Report of the fact finding mission on the Human Rights situation in Malen Chiefdom after the violent incidents in January 2019
This report, released on January 29th 2019, was made by human rights defenders in Sierra Leone, concerned for the detention of activists and the death of two people who sustained gunshots from allegedly the state security personnel acting to protect SOCFIN on January 21th 2019
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Press release: Land Rights Defenders Condemn Gross Human Rights Abuses in Sahn Malen
Proponents of land rights in Sierra Leone note with grave concern the grave human rights violations against members of the Malen Affected Landowners and users Association (MALOA) who were dispossessed of their land by the agro–based multinational SOCFIN investment company.
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Press release: In Sierra Leone, Land rights defenders under attack
Civil Society working on land governance and human rights in Sierra Leone and internationally are concerned over the excessive use of force by state security personnel since Monday 21st, January, 2019 in Malen chiefdom, Pujehun district during which two people were allegedly killed by gun shots.
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How to Strengthen Resistance Movements?
Despite the many profound damages that industries cause in the world’s forests, they also cause something else to emerge: the strong and diverse resistance movements of affected communities defending their territories, livelihoods, cultures and even their existence. The struggle continues!
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Support this declaration! Chico Mendes in the Standoff Against the False Solutions of Green Capitalism*
The declaration is open for sign-on in solidarity until 31 January 2019.
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Brazil: I am Kum’tum, I am of the Akroá-Gamela People
WRM spoke with Kum’tum, an indigenous man from the Akroá-Gamela people of Brazil. These are his reflections about their history and the current collective process that aims to rediscover and recover their roots, after having been dispossessed of their territory and community.
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Villagers in Sierra Leone Ponder their Future after Winning their Lands Back from a Palm Oil Company
After a decade of struggling against a company that grabbed their lands and erected oil palm plantations, a court has ruled that the lands must be given back to the communities. Now they are trying to figure out what they should do with the large areas of lands that have been occupied by oil palms.
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Reimagining Wellbeing: Villages in Korchi taluka, India, Resisting Mining and Opening Spaces for Self-Governance
Village assemblies in Korchi, along with resistance against mining, are actively engaged in reimagining and reconstructing local governance. Women’s collectives have also started to assert their voice in these emerging decision-making spaces.
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Resistance by Women Defenders of Territory to Extractivism in Latin America
In Latin America, women have always been part of the historical struggles in the defence of territory and the environment. Through protests and daily practices, they have resisted the many ways of extractivism and all forms of violence against women.
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A Reflection from Africa: Conquer the Fear for Building Stronger Movements
An interview with the activist Nasako Besingi. He organized communities in their protests against US agribusiness Herakles Farm’s palm oil plantations. Due to this engagement, he has been the victim of Herakles Farm and government physical attacks, intimidation and criminalization.
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Rising for the Right to Say NO: Southern Africa Peoples Permanent Tribunal
The Southern African Peoples Permanent Tribunal on Transnational Corporations has been an important tool for communities to share their struggles as well as to challenge the status quo by rising up to say NO to corporate power, impunity and a destructive development agenda.
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Tanzania: Community Resistance against Monoculture Tree Plantations
At first glance, the Nzivi village is a village as many others in the area. But a big difference is that it does not allow investors for large-scale activities, such as monoculture tree plantations. Green Resources is the main private plantation company active in Tanzania.
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No to ProSAVANA and MATOPIBA. Solidarity with people in Mozambique and Brazil!
Peasants’ movements and civil society organizations from Mozambique, Brazil and Japan met in Tokyo, Japan, in November 2018, for the...
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Borneo: Penan village successfully resists logging operations
After two years of struggle against logging in their forest, the Penan village of Long Tevenga in Northern Sarawak gained a major victory....
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Estonia: Government decides to terminate pulp mill spatial plan
In May 2017, the Estonian government launched a procedure for a national designated spatial plan to determine the most suitable location...
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California, United States: Decision on Tropical Forest Standard is postponed until April 2019
California’s Air Resources Board held a public meeting to consider the endorsement of the California Tropical Forest Standard, which...
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Dercy Teles on the popular movement of rubber tappers in Brazil
In June 2017, the WRM carried out an interview with Dercy Teles, the first female president of a Brazilian Rural Workers’ Union, in the...
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The last trees of the Amazon
A team of journalists from five Latin American countries investigated how groups of timber traffickers manage to steal and process timber...
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The global farmland grab by pension funds needs to stop
A recent report by the NGO GRAIN highlights how the number of pension funds involved in farmland investment and the amount of money they...
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Chico Mendes, 30 anos depois
(Only available in Portuguese) Os povos das florestas convidam a Marcha em Xapuri: Com Chico Mendes no empate contra o capitalismo verde. 14 de dezembro, 17 h, Xapuri, Acre, Brasil.
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Recueil de recettes nutritives, médicinales, artisanales des palmiers à huile traditionnels
Only available in French.
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“Mainstreaming biodiversity” in extractive industries: Concealing devastation and land grabbing
A compilation of articles from the World Rainforest Movement Bulletin on the occasion of the 14th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), to be held 17 – 29 November, in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.
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Certification promotes land concentration, violence and destruction
Certification schemes for tree plantations initially generated many expectations, promising a true transformation. Yet after all these years, we can definitely conclude that what the RSPO and FSC also have in common is that they will not meet those expectations.
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Are FSC and RSPO accomplices in crime? Jari Florestal and Agropalma’s Unresolved Land Question in the Brazilian Amazon
For years, WRM has been warning many certified monoculture plantations in Brazil have been established on land for which titles were obtained fraudulently. This article discusses the case of two companies that operate in the Brazilian Amazon: Agropalma and Jari Florestal.
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Nigeria: Okomu’s oil palm plantations bring misery for women living in their vicinity
Interview with Hajaratu Abdullahi from Community Forest Watch in Nigeria who talks about the hardship and misery that the palm oil company Okomu Oil, subsidiary of global palm oil company SocFin, is bringing to communities like hers in Nigeria’s Edo state
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Dekel Oil’s false promises lure villagers into dangerous oil palm growing contracts in Cote d’Ivoire
Land owners in Cote d’Ivoire are trapped in contracts with Dekel Oil, a company that made false promises arguing villagers would become rich by signing contracts to let oil palm monocultures on their land.
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Ecuador: Peoples, communities and nature against oil palm
In Ecuador, the expansion of industrial oil palm plantations is the main cause of deforestation. A meeting to exchange knowledge, the first of its kind in Ecuador, brought together leaders from oil palm-affected provinces from the three regions of the country.
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Gabon: OLAM’s industrial oil palm plantations deprive community of Sanga of access to safe water
The expansion of industrial oil palm plantations by OLAM hit the village of Sanga in the South of Gabon particularly hard: The community’s main water source became so polluted that the water is now unsafe for drinking and not suitable for other daily uses.
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The Xe Pian Xe Namnoy Dam collapse in Lao PDR: Will the Mekong region learn from this?
The government of Lao PDR has decided to establish the country as “the battery of Asia” by developing major hydropower dams along the Mekong River. The recent collapse of the Xe Pian -Xe Namnoy dam, however, accentuated once again the many risks of such projects.
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New step towards a Binding Treaty on Transnational Corporations and Humans Rights
We share here the Declaration of the Global Campaign for the closing of this 4th session of the Working Group, which highlights some key elements for the elaboration of a meaningful instrument that allows those affected to have access to effective justice
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Court orders chilean company, Arauco, to return land to the Mapuche community
On September 28, the Chilean courts ruled in favor of the Ignacio Huilipán community, located in the Contulmo Commune, Bío Bío region.
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Letter from the Collective of Women affected by monoculture oil palm from Gabon to FAO
Women affected by OLAM’s oil palm plantations, during a meeting in the village of Fera, in Gabon, decided to send a letter to FAO denouncing the impacts they are suffering.
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Sign on statement: “RSPO: failing to eliminate violence and destruction from the industrial palm oil sector”
Friends of the Earth International and the World Rainforest Movement have launched an international sign-on statement denouncing the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).
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A new documentary: “The exploitation of primary forests: Can an ecolabel stop the forest industry?”
A new documentary shows how the FSC certification of forests and industrial tree plantations looks like on the ground and whether it protects the forests and the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities.
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Closer to a United Nations Declaration in Defense of Peasant’s Rights
Peasants and other people working in rural areas are one step away from achieving a United Nations Declaration that could defend and protect their rights to land, seeds, biodiversity, local markets and much more.
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Press release: Organizations Denounce the RSPO for Greenwashing the Oil Palm Industry’s Destruction and Violence
On November 12, with the endorsement of organizations from five continents, Friends of the Earth International and World Rainforest Movement publish an open statement denouncing the failure of the RSPO to eliminate the violence and destruction that oil palm plantations.
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Letter from the Collective of Women affected by monoculture oil palm from Gabon to FAO
Within the framework of September 21, International day of Struggle against Monoculture Tree Plantations, women affected by OLAM’s oil...
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DRC communities file complaint with German development bank to resolve century-old land conflict with palm oil company
Nine communities from the DR Congo took a historic step this week by filing a complaint with the complaints mechanism of the German development bank (Deutsche Investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft – DEG)
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Sign the statement! RSPO: 14 years failing to eliminate violence and destruction from the industrial palm oil sector
We invite organizations to sign on and support the statement, which denounces that the RSPO, since it was created 14 years ago, has been a tool that served the corporate interests of the oil palm sector
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September 21st: International Day of Struggle Against Monoculture Tree Plantations
On this September 21st, a message of solidarity and homage to the communities, community-based organisations and activists who are fighting in many different ways and places to stop monoculture tree plantations.
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Song: Plantations are not Forests!
A song by By Ajele Sunday, Nigerian artist. His community suffer land grabbing from oil palm companies. Listen to the song.
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Oil Palm in Peru: Destruction Advancing Upon the Amazon
Communities affected by oil palm plantations organized a Forum in the city of Yurimaguas to denounce and expose the social and environmental impacts of these plantations.
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Argentina: “Sowing Struggle, We Harvest Land!” Land Recovery in Misiones
Over the last ten years, through organization and struggle, families in northeast Argentina have managed to recover land monopolized by multinational corporation Arauco. Now, they are growing food there.
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The untold suffering of women living in and around Feronia’s industrial oil palm plantations in the DRC
Interview with Solange Bolembe, from RIAO-RDC, about the many challenges that women face who live in communities affected by vast oil palm plantations managed by Feronia-PHC, a company financed by several European development banks.
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Indonesia: The trail of destruction behind a sheet of paper
The chain of impacts caused by the expansion of tree plantations that provide the raw material for the production of paper. The article looks specially at companies linked to the Asia Pulp & Paper Group (APP), APP-Sinar Mas Group, and APRIL.
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At What Cost? Irresponsible business and the murder of land and environmental defenders in 2017
“The world is deadlier than ever for land and environmental defenders, with agribusiness the industry most linked to killings,”...
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The false promise of certification
This report from Changing Markets Foundation is focused on the environmental impacts of certification schemes and voluntary initiatives in...
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The Expansion of Tree Plantations on Peasant Territories in the Nacala Corridor: Green Resources in Mozambique.
This web report shows the complex dynamics involved in land use and how a consultation over a plantation company’s access to land was...
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“Red our land” (Roja tierra nuestra), the story of an agrarian triumph.
The documentary recounts the recovery of land the cooperative of Independent Producers of Piray (PIP) in Misiones, Argentina, reclaimed...
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Speaking truth to power. The village women taking on the palm oil giant.
The Société Financière des Caoutchouc (Socfin) group is one of the world’s biggest plantation companies. In Cameroon, a bitter land...
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September 21st – International Day of Struggle Against Monoculture Tree Plantations
On this September 21st, a message of solidarity and homage to the communities, community-based organisations and activists who are fighting in many different ways and places to stop monoculture tree plantations.
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Declaration: No to abuse against women in industrial oil palm plantations
We said it in Mundemba, Cameroon, we reiterated it in Port Loko, Sierra Leone, we re-affirm this in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire: the abuse against women in and around industrial oil palm plantations must STOP!
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Halting deforestation? REDD+ and the protection of the fossil fuel and conservation industry
A compilation of articles from the World Rainforest Movement Bulletin on the occasion of the Global Climate Action Summit to be held 12-14 September, in California, United States
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Argentina: Alert for the serious situation of the mbya guaraní Ysyry community
Available only in Spanish
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Pembakaran Hutan dan Korban yang Dihukum: Kisah tentang Tragedi Masyarakat Adat Delang di Lamandau, Kalimantan Tengah
Bila anda melakukan perjalanan dari kota Palangkaraya sampai ke kota Nangabulik, ibukota kabupaten Lamandau, Provinsi Kalimantan Tengah, anda akan melihat lanskap tunggal berupa perkebunan sawit.
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Fires, forests and peoples: knowledge and practices under threat
Forest peoples’ knowledge and practices of the use and management of controlled fire in forests have been identified within climate change policies as the cause of forest fires. Nevertheless, fire is critical for ensuring the food and cultural sovereignty of forest peoples.
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Peru: forest inhabited by the indigenous Shawi to be handed over to Canadian mining firm
The indigenous Shawi people repeat their call for protests in defense of their territory in the tropical rainforest. This time the threat is in the form of the world’s leading gold mining company: Barrick Gold Corporation.
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Challenging capitalist fire
Today, a capitalist conception of fire dominates. But vernacular conceptions continue to evolve and struggle against it.
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Indonesia: Forest burning and punished victims. The tragedy of the Delang indigenous community in Lamandau, Central Kalimantan
Despite that most forest fires in Indonesia started within expanding oil palm plantation concession areas, companies are not being persecuted.
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Chile: Mega forest fires, corporate crime and impunity
Tree plantation companies have enormous power and impunity in Chile. The fires of 2017 demonstrated the collusion between these companies and public officials to prevent investigations and criminalize the Mapuche indigenous people
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The Amazon: A territory in the crossfire
Fires in the Amazon are occurring more frequently and with greater intensity. But who is really burning the forests?
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Quito, a city in the middle of a firebelt
Since the native vegetation that surrounded Quito was destroyed to make way for eucalyptus and pine plantations, the forest fires that the city faces year after year have been intensifying.
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Portugal: 28 years ago a village fought against eucalyptus. The land never burned again
In 1989, there was a war in the valley of Lila, Portugal. Hundreds of people gathered to destroy 200 hectares of eucalyptus, fearing that the trees would rob them of their water and bring fire.
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Bolloré Loses Court Case in France
In 2016, a TV station in France (Channel 2) aired a report that told the story of Vincent Bolloré, a businessman who heads the oil palm...
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Tanzania: call for international support to stop intimidation against Maasai villagers as they take the government to court
A report from Oakland Institute documents in detail the many rights abuses faced by the Maasai in the Ngorongoro and Loliondo regions of...
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Declaration from Sena Madureira, Brazil: “We carry forward the spirit of union among peoples, and opposition to capitalism’s “solutions”
From June 15-17, 2018, indigenous peoples and communities that live and work in forests gathered in Sena Madureira, Acre, to denounce the...
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Forest Fires in Portugal: When Corporate Power Kills
An article by Transparency International shows how the political establishment of Portugal—which should be managing the forest,...
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Cambodia: hydroelectric dam plan could kill the Mekong River
A Chinese-backed plan to build Cambodia’s biggest dam could “literally kill” the Mekong river, according to a confidential government...
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Brazil: Sena Madureira Declaration, June 17, 2018
People from the forests gathered in Sena Madureira, Acre, to denounce the false solutions of green capitalism and demand their right to their lands.
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Aviation and false solutions: The farce of the “Florestal Santa Maria” REDD project in Mato Grosso, Brazil
The FSM-REDD project has sold carbon credits to offset programs for at least two airline companies. Yet behind this is an increase in deforestation in the region, a history of land grabbing, the use of certifications that no longer exist and unfulfilled promises to local communities.
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The dangers of transgenic trees
Transgenic Trees Will Expand the Disaster of Tree Plantations. Already in Chile monoculture plantations of pine and eucalyptus are producing terrible impacts on rural communities, on people’s health, access to water, agriculture and forests.
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Democratic Republic of Congo: Turning peasant lands once more into oil palm monocultures
DRC is following the trend of promoting programmes to ‘integrate’ peasants with agribusinesses, putting people’s control over their lands at risk.
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Cameroon: Local people respond to Socapalm’s ISO 14001: 2004 Certification
The oil palm company Socapalm in Cameroon plans to renew its ISO 14001 certification, which expired in 2017. We expose the company’s attempts to cover up the destruction caused to the communities and the environment
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Congo Basin: The coming storm
How secrecy and collusion in industrial agriculture spell disaster for the Congo Basin’s rainforests.
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Uruguay: the threat of a third mega pulp mill
In 2017, the Finnish company UPM signed a contract with the Uruguayan government to establish a third mega pulp mill. The project is subject to exorbitant conditions imposed by the multinational.
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Peasant communities and those dependent on the forests united in struggle
In solidarity with the International Day of Peasant Struggle. A day to remember, emphasize and mobilize together against the persecution and violence that peasants suffer on a daily basis around the world.
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Indonesia: the resistance of the sacred in Bali to the “green revolution” and the tourism industry
Systems of community organization rooted in sacred beliefs and concepts guide relations in Bali, Indonesia, and help defy agribusiness and mega-tourism.
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Envira REDD+ project in Acre, Brazil: Gold certificate from carbon certifiers for empty promises
A rubber tappers community, part of a 40,000-hectare REDD+ project, faces a difficult struggle to maintain their way of life. The project has already sold carbon credits, yet to date only provided the local community with dental kits and a visit to the dentist.
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Brazil: The cerrado and the city of Três Lagoas under the control of the paper industry
On how pulp and paper companies are expanding in these territories while neutralizing community resistance in a process in which the population ends up economically and symbolically dependent on the companies.
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Demand Swedish Energy Agency to suspend future payments to Green Resources and cancel the deal for purchase of carbon credits!
Demand Swedish Energy Agency to suspend future payments to Green Resources and cancel the deal for purchase of carbon credits! The...
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India: stop evictions from tiger reserves!
India: stop evictions from tiger reserves! Hundreds of Baiga people rallied on March 2018 to oppose the authorities’ attempts to evict...
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Who will feed us?
Who will feed us? A report from the ETC Group compares the industrial food system with peasant farming. Industrial farming gets all the...
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Finnish activists protest against Stora Enso and Veracel
Finnish activists protest against Stora Enso and Veracel In March 2018, activists from Friends of the Earth Finland and an association...
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Where does all the gold processed in Switzerland come from?
Where does all the gold processed in Switzerland come from? Switzerland is a country poor in raw materials and yet, every year, 70 per cent...
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Your contribution will help WRM to continue supporting community struggles, and researching and exposing the direct and underlying causes...
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Deceit and destruction behind FAO’s forest definition
Compilation of WRM Bulletin articles on the occasion of March 21st – UN International Day of Forests
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Another lie from oil palm companies: they claim to prevent violence against women
“12 Replies to 12 Lies about Oil Palm Monoculture Plantations” has been updated. The publication now includes a chapter about how oil palm companies lie when they say they respect women’s rights.
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Press release: Women demand that oil palm companies stop violence and give back community land
International Press release. March 7, 2018. Women demand that oil palm companies stop violence and give back community land On 8 March,...
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Women and plantations: When violence becomes invisible
This bulletin, on International Women’s Day, is a call for direct and radical solidarity with those women who suffer, resist, organize and mobilize against the daily violence and abuse that industrial plantations cause.
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Cameroon: Urban and Rural Activists Against Industrial Plantations’ Abuses Towards Women
From rapes, forced body searches and searches of private spaces, to the risk of losing their lives: this article calls on us not to be accomplices to the violence women living around tree plantations in Cameroon suffer.
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Indonesia: Exploitation of women and violation of their rights in oil palm plantations
The expansion of oil palm plantations in Indonesia has turned women into landless food buyers and cheap labour, with no adequate safety and health protection, for the plantation companies.
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Guatemala and Colombia: Women facing oil palm plantations
Contamination of water sources, deplorable working conditions, and sexual blackmail in exchange for work, are some of the kinds of violence against women living in and around oil palm plantations in Guatemala and Colombia.
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Cameroon: Local women besieged by the military, guardians of the palm oil plantations of SOCAPALM
A woman from the village of Mbonjo 1, Cameroon, which has witnessed the impact of industrial palm oil plantations and the constant presence of the military, calls for international solidarity and protection of right to life and freedom.
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India: Plantations uproot women from their customary forests
India’s programme to compensate for the destruction of forests for development projects is routinely setting up monoculture tree plantations on community commons. Women, who are mostly affected, are at the centre of its resistance.
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Liberia: Women raising their voices in decision-making processes
The voices and stories of forest-dependent women are often rejected, unheard or silenced, which makes it easier for companies to grab community land. But what happens when they start to raise their voices?
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Indonesia: Oil palm plantations and their trace of violence against women
Women suffer many types of violence committed by oil palm plantations companies’ employers, security forces, police and military, which subsequently reinforce patriarchy and their roles and relations within society in general.
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Agribusiness and environmental injustice: impacts on the health of rural women
The organization and sexual division of labor and job insecurity in single crop activities affect the health of female workers and territorial changes derived from this model of production directly affect women.
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Covered under the shade of oil palm companies in Cameroon: A recount of the abuses that women suffer
Plantations are increasingly surrounding and engulfing communities. Women must walk through company-occupied lands in order to seek their livelihoods. This, among other things, can cost them their lives.
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