A new report clearly links the disappearance of the world's forests with the horrifying catalogue of human rights abuses taking place as a result of conflicts between forest peoples and the powerful government and corporate interests within forests. Published by Fern, "Forests of Fear: the abuse of human rights in forest conflicts" calls for governments, environmental groups and aid donors to prioritise the defence of human rights as the primary solution to solving the forest crisis.
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What follows is a letter circulated by Fern, explaining the objectives of the EU Forest Forum and inviting interested organizations to join:
Dear friends,
In spite of the fact that the situation in the Congo Basin has been much less publicized than that of the Amazon Basin, the truth is that deforestation has reached alarming rates in the six countries lying within the basin (Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon).
Massive logging has been identified as Cambodia's main environmental problem. Since the 90s, the timber sector, replicating the globalised forest management pattern that prioritises short-term financial profit to ecological stability, aggressively exploits Cambodian forests. Virtually all forestland, except for protected areas, has been allocated as concessions to mostly foreign companies. Additionally, the mid-nineties were characterized by large-scale uncontrolled and illegal logging activities throughout the country.
Newly installed forestry minister M. Prakosa and trade and industry minister Rini M.S. Suwandi announced a moratorium on the export of logs and wood chips in October in order to "safeguard the conservation of Indonesian forests."
More than 80 percent of timber from the Amazon is logged illegally, and mahogany --also known as the “green gold”-- has been the main target of such operations. Mahogany's value --a cubic meter can fetch more than US $1,600 per cubic meter-- has attracted loggers who encroach deep into pristine forests to supply a demand almost exclusively aimed at export markets.
Although the President has changed in Perú, the forest degradation process and the indigenous peoples' situation remains the same or even worse. As was denounced several times in previous issues of this bulletin (1, 8, 34 and 35), the Peruvian Amazon forest is being degraded by activities such as oil prospection and extraction and logging by powerful Malaysian companies. Illegal logging also adds a new menace to the material and cultural survival of the indigenous groups that live in the forest.
Chinese logging companies are relatively new arrivals in South America. In Suriname, at least two have been operating since 1996; in neighbouring Guyana, the first arrivals surfaced in the year 2000. In both cases, the companies are operating on or near Indigenous and Tribal lands. Reports have also surfaced of Chinese companies operating in northern Brazil.
It is well known that the World Bank has been a major force in the destruction of the rainforests of the world by financing destructive projects. The decison taken yesterday of approving a controversial forestry project seems to show that the Bank is still far from truly embracing participatory forest conservation and management.
The International Tropical Timber Organization has dedicated an entire issue of its Newsletter (Vol. 11 No 3, 2001) to tree plantations. Unfortunately, the ITTO has chosen to publicize their allegedly positive impacts, while basically ignoring the numerous struggles against them resulting from the broad range of negative social and environmental impacts they entail.
The 7th Conference of the Parties of the Convention on Climate Change was held in Morocco from October 29 to November 9, 2001. On October 31, forest activists from the Global Forest Coalition and announced in a side event three nominations for the "Treetanic Award".
The "Treetanic Award" is handed over during the climate negotiations to the companies implementing the worst carbon sink projects, such as the monoculture tree plantations which are currently being implemented to avoid reduction of CO2 emissions.
Representatives of the Indigenous Peoples present at the 7th Conference of the Parties (COP) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), held in Morocco in November this year, issued a declaration demanding recognition of their rights and warning on the danger of the so-called “carbon sinks.” The following paragraphs are part of this declaration, available in Spanish on our web page (http://www.wrm.org.uy/actores/CCC/IPMarrakesh.html).