No Leasing-Up of Land in Madagascar!

meanpac@daewoo.com, president@cwd.go.kr, foreign@president.go.kr, koremb-ge@mofat.go.kr

Mr Ahn Yong Nam, President and CEO
Daewoo Logistics Corp.
17th FL Daewoo Foundation Building, 526., 5 -Ga Namdaemunno, Chung-Gu
Seoul, Korea

Mr Lee Myung-Bak, President Republic of Korea
1 Cheongwadae-ro, Jongno-gu
Seoul, Korea

Embassy Republic of Korea in Berlin
Mr Jung-Il Choi, Embassador
Stülerstr. 8-10
10787 Berlin


Dear Sirs in and of South Korea,

I have also heard about your proposed land project in Madagascar and am deeply concerned. Daewoo Logistics wants to lease up to 1.3 million hectares of land, much of it biodiversity rich rainforests, in Madagascar for 99 years. But It is totally inappropriate to use half of the arable land of the island for the cultivation of maize and palm oil for export. The vast majority of Malagasy people live in extreme poverty, malnutrition and even starvation.

Daewoo's plans for large scale agro-industrial agriculture for export would exacerbate this dramatic situation. The dependence on food imports would continue to rise, the nutritional situation of people get worse and food prices would rise.

The approach of Daewoo Logistics and the Government of Madagascar strongly violates the customary lands and rights of the people who live there. The population living on the land to be leased by the project was neither informed nor questioned. The people need the land for food production and to generate income.

Further, the project means serious dangers for the unique natural treasures of the island. The extremely endangered forests and natural ecosystems of Madagascar would be cleared by the project. The agro-industrial monocultures with corn and oil palms planned by Daewoo would destroy the species rich mosaic of small agriculture. The peasants who will lose their land through the project will occupy land in other areas. This is not compatible with a sustainable development of the island.

I ask you to promptly bring clarity and transparency to the public about the announced contract with the Madagascan government, its content and conditions, as well as about information from various sources that Daewoo Logistics already made land purchases in Madagascar. According to a letter of your company published on the Internet there no contract for the land project with the Government of Madagascar exists, but other sources state that Daewoo Logistics has already acquired 218,000 hectares of land in different regions of the country.

I strongly urge you to immediately resign from the contract to lease land and all other land seizures and agricultural projects in Madagascar. The biodiversity on the island needs the remaining natural areas to survive, the people of the country their land for food, other urgently needed commodities, and to produce sustainably produce income based upon standing forests.

Sincerely,