Protest destruction of Colombian rainforests to feed cars
Reinhard Behrend - 09.09.2007 13:40
The Colombian government is embarking on a massive expansion of oil palms, sugar cane and other monocultures for agrofuels and other markets at the expense of rainforests, biodiverse grasslands and local communities. Sugar cane monocultures are being expanded in the Cauca Valley, whilst hundreds of thousands of hectares are being turned into oil palm plantations in the Pacific region, the eastern planes and the Caribbean region. Palm oil expansion is linked to large-scale rainforest destruction and to serious violence and human rights abuses. NGOs have documented 113 killings in the river basin of Curvaradó and Jiguamiandó, in Chocó region at the hands of paramilitaries who are working with plantation companies to take over land which legally belongs to Afro-Colombian communities.
The paramilitary groups operate with the support of the 17th Colombian Army Brigade.
Following a campaign of violence, forced displacements and massacres since 1996, Afro-Colombian and other peasant communities have recently returned to their land, but have found much of it planted with oil palms, even though the communities hold legal land titles. They have received repeated death threats from paramilitaries. So far, the government has done nothing to protect the communities and their land rights.
The expansion of agrofuel mono-cultures, mainly for biodiesel, is threatening the lives, livelihoods and lands of Afro-Colombian and peasant communities and indigenous people, not just in Chocó, but elsewhere, including in Tumaco, Magdalena Medio, Vichada, Meta and the Amazon regions. According to the UN High Commission for Refugees, 200,000 people are displaced every year in Colombia, totaling some 4 million over the past 20 years – the second highest rate of displacement in the world – with land expropriation in excess of 6 million hectares. The root cause of many forced displacements relates to land issues including the drive to expand monocultures and other agro-business.
The Chocó forests which are being destroyed by palm oil expansion are amongst the most biodiverse forests on Earth (biodiversity hot spots). They are home to 7,000 to 8,000 species, including 2,000 endemic plant species and 100 endemic bird species. Even before the current palm oil and agrofuel expansion, 66% had been destroyed.
As a member of CENSAT Agua Viva (Friends of the Earth Colombia) says: It is the silent story of forests disappearing to become plantations. It is the story of ancestral cultures becoming oil palm proletariats. These voices are clamouring to stop the destruction proposed by those defending biodiesel” (  http://americas.irc-online.org/am/3962).
Please write to the Colombian government and ask them to protect the rights of indigenous, Afro-Colombian and peasant communities affected by large-scale monoculture plantations, to stop further deforestation for oil palm plantations, impose a moratorium on further palm oil expansion and on the country’s biofuel programme, which is a major cause of monoculture expansion, and to protect the land rights, the food sovereignty and the environment on which local communities depend.
This email alert is supported by the Inter-Church Commission for Justice and Peace (Comisión Intereclesial de Justicia y Paz) in Colombia, a human rights organisation which has been actively supporting local communities in Curvaradó and Jiguamiandó.
You can sign a petition at http://www.regenwald.org/international/englisch/protestaktion.php?id=202 Click on English on the left, scroll down the letter on the right and sign.
Please write to the Colombian government now and ask them to:
1) Protect the human rights of indigenous, Afro-Colombian and peasant communities affected by large-scale monoculture plantations;
2) Immediately restitute the ancestral land to Afro-Colombian communities and indigenous people affected by monoculture plantations, such as the Curvaradó and Jiguamiandó Afro-Colombian communities affected by palm tree plantations and call on the Government to implement the 169 Convention of the International Labor Organisation and the Order of Provisional Measures of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in favour of the ‘humanitarian refuge’ zones of Curvaradó and Jiguamiandó.
3) Stop further deforestation and exploitation of large-scale palm tree plantations in the Curvaradó and Jiguamiandó river basin and elsewhere in Colombia.
4) Guarantee the integral reparation of human and environmental damages generated by the imposition of large-scale monocultures and by human rights violations by State Forces.
5) Recognise and respect local civilian initiatives aimed at protecting the environment, such as the recent creation of Biodiversity Zones.
6) Review Colombia’s biofuel policy and the impacts of large-scale monocultures in general on communities, human rights and the environment, including the impacts of rainforest destruction on climate change, and impose an immediate moratorium on biofuel developments from large-scale monocultures, including from oil palms.
For further information see http://www.wrm.org.uy/countries/Colombia.html#info and article in the August 2007 World Rainforest Movement bulletin: http://www.wrm.org.uy/ .
Francisco Santos, Vicepresidente de la República (Vice President)
E-mail:  fsantos@presidencia.gov.co; buzon1@presidencia.gov.co
Andrés Felipe Arias Leyva, Ministro de Agricultura y Desarrollo Rural (Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development)
E-mail: quejas@minagricultura.gov.co
Juan Lozano Ramírez, Ministro de Ambiente, Vivienda y Desarrollo Territorial (Minister for Environment, Housing and Development)
E-mail: correspondencia@minambiente.gov.co
Dear Sir/Madam,
I am deeply concerned about Colombia’s palm oil and biofuel expansion programme, particularly the expansion of African palm plantations, which is linked to the large-scale destruction of some of the most biodiverse forests on Earth, as well as of biodiverse natural grasslands and traditional agricultural lands on which local communities depend for their food sovereignty and livelihoods. It is also linked to serious human rights abuses: The Colombian NGO Inter-Church Commission of Justice and Peace and international NGOs including Christian Aid, Amnesty International, various US Churches, and Ecologistas en Accion, have documented 113 killings in the river basin of Curvaradó and Jiguamiandó, in Chocó region, at the hands of paramilitaries who are working with plantation companies to acquire land which legally belongs to Afro-Colombian communities. The paramilitary groups operate with the support of the 17th Army Brigade and are responsible for 13 forced displacements. Recently, the Afro-Colombian communities that returned to their land to live in Humanitarian Areas and promote the newly set up Biodiversity Zone, have received repeated death threats from the paramilitary group “Aguilas Negras”.
The Chocó forests which are being destroyed by palm oil expansion are amongst the most biodiverse forests on Earth. They are home to 7,000 to 8,000 species, including 2,000 endemic plant species and 100 endemic bird species. Even before the current palm oil and agrofuel expansion, 66% had been destroyed. Colombia and the rest of the world depend on the protection of those forests which are essential in regulating the global and the regional climate, the regional water cycle, and for the survival of thousands of species. Local communities, including the Afro-Colombian communities of Curvaradó and Jiguamiandó seek to defend both the biodiverse ecosystems and their food sovereignty and livelihoods, against palm oil companies and against violent human rights abuses linked to those companies and to the State Forces.
I would therefore urge you to
+ protect the human rights of indigenous, Afro-Colombian and peasant communities affected by large-scale monoculture plantations;
+ immediately restitute the ancestral land to Afro-Colombian communities and indigenous people affected by monoculture plantations, such as the Curvaradó Afro-Colombian communities affected by palm tree plantations and call on the Government to implement the 169 Convention of the International Labor Organisation and the Order of Provisional Measures of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in favour of the ‘humanitarian refuge’ zones of Curvaradó and Jiguamiandó;
+ stop further deforestation and exploitation of large-scale palm tree plantations in the Curvaradó river basin and elsewhere in Colombia;
+ guarantee the reparation of human and environmental damages generated by the imposition of large-scale monocultures and human rights violations by State Forces;
+ recognise and respect local civilian initiatives aimed at protecting the environment, such as the recent creation of Biodiversity Zones;
+ review Colombia’s biofuel policy and the impacts of large-scale monocultures in general on communities, human rights and the environment, including the impacts of rainforest destruction on climate change, and impose an immediate moratorium on biofuel developments from large-scale monocultures, including from oil palms.
Yours faithfully,
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