Monoculture Conference Papers

In June of 1996 SAAN hosted an international conference on the effects of Monoculture plantations in Southeast Asia, called Monocultures: Environmental and Social Impacts.

Approximately 75 delegates from Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia attended this five-day meeting, and many interesting and useful papers were presented. In this section of the SAAN Website, we are pleased to be able to make these papers available.

As a background to the growth of monocultural farming methods, and the 'Green Revolution' connection, the first paper is The Problem is Plantations...written by CUSO cooperant Dave Patterson and SAAN Coordinator Kumrab Phanthong.

Following this is a paper written by Kamal Malhotra, of the Bangkok-based NGO Focus on the Global South, on the role of GATT and the WTO in farmer's lives, entitled The Uroguay Round of GATT, the World Trade Organisation, and Small Farmers.

Several papers were presented from Thailand. Among the more interesting: Areerat Kittisiri of the Rural Reconstruction and Alumnni Friends Association (RRAFA) discussed Eucalyptus Plantations in Thailand. Seri Juraprik of the Small Rubberholders Community Development Project (SRCDP) talked about his work with rubber smallhoders in Southern Thailand and Rubber Intercropping.

One of the conference delegates from Malaysia was Kee Theung Beng, who was associated with the Consumer's Association of Penang (CAP) Alternative Agriculture Program, and gave the major conference paper from Malaysia on Monocultures in Malaysia: Impacts and Potential Solutions. A second paper from Malaysia was by Ronald MacFarland, who works with PANAP (Pesticide Action Network, Asia-Pacific)(CAP), and presented a background paper on The Work of PAN-AP in Southeast Asia .

Although the work of NGOs in Indonesia is somewhat hampered by government opposition to their activity, they also made presentations on the current state of sustainable agriculture activity in that country, and two case studies were presented - Case Study on Potato Cropping in the Uplands of North Sumatra Province by Mr. Budiman Sarigh, and Case Study on Food Crops at Deli Serdang, North Sumatra by Mr. Sabarin.

And finally, of course, no conference would be complete without an Action Plan and Conference Declaration.