Scandinavian NGOs are requesting information on Norwegian, Swedish and Finnish pulp and paper-related firms' activities in the South. Such assistance can be very valuable for all, given that it may result in a collaborative relationship to support local struggles in the South. Many of these companies are crucial actors in pulp and paper projects, many of which are being resisted by local peoples.
Other information
Large scale overseas plantation projects planned by Japan's paper industry cannot be accepted in joint implementation or in the Clean Development Mechanisms of the Kyoto Protocol to combat climate change.
"Glyphosate is less harmfull than table salt", stated one of Aracruz Celulose's managers at a public meeting in Brazil. Artur Duarte Branco, leader of the company workers' trade union SINTICEL, offered to drink there and then a large glassfull of water with table salt if Aracruz's manager drank himself a small glass of glyphosate. The man's loyalty to the company did not go as far as that and he laughed away the challenge. Which was a wise move on his part.
The conclusions of the XI Global Biodiversity Forum, held last November in Buenos Aires -attended by Alvaro Gonzalez of the WRM Secretariat- reveal significant coincidences with some of WRM's viewpoints. One point in common is that which states that even if the increasing number of multilateral agreements on the environment could mean greater concern on the issue, this could also lead to a fragmented and ineffective approach to reality. On the contrary, a holistic vision is needed, that takes into account natural, social, economic and cultural factors working together.
Ricardo Carrere went to the state of Portuguesa in Venezuela following an invitation from AMIGRANSA and from Alfredo Torres, advisor to the Senate's Environment Committee. The objective of the trip was two-fold: 1) To get in contact with local communities affected by large-scale plantations implemented by the Irish-based transnational Jefferson Smurfit to feed its pulpmill in Venezuela and 2) To share WRM's findings on the reasons behind the spread of such plantations in the South, the impacts they are having and the struggles that are taking place against them.
Nothing much seems to have happened during the 4th Conference of the Parties held in Buenos (COP4) Aires from 2 to 13 November. From a broad perspective, this can be regarded as very bad news, given that climate change is happening and will increasingly affect the lives of millions of people.
One point that is not being sufficiently taken into consideration in the debate about plantations as carbon sinks is the production end of the issue. That is, most of these monocultural non-native species plantations are being grown for either of two products: paper or fiberboard. In both cases, the trees will be turned into chips and then made into something else.
How much of the actual wood fiber grown on the plantation is sequestered? Very little, especially in the case of paper.
Press release. Buenos Aires, 9 November 1998. NGO Forest Working Group expresses strong concern about inclusion of forests in the Clean Development mechanism.
Ricardo Carrere participated in the Africa Workshop of the Joint Initiative to Address the Underlying Causes of Deforestation and Forest Degradation held in Accra, Ghana, from 26 to 30 October. The case studies presented at the workshop will be shortly available in our web site, where we have already included some of the studies presented in other regional processes, such as Latin America, North America and Western Europe.
The WRM is deeply concerned about the direction in which the climate change negotiations seem to be leading, particularly after the Kyoto Protocol. A great number of Northern governments appear to be currently more concerned about seeking to buy their way out of their responsibilities to the global environment --particularly through the Clean Development Mechanism-- instead of implementing actions to effectively counter the greenhouse effect.
On October 2 the WRM International Secretariat addressed the Interamerican Commission for Human Rights, supporting the document sent to this international organization by CEJIL (Centre for Justice and International Law) and CIMI, denouncing the Brazilian government for ignoring the Tupinikim and Guarani indigenous peoples land rights and demanding the inmediate filing of the Federal police investigation against the Dutch missionary Winfried Overbeek.
Juan Pablo Orrego, Chilean anthropologist and ecologist, member of the NGO GABB (Grupo de Acción por el Bio Bio), received the 1998 prize from the Norvegian organization Right Livelihood Foundation for his permanent defence of the Bio Bio watershed and the Pewenche indigenous peoples against hydrolelectric projects in the VIII and IX Regions in southern Chile. The award –known as the Alternative Nobel Prize- is confered to people and organizations distinguished by their actions for world environment and peace.