Correction Address, & ASIAN LOGGERS

[http!//www-uvi.eunet.fr/@igc.org]

Reply-To: Euro-Burmanet tel 33 1 43 29 32 44 <http!//www-uvi.eunet.fr/@igc.org>
Subject: Re: Correction Address, & ASIAN LOGGERS TARGET AMAZON

Dear friends and Free Burma activists, I erroneously posted an address
that should be read as follows:
http://www-uvi.eunet.fr/asia/euro-burma/total/

Thats for the TOTAL BOYCOTT WEBSITE

sorry
heres a news story to add to the above as i thought it may interest some
of you 

metta
dawn star


> >
> >ASIAN LOGGERS SET THEIR SIGHTS ON THE AMAZON
> >
> >nu--a Stream
> >
> 
> >asianloggers(sh)
> >
> >Scripps Howard News Service
> >
> >Release date:01-13-97
> >
> >Available only to U.S. clients
> >
> >By JAN ROCHA
> >
> >The Guardian
> >
> >SAO PAULO, Brazil - As their own forests near exhaustion, Asian logging
> >companies are
> >moving into South America: Guyana, Surinam, and the big prize, the
> >Amazon rainforest.
> >
> >Large areas of still intact forest in remote areas where government
> >agencies are weak and
> >unmotivated add up to a dangerous cocktail, warns Nigel Sizer of the
> >World Resources
> >Institute. "There aren't places where you can acquire logging rights to
> >several million hectares
> >at attractive prices."
> >
> >Africa is out of the question because of political instability, so the
> >solution is Brazil's Amazon
> >rainforest, an area of 280,000 square miles with one-third of the
> >world's existing timber
> >supplies. The forest contains 2.1 trillion cubic feet of timber said to
> >be worth $4 trillion. By 2006,
> >Brazil's share of the world market is expected to leap to 20 percent
> >from its present 3 percent.
> >
> >In Guyana, Malaysian companies obtained government concessions to vast
> >forest areas and
> >timber production multiplied fivefold between 1991 and 1996, forcing the
> >government to
> >declare a three-year moratorium on new concessions until environmental
> >laws can be
> >tightened.
> >
> >In Brazil, the Asians are more discreet. They have begun buying up
> >small-scale, often
> >bankrupt, local timber companies, keeping their original names.
> >
> >WTK of Malaysia paid $7 million for Amaplac in January, and also
> >acquired 750,000 acres of
> >forest near the River Jurua, an Amazon tributary, for approximately $2.4
> >million. Total WTK
> >investment in timber is reported to be $18 million. Officially bankrupt,
> >the Amplac sawmill now
> >produces 3,200 metres of plywood a month.
> >
> >Samling, another Malaysian giant, is negotiating to buy Amacol.
> >Compensa, a local timber
> >firm, now belongs to the Tianjin Fortune Timber Co. of China.
> >
> >Malaysian and Chinese businessmen have been visiting the offices of
> >Brazil's environmental
> >agency, Ibama, to find out about environmental legislation.
> >
> >The advantage of buying Brazilian companies is that they already have
> >forest management
> >plans approved by Ibama. Under such a plan, the area to be logged is
> >divided into 25 parts.
> >Each part should be rationally exploited during one year, followed by 25
> >parts rest to allow
> >natural reforestation.
> >
> >In practice, says Paulo Lira, of the World Wildlife Fund, most forest
> >management plans are a
> >fiction. A recent Ibama audit found irregularities in two out of every
> >three plans. The
> >companies follow the rules in their own areas, but buy timber from
> >clandestine loggers who
> >use planes to spot mahogany trees, then build roads through the forest
> >to get to them. Armed
> >groups of up to 100 men invade ranches and reserves and extract timber,
> >which they then sell
> >on to those with a forest management plan.
> >
> >With only 650 men to patrol the entire rainforest area, Ibama cannot
> >control illegal logging. All
> >it can do is fine companies when they are caught.
> >
> >Amaplac (WTK) has already been fined a total of $160,000 for exporting
> >illegal timber. And
> >Sifec, now Chinese-owned, was fined $140,000 in June for a similar
> >offense.
> >
> >WTK has been importing tractors bigger than any seen before in the
> >Amazon. These, says
> >Ibama superintendent Hamilton Casar, will make it possible for them to
> >log all the timber they
> >can get their hands on.
> >
> >Foreign companies have been exporting mahogany and other hardwoods from
> >Brazil for a
> >long time, but what concerns Brazilian environmentalists and authorities
> >is the voracity of the
> >Asian companies arriving - and their record of devastation.
> >
> >Brazil's Central Bank has traced investments totaling $320 million and
> >the acquisition of 11.25
> >million acres in the Amazon.
> >
> >Congressman Gilney Viana, who presides over a special committee set up
> >to investigate the
> >Asian companies, explains: "It would be an illusion to think we can stop
> >foreign companies
> >from entering Brazil, but we need to establish environmental
> >parameters."
> >
> >Ibama chief Eduardo Martins readily admits that his agency is
> >ill-equipped to manage the
> >rainforest efficiently, but he is doing his best.
> >
> >A giant audit of forest management plans is underway, corrupt employees
> >are being weeded
> >out and old methods, whereby Ibama inspectors "tucked their revolvers
> >into their belts and set
> >off for the forest" are being replaced by satellite images to pinpoint
> >devastation, Martins says.
> >
> >Malaysian ministers visiting Brazil have protested at being cast in the
> >role of villains, but
> >Malaysian companies control 80 percent of the world trade in tropical
> >timber. Without the
> >Amazon rainforest, it is difficult to see where they are going to turn
> >for supplies.
> >
> >(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service.)
> >
> >
> >
> >© Copyright 1996. Any redistribution of this material, in whole or in
> >part, without the express
> >permission of the respective wire service is strictly forbidden.
> >
> >
> Ronald Nigh
> Dana Association
> Correo:  Dr. Navarro No. 10
>             San Cristóbal de Las Casas
>             29220 Chiapas, Mexico
> 
> Tel & FAX 529/678-7215
> danamex@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Mexico