AN OVERVIEW OF ASIAN COMPANIES: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This report was commissioned by Greenpeace to be presented to the External Commission about Foreign Companies in the Amazon (Comissiao Externa de Investigacao de Madeireiras na Amazonia).
Despite the immense natural forest wealth of countries like Malaysia and Indonesia, there is increasing evidence of log shortages in both countries (Borneo Post, 1995; Asian Timber, January 1996; Tropical Timbers, October 1996; FT, 1996), and the two countries dominate the world export markets for tropical timber. These shortages are providing a significant impetus to companies involved in the export of logs and timber to seek out new log sources in other parts of the world, hence the expansion of operations to other South East Asian countries, the South Pacific, Latin America and Africa over the last few years. Whilst there is a large international demand for tropical logs and large profits to be made in logging natural rainforests, it appears to be inevitable that companies which increasingly operate on a global scale should aggressively seek out areas of forest which offer potentially high returns: these areas are the last remaining large areas of natural rainforest around the world.
This south-south investment would seem on the surface to represent a positive shift in patterns of development and aid, away from traditional north-south patronage and colonialism. However, evidence on the ground suggests that this new source of investment is in fact not enhancing the sustainable development of host nations. The search for new supplies of tropical timber by Asian companies seems to be in countries which do not have the institutional capacity to deal with such increased activity and seems inevitably to lead to unsustainable levels of exploitation. Moreover host countries seems to be left with no or very little economic benefits from the exploitation of their forest wealth by these companies.
Many of the Asian companies have a very close political and/or family connection with high government officials. Some Asian governments are urging its companies to expand into new regions, facilitating such moves by high level trade delegation visits to countries with potential resources to exploit and by providing opportunities for reciprocal visits by senior politicians from those countries. The message being delivered is not always reflective of an equitable partnership and mutual co- operation. For example, a senior Malaysian delegation, including Primary Industries Minister Dr Lim Keng Yaik, visiting Melanesian countries in the Spring of 1996, added weight to calls by Malaysian logging companies that forestry taxes and export duties should be reduced and log export bans should not be countenanced. This is in marked contrast to policies in Malaysia itself, where, as a matter of policy, the export of logs is being banned or reduced and taxes and duties increased in efforts to achieve sustainable forestry management and increase down-stream processing activities.
While we acknowledge that there are many other destructive national and foreign logging companies operating in tropical forests, our experience and the record of some Asian logging companies shows that they are among the leading destroyers of tropical rainforests. Greenpeace has been actively involved in exposing and attempting to stop the destruction caused by Asian Companies in the South Pacific and to a lesser extent in Guyana, Malaysia and Indonesia. Greenpeace and other environmental groups are extremely concerned about the prospect of Asian companies operating in the Amazon Our concerns are related to the appalling environmental and social record as well as the sheer size and scale of operation of these companies. This is also aggravated by the Brazilian government's present limited capacity for control and the lack of an effective national forest management policy.
Asian industrial loggers are poised to significantly impact the Amazon rainforest, changing forever the ecological, social and economic composition of the region. By opening up the heart of the Amazon to large-scale logging, the Brazilian government risks accelerating rates of deforestation and losing its already fragile political capability to ensure adequate control. The arrival of aggressive Asian multinational timber companies is a decisive test of Brazil's sustainable forest policy. The stakes are high, the fate of the world´s largest rainforest ecosystem and its wealth.
Greenpeace recommends the immediate establishment of audits of logging companies to prevent the worst players in the forestry sector having access to Brazil's forest resources. While establishing such audits the Government should freeze approving any new requests for management plans by large foreign companies.
Greenpeace also recommends that the Brazilian Federal government needs to carry out its own environmental, social and economic impact assessment of proposed logging concessions or management plans, in which it reviews the opportunity costs of allowing logging, including environmental damage, potential damage to extractive industries, water values, soil values, tourist and wildlife values etc.