Plantations, poverty and power - Critical Information Collective

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In the mid-1970s, FAO intensified its support of the expansion of the industrial tree plantations and the
pulp and paper industry in the global South. The theme of a 1975 issue of FAO’s forestry magazine
Unasylva was “It’s time to make paper in the tropics.” In the magazine, FAO’s Ken King argues that
“plantations and mixed tropical hardwoods are the pulp sources of the future, and the future is at
hand”.588 FAO’s role in the exploitation of these “pulp sources” is equally explicit:
“It is evident that the governments of most of these [tropical] countries would require financial and
technical/managerial assistance if their plans are to be implemented. FAO is prepared to assist in the
bringing together of governments and potential investors, in the hope that these plants would be
established.”589
Two years later Ken King, then-head of forestry at the FAO, reported that, a large number of Southern
governments had approached the FAO to study the feasibility of establishing “some type of pulp and
paper factory, of one kind or another”.590
By the mid-1980s, about four million hectares of eucalyptus plantations had been planted, in more than
80 countries.591 During the 1980s, rural communities started to protest against industrial tree plantations
in the South, particularly in India and Thailand. In 1986, in response to the protests, FAO produced a
study, funded by Sweden’s aid agency, SIDA, titled “The ecological effects of eucalyptus”. The
arguments in favour of industrial tree plantations were the same as in the 1960s (and the same as that
from plantation proponents today): “There are high and increasing demands for wood for industrial use
and fuel needs, especially in developing countries of the tropics with their growing populations.”592
The authors of the report, D. Poore and C. Fries, noted that
“A growing body of opinion claims that eucalypts cause a variety of short-to long-term ills,
impoverishing the environment in terms of the soils, water availability and wildlife – even where
plantations have been planted on waste lands devoid of tree cover. Some countries have even banned the
planting of eucalypts.”593
However, rather than visiting and talking to some of the local communities who had seen eucalyptus
plantations established on their land, the authors attempted to answer questions such as “Do eucalypts use
more water or have a greater effect on the water regime than other species of trees” and “Are eucalypts
more efficient in their use of water (producing more wood per unit of water used) than other species”
They concluded that “Perhaps there is no general answer to either of these questions.”594
(2-3), No. 73-74.
588 Ken King (1975) “It’s time to make paper in the tropics”, Unasylva, 1975, number 109, page 5.
589 Ken King (1975) “It’s time to make paper in the tropics”, Unasylva, 1975, number 109, page 5.
590 Ken King (1977) “The political economy of pulp and paper”, Unasylva, 1977, number 117, page 2.
591 “Are eucalypts ecologically harmful”, Unasylva, Vol. 38 No. 152, 1986.
http://www.fao.org/docrep/r7750E/r7750e03.htm#are%20eucalypts%20ecologically%20harmful
592 “Are eucalypts ecologically harmful”, Unasylva, Vol. 38 No. 152, 1986.
http://www.fao.org/docrep/r7750E/r7750e03.htm#are%20eucalypts%20ecologically%20harmful
593 “Are eucalypts ecologically harmful”, Unasylva, Vol. 38 No. 152, 1986.
http://www.fao.org/docrep/r7750E/r7750e03.htm#are%20eucalypts%20ecologically%20harmful
594 “Are eucalypts ecologically harmful”, Unasylva, Vol. 38 No. 152, 1986.