The Conservation Industry’s Agenda in Times of Crisis
The environmental, climatic and social crisis has been a reality for many for a long time. Yet, rather than acknowledging their contribution to this crisis, corporations and allies use the pandemic to amplify their push to expand Protected Areas, presenting it as a “global solution”.
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Who Protects Protected Areas and Why?
The conservation industry’s plan to double the size of Protected Areas (PAs) is supposed to be the solution to biodiversity loss, climate change, and now even COVID-19! Although PAs will solve none of these, if the conservation industry keeps repeating a big lie, people will eventually come to believe it.
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Nepal: A False Solution for the Conservation of Chure Region and its Impacts for Forest Peoples
When the Chure region was declared a Protected Area, the rights of thousands of Community Forest Groups were undermined. They keep resisting despite the overall violence and the accepted project from the Green Climate Fund.
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Democratic Republic of the Congo: The Batwa and their Return to Ancestral Lands in the Kahuzi Biega National Park
A group of riparian Batwa people, exasperated by the extreme poverty following their eviction in order to establish the Kahuzi Biega National Park, decided to return to their ancestral forests. Since then, they regularly clash with the “eco-guards,” sometimes leading to the loss of human lives.
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Indonesia: What is an Ecosystem Restoration Concession?
Back in 2004, conservation NGOs and the Indonesian Ministry of Forestry pioneered with a model called Ecosystem Restoration Concessions. This article takes a closer look at this model in the context of new and old threats to forests, and the global push for “forest restoration”.
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Brazil: Plantation Company Suzano Covers Up its Devastating Impacts with Claims of “Conservation”
A key tactic for the giant pulp producer, Suzano S.A, to keep expanding its industrial eucalyptus plantations in Brazil, is to market itself as a company that practices “conservation” and “restoration.” This conceals its disastrous track record related to forest and forest-dwelling populations.
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Patriarchies in the Forests in India: Communities in Peril
The inter-dependencies in and among communities with their life spaces and practices -rather than the masculinist discourses of conquest and capture, of fencing and ‘divisions’-, sheds light to the conservation practices of forest communities. And within these interdependencies lie the stories of women.
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Panama: Other Perspectives on “Doing Conservation”
The indigenous Ngäbe-Buglé people had to endure brutal repression to avoid the onslaught on their territories. They managed to get the Government to ban mining and hydroelectric dams in their territory. However, another intense onslaught came from conservationist NGOs.
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Mozambique: Letter-Response to Portucel and ORAM
In response to an article that was published in WRM’s bulletin, Missão Tabita and WRM received letters from the plantation company, Portucel, and the organization, ORAM. The letters claimed that the article was untrue; however, neither Portucel nor ORAM could prove that the information published was not true.
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Land conflicts between plantation company SOCFIN and communities in Sierra Leone
Civil society organizations welcomed a Technical Committee report set up by the government of Sierra Leone to look into a legal dispute...
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International appeal to stop violence against the peoples in Colombia
Different national and international movements, organizations and networks condemn and vigorously denounce the systematic and selective...
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Legalising land theft in Brazil while the focus is on Covid-19
While most media is focusing on the Covid-19 crisis, new land laws in Brazil stand to usher an unprecedented dispossession of rural land...
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How have Asian Governments responded to the COVID-19 Pandemic?
In the opening article for the Focus on the Global South newsletter, Shalmali Guttal alerts on how lockdowns in Pakistan, India, Thailand,...
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An activist resource pack in front of the pandemic
The African women network against resource extraction (WOMIN) has compiled useful information for activists confronting the measures...
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The Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST) plant 1,000 trees in an encampment in Paraná, Brazil
500 native trees and 500 fruit trees were planted at the Maila Sabrina camp, during the closing of the Training Course for Pedagogical...
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Organisations ask Sierra Leone Government to move forward with resolution of the land conflict between plantation company Socfin and communities
The completion of a report is an important step towards finding a resolution to the long-standing land dispute in the Malen Chiefdom.
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Martin, we remember
Martin Khor (1951-2020), Third World Network’s Chairman and former Director, passed away on 1 April 2020 in his home in Penang, Malaysia. Martin was one of the founders of the WRM.
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What could be wrong about planting trees? The new push for more industrial tree plantations in the Global South
This publication aims to alert community groups and activists about the corporate push for a new round of large-scale tree plantation expansion. Dowload it here.
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Video|Rio Tinto’s biodiversity offset in Madagascar: Community suffering continues
The community of Antsotso produced this video showing the impact of a biodiversity offset project of the mining corporation Rio Tinto /QMM on their livelihoods and their subsistence food production.
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March 21st | UN International Day of Forests
This year, the theme chosen by the UN is “Forests and Biodiversity: Too Precious to Lose”. But how can the UN highlight this when its main policies related to forests and biodiversity allow for large-scale deforestation and biodiversity destruction?
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Green Climate Fund ignores Open Letter demand to say NO to funding requests for industrial tree plantations
On 11 March 2020, the Board of the Green Climate Fund (GCF) approved a requests from the Arbaro Fund for USD 25 million to set up industrial tree plantations in seven countries in Africa and Latin America.
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Organizations tell the Green Climate Fund to say NO to funding requests for industrial tree plantations
133 organisations and 101 individuals from 56 countries have signed the letter to the GCF Board. Specifically, they call for the rejection of a funding request from the Arbaro Fund which the GCF Board will discuss at its 25th meeting from 10-12 March.
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March 8 | Women’s Day
Women, particularly those who depend on forests for their livelihoods and sustenance, face many struggles.
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2020: More Agreements to Increase Deforestation
This editorial aims to raise a high alert with regard to the corporate agendas that dominate international forest-related processes, which appear to be entering new phases. The decisions taken have very real impacts on forest communities.
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Ghana: Eucalyptus plantations for producing energy
The Norwegian company APSD is establishing industrial eucalyptus plantations in Ghana for biomass fuel, which is considered a “carbon neutral” fuel. The Youth Volunteers for the Environment in Ghana spoke with communities affected by these plantations.
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Driving “Carbon Neutral”: Shell’s Restoration and Conservation Project in Indonesia
Oil multinational Shell claims that it is possible that consumers drive “carbon neutral”, simply by paying extra for offsetting their emissions – planting trees or investing in existing forest areas elsewhere. But what is happening in those areas elsewhere?
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Gabon: Communities Facing OLAM’s “Zero Deforestation” Pledges
What are the experiences of communities living inside or adjacent to the plantation areas of companies with “zero deforestation” pledges? How can these companies continue expanding without deforesting in densely forested countries?
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Smurfit Kappa in Colombia: Chronicle of a Death Foretold
After more than 50 years of struggle by peasant communities who have faced all kinds of environmental and social destruction, the highest court of Cauca Valley has ruled against the industrial plantation company, Smurfit Kappa Cartón Colombia.
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From Tanzania: Promoting Monoculture Tree Plantations for Firewood is a False Argument
Plantation companies often argue that local populations are destroying the forests, particularly where people depend on firewood and/or charcoal for their energy needs. Thus, they argue, industrial plantations can “sustainably” provide this wood. But this is simply not true.
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The Agrochemical Used on Tree Monocultures that Pollutes Forever
One of the latent dangers that comes with the establishment of monoculture plantations—which is generally invisible—is the high use of agrochemicals. Agrochemicals support profits for plantation companies and their financiers, while poisoning life.
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Women, Territories and Land Ownership. Reflections from Women in Mexico on Why We Want Land
Women’s struggle for full and dignified recognition of their lives and territories starts with not allowing the extractive model to progress. However, it must be resolved by the need for women to be able to make decisions to strengthen collective political control.
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Bioenergy in West Africa: Impacts on Women and Forests
The September 2019 Forest Cover newsletter from the Global Forest Coalition focuses on the bioenergy developments and use in West Africa...
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A People’s Climate Report: Voices from India
The People’s Climate Report, from the People’s Climate Network, is designed to offer a perspective on climate change from the bottom...
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Uruguay: The fraudulent campaign of the Finnish multinational UPM is unmasked
Social organizations from Uruguay, Finland and other countries, together with well-known professionals, presented the results of scientific...
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UK must prosecute British companies violating human rights in Liberia
The NGO Traidcraft Exchange released a report on January 2020 focused on the Equatorial Palm Oil, which is listed on the Alternative...
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Dutch bank ING accused of contributing to palm oil plantation companies abuses
On January 2020, the Dutch National Contact Point for the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) declared a complaint...
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Sign this letter! Tell Green Climate Fund Board Members to say NO to funding requests that promote monoculture tree plantations
Tell Green Climate Fund Board Members to say NO to funding requests that promote monoculture tree plantations and, in particular, the funding request of the Arbaro Fund for its so-called “Sustainable Forestry Fund”.
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Communities facing Zero Deforestation pledges: the case of OLAM in Gabon
Download the publication.
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Action Alert! Immediate release of villagers in the DR Congo imprisoned on false charges related to a land conflict with Feronia Inc.
Groups call for the immediate release of villagers in the DR Congo imprisoned for over 5 months on false charges related to a land conflict with the Canadian oil palm plantation company Feronia Inc. Sign the letter!!!
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How the Language of Domination Drives Deforestation
The contradictions between the ideals of concepts that originate from within international policy arenas and their implications for forests and forest peoples are clearly evident.
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An (incomplete) List of Concepts that Kill Forests
Language is never neutral. Certain concepts have historically been used to dominate people and territories. This article highlights concepts that are usually presented in a positive light but that actually serve economic interests that harm forests and communities.
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“The National Interest”: Neofascism in the Amazon Rainforest
While it was easy to see the smoke from the forest fires in Brazil, it was much harder to see what was behind the Brazilian government’s smokescreen: actions that will lead the rainforest to a swift death, destroying territories, livelihoods and the diverse cultures.
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Portucel in Mozambique: The Reality Behind the Discourse of “Sustainable Plantations”
The company, Portucel, considers its thousands of hectares of plantations in Mozambique to be “sustainable,” despite serious problems and conflicts with and among local communities.
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India: Women, Commons and Patriarchy
A feminist view on Commons reveals that accumulation opposes the basic principles of sharing and sustaining: receiving from nature’s abundance is done by ensuring that needs (and not wants or greed) define the extent of extraction.
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Blockchain and Smart Contracts: Capital’s Latest Attempts to Seize Life on Earth
The control of genetic resources (non-human living organisms that humans can make use of) through property rights has caused a massive theft of forest peoples’ knowledge. A project called the Earth Bank of Codes aims for a global seizure of life for capital accumulation.
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Climatology / Ideology
Climatology’s understanding of climate is extremely biased and exclusionary, and is only one particular view. Building better alliances around climate action means recognizing that there are ongoing conflicts and tensions among different conceptions of what climate is.
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New name for old distraction: Nature-Based Solutions is the new REDD
The UN and conservation industry discourse and propaganda over REDD+ changed to a new forest conservation fad at the UN climate negotiations in December: Nature-Based-Solutions. Another false solution that distracts from the urgent task to keep fossil fuels in the ground.
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The Development Dictionary
This 1992 book, edited by Wolfgang Sachs, compiles more than 15 key concepts that served as a basis for, and a way to expand, destructive...
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Traps, Dilemmas and Contradictions of the Rights Discourse in the Forests
Another reflection around a key concept for forests and forest-dependant people is the WRM’s Bulletin 234, from November 2017, which...
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Nature-Based Solutions: Whose interests are behind?
A post from the REDD-Monitor blog opens up the space for a needed debate about the politics surrounding so-called nature-based or natural...
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FSC: Rebranding logging as a “sustainable” activity
ARTE, the European TV channel, broadcasted a documentary about FSC entitled: “The exploitation of primary forests: Can an ecolabel stop...
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Regulated Destruction: How Biodiversity Offsetting enables environmental destruction
A recent report by Friends of the Earth International highlights how classic, stringent regulations are being swapped for much more lenient...
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Statement from Indigenous Mapuche and others in Chile: No to market-based schemes!
Chile was to be the host of the UN Climate Summit. But in the face of a massive popular uprising against the neoliberal economic model,...
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A Green Transition or an Expansion of Extraction?
This bulletin highlights threats involved in the so-called “energy transition,” and exposes its dirty secret of exponential expansion of mining in the global South as a consequence of the massive demand for “green” energy.
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“Forest-Smart Mining”: The World Bank’s Strategy to Greenwash Destruction from Mining in Forests
An oxymoron describes “a statement that seems to say two opposite things.” The World Bank has a lot of experience with oxymoronic initiatives.
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Women, Forests and Extractive Industries: The Case of the Mikea Indigenous Women in Madagascar
Australian company Base Resources was allowed to destroy the Mikea Forest as long as it established an offset project, which, in turn, would impose far-reaching restrictions on communities to access their land and forests.
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Brazil: Hydro Alunorte’s Alumina Tailings Dam. A Disaster Foreshadowed
The growth of mineral extraction and metallurgical production, along with the consequent proliferation of toxic waste tailings dams, has occurred at the same rate as the emptying and bursting of tailings dams in several parts of the world.
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India: Mining, Deforestation and Conservation Money
The money that the Indian Government collects from companies destroying forests, such as mining companies, is being used to harass, persecute and evict people from the so-called Protected Areas, such as the Tiger Reserves, National Parks and Wild Life Sanctuaries.
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Contesting a “Blue” Pacific: Ocean and Coastal Territories under Siege
Governments and transnational corporations backed up by multilateral financial institutions, together with Pacific Island nations, are racing to divide up the ocean under the narratives of so-called sustainable Blue Economy and Blue Growth, to justify its exploitation.
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Oil, Forests and Climate Change
Oil is a driving force behind climate change, the globalized unequal trade and the new landscapes of colonization. Yet, oil frontiers have multiplied and economies remain deeply petroleum-dependent, albeit concealed behind a “green” cloak.
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The European Union Continues to Chase After Raw Materials
The European Union’s policy pursues growth at any price. “Green” technologies require an increasing amount and variety of metals and minerals. Millions of public funds flow every year from the European Investment Bank to mining projects—under the cloak of “development.”
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Cuidanderas: Guardians of the Amazon
CUIDANDERAS is a mini-series from the Urgent Action Fund for Latin America and the Caribbean (UAF-LAC). It presents stories of Latin...
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“Sexy killers”: Coal extraction in Indonesia
Directed by Dandhy Dwi Laksono and Ucok Suparta, “Sexy Killers” is a 2019 Indonesian documentary film that portrays the coal mining...
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Chocked by coal: The carbon catastrophe in Bangladesh
Published by Market Forces and 350.org, and co-published by Bangladesh Poribesh Andolan (BAPA), Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB)...
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The Black Snake of Peru’s Amazon: The Northern Peruvian pipeline
Since 1979, more than 100 oil spills have occurred along the North Peruvian pipeline – a mega construction, stretching a massive 1,106 km...
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Four Years Later: International Condemnation of Brazil for Tailings Dam Break
Four years after the collapse of Samarco’s tailings dam in Mariana, organizations and movements presented a case before the...
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Just(ice) transition is a post-extractivist transition
This recent publication from War on Want and London Mining Network highlights the immediate need for a full and rapid transition away from...
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International Finance Corporation withdraws REDD+ funding request submitted to the Green Climate Fund
This is good news for forests, forest peoples and the climate because the IFC proposal aimed at subsidizing a carbon market for private sector REDD+ project credits for which there is neither demand nor justification.
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Harassment and arbitrary arrests of land defenders in the DRC
Community leaders and traditional chiefs in areas affected by the plantations of Canadian company PHC-Feronia in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) continue to suffer all kinds of massive human rights violations.
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Tell Green Climate Fund Board Members to say NO to REDD+ funding requests and IFC subsidies for REDD+ speculators
More than one hundred organisations signed this open letter to members of the Green Climate Fund Board. The Board will be meeting from 12 to 14 November 2019, and will decide on a number of funding requests related to REDD+.
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Offsets in the forests
A logic that violates indigenous and traditional peoples’ rights while facilitating further deforestation. A compilation of articles from the World Rainforest Movement Bulletin (WRM). October 2019
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Historic process continues at the UN: Substantive negotiations of the text of a binding treaty on transnational corporations and other business enterprises with respect to human rights
The UN Inter-governmental Working Group (IGWG) discussing a treaty on “transnational corporations and other business enterprises with respect to human rights,” enters its fifth round of negotiations at the UN.
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Intimidation and attacks against land rights defenders in DRC
On 18 September 2019, Mombulu Boyama Alphonse was arrested in Yangoma, and subsequently detained at Lokutu Police Station following a complaint against him from the General Prosecutor of Tshopo province. The complaint is related to a protest by villagers against Feronia in March 2019.
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Public letter to IUFRO: Plantations are Not Forests!!!
Public letter from Brazilian organizations to the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO) World Congress, which takes place from 29th September to 5th October 2019 in Curitiba, Brazil.
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Adding Fuel to the Fire
“Shock” is a common reaction when a crisis emerges… or when it comes to light. However, it also provides a convenient smoke screen for governments, financial institutions and companies behind which they can hide their own role in and responsibility for the current crises in the forests.
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OLAM Palm Gabon pretends to use the Forest Definition to implement its ‘Zero Deforestation’ pledge
The Singapore-based OLAM company has secured access to 500 thousand hectares of land in Gabon to set up large-scale oil palm plantations, a country with 85% of forest coverage. How can OLAM then claim to follow a “zero deforestation” commitment?
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Dynamics and Processes of Change in the Peruvian Amazon: Learning from the Kechwa-Lamas Peoples
The government claims that small-scale agriculture is responsible for deforestation. But this claim ignores government policies that drive land-use changes and destructive markets as well as the exclusion of indigenous peoples through the creation of reserves.
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Indonesia: Violence against Women Workers in Oil Palm Plantations
Exploitative working conditions in the oil palm plantations’ industry in Indonesia are persistent and the main victims are mostly women. Although this situation is often overlooked, the production process of the world’s largest producer of palm oil is strongly influenced by its existence.
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Kekerasan Terhadap Buruh Perempuan di Perkebunan Sawit Indonesia
(English, Español, Português, Français) Cerita sukses Indonesia sebagai produsen terbesar sawit dunia dengan perhitungan keuntungan...
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Indigenous Peoples Face Difficulties Accessing Justice on Land Matters in Cameroon
Indigenous peoples in Cameroon are not only seeing their lands threatened due to strong pressure from corporate and state investors, but they also face a discriminatory justice system that blames and criminalizes them.
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REDD+: A Scheme Rotten at the Core
REDD+ has shown to be a big failure for the climate, the forests and forest peoples, but many international agencies and governments continue to support it. This article takes a look at its inability to halt deforestation and the fundamental flaws of its main initiatives.
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Mekong: Rubber Fever Strikes Again
The industrial production of natural rubber has always been synonymous with destruction and exploitation. About 70% is used to manufacture tires. As the use of cars, trucks and airplanes increases, the use of rubber will also increase. And this does not come without controversy.
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Mapuche Lavkenche Women’s Resistance to the Chilean Forestry Model
The Network of Women’s Organizations of Tirúa, in south central Chile, is deploying strategies for life to prevail in this region. This territory has been threatened by the massive invasion of tree plantations, which state policies continue to promote.
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Violent altercations at the Kahuzi Biega National Park, DRC, must stop!
The Centre for accompanying Pygmy Autochthones peoples and Vulnerable Minorities (CAMV, for its French acronym) alerts on the disturbing...
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Statement against the second UPM pulp mill in Uruguay
At the end of July 2019, UPM confirmed that it will install a second pulp mill in Uruguay. This megaproject will produce up to 2.33 million...
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Chile: Territorial voices on the mega-expansion of Celulosa Arauco
The campaign, “Territorial Voices on the MAPA Project: Testimonies about the mega-expansion of Celulosa Arauco,” seeks to shine a light...
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Documentary that accuses Veracel Celulose of bribery, land appropriation and violence is screened for the second time in Finland
TV Yle, Finland’s national public broadcasting channel, has produced a documentary about the participation of Stora Enso, a...
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Africa: The RSPO certification for palm oil plantations is greenwash!
RSPO is the most widely used voluntary certification system for palm oil companies and it hold its 3rd African Sustainable Palm Oil...
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Trees to Solve the World’s Problems? From Genetically Engineered Trees for the Bioeconomy – to the Trillion Tree Proposal and Business for Nature
This report -by Anne Petermann and Orin Langelle, Global Justice Ecology Project- examines events and research publicized between 23 June...
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Árvores transgênicas e plantações de monoculturas de árvores: Conflitos, ameaças e lutas de resistência no Brasil
Only available in Portuguese.
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Impacts of monoculture tree plantations
Testimonies from the meeting “Threats and Impacts of Genetically Engineered Trees (GE-trees) Monoculture”, that took place in Porto Alegre, Brazil, in April 2019.
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What are GE-trees?
Anne Petermann, coordinator of the global Stop GE-Trees Campaign, explains what Genetically Engineered trees are, the risks, uncertainties and context.
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Plantations Are Not Forests – Testimonies from Acre, Brazil
Dercy Teles, from the rubber tapper movement, and Lindomar Padilha, from Conselho Indigenista Missionário (CIMI) – Acre, explain why monoculture tree plantations are not forests.
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New report: Communities in Africa fight back against the land grab for palm oil
A new report on the state of industrial oil palm plantations in Africa shows how communities are turning the tide on a massive land grab in the region.
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Video: Testimonies of Resistance – 21 September
Three testimonies of resistance from Brasil, 2019.
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Poster | September 21st – International Day of Struggle Against Tree Plantations
Solidarity with communities standing against tree plantations!
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2019 | Halting Deforestation? REDD+ and the Protection of the Fossil Fuels and Conservation Industry
This September 2019, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) will make another attempt at pushing through the California Tropical Forest Standard.
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Help stop the advance of oil palm plantations in Gabon!
We need your support! We call on organizations, groups, networks and movements to sign this petition in solidarity with Gabonese communities threatened by OLAM / SOTRADER plantations. You can adhere until Thursday, September 19.
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India: Compensating for Forest Loss or Advancing Forest Destruction?
This study looks at how Compensatory Afforestation is accelerating both, the destruction of forests in India by big corporations and the appropriation of community land for the supposed compensation.
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“We should conserve forests in the first place for the people who depend on the forests”
An inteview with Winnie Overbeek, the International Coodinator of the WRM, about the causes and the impacts of the deforestation in the Amazon.
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