Disappearing forests
"The old world will burn in the fires of industry. Forests will fall. A new order will rise. We will drive the machinery of war with the sword and the spear and the iron fist of the Orc. We have only to remove those who oppose us" (Saruman, "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, by J. R. R. Tolkien).
The Orcs in our world are metaphorical, but war over forests is real. A report titled: "The End of the Hinterland: Forests, Conflict and Climate Change" by the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI) describes global conflict over forest resources. According to RRI: "Forests will remain remote, but they will be carved up, controlled and used as global political bargaining chips".
In a world terrified by global climate change and where fighting over forests is intensifying, modern terminology has become interesting. A "carbon market" is a trading exchange where a price is attached to the emission of a tonne of greenhouse gas. Countries that reduce emissions for less than the market price can earn a profit and then "sell" their excess allowances to those who are exceeding the market price.
A "carbon sink" is the new term for forests and oceans that store carbon through natural processes and a Carbon Index map assesses forests around the world for their profitability as carbon sinks.
The term Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) describes programmes that are intended to curb deforestation.
But many governments around the world do not seem to be in control of their own resources. Rather it is the infamous multi-national corporations and industries who have hijacked well-intentioned environmental policies and are bending these to their own purposes. In this way, natural resources, like forests, have become items of trade.
Interpol Environment Crimes Specialist, Peter Younger, said alarm bells were ringing as organized crime syndicates surveyed the value of the forest carbon market and how carbon trading schemes were open to abuse.
80 governments and 56 organizations around the world are gathering data on a Forest Carbon Tracking Portal. Maps based on GPS technology are also being prepared by and for remote forest peoples in the Amazon, Congo and Indonesia, enabling them to record their traditional claims and use of the forest.
But there is also risk in having communities’ lands and resources visible to anyone, anywhere. Maps can be used by outsiders and by governments as a means of gaining access to previously invisible resources.
Last year, the government of Madagascar was overthrown. People rebelled against government decision to give half the island’s arable land to a South Korean corporation. In the Congo Basin, the forest area given to industry is 46 times the area given to local communities.
In the Peruvian jungle, indigenous protesters and military police clashed violently, leaving nearly 100 dead. The "Bagua Massacre" brought world attention to conflict over rights to resources, between indigenous groups and the oil and gas industry seeking control over 45 million hectares. A coalition of indigenous groups occupied key oil installations and roads. After 57 days, President Alan Garcia violently evicted protestors. Indigenous people now have no legal recourse for damages by oil and gas industry to waterways, flora, fauna and livelihoods.
Disputes over resource rights have become international conflicts in Afghanistan and the Niger Delta.
In 2005 Papua New Guinea encouraged "rainforest countries" to preserve forests. But but by 2009 carbon trading began without legislative approval and oversight.
Last year, carbon brokers began to sell "derivative products, share offerings and investments". The scale of corruption varied widely. Conmen roamed the countryside and charged about US$3 per person in exchange for carbon rights.
Australian-backed firms reportedly signed up landowners, sometimes at gunpoint, to REDD deals, and obtained government authorization and accreditation from international firms, which in turn allowed millions of dollars to be raised in stock-market share deals on the prediction of revenue.
At the other extreme, State-backed carbon securities were issued and then apparently sold by middlemen into the international voluntary market. Moreover, REDD commitments have apparently had no effect on forest management or logging practices.
More than 2 million hectares of forests have been recently granted as 99-year agricultural leases, allowing clearfell logging. Concessions continue to be allocated to the logging industry.
There is increased confrontation between Maoist rebels and the government. There are reports of killing, rape and torture of ordinary adivasis by the security forces from Bastar district during the government’s "operation Green hunt".
2009 has been a year of unprecedented land grabbing. Corporate land acquisition runs parallel to a dramatic increase in world hunger. The FAO estimates there are 100 million more hungry people since 2008, and more than half of Africa’s population is malnourished. Since June 2008, over 180 agricultural land purchase or lease deals involving 37 million ha have been reported for Africa.
With only 7 per cent fertile land, pastoral land use is critical to rural livelihood in Afghanistan. There is conflict between the Pashtun-dominated government and settled Hazara. Hundreds have been killed since 2007 over pasture land.
2010 will see conflict between investors - negotiating, luring and potentially bribing developing governments to make deals - and local communities.
The question is whether there will be legal agreement on climate change and enforcement, whether REDD can reform forest governance, the position of the World Bank and its donors and who will make and enforce these decisions.
