Plantations are not Forests: Civil Society Demonstration Against World Forestry Congress in Durban

Thousands demonstrated outside the World Forestry Congress in Durban on 10th September.  The protest, organised by the Civil Society Alternative Programme in Durban, denounced the false definition of industrial tree plantations as forests by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the organisers of the World Forestry Congress.  The march was joined by environmental justice campaigners from South Africa and from many different countries and by high school students from South Durban, an area badly affected by industrial pollution, including from a pulp mill.

At the end of the march, a petition with more than 115,000 international signatures was handed over to FAO by Rainforest Rescue/Salva la Selva, calling on the UN organisation to stop calling industrial tree plantations forests.

Biofuelwatch were able to participate in the Civil Society Alternative Programme and in the march.