authorities in Nigeria.
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 (see WRM Bulletin nr. 5).
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.
Oil industry is one of the most polluting worldwide and its activities have caused extensive damages in the Amazon. Now news from Asia arrive.
The communal forest of Totonicapan is located at an altitude of about 3,000 metres a.s.l at the mountain chain Sierra Madre del Sur in western Guatemala. The lowest side of the mountains used to be covered by native oak tree forests. Nowadays they have been substituted by pine trees. However, in the highest parts there still exist thick forests of white pine (Pinus ayacahuite) and fir (Abies guatemalensis) accompanied by a great variety of tropical forest species resistant to the cold.
The fishing community of Mehuin in the 10th Region of Chile is opposing the project of Celulosa Arauco y Constitucin S.A. (CELCO) -a huge pulp and paper company- to build a pulp mill coupled with a pipeline that would discharge toxic pollutants resulting from the production process in the bay where they live. More than 600 lts. of effluents a second would be poured into the waters, causing severe environmental effects on the population of fish that is the livelihhood of this community, and on their own health.
"The agreement between Rainforest Action Network, Mitsubishi Motor Sales America and Mitsubishi Electric America is a testament to the efficacy of consumer boycotts! In this age of corporate supremacy, this is an unprecedented success in consumer activism. The far reaching programs and the potential of grass roots movements to bring adversaries to the negotiating table will serve as the template for other consumers to stand up for their rights." - Ralph Nader, Consumer Rigths Advocate and 1996 Presidential Candidate
We have received the following message from the Forest Peoples Programme, requesting assistance for preparing a document to submit to the Intergovernmental Forum on Forests at its July-August meeting, on 'Human Rights violations against Forest Campaigners':
As was informed in WRM Bulletin Nr.5, a group of NGOs present at the Intergovernmental Forum on Forests' (IFF) first meeting in October 1997, initiated a solution-oriented process to address the underlying causes of deforestation and forest degradation, to be considered by the IFF. A number of governments were approached and their reaction was very positive to the initiative. The government of Costa Rica officially accepted to host a global workshop by the end of 1988.