From Laos to Richmond, local man honored by White House for environmental activism

From Laos to Richmond, local man honored by White House for environmental activism

Click on the link to get more news and video from original source: http://www.contracostatimes.com/west-county-times/ci_23316177/from-laos-richmond-local-man-honored-by-white

By Robert Rogers
This Story was from Contra Costa Times

Posted:   05/24/2013 09:29:56 AM PDT

Updated:   05/24/2013 10:32:07 AM PDT

RICHMOND — When Lipo Chanthanasak was honored last month at the White House for his environmental justice work, he felt he wasn’t alone.

“I didn’t take the award as just for me,” Chanthanasak said through an interpreter. “It was for all low-income communities fighting together. I received the honor for all people in Richmond.”

The 73-year-old Laotian emigre only speaks Khmu, a tribal dialect from his native Northern Laos, but his words have stirred people in Richmond since 1991. He has been a forceful critic of Chevron’s local refinery and of fossil fuel consumption generally, and is a leading member of The Asian Pacific Environmental Network’s (APEN) local chapter.

For his efforts, Chanthanasak was one of 12 recipients of the Champions of Change Award, given to people each week by The White House Council on Environmental Quality for their work raising awareness about climate change and advocating for renewable energy development. While at the White House, he also took part in a panel discussion with other award recipients.

Chanthanasak was honored again Thursday night with a ceremony at the Nevin Community Center.

“Community members like Lipo are leading the way to healthy, safe and prosperous communities for all of us,” Roger Kim, executive director of APEN, said in a prepared statement.

Chanthanasak’s small stature and soft-spoken, native tongue — he came to the United States in his 50s with little formal education and never learned English — belies a lifetime of fervent idealism and moral righteousness.

He grew up in Phoualn, a tiny village of about 200 people in Northern Laos. During the Vietnam War, he fought with a guerrilla unit alongside American troops and the CIA. When Laos fell to the communists in 1975, Chanthanasak fled to Thailand.

He returned to Laotian jungles in 1977 to join the resistance movement. In 1985, Chanthanasak returned to Thailand and landed in a refugee camp, he said.

Finally allowed into the United States in 1991, Chanthanasak faced a new reality that bore echoes of the old.

“My community faced chemical pollution, and I saw that those who suffer most are the low-income people,” Chanthanasak said. “But here they stand up and demand change. The injustice creates the resistance.”

For years, Chanthanasak has marched at rallies and spoken at City Council meetings, always with the aid of an interpreter. His dogged but largely unsung work was finally recognized in Washington, D.C., which he hopes will only intensify the spotlight on communities that suffer on the front lines of what he calls “fossil fuel dependency.”

APEN has been among Chevron’s staunchest critics, relentlessly prodding the energy giant to reduce emissions and convert more of its operations from fossil fuel refining to renewable energy production. Chanthanasak has been a key link between the group and the city’s sizable Laotian community.

“Richmond is a community that can help lead the world toward renewable energy that doesn’t harm health and the environment,” he said. “We are proving that we can produce local clean energy good for the economy and the environment, and we can continue to push our governments in that direction.”

Contact Robert Rogers at 510-262-2726 or rrogers@bayareanewsgroup.com and follow Twitter.com/roberthrogers

HAGL boss denies NGO’s accusations of Laos-Cambodia land grab

HAGL boss denies NGO’s accusations of Laos-Cambodia land grab

Source: Viet Nam News. Published: 20 May 2013

Click on the link to get more news and video from original source: http://www.eco-business.com/news/hagl-boss-denies-ngos-accusations-laos-cambodia-land-grab/

Doan Nguyen Duc, chairman of Hoang Anh Gia Lai Corporation, has rejected all accusations made against his company of deforesting and appropriating land in Laos and Cambodia by the NGO Global Witness, calling them “groundless.”

The organisation recently released a report titled “Rubber Barons” – apparently a play on “robber barons” which refers to unscrupulous American magnates of the late 19th century — in which it says Viet­namese companies and international financiers are driving a land grabbing crisis in Cambodia and Laos.

It accuses Hoang Anh Gia Lai and the State-owned Vietnam Rubber Group of acquiring vast tracts of land in the countries for their rubber plantations, and devastating the environment and local livelihoods.

Duc told reporters and investors in HCM City yesterday: “After its report was published, we invited representatives of Global Witness and the media — including CNN and BBC, to which the organisation sent its press release — for a fact-finding tour of our projects in Laos and Cambodia, but it refused.”

Global Witness only wanted to meet him in Viet Nam, he said.

“But what is the point since people should come to see with their own eyes the truth about our investments there,” he said, adding he had offered to pay for the trip.

The report alleges that the firms have ignored environmental and social safeguards while overseeing the destruction of high-value evergreen and semi-evergreen forests and the seizure of people’s land and livelihoods.

Duc said the governments in Laos and Cambodia had a very stringent process for providing land to investors that included investigation by local and central authorities before giving approval.

They also required guarantees that there would be no negative impacts on the life of local people, he said.

Before his company invested in the poorest Lao province, Attapeu, in 2008 its per capita income had been around US$200, and the figure has increased now to $1,200, he said.

Besides, HAGL spent more than US$30 million in the province, where it built a 200-bed hospital, schools, 2,000 houses, roads, bridges, and others, he said. Earlier, people there used to live in makeshift, not proper, houses, he said.

“No governments allow investors to do business in their country to cause hunger and poverty to their people.

“The governments in Laos and Cambodia want other investors to follow our business model.”

As for allegations about HAGL illegally exploiting forests and bringing home timber, there is no possibility of bringing wood from overseas projects since wood from forests is owned by the country’s government and has to be auctioned.

His company did not even participate in the auctions though they were profitable, he claimed.

But he had no intention of filing a suit against Global Witness, he said.

“As a large listed company, we always abide by the laws and regulations of countries where we do business, and we meet all the environmental criteria of Laos and Cambodia.”

He promised to step up his company’s environmental protection activities to world standards.

“We are well aware of the significance of environmental issues and have set up an environment working team in our company.”

HAGL recently invited Bureau Veritas, a major global institution in testing, inspection and certification services, to assess the environmental impacts it causes, he said.

“We will also apply for an FSC (forest sustainability certification).”

HAGL, through its affiliates, has leased 27,000ha of rubber plantations and 10,000ha of sugarcane fields in Laos. It has another 14,000ha of rubber in Cambodia and 8,600ha of rubber in Viet Nam.

Related News & Opinion

• New film exposes two international financiers in large-scale land grabs

———

Original from Viet Nam News:

HAGL boss denies accusations of Laos-Cambodia land grab by NGO

Updated

May, 18 2013 10:26:07

 Click on the link to get more news and video from original source: http://vietnamnews.vn/environment/239519/hagl-boss-denies-accusations-of-laos-cambodia-land-grab-by-ngo.html

HCM CITY (VNS)— Doan Nguyen Duc, chairman of Hoang Anh Gia Lai Corporation, has rejected all accusations made against his company of deforesting and appropriating land in Laos and Cambodia by the NGO Global Witness, calling them “groundless.”

The organisation recently released a report titled “Rubber Barons” – apparently a play on “robber barons” which refers to unscrupulous American magnates of the late 19th century — in which it says Viet­namese companies and international financiers are driving a land grabbing crisis in Cambodia and Laos.

It accuses Hoang Anh Gia Lai and the State-owned Vietnam Rubber Group of acquiring vast tracts of land in the countries for their rubber plantations, and devastating the environment and local livelihoods.

Duc told reporters and investors in HCM City yesterday: “After its report was published, we invited representatives of Global Witness and the media — including CNN and BBC, to which the organisation sent its press release — for a fact-finding tour of our projects in Laos and Cambodia, but it refused.”

Global Witness only wanted to meet him in Viet Nam, he said.

“But what is the point since people should come to see with their own eyes the truth about our investments there,” he said, adding he had offered to pay for the trip.

The report alleges that the firms have ignored environmental and social safeguards while overseeing the destruction of high-value evergreen and semi-evergreen forests and the seizure of people’s land and livelihoods.

Duc said the governments in Laos and Cambodia had a very stringent process for providing land to investors that included investigation by local and central authorities before giving approval.

They also required guarantees that there would be no negative impacts on the life of local people, he said.

Before his company invested in the poorest Lao province, Attapeu, in 2008 its per capita income had been around US$200, and the figure has increased now to $1,200, he said.

Besides, HAGL spent more than US$30 million in the province, where it built a 200-bed hospital, schools, 2,000 houses, roads, bridges, and others, he said. Earlier, people there used to live in makeshift, not proper, houses, he said.

“No governments allow investors to do business in their country to cause hunger and poverty to their people.

“The governments in Laos and Cambodia want other investors to follow our business model.”

As for allegations about HAGL illegally exploiting forests and bringing home timber, there is no possibility of bringing wood from overseas projects since wood from forests is owned by the country’s government and has to be auctioned.

His company did not even participate in the auctions though they were profitable, he claimed.

But he had no intention of filing a suit against Global Witness, he said.

“As a large listed company, we always abide by the laws and regulations of countries where we do business, and we meet all the environmental criteria of Laos and Cambodia.”

He promised to step up his company’s environmental protection activities to world standards.

“We are well aware of the significance of environmental issues and have set up an environment working team in our company.”

HAGL recently invited Bureau Veritas, a major global institution in testing, inspection and certification services, to assess the environmental impacts it causes, he said.

“We will also apply for an FSC (forest sustainability certification).”

HAGL, through its affiliates, has leased 27,000ha of rubber plantations and 10,000ha of sugarcane fields in Laos.It has another 14,000ha of rubber in Cambodia and 8,600ha of rubber in Viet Nam. — VNS

How the World Bank funds illegal logging in Cambodia and Laos

Published on Alaska Dispatch (http://www.alaskadispatch.com)

Click on the link to get more news and video from original source: http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/20130514/how-world-bank-funds-illegal-logging-cambodia-and-laos

Denise Hruby | GlobalPost.com

May 14, 2013

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Five-months pregnant, Im Chanthy was told that her husband’s body had been found in the trunk of his car, brutally hacked to death for reporting on illegal logging and land concessions in Cambodia.

Many of these concessions, a new report by environmental watchdog Global Witness found, are owned by two Vietnamese rubber companies, which — with the financial support of Deutsche Bank, an arm of the World Bank and local governments — have acquired more than 500,000 acres of land in Cambodia and neighboring Laos.

The companies and officials involved have made millions growing resin trees and harvesting their sap to make rubber, while thousands of poor Cambodians and Laotians lost the little they had. Villagers have been sued and prosecuted, intimidated, threatened and shot at while trying to defend their livelihoods.

Heng Serei Odom, the journalist, paid with his life, and his wife Chanthy is now raising their 5-month old daughter on construction sites. She works carrying sand bag after sand bag for $2.50 a day — too little to eat properly, or care for her sick child.

“I move around from one construction site to the other, where I build small tents to stay there temporarily. That’s why my daughter is sick a lot, because she has no proper accommodation to shade her and I don’t have enough milk to feed her,” Chanthy said.

The companies in question continue undeterred despite allegedly being aware that many of their undertakings, such as the extensive logging of timber in national parks, are illegal, according to “Rubber Barons,” the report released by London-based Global Witness on Monday that sheds light on the secretive operations of Hoan Anh Gia Lai (HAGL) and the Vietnamese Rubber Group (VRG).

Germany’s Deutsche Bank, according to the report, holds $3.3 million in a subsidiary of VRG, which is chiefly owned by the Vietnamese government, and $4.5 million in the privately owned HAGL. The International Finance Cooperation (IFC), which is an arm of the World Bank, indirectly funds HAGL through its $14.95 million share in a Vietnam-based fund that invests in HAGL.

“We’ve known for some time that corrupt politicians in Cambodia and Laos are orchestrating the land-grabbing crisis that is doing so much damage in the region. This report completes the picture by exposing the pivotal role of Vietnam’s rubber barons and their financiers, Deutsche Bank and IFC,” said Megan MacInnes, who runs Global Witness’ land team.

Both Southeast Asian governments have argued that the land concessions granted to HAGL and VRG will help develop the poor countries and turn simple, self-reliant farmers into plantation workers.

But in reality, the 165,000 acres HAGL, VRG and affiliated companies hold in Laos and the 445,000 acres Global Witness identified in northeastern Cambodia have brought misery and despair to communities that depend on the forests, the report shows.

Bulldozers arriving are often the first sign of a fight for land the poor countryside stands to lose. Houses have been demolished, farms flattened, cemeteries dug up, and trees in which holly spirits are said to live have been uprooted.

“Losing the forest is like losing life,” a villager told Global Witness, describing how essential the fast evergreen and semi-evergreen forests are for the community.

HAGL and VRG have made millions off the plantations and the illegal selling of luxury wood. Between 2001 and 2011, prices for natural rubber increased ten-fold and reached about $3,600 per tonne last year, when Vietnam became the world’s third-largest producer of rubber.

Most rubber is shipped to China, where it is processed and exported to the United States and Japan. As demand surges, the tight supply has fueled HAGL’s and VRG’s land-grabbing in Cambodia and Laos.

In addition, luxury rosewood grows inside the land concessions, which is illegally logged and exported, Global Witness says.

“The revenues are a planned part of the companies’ financial plan for the concessions — the impression given is that without these revenues, the concession would not be economically viable,” says Josie Cohen, a researcher for Global Witness.

In northeastern Cambodia, Dong Nai, a member of VRG is estimated to have logged 30 percent of the total forest in the area, amounting to about 10,000 resin trees, which are used for the production of varnishes or perfumes, for example.

For 100 resin trees, the company offered to pay between $250 to $330 in compensation, a sum the families would make from tapping the tree in two to three months, they said.

But reports and complaints the residents filed regarding Dong Nai’s illicit activities went unanswered — most likely due to the involvement of a cousin of prime minister and strongman Hun Sen, who has ruled Cambodia for almost 30 years. Senior government officials, including the minister of land management, have visited the community to convince residents of the company’s good intentions.

Residents protesting the illicit timber trade in Cambodia are threatened by police and military police paid to guard the concessions, and have even shot live rounds. May 16 marks the one-year anniversary of the killing of a 14-year-old girl protesting a rubber concession by officials.

Despite Deutsche Bank’s and the IFC’s claim that they are respecting human rights, environmental and anti-corruption standards, Global Witness says that they didn’t properly research the companies before investing millions of dollars in HAGL and VRG.

“The suffering that [VRG and HAGL] have inflicted on local people, however, gives claims that they contribute to the two countries’ development a distinctly hollow ring. It also begs the question: What sort of institutions could countenance financing companies such as these?” the report concludes.

And while hundreds of thousands of Cambodians see their existence threatened — or already destroyed — a culture of impunity surrounds those responsible.

“We very much hope — for the sake of the communities whose livelihoods, forests, burial grounds and spirit forests have been destroyed — that those responsible are brought to justice,” Cohen said.

Neither government holds a positive track record in pursuing powerful and well-connected perpetrators. But international pressure has helped in some recent cases, such as the killing of journalist Heng Serei Odom, who worked to uncover similar ties between officials, rubber plantations and illegal logging. Earlier this month prosecutors announced that the case be reinvestigated.

Justice would offer some solace, Chanthy, the young mother, said.

“I am so happy that the court decided to reinvestigate the killing of my husband, and I hope that all perpetrators will be prosecuted and punished,” Chanthy said.

Vietnam firms involved in ‘illegal land grabs

Vietnam firms involved in ‘illegal land grabs’

By Jonathan Head South East Asia correspondent, BBC News

Click on the link to get more news and video from original source:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-22509425

13 May 2013 Last updated at 08:38 ET

NGOs have repeatedly highlighted the issue of land grabs

An environmental group has accused two Vietnamese rubber firms of involvement in massive land grabs in Cambodia and Laos.

In its report, Global Witness said HAGL and Vietnam Rubber Group had been allocated over 280,000 hectares for rubber plantations in the countries.

Residents had been evicted and offered inadequate or no compensation, it said.

It described the companies’ operations as leaving “a trail of environmental and social devastation”.

Both companies say their operations comply with local laws.

Aggressive expansion

The problem of land grabs has been raised for several years by donors and NGOs in both countries.

Private land ownership was destroyed by the decades of war and revolution during and after the Vietnam War, so most is now considered state-owned. The Cambodian and Lao governments have been encouraging commercial exploitation of land to boost economic growth.

Global Witness says the alleged land seizures in Laos and Cambodia reflect a global crisis of uncontrolled land exploitation, driven by rising prices for commodities.

HAGL and the Vietnam Rubber Group have denied any involvement in land-grabbing, illegal logging or corrupt activities. Each said in separate statements to the BBC that they believed their investments in rubber and sugar plantations are fully compliant with local laws.

HAGL is a striking Vietnamese business success story. It began as a small furniture factory in the highland town of Pleiku in 1990, not far from the Cambodian border. It then expanded, first into timber and later into hotels and property, and now rubber and sugar plantations.

Its founder and president, Doan Nguyen Duc, is now one of Vietnam’s wealthiest men.

The Vietnam Rubber Group is an umbrella organisation for 22 state-owned enterprises.

Both have led an aggressive expansion of Vietnam’s rubber production over the past decade, making it the world’s fourth largest exporter after Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia.

But available land is now hard to find in Vietnam. Cambodia and Laos have some of the last unexploited tracts of suitable land left in South East Asia.

Traditionally, rubber in South East Asia has been cultivated by smallholders, but these two Vietnamese companies mark a shift towards large-scale plantations operated by big corporations.

In its response to the Global Witness report, HAGL said it provided tens of thousands of jobs for local people.

But Global Witness has interviewed Cambodians and Laos who say they were driven off land they were cultivating, and saw their fields bulldozed and then planted with rubber trees for businesses owned or part-owned by the two Vietnamese companies.

Loopholes

It has also accused Deutsche Bank and the IFC, the financial arm of the World Bank, of investing in both companies, and of failing to perform due diligence on their operations in Cambodia and Laos.

Its says five of Cambodia’s richest tycoons are the main beneficiaries of the millions of hectares of government land concessions.

Vietnam is the world’s fourth-largest exporter of rubber, but available land is scarce

Deutsche Bank says it is not directly financing either company. It says it holds shares in HAGL in a fund on behalf of other investors and provides “clerical trustee services to HAGL as it does to thousands of listed companies globally”.

The IFC said in a statement that it holds no stakes in Vietnam Rubber Group. It does have an investment in a fund in Vietnam, which holds a stake in HAGL.

There is now a well-documented pattern of land disputes in both rural and urban Cambodia, where poorer residents are evicted from land they may have lived on for many years to make way for development projects. These projects are usually run by wealthy entrepreneurs connected to the ruling party.

The Cambodian security forces have repeatedly been accused of violently suppressing protests against the evictions, even when the evictions appear to be illegal.

The Cambodian courts have imposed prison sentences on protesters, but there have been no convictions of those accused of seizing land.

Last year, Prime Minister Hun Sen announced a moratorium on land concessions for business, but left a loophole which has allowed hundreds of thousands more hectares to be approved for development.

He also announced a project to process land titles for poorer Cambodians, but this has been widely condemned by local human rights groups as ineffective.

The growing concern over the harmful effects of land concessions for rubber in South East Asia echoes earlier criticism of oil palm plantations, which now cover huge areas of what used to be tropical forest in Malaysia and Indonesia.

Update 14 May 2013: This story has been amended to incorporate a response from the Vietnam Rubber Group.

Activists fear pollution from Laos power plant

Activists fear pollution from Laos power plant

Click on the link to get more news and video from original source: http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/346241/activists-fear-pollution-from-laos-power-plant

• Published: 21 Apr 2013 at 00.00
• Newspaper section: News

Environmental advocates fear pollution from the Hongsa coal power plant in Laos’ Xayaburi province will affect residents in the adjacent province of Nan in Thailand.

The power plant is located 57km from Song Khwer district and 110km from Muang district in Nan, making the residents vulnerable to health problems from pollution fallout, they say.

Narongrit Siriwongworapat, a member of the Watershed Conservation Network based in Song Khwer district, said Nan residents fear they will suffer health problems when the plant comes online in two years.

The Hongsa plant is being constructed by Hongsa Power Company Ltd (HPC) formed by the Lao government and private shareholders, mostly Thais, in 2009. It is a lignite-fired plant which will send most of its electricity to Thailand from 2015.

It will become Laos’ largest coal-fired plant, producing 1,878 megawatts, of which 1,500 megawatts will be exported to Thailand.

“Nan province is facing a severe level of air pollution at the moment. We’re suffering haze problems caused by forest fires,” Mr Narongrit said.

“But if the province has to encounter pollution from the Hongsa coal power plant, of course the air will become a lot worse.”

He said Thailand has already learned a lesson from Lampang’s Mae Moh coal power plant which discharged air pollutants, causing many health problems for people living near the plant. He said he did not want to see a recurrence of the problem.

Renu Vejaratpimol, a lecturer at Silpakorn University’s Faculty of Sciences, who is closely monitoring the construction of the Hongsa plant, said when it comes online, it will definitely create air pollution as lignite is a poor quality coal.

“Even though it is still unclear how much greenhouse gas and particles will be emitted from the plant, we should take a lesson from Mae Moh power plant,” Ms Renu said.

She said Mae Moh discharged 5.08 grams of nitrogen dioxide per kilowatt/hour, 5.27 grams of sulfur dioxide and 0.62 grams of particles. In addition, the ash from the coal contained heavy metals which cause cancer.

“It is difficult to prevent trans-boundary pollution as Nan province has already lost trees which act as a buffer zone. I think the best way to prevent the problem is to plant more trees to help absorb pollutants,” she said.

Sathaporn Somsak, an advisor to the Nan-based Natural Resources and Environment Protection Network, said residents of Song Khwer district also feared an impact from a high-voltage cable line from the Mae Moh plant in Lampang to the Hongsa plant which will run through the district’s forest areas.

Banpu Public Company Ltd, a major shareholder in the Hongsa plant, has not commented on the claims.

About the author

Writer: Apinya Wipatayotin

Position: Reporter