"Stop plantations expansion in Mozambique!", 22 September 2016

...Justiça Ambiental and WRM together have launched this Action Alert urging the main companies promoting tree plantations in Mozambique, especially the Norwegian Green Resources and the Portuguese Portucel/The Navigator Company, to stop the expansion over people's territories...
Eastern and Southern African countries are increasingly seen by Northern companies and finance capital investors as attractive to earning easy profits by putting vast areas of lands under tree monocultures,...attracted by cheap land and labour, by environmental rules often less rigid and wood productivity per hectare significantly higher...[F]avorable growing conditions are a result of availability of and access to fertile lands and water...[and]...beneficial climate...[F]ertile lands of interest to plantation companies...tend to be part of territories from which communities secure and reproduce their living and livelihoods and supply local markets with food products they grow. The direct result of converting these lands into monoculture tree plantations is most often grave land conflicts where communities resist the invasion of their territories...[T]ree plantations has led to the...displacement of entire communities...[I]impacts on their water supply...even more of a concern in the context of climate change and...long dry period...[J]obs that do materialize are often temporary and poorly paid, and do not compensate for the simultaneous loss of agricultural lands and food sovereignty...[I]mpacts...are even more severe for women...responsible for food production and water collection in many communities. The many negative impacts that plantation companies cause do not hinder these companies from obtaining certification for their plantations. The...Forest Stewardship Council...is one of the certification schemes widely used...