One issue of great concern to activists trying to protect forests is the US/Canadian proposal for removal of tariffs and non-tariff barriers to trade in wood and wood products. Here’s a perspective from Canada.

The WTO is creating a new global constitution that will devastate the world’s forests and undermine local communities who are the key to long-term forest sustainability.

WTO—Ensuring Access

International trade in wood fibre quadrupled over the last 40 years. Fibre in a sheet of paper in Japan or Europe derives from five or six countries, travelling thousands of kilometres in international production chains.

Supporters of global trade liberalization insist that environmental protection comes with growth. But this wealth comes by drawing down the earth’s resources. Rich countries and corporations "import sustainability" by liquidating what resources remain. The WTO blocks governments that might have second thoughts about this "development" strategy.

Demand and Decline

Forest products consumption is connected to economic growth. Worldwide, paper consumption grew by a factor of 20 over this century. The greatest demand comes from industrialized nations.

Industrial forestry wastes capital as well as forests. At a recently built mill in Riau Andalan, Indonesia, approximately $750,000 in capital was invested for every job created.

Globalization means an ever-increasing centralization of ownership. Companies in the US, Europe, Canada and Japan account for 85 of the top 100 companies, controlling US$250 billion in world sales. Between 1993 and 1995, "developed nations" imported US$4.3 trillion more roundwood each year than they exported, "developing nations" exported US$550 billion more each year than they imported.

What this means for forests and communities

The world’s forests cannot continue to feed the growth monster, nor can local communities survive the onslaught. These forests, their diversity, and the communities of people who live there are disappearing.

One historic role of state "sovereignty" is to facilitate land "enclosures" by delegitimizing traditional and indigenous land and resource rights. Private (corporate) rights then replace public (communal) rights. The resulting loss of local access, local income, and the traditional knowledge to maintain the forest, is a form of cultural genocide, and ecological erosion.

Thus does the WTO marginalize and destroy other ways of thinking about and managing the world’s forests at the very time when creative solutions are imperative.

A coordinated effort must advance the authority of local communities in every nation of the world. This initiative must be placed squarely onto the international agenda.

(Read the full version of this article in Focus on Forests and Communities—WTO Edition, a tabloid produced by the INFC. Available in Seattle beginning November 25, 1999, or at www.forestsandcommunities.org.