[WSMDiscuss] Sign statement against UPM world largest pulp factory and eucalyptus plantations in Uruguay

[Kai Vaara]

Dear All

Find here a statement against a transnational corporation UPM's investment
to a pulp factory and eucalyptus plantations in Uruguay:

https://www.maanystavat.fi/sites/default/files/attachments/upm-uruguay_mega_investment_and_responsibility_of_finland.pdf

The statement has now 37 organisations, including also Friends of the Earth
International, Global Forest Coalition, World Rainforest Movement, Rivers
without Boundaries Coalition, BankTrack, etc. who have signed.

*We request your organisations to join to sign by 10 February 2021 this
statement against the pulp production and monoculture plantations in
Uruguay by the UPM,* a big transnational forestry corporation, which
originates from Finland and has agreed on this pulp project with the
government of Uruguay as their joint investment in order to launch world's
biggest pulp factory in Uruguay.


*You can send your signatures to the email NewWindAssociation1 at gmail.com
<NewWindAssociation1 at gmail.com>by 10 February.*


The investment will have problematic impact on enormous amounts of water
which the factory uses, on pampas ecosystem and on its biodiversity by
expanding eucalyptus plantations which feed the factory and also suck the
water from the ground.

People's rights are affected by changes in the ecosystem, in water
circulation and quality, by massive transports, infrastructure costs and by
changes in how labor and education are to be governed in Uruguay according
to the requirements of the UPM business interests.

This is a dangerous model of investment for the states and corporations and
may spread if it does not get controlled in respect to its human rights and
environmental impacts.

Not only Uruguay but also Finland as a home state of the UPM have neglected
their UN obligations on human rights and biodiversity in respect to this
UPM project.

As home state of the UPM Finland has extraterritorial obligations under the
UN International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR,
articles 1.2, 2.1, 4, 6, 7,8,11,12, 13, 15 and 25), under UN Convention on
Biological Diversity (CBD articles 3, 4, 7, 8, 10, 11,14, 20.2 and 22.1)
and under other UN treaties to act to ensure that the action abroad by
corporations active under Finland's jurisdiction, like the UPM, will not
violate human rights or impair their implementation or degrade biodiversity
in other countries.


So we request thus your organisations to join to sign by 10th of February
this statement to the Governments of Finland and Uruguay, to the UPM, to
the CESCR and to the UN Human Rights Special Rapporteurs on rights to
water, food, health, safe and clean environment, and to possible other UN
organs like to the CBD as this investment leads to further loss and
degradation of pampas biodiversity.


Ville-Veikko Hirvelä & Kai Vaara
New Wind Association
Finland
NewWindAssociation1 at gmail.com
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