Fulgencio Manuel da Silva, Brazilian union leader, and leader of dam-affected peoples' movement died in Recife on October 23 after having been shot the night before in Santa Maria da Boa Vista. Fulgencio had received death threats from drug traffickers in the region, for he had waged a crusade in favour of the farmers of the Sao Francisco River valley, and for the cease of the violence at the “caatinga”, the impoverished Northeastern region of the country.
Bulletin articles
In 1997, the Brazilian government defined its new policy strategy, in coordination with the recently launched “Brazil in Action” plan, regarding investments in infrastructure and new settlement and agricultural frontier in the Amazon region. The initiatives contained in the plan are designed to stimulate the expansion of the Mercosur (Southern Common Market, formed by Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay) and to improve conditions for increased exports to the northern hemisphere.
The Steering Committe of Oilwatch was meeting in Quito on October 21st, when it received news that a group of indigenous women from the province of Pastaza -who had walked to Ecuador’s capital to demonstrate against oil exploration in their territory by the state-owned Tripetrol corporation- was being repressed by the police. The steering committee immediately suspended its session and went to express its support to the protesting women.
In previous issues of our Bulletin (Nr. 2 of 10/7/97 and Nr. 4 of 8/9/97) we included information about the conflict at Imataca Rainforest Reserve, where concerned Venezuelan NGOs and citizens have been playing an important role.
On October 7 Suriname's Minister of Natural Resources and the Dutch Embassy to Suriname signed a contract worth US$30 million for the Forestry Production Control Project, intended to monitor logging activities by using mobile inspection units. This is one component of a larger project that will support reconstruction of the Forest Service's infrastructure that was destroyed in the Civil War (1986-92) and the establishment of a Timber Institute to control logging and promote investment in the Forestry Sector.
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.
At the inauguration of the international boat exhibition "Hanseboot" in Hamburg on October 25, activists from various ecologist NGOs inflated a 50 feet long, 17 feet high chainsaw, claiming "Mahogany is Murder!" and "No Teak on my deck!".
In their statement "Hanseboot kills forests" over 30 organisations from Germany, England, Switzerland and Cameroon called on importers, builders and consumers to stop the plundering of the rainforests and to use only tropical timber which has been independently certified.
The International Secretariat sent messages to public authorities in Brazil and Ecuador responding to the request of support by local NGOs. Faxes were addressed to the president of Brazil, the Government of Santa Catarina (Brazil) and the Brazilian Ministry of Justice, expressing our concern over the situation of Wigold Scaeffer and Miriam Prochnow -two distinguished leaders in the campaign to protect the Mata Atlantica from logging activities- who have repeatedly received death threats.
We received a reply from Aracruz’s Environment and Corporate Quality manager Carlos Alberto Roxo to our letter of 6 October in support of the Tupinikim/Guarani’s right to their lands. Mr Roxo is “pleased to have the opportunity of explaining the company’s position in relation to this matter, which has been deeply misinterpreted by some segments”.
A new pulp mill that will produce between 400,000 and 500,000 metric tonnes a year, largely for export, is being planned for the Umtata-Kokstad-Ugie triangle. According to Enoch Gogongwana, provincial MEC for Economic Affairs, Environment and Tourism, such project would create 600 direct and 1000 indirect jobs. The total investment would involve some 1.5 billion Rands.
At the same time as the Indonesian delegate sat at the Intergovernmental Forum on Forests –a UN body aimed at the sustainable use of the remaining world’s forests- the Indonesian forests in Sumatra and Borneo were going up in smoke. As many other country delegates in international fora –both Northern and Southern- the Indonesian delegate spoke about sustainable forest management as if it were something that was really happening or about to happen in his country. He even stressed the need for NGO participation in Indonesia!
Analysis of NOAA satellite data indicates that burning in the Brazilian Amazon increased 28% between 1996 and 1997. The average number of fires per day increased from 466 to 599. The actual increase for the year may be even greater, since 1997 is drier than 1996 and burning continues. Analysis of the NOAA-12 data under-counts the actual number of fires, so the situation is in reality worse.