Boycott Greenpeace:
From:
http://www.brazzil.com/2003/html/news/articles/dec03/p120dec03.htm
Brazzil - Environment - December 2003
Brazilian Loggers Want Greenpeace Out
Greenpeace has compiled evidence of the prevalence of illegal
logging, rampant corruption and bribery, as well as a slavery system
that has been operating for years in the northeastern Brazilian
state of Pará. Despite all this evidence, however, workers in that
region joined in protests against the environmental organization.
Jennifer Beyer
These are pieces of the mosaic created by the small portion of the
rainforest that I experienced during a trip to the northeastern Amazon
region in 1995: quiet, a depth of absent sound and the awakening of
the soul's ears to the methodic hum of the collective life within the
vastness; the persistent, gentle buzz of teeming existence, untainted
by mechanical sounds, human-made objects or engines.
I remember listening to the unceasing chorus of millions of frogs at
night, sleeping in a hammock, awakening to the purity of the forests,
traveling in canoes and small boats on the water highways, witnessing
the simple ingenious practicality of the people who live in the heart
of nature. Here, one can taste freedom from the enslavement of modern
industry and its metallic disharmony.
The devastation of the rain forests has long been a topic of debate,
discussion and policy making, but the recently publicized threat posed
by the harvesting of mahogany trees in South American rainforests has
expanded awareness of the problem of unmitigated greed and its
consequences.
Greenpeace, an organization that advocates non-violent protest against
the economically motivated destruction of the world's natural
resources, has uncovered the exploitation of timber in the Amazon. The
group has compiled evidence of the prevalence of illegal logging,
rampant corruption and bribery, as well as a slavery system that has
been operating for years in the northeastern Brazilian state of Pará.
Despite the crimes perpetrated by the landowners and companies seeking
to exploit the Amazon's resources, workers in the Northeast joined in
protests against Greenpeace.
"Loggers from the Transamazônica region have blocked a highway to
demand the expulsion of Greenpeace activists from Amazônia. They have
accused the activists of threatening the economic development of the
region by supporting the creation of the `Forever Green' extractive
reserve. The reserve will have an area of 1.3 million hectares,
equivalent to 84 percent of the territory of Porto de Moz. Police
officers were forced to intervene in a dispute between the loggers and
representatives of social movements which support the creation of a
reserve. The loggers have called the Greenpeace activists `terrorists
and agitators'".
Greenpeace representatives summarized the events that preceded the
confrontation that received worldwide attention. "The protest and
threats were aimed not only against Greenpeace, which has been
exposing illegal logging in the region, but against the Brazilian
environmental agency's attempt to enforce the laws of Brazil as well.
In an action a few days ago, our activists discovered a barge full of
illegal logs in a remote riverside harbour. Activists painted `Crime'
on 6,000 cubic meters of logs, and marked the area with yellow tape as
a `Forest Crime' scene.
"Inspectors from Ibama, the Brazilian environmental agency, are
currently active in the region. Inspectors working along the
Transamazonian highway were trapped in their hotel last week when they
were surrounded by 300 armed loggers. Loggers were provoked to protest
by a local radio station, saying they were `cowards' if they didn't
chase Greenpeace out. The radio station is owned by the mayor of this
small town, who also controls the largest logging operation in the
world, and who offered free fuel and T-shirts to those who joined…. It
was reported that alcohol had also been distributed to the protestors"
According to these reports posted at
http://webgreenpeace.org,
landowners and companies intent on exploiting Brazil's forests
instigated the protests because of the threat posed by Greenpeace's
research of communities that are affected by the logging industry.
Residents in the rainforest region also provided information to
conservation activists because of their concern that their lands were
in danger of being decimated or taken over by the tree harvesters.
The environmentalist organization, in its description of the events
that lead up to the standoff, uncovered some of the methods of land
acquisition that are utilized by the large companies in the Northeast:
"The recently released Greenpeace report `Pará: State of Conflict'
showed clearly that all government-approved Forest Management Plans in
the Porto de Moz region are based on false or insufficient land title
documentation. Most of these plans are used to launder illegally cut
wood outside of the boundaries of the plans themselves.
"Our activists in the Amazon were tipped off last week by ribeirinhos
(traditional riverbank settlers) about the problems caused by
Selvapad, when the company cut a track through the forest that cut
deep into community land. The ribeirinhos also reported that they had
to physically stop 300 trees on their land from being illegally cut.
According to community members, these trees would certainly have been
`laundered' through Paulo Pombo's [Paulo Pombo Tocantins, landowner
with links to the Selvapad company] management plan documents."
Greenpeace representatives encouraged concerned individuals and
organizations interested in the preservation of the Amazon and the
rainforests to vote with their dollars by boycotting the harvesters
and companies that profit from the felled trees. "Our Ancient Forest
Campaign promoted ecological and social use of the forest resources,
as well as the creation of a network of protected areas in ancient
forest regions worldwide. We are urging companies to immediately stop
buying wood from Porto de Moz and the Prainha region, because most of
the wood comes from illegal and crime related areas," they appealed.
You can email the author at
jendasilva@yahoo.com
