September 21, 2014 may have hit mainstream media as the People’s Climate March (aptly dubbed a “climate parade” by many), but it was also the International Day of Action against Monoculture Tree Plantations.
“Plantations are not forests” Protest at the World Forestry Congress, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2009 Photo: Petermann/GJEP-GFC
That’s a big name, but that’s fitting, because it’s a big problem — a problem that stands to enflame climate change, leading to social and ecological disaster. World Rainforest Movement, La Via Campesina and other proponents of real, sustainable climate solutions write:
The UN and other international agencies will launch the “Climate Smart Agriculture” initiated at the summit. This initiative is a new smokescreen being used to greenwash the worst practices of industrial agriculture: chemical fertilizers, industrial meat production, and genetically modified crops, such as tree plantations and other monocultures, which are being disguised as ‘climate smart’. Proponents of this dangerous false solution include the World Bank; they are seeking to turn the carbon in farmers’ fields into carbon credits, which would lead to land-grabbing and undermine real climate solutions.
Real the full article, GE Trees + Climate Change = Social and Ecological Disaster, on the Climate Connections blog.