Colombia

"They consider us the periphery of the periphery"

The Global Forest Coalition launched a new report on 'REDD+ and the Underlying Causes of Deforestation and forest Degradation' based on five case studies in Brazil, Colombia, India, Uganda and Tanzania elaborated by national organizations in those countries themselves. It was launched at the 19th Conference of the Parties of the Climate Convention in Warsaw.

Only available in Spanish -      En el marco de la conmemoración del 21 de septiembre, Día Internacional contra los Monocultivos de Árboles, el Colectivo Ecologista Campo está organizando su II Foro de Conflictos Ambientales en Colombia, con la temática de Agroindustria y Conflictos Forestales. Tendrá lugar en día miércoles 18 de septiembre, de 3 a 6 pm en la Universidad del Rosario, Salón 601, Torre2. Entrada Libre.

On 14 March 2013, the Colombian organization Movimiento Ríos Vivos marked the International Day of Action Against Dams and For Rivers, Water and Life by calling on communities to mobilize in different ways and take part in the activities scheduled for the day, in solidarity with the peaceful march being held by people displaced by the Hidroituango mega dam project.

For more than 20 years, Colombia has seen the ongoing expansion of monoculture tree plantations, to the benefit of transnational companies who have enjoyed and continue to enjoy the support of government policies. To analyze this continued expansion, whose consequences include land grabbing, rights violations and the displacement of communities, CENSAT-Friends of the Earth Colombia organized a forum entitled “Tree Plantations in Colombia: A Critical Look”, held in Bogotá on September 21, the International Day Against Monoculture Tree Plantations.

Only available in Spanish - Por Guadalupe Rodríguez,  Salva la Selva El precio del oro está en alza por décimo año consecutivo, dado que inversores, operadores y bancos centrales lo han buscado como refugio seguro. Se espera que se mantenga esta tendencia. La posesión de oro da seguridad frente a la situación inestable de la economía global, por lo que todos desean el codiciado metal. Y esto tiene consecuencias. Download full document here

The price of gold is rising for the tenth consecutive year. As a result, more and more investors, financial market operators and central banks are turning to gold as a safe haven in the face of global economic instability. This has troubling consequences, because gold mining is one of the most destructive and polluting of all mining activities.

Colombia: oil-palm plantations, violation of human rights and Afro-descendent communities’ quest for true dignity When you talk about the violation of human rights, you must talk about Colombia. When you talk about the huge expansion of oil-palm plantations, you must talk about Colombia. Both issues go hand in hand in that country

The Chocó is a biogeographical region that forms part of the neotropics (meaning that it contains the largest area of tropical rainforest). Its high rainfall levels, tropical temperatures and isolation have helped make it one of the world’s most biologically diverse regions as well. In Colombia it encompasses the Pacific Coast region and, among others, the department of Chocó, located between the jungles of Darién and the basins of the Atrato and San Juan Rivers.

In Colombia the State resorts to criminalizing social and grass-roots organizations as a method of repression aimed at imposing by force the global market’s agribusiness, large scale infrastructure works and the extraction of natural resources involving high human, social and environmental costs.

It seems like a slap in the face. The oil palm agro-industry has chosen precisely 16 October, World Food Sovereignty Day, and the Latin American country most hit by oil palm – Colombia – to hold the first Latin American meeting of the “Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil.”