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Commonwealth NGOs
related to forestry | | |
 World Rainforest Movement
HQ situated in Uruguay
Website: www.wrm.org.uy
Type of NGO: NGO,
Interest in Forestry: central
Contact method: email : wrm@wrm.org.uy
Description:
The World Rainforest Movement is an international network of citizens' groups of North and South involved
in efforts to defend the world's rainforests.
It works to secure the lands and livelihoods of forest peoples and supports their efforts to defend
the forests from commercial logging, dams, mining, plantations, shrimp farms, colonisation and other
projects that threaten them.
The World Rainforest Movement was established in 1986 and initially focused its activities on the flaws
in the FAO and World Bank's "Tropical Forestry Action Plan" and countering the excesses of
the tropical timber trade and the problems of the International Tropical Timber Organisation.
In 1989, the WRM published the "Penang Declaration" which sets out the shared vision of the
WRM's members. As well as identifying the main causes of tropical deforestation and singling out the
deficiencies of the main official responses to the deforestation crisis, the Declaration highlights
an alternative model of development in the rainforests, based on securing the lands and livelihoods
of
forest peoples.
In 1998, the WRM published the "Montevideo Declaration" and launched its campaign against
monoculture tree plantations that are increasingly being promoted particularly in the South. These
plantations, promoted as "planted forests", are resulting in a number of negative social and
environmental impacts on local communities. This campaign aims at generating conscience on and organizing
opposition to this type of forestry development.
The WRM has been part of the Global Secretariat of the Joint Initiative to Address the Underlying Causes
of Deforestation and Forest Degradation, a process linked to the work of the
Intergovernmental Forum on Forests.
In May 2000 the WRM published the "Mount Tamalpais Declaration", urging governments to not
include tree plantations as carbon sinks in the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol
of the Framework Convention on Climate Change and to address industrial emissions separately from tree
plantations.
In May 2002, a number of NGOs and Indigenous Peoples Organizations attending the 4th Preparatory Meeting
for the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), felt the
need for the global community to recognize community-based and indigenous forest management as a viable
tool for alleviating poverty and to ensure forest conservation and the livelihoods of forest-dependent
peoples. The Global Caucus on Community-Based Forest Management was thus born. The WRM is one of its
board members and South American Focal Point.
In January 2003, during the Third World Social Forum held in the Brazilian city of Porto Alegre, a group
of Latin American NGO representatives established the Latin American Network against Tree
Monocultures, appointing the WRM as its Secretariat. The Network has been coordinating efforts at the
continental level to oppose the plantation model based on tree monocultures and to promote a
type of forest use that makes conservation and the improvement of forest peoples' livelihoods compatible.
In January 2004, during the World Social Forum held in India, the WRM participated in the elaboration
of the "Mumbai Forest Initiative", a draft statement of principles aimed at being a first
contribution to initiating a global process based on solidarity links between movements, groups and
peoples working on issues relating to forests at local, national and international level.
The WRM distributes a monthly electronic bulletin in English, Spanish, French and Portuguese, to serve
as an information dissemination tool of local struggles and on global processes which may affect
local forests and peoples. The bulletin is distributed to more than 10,000 individuals and organizations
in 131 countries around the world. The WRM also disseminates relevant information and
documentation through its bilingual English/Spanish web site.
The WRM International Secretariat is headquartered in Montevideo, Uruguay.
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