Have Small Farms Deforested West Africa
12/1/98
*******************************
RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: Have Small Farms Deforested West Africa
Source: World Rainforest Movement
Status: Distribute freely with proper credit to source
Date: 12/1/98
WORLD RAINFOREST MOVEMENT MOVIMIENTO MUNDIAL POR LOS BOSQUES
International Secretariat Oxford Office Instituto del
Tercer Mundo 1c Fosseway Business Centre Jackson 1136
Stratford Road Montevideo Moreton-in-Marsh
Uruguay GL56 9NQ United Kingdom Ph +598 2 409
61 92 Ph. +44.1608.652.893 Fax +598 2 401 92 22
Fax +44.1608.652.878 EMail: wrm@chasque.apc.org EMail:
wrm@gn.apc.org Web page: http://www.wrm.org.uy
=================================
W R M B U L L E T I N # 18
DECEMBER 1998
=================================
In this issue:
* OUR VIEWPOINT
- The need to raise awareness on the true character of tree plantations
* LOCAL STRUGGLES AND NEWS
AFRICA
- Have small farmers deforested West Africa?
- Ghana: new book on the forest sector
- The Gambia: a different type of forest degradation
AMERICAS
- Forest-Americas: a discussion list about hemispheric forest protection
and free trade issues for forest activists
ASIA
- APRIL and UPM-Kymmene move into China - Vietnam invades Cambodian
forests.
- Indonesia: students break up meeting to promote transmigration and oil
palm plantations in the Mentawai islands - Sarawak: field trip to
interview people resettled by dam - Thailand: the pulp industry tries to
strike back
NORTH AMERICA
- Canada: birds of a feather in certification process
SOUTH AMERICA
- Venezuela: the struggle against Smurfit's plantations - Venezuela:
detention linked to Smurfit - Brazil: response to article published in
'Aracruz News' - Argentina: battle over gas pipeline in the long struggle
of the Kolla peoples
*GENERAL
- Ten years without Chico Mendes
- Forests, plantations and the multilateral banks - ITTO moving to tree
plantations?
- Scandinavian groups monitor their home-based companies abroad - Can
expansion of plantations be a solution to combat Global Warming?
- Glyphosate in tree plantations is harmless: true or false?
- Global Biodiversity Forum casts doubts on measures to mitigate climate
change
*WRM GENERAL ACTIVITIES
- News from the International Secretariat
OUR VIEWPOINT
- The need to raise awareness on the true character of tree plantations
One of the main reasons which explains why large-scale industrial tree
plantations can be promoted at the global level while they are being
strongly opposed at the local level, is the manipulation of concepts and
information to feed the uninformed public. Trees -any trees- are presented
as sinonimous to forests and forests are rightly perceived by most people
as good and necessary to humanity. The fact that plantations have nothing
in common with forests is not that easy to be understood by the general -
particularly the urban- public.
On the contrary, local people can easily see the difference. Shortly after
large-scale tree monocrops are planted, they begin to perceive -and
suffer- that difference. Wildlife begins to become scarce in the area and
almost inexistent within the boundaries of the plantations. Changes in the
hydrologic cycle leads to water scarcity and in some cases also to over-
flooding after heavy rains. Useful plants disappear. Water courses are
damaged through increased siltation due to soil erosion originating in the
plantations. Plantation management results in chemical pollution due to
the widespread use of agrochemicals. Such changes have strong implications
for local peoples' livelihoods. Wild animals, fish, mushrooms, fruit,
honey, vegetables, form an important part of their diet.
Water security is basic for their agricultural and animal husbandry
activities. The forest provides fodder, firewood, medicines, wood for
housing, grasses for thatching, fibres and many other products and
services. Plantations do not provide any of those and, to make matters
worse, deprive people from most of the available agricultural land, which
is taken over by one large company.
However, plantations are being promoted throughout the world as "planted
forests". As if a forest, in its complexity of interactions involving
people, energy, climate, soil, water and biodiversity, could be planted.
Sooner or later, people begin to perceive that plantations are not
"forests" and plantation companies then resort to a different set of
arguments, trying to convince people that plantations are good, even
accepting they are not forests. One of the more widely used arguments is
that which states that "plantations help to alleviate pressure on native
forests", by providing goods that would otherwise be obtained from
forests. This argument sounds appealing, particularly to the increasing
number of people concerned about deforestation. . . only that it is not
true.
All plantations in tropical countries have directly or indirectly resulted
in increased destruction of native forests. Most plantation companies
clear the existing forest to make way for their tree crops. On the other
hand, fast-growth tree monocrops are mostly oriented to the pulp industry
and therefore do not alleviate any pressure from the logging of tropical
timber for the sawnwood and plywood industry. Additionally, many pulp and
paper companies which implement plantations to feed their pulpmills also
use wood from tropical forests, either prior to the moment when the
plantations mature or simultaneously use wood from the forest and from
plantations (see for instance article on Venezuela in this bulletin).
As each argument falls apart, the companies' hired "experts" invent
another one, trying to make this unsustainable forestry model acceptable
by different audiences. For example, that plantations create employment.
The fact that plantations destroy more jobs than the ones they create and
that the quality of employment they provide is dismal seems to be
irrelevant to such "experts". Or that plantations are necessary to supply
an increasing demand for paper in an increasingly literate world. This
hides the fact that some 40% of the paper produced ends in packaging and
wrapping, as well as the fact that pulp-exporting Southern countries with
extensive plantations (such as Indonesia, Brazil, South Africa or Chile)
consume 10 times less paper than industrial countries.
The inventive of these "experts" to prove the impossible seems to be
inexhaustible. The truth is that plantations are simply tree crops aimed
at ensuring the future supply of the pulp and paper industry once its
traditional resource base -native forests- becomes depleted. As with any
other industry, its purpose is to produce, and sell, and make a profit.
The difference is that this industry -which is in fact one of the most
destructive and polluting in the world- tries to portray its tree
plantations, as a "greening the earth" operation. Trees are green . . .
and so is the American dollar, which is the only colour they are
interested in.
LOCAL STRUGGLES AND NEWS
AFRICA
- Have small farmers deforested West Africa?
Not according to British researchers James Fairhead and Melissa Leach.
Their recent book "Reframing Deforestation, Global Analysis and Local
Realities: Studies in West Africa", published by Routledge Press, uses
extensive historical evidence from archives, travelers' reports, and oral
accounts for Benin, Cote D'Ivoire, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Togo
to show claims of massive forest loss in these countries have been greatly
exaggerated.
Specifically, they find that:
* These countries have lost some 10 million hectares of forest since 1900,
not 25-50 million hectares as previously claimed,
* Much of the so-called "forest zone" has probably never been forest,
* Forest has expanded into savanna in many places along the forest zone's
northern margins,
* Farmers occupied many supposedly "primary" forests during recent
history,
* Historically, population decline has been as important in regional
forest cover change as population growth,
* Farmers do not only destroy forests. They frequently help create them,
* Bush fallow and isolated forest patches and trees often indicate farmer
enrichment of landscapes, not degradation.
The authors do not deny significant deforestation has taken place or that
small farmers sometimes degrade their environments. They simply argue the
extent of destruction has been over stated and farmers' positive roles
largely ignored.
Existing myths persist, in part, because forestry and conservation
agencies find them useful. By claiming small farmers threaten forests they
did not create these groups can justify their own control over forest
resources and limiting farmers' access to those resources. Exaggerating
the extent of deforestation and forest degradation can help obtain
political support and funding.
If you would like to send comments about the topic of this message to the
authors or find out how you can purchase a copy of their new book, you can
write Melissa Leach at: M.Leach@ids.ac.uk
Source: David Kaimowitz
- Ghana: new book on the forest sector
The International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) has
recently published a report on Ghana's forests and forest policies titled
"Falling into Place", produced in collaboration with the Ghanaian Ministry
of Lands and Forestry. Authors include Nii Ashie Kotey, Johnny Francois,
JGK Owusu, Raphael Yeboah, Kojo S. Amanor and Lawrence Antwi. The book
provides a historical analysis, a description of the different types of
forests, the stakeholders involved and the evolution of government forest
policy, ending with conclusions and suggestions for the future. The report
is available at the Faculty of Law of the University of Ghana
(lawfac@ug.gn.apc.org) and at IIED (bookshop@iied.org).
- The Gambia: a different type of forest degradation
As in many other countries, Gambia's forests are facing a type of forest
degradation which implies the substitution of native species by an exotic.
But this is not the common situation where plantation companies substitute
native forests by eucalyptus, pines or palm oil plantations. In this case,
the villain is a "good" tree, brought into the country by Indian
immigrants: the Neem tree (Azadirachta indica). In India, this tree has a
number of positive features, among which the production of a useful
natural pesticide. In Gambia, it is becoming a pest. But not because
native forests are being cut to plant neem: the tree is slowly invading
the forest and getting increasingly out of control.
Such situation is not unique to Gambia. Many non-native trees and shrubs
are becoming invasive in many of the world's forests, leading to dramatic
changes in forests' floristic composition and subsequent changes in local
wildlife and peoples' livelihoods. For a more detailed description of this
process worldwide, we recommend Chris Bright's chapter on forests in "Life
out of Bounds: bioinvasion in a borderless world" (New York, Norton, 1998,
www.wwnorton.com).
Source: Jato S. Sillah (pers. comm.)
AMERICAS
- Forest-Americas: a discussion list about hemispheric forest protection
and free trade issues for forest activists
"Forest-Americas" is a list for forest activists in North, Central and
South America who want to work together to protect forests and counter the
growing threats posed by trade liberalization and globalization of the
timber trade. The purpose of the list is to help activists build wider
networks to share information and develop joint strategies.
The idea for this list was generated at a meeting of grassroots forest
activists at the People's Summit in Santiago, Chile concurrent with the
FTAA Summit in April, 1998. Activists came together to discuss the impacts
to forests and communities of the movement of transnational timber
corporations within the Americas, the loss of native forests and
biodiversity, the expansion of tree plantations and chip mills, and the
threats posed by free trade agreements like the FTAA, APEC and NAFTA. At a
meeting to plan for how we could work together, it was decided to increase
our interaction and cooperation through a listserve.
To subscribe to the list, send a message to: Pat Rasmussen
For questions, contact: Pat Rasmussen, at American Lands,
prasmussen@igc.apc.org
ASIA
- APRIL and UPM-Kymmene move into China
APRIL (Asia Pacific Resources International Holding Ltd.) -partner of the
Finnish UPM-Kymmene- is known for its permanent violations to human rights
and depredatory environmental practices in Indonesia. Lately APRIL has
been the cause of local conflicts between villagers and workers in
Indonesia (see WRM Bulletin 17, November 1998).
In face of the severe difficulties that the Indonesian economy is
currently facing, APRIL has not been able to find financing for a second
paper machine in Riau Province. The transnational is therefore trying to
expand to a new and potentially huge market: China. UPM Kymmene and its
partner APRIL recently signed a loan agreement of U$S 250 million with
Chase Manhattan Bank and Citicorp International for their Chinese joint
venture: Asia Pacific Forest Products (Suzhou) Pte. Ltd. (AP Suzhou). AP
Suzhou will establish a 350,000 tonnes per year fine paper mill that is
expected to start operating early next year in Changshu, China and has
already a 30,000 tonnes per year converting plant, currently in operation
in Suzhou, both near Shanghai. UPM-Kymmene and APRIL hold equal 49%
positions in AP Suzhou.
Source: Otto Miettinen, Friends of the Earth/Finland, based on: "UPM-
Kymmene and its partner April took a billion-loan for their Chinese
plants", Helsingin Sanomat, 2/12/1998; UPM-Kymmene Corporation and APRIL
Press release, 1/12/1998.
- Vietnam invades Cambodian forests.
In previous issues of the Bulletin we informed on the expansion of tree
monocultures and the pulp and paper industry in Vietnam, under a scheme
not aimed at attending the needs of farmers, villagers, or even the
country's economy in the long run (Bulletin 7, December 1997; Bulletin 15,
September 1998). The unsustainability of Vietnamese forestry policy
becomes evident once again: from July 1998 the Government is allowing
imports of Cambodian timber, and even encouraging the re-export of both
logs and sawn wood made out of Cambodian and Laotian timber.
Under the disguise of "regional cooperation" in the framework of ASEAN
(Association of Southeast Asian Nations), Vietnamese loggers are illegally
felling trees in Cambodia, especially in Ratanakiri province. It is
presumed that large scale land exports will take place during the 1998/99
dry season. The minimum volume of Cambodian logs illegally felled and
exported to Vietnam in 1997 and early 1998 has been estimated in 260,000
cubic metres.. The annual export of Vietnamese manufactured garden
furniture to Europe reached in 1998 a minimum of U$S 70 million. According
to the law, exclusively imported wood can be used to this aim, and this
raw material comes from the neighbour countries Cambodia, Laos, Burma,
Malaysia and Indonesia.
"Since the July 1997 coup Vietnam, with the go ahead from Cambodian Prime
Ministers Hun Sen, Ung Huot and Military Region 1, appears to regard
eastern Cambodia as its own property and absolutely advocates the import
of Cambodian logs", said Simon Taylor, spokesperson of Global Witness.
Based on the World Bank suggested economic rent for Cambodian timber of
US$75 per m3, the loss to the national budget through illegal logging
operations from January 1997 to February 1998 is US$184.2 million.
Cambodian forests had already suffered significant degradation during the
Vietnam War, due to bombing and the use of defoliants. If deforestation in
this country's forests continue at the present rate, by 2003 all of them
would have dissapeared.
Sources: Global Witness, Press Release, 14/12/1998; "Cambodia's future on
the move", A Briefing Document by Global Witness, March 1998 (web site:
http://www.oneworld.org/globalwitness/reports/GoingPlaces/index.htm); The
World Guide 1997/1998.
- Indonesia: students break up meeting to promote transmigration and oil
palm plantations in the Mentawai islands
For perhaps the first time since Indonesia's independence, the West
Sumatran authorities called together 120 Mentawai people for negotiations
with the local government in Padang. The representatives were community
leaders, religious figures and village heads from the whole Mentawai
island chain (off the West coast of Sumatra.)
The subject of the meeting was how to bring 10,800 transmigrant families
to the Mentawai islands for a commercial oil palm development (PIR-Trans)
by PT Citra Mandiri Widya Nusa -owned by ex-Employment Minister Abdul
Latif.
The thirty or so students from the Mentawais who attended managed however
to break up the meeting. The students said that if their demands had not
been met that day, the entire school and university student population of
Padang would have come and forced the meeting to be dispersed. The
chronology of the events was as follows:
On December 8th at around 10.30 am local time, some thirty demonstrators
(Mentawai young people and students who jointly formed the Mentawai Reform
Movement GERAM) held a protest outside the building in Padang which was
the venue for a 'consultation meeting' organised by the provincial
Transmigration & Forest Resettlement Department, local government
officials and about 120 community representatives and village heads from
all the Mentawai islands.
The meeting was opened at 8.30am by head of the West Sumatra
transmigration office, Dr. Ngumar Prayitno. Speakers on the platform
were then to give the following presentations:
- The head of the West Sumatra Transmigration Department: " The
Transmigration Programme in the Mentawai islands during the current Five
Year Plan";
- The head of the West Sumatra Forestry & Agriculture Department:
"Forestry Development in the Mentawai islands"; - Local (district)
government official: "Development of the Mentawai islands in this Era of
Reform";
- Yuhirman from SPKM (an NGO selected to speak for the Mentawai people by
the provincial Transmigration Department head): "Integration and cultural
assimilation";
- Suhaimi, an investor from PT Citra Mandiri Widya Nusa: "The development
of oil palm plantations on the island of Siberut".
When it was the turn of the speaker from SPKM, the demonstrators shouted
that he should step down and that the meeting should be closed. His speech
and that of the company representative were drowned out by the microphones
of the demonstrators outside, so the meeting was stopped temporarily.
The students then entered the building and spoke directly to the audience.
They said that transmigration was not needed in the Mentawai islands. The
many transmigration schemes which had been tried had created many problems
and the condition of the surrounding communities was a cause of concern.
The government used the Transmigration Programme as a Trojan horse, as
means to exploit natural resources in the Mentawais, especially timber.
Government officials, in this case from the Transmigration Department,
were cooperating with logging concessionaires and timber companies to
prepare sites and generating all kinds of problems in the process.
The GERAM demonstrators pointed out that it was clear that PT Citra
Mandiri Widya Nusa had been invited to speak at this 'consultation
meeting' because the oil palm plantation company was going to take on
transmigrants in Siberut, even though the indigenous community had
rejected these plans. The Minister of Forestry and Agriculture had already
issued an official letter (No 850/Menhutbun -VI/1998) which recommended
that the planned plantation was located elsewhere. The demonstrators
threatened to continue their speeches and to bring more protestors along
unless the meeting was closed.
Some of the Mentawai representatives went outside to try to pacify the
demonstrators and invited them to discuss matters with the government
officials. The members of GERAM completely refused to enter the meeting
room and said they would not stop their protest until the Transmigration
Department came to talk with them outside and declared the 'consultation'
officially closed. The rest of the Mentawai participants started to drift
outside to the demonstrators. The government officials suggested the
protestors joined the discussion inside, but they refused.
The protestors also demanded that the company representative spoke to them
outside. When he did, the demonstrators bombarded him with questions and
gave him a copy of the Minister's letter. In his response, Mr Suhaimi said
he would convey their rejection of its plan to the head of the company.
The demonstrators replied they didn't want to know about the head of the
company.
The demonstrators then read a statement to the government officials who
had come outside. The main points were that:
- The Mentawai islands should become an official district as soon as
possible so they were no longer administered as part of the mainland; -
They refuse to be part of any Transmigration Programme schemes until the
Mentawai islands were given district status; - The Transmigration
Department must immediately rectify the problems on existing
transmigration sites in the Mentawai islands; - The authorities should
immediately withdraw all operating permits from PT Maharani Puri Citra
Lestari, PT Citra Mandiri Widya Nusa and PT Sagu Siberut Perkasa, as these
companies have caused conflict and damaged the cultural and natural
environment of the island of Siberut.
- All the Mentawai village heads and community representatives should be
careful not to be deceived or misled by the pretext of development for the
Mentawais at the expense of the indigenous community.
The head of Transmigration for West Sumatra, Dr Ngumar Prayitno Winota
said that he understood the demonstrators' position. Transmigration policy
in the current era of reform had changed because the local community had
input into every scheme. He declared the meeting officially closed and
said that the presence of the company was outside his department's
authority. The demonstrators accepted his statement and dispersed straight
away.
The meeting was initially planned to take 2 days.
* Note
Government plans to open up the Mentawai islands for massive oil palm
plantations using transmigrant labour have been around since the early
1990s. The most recent version was in late 1996, when the Governor of West
Sumatra approved plans for a 70,000 ha oil palm plantation in the buffer
zone of Siberut National Park. Protests by Indonesian and international
groups have persuaded Ministers in Jakarta to block these developments so
far. Now, as Indonesia struggles to solve its economic crisis by
increasing exports, large-scale oil palm schemes are scheduled for many
forest areas of the outer islands and the ban on the export of raw logs
has been lifted.
Source: Translation by Liz Chidley (dtecampaign@gn.apc.org) from news
received from Indonesia
- Sarawak: field trip to interview people resettled by dam
Last October, Sahabat Alam Malaysia (Friends of the Earth Malaysia) went
on a field trip to Sarawak to interview Dayak Ibans that were affected by
the Hydroelectric Batang Ai Dam and relocated in nearby districts during
the past decade.
People interviewed expressed different opinions on whether their situation
had improved or if they were now worse off than before. Among the positive
aspects, the main one was the possiblity of access to modern amenities
such as electricity, road, school, clinic and water supply. However, money
is needed to sustain all these and their sources of income come from
tapping rubber and working in oil palm plantations, which means that
incomes are meager. At the same time, the land allocated for every family
is inadequate for their future survival and many don't have any land
titles. People are therefore demanding that:
1. Padi farmland should be allocated immediately to all the respective
settlers.
2. Land Tittles should be issued to all the respective families at the
resettlement area.
3. The charge for electricity and water supply should be at a moderate
price.
4. All the gravel road should be upgraded with tar within the Resettlement
area.
Source: Sahabat Alam Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia, e-mail: sam77@tm.net.my
- Thailand: the pulp industry tries to strike back
The pulp and paper industry, which lost a number of battles to peasants
opposing both plantations and pulp mills in Thailand , is now putting
pressure on the government for the approval of an expansion of eucalyptus
plantations. The Thai Pulp Industry Association is suggesting the
Agriculture Ministry ammend the existing forestry law which curbs the
planting of eucalyptus. The reasoning is simple: that "the law should
acknowledge that eucalyptus is an economic plant." The already well-known
social and environmental impacts don't seem to be a major source of
concern for the industry.
The Association is saying that the existing two million "rai" of
eucalyptus plantations (some 320,000 hectares) are insufficient to supply
the industry with raw material and that some 160,000 additional hectares
of plantations would need to be planted within the next 10 years.
It is not known whether the recent purchase of shares of Advance Agro (a
major local pulp and paper manufacturer) by the ENSO Group from Finland
and a preliminary agreement to buy shares by Oji Paper from Japan, have
something to do with the mounting pressures to develop eucalyptus
plantations.
Sources: 'Producers want more eucalyptus plantations', Bangkok Post,
10/11/98; 'Finns pay for shares in Advance Agro', Bangkok Post, 12/11798
NORTH AMERICA
- Canada: birds of a feather in certification process
Western Forest Products (WFP), a Canadian logging company with a long
record of clearcutting ancient temperate rainforest, has applied for FSC
(Forest Stewardship Council) certification for an operation in a watershed
on British Columbia's central coast called the Ingram-Mooto. WFP is
seeking the FSC stamp of approval to combat the international market
campaigns targeting the company's customers in Europe and the United
States. WFP has already clearcut, blasted and bulldozed a logging road
several kilometers deep into the once pristine Ingram-Mooto. What WFP has
done there can only be described as an environmental atrocity, yet has
been able to contract SGS from the UK to act as its certifier. SGS was
involved in a controversial certification process in Gabon and as a result
was suspended as a certifier by the FSC for its non-compliance to FSC
principles and criteria. According to Greenpeace Sweden, SGS has also
recently been involved with another questionable certification process in
Arvliden in northern Sweden.
WFP also has publicly stated its intention to clearcut eight other intact
river valleys throughout the Great Bear Rainforest over the next year. The
widespread clearcut logging WFP has planned for key ecological areas on
the coast such as the Aaltanhash River, Pooley Island, and Green Inlet is
generating worldwide concern and condemnation. WFP's clearcutting and
industrial forestry practices have had severe impacts on coastal
rainforest habitat for grizzly bears, Spirit bears, wolves, and wild
salmon throughout the Great Bear Rainforest.
The Ingram-Mooto falls within the traditional territory of the Heiltsuk
First Nations. WFP constructed the logging road in the Ingram-Mooto over
the objections of the Heiltsuk hereditary chiefs. In fact, the hereditary
chiefs have repeatedly asked the company to agree to a one-year moratorium
on all new logging in Heiltsuk territory, but WFP refuses to heed their
requests.
Many NGOS are concerned that before FSC regional standards in BC can be
established and before a trusted BC based certifier can be accredited, SGS
could very well undermine all future eco-certification efforts in the
province. An assessment of WFP's logging plans by Greenpeace and
consulting biologist Dr. Rick Zammuto found WFP in "serious non-
conformance with 22 individual FSC criteria." SGS has essentially adopted
the BC government's "Forest Practices Code" as its initial certification
checklist for WFP. The "Code," which has been universally criticized by BC
NGOs, enshrines clearcut logging, does nothing to address the
unsustainable rate of cut in BC, and fails miserably as a mechanism to
protect biodiversity. Yet SGS has chosen to hold it up as the FSC standard
for WFP's certification bid.
Canada has already been saddled with one certification debacle on the east
coast where Irving was given the FSC stamp of approval by the US based
Scientific Certification Systems. NGOs on the east coast have now been
forced into the painstaking process of appealing the Irving certification.
NGOs on the west coast do not want to see a repeat of that unfortunate
situation.
What You Can Do:
Please contact SGS Qualifor, and request that SGS terminate the
certification process for Western Forest Products or at the very least
suspend the process until such time that the BC FSC Steering Committee has
developed credible regional standards for the province.
SGS Qualifor
Oxford Centre for Innovation
Mill Street
Oxford, OX2 OJX
Fax: +44 1865 790441
E-mail: forestry@sgsgroup.com
Source: Chris Genovali, Raincoast Conservation Society, Victoria, British
Columbia. Web site: www.raincoast.org E-mail: chrisg@raincoast.org
SOUTH AMERICA
- Venezuela: the struggle against Smurfit's plantations
Smurfit Carton of Venezuela, a subsidiary of the Dublin-based
transnational Jefferson Smurfit, which recently merged with Stone
Container, thereby becoming the world's largest producer of paper and
paperboard, is both creating and facing big problems in Venezuela.
A previous merger with the US-based Container Corporation in 1986, led
Jefferson Smurfit to becoming the major shareholder of Carton de
Venezuela, changing its name to the current Smurfit Carton de Venezuela.
Until then, the company's mill had produced pulp from sugarcane bagasse (a
by-product in sugar production). In 1994 it switched its pulp production
to wood, to be supplied from plantations and primarily from tropical
forest.
The company's operations in Portuguesa state have resulted in overt or
hidden confrontation with local communities, whose lives and livelihoods
have suffered -and are still suffering- from its activities. At the base
of all this lies the issue of the concentration of land and power in the
hands of a transnational, against a background of lack of land by poor
peasants.
The company began buying lands back in 1986 and currently holds 15
properties involving some 27,000 hectares in the state of Portuguesa and
7,000 additional hectares in the states of Lara and Cojedes. At least half
of those lands are classified as agricultural. According to Venezuelan
law, those lands could have not been planted with trees. But they have and
much of them is now covered with eucalyptus, pines and gmelinas.
In 1997, the relationship between Smurfit and local peasant communities
was already at a critical level, as a result of aerial spraying of
herbicides, which had destroyed 190 hectares of peasant's crops and even
intoxicated school children in the village of Tierra Buena, when the
situation erupted dramatically. That year, Smurfit purchased a large
estate (La Productora, with 2,700 hectares), which had until then been
dedicated to commercial agriculture and cattle raising. Peasants from two
adjacent communities (Morador and Tierra Buena), had expected to receive
this estate as part of the government's agrarian reform programme. Smurfit
changed the whole situation, not only by planting trees in land that
peasants needed to grow crops, but also by changing the relationship which
peasants had had with the previous owner, which allowed them free access
to his property, including fishing and hunting. Within this context,
Smurfit fenced the whole estate with barbed wire and brought in guards to
keep people out.
On July 14th 1997, local peasants occupied La Productora, demanding the
government to asign part of those lands to them. The answer was to bring
in the National Guard. The repression was ruthless, and hundreds of men,
women and children were brutally beaten, shot at and imprisoned. Many of
them still suffer from the injuries received and those considered to have
led the occupation are still lacking freedom of movement and must report
regularly to the authorities. Although there is ample evidence of the
torture inflicted on people (including photographs and written
testimonies), those responsible have not been sentenced in court and
remain unpunished. On the contrary, repression is still rampant in the
area and terror is the basic tool used to try to keep people out of the
company's properties. Especially trained dogs (complete with trainers)
have been brought in from Colombia; machine-guns are fired during the
night; squads of masked "vigilantes" on horseback patrol the area; houses
are searched without warrant; people are shot at in front of their homes;
they are detained on the road and beaten if they are found with matches in
their pocket (which is considered near-arson by the company).
To make matters worse, plantations are not only occupying the land
peasants desperaterly need, but are also impacting on other resources they
depend on, such as water and wildlife. The company has been as ruthless
with the environment as it has been with local people. Impacts on forests
and water are a direct consequence of its activities, while impacts on
biodiversity are a by-product of the industrial plantation model.
Deforestation is part of the company's policy. In spite of having
extensive plantations, it's pulp mill has until now been mostly fed with
tropical wood, extracted both from its own properties and from other
forests in the region. Although such activity is illegal, the company
manages to "legalize" it with the assistance of some government officials.
There is ample proof that the company has deforested many of its land
holdings. In the case of its estate La Productora, it obtained a permit
from the government to deforest 600 hectares of highly diverse tropical
forest. In other of its properties, logging has been carried out
illegally. Additionally, anyone can observe trucks loaded with "firewood"
(a denomination to avoid control of protected tree species) moving along
highways all night in the direction of the of the company's Mocartel pulp
mill in the state of Yaracuy.
Impacts on water are not only the result -as happens elsewhere in the
world- of high intake of water by fast-growing trees. They are also the
result of the destruction of water courses with bulldozers, which flatten
the terrain to give way to more trees (particularly Gmelina arborea).
Every inch of the land must be planted. Impacts on water are also the
result of the destruction of riparian forests that protect water courses.
Local animals, fish and plants, which provided to many of the local
peoples' food needs are disappearing at an increasing rate, as their
natural habitats are substituted by green deserts of trees and more
forests are cleared to feed the pulp mill.
In spite of all the problems it is causing, the company does not seem to
be succeeding in breaking people's will to oppose its operations and there
is a question mark as to for how long its plantations will be able to
survive -even protected by barbed wire, dogs and armed men- while at the
same time being surrounded by hundreds of people who hate those trees and
the company they represent. If plantation forestry is unsustainable in
general, in this case it seems to be more unsustainable than ever.
- Venezuela: detention linked to Smurfit
Melvis Molina, president of the Environmental Group of the village of
Morador in the state of Portuguesa was arrested. The Environmental Group
stated that the judge's decision was the result of pressures from
Smurfit's lawyers and accused the company of responding with judicial
terrorism to the recent visit of WRM's international coordinator, which
they hope will result in raising international awareness about the
ecological and social disaster caused by this company. It is also believed
that the arrest is a revenge on Molina and his family, for his persistent
criticism in the local press regarding the social and environmental impact
of Smurfit's plantations.
The Group added that local people will continue confronting the
environmental destruction and human rights violations, as well as the
deforestation of natural forests which the multinaltional continues
carrying out with the complicity of the Ministry of the Environment.
Upon receiving news about this situation, the WRM secretariat, in direct
contact with the Environment Committee of the Venezuelan Senate,
circulated the information contained in this bulletin within the country
prior to its publication. We are pleased to inform that, with the active
participation of the Land Committee's lawyer, Dr Rafael Gonzalez, Melvis
Molina was finally released on bail after having been in detention for
several days.
Source: El Regional, 9/12/98; Environment Committee of the Venezuelan
Senate
- Brazil: response to article published in 'Aracruz News'
By means of this letter, we would like to comment the article of Mr. Julio
Cesar Centeno, published in the October edition of 'Aracruz News',
bulletin of the pulp and eucalyptus plantation company Aracruz Celulose.
In his article, Mr Centeno praises the eucalyptus plantations at Aracruz
Celulose because of their "capacity to have a significant impact on local
and national economies". Although the author admits that plantations have
both positive and negative implications, he merely considers the positive
implications, clearly supporting the interests of Aracruz Celulose in
promoting its tarnished image. Unfortunately, in spite of the 'objective'
tone of his article, Mr. Centeno is one more of the group of so-called
'specialists', that plantation companies need to justify their activities
and to cover the well-known negative impacts that their plantations have
on local people and environment.
We would like to make some remarks:
- It should really be a principle, as Mr. Centeno suggests, that
"plantations should not involve the replacement of the natural tree cover
on a particular site". However, Aracruz Celulose cleared extensive areas
of native forests to implement its eucalyptus plantations, as has been
proven by aerial photographs and local testimonies, and causing a disaster
for local biodiversity.
- The author states that "plantations can significantly improve the
livelihoods of surrounding populations". However, the more Aracruz company
occupied intensively the geographical space, the more it contributed to
the loss of structure in the socially, culturally and economically valid
forms of production, organisation and land use, especially of the
Tupinikim and Guarani indigenous communities.
- For sure "plantations of eucalyptus must carefully match water demand to
availability", because in the Aracruz case the water levels of the streams
and brooks in the few native forest which was left, have dropped, often
resulting in the complete disappearance of these streams, which anyone can
check in the region, just asking elder Tupinikim and Guarani Indians to
show these places.
- Finally, if what Mr Centeno means by "significant impact" of Aracruz on
the local and national economy is that it had had a significant negative
impact, then such assertion is especially true, for instance in the number
of people employed by the company, which dropped from 7.400 in 1990 to
around 2.000 at present (in spite of the continuous growth of the
company), having severe consequences for the local economy. Inversely, it
must be stressed that the national economy has had a strong positive
impact on Aracruz, which has received all sorts of economic support from
the Brazilian state since it began its operations and is even exempted
from most taxes because its production is export-oriented.
Conselho Indigenista Missionario-Espirito Santo*
- Argentina: battle over gas pipeline in the long struggle of the Kolla
peoples
The Kolla indigenous people, that live in the northern Argentinian
Provinces of Jujuy and Salta, have been defending the "yungas" -one of the
last remaining mountain forests in Argentina- against a pipeline project
that would transport natural gas from eastern Salta to the northern
Chilean copper mines. In April 1998 ENARGAS -the Argentinian regulatory
entity- approved the project presented by Consorcio Norandino SA,
according to which the pipeline would cross Finca San Andres, inhabited by
350 Kolla families, who oppose it.
Last June a Federal judge ordered the suspension of the pipeline
construction, considering that the project lacked an adequate
environmental impact assessment, as well as of any social and cultural
impact evaluation, ignoring the existence of the Kollas in the area.
But supporters of the gas pipeline are powerful and influential: The Salta
Provincial Government gained the support of the population of the nearby
town of Oran, because of the jobs that Techint -the company in charge of
building the pipeline- had promised to create; Guemes Radio has even
instigated violence against the Kolla; many Argentinian judges have strong
links with the government and are suspected of corruption. In July the
Federal Court of Appeal revoked the Federal judge's decision and
authorized the project. One week later the heavy machinery of Techint was
opening a 12 metre wide trail in Finca San Andres, destroying the yunga
and threatening Kolla cemeteries and archeological sites. Affected Kollas'
protests got the original project route diverted a couple of metres to
avoid further destruction. Nevertheless it is also feared that the
removal of sectors of the mountain will provoke landslides. During floods,
rock materials tranported by the San Andres River could damage the
pipeline itself, provoking gas escapes.
During the opening of the recently celebrated XI Global Biodiversity Forum
(see article in this issue and in Bulletin 17) the Secretary for the
Environment and Natural Resources Maria Julia Alsogaray stated that during
the present administration the protected area of the yungas had been
increased to 300,000 hectares. Her declarations are in total contradiction
with what is actually happening on the ground.
The battle over the San Andres pipeline seems to have been lost. However,
the struggle continues. "The Government has everything on his side:
judges, politicians, mass media. But they have forgotten that we have
fought for 500 years to recover our lands and natural resources. For the
non pollution of the water, the air, the soil. For our cultural values and
cosmovision. In sum, for our existence as human beings in harmony with the
surrounding nature" stated Festo Chausque, one of the Kolla leaders.
Sources: Glenn Switkes, Latin America Program, International Rivers
Network, December 1998; Festo Chausque, Centro Indigena Kolla de Salta,
14/12/1998.
GENERAL
- Ten years without Chico Mendes
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. As time went
by, the "seringueiros" -workers in rubber production- had to adapt to that
new environment, learning from the ancestral traditions of indigenous
peoples how to live in the forest.
Francisco (Chico) Mendes, as well as his own father, was one of them. He
was born in 1944 at Pote Seco in the Porto Rico "seringal". He was able
to overcome the environment of misery and illiteracy were he lived thanks
to Euclides Fernandes Tavora, a political refugee that lived in the
Amazon, who tought him to read at the age of nine in a land without
schools. By that time, after the Second World War, Brazilian rubber
production was suffering a severe crisis due to the competition of the
South Asian production. The worse for the Amazon was still to come.
In 1965, the Brazilian Government began to promote the "development" of
the Amazonian region, trying to attract investors from the industrialized
Southern Brazil through colonization programmes. The propaganda stated
that in Acre land was abundant and cheap. At the beginning of the
seventies the Transamazonic highway started to be constructed and with it
the desintegration of the whole region accelerated. Between 1970 and 1975
the "fazendeiros" -big landowners- purchased 6 million hectares of land in
Acre, with support from the state. They imposed terror to intimidate the
one thousand families of seringueiros that lived there: their houses were
set on fire, their cattled was killed, their women abused. At the same
time, the forests were rapidly destroyed. By 1975, 180.000 rubber trees
("seringueiras") and 80.000 chestnut trees ("castanheiras") disappeared
because of logging and fires, to clear up land for commercial agriculture
and cattle raising. Newcomers received illegal land titles on the
territories occupied by the seringueiros or ancestrally inhabited by
indigenous peoples.
The serigueiros began to organize resistance against this depredation. The
famous "empate" movements were created and Chico Mendes was one of the
people's leaders. They consisted of groups of seringueiros and their
families that moved into the different places where logging or fires were
to take place, opposing peaceful resistance. Considering their material
forces, they achived great success, since 15 out of 45 "empates" carried
out from 1977 to 1987 resulted in victory and in those places the forest
was saved. However, their greatest impact was at the international level.
What seemed to be only a local fight for survival began to be perceived as
a broad environmental movement, involving political, social and economic
aspects. The policy of the Brazilian government, promoting an
unsustainable development model based upon the destruction of the forest
and the misery of the poorer, as well as the support from the multilateral
banks, that financed the opening of roads in the region, -for example the
BR 364 Porto Velho-Rio Branco, built with money lent by the Inter-American
Development Bank- were publically denounced.
Chico Mendes and the seringueiros promoted the idea of the so-called
extractivist reserves. These are areas where the production of rubber is
complemented by the gathering of native fruits, herbs and other products.
"We, the seringueiros, don't want to transform the Amazon in a sanctuary;
we just want the forest not to be destroyed. To the question of what our
proposal is, we answer that, besides discussing about our fight to stop
destruction, we have started to think of an alternative proposal for the
conservation of the Amazon forest. This proposal is based on the creation
of extractivist reserves. The seringueiros are not interested in or want
property rights, we don't want to be owners of the land . . . We present
an economically feasible alternative, that gives priority to the
extractivist products that exist in the Amazon, which are nowadays menaced
and were never taken into account by the Brazilian Government" said Chico
in 1990.
In the meantime, violence in Acre increased. After the murder of a leader
of the seringueiros in 1988, the Federal Government established the first
extractivist reserves at Cachoeira and Sao Luis do Remanso. The rage of
the fazendeiros reached a climax and on December 22nd 1998 Chico Mendes
was murdered by one of them, while at home in Xapiru. During a speech a
few days before his murder Chico already knew what awaited him. He said:
"I only want that my death contributes to halt the impunity of the
killers, who count on the protection of the police of Acre, and which have
already killed 50 persons like me, seringueiro leaders, committed to save
the Amazon forest and to show that progress without destruction is
possible."
Ten years after that tragic day some things have changed. Jorge Viana, who
worked very closely with Chico, has been recently elected as governor of
Acre. But the international price of rubber has continued to drop, thus
destimulating its production. Some of the seringueiros have therefore been
forced to clear the land for planting rice, corn or beans. The destruction
of the Amazon forests not only continues but has even accelerated: in
1978, 13 million hectares were deforested, but the figure reached 37
million in 1988 and 41 million in 1990. Nevertheless the new government of
Acre is thinking of promoting the diversification of production at the
extractivist reserves, as a way of making them viable to save the forest
and the seringueiros. That is what Chico lived and died for.
Sources: Chico Mendes, "A luta dos Povos da Floresta", Geografia, Pesquisa
e Pratica Social, Terra Livre 7, 1990; Rodrigo Franca Taves, "O Acre dez
anos depois da morte de Chico Mendes", O Globo, 29/11/1998; Fundacion
Proteger, "Quien era Chico Mendes?", 4/12/98.
- Forests, plantations and the multilateral banks
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).
Participants addressed a letter to Mr. Ian Johnson,Vice-President of the
Department for Social and Environmental Sustainable Development of the
World Bank, expressing their concerns about the review of the Forest
Policy that the Bank is undertaking. They demanded that instead of
reconsidering such policy as a whole, the WB should take into account the
most innovative and representative aspects of the Forest Policy agreed in
1991, to evaluate its implementation on the ground. "Since the approval of
the Forest Policy the situation in Latin America has changed, due to the
devastating environmental impacts of structural adjustment, trade
liberalization and other globalizing measures. We are especially concerned
about the negative effects of commercial tree plantations on forests,
which are promoted by the WB by means of subsidies, to the detriment of
the protection of forests" states the letter.
For more information on this workshop, please contact Vivianne Garcia
- ITTO moving to tree plantations?
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.)
"It is quite clear -he said- that any further increase in the management
costs for tropical timber due to rigid standards for the sustainable
managemente of natural tropical forests, timber certification, and other
costs will render it increasingly uncompetitive with the large quantities
of commodity timbers becoming available especially from plantation-grown
timbers from temperate countries."
He thereby concluded that "the future of tropical timber based on the
sustainable management of natural tropical forests, is regretfully, more
than bleak. It is in forest plantations that tropical countries have
certain comparative advantages." Therefore, tropical forestry must focus
on "wood production from intensively managed plantations of species
selected for timber production."
Contrary to what one might think, the above thinking is bad news for
tropical forests. If logging is bad, plantations are even worse, both to
people and to the environment. As an indigenous person from Sarawak, with
years of experience fighting against logging companies, said: the logging
companies come in, degrade our forest and leave; plantation companies come
in, destroy the whole forest and stay!
Source: ITTO information from CIFOR 19, June 1998
- Scandinavian groups monitor their home-based companies abroad
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. For example, the Norwegian
multinational company Kvaerner Pulp & Paper is one of the major actors
profitting from large pulp and paper projects in the South, by selling
equipment to projects such as the following:
- PT Tel, Indah Kiat and Riau Andalan in Sumatra (Kvaerner is also trying
to get a contract with Borneo Pulp & Paper in Sarawak) - Arauco
Constitucion in Chile (Kvaerner has won the contract for an evaporation
upgrade)
- Alto Parana S.A. in Argentina (Kvaerner has won the contract for upgrade
of the pulp mill at Puerto Esperanza).
- PT Kiani Kertas in Tanjung Redeb in East Kalimantan, Indonesia (Kvaerner
delivers the bleaching chemical plant).
- Advance Agro in Prachinburi, Thailand (Kvaerner has delivered many
different kinds of equipment; fibre line, recovery system, etc.).
- Klabin Fabricadora de Papel e Celulose in Brasil (Kvaerner has delivered
different equipment; bleaching-system and other things).
- Compania Manufacturera de Papeles y Cartones in Laja, Chile (Kvaerner
has delivered recovery system).
- Cenibra in Brasil (Kvaerner has delivered a new fibre line).
- V.P.C. Votorantim in Jacarai, Brasil (Kvaerner has delivered a bleaching
system).
- La Cellulose du Maroc in Morocco (Kvaerner has delivered new digester
and modernisation of fibre line)
- Dong Hae in South Korea (Kvaerner has delivered boiling system and other
systems)
- Usutu Pulp in Swaziland (Kvaerner has delivered different equipment) -
Sappi Saicor in South Africa.
Information requested includes:
1) Conflicts with local population on land issues because of
plantations/plants, forced relocation, lack of compensation, court cases,
etc.
2) Environmental problems; such as deforestation of natural forest,
pollution from the plants/factories, etc.
3) Background information about the projects, especially how big their
plantations are.
If you have any information to share on the above, please contact Harald
Eraker, NorWatch-FIOH, e-mail: or
Regarding Swedish and Finnish companies, the following are of particular
interest:
* AssiDoman
* STORA-Enso (has operations in Vera Cruz, Brazil) * SCA Forest and Timber
AB
* Korsnas AB
* MoDo
* Sodra
* Valmet in Karlstad AB (subsidiary of Finnish Valmet) * Sunds Defibrator
(owned by Finnish Rauma) * ABB Ventilation Produkts (ABB Flakt)
* Alfa Laval Celleco
* Cellmark
Any information on these companies involvement in "controversial"
operations is welcome (please send it to wrm@chasque.apc.org). Sunds
Defibrator, for instance, is heavily involved in South East Asia, for
example in the construction of Riau Andalan in Indonesia and the Advance
Agro Public CO Ltd pulp mill in Thailand.
- Can expansion of plantations be a solution to combat Global Warming?
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.
What is actually resulting from plantations is forest degradation and
related carbon emissions. At the same time, carbon contained in the wood
that is extracted from plantations is released almost immediately in the
case of pulpwood plantations, because wood is transformed into paper, much
of which is short-lived, thereby releasing the stored carbon back to the
atmosphere. Before assessing any CDM projects, it is therefore necessary
to close a number of loopholes contained in forestry accounting.
1. The expansion of plantations was part of 'forest degradation' in the
1980s, causing loss of closed forests and carbon emissions.
In order to achieve high precision estimates of deforestation and forest
degradation in developing countries, the FAO conducted a satellite
sampling research ("Forest Resource Assessment 1990", FAO 1995). This land
use change measurement by the FAO can be utilized in the context of Global
Warming. Estimates are based on the concept of Carbon Stock Change method
accounting, which is one candidate to be used in the Framework Convention
on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol.
According to the satellite image analysis, in the 1980s, 75% of the new
tree plantations in developing countries in the tropics were made by
replacing closed natural forest that had existed there ten years earlier.
Plantation projects therefore serve as agents of destruction for natural
forests. Most of these new plantations may be for oil palm or pulpwood
production purposes.
Original tropical forest stores biomass at average rates of 220 tonnes per
hectare. Typical plantations store biomass at average rates of 120 tonnes
per hectare. A decrease of 100 tonnes of biomass is equivalent to roughly
50 tonne-carbon, or 183 tonne-CO2 emission. Therefore, the 3.95 million
hectares of forest converted to plantations in the 1980s means 725 million
tonnes of CO2 emissions.
The result of initial logging and subsequent plantation is therefore an
increase in the net carbon emissions that contribute to global warming,and
accounted for as "forest degradation". Although remaining plantations can
sequester carbon dioxide, part of that carbon is extracted as timber or
other products, while net Carbon Stock remains constant in the remaining
plantations.
High expansion rate of plantations is expected in the future, just as the
case in the 1980s, which expanded plantation area 25% within the decade,
so the total plantation related carbon accounting is net 'emission' of
carbon dioxide.
2. Consumption patterns are essential for Carbon Stock estimates
Most afforestation schemes such as those initiated by Japanese paper
companies are large scale and involve profitable non-native species. This
extension overseas of Japan's "expanded forestation" paradigm is causing
social, environmental and human rights problems in many targetted areas.
In the process of pulp and paper production, more than half of the carbon
stored in the woodchip is consumed as a biomass energy resource and
emitted into the air as CO2. Paper products are subsequently used for
only one year on average. Half of these products are then recycled, but
the other half are burned as waste producing further CO2 emissions.
Wood used for pulp and paper production is therefore fundamentally
different from timber products that are used on a longer term basis as the
timber industry claims. Rather it should be treated as the same usage as
fuelwood.
3. IPCC's guideline of Sink inventory is contradictory, thus causing a
loophole.
Cutting activities are accounted for the host country's activity by now,
while part of planting credit will be given to the donor country. This is
a carbon leakage problem, which allows the developed country to abandon
its emission reduction target. A trade related cost internalization
scheme, such as traded timber vs Annual Allowance Unit barter trading or
simply barter accounting scheme should be developed to close the loophole.
Reference: Forest Resources Assessment 1990 (Global Synthesis, 1995, FAO
Forestry paper No. 124)
Source: Tadashi Ogura, Japan Tropical Forest Action Network (JATAN)
- Glyphosate in tree plantations is harmless: true or false?
"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 herbicide glyphosate (or Roundup) is widely used in plantation
forestry, both to eliminate weeds during the initial period and to kill
the trees themselves (in the case of eucalyptus plantations) after the
second harvest. The "table salt" argument is used as a means to neutralize
the growing environmental concerns over the wide use of Roundup in entire
regions being converted to large-scale tree monocrops. However, such
publicity has been shown false by independent studies which have concluded
that:
1. Glyphosate can be persistent. In tests conducted by Monsanto,
manufacturer of glyphosate-containing herbicides, up to 140 days were
required for half of the applied glyphosate to break down or disappear
from agricultural soils. At harvest, residues of glyphosate were found in
lettuce, carrots, and barley planted one year after glyphosate treatment.
2. Glyphosate can drift. Test conducted by the University of California,
Davis, found that glyphosate drifted up to 400 meters (1300 feet) during
ground applications and 800 meters 12600 feet) during aerial applications.
3. Glyphosate is acutely toxic to humans. Ingesting about 3/4 of a cup can
be lethal. Symptoms include eye and skin irritation, lung congestion, and
erosion of the intestinal tract. Between 1984 and 1990 in California,
glyphosate was the third most frequently reported cause of illness related
to agricultural pesticide use.
4. Glyphosate has shown a wide spectrum of chronic toxicity in laboratory
tests. The National Toxicology Program found that chronic feeding of
glyphosate caused salivary gland lesions, reduced sperm counts, and a
lengthened estrous cycle (how often an individual comes into heat). Other
chronic effects found in laboratory tests include an increase in the
frequency of lethal mutations in fruit flies, an increase in frequency of
pancreas and liver tumors in male rats along with an increase in the
frequency of thyroid tumors in females, and cataracts. (the fruit fly
study used Roundup; the other studies used glyphosate.)
5. Roundup contains toxic trade secret ingredients. These include
polyethoxylated tallowamines, causing nausea and diarrhea, and
isopropylamine, causing chemical pneumonia, laryngitis, headache, and
bums.
6. Roundup kills beneficial insects. Tests conducted by The International
Organization for Biological Control showed that Roundup caused mortality
of live beneficial species: a Thrichgramma, a predatory mite, a lacewing,
a ladybug, and a predatory beetle.
7. Glyphosate is hazardous to earthworms. Tests using New Zealand's most
common earthworm showed that glyphosate, in amounts as low as 1/20 of
standard application rates, reduced its growth and slowed its development.
8. Roundup inhibits mycorrhizal fungi. Canadian studies have shown that as
little as 1 part per million of Roundup can reduce the growth or
colonization of mycorrhizal fungi.
9. Glyphosate reduces nitrogen fixation. Amounts as small as 2 parts per
million have had significant effects, and effects have been measured up to
120 days after treatment. Nitrogen- fixing bacteria shown to be impacted
by glyphosate include a species found on soybeans and several species
found on clover.
10. Roundup can increase the spread or severity of plant diseases.
Treatment with roundup increased the severity of Rhizoctonia root rot in
barley, increased the amount and growth of take-all fungus, a wheat
disease), and reduced the ability of bean plants to defend themselves
against anthracnose.
Source: Compilation by Caroline Cox, Northwest Coalition for Alternatives
to Pesticides- (NCAP), from an article published in NCAP's Journal of
Pesticide Reform. Copies of the article, with complete references for all
of .the information presented, are available from NCAP for $2.00. NCAP, PO
Box 1391; Eugene, OR 97440; (541) 344-5044.
- Global Biodiversity Forum casts doubts on measures to mitigate climate
change
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.
Another important point in common is the one that stresses that "done
incorrectly, the forest-based measures to address climate change . . .
could result in negative impacts on forests and other natural ecosystems,
communities and the climate system.". This is exactly the case of tree
plantations as carbon sinks: while their effectiveness in this respect is
doubtful, their negative environmental and social impacts -including
impacts on biodiversity- have been proven worldwide. Participants of the
Forum underscored that "protecting the ecological integrity of nature and
sustaining the societies which are supported by it is vital to addressing
the climate change issue".
WRM GENERAL ACTIVITIES
- 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. Part
of the findings of the trip are registered in a short article published in
this issue of the bulletin, while a more in-depth publication will be
forthcoming shortly. Few days after the above travel to Venezuela, we
received news about the detention of a local activist, apparently linked
to WRM's visit (see article on Smurfit). We immediately offered our
support and disseminated information within Venezuela as widely as
possible. Particularly important was that a local internet service
(Venezuela's Electronic News) carried the news. The person was finally
released on bail.
- As a contribution to the workshop "Forests, Plantations and the
Multilateral Development Banks" recently held in Montevideo (see article
in this issue), Alvaro Gonz lez -member of the WRM International
Secretariat- made a presentation on the situation and trends of forests
and tree plantations in Latin America. The presentation was focused on the
direct and underlying causes of deforestation and forest degradation, and
examples were provided regarding some of the different types of forests
existing in the region: the Amazonia in Brazil, Guyana and Suriname, the
montain forests of Honduras, the temperate forests of southern Chile and
the Argentinian yungas. A critical analysis of present trends related to
the Clean Development Mechanisms (CDM) was also made. In relation to
commercial plantations, it was pointed out that the region was undergoing
an increase in the tree monoculture plantation area, under the general
scheme applied worldwide, causing negative environmental and social
impacts. The cases of Aracruz Celulose in Brasil, Smurfit in Venezuela and
Forestal Arauco in Chile were shown as examples of this negative model. It
was also stated that the risk exists that plantations will probably be
promoted in the framework of the CDM.
Those interested in receiving a complete version of the presentation,
please contact: alvarog@chasque.apc.org
- On December 1st, the WRM International Secretariat sent a fax to Dr.
Jamil Mahuad, President of Ecuador, to express its concern over the
declarations of the Ambassador of that country to the USA, according to
which the Ecuadorian State should not take part in the trial against
Texaco for the destruction the company provoked in the Ecuadorian Amazon.
Environmentalist organizations demand that the trial takes place in the
New York Court and that Texaco is obliged to pay for the environmental
rehabilitation in the affected communities and territories.