The Montevideo Declaration. June 1998

-A call for action to defend forests and people against large-scale tree monocrops-

In June 1998, citizens of 14 countries around the world gathered in

Montevideo, Uruguay out of urgent concern at the recent and accelerating

invasion of millions of hectares of land and forests by pulpwood, oil

palm, rubber and other industrial tree plantations.

Such plantations have little in common with forests. Consisting of

thousands or even millions of trees of the same species, bred for rapid

growth, uniformity and high yield of raw material and planted in even-aged

stands, they require intensive preparation of the soil, fertilisation,

planting with regular spacing, selection of seedlings, mechanical or

chemical weeding, use of pesticides, thinning, and mechanized harvesting.

As people from six continents engaged in fighting such industrial

monocultures and near-monocultures have testified, the resulting radical

conversion of the landscape, together with the disruption of social and

natural systems, can threaten the welfare and even survival of local

communities.

The following are the most frequently cited environmental impacts:

* reduced soil fertility

* increased erosion and compaction of the soil

* loss of natural biodiversity

* reduced groundwater reserves and stream-flow

* increase in fires and fire risks

These effects frequently extend far outside plantation boundaries, with

nearby or downstream areas being affected by erosion, desiccation and

radical, sometimes irreversible changes in the local flora and fauna. All

these impacts damage local peoples' lives and livelihoods.

Industrial tree plantations have in many cases been preceded by firing or

clearcutting of native forests and have therefore become a new and major

cause of deforestation. In agricultural areas, industrial tree plantations

have undermined food security by usurping productive cropland and

pastures, thus contributing to local poverty. In many cases they have

resulted in forced displacement or forced resettlement of local people, in

widespread human rights abuses and in violation of local peoples' land

rights. Nearly everywhere they have been established, industrial tree

plantations have destroyed people's livelihoods in agriculture,

fisheries, animal husbandry and gathering. The pitiful number of jobs

they create -- insecure, seasonal, badly paid frequently dangerous, and

susceptible to market cycles -- cannot compensate for the loss of

employment that they cause.

Pulpwood plantations can be particularly huge. The scale of these

plantations --most often of eucalyptus, pine or acacia-- is influenced by

the immensity of the factories which process the trees they grow. A $1

billion pulp mill may produce a half million to a million tons of pulp a

year and divert an entire river through its machines as it squats amid

sixty thousand hectares or more of plantations. The cost of reengineering

and simplifying landscapes in this way can be paid only through massive

direct and indirect subsidies-- including tax breaks, government handouts,

infrastructure, research and suppression of labour organization-- captured

through the exercise of political power. The power exercised by the

industry locally tends to result in further subsidies, further expansion,

political repression, hostility to democratic procedures, and contempt

for local needs and landscapes.

The plantation industry is increasingly moving to the South, where cheap

land, labour and water, fast tree growth, and loose environmental controls

result in lower production costs. This encourages the current pattern of

excessive and growing paper consumption in the North and parts of the

South.

Assisting or underwriting the spread of industrial tree plantations is a

set of supporting actors ranging from the World Bank and bilateral "aid"

agencies to research institutions and university scientists. Money badly

needed to support the development of local livelihood security (including

the development of small-scale, locally-appropriate and

environmentally-responsible paper production techniques using locally

available raw materials) is directed into forestry research supporting

the use of fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, biotechnology, cloning

and a Green Revolution-like package of techniques which has proven to be

detrimental to local environments and livelihoods. In the name of

"development", other public monies are diverted to forestry consulting

firms, pulping machinery manufacturers, and pulp and paper companies which

are often also involved in logging native forests.

To counter growing resistance, the industry is attempting to "green" its

image by presenting tree monocrops as "planted forests" and as carbon

sinks. Although tree plantations have little in common with forests and

although most of the carbon stored by plantations will be released to the

atmosphere again within five to ten years, such myths are sometimes

accepted by uninformed audiences.

In view of these concerns, we pledge our support to an international

campaign to:

* support local peoples' rights and struggles against the invasion of

their lands by these plantations

* encourage awareness of the negative social and environmental impacts of

large-scale industrial monocrop tree plantations, and

* change the conditions which make such plantations possible.

We therefore commit ourselves to joining the movements opposed to such

plantations --movements which have already achieved significant successes.

We are confident that the struggle against the industrial forestry model

will at the same time help enable local communities to implement local

solutions to local problems --solutions which will simultaneously have

positive impacts on the global environment, and whose continuing evolution

we also pledge ourselves to support.

Montevideo, June 1998

Yoichi Kuroda

Japan Tropical Forest Action Network (JATAN)

Japan

Witoon Permpongsacharoen

Towards Ecological Recovery and Regional Alliance (TERRA)

Thailand

Marcus Colchester

Forest Peoples Programme

UK

Patrick Anderson

Greenpeace International

The Netherlands

William Appiah

Third World Network

Ghana

Larry Lohmann

The Corner House

UK

Chris Hatch

Rainforest Action Network

USA

Saskia Ozinga

FERN

UK

Wally Menne

Timberwatch Coalition

South Africa

Liz Chidley

Down to Earth

UK

Hernan Verscheure

Comite Nacional pro Defensa de la Fauna y Flora-Codeff

Chile

Rosa Roldan

Instituto Brasileiro de Analises Sociais e Economicas

Brasil

Elias Diaz Pena

Sobrevivencia

Paraguay

Goran Eklof

Swedish Society for Nature Conservation (SSNC)

Sweden

Chad Dobson

Consumer's Choice Council

USA

Silvia Ribeiro

Red de Ecologia Social/Friends of the Earth-Uruguay

Uruguay

Roberto Bissio

Instituto del Tercer Mundo

Uruguay

Hilary Sandison

Imagenes

Uruguay

Raquel Nunez

Red del Tercer Mundo

Uruguay

Liliana Medina Cocaro

Voluntad Internacional de Defensa Ambiental (VIDA)

Uruguay

Ricardo Carrere

World Rainforest Movement International Coordinator

Uruguay

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