Pulptree Plantations Are Not Sustainable Forests:
Facts About Eucalyptus Estates
That Mayor Yamashiro and DLNR Officials Don't Tell You

Ira Rohter Department of Political Science

University of Hawaii — Manoa

10/13/97

Pulp plantations being proposed for the Big Island are a long way from being primeval forests, full of a variety of different kinds of trees of mixed ages, rich with vegetation and wild life. Tourists who come to Hawaii for its natural tropical beauty will see instead industrial enclaves of mile after mile of one type of tree, planted in straight, easily harvested rows, kept clear of undergrowth. Fast growing eucalyptus are repeatedly aerial sprayed with poisons, and clear-cut every five to seven years, with the field debris burned. Left behind is barren land susceptible to soil erosion and runoff. Big chipping machines are brought to the harvested fields and the trees are chopped up on site, 24 hours a day. These chippers can be heard from 5-10 miles away. Huge trucks will run on county roads, heading to the shipping dock (or in a few years a foul-smelling pulping plant) at Kaiwahe Harbor.

Pulptree plantations have noting to do with sustainable forestry, despite a recent propaganda smokescreen by State officials. [See Wilson, DLNR "Facts..."] The leasing of thousands of acres to Oji Paper Co. will NOT improve the environment or create many jobs, NOT result in the building of lumber mills, or processing plants and retail outlets and craft markets and family farms and economically independent and empowered citizens. Contrariwise, wherever these industrial plantations have been established — in Asia, the United States, Canada, Europe, South America, Australia, and Africa — they have created major environmental, health, economic, and social problems. The pulptree deal with Oji Paper Co. being bulldozed through by Mayor Yamashiro primarily benefit large multinational corporations and a few locally-connected businessmen and politicians, while creating few low paying jobs for local residents and seriously damaging the `âina.

1. Eucalyptus Pulp Plantations Cause Serious Environmental Problems

A. Harmful impacts on biodiversity

The tens of thousands of acres of monocrops proposed for Hamakua and Kohala will significantly damage existing ecological systems. Tree plantations are industrial sites intensely managed to produce as much commercial value as possible. Fertilizers and herbicides are used in high amounts, undergrowth is cleared, diseased trees treated by chemical means, animals that damage trees eliminated. The trees themselves are clear-cut logged, with the trimmings and debris burned, in a 5-7 year cycle. Profound changes occur in the region's flora and fauna.

Eucalyptus trees produce a chemical in their leaves and bark that inhibits the growth of other plants beneath them. This can be observed in a grove of eucalyptus trees growing near Kalopa park on Hawaii Island that is barren of anything except leaves. The eucalyptus leave mat has destroyed the natural habitat of many Hawaiian plants, trees, and ferns and renders the area useless for activities such as Hawaiian traditional gathering practices and bird and pig hunting. Man-made chemicals complete the job.

"For most local animals, a plantation is a desert, lacking food, shelter and opportunities for reproduction." (Carrere & Lohmann, 73)

Pulptree plantations seldom contain mature stands of trees, let alone diseased or dying ones, that host microhabitates for fungi and insects, which in turn serve as food for other animals. Chemical treatments poison microlife as well. Harvesting every 6 or so years destroys habitats that manage to survive.

As one scientific review summarizes: "herbicides can alter soil ecosystems by having a direct effect on various components of the soil microflora, such as plant pathogens, antagonists, or mycorrhizae. These effects can result in increased or decreased incidence of plant disease, for example through promotion or suppression of the activities of beneficial microorganisms. Non-specialized pathogens can increase their inoculum potential on weeds and subsequently affect crops. As still another effect, herbicides can predispose pathogens to fungicides or act as synergists.

Herbicide-induced weakening of the crop plant can pre-dispose the plant to infection by pathogens. The herbicide, even at sublethal doses, blocks the synthesis of phenolics that are involved in resistance of plants to diseases. Young apple trees have been adversely affected by accidental exposure to glyphosate. Other crops negatively affected include bean, soybean, asparagus, flax, tomato.

Plantations adversely affect flora and wildlife beyond their boarders too. Carrere & Lohmann cite instances around the world where:

B. Disturbing water systems

Mats of leaves covering the ground also act as a waterproof barrier that prevents significant amounts of rainwater from draining into the soil. This changes runoff patterns and stream activity, and lowers groundwater.

Fast-growing trees such as eucalyptus draw huge amounts of water from the ground. Commercial pulp plantations in many areas in the world have lowered water table, causing wells to run dry and the level of streams and rivers to be greatly reduced. Carrere & Lohmann report that "As a general rule, where [eucalyptus] trees replace non-forested land uses, the `overwhelming evidence from catchment research is that following reforestation, groundwater levels are lowered and stream yields are reduced, both effects being more pronounced during the dry season or growing season.'" (p.65)

Hamakua residents worry too that in a drought, available water could be so depleted that tinder-dry trees could result in forest fires — a first for the area.

C. Ruining the soil - erosion & nutrient depletion

Clear-cut harvesting occurs every 5-7 years. Soil is compacting by the heavy machinery used for harvesting, and soil erosion increases because of the roads and exposed soil produced by the removal of the trees. This runoff dumps sediment into streams and offshore waters, threatening reefs, fisheries and water recreational activities.

Fast-growing eucalyptus trees rapidly drain nutrient from the land. Plantations established on virgin rainforest land usually produce 6 to 9 crop rotations before the soil is exhausted. Then the site needs to be either abandoned or heavily (and expensively) chemically fertilized. On already depleted soils such as old sugar cane lands, the number of crop rotations before the soil is completely exhausted can be as few as two or three cycles. Extremely poor lands may last only a single rotation.

This brings up the possibility that these lands will be used for 7 to 20 years and then abandoned for agricultural purposes, because the soil's fertility is exhausted and uneconomical to farm. What then?

Shopping malls and housing tracts? Sounds far fetched? Hamakua Timber's parent organization is Prudential Insurance Co., which has already successfully developed ex-sugar cane land for commercial purposes on Oahu's North Shore (the Kuilima Resort— Turtle Bay project). Giant New Oji Paper Co., Japan's largest paper supplier, is part of the Mitsui keiretus (industrial group), with strong business connections to the Dai-Ichi and Mitsubishi trading companies. Land development partners for Oji Paper Co. are in the family, so to speak.

D. Negative impacts of clearcutting, burning, and aerial spraying on eco-tourism

Industrial efficiency requires that all the trees in big sectors be harvested at the same time. This leaves the community with a visually unappealing clear-cut look. Efforts to promote eco-tourism on Big Island seem contradicted by asked tourists to hike through clear-cut patches, breath smoke from timber burns, and be aerial sprayed by toxic agricultural chemicals.

E. In sum: many environmental threats

Worldwide, pulp plantations have caused many environmental problems. There is a distinct possibility that pulp plantations on the Big Island could, in 10-20 years, further damage the fertility of the soil, and cause massive erosion, contamination of nearshore ocean waters by sediment and agricultural chemicals, and reductions in the water table. Other threats include the introduction of a noxious eucalyptus "weed" problem, massive deposits of insecticides, herbicides, pesticides and fungicides plus liberation of some currently inactive ones that are dormant in the soil, and forest fires in an area that has never had problems with them before.

2. Plantations Pose Serious Public Health Risks

The agricultural practices used by eucalyptus monoculture plantations pose serious health threats to people living in nearby communities, who can be harmed by spraying, burning, runoff, and fumes.

Standard industry practice include at least a yearly aerial spraying of pulptrees. Eucalyptus are sprayed up to nine times in the first two years of each crop rotation (approximately every 5-7 years), using Roundup(t) and Fusilade(t). They are also burned twice, during land-clearing during planting and after harvest. Because they are single-age and single-species crops, concentrated in a relatively small area, monocrops are very susceptible to disease and pest infestations. Consequently plantations often spray their trees to ward off mass killoff.

Burdening Hamakua's already sickly residents with more chemicals. Some of the resistance to tree farming on Hawaii Island can be traced to public ire over Prudential Timber Co's repeated spraying of herbicide from planes and burning vegetation, to clear former sugar land rented from Bishop Estate. Reports one resident in her testimony before a House Committee holding hearings on the issue:

Over 1,500 signatures were collected by Friends of Hamakua (FOH) in March and April pleading with Prudential Insurance / Hamakua Timber to stop their spraying and burning. Hamakua residents gravely worry that Oji Paper Co. will dump even more dangerous toxic insecticides, fungicides, and pesticides into their community if granted leases to more nearby State and county lands.

A. Chemical Drift

That Hamakua residents have been constantly complaining about being sprayed from the Prudential Timber's initial planting operations is hardly surprising. Studies show that chemicals always "drift" during application. They are lightweight aerosol fog-like droplets that are affected by even light winds. Independent tests have found aerial spraying to drift as far as 9,000 ft. from the target field. Ground spray can drift up to 3,000 ft. Studies have found that a minimum of 20% to as much as 81% of aerial spraying drifts beyond the site. Up to 40% of ground spray can drift off-site in a strong wind. [Caroline Cox, "Pesticide Drift," Journal of Pesticide Reform, Sp. 1995, Vol 15, No. 1.; Norma Gier, "Why Pesticide Spraying Means Drift," Journal of Pesticide Reform, Winter, 1988, Vol 7, No. 4.]

B. Chemicals Used are Not Safe

Many questions about the long-term safety of Roundup and Fusilade remain unanswered. Testing of the "active ingredients" has been done on the laboratory equivalent of a healthy mature human for only a short test period. Possible effects on people with higher sensitivities and susceptibilities to these chemicals — such as babies, young children, pregnant mothers, older persons, or persons with impaired immune systems or disease — have not been done. (Hamakua's residents, many of whom have long exposures to toxic chemicals used on sugar, already display abnormally high rates of cancer and respiratory diseases — see below.) Nor have tests been conducted over longer periods of time such as a year, several years, or twenty. Interactions between different combinations of pesticides, insecticides, and other toxins found in modern life, remain largely unexamined.

All of these agricultural chemicals contain "inert" ingredients that some scientists believe are more dangerous than the active ingredients. (See below.)

The long-term effects of these chemicals are entirely unknown. The people of Hamakua and Hawaii Island are asserting they do not want to be part of another experiment, like DDT. Toxic spray and burning residue can get into home catchment systems, watershed stream waters, and the ocean.

C. Science On Glyphosates

Fusilade DX is a phenoxy herbicide, the same class of herbicide contained in infamous Agent Orange. Roundup is a broad spectrum herbicide used to control weeds manufactured by Monsanto Agricultural Company. Chemically it is a glyphosate, N-(phosphonomethyl) glycine that is toxic to grasses, sedges, and annual and perennial broadleaf plants. A recent review of the scientific literature reports that:

Eye and skin irritation has been reported by workers mixing, loading, and applying glyphosate. (2) These included eye or skin irritation, nausea, dizziness, headaches, diarrhea, blurred vision, fever, and weakness. (9) In Great Britain, a study compared the effects of breathing dust from a flax milling operation that used flax treated with Roundup found treated flax dust caused a decrease in lung function and an increase in throat irritation, coughing, and breathlessness. (12)

CARCINOGENICITY: Carcinogenicity tests (tests of the ability to cause cancer) of glyphosate have led the EPA to conclude that "the oncogenic potential of glyphosate is not fully understood at this time." (2) Concerns about glyphosate's potential carcinogenicity arise because glyphosate is contaminated with N-nitrosoglyphosate at levels of 0.1 ppm or less. (2) N-nitrosoglyphosate (NNG) is a member of the nitrosamine or N-nitroso chemical family, approximately three quarters of which are carcinogens. (13,14) NNG has been found in forest foliage and litter samples, as well as in the viscera of deermice, following aerial application of Roundup. (17)

ENVIRONMENTAL FATE. Most degradation of glyphosate is caused by microbial action; the half-life (the time required for a chemical to be reduced to half of its original amount) ranged from 35 to 63 days. (2) Persistence in soils is also variable. Glyphosate was detected in Ohio farming soils 152 days after application of Roundup. (26) Glyphosate was detected in run-off water 122 days after application of Roundup in the Ohio study mentioned above (26) and was detected in stream sediments 574 days after application in a British Columbia study. (27)

EFFECTS ON NONTARGET ORGANISMS. Glyphosate, because of its broad-spectrum herbicidal activity, has the potential for significant impacts on nontarget organisms; it can cause both direct mortality of susceptible plants and indirect effects on animals, through destruction of food or shelter. One striking example of the potential for glyphosate to affect nontarget organisms is the list of 76 endangered species that the EPA believes may be jeopardized by the use of glyphosate. The list includes 74 species of plants, one toad, and one beetle. (2) A three year study of songbird abundance following glyphosate treatment of clearcuts in Maine forests showed that abundances of the total number of birds and the abundances of three common species of birds decreased in comparison to untreated control areas. The decrease in bird abundance was correlated with decrease in the diversity of the habitat. (30) Changes in bird abundance and behavior were also noted in an Oregon study of Roundup treated clearcuts. (31) Similar results have been found in Maine and Australia. (35)

Though Roundup is marketed as an "environmentally friendly" herbicide chemical, some of its known inert ingredients have far greater toxicity than the active ingredient (glyphosate). Most glyphosate products use surfactants to penetrate plant cells. These substances can be toxic, and no EPA tests have been carried out on these combinations.

Two of the known "inert ingredient" in Roundup, isopropylamine salts and polyethoxylated tallowamines (POEAs), cause a range of health problems including nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, wheezing, burns, excess fluids in the lungs and eye, skin and gastrointestinal irritation. These salts can be "extremely destructive to tissues of the mucous membranes and upper respiratory tracts. Inhalation can cause fatal spasms and chemical pneumonia." [FOH Roundup Fact Sheet].

Several Japanese farmers committed suicide by drinking Roundup, according to a report in Lance, a British medical publication. The interesting part was that they died from the "inert ingredient" known as POEA.

Glyphosate products were the third leading cause of both acute pesticide poisoning and skin and eye illnesses among California farm workers between 1984 and 1990, according to a 1993 report published by the School of Public Health at UC-Berkeley. Another of their studies found glyphosate products to be the most commonly reported cause of pesticide illness among landscape workers.

Glyphosates seem to be the herbicide of choice for weed control. Maine foresters use Accord, another brandname. Roundup is extensively used in the Ozark National Forest, although they have been using more of one brand with triclopyr in it in recent years. In Florida the chemical of choice is Velpar; they also use millions of gallons of Roundup (glyphosate), and 2-4 D.

D. Hamakua residents already show high disease rates attributable to past chemical abuses.

Sugar cane was aerial sprayed with herbicides twice before harvest. FOH reports that:

Hamakua residents also have high rates of cancer and respiratory diseases, says FOH.

"breast cancer and pesticide study." Corroborating evidence that Hamakua residents' health has already been jeopardized from sugar plantation days comes from a just released study that attributes Hawaii's abnormally high rising breast cancer rates to past intensive pesticide use. The study printed in Environmental Health Perspectives (Vol 105, Suppl 3, April 1997) points out that an emerging body of evidence finds that certain chemicals including pesticides play a role in causing breast cancer by interfering with the body's natural hormone balance. Over the past 40 years the use of endocrine disrupting pesticides, including DBCP, DDT, DDE, kepone, heptachlor, chlordane, dieldrin, mirex, lindane and toxaphene, was widespread in Hawaii.

Exacerbating the hazards of direct exposure to these pesticides is Hawaii's volcanic soils and heavy rainfall, which make groundwater particularly vulnerable to contamination. Because groundwater provides a large portion of Hawaii's population with drinking water, residents drawing on contaminated sources have experienced unusually high exposures to probable endocrine disrupters.

E. Brush Burning Produces Disease-Causing Particulates

Pulp plantations regularly burn many acres of fields during preparation for planting, and 5-7 years later, during harvesting. Particulates and toxic chemicals bound up in this thick smoke can drift for miles, exposing nearby residents to a serious threat to their health.

The link between air pollution and ill-health is soundly documented. Tiny particles, much smaller than ordinary dust, are inhaled into the deepest recesses of the lung and lodge there for a long time. The most damaging particles are the by-products of combustion. The effects on people of high levels of particulates in the air have been measured in many cities in the U.S. and in other countries. "Scientists have obtained remarkably consistent, significant results no matter where they've looked." The findings: increased respiratory illnesses, and more deaths from lung cancers and cardiopulmonary diseases. ("Cleaning the Air," 97).

The threat is even graver for residents downwind of Hamakua pulptree plantations, who will receive an extra dose of air-borne toxic chemicals from burning. Eucalyptus tree root systems go 15-20 or more feet into the ground, and can draw toxic chemicals suspended below the surface (from sugar cane days) up into the trunk, bark, leaves, and branches. During harvesting, side branches are chopped off. Tons of this "slash" — side limbs, leaves, and debris — are burned in the fields. If deep-lying toxic chemicals from the cane days are absorbed into the trees, slash burning will liberate these poisons to spread downwind through nearby communities.

One might wonder how much toxic chemicals and particulate would be released if a widespread forest fire were to occur on these heavily poisoned plantations. Forest fire are not uncommon in heavily forested, dry areas. In Oregon, during forest fire season, communities as far away as 50 to 100 miles from fires are routinely impacted.

F. Pulp Mills and Toxic Effluents

A substantial amount of additional toxins and environmental pollutants would be released if Oji Paper Co. decides to reduce its shipping costs and set up a pulpmill. The modern pulp and paper industry has "historically been one of the most contaminating industries, emitting some of the most toxic effluents that any industry can produce." [Carrere & Lohmann, 81]

Pulp mills are notorious for releasing huge amounts of smelly hydrogen sulfide (acid rain); aluminum salts used in kraft pulping are highly toxic to certain fish; and accidental spills - which occur frequently - can have disastrous effects on downstream aquatic life. Mechanical and chemi-thermal pulping release organic sulphur compounds which, together with resin acids and other wood wastes, combine to form a highly toxic effluent that is very difficult to degrade, and dangerous to fish.

Pulp mills also produce large amounts of dioxins (organochlorine compounds) - among the most potent toxins known, that cause cancer, reproduction affecting abnormalities, and immunity system malfunctioning [Carrere & Lohmann, pp.80-82].

Admittedly new pulp mills using improved pollution-control equipment can produce less contamination then old mills. But such equipment is quite expense to build and use, adding an extra $20/ton of cost in a highly competitive market. Clean running also requires constant monitoring, and Big Island residents already know that the Department of Health's pollution monitoring and enforcement record is poor.

Regular pulp bleaching, resulting in by-products of chlorine and dixon, is causing a worldwide controversy. Oxygen-bleaching, adopted in Sweden and other European nations, is also expensive, and adds another $20/ton cost. Consumer awareness in the United States and Japan is not as high as in Northern Europe, and so pulp exports to them will continue to be bleached with 100% chlorine (said JATAN as of 1993).

Medium density fiberboard (MDF) mills release formaldehyde and other toxic compounds. Plywood mills generate a brew of toxins from adhesives and other chemicals used in manufacturing, especially when they are not operated properly.

So residents and workers will be exposed to a deadly combination of toxins released during the growth and harvesting of plantation trees, and from mills during the manufacture of pulp or fiberboard.

G. Why a pulp mill is likely to built

Oji Paper Company grows eucalyptus trees to manufacture paper products. After 5-7 years, trees are cut down, chipped, converted into bulk pulp, and finally turned into newsprint, cardboard, and other types of paper. Presently Oji's spokesmen say they intend only to chip and ship. But the economics of transportation are simple: shipping concentrated pulp to Japan, instead of bulky woodchips, saves between 50% to 65% of shipping costs ($55 vs $150 for equivalent tons of softwood (U.S. dollars) [Carrere & Lohmann, p.55]

Given strong international competition and price fluctuations, it is easy to imagine in a few years the timber companies' pleading that they need to cut costs to survive economically. Either they shut down, or the County and State grant them permits and financial aid to build a pulp mill. A familiar ploy — recall how Hamakua Sugar received sizable State subsidies and exemptions from environmental laws for years based on the same arguments.

DLNR officials say they "have no plans to build a pulp mill factory in Hawaii." Which might be true, for the present. Prudential Insurance /Hamakua Timber managers have asserted that it is "highly unlikely" that a paper pulp mill would be built locally, since they "typically" require one million acres of trees for feedstock. Technically the statement is accurate, but misleading. Combined pulp mills and paper-making plants are huge. But small pulping-only plants can subsist on 40,000 acres. According to an article in the Mississippi Business Times, Oji Paper Co. is part of a Japanese consortium that is planning to build such a small plant in Mississippi. [Russell, 1997]

Oji Paper Co. is looking to lease more than twice this much land — 100,000 acres — on the Big Island alone. In the absence of public disclosure, rumors abound about specifics. Friends of Hamakua report that Oji has approached major private land owners Chalon International of Hawaii, Parker Ranch, and Hawaiian Home Lands, to lease additional property. Another report mentions that 40,000 acres of Hawaiian Homes Lands leased by Parker Ranch and Kahua Ranch, as well as other cattle land and the old cane lands on the Big Island, are being offered for lease to Oji Paper company and / or Prudential Investments / Hamakua Timber. Mike Wilson, head of the state's Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR), has revealed he is planning over the next two years to take 25,000 more acres of State land on the Big Island rented out to cattle ranchers, and put it into forestry — though whether this for pulpwood or high-value trees remains unclear. Councilman Yagong tells us that Oji Paper is negotiating with DLNR for 6,200 acres and Kamehameha Schools/ Bishop Estate for another 16,000 acres. The total land slated for forestry represents 25 square miles, he said.

3. Economics

A. Pulpwood plantations create Few Jobs

Pulptree plantations represent the worst kind of Third-World type of economy development, producing little wealth for the host nation. Only a few workers are needed to grow and chip the trees. Once the chips are shipped out of state, no further jobs or income for local residents is created. A truly sustainable, environmentally responsible, high-value tropical hardwood industry would create thousands of secondary and tierary jobs.

Pulptree plantation operations, however, are heavily mechanized and create few jobs growing and harvesting trees, compared to the acreage they occupy. Pulp and fiberboard mills are also heavily mechanized. For example, Hamakua Sugar employed 1,000 people on their 24,000 acres at the height of their operation. Prudential Insurance's current operation on 16,000 workable acres employs only four staff persons, with another 25 temporarily employed by contractors hired to do field preparation and planting. The initial clearing and planting is taking only 2-3 years, with minimum employment after that until harvesting. Large machines then are used to cut and stack the trees.

When Mayor Yamashiro first announced his private agreement with Oji Paper Co., he claimed 40-60 jobs would be created on 25,000 acres. (Hawaii Tribune-Herald, 3/9/97) Elsewhere a figure of 120 jobs has been cited.

Growing, harvesting, and milling building materials-quality trees would produce 20 times as many jobs in Hamakua as growing pulptrees chipped for export only. Adding even more value to high-quality forestry, such as furniture making, yields 40 times as many jobs per dollar of investment, founds one Alabama study. (See below 3.A.3) So instead of the 60 or 120 woodchip-related jobs on 25,000 acres projected by Oji Paper, we could see between 2,400 - 4,800 jobs created in Hamakua if a high-value hard woods industry would be established.

If agroforestry, which mixes tree growing and farming, is established, state statistics suggest that about 4,400 jobs would be created on 25,000 acres. Processing food, not just selling it wholesale at the farm gate, would easily double that number of jobs.

In sum, few permanent employees are required to work on industrial style eucalyptus plantations. Most of the "jobs" created are for seasonal and contract workers, who receive low wages and few benefits. This seems hardly the preferred economic future for the Big Island.

Similar conclusions about the negative consequences of pulptree projects are being reached elsewhere. The Southeastern U.S. is the largest pulp producer in the world, and a region-wide coalition of grassroots activists calling themselves The Dogwood Alliance has formed to fight the chip mill invasion in the Southeast. In a lengthy summary titled "Chipping Forests and Jobs: A report on the Economic and Environmental Impacts of Chip Mills," Danna Smith concludes:

Smith notes that in the Southeast

Job-creation statistics for the Southeast reveal that:

B. Pulptrees lowest-value use of prime ag land

Hawaii Island Mayor Stephen Yamashiro has cut a private deal with his old business associates Oji Paper Co. of Japan (world's third largest paper company) to lease 4,423 acres of county-owned formerly cane land along the Hamakua Coast for a eucalyptus pulptree plantation. Compliant State officials are planning to rent another 5,136 acres of State-owned lands to Oji and its partner, Marubeni Corp., which is Japan's largest wood product trading company.

Mayor Yamashiro's deal renting prime Hamakua agriculture land to Oji Paper Co. for 55-years is one of the lowest and poorest use of the land in terms of overall economic benefits for Big Island residents.

Although Yamashiro touts that the Oji Paper will bring $40-$45 million into the area's economy, this figure is deceptive. In fact, Oji Paper's grand figure is an estimate for a period of 24 years based on utilizing 25,000 acres of land. When you look closely, as Councilman Yagong as done, Oji's pulptrees will bring in only $850 per acre each year, for the 4,423 acres of County land under discussion. In contrast, coffee grosses $9,000 per year per acres, and most other crops commonly grown on the Big Island yield far more than Oji promises. (See below)

Former Council member Jim Rath also believes taxpayers are getting a terrible deal. He points out that the County received the land in return for $18.3 million owed in back taxes, which translates into $4,690 per acre. Yet Yamashiro's deal with Oji Paper Co. Ltd / Marubeni Corp. has them paying only $177,000 lease rent per year for the entire 4,423 acres, or $40 per acre for each acre of land that is "usable" for tree farming. That's a return of only 1 percent of the County's investment. But that's only after the first 4 years; initially Oji / Marubeni Corp. have only to pay $10 per acre (for a total of $44,000). That's only a 1/4 of one percent return.

Mayor Yamashiro says the County will also earn $80,000 a year in property taxes and a royalty of 50 cents per cubic meter of wood in about 30 years or so. Given inflation, that 50 cents is going to be worth very little in 20, 30, 40 years from now.

C. Other uses of land would produce much higher revenues

Hamakua residents have been pushing for 2 years to turn former Hamakua Sugar land into diversified agriculture, family farms, and high-priced hardwood forests that could supply profitable building, furniture, and crafts materials, and value-adding agriculture and tree products processing facilities. (Armstrong, 9/26/97.)

144 members of the Hamakua - North Hilo Ag Co-op, with nearly half-a-million dollars of grant funds to start-up diversified agriculture in the bank, are still waiting for land to farm. Councilman Dominic Yagong, the newly elected representative for Hamakua, tells us that Mayor Yamashiro has repeatedly refused to lease them the lands be wants to rent cheaply to Oji Paper Co. [Yagong letter]

Area farmers would be please to get the same good lease deal as Mayor Yamashiro is granting to Oji Paper — the first 4 years at $10 acre. The farmers, however, recognize this incentive is indeed a sweet deal, and are willing to reassess the lease and pay "fair" market value after the initial four-year start-up stage. Under Oji's use, pulptrees are a low value crop. Diversified agriculture, fruit trees, coffee, and high-value hardwoods, are of much greater economic value, and would yield much higher lease rents and property taxes to the County.

The lands being leased to Oji Paper are ready for immediate use by local farmers. No costly infrastructure is required. Paved and graded gravel roads run throughout the area. Electric power lines capable of supporting processing plants run through the property. [Yagong letter] A water storage reservoir is part of the development plan Councilman Yagong is putting together to create family farms. Federal funds are readily available for such projects. Local farming practices are also sensitive to growing crops that thrive at this elevation and levels of rainfall. The lands at Paauilo, for example, once were the site of the largest coffee plantation on Big Island, without any added water system.

Another group of established Hamakua farmers want to rent 1,040 acres of these county lands now promised to Oji Paper. They have banded together and have pledge matching financial dollars to help clear and develop these lands into macadamia nut and coffee farms. They believe the economic potential of these prime agriculture lands is tremendous. [Yagong letter]

Table 1 (following) demonstrates the kinds of revenues agriculture use of these former Hamakua Sugar lands would produce.

************************************************************************

Table 1. Value of Diversified Crops for Hamakua

Common coffee. $1.62 lb x 1,800 lbs/acre

*********************************************************

These figures come from three sources.

(1) Statistics of Hawaiian Agriculture 1995 complied by the Department of Agriculture.

(2) Values supplied by permaculture community college instructor Ken Bouch for that area of Hawaii Island. He write me that Mac nuts typically yield 2800 lbs/acre; revenue is about $0.70/ lb wet-in-shell or about $1960/ acre. Net profit is 15-20%. Citrus (limes) yield about 2400 lbs./acre; revenue is about $0.45/ lb. from wholesalers. This is $1080/acre gross. Avocados yield 2400 lbs/acre; they bring in $0.50-$0.65/lb. or $1200-$1560/ acre gross. Niche markets like mangoes out of season, and direct marketing to hotels and restaurants, etc. will be better. Landscape nursery. $50,000 for one acre during boom years, $23,000 last year. 1 1/2 full time workers.

(3) Figures supplied by Tane Datta, farmer, marketer, and distributor in Kona who presented testimony to Hawaii County Council (7/27/97). His statistics are based on actual production and marketing of crops from 15 farms on the Big Island. They are conservative averages. Many of these farms are located on marginal land without access to county water — like Hamakua lands. Some of these farmers cultivate a mixture of vegetables and herbs which grow rapidly and can be harvested several times a year from the same field. Crops can begin producing income within three months of field preparation. Most are grown organically with minimal environmental damage to surrounding area. Most farms are 5 acres, intensely managed, worked by families and some hired labor. Such fully developed farms are generating revenue of over $50,000 per acre per year. That's $2,900 in taxes, compared to Oji Paper revenue of only $50 ($40 lease rent, $10 chip fee) / per acre.

Tane Datta emphasizes that marketing is important, that the farmers work closely together and have the ability to switch from unprofitable to profitable crops in a matter of weeks, and to rapidly respond to changing climate and market conditions.

These revenue projections are for "farmer's gate" earnings. If farmers act as their own distributor, or co-ops sell at retail markups, the added value is easily twice the income listed. Then there is the multiplier effect. Revenue goes directly back into community through wages, supplies, equipment, and services, and create at least two additional jobs.

4. Political Economy — Big Island As A Banana Republic

So why is Mayor Yamashiro pushing a sweetheart deal for off-shore Oji Paper Co for development of Third World style pulpwood plantations, while ignoring much better economic returns for local farmers and high-value foresters? Why tie up rich Hamakua lands for the next 55 years for what is clearly not the best and highest use of these lands? Is there a hidden agenda — future urban development by Oji Paper and Prudential Insurance? And why is Governor Cayetano and his appointee, Mike Wilson, head of DLNR, going along with Yamashiro's scheme?

A. Closed-door decision-making

Mayor Yamashiro alone made the decision to lease out county lands to Oji Paper Co. He and his appointees never discussed the leasing of these county lands in any public meeting. Only recently, after great agitation by Hamakua residents at the State Legislature (House Concurrent Resolution 257), did State officials hold a few public meetings in Hamakua about their efforts to rent Oji about 5,000 acres of State lands.

Yamashiro has unabashedly acknowledged his business association with the pulptree industry since the 1970s. (West Hawaii Today, 7/10/97) Yamashiro was the attorney for a company called "Capitol Wood Chip" that in 1976 began harvested lumber for Oji Paper on leased State lands.

Capitol Wood Chip /Oji Paper's clear-cutting of eucalyptus, ohia, and occasionally koa resulted in a lot of protest activism in 1978 and 1979. After the DLNR's usual non-responsiveness to these protests, Capitol's chipper at Kawaihae harbor was mysteriously burned in 1978. Several months later, a new on-site machine chomping up trees in Ka`u was burned by unknown arsons again. Capitol Chip went out of business sometime after that.

International paper companies always draw down enormous public subsidies in setting up woodpulp plantations, Carrere & Lohmann tell us in their well documented book Pulping the South: industrial tree plantations and the world paper economy. Critics wonder what promises Mayor Yamashiro made to the pulptree developers. Already they receive:

What other subsidies may be granted:

Besides ignoring the pleas of farmers wanting Hamakua lands for diversified agriculture, Mayor Yamashiro rejected out-of-hand a proposal by New Zealand forestry company Fletcher-Challenge to create a diversified wood products industry that would sell high-value lumber, primarily in-state. As a former Big Island County staffer divulged:

Fletcher-Challenge proposed to use 85% of the trees for lumber, and chip only the 15% of the logs unsuitable for lumber. They planned on building a processing facility to mill logs into lumber to be sold in Hawaii rather than shipping it overseas. "All this would have produced more jobs, less environmental damage, more revenue for the county, and moved Hawaii in the direction of sustainability when it comes to wood products."

For months now hundreds of Hamakua and other Big Island residents have been attending meetings to oppose government-led efforts to establish pulptree plantations on their island. Initially they were angry over aerial chemical spraying and field burning being carried out by Prudential Timber first wave of plantings, that was endangering their health. Then they discovered that State officials and Mayor Yamashiro were intending to create even more pulpwood plantations on county and State lands.

Freshman Councilman Dominic Yagong began holding community meetings throughout his district. Mail-in polls conducted in Hamakua and North Hilo found half the respondents opposed to the pulptree industry plan. After scrutinizing the deal closely, Councilman Yagong concluded that the 55 year lease creates far too few jobs and little county revenue, and endorsed alternatives such as diversified agriculture, tropical fruit farming, indigenous tree farming, cattle ranching, and eco-tourism development for the former sugar lands.

A coalition of 11 Hawaiian sovereignty groups on the Big Island issued a statement (Feb 11, 1997) strongly opposing plans for eucalyptus tree farms by the State, County, Bishop Estate, and private landowners. They also called for setting up diversified agriculture, and self-reliant model villages that incorporate native forests with agriculture and aquaculture.

B. Huge outcry against pulp industry around the world

The Southeastern U.S. is the largest pulp producer in the world, and a region-wide coalition of grassroots activists calling themselves The Dogwood Alliance has formed to fight the chip mill invasion in the Southeast. Their lengthy report titled "Chipping Forests and Jobs: A report on the Economic and Environmental Impacts of Chip Mills," concludes that chip mills are undermining "job growth within the forest products industry directly, . . . and negatively impacting other forest dependent businesses such as tourism and recreation." [Smith, 97]

"Alabama's forest is being cut far short of its potential in a rush for pulp chips and quick profits," is the headline of a 24 page special section devoted to Southern forests run by the Mobile Register on Oct. 27, 1996. Sixteen pulp and paper mills operate in Alabama, more than in any state but Wisconsin. Another two dozen or more wood chip mills serve them and a rapidly expanding export market. To feed their mills, paper companies require vast quantities of pulpwood. Unfortunately, Alabama's oaks and other higher-value hardwoods are been chopped and chipped by the millions, right along with the pines. And this is creating a serious problem: "on a per-forest-acre basis, North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia and Mississippi do better in employment because they are stronger in either furniture manufacturing, sawmilling or even paper-making."

In South American, the Japan Tropical Forest Action Network (JATAN) reports they found that:

In Thailand, eucalyptus plantations and chip mills — include ones run by Marubeni Corp. (Oji Paper's Hamakua partner) — are being opposed by local farmers.

In Canada, the Lubicon Lake Indian Nation in Alberta is fiercely opposing the clear-cutting of native forests and the building of a pulp mill near its lands. Marubeni Corp. will be the half owner of the pulp mill. (JATAN, 1994, p.2).

The story of how another Japanese owned pulp mill in the same region badly treated nearby residents and the environment illustrates our multiple concerns over transnational corporations exploiting Hawaii's land and people.

Oji Paper Co is a partner with Mitsubishi in the Canadian firm Alberta-Pacific Forest Industries (ALPAC), which runs the world's largest bleached pulp mill. In the early '90s ALPAC received from the government $475 million in loans, debentures, and start-up grants, and the rights to log and manage a 64,000 sq kilometer area of Crown (state) forest. Along with some economic benefits, nearby communities experienced a host of negative impacts and unfulfilled promises. [Joan Sherman, "Some Consequences of Cheap Trees and Cheap Talk: Pulp Mills and Logging in Northern Alberta," The Ecologist, Vol 27, No. 2, March/ April 1997]

Before the mill was approved, ALPAC representatives extensively courted the public in promotional forums, open-house sessions, and public hearings, where they promised hundreds of direct jobs and countless spin-off and construction jobs in the region. They also promised to mitigate expected impacts of the mill — such as the transportation of hazardous chemicals, and air emissions and exposure of fish habitats to mill effluents that contain chlorinated organic compounds. They promised that huge logging trucks would not be on the road during school bus periods, that there would be no smells, and that they would maintain the roads.

Tragically, these promises were not written agreements. As Sherman reports in great detail in her article, "Since the mill opened, many of these commitments have been redefined, denied, unenforced, or simply forgotten. . . Residents did not anticipate that no one would enforce the company's promises." This is a lesson that the DLNR contract writers and Councilmembers need to take to heart: "Get any promises written down in legally-binding form, to insure enforcement."

Few jobs went to nearby residents; lots of outsiders moved in. Area residents and farmers were burdened by a new railroad line and taxpayer-funded roads that transformed a once rural area into an industrial throughway hauling logs and pulp to and from the mill. Vents at the mill often "malfunctioned," giving "rise to the `fugitive' odors of hydrogen sulphide, the rotten egg smell . . . Screeching machinery has stressed livestock, pets and families, creating additional health and economic concerns for farmers." A host of other quality of life destroying conditions are also chronicled.

And the government failed to forced environmental standards. Sherman's description of how this economically powerful entity — ALPAC — "insinuated itself into local and provincial government" and gained special privileges and reduced their local taxes, is a situation residents of the Big Island would immediately recognize. As Sherman concludes

C. Public relations Ploys

Large firms are masters at propagandizing local communities.

Timber company representatives say that the E. grandis species used can produce timber for sawmills and value-added activities. While technically true, pulptree plantations are designed to supply feedstock for paper mills, and so usually grow only a few acres for public relations purposes, says the Japan Tropical Forest Action Network [Report on Eucalyptus Plantation Schemes: Investment Activities by Japan's Paper Industry in Brazil and Chile, 1993.] These species need 12 to 18 years to produce logs large enough to make quality lumber and plywood. Woodpulp companies however need to feed their voracious appetite for paper products and want to realize their profits within 7 years, not wait 4 to 10 additional years into the future. Planting schedules mentioned by Big Island growers suggests they anticipate harvesting pulp-grade timber only.

Eucalyptus logs can be made into low-grade plywood or what is know as "medium density fiberboard" or press board. But Oji's low job projections (60-120) suggests that their manufacturing plants will be located off-island, most likely in Japan.

Another common PR ploy is to plant "experimental plots" using native species or that demonstrate reduced chemical treatments. In reality,

Mitsubishi, Oji, and Marubeni are frequent business partners around the world, and seem to share common shady business practices.

D. Timber companies are bad neighbors

Oji Paper Co. and Marubeni Corp. are the two business partner seeking to establish pulp plantations on the Big Island by cheaply renting land from the County and State. Oji Paper already has a sullied record with its Capitol Wood Chip operation on Hawaii Island during the late 1970s. (See Section 4.A above) Oji's and Marubeni's severely blemished records of environmental violations in other nations raises serious questions about how "good a neighbor" they would be in Hawaii.

Marubeni Corporation is Japan's largest importer of tropical logs. The Japan Tropical Forest Action Network (JATAN) states that Marubeni "is involved in many destructive timber extraction activities around the world." [JATAN, "Tropical Forest Destruction, nd., p.3]

In Indonesia, a Marubeni-financed local company was fined in 1989 for illegally logging vast amounts of mangrove forests for woodchips in Bintuni Bay. [See Japan Environment Monitor, Vol 3, No. 3 (#25), 1990; JATAN, 1993, p. 10.] It is noteworthy that while such illegal forestry practices are common throughout developing nations, they rarely get punished. But Marubeni Corp.'s violations in Bintuni Bay were so rampant and damaging to native ecosystems that they drew huge worldwide protests when exposed by JATAN.

In Chile, in 1990, Marubeni Corp. sought to establish eucalyptus plantations by clear-cutting between 14,000 to 23,000 hectares of native evergreen forests. Environmental groups from around the world joined with local activists to successfully convince the Chilean government to reject Marubeni's clear-cutting and plantation establishment scheme. [JATAN, 93].

Marubeni Corp. is a partner in a Japanese consortium which owns and operates the Alaska Pulp Corporation (APC), which has been logging the old growth rainforests of the Tongass National Forest in S.E. Alaska for pulpwood and lumber. FATAN recounts their bad record:

5. Solutions — Do Agroforestry Instead

First, the Oji Paper proposal must be rejected by the county and State governments. Many better options are available than Mayor Yamashiro's plans to recreate another monoculture plantation economy on the Big Island owned and operated by his friends in offshore corporations. This Third World form of plantation system ships unprocessed wood products out-of-state for the most important economic component — value-added manufacturing. Woodchipping creates few jobs locally and burdens us with environmental destructive. Mixed high-value forestry and agriculture, in contrast, would generate employment for thousands of people. That result would be the revitalization of the Hamakua coast, with many families living on their lands, building communities, new churches and schools, and a stable and prosperous economy.

The best use of Hamakua lands needs to assessed by:

The high-value forestry option. State and federal foresters have endorsed proposals for establishing a high-value tropical hardwood industry on the Big Island, exactly the kind of plan Fletcher-Challenge came up with, and Mayor Yamashiro vetoed.

Oji Paper Co intends to grow eucalyptus for woodchips and pay only $10/acre in royalty fees. Local farmers instead could grow valuable Paulownia trees, a fast-growing hardy pioneer tree excellent for revitalizing former sugar lands, says one group of planners. 250 Paulownia trees can be planted per acre, and in 10 years would be worth $1,000 per tree (year 2007 estimated value). The County would receive $1,250/acre in wholesale taxes alone. Imagine what the $250,000/acre revenue would add to the local economy? [Zeigler, 1997]

Actually the net gains could be much greater. Instead of shipping out raw logs, they could be delivered to a nearby mill, sawed, dried, and transformed into finished lumber. High value hardwoods can be manufactured into fine furniture and veneer, then marketed and shipped to a wholesaler or retailer, who markets the product again. Value is added at each stage of the process. Properly milled and processed, the cumulative value of the products produced can yield $10,000 per tree.

Diversified agriculture. Councilman Dominic Yagong of Hamakua has repeatedly voiced the desires of local farmers who want access to more land to preserve and expand Big Island's agricultural industry. (See Section 3.C) Such operations would be highly profitable, our analyzes show.

Agroforestry, an intentional blending of agriculture, forestry production, and conservation practices, would optimize economic production and environmental protection on the Big Island. Sustainable forestry practices include riparian buffer systems, stream-bank bioengineering, tree/pasture systems, tree/specialty crop systems, windbreaks and shelterbelts, wildlife habitat, living terraces, alley cropping, and forest farming. The multifold benefits: increased crop production, alternative crops and diversified local economies, improved water quality, soil erosion and sediment control, filtering and biodegrading excess nutrients and pesticides, reduced flood damage, microclimate moderation, and diversified habitats for wildlife and humans. [Barr & Cary, 1992]

The World Bank has released an important study showing that agroforestry is profitable under a broad range of conditions and widely applicable. Reporting on case studies of 21 agroforestry projects in six Central American and two Caribbean countries, the study finds that agroforestry is comparable to other parts of the farming system. "Perennial intercrops diversified income, added value per unit of land, improved cash flow, and caused only limited loss of the main products." ["Costs, Benefits, and Farmer Adoption of Agroforestry, 1995.]

Reforestation — re-greening the 'aina. Sustainability means not only meeting our present needs without jeopardizing the prospects of future generations, but remedying past mistakes. The Big Island once had rich forests running up the slopes of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa. They teemed with lush vegetation, abundant wildlife, and many kinds of harvestable trees, including our famous koa and sandalwood. The forests shaded the land below and caught the passing mists and watered the land. Stripped of forest growth by tree cutting and cattle, the land became arid and fit only for scrub grass.

Farmers regrowing trees on now deforested land can restore watersheds and provide food and wood. Fast growing leucaena and albizzia trees make excellent windbreaks, and their roots hold soil together, thereby preventing erosion and keeping the soil rich with nitrogen. Kiawe trees grown in dry areas can provide shade for cattle and be harvested for charcoal. All forestry activities can adhere to principles of sustainable ecology. Selective thinning maintains the integrity of forest ecosystems.

China has developed a wonderful integration of tree crops, agricultural crops, livestock and fish farming. Millions of farms in China have substantially increased their output (by 30% or more) in a mere 10 years by using trees to alter the climate at ground level. Planted in a "net" around farm plots, the trees slow hot, drying winds that once decimated crops. Some 20 million acres of Chinese agriculture now employs agroforestry methods, and many regions has undergone a mind-boggling change, from tenuous survival on wind-swept floodplains, to self-sufficiency and beyond. [Zeigler, Peter, 1997b. "Forest Net.]

Chinese farmers use trees for crop shelter and the leaves as livestock fodder, to produce more abundant food crops and livestock. They harvest mature trees, in addition. The best tree they have found is Paulownia wood, that fetches them around $US 300 a cubic meter when sold to Japanese buyers. The Paulownia (also called the "Princess" or "Empress" tree) is a multipurpose tree that fits in perfectly with a farmer's needs. Its flowers produce honey and herbal medicines; its wood is light and strong for use in fine furniture, toys, plywood and packaging; and its leaves are more nutritious than lucerne when fed to livestock.

If you are planning for one year, grow rice.

If you are planning for 20 years, grow trees.

If you are planning for centuries, grow leaders.

The tragedy of Hamakua is that none of the wisdom contained in this old proverb has been learned by many of our public officials. Mayor Yamashiro foisting of a Third World pulpwood plantation on the people of the Big Island shows how much of a Banana Republic mentality still remains in the Old Boy network. But for months now hundreds of Hamakua and other Big Island residents have been attending meetings to oppose efforts to establish pulptree plantations on their island. Fortunately new leaders are emerging, and citizens from all walks of life — including former plantation workers — are demanding they be consulted in reaching important decisions. And given a fair deal. Hopefully the people of the Big Island can rally together to stop the terrible Oji Paper Co. deal, and create in its place a truly sustainable and diversified economy.

Citations

"Alabama Forests Cut Short," Mobile Register, special 24 page section. Oct. 27, 1996.

"Breast Cancer and Pesticides in Hawaii: The Need for Further Study." Environmental Health Perspectives, Volume 105, Supplement 3, April 1997.

"Cleaning the Air", Consumer Report, 8/97, p.37.

"Costs, Benefits, and Farmer Adoption of Agroforestry: Project Experience in Central America and the Caribbean," 1995. World Bank Environment Paper No. 14. http://www-esd.worldbank.org/html/esd/env/publicat/bulletin/bltnv7n4/text9.]

"Facts about eucalyptus pulp/timber plantations that Mayor Yamashiro and state officials don't want you to know," Friends of Hamakua, May 1997.

"Facts on Forestry in Hawaii." DLNR fact sheet, 10/1/97.

Armstrong, Jason. "Farmers call for access to more Hamakua land," West Hawaii Today, 9/26/97

Barr, N.F. and Cary, J.W. 1992. greening a brown land: an Australian search for sustainable land use. Australia, Macmillan.

Carrere, Richardo and Lohmann, Larry. 1996. pulping the south: industrial tree plantations and the world paper economy. Zed Books, London and Atlantic Highlands, NJ.

Christopher, Michael, 8/28/97 "`Fletcher Challenge' Forestry Bid." Viewpoint, West Hawaii Today.

Cox, Caroline. "Pesticide Drift," Journal of Pesticide Reform, Sp. 1995, Vol 15, No. 1.

Gier, Norma. "Why Pesticide Spraying Means Drift," Journal of Pesticide Reform, Winter, 1988, Vol 7, No. 4.

Japan Tropical Forest Action Network (JATAN), 1993. "Report on Eucalyptus Plantation Schemes: Investment Activities by Japan's Paper Industry in Brazil and Chile, 1993."

Japan Tropical Forest Action Network (JATAN), 1994. "Japan's Trade and Consumption of Boreal and Temperate Forest Wood Products."

Japan Tropical Forest Action Network (JATAN), nd. "Tropical Forest Destruction,"

Rath, Jim. "Who is it good for?" Letter, West Hawaii Today, 3/31/97.

Russell, Kelly. "Mississippi hosts Japanese paper & pulp executives on kenaf fact-finding mission — Investment in `strategic alliance' explored as discussions focus on crop growth, pulp mill." Mississippi Business Journal. June, 1997.

Sherman, Joan, 1997. "Some Consequences of Cheap Trees and Cheap Talk: Pulp Mills and Logging in Northern Alberta," The Ecologist, Vol 27, No. 2, March/ April 1997.

Smith, Danna. 1997. "Chipping Forests and Jobs: A Report on the Economic and Environmental Impacts of Chip Mills." Dogwood Alliance. PO Box 407 Cedar Mountain, NC 28718.

Wilson, Michael. "Commercial forestry will profit both land and people," Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 9/5/97, p. A-15.

Wilson, Michael "Forestry is good for us," West Hawaii Today, 8/29/97.

Yagong, Dominic. "Yagong responds to questions of Waimea critic," West Hawaii Today, 7/25/97.

Ziegler, Peter R. 1997. "Hawaii Eco-Estates — Equity Producing Plantations, Eco-villages, and Estates." Honolulu, Pacific Synergy Inc.

Zeigler, Peter. 1997b. "Forest Net: What China Can Teach Us About Micro-Climate Agroforestry."]