Letters

An open letter to the WWF

We, the participants in the Asian Consultation Workshop on the Protection and Conservation of Indigenous Knowledge held in Sabah, East Malaysia, unanimously condemn the advertisement of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) entitled, "He's destroying his own rainforest, to stop him, do you send in the army or an anthropologist". CHECK EXACT WORDS The advertisement shows the picture of an indigenous person cutting a tree.

This advertisement is being circulated in many magazines around the world. We denounce this fund raising campaign as racist, misleading, inaccurate, and cheap. This kind of advertisement undermines the indigenous peoples' world wide recognition as custodians of forests and biodiversity. We remind you that it is only in the indigenous peoples' territories where rainforests remain.

It is for the profit, interests and the needs of the corporations and consumers of the North that the indigenous peoples are often forced to destroy their rainforests, which is their last resort of survival.

Neither the military nor anthropologists have played a positive role in protecting the forests and the peoples. In fact, they have been agents of genocide, ethnocide and rainforest destruction.

We are angry that we are being used in such a way to make money, through this advertisement, which demonstrates the eco-colonialist character of the WWF. The main effort of the WWF should be directed towards educating the people and the decision makers of the North.

We demand a public apology from the WWF for the misleading advertisement. We demand that fundamental changes in policy should take place at the WWF, which includes people's participation in the management of protected areas and species. Unless these take place, we call for a non-cooperation with the WWF, from all indigenous peoples of the world and their supporters.

JANNIE LASIMBANG Asian Peoples Pact (AIPP) Malaysia ...

Innovation information

I find that Down To Earth is not providing much space, nor making much effort to collect and publish information on the small innovations which can help the common man change his method of living.

About 2 years ago you had published a news item on a mobile gobar (cow dung) gas plant built by a cooperative in the Nilgiris. I wrote to the cooperative -- there was no response. In Goa, the local newspapers have carried news items on the innovation of solar cookers/driers, which could be used even in wet weather/darkness, using a 40 watt electrical lamp.

In another report, a person in Gujarat had arranged a number of gears on his bicycle, which could increase its speed 16 times over the average bicycle. Again, my efforts to find the sources of these innovations did not meet with any response.

All these innovations, if they are real, could provide means, however small, of enriching the environment and the quality of life. May I, therefore, propose that Down to Earth devote a few pages in every issue to such innovations?

Most people may not get charged on GATT, Rio, the Forest Bill, etc., but they do want to make changes at the village level wherever possible.

lt cmdr FRANCIS FURTADO, Goa - 403 107 ...

Listing sweeteners

This is with reference to the report "Bitterness over diet colas" in your issue of January 15, 1995. The bitter truth is that the Central Committee on Food Standards (CCFS), of I am a member, has banned the use of saccharine in scented supari, pan masala, etc., as it is reported to have deleterious effects on human nutrition. Efforts are also underfoot to remove saccharine once for all from the list of approved artificial sweeteners in foods and food stuffs, in view of its adverse role on the health of consumers.

However, Aspartame, popularly known as apm, is already on the approval list of artificial sweeteners, in the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act (PFA), under the name of Aspartly Phenyl Alanine Methyl Ester. Thus, CCFS and pfa are in line with the leading countries of the world in accepting the apm as an artificial sweetener.

The fact is that Acesulfame K (ask) has not yet been recognised by the ccfs and pfa, as research reports are awaited in this regard.

G AZEEMODDIN, Oil Technology Research Institute, Anantapur - 515 001 ...

Letters Letters