***********************************************
WORLDWIDE
FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS
RAN:
Georgia Pacific of US Kisses Off Guyana's Forests
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Forest
Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises
September
12, 1995
OVERVIEW
& SOURCE
Rainforest
Action Network, of San Francisco, CA, reports on
Georgia
Pacific's (of the USA) resumption of plywood buying from
the
Barama company in Guyana. The Malaysian
and Korean Barama
consortium
has a 50-year license to log 4.1 million acres of
northwest
Guyana, equal to the land area of the entire state of
Hawaii. RAN claims Barama has a history of
destroying forests and
mistreating
their inhabitants. They detail numerous
discrepancies
and
adverse ecological and social effects related to this timber
operation. RAN appeals for letters to Georgia
Pacific. This item
was
posted in econet's rainfor.general conference.
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TEXT STARTS HERE:
/*
Written 12:40 AM Sep 12, 1995 by
rainforest@ran.org in
igc:rainfor.genera
*/
/*
---------- "G-P lip service kisses off Guyana's" ---------- */
Action
Alert #112 - G-P lip service kisses off Guyana's forests
Georgia-Pacific
has a long-standing concern for the quality of the
environment
in which we operate. We are committed to the health
and
safety of our employees and our communities.
- Good
People Doing the Right Thing, Georgia-Pacific brochure
Georgia-Pacific
Corporation may give lip service to
environmentalism,
but it's not living up to its high-minded
words.
Responding to pressure from environmental groups early in
1994,
G-P pulled back from a proposal to buy Guyanese timber from
Barama
Company Limited.
Now,
G-P has begun purchasing plywood from Barama's operations.
Barama
is a consortium of Korean and Malaysian companies with
histories
of destroying forests and mistreating their
inhabitants.
Corporations
like G-P routinely claim they're not accountable for
what
their contractors do in developing countries. This is often
an
excuse to shirk responsibility for the
problems caused by
their
operations.
That's
certainly the case for G-P's deal with Barama. The
consortium
has a 50-year license to log 4.1 million acres of
northwest
Guyana, equal to the land area of the entire state of
Hawaii.
The
Amerindian Peoples Association charges the Guyanese
government
granted the concession on land traditionally worked by
the
Carib, Arawak and Warrau people. The government has ignored
their
claims.
What's
more, Barama's huge concession has not been certified by
an
independent group authorized by the Forest Stewardship
Council.
Instead, G-P is seeking a green light from the
industry-financed
Tropical Forestry Foundation. And whatever
standards
might exist inside the concession, Barama is also
buying
logs from outside, where no monitoring is going on.
Stabroek
News, the principal Guyanese newspaper, recently
reported
charges that Barama has engaged in transfer pricing.
That's
an illegal practice in which companies avoid paying taxes
by
selling materials to trading partners at artificially low
prices.
Barama
enjoys a ten-year tax holiday and pays almost no royalties
to
Guyana's government. Many Guyanese consider the contract
invalid,
because it was negotiated by a since-deposed
dictatorship.
The current, democratically elected government
agreed
early this year to review the original, 1991 contract, but
has not
yet done so.
Meanwhile,
for the Amerindian peoples of northwestern Guyana, the
lure of
short-term jobs in a plywood mill threatens to end their
customary
agricultural practices and make them dependent on the
company
to survive. When the timber is depleted, Barama and G-P
will
move on, leaving ecosystems devastated, biodiversity
extinguished,
and the local people bereft of their sustainable
way of
life.
Jocelyn
Dow of the Guyanese group Red Thread says the people of
Guyana
welcome economic development, but it must benefit the
local
community, not fill the coffers of transnational
corporations.
Rainforest
Action Network executive director Randy Hayes adds:
"In
the new world economy of global exploitation, rainforest
activists
cannot allow corporations to operate as if their direct
or
indirect involvement in any country is 'just business.'
Companies
like G-P are not free from any social, environmental or
economic
accountability. They have primary responsibility to
participate
in the resolution of local issues and concerns."
G-P
executives visited the Barama concession in late 1994 and
asked
for some improvements in timber practices. These may or may
not be
sufficient, but there's no indication whatever that G-P
has
addressed Amerindian land rights, Barama's woefully
inadequate
royalties to Guyana's government, or the charges of
illegal
pricing.
What
you can do
Activists
must pressure multinationals like G-P into "doing
the
right thing." Please write G-P's CEO.
Sample
Letter:
Mr.
A.D. Carrell, Chairman and CEO
Georgia-Pacific
Center
133
Peachtree Street NE
Atlanta,
GA 30303
Fax:
404-584-1470
Dear Mr. Carrell,
As a customer of the Barama Company
Limited, Georgia-Pacific
has a
responsibility to participate in the resolution of
outstanding
indigenous and environmental issues in Guyana. Even
though
G-P has made forest-management recommendations for the
Barama
concession, Barama is buying logs outside its concession,
and
Amerindian land claims have not been addressed.
Half measures will not work. Cosmetic field
trips by
industry-sponsored
groups like the Tropical Forestry Foundation
may
polish G-P's image, but they do little to limit the damage of
industrial
forestry.
Live up to your environmental rhetoric! G-P
must immediately
stop
importing Guyanese wood products from Barama until, at the
very
least:
* All
indigenous issues are fully settled to the satisfaction of
Amerindian
peoples.
* Wood
extraction is certified by Forest Stewardship Council
standards.
Thank
you very much.
Sincerely,
-----------------------------------------------------------------
From
Action Alert 112, September 1995
c 1995
Rainforest Action Network. Commercial reproduction
prohibited.
Students, teachers, and activists may copy articles
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Rainforest
Action Network works to protect the Earth's
rainforests
and support the rights of their inhabitants through
education,
grassroots organizing, and non-violent direct action.
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