World Rainforest Movement Bulletin #2
7/10/97
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Headline: World Rainforest Movement #2
Source: World Rainforest Movement
Date: 7/10/97
***************************WORLD RAINFOREST MOVEMENT
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 49 61 92 Ph. +44.1608.652.893
Fax +598 2 41 92 22 Fax +44.1608.652.878
EMail: rcarrere@chasque.apc.org EMail: wrm@gn.apc.org
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W R M B U L L E T I N # 2
10.07.97
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* PRESENTATION
Dear friends,
This is the second issue of the World Rainforest Movement's
Bulletin.
The World Rainforest Movement is a global network of citizens' groups of
North and South involved in efforts to defend the world's rainforests
against the forces that destroy them. It works to ensure the lands and
livelihoods of forest peoples and supports their efforts to defend the
forests from commercial logging, dams, mining, plantations, shrimp farms,
colonization and settlement and other projects that threaten them.
We hope that this Bulletin may become a tool for enhancing communication
and information among all those people concerned with this issue and
willing to contribute to stop and reverse this destructive processes. Your
comments, suggestions and contributions are welcome through:
rcarrere@chasque.apc.org, alvarog@chasque.apc.org or fax (598 2)41 92 22.
Warm regards
Ricardo Carrere
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* WRM GENERAL ACTIVITIES
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* News from the International Secretariat
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Workshop on Indigenous Knowledge and Forests.-
A workshop on Indigenous Perspectives in Forestry Education, organized by
the Faculty of Forestry of the British Columbia University, the National
Aboriginal Forestry Association and the First House of Learning, took place
in Vancouver, from 15 to 18 June.
Representatives of the Cherokee, Sto:lo, Tsleil-Waututh, Ojibway,
Stl'atl'imx and Musqueam First Nations, Mam Tribe of the Mayan People and
Te Whanau-a-Apanui Tribe, as well as delegates from Universities, research
centres and from Canada, USA, Russia, Sweden, Kenya, Australia, New
Zealand, Malaysia, Thailand, Venezuela and Uruguay were present. Alvaro
Gonzalez, Project Assitant of the WRM, attendend as delegate of the
Universidad de la Republica of Uruguay.
The workshop included traditional indigenous ceremonies, songs, stories
and dances combined with speeches and breakout working groups for
discussion on programme implementation and designs, topics and specific
courses to be included in the curricula, and principles and techniques for
appropriate instruction of Indigenous perspectives. It was a good
opportunity to get to know the experiences in course for the inclusion of
Indigenous knowledge in academic education, and for
relationships-building. Copies of the WRM External Bulletin Nr 1 were also
distributed. Many of the participants showed great interest in the
activities of our Movement and asked Alvaro to send them further editions
of the WRM External Bulletin. We send also special greetings to those who
were there.
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New WRM book on Guyana.-
Last week Marcus Colchester was in Guyana presenting his new work "Guyana:
Fragile Frontier. Loggers, Miners and Forest Peoples", jointly published
by WRM and the Latin America Bureau. The book is very comprehensive in its
scope, summarizing Guyana's history since the arrival of the European
colonizers until the present year and describes the situation of the
country after a decade of "development" based upon foreign investment in
logging and mining. The destruction of Guyana's tropical forests, that had
been a rare case of virtually untouched ecosystems up to the mid-1980s,
and the complete disregard of the Amerindians that have lived in these
forests for centuries have been the result of such so-called economic
development. The book contains the following chapters:
Foreword
Guyana in brief
Chronology
Map of Guyana
Introduction
1. From trading allies to colonial subjects
2. Plantation politics
3. Development domination
4. Roads and ranches
5. Undermining the interior
6. Forests for sale
7. Amerindian survival
8. Future options
Colchester Marcus.- Guyana: Fragile Frontier. Loggers, Miners and Forest
Peoples, UK, LAB/ WRM, 1997, 172 pp.
To obtain copies please contact the Oxford Office through e-mail:
wrm@gn.apc.org.
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* WRM Campaigns
Sarawak: violence against natives continues.-
Once again Sarawak natives have been victims of violent actions from the
Police: on June 25, 42 Dayak-Ibans -among them 9 women- were arrested at
Miri, for resisting the oil palm plantation that is to be implemented
within their customary land area. Some of them were even brutally harassed
and assaulted by the Police, which caused them physical damages. The
Police found it difficult to find any legal reason to accuse them.
However, brought to court, the Magistrate ordered them to sign a bond of
peace for six months. The Ibans refused to do so, arguing that they were
just defending their customary land. So on June 27 they were sent to
prison. Their appeals for medical treatment -both under remand and in
prison- have been ignored.
Responding to the urgent call for action of the Borneo Resources
Institute, to denounce this new abuse against the Dayak-Ibans people, the
IS of the WRM sent faxes to the governments of Malaysia and Sarawak as
well as to police and judicial authorities of the country, expressing our
concern about these facts and claiming for justice to be done.
What follows is the letter written from prison by the detainees:
30th June 1997
LETTER FROM MIRI CENTRAL PRISON AT LAMBIR SARAWAK, MALAYSIA
To all our friends,
We are writing to all of you from inside the above prison to tell you of
our suffering and how we had ended up here.
On 24th June 1997 we met with Surveyors from the Sarawak land and Survey
Department who came to survey our native Customary Land in Upper Teru
River, Tinjar, Baram, Miri Division, Sarawak, Malaysia for an oil palm
plantation company to implement an oil palm plantation scheme which was
against our consent.
We told them to stop their survey work so they told us to wait for their
boss to come the next day.
At about 3.30 pm on 25th June 1997, it was not their boss who came but
about not less than forty Para-Military Police or Police Field Force.
As soon as they arrived they immediately proceeded to arrest us without
telling us our crime.
We refused to be arrested. But they resorted to assaulting and beating
us by kicking, punching us and butting us with their M16 rifles.
As a result many of us were bruised and suffered cuts and pains all over
our body.
They took us into their trucks and brought us down to Miri and locked us
up in the cell at Miri Central Police Station.
On 26th June 1997, they produced us before the Miri magistrate Court and
applied for us to be released on bond to keep the peace for six months
with two sureties in the sum of RM3000.00.
The Miri Magistrate, Monica Ayathi Litis then Ordered us to execute the
said bond despite of our protest as we were innocent and the Land
belongs to us and also that we refused to accept the oil palm plantation
on our said Land. And further, the Police admitted in their application
that "it was difficult to charge us for any offence" (which clearly
shows we are totally innocent).
The Police accused us that we have criminally intimidated the Surveyors
and are likely to do so if we are released hence the need to bind us to
keep peace.
But as the Police themselves had admitted, there is no evidence to
charge us for any offence.
And most pertinently, they did not even produce the alleged Police
report supposedly lodged by the Surveyors against us or call the
Surveyors to come to the Court to testify to confirm whether or not we
had indeed criminally intimated (and will do so after our release) the
Surveyors.
Therefore the Police application and complaint against us was baseless
and the order made by the Magistrate was completely unjustified.
On the 27th June 1997 at about 4.00 pm, we were brought to prison here
for detention which according to the Magistrate was because we failed to
get sureties which is again not true.
There are more than enough sureties for us. But that is not the point
here.
Our case is that it is simply wrong and most unfair for the Police to
arrest, detain, assault us and then apply for the Order. And further,
it is against all principle of justice for the Magistrate to make the
said order against us.
And most important of all, it is very undemocratic and an abuse of our
most basic human rights for the Sarawak government to systematically
force, harassed, intimidated, suppressed and sabotaged us to accept the
oil palm plantation on our customary Land which is the only source of
our livelihood.
Since our arrest and detention, some of us who are suffering from body
pain that being beaten, kicked, punched and butting us with M16 rifles
could not be able to have medical treatment as the Police purportedly
denied their requests from obtaining medical/health treatment in the
nearby hospital.
Worse still, our young children who are breast-fed have been left alone
in our longhouse in the interior of Baram, which is about one hundred
miles from this prison. This is because our husbands are also here
detained with us.
We know siblings are crying for our breast milk, our mother care every
day and night not knowing where their parents are or what is happening
to us here.
But to us, it is a very painful choice. Either we make some sacrifices
by fighting to protect our land now or we just let the plantation
company take it away from us which means we will have no more land to
live on for the rest of our life and those of our generations to come.
And therefore we now appeal to all of you to urgently protest and appeal
to the Malaysian and Sarawak governments to leave our land alone and
also not to simply and very cruelly arrest and detain us like this.
We know our voice and protest alone will just be swept under the carpet
by the Malaysian and Sarawak governments as has happened in the
arrests and detentions of our other indigenous brothers and sisters in
similar protests previously. This is the reason we make this urgent
appeal to you.
We sincerely and earnestly hope you will respond to our appeal because
if we lose our land that is the end for our community as we have no
where to go to live.
We thank you for your support and we appreciate very much for any
possible assistance or welfare-in-kind for our children and siblings
while we are here in the prison.
Thank you.
Regards from the Prison,
Francis Anak Imban & 38 others.
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LOCAL STRUGGLES AND NEWS
ASIA
Sarawak: Bakun Dam.-
On May 29 Sahabat Alam Malaysia - Penang sent an appeal to the government
to reconsider the Bakun Hydroelectric Dam Project. SAM claims for a
thorough and detailed reappraisal of the project, in the light of the
economic, environmental and socio-cultural concerns it has raised.
In effect, the present and future energy demand of the country are
adequately covered with the electricity produced nowadays. An increase
in energy production would mean the promotion of high energy consumption.
Besides, one third of Sarawak's remaining primary forest lie in the area
to be affected by the dam, so it is expected that some 69000 hectares of the
floode area will be logged, forcing the migration of indigenous peoples
from the catchment area. With them 60 rice varieties will also be lost.
Perspectives for flora and fauna are also threatening: fish stocks will be
damaged following the loss of mobility and deoxygenation of river water due
to the flooding; 43 protected species of fauna and 67 protected species of flora
could
disappear because of flooding. Clearcutting could have catastrophic
effects on the dam itself, increasing the chance of sediment build up,
flood and slope failure. The infrastructure needed for the construction
works -which includes an airport- will facilitate the encroachment on
Native Customary Rights lands.
SAM's appeal to the government urges to: consider a thorough review of the
project, establish effective consultation with the affected
communities, make public the whole of the information on decisions
regarding the project, compensate the residents fairly and equitably for
the losses they will suffer, respect the rights of affected people to
choose their home and maintain their lifestyle and culture.
The Coalition of Concerned NGOs on Bakun (Gabungan) elaborated a
Memorandum that was presented to ABB, the main contractor involved in the
project, during a meeting held in May 23. Gabungan made clear that its
main demand is that ABB definetively abandons the project, considered to
be "economically misconceived, financially risky, socially disruptive and
environmentally disastrous". However, taking into account that the
diversion tunnels are near to completion and the construction of the dam
proper is about to begin, the Coalition has put several questions to ABB
concerning technical, financial and environmental aspects of the project.
They still remain unanswered.
Source: SAM - Penang. May 1997.
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Oil palm scheme in Siberut, Indonesia.-
The Indonesian military are putting pressure on the indigenous people of
the island of Siberut to allow a 70,000 hectare oil palm plantation and
associated transmigration scheme to go ahead, regardless of the fact that
the island has been designated as a Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO.
Indonesia's palm oil industry is currently undergoing a boom. The
Indonesian government wants the country to overtake Malaysia as the
world's largest palm oil producer early next century. All over Sumatra,
mature rainforest is being felled to make room for more plantations. There
are signs the boom may already be peaking. Earlier this year the
government put a stop on new foreign investment in this sector in Western
Indonesia. But the speculators cannot lose. Whether or not they plant oil
palms, the timber from the forest sites they have cleared will earn them
billions of rupiah.
Source: Down to Earth 33, May 1997
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AFRICA
Menacing oil exploitation in Chad and Cameroon.-
An international consortium consisting of Exxon, Shell and ELF is planning
a multi-billion dollar oil exploitation project that will involve
territories of Chad and Cameroon. It is feared that the project brings
with it very serious environmental and social risks that may create
another Ogoniland, Nigeria's oil-producing region marked by environmental
devastation and brutal Human Rights violations.
The project plans the development of the Doba oil-fields in southern Chad,
and a 600 mile pipeline through Cameroon to transport oil to an Atlantic
port for its export. Public funding from international development
agencies -mainly the World Bank- is needed to realize the project. The WB
intends to fund it both with IDA credits -supposed to help the poorest
countries- and through the International Finance Corporation, that
supports private sector companies directly.
The WB claims that the project will alleviate poverty because revenue from
the oil for the Government of Chad and royalties for that of Cameroon for
the use of the pipeline would be invested in poverty programmes. However,
this strategy has clearly little credibility, since both governments have
shown a complete lack of commitment to poverty alleviation and besides are
known for their lack of transparency in their financial transactions. So
the allocation of aid dollars for these kinds of projects actually diverts
scarce resources away from investments for social welfare.
From the environmental point of view perspectives are also negative. The
projected pipeline will pass through ecologically fragile rainforest
areas, including one that is the home of a Pigmy minority of traditional
hunters and gatherers. Deforestation, wildlife poaching and the loss of
farmland of local villagers, together with the danger of groundwater
contamination and pollution of river systems through the expected leaking
of oil from the pipeline itself, are points of grave concern.
Source: Korinna Horta. Environmental Defense Fund. May 1997. For a
formatted version of the report, including maps, please address the
author: korinna@edf.org
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LATIN AMERICA
Mexico: the beginning of the plantations' invasion.-
Acting under pressure of international forestry companies and funding
agencies, the Mexican Government is trying to modify the Forestry Law in
order to promote large monoculture tree plantations in several regions of
the country. As surprising as it may seem, one of these regions is Chiapas
-one of the poorest states of Mexico- which has been the scene of a major
armed uprising by the Zapatista movement. In June 1995 Edward Krobacker,
from International Paper, a company interested in establishing industrial
tree plantations in the state of Chiapas, sent a letter to the Mexican
Government, pushing for changes to the national forestry law in order to
"create a more secure legal framework" for IP's investments. Two years
later, this seems to have been wholly accepted, and the Council of
Ministers has presented a project to Parliament, which provides enormous
facilities for foreign investment in the Mexican forestry sector, among
which a subsidy of 65% of the plantation costs.
Other regions targetted by the planned industrial tree monocultures are
Veracruz and Oaxaca. In the former, a vast eucalyptus plantation plan is
being implemented by Temple Island and Simpson -both American companies-
while in the latter, pine plantations are been promoted. The aim of such
plantations is the production of pulp and paper and lumber.
Not only such kind of "forestry development" is a menace for the
ecological sustainability of the territory, but also ignores indigenous
and rural communities' rights, since their lands will be occupied by
plantations. As Jaime Aviles, journalist from "La Jornada", wrote in May
1st. 1997: "Without the agreements (between the Zapatista National
Liberation Army -EZLN- and the Government), disorder will manifest itself
in may ways; even if Mr. Krobacker gets his forestry law, nobody can
guarantee that it will be applied. The plantations will be invaded, sooner
or later, and will be the source of many conflicts... The areas selected
for the eucalyptus plantations are simply condemned to desertification".
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Forest reserve under threat in Venezuela
In an open letter addressed to the President of Venezuela, dated May 17, a
group of 20 environmental groups and a large number of prominent citizens,
have denounced gross abuse of power and deceitful manipulation of public
opinion, in order to approve in Cabinet a management plan for Imataca
Forest Reserve, a legally protected area since the early 1960s.
Imataca, situated at the foot of the Guayana Shield, occupies an area of
3.6 million hectares -the size of the Netherlands- and is covered with
rich, pristine tropical forests. It is also rich in mineral resources, as
well as water, energy and biodiversity. Part of the area is also home to
the indigenous nations Warao, Karina, Akawaio and Pemon, whose survival
and cultural legacy depends on this environment.
Under pressure of the powerful international mining lobby, greedy for the
large deposits of gold and diamonds located at Imataca, the Ministry of
the Environment and the Ministry of Mines prepared a management plan for
the reserve, that was presented to the public -as required by law- on May
7. But most of the selected group of organizations invited to this
presentation received the document the day before! Even the Government of
the State of Bolivar, within whose jurisdiction lies most of the reserve,
received it two days before, and was not consulted during the whole
process. Even though it was agreed that the participants would have until
May 30 to present their observations, surprisingly the Cabinet of
Ministers approved the plan on May 14.
The plan has received numerous criticisms, due to its deficiencies and
omissions in relation to respecting previous legislation for Protected
Areas, recognizing territorial and fundamental rights of indigenous
communities who have inhabited this territory since ancestral times, the
ban on forestry and mining activities in Protected Areas, accepting and
enhancing the participation of local populations, environmental groups and
other citizen organizations in the process. "The Management Plan for the
Forest Reserve of Itacama violates Presidential Decree 2.214, represents
an erroneous step with dangerous consequences for this reserve, as well as
for other forest reserves in the country. It also contravenes
international agreements signed by Venezuela related to the conservation
and rational management of forest resources, the protection of biological
diversity, and the recognition and respect of basic human rights" states
Prof. Centeno.
Source: Julio Cesar Centeno. Universidad de los Andes. Merida. Venezuela.
June 1997.
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"Green " US soldiers?
The Cold War and the "danger of communism" are over. New tasks are needed
for the US Army. What could be better than collaborating in the protection
of other countries' environment? According to the Washington Times, June
12, 6200 US soldiers are being prepared to carry-out "eco-protection
duties" in Central and South America that may require their services.
Surprising as it may sound, Timothy E. Wirth, Undersecretary of State for
Global Affairs has stated that "this is a legitimate military issue."
If such preposterous plans are allowed to be put to practice, it would
mean a new chapter in the US's long history of intervention in this
region. Why don't they -instead- deploy troops within their own territory
to stop loggers from logging, polluters from polluting and transnationals
from depleting resources worldwide?