tres belles secretaires

les chinois au laos

Along the road ochre earth, valley after valley, hundreds of hectares burned, dotted with charred trunks. Some ravaged slopes of the hills are already equipped to receive Chinese rubber plantations, tree used to produce latex rubber. In Bokéo province in northern Laos, Burma and Thailand, near the Chinese border, a primary tropical forest of great ecological wealth, one of the best preserved in the world, extended a few months ago yet the place of these burns. Essences and rare flowers, elephants, gibbons, tigers, medicinal plants, hand smoke in this region where live more than thirty different ethnic groups. "The authorities have always prevented from burning the forest plantations for our rice and fruit trees, now they tell us to do so provided that it is for the rubber tree," says the head of a village . In his district, 20 000 hectares (one quarter of the earth) were promised to rubber. On the same subject Cups frank in Congo Silver easy. For the villagers who began planting trees provided by a Chinese company, is the dream of easy money. "We had never planted, but the Chinese have promised that it would return up to 30 euro cents per tree each day," says the chef. He had no choice. "If it refuses, the local government said it would give our land to other farmers came by the way." Like most farmers converted to gold elastic, this father of five children did not know it should abandon its other crops to ensure this intensive activity, thus becoming dependent on a single company that sets prices. The danger is the recovery of land by farmers. "They work slowly, did concern that the next day, they are people of inferior quality," complains Mr. Kuang, Chinese agronomist expert and investor in the province of Bokéo, where he came to train local people to plant rubber. According to him, "not need to contract with farmers who" do nothing ". On behalf of his company Lei Lin, he has instead signed agreements with the authorities in case of "mismanagement" of plantations, fines will be imposed on farmers, even predatory, pure and simple. And if no skilled labor is available, foreign workers will be sought. A boon for Mr. Kuang: "For the moment, the premises agree to develop the plantations because they are left to plant rice among the trees for two years. But when it comes time for operating, they may not keep pace. So we will resume their land and will come from the Chinese workforce, it is not lacking among us, "he says proudly. Across the country, the same wave. From about 14 000 hectares of rubber plantations today, the authorities have planned 200 000 hectares in three years, mainly operated by Chinese private groups. It is to alleviate the demands of China, thirsting for raw materials, where production has reached its maximum level. Already twenty-seven Chinese companies operate in Laos latex, and they came hands full. They offer ups, technology, chemical fertilizers, train farmers, build refining plants and roads to deliver the rubber to China, and open even rural credit banks exclusively for the Chinese interests. In exchange, they hold 40 to 80% of the harvest for thirty years. "Big Brother". Officially, the door open to Chinese farmers is part of the national development plan in a country where eight out of ten people live on subsistence agriculture. "The cultivation of rubber replaces the poppy and helps improve the standard of living," justifies the Lao official press. It is mainly a policy of the outstretched hand to China which, after Burma and Cambodia, threw his vest on Laos. The "big brother" communist provides almost half the international aid to Laos ensures military assistance and diplomatic, and invests heavily in mining, logging and electric dams. This is because, with six million inhabitants on the surface of the United Kingdom, large natural resources, a corrupt administration and an economy under-developed, Laos is not weight. "The influx of Chinese has a major impact on society and commerce, and will doubtless lead to a sinisation the country. Unfortunately, in a one-party state, there can be no debate, "says Grant Evans, a specialist in Laos last thirty years. International NGOs were present, powerless to change. Under cover of anonymity, the representative of a Western organization working in northern Uganda over the past decade deplores the choice of all-rubber: "monoculture imposed is the hallmark of what can be termed a form of colonization of the modern part of China. This undermines all our efforts for sustainable development and diversified. "To Sombath Somphone, Lao winner of the Magsaysay prize (the Nobel Development)," we are moving directly into the backyard of globalization, instead give play to our strengths as handicrafts, agriculture and tourism. " Kidnapping. The rare official opposition to the invasion of rubber are severely repressed. In the province of Champassak, a thousand farmers refusing to cut their fruit trees to make way for rubber have been expelled from their land last year. A Luang Namtha province bordering China, activist Sompawn Khantisouk denounced the destruction of the rainforest for the benefit of the rubber, and had proved that ecotourism reported as much or more than rubber benefiting the local people better. He was abducted in late January by men in uniform. There is still no news of him.