31 August 2005

Argentinean ancient forests trashed for GE Soya Plantations

2005-08-29 - Argentina

Greenpeace today stopped two bulldozers from clearing the forest to expand the GE Soya frontier further into what is left of the Great American Chaco Forest. Four activists on motorbikes have blocked these machines, and another four on two helicopters (painted as jaguars) has filmed the devastation of the forests from the air.
Bulldozers are currently clearing the forests of South America at an alarming rate. In Argentina areas of forest the size of a soccer pitch disappear every three minutes. The rate of disappearance rises to every ten seconds in countries like Paraguay and Brazil, as latest Government figures for deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon show.

"Companies are failing to act responsibly, and the Argentinean Government stands by while rampant deforestation continues," said Emiliano Ezcurra, Greenpeace Argentina forests campaigner. "We're here to place ourselves between bulldozers and trees to stop the destruction of these last remaining ancient forests".

The social consequences are just as devastating; small farmers and indigenous communities are forcibly evicted from their land by government-supported GE Soya landlords. All the trees knocked down by bulldozers are discarded onto huge piles, often kilometres long, and set alight. The cleared land can only support the GE soya monoculture for a few years before the soil nutrients disappear. The options then are to use more chemicals or just leave the land to become a desert and move on to clear more forest. This process contributes to climate change, biodiversity loss and human rights violations at the same time.

The Greenpeace helicopter was surveying the area when the bulldozers were seen in the province of Salta, 1800 kilometres, north of Buenos Aires. On the ground the Greenpeace 'Jaguars' managed to get to the area in time to confront the bulldozers and stop them.

"It is outrageous that such devastation continues to take place at such a fast rate only because companies want to feed pigs in Europe or chickens in China. Unless something gets done immediately the world will see the large forest areas in South America disappear in a very short period of time. The international community should call on the Argentinean Government now to stop this disaster," said Rex Weyler, early Greenpeace activist, from Vancouver, Canada, who took part in the action.

Solutions do exist already for these large forest areas to be managed sustainably through good forest practices like Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification, meaning that jobs and wealth are not incompatible with keeping forest diversity, clean air and water.

The Greenpeace 'Jaguars' will continue to stop the bulldozers with their motorbikes and helicopters over the days to come.

Source: EMS

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Right now it seems like Movable Type is the top blogging platform available right now.
(from what I've read) Is that what you are using on your blog?

My site :: structured Settlement annuity
my page > structured settlement annuity

Anonymous said...

Hi there to all, how is everything, I think every one is getting more from this website, and your
views are pleasant in support of new people.


my blog: sell structured settlements

Anonymous said...

Wow, awesome weblog format! How long have you been running a blog for?
you made running a blog glance easy. The overall look of your website is
excellent, as well as the content material!

Check out my web site - structured settlement

Anonymous said...

Hi there to every one, it's truly a nice for me to visit this web site, it includes priceless Information.

Also visit my blog post: structured settlement loan advances procedure
Also see my web site: cash payout on a structured settlement

Anonymous said...

Great blog here! Also your web site loads up very fast!
What web host are you using? Can I get your affiliate link to your host?
I wish my website loaded up as quickly as yours lol

Also visit my blog post :: Structured annuity
Also see my page > structured settlement

Anonymous said...

Hi there! I know this is kinda off topic however
I'd figured I'd ask. Would you be interested in
trading links or maybe guest authoring a blog post or vice-versa?
My blog addresses a lot of the same topics as yours and I think we could greatly benefit from
each other. If you happen to be interested feel free to shoot
me an e-mail. I look forward to hearing from you! Terrific blog by the way!


Also visit my web blog; http://www.semanasdeembarazo.net/el-embrazo-en-la-semana-36/

Anonymous said...

I rarely comment, but i did a few searching and wound up here "Argentinean ancient forests trashed for GE Soya Plantations".
And I do have a couple of questions for you if it's allright. Could it be just me or does it look as if like a few of the responses come across like they are left by brain dead folks? :-P And, if you are writing on additional places, I'd like to keep up with everything
new you have to post. Could you list of the complete
urls of all your community pages like your linkedin
profile, Facebook page or twitter feed?

my blog ... twitter.com

Anonymous said...

This is a good tip especially to those fresh to the blogosphere.

Simple but very accurate info… Thank you for sharing this one.
A must read post!

My homepage - http://www.6theory.com/forum/index.php/user/528364-comersano/page__tab__posts?s=c17ba79af586a8e90f44931f8a1f7c65

Anonymous said...

I am regular visitor, how are you everybody? This piece of writing
posted at this web site is genuinely fastidious.

Look at my blog ... http://buydinar2012.posterous.com/

Anonymous said...

I am truly glad to glance at this blog posts which
consists of plenty of valuable data, thanks for providing these statistics.


My webpage http://www.hondaclub.com/forum/members/lugaresturisticos.html

Anonymous said...

We stumbled over here from a different page and thought I should check things out.
I like what I see so now i'm following you. Look forward to going over your web page for a second time.

My homepage http://www.indabamusic.com/people/711583492

Anonymous said...

I for all time emailed this blog post page to
all my friends, as if like to read it after that my friends will too.


my web page; Clicking Here