FME 1998

In 1998, FME was held in March in a beautiful castle in Heemskerk, a town close to Amsterdam. It was hosted by http://www.milieudefensie.nl/english (Friends of the Earth Netherlands).

The main topics discussed were:

• EC aid to tropical forests
• World Bank (including the forest policy review)
• Shrimp farming and the destruction of mangrove forests
• World Resources Institute setting up a forest information project called the Global Forest Watch  

Urgent action alerts were on the following issues:

• Malaysia (Sarawak)
• The Amazon
• Gabon
• Surinam/Guyana
• Indonesia: The merger of two huge pulp and paper companies April and UPM