I am forwarding the English translation of the abovementioned article
from the Belgian newspaper Le Vif / L' Express dd. 5-January-1996, to
dear members of the Forest List.
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Le Vif/L'Express (January 5, 1996), a leading Francophone information
weekly, reports that investment schemes which exploit the public's desire
to protect tropical forests have spread from the Netherlands to Flanders
and are now spreading in the French-speaking part of Belgium. Such
schemes are a rip-off, as they promise an 18-20% annual return to those
who are willing to invest in "green projects" in Brazil, Costa Rica, the
Ivory Coast, and even Portugal. The projects usually involve teak
tree plantations, which are purported to bring in windfall profits when
they are harvested in 20 years.
The latest, local example of this scheme is the one operated by the
"Green Forest Foundation", which places advertisements in newspapers to
woo potential investors with slogans such as "Let your money grow" and
"Become involved in improving the world's green lungs" and claims that it
runs teak plantations in the Ivory Coast.
However, according to the Ministry of the Ivory Coast for Natural
Resources, the Tropical Forestry Department of the University of
Gembloux, and the Timber Information Centre, such schemes are completely
unrealistic: even the best forests in the world only provide a 2-4%
annual return on investment, and after 20 years, teak only provides
mediocre wood. Of course, when the investors realise that they have been
victimised, it will be too late.
The Green Forest Foundation has falsely claimed that its work has been
approved by the Belgian Banking and Financing Commission. The Embassy of
the Ivory Coast says the company is "unknown in the Ivory Coast" and that
its claims are ludicrous.
It would appear that there is a larger network of companies that run
schemes like this, as their brochures show the exact same figures for
annual forest production, but specialists say that production of the same
species of trees would vary, depending on whether they are planted in
Costa Rica, Africa or elsewhere.
some of these companies have played on the WWF name, which they mention
in their literature. According to Le Vif, several years ago WWF/NL called
for its members and the public to support forest development projects in
Costa Rica, but this drew the fire of WWF International, who thought that
the projects were insufficiently developed.
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This piece of news was faxed to me by a member of the Forest List who was
investigating into Mr. Nasser's scheme. This member was informed by Mr.
Nasser that he represents a western African country. Unknow to Mr.
Nasser, the Minister of Forestry of this African country visited the
Malaysian Timber Council recently together with a trade delegation. This
Forest List member commented that Mr. Nasser is running some kind of
fraud.
It's clear that as long as there are sympathizers for the likes of Mr.
Nasser as demonstrated by some members of this list, there will always be
victims for the taking.
Nelson Wong
Malaysian Timber Council
http://www.mtc.com.my
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