21 September – International Day against Monoculture Tree Plantations

September 21 is International Day against Monoculture Tree Plantations. On this day, environmental and social groups around the world call attention to the harmful effects of tree monocultures on biodiversity and local people.

In its press release, the Global Forest Coalition warns that plantations are on the rise due to renewable energy policies. Tree plantations specifically set up to meet the new demand for bio-energy are reported from West Papua, the Republic of Congo and Guyana.

As many of our member organizations can tell from experience, plantations have caused misery among many Indigenous and other forest dependent peoples. Evicted from their land, food resources destroyed, soils degraded and water resources depleted, these people fight an unequal battle with more powerful players.

That’s why, on this International Day Against Monoculture Tree Plantations, we are calling out once again for even greater efforts to support the resistance struggles of those who are actively opposing the invasion of their lands by plantation companies.

At the same time, we are calling on bilateral and multilateral agencies to stop promoting a “development” model that has more than proven itself to be socially and environmentally disastrous.

Resources:

•Negative impacts of tree plantations ignored by Northern consumer countries – press release by Global Forest Coalition – 21 September 2010
•Plantations and biodiversity – by Fiu Mata’ese Elisara, chair of the Global Forest Coalition
•Industrial tree plantations: both cause and symptom of a dying planet? Press release Timberwatch – 21 September 2010
•International Day Against Tree Monocultures. Southern U.S. States Targeted for Genetically Engineered Tree Plantations – Press release Global Justice Ecology Project and Dogwood Alliance – 21 September 2010
•FSC Forest Certification: promises or pretences? Article for ETRN News by Wally Menne, GFC Focal Point for African NGOs 
•short video clip on Tree Monocultures and GE Trees by Global Justice Ecology Project
•Report: Wood-based bio-energy: the green lie – Global Forest Coalition, May 2010
Further recommended reading:

•Declaration on the International Day Against Monoculture Tree Plantations – by World Rainforest Movement
•Special World Rainforest Movement bulletin on 21 September
•Monocultures on the march in Southeast Asia – article by Chris Lang

4 Oct, 2010
Posted in Forests and Climate Change