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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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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“Burning the Amazon is a crime against humanity”, Via Campesina Brazil
It should be clear for society that this is not an isolated phenomenon. In fact, it is the result of a series of actions taken by agribusinesses and big miners.
Read MoreThe Mumbai – Porto Alegre Forest Initiative
Background A number of participants at the World Social Forum 2004 met in Mumbai and believing that forest issues are in essence social and...
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Why is no action being taken to arrest the killer of DR Congo land defender Joël Imbangola Lunea?
In a statement released on 14 August 2019, RIAO-RDC and support organisations call on DRC authorities to immediately find and arrest the murder suspect. Weeks have passed since the killing of Joël Imbangola Lunea without an arrest of the murder suspect.
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Land defender violently killed by a security guard of Canadian palm oil company Feronia in the DRC
A letter signed by over 140 organizations and social movements from different countries around the world and by over 110,000 individuals has been sent to the President of the DRC and the Governour of Equateur province, where the killing took place.
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Your support is urgently needed! Land defender violently killed by a security guard of Canadian palm oil company Feronia in the DRC
We ask for your urgent support. Please sign on to the Action Alert. It is important to send the letter as soon as possible.
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Land defender violently killed by a security guard of a Canadian palm oil company in the DR Congo
A member of the Congolese environmental and human rights organisation RIAO-RDC was brutally killed by a security guard of the Canadian palm oil company Feronia Inc. on Sunday, July 21, 2019, near the company’s Boteka plantations in Bempumba, Eqauteur Province, DRC.
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Infrastructure and Extraction: A Host of Deforestation
It is impossible to think about extraction without thinking about a vast network of accompanying infrastructure, and thus even greater deforestation and destruction.
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Ever More Extreme Infrastructure
We live in an age of ever more “extreme infrastructure.” The construction of roads, railway lines and other infrastructure linking production and resource extraction centres with major consumer areas is tied to profoundly undemocratic forms of elitist planning.
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The Amazon Waterway in Peru vs. Flowing Rivers
The Waterway aims to connect the Amazon to the world. But that argument is based on the idea that we are disconnected in the Amazon. That is not true. What it really wants to do is place the Amazon in service of capital, razing peoples.
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Indonesia. The Gloomy Truth Behind Geothermal Energy: A misleading Narrative of “Clean Energy”
“If our land, water sources, air and livelihoods are being destroyed by geothermal exploration and exploitation, how can this energy be called “clean”? “Clean” for whom?”
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Women Stand Up to Fight the Suzano Paper Mill in Maranhão, Brazil
The construction of the Suzano Pulp and Paper mill—along with nearby highways, the constant transport of wood, and the massive influx of workers—has brought a lot of devastation to communities. This is the testimony of an activist who is fighting for the territory.
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Infrastructure in Africa for Extractive Industries and Corporate Profits: What about Community Needs?
The mega-infrastructure corridors prioritized in ambitious investment programmes spanning the african continent are squarely focused on facilitating the export of minerals and agricultural commodity crops and the import of processed foods and manufactured goods.
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Uruguay Goes into Debt with Million-Dollar Infrastructure at the Service of a Multinational Pulp Company
As a condition to install its second pulp mill, the company UPM demanded that the Uruguayan state build a new railroad from the site where UPM plans to locate its mill to the port. The government would cover the costs of these infrastructure projects at the service of UPM.
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Infrastructure From and For Forest Communities: The MicroHydro Power in Long Liam, Sarawak
After the cancellation of the Baram mega-dam in 2016, the villagers of Long Liam, who were among the thousands opposing the construction of a mega dam, joined forces to install the very much needed power source in their community.
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Brazil: The Struggle of the Xinguara Peoples in the Amazon
The fight against the Belo Monte Hydroelectric Dam is still alive; but peoples of the territory have to deal with the denial of their basic rights, the increase in violence in the city and countryside.
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China: Villagers sue a timber company and a local government for drying up their water sources
In a context of a thriving eucalyptus plantations industry in China, around 150 Yong’an residents are suing both Guangxi Lee & Man...
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The Amazon: Roads and Highways are Hubs of Deforestation
The study, “Amazonía en la encrucijada” (“The Amazon at the Crossroads”), by the Amazon Geo-Referenced Socio-Environmental...
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Clean Energy? Dams that Destroy in Guatemala
In the Yich K’isis region of Guatemala, the construction of three hydroelectric dams has been planned: Pojom I, Pojom II and San Andrés....
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How the rich and powerful hijack resistance victories
Under the ISDS (investor-state dispute settlement) parallel justice system for corporations and the rich, companies can sue countries when...
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Dam displacements in Malaysia: gender insights
A paper from researcher Carol Yong critically reviews issues of dam-induced displacement and resettlement of indigenous communities in...
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WRM Bulletin “Voices from the ground: communities in movement and resistance strategies” in Swahili
Despite the many profound damages that industries cause in the world’s forests, they also cause something else to emerge: the strong and...
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The WRM bulletin 241 is available in Swahili
The bulletin “Voices From The Ground: Communities In Movement And Resistance Strategies”, N° 241, is available in Swahili.
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A 40 meses del asesinato de Berta Cáceres exigimos juicio y castigo para los autores intelectuales del crimen
Only available in Spanish.
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(Swahili) Jinsi ya Kuimarisha Mavuguvugu ya Upinzani?
Ni ukweli usiopingika kuwa misitu ya asili inaharibiwa sana kwa kiwango cha kasi sana. Ekari nyingi sana maelfu kwa maelfu zinaharibiwa...
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(Swahili) Brazili: Mimi ni Kum’tum, Ninatokea Jamii ya Watu wa Akroá-Gamela
Kwa mujibu wa ramani na taarifa za karne ya 18, watu wa jamii ya Gamela, kama walivyoitwa na Wareno waliishi katika eneo linaloitwa...
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(Swahili) Wanakijiji nchini Sierra Leone wanatafakari juu ya hatma yao ya baadaye baada ya kushinda na kuipata tena ardhi yao toka kwa kampuni ya mafuta ya mawese
Wanakijiji katika Wilaya ya Port Loko, nchini Sierra Leone wanashangilia. Hii ni baada ya mapambano ya zaidi ya mwongo mmoja dhidi ya...
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(Swahili) Kuuhuisha Ustawi: Vijiji vya Kochi taluka, nchini India, wanapinga uchimbaji wa madini na wanafungua nafasi kwa ajili ya uongozi binafsi (1)
Mikutano ya vijiji (Kwa Kihindi: Gram Sabhas) huko Korchi taluka, wilaya ya Gadchiroli, jimbo la Maharashtra, India, pamoja na upinzani wa...
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(Swahili) Upinzani wa Wanawake Walinzi wa Maeneo kwa Tasnia ya Uziduaji huko Amerika ya Kusini
Huko Amerika ya Kusini, wanawake wamekuwa ni sehemu ya historia ya mapambano katika harakati za kulinda maeneo yao na mazingira. Kwa...
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(Swahili) Tafakari kutoka Afrika: Ishinde hofu ya kujenga vuguvugu imara la mabadiliko
Sekretarieti ya shirika la WRM International ilifanya mahojiano na mwanaharakati wa masuala ya kijamii na kimazingira na mtetezi wa haki...
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(Swahili) Kuisimamia haki ya kusema HAPANA: Baraza la Kudumu la Watu wa Afrika ya Kusini
“Hatutaki uchimbaji wa madini na watu wake. Hatumtaki mtoto wake. Hatumtaki bibi yake. Hatuitaki familia yake. Hatuna hamu…
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(Swahili) Tanzania: Upinzani wa wanajamii dhidi ya mashamba makubwa ya miti
Kwa mtazamo wa mara ya kwanza, kijiji cha Nzivi kinafanana na vijiji vingine katika eneo lile. Lakini kijiji hicho kina tofauti kubwa na vijiji vingine kwa sababu hakiruhusu wawekezaji wanaotaka kupanda mashamba makubwa kama vile upandaji wa mashamba makubwa ya miti…
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Global Campaign Highlights Worldwide Rejection of GE-Trees In Advance of International Tree Biotech Conference
The global Campaign to STOP Genetically Engineered Trees is in Raleigh, NC during the 2019 Tree Biotechnology Conference of the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO).
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NGOs oppose the oil industry’s Natural Climate Solutions and demand that Eni and Shell keep fossil fuels in the ground
Oil giants Eni and Shell have both recently announced plans to use trees to offset some of their ever increasing carbon emissions. On May 13th, NGOs put out a statement opposing the oil industry’s attempts to avoid its responsibility for climate breakdown.
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Brazil: Letter of the Indigenous Peoples to the governments of Germany and California
Chiefs and leaders of indigenous peoples in Acre published a letter addressed to the governments of Germany and California, reporting that millionaire funds are coming to the state of Acre for REDD and PES payments, without transparency and benefiting few indigenous people.
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Green discourses and deforestation
While the destruction of forest territories continues, more pledges, agreements and programs are being implemented in the name of ‘addressing deforestation and climate change’.
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Indonesia: Fate of Fishing Villages in the Climate Crisis and the Failure of ‘Blue Carbon’
Blue Carbon (or Blue REDD+) appeared as a new carbon offset scheme between emissions and carbon absorption in coastal territories. However, organizations in Indonesia warn that the initiative is a strategy to change the coastal and marine territories into tradable assets .
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Mozambique: The Threat of Biodiversity “Offsets”
BIOFUND, a conservation fund to finance protected areas in Mozambique—with support from the World Bank, international cooperation and conservation NGOs—intends to use biodiversity offsets to obtain resources and speculate in financial markets.
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Indigenous territories in Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo, threatened by monoculture plantations
Millions of hectares of mostly forested areas in Malaysia have been targeted for developing monoculture plantations –including expanding timber plantations-, however, many of these have not been fully developed yet.
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Misguided funding: Green Climate Fund support for REDD+
Despite the government of Brazil announcing cutbacks to action against deforestation, the Green Climate Fund awarded US$ 96 million for alleged emission reductions in the Brazilian Amazon. These avoided emissions in part exist only on paper.
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Attempt to Re-Colonize Forests in India The new Draft Amendments to Indian Forest Act
A long cycle of state repression in India now sees new amendments to the colonial Indian Forest Act which would not only make forest bureaucracy more powerful than ever, but would also de facto put an end to the landmark Forest Rights Act.
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