Negative impacts of monoculture tree plantations on women

7 March 2009

World Rainforest Movement

Friends of the Earth International

PRESS RELEASE

Negative impacts of monoculture tree plantations on women

Three new case studies on three continents



7 March 2009 – Three new case studies on the impacts of monoculture tree
plantations on women in Nigeria, Papua New Guinea and Brazil will be
released on 8 March, International Women’s Day.

The case studies (1) and a related short video (2), available online at
www.wrm.org [and www.foei.org], are jointly published by the World
Rainforest Movement (WRM) and Friends of the Earth International.

International Women’s Day is an important day for celebrating the crucial
role played by women in our societies and reminding ourselves that we still
have a long way to go to achieve gender justice, equality and equity in our
societies.

The three new case studies carried out on three continents demonstrate that
women who live near monoculture tree plantations are very negatively
affected by them.

NIGERIA

The case study from Nigeria is focused on the Iguóbazuwa Forest Reserve, a
highly biologically diverse region in the southwest whose crops long
supplied food for around 20,000 people. The area has undergone drastic
changes since the arrival of the French transnational company Michelin in
December 2007. All of the area’s natural wealth was destroyed to plant
rubber trees.

A local woman described the situation like this: “Michelin came with its
evil bulldozers and destroyed everything I had planted. I was crying…I was
trying to stop them; they threatened to bulldoze me with their caterpillar
if I didn’t allow them.”

BRAZIL

The case study from Brazil states that tree plantations established to
produce pulp for paper-making are continuously expanding, causing severe
impacts on communities and the environment. Three big corporations have
moved into southern Brazil to satisfy the enormous demand for paper, mostly
in Western countries: Swedish-Finnish forestry giant Stora Ensa, and
Brazilian-owned Aracruz and Votorantim.

In Southern Brazil women from the grassroots organization Via Campesina have
been leading protests against the “green desert” development model since
2006 in order to protect food sovereignty and the rights of local
communities. According to a woman interviewed in Southern Brazil, “the
companies only give work to men. The few jobs they give to women are the
ones that pay the least.” Even in the case of men, the companies tend to
hire workers from outside the region, and this influx of strangers
invariably leads to a rise in sexual harassment cases.

PAPUA NEW GUINEA

In Papua New Guinea, monoculture oil palm plantations are destroying the
forests, biodiversity local communities livelihoods. Palm oil produced in
Papua New Guinea is primarily exported, especially to the European Union
where it is used to produce soap, cosmetics, processed foods and agrofuels.

In some Papua New Guinea communities women are no longer able to grow food
crops, and they are exposed to dangerous pesticides.

“Health is a very big concern in our place right now we breathe in the
chemicals... I’m pretty sure we are inhaling dangerous substances and
definitely are dying every minute. Some women had babies who developed
asthma when they were just one or two months old. Chemicals are killing us;
we will all die sooner” said a woman from the community of Saga.

IN GENERAL

Monoculture tree plantations are primarily geared towards meeting the high
levels of consumption in Western countries. The European Union plays a key
role in this, due to policies that promote plantations and that benefit,
above all, the transnational corporations that export, process and market
the products harvested from the plantations.

By publishing these new case studies, WRM and FoEI want to expose the
unsustainability of policies promoting tree plantations that do not benefit
local communities, and to highlight the crucial role of food sovereignty,
collective rights and gender equality as the foundations of sustainable
societies.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Teresa Perez

World Rainforest Movement

International Secretariat in Montevideo, Uruguay

Ph: + 598 99 36 79 66 / + 598 2 413 29 89