Informing NGOs, MEPs, Member States, the European Commission and the media. Issue 97, July/ August 2005.

CDM projects not looking good

The Methodologies Panel of the CDM’s Executive Board has dealt another blow to V&M do Brasil’s plans for a charcoal plantation project in Minas Gerais, Brazil (see FW no. 93). At its 14-17 June 2005 meeting, the Panel recommended that the Board should reject the project’s baseline methodology¹ – the first hurdle facing projects seeking registration under the CDM (Clean Development Mechanism). The recommendation puts an end to V&M’s third attempt to convince the Panel that its proposal will reduce additional greenhouse gas emissions – and has similar implications for the controversial Plantar project (see FW no. 86). In reality, the projects would simply mean a license for industrialised countries to pollute – through buying up cheap, and climatically worthless carbon credits – while the companies receive a handsome profit for turning trees into yet more fuel. At the same time, baseline methodologies of three of five sinks projects submitted for approval earlier this year were also rejected by the expert panel assessing sinks projects. A decision regarding the remaining two projects is still outstanding.

The panels' recommendations validate many of FERN’s concerns about carbon sink and other projects² that claim to ‘neutralise’ or ‘offset’ CO2 emissions. In reality these are illsuited tools for forest restoration which tend to fuel a false sense of security while allowing the root causes of forest loss and climate change to remain unaddressed.

1 These technical documents are required for all projects seeking CDM approval. The V&M methodology, FCDM-NM0104: “V&M do Brasil Renewable Reducing Agent Project” is available at: www.unfccc.int

2 Projects include 'sinks' projects (eg: Plantar) and other clean development projects (eg: V&M which uses charcoal rather than coal). Different projects are assessed by different expert panels.

Rural development boosts forests

The Council of Agriculture gave a boost to forests last month when its Ministers agreed on a regulation on rural development support for 2007-2013. In its meeting of 20 June 2005, the Council gave high priority to forestry, environment and good management in doling out its €80 billion European Agriculture Fund for Rural Development. The EU is now preparing a Community Strategic Guideline, setting out these priorities, and to be approved by autumn 2005. Member States will need to prepare their national plans in early 2006 ready for EU approval in the second half of that year. FERN intends to make full use of the agreement’s commitment to wide consultation with all stakeholders on national rural development plans.¹ And, having witnessed clear misspending of earlier funds earmarked for forestry measures,² FERN is set to monitor this process closely. More details on this rural development regulation will follow in the next issues of Forest Watch.

1 http://www.agriculture.gov.ie/index.jsp?file=pressrel/2005/120-2005.xml

2 See for more details: FERN/TRN (2005) Court of Auditors’ report: Forestry Measures within the Rural Development Policies. Available at www.fern.org

Incorporating indigenous issues?

This month could prove an important one for indigenous issues in the EU. On 13 July 2005 the Commission will present its proposal for a joint Parliament-Council-Commission Declaration on EU Development Policy. Taking on earlier NGO demands,¹ an early June draft – made available to FERN – includes for the first time the need to integrate indigenous peoples’ issues throughout the EU development

programme. If this makes it to the final document, it will progress the current framework considerably. Indeed, embedding EU commitments on indigenous peoples' rights into its policies has been a stated goal since 1998.

Unfortunately the draft proposal still fails to live up to EU commitments on environmental issues, and has gone no further in reflecting the concerns of European civil society.² Yet Commission sources have told FERN that the revised document incorporates the integration of the environment as an essential element to development (see FW no. 95). FERN is concerned that the final Declaration must include a clear framework for enhancing and monitoring environmental integration, and for ensuring coherence among EU policies. Failure to do so will see the policy and its associated instruments undermine development by slashing efforts to ensure any economically, socially and environmentally sustainable development.

1 Open letter to the Commissioner for Development, February 2005. Available at: www.fern.org

2 See, for example, the joint NGO statement and overwhelming response to the public consultation (documents available from iola@fern.org)

Dumped dam back to wreak havoc?

In a recent visit to Brussels, civil society representatives from Turkey raised strong concerns with the European Commission about the planned Ilisu dam – a project which, if built, will displace up to 78,000 people and submerge the historic town of Hasankeyf. The delegation, visiting 15-17 June 2005, voiced their concerns about the project within the context of Turkey’s process of accession to the European Union.

The Ilisu dam is a hydroelectric project planned on the river Tigris in the Kurdish region of Southeast Anatolia. Already dumped once on the grounds of serious economic, social and environmental concerns, it is expected that the dam will cause substantial environmental pollution, lead to significant health problems, and curtail the downstream flow of water to Iraq and Syria.

The region in which the Ilisu dam is to be built has been, and continues to be, characterized by the repression of its Kurdish majority. The project’s failure to adequately take this history of conflict and human rights violations into account has been a focus of contention throughout the project’s controversial history, the dam achieving international infamy when it was first considered by European companies from 2000 to 2002. Following its original collapse in 2002, the project is now back on the agenda, with a new consortium of companies – led by Austro-German VA Tech/Siemens – joining forces to build the discredited dam.

The Turkish representatives claim that the project breaches a host of EU and international standards with regard to environmental and cultural heritage guidelines and directives. It also flagged up the project’s lack of respect for the rights of affected communities. In several meetings with Commission officials and Members of the European Parliament the delegates urged the EU to investigate the dam’s compliance with EU standards on environment and human rights. FERN calls upon the relevant Commission services and MEPs to immediately launch an in-depth investigation into these claims and to include any conclusions from these investigations in the Commission’s regular assessment on Turkey’s progress towards accession. These investigations must not be limited to the screening of data and information provided by government officials, but must include consultation with non-governmental and women’s organisations,

as well as landless stakeholders in the region.

NGOs battle for Ghana's forests

As Ghana’s forests disappear at record rates – up to 95% over the last 15 years - a coalition of Ghanaian NGOs has taken matters into its own hands. On 22 June 2005, Forest Watch Ghana initiated a court case against the Ghanaian Forestry Commission and the country’s forestry industry. The group, which has already exposed illegal dealings within Ghana’s timber industry, and published a detailed report on the industry’s impact on its people,¹ is seeking an injunction against logging by any timber company whose permits do not conform strictly to the standards set by the Timber Resources Management Act. It is also hoping to ensure prompt payment of undisputed stumpage together with accrued interest.

While satellite imagery suggests that logging is underway even inside State managed forest reserves, records show that the industry has failed to pay the Ghanaian Forestry Commission around US$ 100 million in fees each year – that’s more than the country’s HIPC (Heavily Indebted Poor Countries) relief for 2004. If successful the court case could mean hundreds of millions of dollars returned to the people, the authorities and the Forestry Commission, to help in sustainably managing Ghana’s remaining forests. Forest Watch Ghana needs all the support it can get.

1 Available from info@fern.org

NEWS IN BRIEF

Talking credits On 22 June 2005 the EU’s Council Working Group on Export Credits met with FERN and other groups at a special meeting to discuss key avenues to more responsible project finance in 2005. Civil society representatives from across Europe and Canada highlighted four key issues, calling for: greater transparency in export credit agencies (ECAs); addressing the impacts of project finance on human rights; combating bribery in export credits; and enhancing safeguards for financing large dams.

ACP: no trust of EU The EU–ACP (Asia, Caribbean, Pacific) Council of 25 June 2005 generated a tense atmosphere, the two parties still experiencing serious disagreement over both the review of the recently revised Cotonou co-operation agreement, and over those economic partnership agreements that are still under negotiation (FW no. 94). The ACP, who lack confidence in the EU’s 17 June 2005 agreement to increase aid to the region, are demanding serious financial efforts to implement agreed measures. An EU proposal should be on the table before the end of 2005.

New publications Lithuania's forests, the third of FERN's briefings on new EU Member States; Finding solutions to illegal logging: civil society and the FLEGT Support Project, a Telapak-FERN briefing note (in Bahasa and English); and Live or let die, an evaluation of UNFF5. All available at: www.fern.org

Forest Agenda

16 July: Meeting of the Ilisu-Dam platform, Diyabakir, Turkey

10-11 September: Workshop on ECAs and Human Rights, Brussels

28-29 September: Annual meeting of the Taiga Rescue Network, Brussels

29 September: FERN 10 year anniversary event, Brussels

30 September - 2 October: Annual meeting of the Forest Movement Europe, Brussels

EU Forest Watch is published by FERN, the forest campaign group focusing on EU policy.
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