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WORLDWIDE
FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS
Palm
Plantations Threaten Ecuadorian Choco Forest
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Forest Networking a Project of Forests.org
http://forests.org/ -- Forest
Conservation Archives
http://forests.org/web/ -- Discuss Forest
Conservation
05/03/00
OVERVIEW
& COMMENTARY
"The
Choco is one of the great ecosystems of South America... one of
the
most biodiverse regions on the planet."
This amazing global
treasure
is being rapidly deforested to plant oil palm in order to
provide
cheap cooking oil and other products.
These forests, lying
largely
in Ecuador, contain an estimated 9,000 plant and animal
species,
including more than 800 bird species, 235 mammals and 210
reptiles. The coastal Ecuadorian Choco forests have
already been
reduced
to 6% of their former extent. Oil palm
could well finish off
many of
these superb biological remnants.
Plantings in intact
tropical
moist forests are initially more productive and require less
fertilizer
than already cleared land, and thus old-growth forest
ecosystems
are being targeted. Throughout the
world, monocropping of
oil
palm poses an increasingly large threat to remaining lowland
tropical
rainforests.
g.b.
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TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: Palm Plantations Threaten Ecuadorian Choco
Forest
Source: Environment News Service,
http://www.ens.lycos.com/
Status: Copyright 2000, contact source for
permission to reprint
Date: May 1, 2000
QUITO,
Ecuador, May 1, 2000 (ENS) - One of the last forested regions
along
the Ecuadorian coast could soon be overrun by vast plantations
of oil
palms, warns Dr. Byron Real, director of the Corporation for
the
Defense of Life (CORDAVI), an Ecuadorian conservation group. The
Ecuadorian
portion of the Choco, a region of dense, moist forests, is
being
cut down in favor of the lucrative oil palm crop.
"The
Choco is one of the great ecosystems of South America, which
includes
areas that begin in the lowlands of Panama, bordering the
Pacific
Ocean, to Ecuador," said Real. "The Choco is one of the most
biodiverse
regions on the planet."
Real,
an environmental lawyer, and his wife, attorney Marcela
Enriquez,
formed CORDAVI to advocate compliance with environmental
regulations
in the public interest.
The
Ecuadorian Choco Ecosystem includes the Cayapas Mataje Mangrove
Reserve,
the Cotacachi Cayapas Ecological Reserve, and the Awa
Indigenous
Reserve. There are also vast natural forests outside these
areas.
These forests and the surrounding region support an estimated
9,000
plant and animal species, including more than 800 bird species,
235
mammals and 210 reptiles.
The
Choco ecosystem has been named as one of the world's biological
hotspots
by environmental groups including Conservation International
and
Agrupacion Sierra Madre. In Ecuador, the Choco forest once
extended
to an estimated 80,000 square kilometers (30,888 square
miles).
Only
six percent of that forest is left, in scattered parcels west of
Ecuador's
Western Andes, and lying mainly on the northern edge of
Esmeraldas
province. The devastation of these forests was due, in
large
part, to the growth of agriculture on the coast, starting in the
early
1900s. Over the past 40 years, logging has taken an additional
toll.
"The
rate of destruction has made these forests some of the most
devastated
in Ecuador," said Real.
The
Choco forests now face another threat: oil palm monocropping. The
practice
of replacing natural forest with palm plantations began with
the
open support of the recently deposed government of President Jamil
Mahuad,
Real said.
"Paradoxically,
the expectation to develop this monocrop
was fed
by the Ministry of the Environment which, from early 1999, was
well
aware of the existence of projects to convert around 60,000
hectares
(150,000 acres) of these natural forests to palm oil
plantations,"
said Real.
Palm
oil is used as a food oil, for frying, in baking and as a
stabilizer
in processed foods such as ice cream, salad dressing and
peanut
butter. Non-food applications include use as a motor fuel in
place
of diesel, in drilling mud, in soaps, as an ingredient in
plastics,
and in the manufacture of chemicals that can be derived from
oils.
To
create an oil palm plantation, companies begin by logging all of
the
natural forest. This devastates local biodiversity, impacting
nearby
forests and local communities.
The
companies have acquired the rights to about 60,000 hectares
(150,000
acres) from the area's inhabitants, made up overwhelmingly of
small,
subsistence farmers. The inhabitants of these lands must
abandon
their farms and make their way to nearby towns and the
country's
large cities, move to the remaining natural forests, or
settle
in the ancestral territories of the native Afro-Ecuadorian
communities
or that of the indigenous Awa and Chachi tribes.
Large
quantities of pesticides and toxic agro-chemicals are used in
African
oil palm monocropping, which impacts the health of both humans
and
animals, and the adjacent natural forests, including the Cayapas-
Mataje
Mangrove Ecological Reserve and the nearby mangrove ecosystem.
More
than 20 species of animals are already in danger of extinction in
the
Choco region.
Oil
palm plantation waste products take up large amounts of
biologically
active oxygen, which causes a drop in the oxygen content
of the
water these waste products enter. This can lead to the
extinction
of fish, plants and other aquatic organisms. These impacts
will
disrupt the local food web, destroying the main source of income
for
local residents.
In
1998, local officials of the Ministry sent a formal report to their
superiors
stating that over 4,000 hectares (10,000 acres) of wet
tropical
forests had already been logged, 2,500 of which were primary
forests.
These early warnings did not upset Ecuador's environmental
authorities,
represented by then Minister of the Environment Yolanda
Kakabadse,
who is now president of the IUCN (World Conservation
Union).
Real
says environmental officials then began a series of talks with
palm
oil companies. In March 1999, these government officials asked
the
companies to complete environmental impact statements for their
proposed
plantations, even though logging in the Choco was illegal
under
Ecuadorian law because of the numerous species in danger of
extinction
in these forested areas.
"The
destruction of one of the world's most important forest, and one
of the
last on the Ecuadorian coast, should have been sufficient to
alert
the environmental bureaucracy, but strangely, when the plans
were
being made for the devastation of these forests, the Minister of
the
Environment encouraged the oil palm producers by requesting
environmental
impact statements which would provide a cover of
legitimacy
before they began their operations," said Real.
One
year later, the National Forestry Director proclaimed that they
would
"put a brake to the expansion of the palm oil industry,"
admitting
that, to date, 8,000 hectares (20,000 acres) of native
forests
had been destroyed.
Oil
palm companies have so far converted about 100,000 hectares
(250,000
acres) of native forests to monocropped African oil palm
plantations,
in the northern area of Ecuador's Esmeraldas province.
The
economic success of this crop could attract hundreds of investors
and
speculators interested in creating more plantations, hastening the
destruction
of these forests, Real warns.
"It
should be remembered that a similar logic now being applied to
these
forested areas was previously applied to the mangroves," said
Real.
"In this case, the shrimp industry took over the mangroves, and
two
decades later, this activity has almost totally destroyed this
ecosystem
in Ecuador. And even today, there are not enough government
officials
to deal with this problem."
When
President Mahuad's government was forced to step down, bringing
Kakabadse's
term as Minister of the Environment to an end, the new
environmental
authorities imposed a $2 million fine on one of the
companies
involved in the mangrove destruction. However, this sanction
has not
been confirmed, and it could be overturned in the future.
In late
March, the new environmental authorities of the Ecuadorian
Minister
of the Environment fined one of the companies responsible for
the
destruction of some of the Choco forests.
To stop
the destruction of the native forests of the Choco Ecosystem,
Ecuador's
ombudsman and CORDAVI have presented a constitutional
injunction,
which presently is being considered by Ecuador's
Constitutional
Tribunal. This legal action asks the national
government
to declare an ecological emergency in the Choco region and
halt
the destructive activities in its native forests.
Real
says there are powerful business interests with enormous
political
influence that oppose any curtailing of oil palm
plantations.
"Unless international measures are taken to pressure the
Ecuadorian
government to respect the last natural coastal forests of
the
country," says Real, "no national environmental or legal force
will be
able to stop these powerful business interests."
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