What follows is part of the statement made in Rome by Mia Siscawati, from the Indonesian Institute for Forest and Environment, on the impacts of industrial tree plantations on people and forests in Indonesia.
"As a forester working for environmental NGOs in Indonesia I am glad to have the opportunity to visit the FAO and to join this COFO meeting. I would like also to thank ITFF for the opportunity to have a special meeting with NGOs.
Other information
The World Trade Organization (WTO) is negotiating a new international agreement to eliminate all tariffs on forest products worldwide, and to consider eliminating non-tariff forest protection measures. The terms of the agreement, that is to be formalized during a Ministerial Meeting to be held in Seattle, USA, from November 30 to December 3 this year, have been strongly critizised by the international environmental NGO community. Actions are being planned to denounce it. What follows is an article which we believe can shed light into this obscure issue:
"Tree plantations help alleviate pressures on natural forests, thereby contributing to halt deforestation." The wording may slightly differ from forester to forester and from plantation company to plantation company, but the above is repeated over and over again to convince the public that tree plantations are good and should be further supported and promoted if we wish to save the world's forests.
National Geographic is a worldwide known publication dealing with the diversity of landscapes and peoples in the world. According to a renewed vision of Geography, lately the magazine has been paying much attention to environmental issues.
We received a fax from the former President of the Environment Committee of the Venezuelan Congress, Dr. Lucia Antillano, thanking WRM for its activities in that country. The fax says:
The destruction of Acre, in the Western Brazilian Amazon began in 1877, with the arrival of peasants from Brasil's Northeast, escaping from drought and misery. They were brought to the forest as cheap labour to exploit rubber for the benefit of the so called “seringalistas”, composed by powerful Brazilian and foreign economic groups. They were even forced to fight against the indigenous peoples that inhabited that land: only ten out of the sixty indigenous nations that lived in the Jurua valley, in Acre, survived and their population decreased dramatically.
A workshop on Forests, Plantations and the Multilateral Development Banks was held from 2-4 December in Montevideo, Uruguay, organized by the Latin American and Caribbean NGO Network on the Multilateral Development Banks. Representatives from 18 NGOs -most of them from Latin America- participated in the event. Presentations on the Forest Policy of the World Bank, the situation of forests and tree plantations in the region and case studies on several Latin American countries were made (see article in this issue).
B.C.Y Freezailah, executive director of the International Tropical Timber Organization compared in Tokyo sustainable management of tropical forests with tree plantations and concluded that tropical forestry will need to switch to tree plantations.
He stated that 'tropical timbers from natural forests are increasingly facing competition with timbers from temperate forests, against which tropical timber from sustainably managed natural forests is at a distinct disadvantage.' (the 'temperate forests' mentioned are in fact plantations in Chile and New Zealand.)
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.
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.