26
January 2009 - Aomori, Japan — We have officially
opened a new Communications Centre in the
northern fishing district of Aomori. As
we mark 20 years of non-violent environmental
campaigning in Japan this year, we're bringing
our message of healthy oceans, whale protection,
and sustainable fisheries direct to the
people of this port city, along with information
about our campaigns to prevent dangerous
climate change and stop genetically modified
food.
A traditional sake barrel-breaking
ceremony marked the launch of the new Centre,
which is located in the heart of Aomori.
The trial of two Greenpeace activists who
exposed corruption in the whaling industry
will also take place here later this year.
A change in perspective
The head of the fisherman's union for Oma,
a town in Aomori Prefecture, and one of
the most influential local farmers both
spoke at our opening ceremony, which was
heavily attended by local and national media.
Both guest speakers spoke of Greenpeace
as being misunderstood in Japan but expressed
hope that the people of Aomori would take
the time to listen and understand the true
nature of Greenpeace.
The fisherman, Hirosumi
Hamata, noted that we share a common goal
in creating sustainable fisheries. He said
he had been wary of Greenpeace until he
met one of us in person: Wakao, one of our
campaigners in Tokyo. Now, he says, he is
keen to see what we have to say and what
our Japanese office has planned.
The Aomori Communication
Centre will be a hub for information and
discussion on Japan's whaling in the Southern
Ocean Whale Sanctuary. According to opinion
polls, a majority of the Japanese people
don´t support whaling in the Southern
Ocean, and nearly 87 percent are unaware
that their taxes subsidise the programme.
Many Japanese imagine
modern whaling that involves small boats
hunting individual whales along Japan's
coastline. Images of the massive factory
vessel, which sails each year to the Antarctic
leading a highly industrialised fleet of
whaling ships, often come as a shock. Japanese
media had paid relatively little attention
to the whaling issue until Greenpeace broke
the news of the whale meat scandal.
Sustainable conversations
Our Communications Centre
is open to the public and is the perfect
opportunity for us to reach out to the whole
community with our message of healthy oceans
and the importance of marine reserves. We
will host a series of public events in the
coming months including a conference on
sustainable fisheries.
We're out to challenge
misinformation about Greenpeace, and remind
the people of Japan of campaigns we've run
against nuclear waste dumping in Japanese
waters, nuclear energy and the genetic contamination
of food, among other global sustainability
issues that have a special relevance to
Aomori. This is one of Japan's most important
fishery and agriculture centres, so we're
here to provide support and discuss problematic
issues like the impacts of industrial fishing,
which stand in the way of communities like
Aomori finding a more sustainable relationship
with the oceans.
Free the Tokyo Two
With two of our activists facing the possibility
of prison for their role in defending the
whales, we also want to bring to the people
of Aomori an understanding of a basic Greenpeace
premise: non-violent direct action.
Peaceful, effective
action is at the heart and soul of what
Greenpeace does, and we'll be doing our
best to foster greater understanding of
why we take action against environmental
crimes, why we bear witness to ecological
injustice, and why we risk the disapproval
of society in order to spark the discussions
that change a society.
When Greenpeace first
brought the world's attention to the whaling
issue, the Soviet Union, Brazil, Peru, Chile,
and Spain were all whaling nations. Together
with other environmental groups, we stopped
all of them, with actions on the high seas
and efforts at scientific and political
fora. We directed public pressure towards
a moratorium on commercial whaling that
was agreed in 1982. Iceland, Norway and
Japan still hunt whales, in defiance of
world opinion.
Whaling: Who needs it?
The whaling programmes
of all three nations are on their last legs,
as demand for whale meat plummets, surplus
stocks increase, and more and more people
in the business and political communities
ask why whalers continue to enjoy subsidies
for research nobody needs, and whale meat
that nobody wants.
In December, we brought
the last captain of an Australian whaling
vessel to Tokyo, to talk about how his country,
his town, and he himself made the transition
away from whaling. "There is life after
whaling," he said.
That's one of the visions
we want to promote in Aomori -- a recognition
that whaling's days are numbered, as we
look to a future of marine reserves and
other measures to protect our Oceans and
our Earth, to provide sustainable livelihoods
and a healthy planet.
Whale watching is of
much greater value in all three countries.
When hit with economic crisis a whale makes
more business sense alive than dead.
+ More
Putting soya impacts
on the map
20 January 2009 - Brazil
— Monitoring the effects of deforestation
on the Amazon is a difficult undertaking.
The Amazon is huge and it's extremely difficult
to keep tabs on what's happening in the
remote fringes of the rainforest. News of
illegal logging and the spread of soya plantations
can take a long time – if ever - to reach
the authorities.
Community mapping
Our team in Brazil has been working with
the local community to map the impacts of
the soya industry in the Santarém
region of the forest, the heart of soya
production in the Amazon. This is a collaborative
project with the Brazilian organisations
Projeto Saude e Alegria (Health and Happiness
Project) and the Rural Workers Unions of
Santarém and Belterra. The community
mapping project focuses on training people
to use GPS technology to pinpoint the damage
caused by intensive agriculture practices
and empowering the local community to defend
its land and the rainforest. Even though
there's a moratorium at present on forest
being cleared for new soya plantations,
current farming in these areas is still
damaging the environment and the communities
who live in the region.
Research collected for
the map between May 2007 and June 2008 shows
damage has spread along the highways carved
through the forest. Soya farming has affected
rivers as well: herbicides used on the crops
have leeched into the water. Some rivers
have even been dammed by farmers, affecting
water supplies for those downstream. Others
have silted up when wetland forest cover
has been removed.
Local groups take control
As their environment deteriorates, the future
of local communities is at stake. Traditional
routes through the forest are blocked by
expansive soya plantations and people have
been forced to sell their land as a result
of pollution from agrochemicals.
The information collected
for the maps even documents cases where
entire communities have disappeared due
to the destruction that has made their former
way of life impossible.
The communities that
continue to exist in spite of the destruction
are also on the community map. Many rural
communities that have managed to somehow
adapt to the destruction are included in
this project – for some, this is the first
time they have ever been formerly identified
on a map.
Documentation of the
land in this region is an important step
in the fight to save the Amazon. By helping
local communities document what's happening
to the forest and rivers around them, control
is finally back in their hands. Ever since
US company Cargill announced its plans to
build a controversial soya processing and
port facility in Santarém, these
communities have fought to show the detrimental
effect a growing soya industry has on the
region. The Cargill facility was built without
the environmental impact assessment required
by the government. Cargill finally submitted
the assessment to the authorities at the
end of last year and we are currently awaiting
the announcement of the public hearing where
further discussions will take place on this
issue.
And finally, this mapping
project could also provide a model for how
the money from global funding mechanisms
needed to stop dangerous climate change
could be spent to ensure that local people
are the guardians of their forests. This
will be essential if we are to save the
climate and protect forests in the Amazon
and around the world in the long term.
