## author : rogols@pns.apc.org
## date : 19.10.94
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2ND TRN CONFERENCE: NGO'S AND INDIGENOUS PEOPLES JOIN FORCES
- FOCUS ON TRADE AND CONSUMPTION
/From Taiga News no 11, October 1994/
TAIGA RESCUE NETWORK and indigenous representatives join
forces to stop destruction of boreal forests. This was the
main message of a press conference during the 2nd
International Taiga Rescue Network conference in Edmonton,
Canada, this August. More than 200 individuals from 12
countries attended the conference. At the press conference,
the Lubicon Cree Nation announced their membership in TRN in
order to expand international support for their struggle in
Northern Alberta. The message could also serve as an overall
summary of the outcome of the conference itself.
Indigenous peoples all over the boreal region have suffered
from forest destruction long before the international
environmental movement even recognized the problem. They
have fought aginst oil and gas exploaration and destructive
logging for decades. The reasons for joining forces are
obvious.
The Edmonton Conference took several important steps to
develop that kind of cooperation. It increased mutual
understanding among NGO and indigenous representatives on
our different cultures and approaches to the problems. It
outlined strategies to bring the experiences and demands of
people and communities in the northern forests - indigenous
and non-indigenous - to the parts of the world where the
root-causes for forest destruction are to be found: to the
markets in the USA, Western Europe and Japan. The basic idea
behind strategies focused on trade and consumption is, that
since transational companies seems unable to take
responsibility for the future of the boreal forest and their
inhabitants, the consumers will have to do it - once they
have learned about the true prize of paper, oil and other
products from the boreal.
THE WISDOM OF THE ELDERS
The first two days of the conference were devoted to
learning about the experience of the indigenous forest
residents. Conference co- chair Lorraine Sinclair and her
colleague Kelly White of Nanaimo, British Columbia assembled
a wide variety of speakers. They told us first hand and from
the heart about a century of exploitation. They told us of
promises made and often broken. They told us of the way
their lives are changing.
Chief Johnsen Seewepegaham of Canada's Little Red River Cree
gave a learned account of how forest developments compromise
the exercise of treaty rights. He said "we see the
environment degraded and our rights and lifestyles as First
Nation Peoples increasingly in jeopardy of being entirely
lost. This is despite the fact that our rights and
lifestyles are guaranteed under the treaty."
The conference heard from Chief Bernard Ominiyak and
endorsed a comprehensive support platform for the Lubicon
Cree. The Lubicon Cree announced at the conference that hey
have joined the Taiga Rescue Network and will participate
fully. Other First Nations followed suit.
The Algonquin experience with co-management regimes for
forest lands was reviewed in some depth. A new evaluation
report was presented to the conference. The importance of
co management to the survival of indigenous people was a
theme developed by Russell Diabo, a member of the TRN
International Reference Group.
BEWARE OF THE SWEDISH MODEL
The conference heard from two Swedish scientists -- Per
Angelstam and Lars Vstlund -- regarding the "managed
forests" of Scandinavia. By examining the effects of the
harvesting and reforestation cycle on biodiversity, nutrient
cycling and other measures, Angelstam and Vstlund exploded
some of the bottom myths of modern forest management. Their
research stands in sharp contrast to the "forestry folklore"
which is currently offered by the industry as it invades
unexploited territory in Canada, Alaska and Siberia.
"I hope our research will in some way help those of you who
work with forest and nature conservation elsewhere to
protect forests before commercial exploitation has removed
many of the ecological values and changed fundamental
structures of the forest landscape, as have occurred in
Scandinavia", Dr Vstlund said. He noted there is a very
rapid loss of ecological values and biodiversity underway
currently in northern Sweden under so called "sustained
yield management".
THE THREAT OF GLOBAL WARMING
Presentations by prominent boreal scientists highlighted the
role that the taiga plays in climate regulation. Delegates
were generally surprised to learn of the devastating effect
of even minor changes in mean annual temperatures to the
boreal forest. The difference between a grassland and a
forest, noted Dr. Elaine Wheaton, is only 2 degrees C annual
average. Using widely accepted estimates put forward by
Environment Canada, Wheaton predicted 1 degree of warming by
2025 and 3 degrees by the end of the next century.
This scale of warming spells mass destruction for the boreal
forest. Wheaton and Dr. William Pruitt of the Taiga Research
Station, both presented maps forecasting the extent of
forest loss. Pruitt said as much as 85% could be eliminated
in Canada.
FIVE ALPAC MILLS A YEAR
The TRN Conference received major reports on the trade and
consumption of boreal forest products. Forest industry
expects global paper consumption to continue to grow
rapidly, which of course will increase the pressure on the
forests of the world.
"If for example the forecast of the world leading forestry
consultant, Jaakko Pvyry of Finland, comes through,
consumption of primary fibres will increase by 3 million
tonnes annually over the next 10 years. This would mean 5-6
new giant pulpmills - the size of the AlPac mill in Alberta
- somewhere in the world every year", said Taiga News editor
Roger Olsson, presenting a TRN report on the trade and
consumption of boreal forest products to the conference.
An overall conclusion of this scenario is that world
consumption of primary fibres cannot continue to grow.
Increasing recycling is part of the solution, but will not
be enough to halt forest destruction caused by wasteful
paper consumption. The paper consumption rates in the
affluent parts of the world must be reduced.
TARGETING THE TRANSNATIONALS
In line with the focus on trade and consumption, the
conference recommended that TRN take up the ongoing consumer
campaign against Daishowa-Marubeni International, who have
forest management rights over Lubicon lands. Mitsubishi in
general and the partly Mitsubishi-owned AlPac mill in
Alberta was also pointed out as targets, as the conference
encouraged TRN participants to join the ongoing Mitsubishi
boycott. Other transnational forest companies will also be
in the focus of TRN activities over the next two years. The
TRN report on trade and consumption includes case- studies
of a number of TNC4s operating in the boreal region. The
release of the report later this fall will step up trade and
consumption campaigns, on the national and regional as well
as on international level.
Addressing major customers of the paper producers, urging
them to demand environmentally friendly produced paper, was
identified as a primary strategy. Publishers were pointed
out as a target of specific interest in this context.
Another important task for the network will be to facilitate
the NGO influence on International Forest Politics and
Economics, including among other things the Biodiversity
Convention, the UN Commission on Sustainable Development,
the Climate Change agreement and trade agreements such as
GATT-WTO, NAFTA and ITTO. The World Bank was specifically
pointed out as an important target. A primary task is to
monitor the activities of the Word Bank in the forestry and
oil and gas sectors in Russia.
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THE TRN COMES TO NORTH AMERICA
The concluding day of the Edmonton Conference was dedicated
to discussions and decisions on the future development of
TRN.
The most important task of the annual meeting was to outline
the future structure of the network. The meeting agreed upon
a model involving three co-ordinating nodes, one in North
America, one in Western Europe and one in Russia. In
practice this means keeping operations running in Europe and
Russia and starting something up in North America. The
conference took a decision to establish a North American
Co-ordination node of TRN early in 1995.
Also in the future there will be a coordinator with the
overall responsibility for international coordination,
working at one of the nodes. Until the end of June 1995 the
international coordination center will remain in Jokkmokk,
Sweden.
The future location of the European node will be discussed
and decided by the European TRN participants.
The meeting was convinced that a North American Node will
prove to be as efficient a tool in fighting forest
destruction, ruthless TNC4s and wateful paper consumption as
the European coordination node in Jokkmok has developed to
be in very short time. A working group including Russell
Diabo, Sarah Winterton and Anthony Withworth was formed to
raise funds and develop a detailed proposal concerning the
North American node. Over the next six months the working
group and the reference group will be working hard to turn
the good ideas into reality.
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The Taiga Rescue Network expresses its most sincere thanks
to conference Chair John McInnis, local hosting organisation
Western Canada Wilderness Committee and all other committed,
hard-working groups and individuals that made the Edmonton
Conference a success and an inspiring experience for all the
participants!