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WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS
Asian Timber Firms Threaten the Amazon
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Forest Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises
http://forests.org/
Asian Timber Firms Threaten the Amazon
By Glen Barry, Ecological Enterprises
Copyright, 1997
2/5/97
(822 words)
Asian industrial loggers are poised to significantly impact the
world's largest rainforest wilderness: the Amazon. Within the past
year several of Southeast Asia's biggest forestry conglomerates--known
for abysmal environmental records back home--have greatly increased
their control of Amazonian rainforests... and you guessed it, they are
not planning on creating a wildlife preserve. The heart of the Amazon
is being opened to wholesale industrial logging and increased rates of
deforestation.
Prior to the recent onslaught of Asian loggers and despite government
initiatives, annual deforestation rates in the Brazilian Amazon have
increased from about 2.8 million acres in 1991 to nearly 3.8 million
acres in 1994. A small group of Asian companies are threatening at
least an additional 15% of the Amazon.
The Asian timber industry represents a concentrated core of rainforest
destroying capital and has been characterized by an aggressive
efficiency. Timber companies in the state of Sarawak, Malaysia have
practiced highly intensive industrial logging, harvesting much of the
state's timber resource in only a decade with major environmental
consequences including silted rivers, eroded soils and declining
forest diversity and health. Indigenous Dayak tribes have experienced
severe social dislocation. After exhausting much of Asia's timber
supplies, the multinationals have expanded operations throughout the
tropics.
Malaysia's biggest logger, Rimbunan Hijau, first moved to Papua New
Guinea where they control at least 60% of the country's forestry
concessions. Their arrival coincided with a tripling of log exports
from 1991 to 1994. Industrial logging has been blamed for social
upheaval and extensive environmental damage. The 1989 Barnett
Government Inquiry into the Timber Trade stated "It would be fair to
say, of some of the companies, that they are now roaming the
countryside with the self-assurance of robber barons; bribing
politicians and leaders, creating social disharmony and ignoring laws
in order to gain access to, rip out, and export the last remnants of
the province's valuable timber." Similar allegations of graft and
environmental mismanagement have been leveled at Asian timber firms
elsewhere.
Historically, the Amazon rainforest's size, inaccessibility, typically
poor soils and potent diseases have protected it against large-scale
logging and development. Things are changing rapidly as major new
highways dissect the basin, providing a major artery for timber
companies to access north-central Amazon. One new highway runs from
the city of Manaus, northward to Venezuela; making Manaus a major hub
for new timber development. The number of timber mills there has
increased from 10 to nearly 100 in five years.
Multinational Asian timber companies have entered the Amazon either
through long-term harvest leases or by purchasing major interests in
Brazilian timber firms. The Associated Press reports major players
include the Malaysian companies WTK Group, Samling, Rimbunan Hijau and
Mingo; Fortune Timber of Taiwan, and several companies from China
which are expressing interest. Brazil's national environmental
protection agency, Ibama, estimates Asian multinationals have gained
control of about 11.1 million acres. The Wall Street Journal
estimates Asian firms control about 30 million acres in the wider
South American tropical forest region, having quadrupled their
interests in a few months in late 1996. The figure is expected to
increase rapidly in the next two years.
"It's the last great resource grab," says Russell Mittermeier,
president Conservation International. Asian loggers are targeting
countries with financial problems that are technically and politically
unable to monitor logging. Brazil has about 80 environmental
inspectors for an area the size of western Europe. Though sound
forest laws and harvest practices may exist in theory, they are
frequently flaunted. A recent survey of 34 logging sites in Para
state, Brazil has revealed that none have met International Tropical
Timber Organization harvesting requirements that Brazil has agreed to
comply with by the year 2000. Illegal logging is common in the
Amazon. A 1996 raid by Ibama found over 30,000 cubic meters of
illegally-cut timber floating down the Purus River towards waiting
sawmills.
According to Ibama's chief, Eduardo Martins, "Multi-million dollar
investments in the Amazonian logging industry would spell disaster...
We don't want that kind of investment." The federal government has
launched an investigation into the Asian timber purchases which have
surprised many Brazilian observers. Amazonino Mendes, the pro-logging
governor of Amazonas State, has stated that logging will be regulated
to limit environmental damage. However, even in the unlikely event
that the loggers do follow forestry laws, the excessive scale of their
operations could easily accelerate the pace of Amazonian deforestation
by greatly increasing forest access to hunters and slash-and-burn
farmers.
Asian industrial loggers are poised to significantly impact the Amazon
rainforest wilderness, changing forever the ecological, social,
spiritual, and economic composition of the planet. By opening up the
heart of the Amazon to large-scale logging, the Brazilian government
risks accelerating rates of deforestation. Brazil has not
demonstrated that it can control or regulate timber harvests. The
arrival of aggressive Asian multinational timber firms will be a
decisive test of Brazil's forestry policy. The stakes are high--the
fate of the world's largest rainforest ecosystem.
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