Plantations, poverty and power - Critical Information Collective

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7 1. Plantations do not plant themselves. Nor do pulp mills build themselves In May 2005, at a meeting in Vancouver, Mario Higino Leonel, the Executive Director of BRACELPA (the Brazilian Pulp and Paper Association) gave a presentation titled “Forest Plantations in Brazil”. He told his audience that plantations are a “Vector for Sustainable Development”. He illustrated the point with a Venn diagram of three overlapping circles, labelled “Environmental”, “Social” and “Economic”. In the small overlapping area in the centre are the letters “SFM”: sustainable forest management. 2 Leonel talked about the importance of a Code of Best Practices for Planted Forests. He talked about how the area of plantations has increased in Brazil. The vast majority of Brazil’s plantations were established between 1965 and 1987, during which period the area increased from 500,000 hectares to 6 million hectares. He explained how the growth rates of plantations (about 60 per cent of which are eucalyptus plantations) increased from about 15 cubic metres per hectare in 1970 to over 60 cubic metres per hectare by 2000. He explained that plantations contributed US$17.5 billion worth of trade in 2004 and that they provided 1.5 million direct jobs. And he explained how plantations restore degraded land, conserve the soil, use land not fit for traditional agriculture, protect biodiversity and watersheds, sequester CO 2 and relieve pressure on what he described as “natural forests”. The most interesting aspect of Leonel’s presentation is what he decided not to talk about. Leonel did not point out the difference between forests and industrial tree plantations. Forests are diverse ecosystems which provide a range of goods for people and animals. Industrial tree plantations are monocultures which provide one product: fibre for the pulp and paper industry or charcoal for the steel industry, for example. The failure to differentiate forests from plantations is the starting point of industry propaganda for industrial tree plantations. By describing their monocultures as reforestation, the industry can fool ignorant audiences in the North that it is doing something good. But the only similarity between a forest and a plantation is that both contain trees. Leonel did not mention that industrial tree plantations in Brazil are increasingly the target of protests by the land rights movement, farmers and Indigenous Peoples. While the figures describing the contribution of industrial tree plantations to the Brazilian economy look impressive, these figures do not reveal what has been lost: the livelihoods of thousands of people who lived on the land before it was converted to industrial tree plantations. Invisible in Leonel’s presentation are the thousands of people who were left with no option other than to move to the favelas surrounding Brazil’s major cities. Leonel gives figures for the number of people employed in plantations, but he does not describe how dangerous and poorly paid that work is. In fact, plantation operations are heavily mechanised and therefore employ few people. In recent years, many of the jobs on plantations have been contracted out meaning that workers often lose the few benefits they had. A 2001 report for the UN International Labour Organisation notes that in Chile almost all timber harvesting is carried out by contractors. A 1998 survey of forest workers in Chile found that when their jobs were contracted out two-thirds of workers saw a 2 Mario Higino Leonel (2005) “Forest Plantations in Brazil”, Advisory Committee on Paper and Wood Products - FAO, Vancouver, 31 May 2005. http://www.fao.org/forestry/media/10549/1/0/
8 reduction in pay and benefits and half lost out on pensions. 3 In South Africa, Mondi provides only 0.7 jobs for each 100 hectares of land that it owns. But this employment total includes jobs in Mondi’s offices and mills. In the rural areas, the employment situation is even worse. 4 Figures from the Agricultural Census in Uruguay indicate that plantations generate fewer jobs even than extensive cattle-ranching. These few plantation jobs are often very badly paid. World Rainforest Movement has documented the “near-slavery” conditions for workers in plantations in Uruguay. 5 Leonel does not mention that jobs in plantations are extremely dangerous. “The worst safety and health situation is usually found in forestry,” states ILO’s 2001 report. “Forestry work is also beset by serious health problems. Few workers reach normal retirement age. The safety and health situation is most problematic among contractors.” 6 In South Africa, wages of manual workers employed by contractors are between US$50-75 a month compared to US$75-100 or more for those employed by companies. Company workers are entitled to pensions and medical benefits. Outsourced workers receive neither. 7 Plantations are often established several years before the associated pulp mill starts up, which means that rural people are forced to move away from the area to look for work. When the pulp mill starts up the few jobs go mainly to people from outside the local area. Leonel’s list of the supposed environmental benefits of plantations is typical of the lies used by plantation proponents to justify their destructive industry. 8 Plantations do not restore degraded land. Instead plantation companies seek the best land with rich soils where their trees will grow fastest. The plantation industry (and its hired consultants) may well describe the land that they want to take over as “degraded” or “not fit for traditional agriculture”, but to local people the land is the basis of their livelihoods. Plantations do not conserve soil. They suck out nutrients and water. Research in Argentina has shown that they can increase salinisation by bringing salts to the surface of the soil. 9 That monoculture eucalyptus 3 Poschen, Peter and Mattias Lövgren (2001) “Globalization and sustainability: The forestry and wood industries on the move”, International Labour Organisation, Geneva, page 64. http://www.ilo.org/public/libdoc/ilo/2001/101B09_179_engl.pdf 4 “The sad figures of employment generated by plantation companies”, World Rainforest Movement Bulletin no. 50, September 2001. http://www.wrm.org.uy/bulletin/50/employ.html 5 “Uruguay: Semi-slave work in plantation forestry”, World Rainforest Movement Bulletin no. 74, September 2003. http://www.wrm.org.uy/bulletin/74/SA.html#Uruguay 6 Poschen, Peter and Mattias Lövgren (2001) “Globalization and sustainability: The forestry and wood industries on the move”, International Labour Organisation, Geneva, page 63. http://www.ilo.org/public/libdoc/ilo/2001/101B09_179_engl.pdf 7 Poschen, Peter and Mattias Lövgren (2001) “Globalization and sustainability: The forestry and wood industries on the move”, International Labour Organisation, Geneva, page 65. http://www.ilo.org/public/libdoc/ilo/2001/101B09_179_engl.pdf 8 For a detailed response to this sort of pro-plantations propaganda, see Ricardo Carrere (1999) “Ten Replies to Ten Lies”, World Rainforest Movement. http://www.wrm.org.uy/plantations/material/lies.html 9 Robert Jackson at Duke University has produced a series of reports about the impact of eucalyptus plantations in Argentina. See Chris Lang (2008) “Argentina: Scientists confirm that plantations dry up streams and contaminate groundwater”, World Rainforest Movement Bulletin no. 128, March 2008. http://chrislang.org/2008/04/04/argentina-scientists-confirmthat-plantations-dry-up-streams-and-salinise-groundwater/
Page 2 and 3: 1 Plantations, poverty and power: E
Page 4 and 5: 3 CONTENTS Introduction 1. Plantati
Page 6 and 7: 5 New investors have emerged recent
Page 10 and 11: 9 plantations established on grassl
Page 12 and 13: 11 Nations Food and Agriculture Org
Page 14 and 15: 13 Another reason for the move to t
Page 16 and 17: 15 In his book, “Khor Jor Kor, Fo
Page 18 and 19: 17 Between 1991 and 2006, the numbe
Page 20 and 21: 19 are asking for”, notes WWF. 60
Page 22 and 23: 21 consume fewer goods. Less advert
Page 24 and 25: 23 credit crunch, unstable oil pric
Page 26 and 27: 25 Investment in plantations in the
Page 28 and 29: 27 possible price. Subsidies, linke
Page 30 and 31: 29 2. The anatomy of five pulp proj
Page 32 and 33: 31 However, while the Bank confirme
Page 34 and 35: 33 make way for its tree plantation
Page 36 and 37: 35 In April 2004, about 2,000 famil
Page 38 and 39: 37 Sappi, Swaziland: 50 years of in
Page 40 and 41: 39 after an assessment by the Soil
Page 42 and 43: 41 impact of the plantations on wat
Page 44 and 45: 43 Advance Agro, Thailand: Deforest
Page 46 and 47: 45 confiscation and liquidation of
Page 48 and 49: 47 management was facing a bankrupt
Page 50 and 51: 49 Indah Kiat, Asia Pulp and Paper,
Page 52 and 53: 51 company owners want profits to b
Page 54 and 55: 53 • US$4.5 billion owed by APP i
Page 56 and 57: 55 explained that “association wi
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57 Indah Kiat faces a series of lan
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59 logging. While the investigation
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61 experimental areas and not from
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63 Staples and Office Depot in the
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65 “the exhaustive studies have c
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67 CEDHA has also filed complaints
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69 of converting grasslands to indu
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71 3. Pulp Inc. Profiles of seven p
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73 Thailand, a power plant for a Ne
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75 Management’s experts the possi
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77 A year after Aracruz’s third p
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79 In January 2003, Pöyry announce
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81 Bank in the early 1990s. Groome
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83 Pöyry’s role in the Baikal Pu
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85 Under carbon financing, Pöyry o
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87 Pöyry is working on second gene
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89 The Confederation of European Pa
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91 CEPI Eurokraft states that “it
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93 sectors need to reduce by 21% co
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95 The ADB’s report notes that th
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97 Nepal In Nepal, the target area
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99 loan for the second plantations
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101 International Finance Corporati
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103 •In December 2000, IFC approv
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105 firm’s activities. After his
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107 safeguards are in practice.
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109 Bank projects are approved by a
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111 •€80 million to Portucel to
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113 The Food and Agriculture Organi
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115 Nevertheless, Poore and Fries n
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117 failure to define industrial tr
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119 FAO’s guidelines recommend th
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121 Rosengren did not reply to my e
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123 Forest Stewardship Council: Mis
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125 body that rubber stamps operati
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127 Criterion 1.6, for example, sta
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129 fast wood plantations have take
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131 Principle 10.8 should prevent t
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133 By April 2004, FSC had, at last
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135 plantations, because it creates
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137 integrated set of common Princi
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139 for clearing areas of Atlantic
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141 Colombia were certified by SGS.
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143 The dissociation became necessa
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145 4. Future planned pulp mills As
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147 Planned pulp projects: 698 Comp
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149 UPM and Sveza Group Vologda Rus
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151 paper industry along ecological
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