FW: Japan: Sick from monoculture tree plantations

[Guest guest]

Dear friends,

 

As you may have noticed, we published an article on

tree plantations in Japan (enclosed below). We found

the issue of the pollen-related allergies reported by

the French newspaper Le Monde very interesting in

informing about a type of impact which had never heard

about before. Please let us know if you have more

information on this issue or on other impacts related

to monoculture tree plantations in Japan.

 

Additionally, we published another article on Japanese

involvement in the promotion of tree monocultures in

Costa Rica (see also below). Please tell us if you

have more information on this or on your government's

involvement in the promotion of tree plantations in

other countries.

 

Best regards,

Teresa Perez

 

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WORLD RAINFOREST MOVEMENT

 

International Secretariat

Maldonado 1858; Montevideo, Uruguay

E-Mail: wrm

Web page: http://www.wrm.org.uy

Editor: Ricardo Carrere

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W R M B U L L E T I N 60

July 2002

(English edition)

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- Japan: Sick from monoculture tree plantations

 

The cloud of pollen that usually covers Japan in the

Springtime is disappearing and the Japanese are

starting to feel more relieved from their respiratory

allergy that leaves one out of six inhabitants of the

Archipelago with red eyes and a congested nose. It is

even worse in the cities due to the combination of

pollen with release of gases from vehicles. In the

last 10 years, in Tokyo, the proportion of population

affected by allergies has risen from 7% to 20%.

 

Forty years ago, this did not happen. What has

changed? The reply is to be found in forest

degradation and loss. The modernisation process has

implied a change in the way of looking at the forest.

Its spirit, once a source of religious, architectonic,

poetic and artistic inspiration has been taken away.

Today, turned into merchandise, it is mainly a source

of energy and building materials. And of allergies.

 

World War II swallowed half the forests, and in 1950 a

policy for systematic reforestation was installed,

centred on the plantation of fast growing conifers,

especially Cryptomeria, a species which is more

profitable for building. Thus presently there are 10

million hectares planted with a single species of

conifer, which is at the root of the Spring pollen

cloud.

 

These enormous monoculture plantations have implied an

imbalance that, in addition to having impacts on human

health, also have environmental, social and economic

consequences. Environmental imbalance is to be seen in

catastrophes such as landslides and alteration to the

ecosystem, in detriment to the local fauna and flora.

From the socio-economic standpoint it has not been

much use either. In fact when the Cryptomeria

plantations were ready to be exploited, profitability

criteria made the logging industry import wood at

lower prices. This has implied a loss of jobs among

the rural population linked to the forestry sector,

and in turn, promoted rural emigration.

 

Within this business logic, in spite of possessing

enormous volumes of standing trees, Japan is today one

of the greatest importers of wood in the world - in

the year 2000 it imported 100 million m3 - and has

become the major predator of forests in the rest of

Asia. In the meanwhile the plantations only seem able

to generate allergies. But this is not all. The

powerful Japanese industry, a great releaser of carbon

dioxide, and therefore responsible for climatic

change, is resorting to the new formula of carbon

sinks to avoid reducing its releases. And for this

purpose it is resorting to the plantation of extensive

monoculture tree plantations abroad (see WRM bulletin

No. 20). Somehow, it is exporting its own sickness.

 

Article based on information from: " La vengeance de la

forêt " , Philippe Pons, Le Monde, 14 June, 2002.

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- Costa Rica: Japanese dollars to promote monoculture

tree plantations

 

The new President of Costa Rica, Abel Pacheco would

seem to have good intentions regarding the

environment, but at the same time, shows some gaps in

knowledge of the native tree species of his country.

 

In fact, such contradictions became evident on 2nd

June, on occasion of a ceremony at the Presidential

Residence, celebrating the donation by the government

of Japan (through the World Bank), of US$300,000 aimed

at promoting commercial tree plantations. During the

ceremony President Abel Pacheco stressed the need tob

fight for native species and halt plant " Nazism. "

 

It would seem that the President was not aware that

the species to be planted --Gmelina and Teak-- are not

native, but come from Asia. In fact the project funded

with the Japanese government donation, is aimed at

planting 50,000 hectares a year of Gmelina and Teak,

for a period of ten years. That is to say that the

plan is to cover a small country like Costa Rica with

no less than 500,000 hectares of monoculture tree

plantations.

 

The donation is accompanied --as usual-- by the

corresponding environmental, social and economic

discourse to justify this type of forestry

" development. " The very name of the project (Project

for the Reactivation of Commercial Reforestation in

Costa Rica - REFORESTA), transmits a deceitful message

that " reforestation " is taking place, when in fact it

is really " monoculturisation " that is being carried

out.

 

Furthermore, Constantino González, the chairman of the

fund managing the donation has stated that this

activity will generate between 20 and 30 million

dollars over the next ten years and will make it

possible to supply local demand for wood and eliminate

pressure on forests and lessen illegal logging. All

this sounds good, but does not agree with the true

situation, either in Costa Rica or in any other part

of the world.

 

It is sad that a country such as Costa Rica,

possessing a very rich forestry diversity, has entered

into the Japanese game of becoming a supplier of cheap

wood for this and other insatiable markets of the

industrialised world, instead of concentrating on

rehabilitating its forests destroyed by other

" development " processes (such as cattle-raising)

which, in the past have resulted in environmental and

social destruction.

 

We would very much like to see the new President of

the Republic " fight for native species " and face

" plant nazism " promoted in this case, by the

government of Japan and its intermediary, the World

Bank. We hope to see this.

 

Article based on information from: " Reactivan

reforestación comercial, " by Lisbeth Huertas Jiménez,

Semanario Universidad, 19 July, 2002, sent by Juan

Figuerola, e-mail: juaneco

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WRM International Secretariat

Maldonado 1858 CP 11200

Montevideo Uruguay

Tel: 598 2 413 2989 Fax: 598 2 418 0762

http://www.wrm.org.uy

 

 

 

 

 

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