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International day of struggle against tree monocultures

  • Publication Date | September 21, 2015
  • Document Type | Media Statement
  • Programmes | Forests & Biodiversity
  • Issues | Certification, Food Sovereignty, Plantations, Pollution, Toxics
  • Tags | monoculture
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“Plantations are not Forests”

Social organizations from several countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia[i] signed a joint Declaration[ii] on the occasion of September 21, the International Day of Struggle against Tree Monocultures.

“Since 2006, every September 21st we commemorate the International Day of Struggle against Tree Monocultures, as a way of breaking the circle of silence around the violations faced by the communities whose territories are invaded and surrounded by industrial tree plantations – including eucalyptus, pine, acacia, rubber and oil palm. Those large scale monoculture tree plantations require significant use of water, agrotoxins and chemical fertilizers, occupying huge areas where many people lived or depended upon”, states Winfridus Overbeek, coordinator of World Rainforest Movement, one of the signing organizations.

This year the focus is on the impacts of oil palm plantations as they “are those that have expanded fastest in the past few decades”.  According to the signing organizations, “a series of free trade agreements have removed most of these protections in many countries” and “the increasing European agrofuel demand”, “expansion not only in Indonesia and Malaysia but also in those countries in Africa and Latin America, close to the equator with the climatic conditions to grow oil palm”.

Furthermore, “the current attempts of ‘greening’ the industrial oil palm sector and also other large-scale plantations with ‘zero deforestation’ commitments” add to make matters worse. However “the interest of corporations in protecting forests is not the welfare of local populations or the genuine conservation of habitats and species” but in the forest “as a carbon and biodiversity store, a potential source of carbon and biodiversity credits that can be sold to polluting countries and companies”, express the organizations.

On the other hand, they denounce in their Declaration that “the emphasis in deforestation tends to give less attention to the whole range of impacts industrial oil palm plantations cause in many countries, such as: destruction of local livelihoods and displacement, destructive logging and human rights violations, privileged land access for corporations, not communities, miserable working conditions and increasing criminalization of social movements and local opposition.

According to these organizations, “certification schemes, such as RSPO and related new schemes try to ‘improve plantations’ while maintaining the logic of unlimited expansion”. They also state that “there is no way to make large-scale industrial tree monocultures acceptable, neither for local communities nor for a world facing a severe crisis with manifold symptoms, including climate change, economic and environmental deterioration and increasing militarization and human rights violations”.

The signing organizations “condemn the large-scale, growth- and export-oriented model that drives oil palm expansion globally”. “With plans to increase more and more, and therefore it will continue to contribute to climate destruction rather than presenting any real solution to climate change. And who will be most affected by such policies are forest peoples and peasant communities who will see oil palm plantations continue to expand, and their access to their lands and forests increasingly restricted”.

“In the countries where industrial oil palm plantations occupy large areas of land, governments should give absolute priority to the demands of the communities, support their control over the lands and forests they depend on rather than adopting policies that facilitate handing these territories over to transnational companies”, demand the organizations.

The Declaration ends up urging governments “to invest in local diversified food production and food sovereignty, as the best way to support communities and also local and national economies as well as to promote more environmental and social justice”.

S.M. Mohamed Idris

President

Consumers’ Association of Penang & Sahabat Alam Malaysia

[i] Acción Ecológica, Ecuador; Brainforest, Gabon; CALG – Coalition against Land Grabbing, Philippines; Censat Agua Viva, Colombia; Centre pour l’Environnement et le Développement – CED, Cameroon; COECOCEIBA – Amigos de la Tierra Costa Rica; Colectivo de Reservas Campesinas y Comunitarias de Santander, Colombia; Consumers’ Association of Penang, Malaysia; ERA/FoE Nigeria; FASE/ES, Brasil; Friends of the Earth International; Fundaexpresión, Colombia; GRAIN; JA! / FOE Moçambique; Observatorio Latinoamericano de Conflictos Ambientales – OLCA; Organización Ambiental Chinampa, Colombia; Organización Fraternal Negra Hondureña – OFRANEH, Honduras ; Otros Mundos, México; People Common Struggle Centre – PCSC, Pakistan; Red latinoamericana contra los monocultivos de árboles – RECOMA; Sahabat Alam Malaysia / FOE Malaysia; SAVIA, Guatemala; Sawit Watch, Indonesia; School of Democratic Economics – SDE, Indonesia; Third World Network, Malaysia; World Rainforest Movement – WRM

[ii] Full declaration text is available at: http://wrm.org.uy/actions-and-campaigns/international-declaration-21-september-2015/

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Testimonials

Sahabat Alam Malaysia adalah satu badan bukan kerajaan (NGO) yang telah sekian lama berjuang mempertahan kelestarian alam. Ia juga mendidik masyarakat tentang pentingnya kebersamaan dalam pemikiran dan tindakan agar alam ini dapat kita wariskan kepada generasi hadapan dalam keadaan yang elok dan terpelihara. Dalam pada itu juga SAM giat membantu golongan nelayan pantai dalam memperjuangkan hak-hak mereka sehinggalah tertubuhnya Persatuan Pendidikan dan Kebajikan Nelayan Pantai Malaysia (JARING). Nelayan pantai sepenuh masa ini dididik oleh SAM sehingga mereka mampu memainkan peranan sebagai pemimpin nelayan yang meneruskan kesinambungan memperjuangkan hak-hak nelayan pantai lainnya. Sebagai contoh SAM telah berjaya menyedarkan masyarakat nelayan keperluan menjaga hutan paya bakau untuk kebaikan hasil tangkapan nelayan itu sendiri.
Jamaluddin Mohamad Bualik
Jamaluddin Mohamad BualikPersatuan Pendidikan dan Kebajikan Jaringan Nelayan Pantai Malaysia (JARING)
During the 1980s, I used to read about the Consumers’ Association of Penang (CAP) in the news. After retirement, some time in 2001, while lazing around, I read news about the construction of a carbon in leach plant using sodium cyanide to extract gold in Bukit Koman. My friends and I visited CAP and we were introduced to SAM and her legal team. We discussed the details of filing a case against the gold mining company and the department of environment with Ms Meenakshi Raman and her legal team. That was the beginning of a beautiful friendship between lawyers from SAM and many of us from Bukit Koman. We had many ups and downs in our struggle to shut down the gold mine that was causing a nuisance in our village. But, as a community we never gave up because SAM had our backs.
Hue Fui How
Hue Fui HowSecretary, Bukit Koman Ban Cyanide in Goldmining Action Committee (BCAC)
Sahabat Alam Malaysia adalah sebuah NGO yang memperjuangkan nasib masyarakat luar bandar khasnya. SAM menerima aduan-aduan masyarakat dan menyelesaikan masalah yang dihadapi. SAM telah mewujudkan ramai aktivis-aktivis sosial dan alam sekitar. Pada era 1980 dan 90an SAM sangat dihormati oleh masyarakat dan agensi kerajaan. Apabila media sosial menguasai maklumat maka SAM pun terkesan dan masalah masyarakat terus disalurkan dengan pelbagai cara. SAM perlu mewujudkan aktivis-aktivis pelapis yang muda untuk terus membantu masyarakat. SAM juga perlu membuat perubahan supaya banyak turun kelapangan dan jangan mengharapkan laporan media sahaja. Tingkatkan prestasi sebagaimana pada zaman kegemilangan SAM di era 80-90an.
Che Ani Mt Zain
Che Ani Mt Zain
SAM taught me the importance of social activism and the role it plays in upholding the rights of people and the protection of the environment. In my experience, SAM has never hesitated to speak up in defence of people and their environment, and has gone the extra mile to champion their rights, by helping communities take their battles to the higher ups and even to the courts.
Jessica Binwani
Jessica BinwaniPublic/Private Interest Lawyer
Semenjak kami kenal SAM, banyak pengalaman dan pengetahuan yg kami dapat. Kami telah belajar cara membuat baja asli daripada SAM. Semenjak itu, bermulalah minat kami dalam aktiviti pertanian. Dengan memperolehi kemahiran dalam membuat baja asli dan penanaman lestari, kami juga telah dapat menambahkan pendapatan sampingan kami. Ini lebih baik daripada tanah kami terbiar dan tidak diusahakan. Terima kasih SAM kerana sudi memberi bantuan dan tunjuk ajar kepada Persatuan kami.
Chedo Anak Nyuwen
Chedo Anak NyuwenPersatuan Penduduk Sg Buri, Bakong, Marudi
My journey with SAM started when her community organisers took me to the meet the paddy farmers of Kedah, connecting my growing interest in environmental law with our people who struggle to work the land in the face of pollution, replacement of traditional seeds with commercial hybrids and their accompanying chemical package of fertilisers and weedicides. I then had the honour to work with SAM in the struggle for the rights of the native communities of Sarawak, in defence of their forests from massive logging and destructive mega-projects. In every issue that SAM takes up, she combines rigorous research with the realities and voices of the communities to advocate for policies and laws that care for people and nature. From the courts to the elected legislators to policy makers and implementers and to the United Nations, SAM walks side by side with the communities in Malaysia. How can I not be inspired by the vision and passion of the generations of women and men who coalesce to form SAM?
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Tel: +604 827 6930
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Sahabat Alam Malaysia (Headquarters)
No. 1, Jalan Joki, 11400 Penang,
Malaysia
Tel: +604 827 6930
Fax: +604 827 6932

Sahabat Alam Malaysia (Marudi Office)
129A, First Floor,
Jalan Tuanku Taha,
P.O.Box 216,
98058 Marudi, Baram, Sarawak,
Malaysia
Tel & Fax: +6085 758 973

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