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THE GALLON ENVIRONMENT LETTER
506 Victoria Ave., Montreal, Quebec H3Y 2R5
Ph. (514) 369- 0230, Fax (514) 369- 3282
Email cibe@web.net
Choose from any of the following articles on
international environmental news (Gallon Environmental Letter, Vol. 4, No. 24, June 21, 2000):
WWF Suppresses Own Environmental Report
IMF and World Bank Pressure Indebted Nations to Log and Repay
Malaysian Company Clear-Cutting SE Asia
Rimbunan Hijau Ltd. One of World's Worst
Impacts of IFI's On Indonesia
Ecuador Palm Plantations Threaten Forests
Water Shortage Increasing World Poverty
Non-Compliant South Carolina Steel Mill Leaving
GHG Emissions Trading in Australia
Hungary Urged to Protect Danube
WORLD WILDLIFE FUND SUPPRESSES OWN REPORT ON FORESTS AND THE ENVIRONMENT
It isn't possible! One of the world's premier conservation organizations holding back its own environmental
report. Yet that is just what the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) based in Gland, Switzerland did with its $300,000 worldwide
logging study supported by the European Commission. Why? The study found that the biggest lawbreaking international forestry
companies were from Asia, not from Canada, not the United States, and not from Latin America. WWF worried that the report
might be viewed as racial. Also, it worried that the complicit governments supporting the illegal logging operations of their
own national companies overseas would shut down WWF regional offices in their countries. The primary authors of the
WWF study were Dominiek Plouvier with WWF Belgium and Nigel Sizer at the World Resources Institute (WRI) in Washington,
D.C.
The first version of the report completed in 1997 named the companies. Not acceptable to WWF, a second version was
prepared with the names removed, but the countries of origin named. A third, more washed version was prepared, but it too was not released to the
public. Paul Brown of the Manchester Guardian said that, "the (first) report names companies prepared to bribe and bully their way to
lucrative logging concessions." Had the first version been released in 1997, we would have had three years in which to identify and stop
the pirate logging operations. The suspect forestry companies are from countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, and China. Two of the major
consumer countries purchasing the pirated wood products are Japan and China. Already stripping their own countries, these forestry
companies have moved quickly into Africa and the Pacific Rim countries. The WWF report called for an immediate logging moratorium
in countries affected by these companies. The countries are Cameroon, Gabon, Congo Brazzaville, The Central African Republic, Equatorial
Guinea and the Republic of Congo, in central Africa; Belize, Surinam and Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific
Rim.
Source, "Report on Forests Suppressed", by Paul Brown, Guardian Weekly, June 1 to 7, 2000, London, U.K. Visit the
website at http://guardianweekly.com/
WWF FORESTRY REPORT FOUND THAT IMF AND WORLD BANK PRESSURE TO REPAY LOANS EXACERBATED LOGGING
The World Wildlife Fund for Nature report on worldwide logging activities, "blamed the International Monetary Fund and the
World Bank for inducing forested countries to sell their forests for a quick cash return to pay off debts to Western countries." It found
that, "European Unions funds being poured into developing countries to ensure forests are carefully managed are frequently wasted. Forest
laws were enacted, but no enforced." It reported that, "the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Cameroon and Belize were all named as
suffering large scale corruption." This corruption allowed the Asian logging firms to bribe their way into clear cutting protected forests,
national parks, and conservation zones." The report found that, "the majority of countries studied, the decision making is controlled by a
small group of powerful people or clans within the government that look at primary forests of their country as a short term source of
personal revenue."
The Guardian also said that the WWF "report adds that although European and North American companies have in the past indulged
in bad practices, the scale of the new incursions was much larger (by the Asian multinationals)". Stating that, "the logging itself is
often very careless with high collateral damage to the surrounding forest. The roads built to extract the timber, often hundreds of
kilometres long, create access to frontier areas that facilitate the entry of commercial hunts, farmers, miners and others who cause
further environmental damage. The companies frequently end up in violent clashes with local people and native tribes."
Source, "Report on Forests Suppressed", by Paul Brown, Guardian Weekly, June 1 to 7, 2000, London, U.K. Visit the website at
http://guardianweekly.com/ . Also, for more information contact
the Rainforest Action Network, 221 Pine Street, Suite 500, San Francisco California 94104, see website
http://www.ran.org
MALAYSIA FOREST INDUSTRY CLEAR CUTTING SOUTHEAST ASIA
Richard Wilcox in his new research entitled, "Asian Economies Fuel Forest Meltdown", published in The New Observer,
reports that Malaysian timber companies stand alone in their systematic targeting and desecration of remaining large rainforest
wildernesses. He found that they are practicing a grotesquely over-intensive, and extensive, once over harvesting in much of
the World's remaining rainforests in Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Brazil, Guyana, Belize, Cameroon, Cambodia and
elsewhere in the Third World. He found that Japan is a notorious consumer of international timber grabbing a disproportionate
amount of the tropical and temperate timber logged worldwide. According to Kohama Takahiro of the Japan Tropical Forest
Action Network, of timber purchased internationally, "Japan accounted for 23.7% of tropical round wood in 1998". Not
surprisingly, for the first time China became the largest importer accounting for 25.7%. Kohama reports that "not only round
wood but also sawn timber and plywood" are being imported. "Recently timber is traded increasingly in processed form.
Japan accounts for 10.1% of plywood including soft wood [from temperate forest]" with China out-consuming Japan in
processed wood as well. This means that between 50-70% of the world's tropical timber is being consumed by just two
countries. South Korea and Taiwan along with other dynamic economies in Asia are also substantial consumers.
While there have been forest protection victories as with the moratorium on the pulping of old-growth Chilean forests,
since the time of the 1992 Earth Summit it appears that in many countries patterns of wood consumption have not improved.
In Japan about ten years ago the big controversy was that Mitsubishi, their subsidiaries, and other Japanese and Asian corporations
were heavily involved in the clear-cut forest devastation in the Malaysian state of Sarawak. Also the Philippines and Indonesia
had been heavily logged by Japanese multinationals during the 1960's and 1970's to fuel Japan's economic recovery. Japan
has tapped into forest reserves throughout Southeast Asia and the South Pacific with Sarawak serving as a major source in
most recent times. Around 1992, a fellow named Bruno Manser gave a talk in Tokyo to a small audience and conveyed a poignant
tale of how the hospitable Penan people of Sarawak were systematically being denied their livelihood due to the disruptive
logging by Japanese companies. The ongoing deforestation by Japan has been carried out in an open alliance with the Malaysian
government. Bad press has since forced Japanese companies to take a more behind the scenes role in obtaining their raw materials.
For more information contact the Japan Tropical Forest Action Network, 1F Megumi Bldg, 6-5 Uguisudani-cho, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo
150, Japan, ph. 03-3770-6308, email kohama@jca.apc.org, website
http://www.jca.apc.org/jatan/.
RIMBUNAN HIJAU LTD., MALAYSIAN LOGGING COMPANY ONE OF THE WORST IN THE WORLD
Richard Wilcox's study "Asian Economies Fuel Forest Meltdown", published in The New Observer, found that rivalling Mitsubishi
logging, is the Malaysian company Rimbunan Hijau Ltd. which he says has become one of the most ruthless logging companies in
the world. As The Perspective magazine notes, "Rimbunan Hijau has proven extremely controversial in south east Asia and in
central Africa due to abuses of national laws and regulations, human rights violations and contractual breeches". Traditionally
in Japan the majority of tropical timber has gone for building material with about one third for furniture and other uses. No
matter where you go in urban Japan today, you can see tropical hardwood in use as "kompane", which are the plywood sheets
used as building forms for poured concrete. Houses in Japan are not built to last so there is a constant turnover of housing
destruction and construction. Once the plywood sheets cut by Rimbunan and Mitsubishi in the Southeast forests have been
used a couple of times to form building foundations they are piled onto a gigantic dump somewhere or burned.
Meanwhile the InterPress Service (3/00) reports that Malaysian logging companies, "are currently exploiting more than 1.5 million
hectares of forest in Brazil" and are now preparing to move operations into the Peruvian Amazon, an area of some 50
million hectares of tropical forest. Roger Rumrrill, an expert on the Amazon region states that "With the support of several
representatives of Peruvian logging companies, the Malaysian group is lobbying [Peru's] Congress and manoeuvring to delay
and gut the bill on forests and fauna, which was to be enacted last year". While Peru's policies on natural resource exploitation
have been described as "erratic" at best, some within Peru hope to exploit resources for the benefit of the country rather than
allowing outside forces to intervene. The Malaysian firms are described as "very aggressive" and adept at corrupting government
officials. Already in Brazil three Malaysian companies have gained logging concessions "equivalent in size to half of the territory of
Belgium".
The Greenpeace International Newsletter (12/99) reports that in the Brazilian Amazon, logging companies are spearheading forest
destruction" and that Japan is involved in illegal timber sales in the state of Para, which contains about 25% of the Amazon's forests
and upward to 280 tree species. Despite being host to a massive timber industry, Para suffers from ubiquitous poverty. Belem, the
capital city and harbor is the main timber exit "and sells to markets in Europe, the USA and Japan". Greenpeace notes that "around
84 % of Amazon timber is consumed by the internal Brazilian market.
See Gaia's Forest Conservation Archives & Portal website http://forests.org/, or email
grbarry@students.wisc.edu. An amazing archive of over 10,000 forest related news articles.
Concerning the deforestation and Bakun Dam situation in Sarawak, Malaysia, contact the Sarawak Campaign Committee at
tel 03-3954-3510; email scc@kiwi.ne.jp, address Mejiro Bldg.,
2F, 3-17-24 Mejiro, Toshima-ku, Tokyo. SCC monitors rainforest and human rights issues in Sarawak.
Source, "Asian Economies Fuel Forest Meltdown", by Richard Wilcox, published in The
New Observer, Fax +81-3-3295-9453, email rwilcox@interlink.or.jp
GET INFORMATION ON IMPACTS OF IFI'S ON INDONESIA
What happens to the Indonesian environment and to the local communities when large International Financial Institutions
(IFI's) like the World Bank and the Asia Development Bank provide funding that make it possible for logging companies,
mining operations, and mega energy sources to undertake projects in the country? Analytical information is provided
by Down to Earth in their new monthly Down to Earth Factsheet and Update series on International Financial Institutions
(IFIs) and Indonesia. The Updates cover recent events concerning IFIs (IMF, World Bank, ADB) in Indonesia. The Factsheets provide
basic information on the IFIs themselves and their involvement in Indonesia. Both are published in Bahasa Indonesia and English.
Contact Down to Earth, 59, Athenlay Road, London SE15 3EN, England, Tel/fax: +44 (0) 207 732 7984, Email:
dte@gn.apc.org, or for campaigns information contact Down to Earth, 6 Matthews Close,
Tasburgh, Norwich, Norfolk NR15 1LJ, England, Tel + 44 1508 471 413, Email dtecampaign@gn.apc.org
The email version is available free of charge monthly. Find them
on the website http://www.gn.apc.org/dte
ECUADOR PALM PLANTATIONS THREATEN FORESTS
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 favour 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
hot spots by environmental groups including Conservation International and Agrupacion Sierra Madre.
The forests now face the threat of oil palm monocropping, a practice of replacing natural forest with palm plantations. 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. "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."
Source
Environment News Service, (ENS) story May 1, 2000. See the full story
at the website http://ens.lycos.com/
WORLDWATCH INSTITUTE SAYS WATER SHORTAGE ADDING TO WORLD POVERTY
Lester R. Brown of the Worldwatch Institute based in New York warns that at a time when drought in the United States,
Ethiopia, and Afghanistan is in the news, it is easy to forget that far more serious water shortages are emerging as the
demand for water in many countries simply outruns the supply. Water tables are now falling on every continent. Literally scores
of countries are facing water shortages as water tables fall and wells go dry. We live in a water-challenged world, one that is
becoming more so each year as 80 million additional people stake their claims to the Earth's water resources. Unfortunately, nearly all
the projected 3 billion people to be added over the next half century will be born in countries that are already experiencing water shortages.
By 2050, India is projected to add 519 million people and China 211 million. Pakistan is projected to add nearly 200 million, going from
151 million at present to 348 million. Egypt, Iran, and Mexico are slated to increase their populations by more than half by 2050. In these
and other water-short countries, population growth is sentencing millions of people to hydrological poverty, a local form of poverty that is difficult
to escape.
Using data on over pumping for China, India, Saudi Arabia, North Africa, and the United States, Sandra Postel, author of Pillar of Sand: Can the
Irrigation Miracle Last?, calculates the annual depletion of aquifers at 160 billion cubic metres or 160 billion tons. Using the rule of thumb
that it takes 1,000 tons of water to produce 1 ton of grain, this 160-billion-ton water deficit is equal to 160 million tons of grain or one half the U.S.
grain harvest. At average world grain consumption of just over 300 kilograms or one third of a ton per person per year, this would feed 480
million people. Stated otherwise, 480 million of the world's 6 billion people are being fed with grain produced with the unsustainable use of water.
Last year, Iran imported 7 million tons of wheat, eclipsing Japan to become the world's leading wheat importer. This year, Egypt is also
projected to move ahead of Japan. Iran and Egypt have nearly 70 million people each. Both populations are increasing by more than a million a year
and both are pressing against the limits of their water supplies.
For additional information contact Reah Janise Kauffman, Worldwatch
Institute, 1776 Massachusetts Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20036-1904,
ph. (202) 452-1992, Ext. 514, fax (202) 296-7365, email
rjkauffman@worldwatch.org, Visit the website at
http://www.worldwatch.org/chairman/
STEEL MILL THREATENS TO LEAVE SOUTH CAROLINA OVER ENVIRONMENTAL REQUIREMENTS
A major U.S. steel mill, Carolina Steel and Wire Co. with its operations based in Red Bank, South Carolina, has threatened
to leave the state and take its jobs with it because it won't comply with South Carolina's toughening environmental regulations. South
Carolina, long a pollution haven with lax environmental laws has had enough from the polluters and has put public health over
"development at any cost". Carolina Steel and Wire Co. President, Jack Alexander, says his operation is the focus of "increasing
harassment" from state environmental officials. The company is among seven that a lawsuit claims poisoned ground water that
feeds drinking water wells in Red Bank, South Carolina. A state criminal investigation into Carolina Steel and Wire activities also
is under way. Steel and Wire Co. which has been in Red Bank for 30 years, went on the offensive against the state environment Ministry
with a weekend letter addressed to community leaders, neighbours and employees. "We would like to continue to operate and grow our
business here in South Carolina but may not be able to do so indefinitely given the increasing harassment and financial burdens
imposed by DHEC," he wrote in the letter. The Environment Dept.'s action in the last 14 months has cost Carolina Steel and Wire "well
into the six figures" for ground-water testing, engineering consultants and legal expenses.
Source, The Charlotte Observer, "S.C. firm:
Pollution Suit Might Force It to Go", Knight Ridder Wire Story,
South Carolina , June 18, 2000. See the full story at
http://www.charlotte.com/observer/business/pub/sunbizfiller10618.htm
GHG EMISSIONS TRADING IN AUSTRALIA
The Sydney Futures Exchange and its subsidiary, the New Zealand Futures and Options Exchange have announced they
intend to launch a global exchange traded market for carbon credits. Initially, these credits will be source from certain forestry
activities. There is interest from potential buyers and sellers of these credits. As trees grow, they absorb carbon dioxide through
the process of photosynthesis and store carbon. This is known as sequestration. This helps to reduce carbon dioxide concentrations
in the atmosphere. Carbon sequestration through Kyoto-consistent tree planting is permitted under Article 3.3 of the Protocol to help
countries meet their international target commitments. The credits generated from sequestered carbon could be traded in an emissions
trading market. A Kyoto-consistent forest is a forest planted after 1 January 1990. It also has to be a forest that is planted and managed
by human activity and results in a land use change for example changing land use from grazing or cropping to forestry. This land use
change is limited to afforestation, reforestation and deforestation. It is only the carbon absorbed by Kyoto-consistent forests between 2008-12
that will be available to meet Kyoto commitments. Carbon sequestered prior to 2008 will not count under the Kyoto Protocol, but may still
have value in creating green products and services or for meeting domestic emissions trading requirements. It is this types of sequestering credits
which will begin to be traded here.
Source, Dr Martin van Bueren,
Unisearch Consultant, School of Economics and Management,
University of NSW, Australian Defence Force Academy, Canberra
ACT 2600, AUSTRALIA, Email: m.vanbueren@adfa.edu.au,
ph. +61 (2) 6268 8840, fax +61 (2) 6268 8450.
Visit the website at http://www.carbontrading.com.au/
HUNGARY URGED TO PROTECT HEADWATERS OF THE DANUBE RIVER
The headwaters of the Danube River begin in Hungary with the Tisza River basin. Hungary is allowing massive degradation of
the watershed, logging, mining, chemicals pollution are all leading to terrible conditions within the river. Now the is pouring that
severe pollution and sediment into the Danube River which has been maintained much cleaner by the other European nations.
This transboundary pollution has become a form of environmental aggression that is harming the very livability of European nations
using the Danube River as a source of drinking water and industrial process water. The condition of the Tisza River was revealed when
it experienced a serious cyanide spill January 30, 2000, which originated in northwestern Romania. Environmentalists are urging
the Hungarian and Romanian governments to launch a toxics clean program and a reforestation program along the upper length of the
Tisza River. Deforestation in the Carpathian Mountains at the head of the Danube catchment basin is compounding problems all the way
through the river system. Forestry operations, large pulp mills, gold mines and metal processing plants are scattered through the
upper Danube River basin in Romania, northern Hungary, the Ukraine and Slovakia. "We are living in a place that is full of industrial
dangers, something like landmines, that can go off anytime,"
Droppa speaking at an annual conference of Hungarian environmentalists in Gyor, called for a review of all the factors posing a risk to the
health of the Danube River system. Droppa believes that deforestation is worsening the levels of runoff and may have contributed to the
failure of two tailings dams at gold mines in Romania which spilled heavy metals and cyanide laced tailings into the Somes,
Tisza and Danube Rivers in February and March. These spills added to contamination from the January 30 spill at the Aurul
SA facility at Baia Mare, Romania which released 100,000 cubic metres of cyanide laced tailings when a retaining wall broke
under pressure from heavy precipitation. Source, "Hungary Urged to Protect Embattled Rivers", by Bob Burton, April 13, 2000
(ENS)
See the ENS website at http://ens.lycos.com/
Copyright (c) 2000
Canadian Institute for Business and the
Environment, Montreal & Toronto
All rights reserved.
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