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World Bank grants forest concessions
By Sonny Inbaraj
Bangkok, Thailand, Aug. 5 (IPS)— The World Bank stands
accused of recommending to the Cambodian government that the forest
concession agreements of six companies, believed to be fronted by relatives
of Cambodia’s senior politicians and their cronies, be renewed
for further 25 years despite an independent review calling for their
end.
A statement released by the London-based environmental watchdog Global
Witness, this week, said forest concession companies have been responsible
for much of the illegal logging in Cambodia, while abusing the rights
of forest- dependent communities.
“Persistent timber theft and tax evasion by the companies, in collusion
with corrupt officials, has seen the revenues siphoned off into private
bank accounts, rather than funding Cambodia’s development,”
said the statement.
The environmental watchdog revealed that the World Bank recommending
that the Cambodian government allow renewed logging by six of the forest
concessionaires for a further 25 years.
“All six companies have breached Cambodian law or the terms of
their contracts and have demonstrated an absence of technical capacity,”
said Global Witness Director Simon Taylor in the statement.
“Most are little more than fronts for cronies and relatives of
senior government officials. Despite this, the World Bank project has
used loan money to assist them in producing new forest management plans,
which it now argues that the Government should approve,” added
Taylor.
Global Witness identified the companies as Colexin (a joint venture
between the Cambodian government and a Japanese company); Everbright
(a Chinese state-owned company); Cherndar Plywood (a Taiwanese venture);
TPP (a Thai-owned firm); Timas Resources (a Singapore-based company)
and Samraong Wood (whose shares are nominally held by Cambodians with
connections to Timas Resources).
But the World Bank acknowledges that the forestry sector in Cambodia
is badly affected by corruption.
“Unless properly managed, it will not only fail to deliver adequate
resources to the people of the country but could actually make the poor
even worse off,” Peter Stephens, the Bank’s regional communications
manager for East Asia, based in Singapore, told IPS in an e-mail interview.
“It is for this reason that the World Bank remains involved in
the forestry sector, though we know that there are no quick, perfect
or easy solutions to the problems,” he added.
Stephens said the Bank is seeking ways to bring “order, transparency
and commercial discipline to the forest concession system.”
“This approach has seen the number of concessionaires reduced from
25 to the single digits; and the area under concession will in the end
be reduced from its original six million hectares to less than 2.4 million
hectares,” he pointed out.
The World Bank has been engaged in various aspects of the Cambodian
forestry sector since 1995. In 2000, the bank approved a 30 million
U.S. dollar Structural Adjustment Credit to help the Cambodian government
institute economic policy reforms in a range of sectors, including forestry
as well as general public administration and finance.
The International Development Association (IDA), which is part of the
World Bank Group, also, in 2000, approved a $4.8 million loan for forest
concession management in Cambodia.
Global Witness has been calling for the cancellation of all forest concession
agreements in Cambodia since 1996. However, the World Bank has pursued
a policy of concessionaire reform rather than insisting on cancellation.
A recent independent Forest Sector Review (FSR), commissioned by the
Cambodian government and international donors, to provide a road map
for forest policy in Cambodia, has recommended that the concession system
be scrapped.
The review instead proposes the development of management systems at
the community level, thus giving forest-dependent Cambodians much greater
control over their resource.
Global Witness accuses the World Bank of endorsing management plans
in which companies openly outline their intention to exclude local people
from areas of forest and to log trees over which communities have legally
recognized user rights.
But Stephens said the Bank always supported “other initiatives”
such as community forestry.
“We are also looking to the (Cambodian) government to take a stronger
hand in managing the sector in ways that reduce the incidence of corruption
and increase the benefits to and protection of local people,” said
the World Bank official.
An Asian Development Bank-funded forest sector review conducted in 1999
and released in 2000 described the forest concession system as a “total
system failure.”
“The scenario is clear: the industry wants to cover its investment
costs rapidly and continue earning as long as the resource lasts. In
permitting this level of forest exploitation, Cambodia displays a classic
example of unwise forest resource utilization,” said the report.
“The country may soon turn from being a net exporter of timber
to a net importer,” the report warned.
The money that has been made from legal and illegal logging and the
political influence that it represents is staggering in Cambodia.
The official figure, for instance, for revenue from timber sales between
January 1996 and April 1997 was less than 15 million dollars. However,
the estimated value for logs and sawed timber exported or illegally
sold within Cambodia is well over 100 million dollars for the same period.
According to environmental monitors, when the value of cut wood waiting
in stockpiles along many rural Cambodian roads is included, the figure
rises by nearly 30 million dollars.
“It is pure fantasy for the World Bank to think it could encourage
the concessionaries to practice forest management,” Mike Davis,
Global Witness’ Cambodia campaigner, told IPS in a phone interview.
“The concessionaires are not moral entities. They are crooks and
fly-by-night operators not interested in sustainable logging,”
he added.
Prozac found in Britain’s drinking
water
By Mark Townsend
Aug. 8— It should make us happy, but environmentalists
are deeply alarmed: Prozac, the anti-depression drug, is being taken
in such large quantities that it can now be found in Britain’s
drinking water.
Environmentalists are calling for an urgent investigation into the revelations,
describing the build-up of the antidepressant as “hidden mass medication.”
The Environment Agency has revealed that Prozac is building up both
in river systems and groundwater used for drinking supplies.
The government’s chief environment watchdog recently held a series
of meetings with the pharmaceutical industry to discuss any repercussions
for human health or the ecosystem.
The discovery raises fresh fears that GPs are overprescribing Prozac,
Britain’s antidepressant of choice. In the decade up to 2001, overall
prescriptions of antidepressants rose from nine million to 24 million
a year.
A recent report by the Environment Agency concluded Prozac could be
potentially toxic in the water table and said the drug was a “potential
concern.”
However, the precise quantity of Prozac in the nation’s water supplies
remains unknown. The government’s Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI)
said Prozac was likely to be found in a considerably “watered down”
form that was unlikely to pose a health risk.
Dr Andy Croxford, the Environment’s Agency’s policy manager
for pesticides, told The Observer: “We need to determine the effects
of this low-level, almost continuous discharge.”
Norman Baker, the Liberal Democrat’s environment spokesman, said
the revelations exposed a failing by the government on an important
public health issue. He added that the public should be told if they
were inadvertently taking drugs like Prozac.
“This looks like a case of hidden mass medication upon the unsuspecting
public,” Baker said. “It is alarming that there is no monitoring
of levels of Prozac and other pharmacy residues in our drinking water.”
Experts say that Prozac finds its way into rivers and water systems
from treated sewage water. Some believe the drugs could affect their
reproductive ability.
European studies have also expressed disquiet over the impact of pharmaceuticals
building up in the environment, warning that an effect on wildlife and
human health “cannot be excluded.”
“It is extremely unlikely that there is a risk, as such drugs are
excreted in very low concentrations,” a DWI spokesman said. “Advanced
treatment processes installed for pesticide removal are effective in
removing drug residues,” he added.
Source: Observer (UK)
Marine pollution threatens drinking
water supply
By Meena S. Janardhan
Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Aug. 4 (IPS)— Located in
one of the most arid regions of the world, Gulf countries depend heavily
on seawater desalination for their drinking water. But experts warn
that unabated pollution of the Gulf waters could soon make it impossible
to treat seawater for human consumption.
“Offshore oil extraction, exports, and leaking old ships that
pass through these waters, are all causes of marine pollution. Increasing
urbanization has also led to the dumping of sewage, hazardous wastes
and toxic chemicals into the sea,” Ram Prasad, a Dubai-based
oil and gas expert, told IPS.
“These are serious environmental threats and we need to seek
solutions soon,” Prasad warned.
Oil slicks are one of the greatest pollutants.
Around 100 oil tankers sail through the Gulf waters daily, discharging
around eight million tons of oil sediments, in their path, yearly.
Apart from discharging water mixed with oil, a number of these carriers
also wash their tankers and dispose the dirty water into the sea or
on the beaches.
Every ton of oil (about seven barrels) spilt costs about $1,400 to
clean up, according to experts.
“Oil spills also result from damaged and sunken vessels,”
said Prasad.
The oil and gas expert also blamed the Gulf Wars for wreaking havoc
on the marine environment.
“During the Second Gulf War, the Iraqi army set Kuwaiti oil wells
on fire as a cover for its retreat. The fires cost Kuwait three percent
of its oil reserves, and caused immense damage to the ecological system,”
Prasad said.
“Around eight million barrels of crude were discharged into the
waters by the end of the war,” he pointed out.
Other environmental effects of the 1991 war included destruction of
sewage treatment plants, resulting in the discharge of over 50,000
cubic meters of raw sewage every day into Kuwait Bay. The total cost
of all environmental damages after the 1991 war was estimated at $40
billion.
“Oil slicks have deeply damaged marine life, including sea creatures
and mangrove forests,” said a Dubai Municipality official, who
did not want to be named.
He said the marine pollution has drastically affected the lucrative
fishing industry in Saudi Arabia and decimated several species of
birds in the kingdom’s Abu Ali Island.
“This is alarming because there is medical evidence to prove
that consuming fish from oil-polluted waters can cause cancer and
other lethal diseases in human beings,” said the official.
The US National Ocean Service has identified the Arabian Gulf as the
fourth ‘hot spot’ where 108 spills from vessels have been
recorded since 1960.
Topping the list is the Gulf of Mexico with 267 spills; north eastern
United States with 140 spills and the Mediterranean Sea with 127 spills.
The vulnerability of the Gulf waters stems from the fact that they
are part of a semi-closed, highly saline and shallow sea marine ecosystem.
In some parts of the Gulf, the water is only 35 yards deep. Also the
rate of evaporation of water here is higher than in other seas.
Another complicating factor is that there is very little flow of fresh
water into the Gulf seas because of the lack of rain in the region
and the absence of surface water bodies like rivers, ponds and lakes.
In most cases, the water cycle tends to preserve environmental balance
but that too is a very slow process.
It takes almost five years, at least, for an ecological balance to
be achieved by the water cycle in these waters.
Essam Al Muhairi, a researcher at a Dubai-based desalination company
elaborates.
“Gulf countries depend largely on desalinized water for drinking
purposes. Desalinated water is even used in agriculture and various
industries. More than 60 per cent of desalinization equipment in the
world is found in this region Saudi Arabia alone desalinizes about
three million tons of seawater daily,” he said in an interview.
According to Al Muhairi, the lack of fresh water flowing in the Gulf
seas to balance the build up saline water and partially offset water
pollution levels poses a problem for desalinization.
“This water (from the Gulf seas) could soon become unsuitable
for desalinization. Since desalinization stations treat both saline
and polluted water, increasing levels of both may render seawater
untreatable seven years from now,” he warned.
“And the desalination process also increases the level of salinity,”
added Al Muhairi.
Seeing the alarming trends in marine pollution, authorities in the
United Arab Emirates (UAE) have called for stern action.
At a recent session, members of the UAE Federal National Council called
attention to the fact that oil discharged by visiting and passing
vessels was polluting beaches in the northern Emirates.
Stating that environmental protection needed more attention, they
urged the Federal Environmental Agency to devise a mechanism to implement
the federal environmental law more effectively.
One organization that is working towards reducing marine pollution
in the Gulf waters is the Regional Clean Sea Organization (Recso),
which groups 12 major oil companies operating in the Gulf as well
as oil tanker owners.
Recso functions under the concept of “mutual aid” at times
of marine oil spills and is a voluntary, non-commercial association
with the objective of accomplishing a “clean sea” vision.
The main aim of the organization is preventing oil spills even before
they occur.
“We need more such coordinated efforts in this field. Marine
pollution is a bane to both humans and marine life and all-out efforts
must be made to prevent it at its roots,” said Prasad.
“This can be achieved only if all the concerned parties work
together with the authorities to create a strategy that can plug every
loophole and take the offenders to task,” he stressed.
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