***********************************************
WORLDWIDE
FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS
RAN
Action Alert--Loggers Raid Amazon for Mahogany
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Forest
Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises
November
7, 1995
OVERVIEW
& SOURCE
Rainforest
Action Network (RAN) reports on the mahogany logging
frenzy
now occurring across South America. The
USA is the largest
market
for this often illegally harvested timber.
Logging
companies
in Brazil are the greatest supporters of reduced land
rights
for indigenous peoples, fearing their access to mahogany
would
be limited. Violence against indigenous
peoples is directly
linked
with lucrative mahogany logging. RAN
calls for a
moratorium
on mahogany logging, and asks for international support
on the
matter.
This is
a very important issue, please take the time to write a
letter
on this subject. A link to Rainforest
Action Network's
World
Wide Web server can be found on our home page.
Try <
http://gaia1.ies.wisc.edu/research/pngfores
>, and you can send
free
faxes of protest to the Brazilian consulate over the
internet. Look for the topic "Loggers Raid Amazon
for Mahogany."
g.b.
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TEXT STARTS HERE:
Action
Alert 114 - November, 1995
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Loggers
Raid Amazon For Mahogany!
The
South American timber cartel is brazenly defying human rights
and the
world's environmental well-being in a bloody frenzy to
seize
the Amazon's last remaining mahogany. Never mind that the
trees
are on protected land. Loggers and importers have depleted
the
legally accessible mahogany stands of Brazil; vast numbers of
trees
are gone, the species nearly extinct, wiped out to satisfy
First
World taste for ornamental hardwood. The U.S. is the largest
importer
of mahogany from Latin America, and the high price the
wood
gets on the international market lures outlaw timber
profiteers
to log illegally on indigenous peoples' land and
national
parks. They harass, maim, and murder those who dare stand
in
their way.
Violent
attacks on native communities have increased in frequency
and
intensity in the past two years all over the Amazon. The
situation
is particularly hot right now in the Xikrin Kayapo's
Bakaja
Reserve, in the state of Para. Federal police and officials
from
Brazil's Indian Affairs Bureau came to the region at the
beginning
of October to defuse a potential armed conflict between
the Xikrin
Kayapo Indians and the Sudoeste logging company. In
September,
in the state of Acre, two hired gunmen threatened
the
life of Father Paolino Baldassari, a 70-year-old missionary
and
defender of indigenous rights. Brazilian newspapers report
that members
of eight indigenous groups have met violent deaths at
the
hands of mahogany loggers. The Korubu, Flecheiros, Tikuna,
Awa-guaja,
Zoro, Mura-Praha, Guapore, and Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau have all
lost
tribespeople in the battle to protect their lands.
Several
large timber companies, Sudoeste included, seek to
overturn
the Brazilian government's decree that guarantees land
for
indigenous control. Paid squatters occupy areas that the
government
has demarcated for parks and indigenous reserves. This
strategy
of land occupation allows the timber companies to
challenge
legal indigenous land-claims. Moreover, since the
government
is unwilling to confront those engaged in illegal
logging,
the companies--Bannach, Impar, Perachi, Campos Altos,
Juary,
and Maderobco--pay no local taxes or tariffs on the lumber
they
extract. This is a no-win situation for the Indians, who are
left
with no resources and no remuneration.
Loggers
and complicit regional politicos work to turn the
population
against the Indians. The timber industry's hired
killers,
whose names are well known in the region, seldom see the
inside
of a court house. On the rare occasions that the government
has
prosecuted pirate loggers, it has not revoked a single export
license,
and the fines are nominal compared to the value of the
timber.
The Network of Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian
Amazon
claims that mahogany loggers have staged marches against
the
Indians, threatened leaders in Vale do Javari with bodily
harm,
and threatened to set fire to the headquarters of local
indigenous
organizations, including the Alto Solimoes Indigenous
Centre
that oversees land rights.
The
mahogany trade also leads to the rapid death of the rainforest
itself.
Mahogany trees grow sporadically in the forest, and timber
companies
have carved over 1,500 miles of illegal roads through
the
Amazon basin to allow logging access. Studies estimate that
for
each mahogany tree harvested, at least 3,000 square feet of
forest
gets destroyed. The roads open the wilderness to tens of
thousands
of settlers who dislocate the traditional rainforest
communities
and clear the remaining trees for fields and
pastures.
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What
You Can Do!
Rainforest
Action Network calls for a moratorium on mahogany
logging
until the murder of indigenous people stops, and an
independent
panel can certify that the trees are harvested in a
manner
acceptable to the natives and not harmful to the
environment.
We urge consumers and suppliers alike - including
importers,
the furniture industry, and artisans - to stop all use
of
mahogany right now.
December
2 is RAN's National Day of Action Against Mahogany, just
in time
to dissuade holiday shoppers from buying frivolous
mahogany
pen sets and toilet seats. You can organize a protest in
your
area, or join the demonstration nearest you. Contact RAN's
Mahogany
is Murder campaign, 415-398-4404, E-mail:
rainwood@ran.org.
Please
send a fax or letter to Gustavo Kraus, Minister of the
Environment. It can be based on this following sample
letter:
Gustavo
Kraus, Minister of the Environment
Esplanada
dos Ministerios
Brasilia,
D.F. 70000.
Fax:
011-55-61-223-1958.
Dear
Gustavo Kraus, Minister of the Environment,
I am
deeply concerned that the timber industry in Brazil is
invading
indigenous land and instigating violence. Your
administration
is fully aware of the extent of illegal logging in
the
Amazon, yet has done little to stop it.
I urge
you to uphold native land rights, to expel illegal loggers
and
colonists, and to revoke the export license of companies
logging
or buying from illegal sources. Until
you stop this
illegal
trade, I will boycott all Brazilian mahogany and urge
others
to do the same.
Sincerely,
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