accumulation by land dispossession and labor ... - Land Portal
accumulation by land dispossession and labor ... - Land Portal
accumulation by land dispossession and labor ... - Land Portal
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forestry company with established, rapidly growing plantations <strong>and</strong> the prospect of a<br />
diversified product base for local <strong>and</strong> regional export markets which will deliver both<br />
attractive returns to investors <strong>and</strong> significant social <strong>and</strong> environmental benefits.‖<br />
However, it admits elsewhere in its website that the company is mainly ―a sustainable<br />
forestry business driven <strong>by</strong> commercial timber economics.‖ Therefore it ―has an<br />
established, rapidly growing plantation business with the aim of producing feed material<br />
for vertically integrated businesses such as sawmills, board factories <strong>and</strong> pole treatment<br />
plants, as well as energy-forestry operations, which will deliver both attractive returns to<br />
investors <strong>and</strong> significant social <strong>and</strong> environmental benefits.‖ It thus considers itself ―as<br />
the biggest tree planter <strong>and</strong> the dominant player in Ug<strong>and</strong>a, a country facing acute <strong>and</strong><br />
mounting timber shortages.‖<br />
4.2 Afforestation Markets<br />
In regard to the environment the company affirms that it ―provides long-term foreign<br />
private sector investment in carbon sink forestry on unutilized <strong>and</strong>/or degraded <strong>l<strong>and</strong></strong> in<br />
the developing world in the context of the Clean Development Mechanism [CDM] of the<br />
Kyoto Protocol on the reduction of global warming.‖ Hence its ―business mixes<br />
commercial plantation forestry with protection <strong>and</strong> regeneration of indigenous tree<br />
species <strong>and</strong> the promotion of bio-diversity <strong>and</strong> environmentally sustainable <strong>l<strong>and</strong></strong>-use<br />
management.‖ ―Whilst based on commercial forestry economics,‖ it thus claims, its<br />
―projects are underwritten <strong>by</strong> carbon credits which require sound environmental <strong>l<strong>and</strong></strong>-use<br />
management in compliance with the Clean Development Mechanism.‖<br />
At this juncture it is important to clarify what the Kyoto Protocol, Clean Development<br />
Mechanism <strong>and</strong> Carbon Credits/Markets really entail. In 1997 the ‗international<br />
community‘, through the United Nations, agreed at a meeting in Kyoto, Japan to control<br />
human activities that cause global warming. The rationale behind the accord was based<br />
on decades of research proving that pollution, specifically greenhouse gas emissions, in<br />
industrialized regions from automobiles <strong>and</strong> factories, among other outlets, weaken the<br />
atmosphere‘s protective ozone layer <strong>and</strong> cause the Earth‘s temperature to rise. Local<br />
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