The World Rainforest Movement is organizing a plantations campaign meeting which will be held in Montevideo on 20-22 June. The aim of the meeting is to discuss and decide a common strategy for the campaign and to agree on a plan of action. The campaign will be officially launched at the end of the meeting.
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Last 18th of March the Brazilian Government launched a military operation -similar to the actions against the indigenous peoples undertaken during the dictatorship period- seeking to put a definitive end to the struggle of the Tupinikim and Guarani for the demarcation of their traditional lands. Clearly the aim of the authorities’ action was to create the necessary conditions for the indigenous peoples to be forced to accept the imposition of Aracruz Cellulose.
On March 6th the Brazilian Ministry of Justice finally decided to demarcate only 2,571 additional hectares for the Tupinikim and Guarani. The argumentation of the Ministry denies all the studies done uptil now by FUNAI which arguments the necessity of extending and demarcating 13,579 hectares, as requested by the indigenous peoples. This decision is exactly the same proposal that Aracruz Celulose put forward to the indigenous peoples in a meeting on February 18th, which clearly shows that the authorities acted defending the interests of the company.
The forest near the village of Long Lamai was in flames last week after Penan people refused to let timber company workers into their lands, to which the latter reacted by setting th forest on fire. Local people were worried that the fire might extend to larger areas. This region is being targetted by a Malaysian-German technical co-operation project which put in place a comprehensive Forest Management Information System. Samling was the first logging company involved in the project by providing two concession area in Upper Baram as a pioneer testing ground.
The difficult process related to the definitive recognition ot the indigenous territorial rights in Aracruz seems to come to an end.
We have received the following statement from Sarawak with a request to circulate it as widely as possible:
"The Bakun Region People's Committee (BRPC) urges the State government and the Bakun Resettlement Committee (BRC) to shelve the resettlement of the Bakun residents which is tentatively set for July this year, as announced recently by the Chairman of the BRC, YB Dr. James Masing.
The BRPC makes this urgent appeal for the deferment of the resettlement exercise based on the following:-
Sarawak will open up some 50,000 hectares of land every year for the next few years to be developed into oil-palm plantations due to rising demand for edible oil. Business will be developed and managed jointly by state development agencies and publicly-listed companies that have the experience and expertise in plantations. According to the government, the state is prepared to invest heavily in the palm-oil sector (see WRM Bulletin nr. 8) because the products would remain attractive despite the economic downturn, as can be seen from the increasing demand for edible oil worldwide.
In the last issue of our Bulletin we informed about the events of December in Sarawak. Enyang ak Gendung who was shot by the police while protesting peacefully, died in hospital from his injuries on 24 December 1997, after five days in coma under intensive care. A postmortem performed three days later revealed a bullet lodged inside his head. Enyang ak Gendung was married with three children, aged between seven and 17 years.
The Malaysian Ministry of Economic Affairs has announced an increase in pulpwood plantations throughout Malaysia, Sarawak included. At present, an area of 10,000 hectares is occupied by tree plantations in Sarawak and it is increasing as in other regions of the country. While in the past most of the tree plantations were established by the State, at present private companies are becoming more and more involved. The role of the State is changing: Dr.
It is important to begin by highlighting the fact that to receive FSC certification, a plantation company needs to comply with all FSC's principles and not only with the principle concerning plantations specifically-- principle 10.
The Ist Indigenous Assembly of the Tupinikim and Guarani took place in December 8th at the Community Center of Coquerial in Aracruz.
About 300 Iban of Rumah Bangga longhouse, about 100 kilometres from the town of Miri, put up a blockade to protect their Native Customary Land after two companies, Segarakam Sdn Bhd, and Prana Sdn Bhd. -which are contractors to Empresa (M) Sdn Bhd.- trespassed on and cleared their land, which resulted in extensive damages to their property.
Without notice or consultation with the Iban, the land and Survey Department -a Sarawak State government department- had issued a provisional lease to Empresa (M) Sdn Bhd, an oil palm plantation company.