NEW DIRECTIONS: SOCIAL
ECOLOGY AND THE LAW OF ECOCIDE.
Any survey of the
actions of mining corporations, logging companies, chemical companies, Oil, and
gas groups, in association with
governments , and crime syndicates [growing and making drugs] will reveal that they are actively involved in
the pollution of the environment of the earth. They are ‘environmental
criminals’ committing ‘ECOCIDE’………and denying all the evidence, and the
accusations! Oil Pollution can be seen
across the world and the oil companies persistently deny their responsibility,
and the consequences.
The crime of Ecocide
has been identified by the lawyer Polly
Higgins. She has been particularly concerned to devise a law for the UN. She
wishes to apply the Law of Ecocide to natural events as well as to humans; to
corporations as well as individuals; to those in command and control as well as
to those whose defence is that they were doing as they were ‘ordered’.
So what is ‘ecocide’?
It is when human agents are actively
involved in the damage, loss, destruction of ecosystems of a given territory to
such an extent that peaceful enjoyment by the inhabitants of that territory has
been or will be severely diminished. As the law stands at the moment ‘abstract
agents’ such as corporations, or syndicates, or governments, cannot be held
responsible for ECOCIDE. Only human agents can be accused, prosecuted, called
to account, for their environmental crimes.
The International
Lawyer, Polly Higgins, wants to identify all those in command and control of
their corporations and to render them responsible for the consequences of their
ecocide behaviour , and subject to investigation and prosecution.
She also wants to
apply the Law of Ecocide to natural events during which vast areas of the
environment are damaged following typhoons/ tornadoes, storms/earthquakes/forest
fires/floods/tsunamis/droughts: all of which may have been triggered by human mismanagement
of the environment and the initiation of climate change.
I am proposing that
Social Ecology should pursue new directions which would lead it to direct
action to prosecute/fine/imprison/control ‘environmental criminals, and clearly
identify ‘environmental crimes’ and support the work of Polly Higgins.
Voluntarism is no answer to crime syndicates and corporate crimes.
ENVIRONMENTAL
SEPTEMBER 4 2014: Judge Barbier announced in New Orleans that
BPOIL was guilty of gross negligence at
DeepWater Horizon oil disaster and would face a
fine of $18billion.
Oil drilling can lead to environmental crimes by environmental corporate criminals. The
profits and the fines generated by these corporate criminals can be huge,
immense, unbelievable, sufficient to rectify the damages or sufficient to
compensate for losses.
Oil Companies have been pursuing ‘fracking’ since 1950’s.
Normally, it is developed when oil and gas have stopped flowing efficiently and
need to increase their liquidity. Water and chemicals are injected into the
wells and oil and gas are drawn out under pressure. When the pressure is too
great, the base rock will crack and quake; and the water/oil/gas will leak and
pollute all ground water! in the basin. The ‘fracking’ companies will commit an
environmental crime, polluting the shale base.
AUGUST 2014 Reports revealed that government agents in Brazil/Peru
had discovered tribes of indigenous peoples that had lived in complete
isolation in Amazonia from the migrant
communities such as the commercial loggers, and shifted cultivators.
Logging and farming
can lead to the destruction of rainforests in South America; and Malaysia, and Australia. Also major projects like
the construction of hydro-electric dams; mining for bauxite; and industrial
operations like iron and steel making, and aluminium smelting; lead to the direct loss of forests due to the clearing
of land., building roads, and long term
water/air/land pollution.
If the object is to conserve the rain forests, then any
activities that result in the destruction of the rainforests, and their
communities, must be considered an environmental crime.
Logging companies
select trees and cut them down. They depend upon the maintenance of the forest,
and the removal of the best trees. Their work involves the removal of a few
logs but it results in extensive damage to the forest due to heavy machinery,
road building, as well as soil disturbance, soil erosion, siltation;
deforestation, following the trees falling to the ground, and creating
‘jungles’.
Once the roads have been built into the rainforests, they
are used by the ‘shifted cultivators’ to move into the forests to start small
scale farming. Many of these farmers are landless, having lost their land to
the government and the corporations. They are directly involved in the total
clearance of the forests for food crops; tree plantations, grazing cattle, and
fuel wood. In fact, they are the environmental criminals committing
environmental crimes! Total clearance is
pusued by agriculture.
Governments see the forests as trees, and offer the areas
under licences to international logging companies. Illegal logging is carried
out by local communities, many of whom are sponsored by criminal syndicates.
Forest experts argue that
the forests should be seen as sources of important plant, animal, and insect
species, micro-organisms, as well as medicines. It is a real benefit of the
forests to harvest the fruit, seeds, the products of the trees. The rainforests
should be harvested. It is a crime to
log, cut, slash and burn trees.
Posted: 03
Sep 2014 06:46 PM PDT
Large quantities of wood extracted from forest
"conversion" projects are reaching international markets illegally,
in full knowledge of Cameroon’s
Ministry of Forestry (MINFOF) and the European Union (EU), says Greenpeace
Africa.
The failure
to fully monitor and regulate timber from such projects is undermining
international agreements Cameroon
has with bodies such as the EU, including its Voluntary partnership Agreement
(VPA), part of the bloc's Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade (FLEGT)
action plan.
Greenpeace
Africa obtained evidence that Uniprovince, a company owned by US agribusiness
company Herakles Farms, has cut at least 10,000 m3 of commercially valuable
wood. While official documents from the port
of Douala show that a shipment of
over 3000 m3 has already left Douala for the
Chinese port of
Zhangjiagang.
The
Herakles Farms project in the country's South West region has proved highly
controversial since its announcement in 2009 and attracted the opposition of
local residents, civil society and international NGOs who say it threatens an
area of important biodiversity value and the livelihoods of communities who
live there.
"Sadly
it comes as no surprise to Greenpeace Africa to see this wood find its way to
China despite all the evidence of its illegality" said Irène Wabiwa,
Forest Campaign Manager.
In a
report published last May, Licence to Launder, Greenpeace Africa documented how
Uniprovince obtained a Vente de coupe permit to log
without public auction, in violation of Cameroonian law.
"Three
different Cameroonian state prosecutors were given information proving
Uniprovince's illegal logging operations, but no action has been taken to our
knowledge," explains Wabiwa. "The Cameroon's Ministry of Forestry
and the EU, in charge of the implementation of the FLEGT Partnership
Agreement, were also repeatedly informed; but unfortunately, it did not
prevent the wood from being exported."
On
August 19th, Greenpeace East Asia submitted the evidence to the competent
authorities in China,
asking them to investigate about the Chinese company that is involved in
importing illegal timbers from Herakles Farms/Uniprovince.
Regrettably,
the case of the illegal logging title obtained by Uniprovince is just the tip
of the iceberg. There are strong indications that the allocation of thirteen
Ventes de coupe permits earlier this year, to a variety of timber companies
for operations in the Kribi area, failed to respect procedure.
A
large proportion of wood from Cameroon's Vente
de coupe logging operations is destined to China via the port of Zhangjiagang,
taking advantage of the fact that the country doesn't yet have legislation in
place to prevent the imports of illegal wood.
"If
these operations continue with total disregard for the law, it will undermine
the credibility of the FLEGT partnership agreement ratified in December 2011,
accelerate forest destruction and deprive communities who depend on the
forest for their livelihood in Cameroon" warns Wabiwa.
Cameroon made a commitment to verify the
legality of all timber and derived products covered by the agreement whether
these are sold on the internal markets, exported to the EU or to markets
outside the EU.
RainTree
RainForest Facts
Tropical Rain Forest Animals.com
Save the
RainForest.com
MongaBay.com
Forests
Monitor.Com
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