PREDATORY LOGGING THREATENS AMAZONIA
1. This year marks the five hundredth anniversary of Europeans
coming to the Americas. This is the right time for a deep and
critical evaluation of the course followed by the societies that
devolved from European contact with the peoples and nature of this
region. Regarding the relationship of Brazilian society with the
environment, the evaluation of these centuries can be defined as a
real tragedy. During this period cycles of predatory exploitation
of natural resources took place aimed at meeting foreign needs and
markets. The consequences of these cycles have been always the
same: environmental destruction and social empoverishment.
2. In Brazil the exploitation of Pau Brasil, a red timber and dye,
was the first mark of this cruel process. Its consequences are
well-known: the disorderly occupation of the territory, the
cultural disintegration of indigenous populations, the destruction
of forest ecosystems, the extinction of species and the
dilapidation of natural resources. This took place for the benefit
of a selfish elite and their international partners. (Pau Brasil
became commercially extinct in the first century of colonization).
3. Today, five centuries later, we can realize how much this
pattern of exploitation, refered to as development, is still
present. The Amazon region provides many examples of this pattern
of development and is still submitted to a irrational process of
devastation and disorderly occupation. Already 415 thousand
square kilometres of the Brazilian Amazon have been deforested,
about equivalent in size to Germany. The fruits of this
devastation are more than questionable: the destruction of tens of
indigenous cultures, huge unproductive farms generating very few
jobs, illegal and highly polluting gold mining projects, colonists
with abysmal living conditions and the advance of prostitution and
drug dealing.
Instead of recognizing these mistakes and taking up ecologically
viable projects in the areas already deforested (such as agrarian
reform, ecological agriculture and forest restoration) the
agricultural frontier continues to push into primary forest areas
reproducing the same mistakes of the past. As affirmed by the
signatories to this Manifesto, colonists prefer to settle in the
vast areas areas already cleared from the forest and do not wish
to be pushed into the jungle where living conditions are much
harder. It makes no sense to destroy more virgin forest when the
result of the deforestation promoted so far are totally absurd in
terms of ecological and economic aspects.
4. It is ironic that one of the major economic forces that
continues this destructive and disordered penetration of the
Amazon forest is very similar to the activity that extinguished
Pau Brasil in the beginning of the colonization of Brazil. Today,
the logging industry, and especially Mahogany logging, serious
threatens the future of much of the Amazon forest.
5. Mahogany is the most valuable Brazilian timber sold on the
international market. The species is found over a huge area of
the southern Amazon covering much of the states of Para, Amazonas,
Mato Grosso, Rondonia and Acre. The big sawmill owners who pay for
the search and extraction of this "green gold" do not consider how
their industry leads to the degradation and eventual complete
destruction of primary forest areas. Mahogany is a rare tree and
its exploitation requires loggers to move into more and more
remote forest areas each year. More than 3,000 kilometres of major
roads and tens of thousands of kilometres of secondary roads have
been illegally pushed in the southern Amazon in the last ten years
to extract Mahogany. After cutting out all marketable Mahogany in
a given area the logging companies move on, leaving their access
roads for colonists, gold miners and displaced poor who
consolidate the destruction of the forest. The exploitation of
timber in general and the cutting of Mahogany in particular is the
driving force leading to forest destruction in the southern Amazon
today.
6. Most of the Mahogany extracted in Brazil is taken from the
territories of indigenous peoples. There are numerous reports of
Mahogany trees being cut down and removed from indigenous lands
despite resistance of indian communities against this usurpation
of their territory. At the same time, strong pressure and the
allurement of indian leaders - sometimes with the assistance Funai
employees - has led some indigenous communities to sign contracts
allowing the extraction of Mahogany on their lands. These
agreements, however, have not been approved by the relevant
government authorities and are legally invalid. Such timber deals
have often led to the political fragmentation and cultural
degradation of indian groups. These communities learn by example
that ecological destruction through over-exploitation of the
forest is the only alternative that can allow them access to
outside assistance and consumer goods.
In the last ten years the number of indigenous communities that
have become victims of the Mahogany boom has more than doubled.
The problem is bound to get worse as almost all the remaining
stands of Mahogany are located inside indigenous territories. The
lack of enforcement from Funai and IBAMA, the federal environment
agency, has encouraged the illegal exploitation of Mahogany from
indigenous land from logging companies. Over the last two years in
the state of Para, the bulk of all Mahogany produced from come
from trees illegally extracted from indigenous lands.
7. The ecological impacts of the Mahogany industry are equally
serious. Areas of protected forest such as the Biological Reserve
of Guapor in Rondonia and the Extractive Reserve Chico Mendes in
Acre have been systematically invaded by Mahogany loggers.
National Parks throughout the region have also been violated. Due
to intense exploitation, the Amazonian Mahogany species, Sweitenia
macrophylla King was added in the official list of Brazilian
species threatened with extinction in 1992. There is some debate
regarding how close the species is to extinction but the fact
remains that if left unchecked, the current pattern of
exploitation of Mahogany will drive the species to extinction in
the Amazon in a few short years.
Wherever the Mahogany exploitation frontier has passed, the
species has become practically extinct. In the 'sixties Mahogany
was extracted in the Araguaia region of Para. After the commercial
extinction of the species in this region, the loggers moved
forward along the highway PA 150. During the 'eighties this same
predatory pattern moved into the occidental part of Amazonia
towards the Xingu River. Today the Mahogany loggers have already
crossed the Xingu and keep advancing.
In addition to the role that logging roads play in opening up
primary forest to other destructive influences, Mahogany logging
itself causes considerable ecological damage. Studies show that
for each cut tree around 28 other trees are killed and some 1450
square meters of forest are damaged. The few attempts at growing
the species in plantations in the Amazon are still in their early
stages and only occupy a small area when compared with the amount
of forest damaged by the industry each year. To date none of the
plantations have demonstrated the ability to overcome attacks of
the moth (Hypssipella grandella) common in commercial Mahogany
plantations. Such plantations are often used to justify the
continuation of the Mahogany industry in natural forests rather
than a real search for concrete alternatives to forest
destruction.
8. Despite all the problems mentioned above there are people and
companies who still defend the exploitation of Mahogany as a
source of economic development for the Brazilian Amazon. Even
this argument must be contested. The Mahogany industry is made up
of an extensive chain of informal actors and middle-men who are
controlled by a small elite group of sawmills and exporters. The
industry generates relatively few jobs and the bulk of the profits
are made in the importing countries or in the southeast of Brazil.
The Mahogany sawmills belong to business groups who moved to
Amazonia after exhausting the timber resources in the Atlantic
Coast Rainforests and the Araucaria forests in the South of
Brazil.
In addition to the impunity with which Mahogany loggers still
operate in nature reserves and on indigenous lands, there are
strong indications that the industry includes a substantial number
of companies engaging in tax fraud through concealing information
regarding the source and the correct volume of extracted logs.
9. Given the seriousness of the economic, ecological and social
impact of the industry and the clear evidence that Mahogany
extraction is perpetuating and intensifying the chaotic model of
occupation in Amazonia to the detriment of Brazilian society, the
following groups, many of whom deal directly with this problem,
have formulated the following demands:
10. A) That the Brazilian government through its competent
institutions must face up to this problem by prohibiting all
cutting and trade of Mahogany in the Amazon region until it has
evaluated the extent of damage caused by the industry to date, and
defined through an wide debate among all interested parties, legal
measures necessary to halt this chaotic process.
This measure is necessary to achieve the following objectives:
a) Mahogany loggers do not built illegal and inadequate roads into
primary forest areas, and that existing logging roads are used
appropriately or closed.
b) all exploitation of Mahogany trees in areas designated for
ecological preservation is halted.
c) all exploitation of Mahogany in indigenous areas and extractive
reserves is halted and at the same time the government concretly
supports the efforts of the forest peoples and communities to find
economic and non-predatory alternatives for their survival and
development.
d) the dynamic of predatory logging leading to the extinction of
species in areas reached by Mahogany exploitation is stopped.
B) That the solution of the problems caused by the Mahogany
industry must be seen as the first step in the implementation of
policies and programmes to end all forms of predatory logging in
Amazonia. This policy on Mahogany should serve as a guide to
transform all logging activities throughout the region; including
restricting the areas where logging is allowed, defining rigidly
the technical conditions acceptable for logging operations,
halting the violation of protected areas and indigenous
territories, and enforcing prohibitions on the cutting of species
forbidden by law such as the Brazil-nut tree.
NGOs signing the Manifesto of the "Coalition against
Predatory Logging in the Amazon" (November 12):
- Acao Ecologica Vale do Guapore: ECOPORE (Rondonia)
- Associacao de Protecao Ambiental e Recuperacao de Areas
Indigenas: APARAI (Rondonia)
- Associacao Profissional dos Engenheiros Florestais do Rio de
Janeiro: APEFERJ (Rio de Janeiro)
- AWARU: Organizaao de Apoio ao Povo Nambikwara (Rondonia)
- Casa da Cultura de Maraba (Para)
- Centro Agroambiental do Tocantins: CAT (Para)
- Centro Ecumenico de Documentacao e Informacao: CEDI (Sao Paulo)
- Centro de Educacao,Pesquisa e Assessoria Popular: CEPASP (Para)
- Centro de Trabalho Indigenista: CTI (Sao Paulo)
- Conselho Nacional dos Seringueiros (Acre e Para)
- Centro Mari de Educacao Indigena: CMEI (Sao Paulo)
- Centro de Defesa dos Direitos Humanos (Amazonas)
- Centro Ecumenico de Estudos Biblicos: CEBI (Amazonas)
- Centro dos Trabalhadores da Amazonia: CTI (Acre)
- Centro de Defesa dos Direitos Humanos e Educacao Popular: CDDHEP
(Acre)
- Comite Chico Mendes (Acre)
- Comissao pela Criacao do Parque Yanomami: CCPY (Sao Paulo)
- Comissao Pro-Indio do Acre (Acre)
- Comissao Pro-Indio de Sao Paulo: CPI/SP (Sao Paulo)
- Comissao Pastoral da Terra do Acre: CPT/AC (Acre)
- Comissao Pastoral da Terra de Rondonia: CPT/RO (Rondonia)
- Comissao Pastoral da Terra do Amazonas: CPT/AM (Amazonas)
- Comissao Pastoral da Terra do Para e Amapa: CPT/PA (Para)
- Conselho Indigenista Missionario Nacional: CIMI/Nac (Brasilia)
- Conselho Indigenista Missionario do Norte I: CIMI/Norte I (Para)
- Conselho Indigenista Missionario do Norte II: CIMI/Norte II
(Amazonas)
- Conselho Indigenista Missionario: Regional Rondonia
- Conselho de Missao entre os Indios da Igreja de Confissao
Luterana do Brasil (Rio Grande do Sul)
- Coordenacao das Organizacoes Indigenas da Amazonia Brasileira:
COIAB (Amazonas)
- Central Unica dos Trabalhadores do Sudeste do Para (Para)
- Delegacia dos Urbanitarios de Maraba (Para)
- Ecoforca (Sao Paulo)
- Forum das Organizacoes Nao-Governamentais que Atuam em Rondonia
(Rondonia)
- Fundacao de Apoio a Vida nos Tropicos - ECOTROPICA (Mato Grosso)
- Fundacao Serra das Andorinhas (Para)
- Fundacao Mata Virgem (Brasilia)
- Fundacao SOS Amazonia (Acre)
- Greenpeace Brasil, Campanha de Florestas (Rio de Janeiro)
- Grupo de Trabalho Missionario Evangelico: GTME (Mato Grosso)
- Instituto de Antropologia e Meio Ambiente: IAMA (Sao Paulo)
- Instituto de Estudos Amazonicos: IEA (Brasilia)
- Instituto de Estudos Socio-Economicos: INESC (Brasilia)
- Instituto de Pesquisa em Defesa da Identidade Amazonica: INDIA
(Rondonia)
- Movimento Nacional de Artistas pela Natureza (Brasilia)
- Movimento de Educacao de Base (Para)
- Movimento da Apoio a Resistencia Waimiri-Atroari: MAREWA
(Amazonas)
- Nucleo de Direitos Indigenas: NDI (Brasilia)
- Operacao Anchieta: OPAN (Mato Grosso)
- Pastoral Indigenista de Manaus (Amazonas)
- Pastoral Indigenista do Alto Solimoes (Amazonas)
- Protecao Ambiental Cacoalense: PACA (Rondonia)
- Programa de Estudo sobre Terras Indigenas no Brasil: PETI (Rio
de Janeiro)
- Sindicato de Pequenos Agricultores e Assalariados Rurais de Rio
Branco: SINPASA (Acre)
- Sindicato dos Professores Particulares do Para (Para)
- Sindicato dos Trabalhadores Rurais de Brajo Grande (Para)
- Sindicato dos Trabalhadores Rurais de Breu Branco (Para)
- Sindicato dos Trabalhadores Rurais de Eldorado (Para)
- Sindicato dos Trbalhadores Rurais de Itupiranga (Para)
- Sindicato dos Trabalhadores Rurais de Maraba (Para)
- Sindicato dos Trabalhadores Rurais de Novo Repartimento (Para)
- Sindicato dos Trabalhadores Rurais de Parauapebas (Para)
- Sindicato dos Trabalhadores Rurais de Sao Joao (Para)
- Sindicato dos Trabalhadores Rurais de Tucurui (Para)
- Sindicato dos Trabalhadores em Educacao Publica de Maraba (Para)
- Sociedade Paraense de Defesa dos Direitos Humanos: SDDH (Para)
- Uniao das Nacoes Indigenas do Acre: UNI/AC (Acre)