Breaking the Silence: Violence against women in and around industrial oil palm and rubber plantations
Breaking the Silence: Harassment, sexual violence and abuse against women in and around industrial oil palm and rubber plantations.
read moreForests and Women
Women play an essential role in forest conservation. Depending on the context, they fulfill specific tasks inside forest-dependent communities and have a special relationship with the forest. In a world dominated by patriarchal societies and cultures, forest destruction caused by “development” projects such as industrial tree plantations, mining and oil extraction have severe and differentiated impacts on women, even more serious than those affecting men, disempowering and impoverishing women. Women have little influence on forest conservation and management. While forest-dependent communities most often only have customary and no legal land rights, often the role of women is still a secondary one in the struggles for recognition of these rights, and therefore deserves more attention and support.
Actions
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Petition: Stop all forms of abuse against women in large monoculture tree plantations
On occasion of September 21st, International day of Struggle against Tree Plantations, women from several countries from West and Central Africa have taken the initiative to release simultaneously the petition we enclose below. The...
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Justice for Berta Cáceres and COPINH
Berta Cáceres, coordinator of the National Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH), was murdered on March 2, 2016. Organizations around the world rose up in protest in Berta’s name. She is yet another victim...
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International Day of the Forests – March 21st, 2015
Dear friends, WRM is pleased to announce the release of three new materials that we would like to share with you on March 21, designated by the United Nations as International Day of Forests. – The first is a new document called...
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Position on Women and REDD – Women and organizations at COP 16 of the CCC
Cancun, December 9, 2010 If you would like to sign the position as an individual or on behalf of an organization or network, please send an email to: mujeresporjusticiaclimatica@gmail.com Women and organizations at the 16th Conference of...
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Articles from the WRM Bulletin
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Women, Forests and Extractive Industries: The Case of the Mikea Indigenous Women in Madagascar
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Mapuche Lavkenche Women’s Resistance to the Chilean Forestry Model
2019
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Southern African women organising against the violence of extractivism
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Resistance by Women Defenders of Territory to Extractivism in Latin America
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Liberia: Women raising their voices in decision-making processes
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India: Plantations uproot women from their customary forests
2018
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Women landowners in Central Bougainville block the Panguna Mine pact
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Women in the anti-mining struggle in El Salvador: “We are that swarm of bees”
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The Philippines: Defending the defenders, defending their rights
2017
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Women’s Struggle: for Food Sovereignty; against violence and agribusiness!
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Trading communal rights in Gabon: The ‘Sustainable Development’ Law
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The resistance struggle of indigenous women in defence of life
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Safeguarding Investment: Safeguards for REDD+, women and indigenous peoples
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Learning from India’s Chipko movement: fighting for feminism and for the environment
2015
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Why are women fighting against extractivism and climate change?
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Sixth National Conference on Páramos and High Mountains, Water for Life!, Colombia,
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Petition to stop harassment of a defender of earth and water in Peru: Yes to Water, No to Mining!
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Páramos in Colombia: a short reflection on current threats and resistance action
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One of capitalism’s false solutions to its crisis: strengthening patriarchy
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Ecuador: Statement of the women’s gathering against extractivism and climate change
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Challenges for the struggles of women rooted in their territories: A decolonial perspective
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Caravan for climate justice, gender and food sovereignty across Bangladesh, India and Nepal,
2014
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The invisible resistance of women against the commodification of life
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New crossroads, same actors: The green economy of the powerful, voices of resistance of women
2012
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Nyéléni: A woman’s name for the struggle for Food Sovereignty
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India: Women take the lead in the fight for their rights over forest
2011
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The Garo Women in Bangladesh: Life of a Forest People without Forest
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No shining legacy: Women start organising against gold mining in Thailand
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Brazil: Women affected by dams – changes in their lifestyles
2010
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Ecuador: Memory and future emerge from women’s struggle for their mangroves
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Ecuador: Disputes against shrimp farming contribute to women’s lib
2009
Books and Briefings
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Recueil de recettes nutritives, médicinales, artisanales des palmiers à huile traditionnels
Only available in French.
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Impacts of Large Scale Oil Palm Plantations on Women
A Collection of Articles Published in the WRM Bulletin on the issue of Resistance, Women and the Impacts of Plantations.
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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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Forest definition
When we talk about “the definition of forest”, what is perhaps most striking is the fact that, although there are many definitions of the word “forest” in different parts of the world, there is one definition viewed as more...
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REDD in the Congo Basin
The forest of the Congo Basin expands over an area of continuous tropical rainforest cover only second to that of the Amazon forest. The region’s forests are found in Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Gabon,...
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Women, forests and plantations. The gender Dimension
By the World Rainforest Movement Selection of articles published in the monthly electronic bulletin of the World Rainforest Movement, addressing the gender dimension of the impacts in the forests of plantations Women, forests and...
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Community Forests. Equity, use and conservation
As we all know, the conservation of the world’s forests requires the adoption of a series of measures to change the current model of destruction, among which the empowerment of local communities to manage their own forests. In most of...
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Africa: Forests under threat
This book gathers a selection of articles published in the monthly electronic bulletin of the World Rainforest Movement (WRM), addressing the issue of the processes leading to the destruction of African forests and the struggles developed...
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News
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We Denounce and Resist the Green Economy’s Impacts on Women and Forests
Declaration by the World Rainforest Movement (WRM), March 2016 To Berta Cáceres and the Lenca People, the struggle continues! In March, the world commemorates two important dates: International Women’s Day (March 8) and...
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International Women’s Day 2007: Struggling for food sovereignty
By the World Rainforest Movement – March 2007. At the beginning of the twentieth century, women’s struggles for emancipation took on greater visibility. They were times of social and political transformations and women started...
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International Women’s Day 2006: Homage to Women’s Struggle in Forests and Plantations
By the World Rainforest Movement. 8 March 2006. On the International Women’s Day, the World Rainforest Movement wants to pay homage to the innumerable women that have played and still play an essential role in the governance and...
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Other Relevant Information
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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 American women defenders who are committed to caring for their territories, healing their bodies, and...
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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 palm plantations, during a meeting in the village of Fera, in Gabon, decided to send a letter to FAO...
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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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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, International Women’s Day, hundreds of organizations and individuals demand an end to the violence...
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Sign the petition! African women demand that oil palm companies give back their land and stop the violence
Support African women! Sign the petition included on this article by filling the form enclosed below. Organized women who live around industrial oil palm plantations denounce different forms of violence. The United Nations proposed 16...
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Police block peaceful action by women affected by SOCFIN oil palm plantation in Sierra Leone
MALOA, SILNORF, WRM, Bread for All and GRAIN | 25 September 2017 On September 21, 2017 about 150 to 200 women were stopped by police on their way to Pujehun to urge local authorities to take action against the Luxembourg-based oil palm...
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West African women defend traditional palm oil
A video produced by GRAIN shows how rural women in West Africa are working to protect traditional palm oil production in the face of the destructive expansion of industrial oil palm plantations. See the video...
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Resisting Militarism – World March of Women | 8th March, 2016
Dear sisters, friends, activists and fellow fighters, In recent days, the world has been getting ready to celebrate the 8thof March, International Women’s Day, a date that is commemorated all over the world by unions, organisations,...
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Mekong Commons Internet site
This site examines the questions surrounding the Mekong Region’s ‘development’, and tries to identify new ones, giving particular importance to both the consequences that are masked from mainstream explanations, as well as...
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Forests as important as farming for some rural communities
A global study carried out by the Poverty and Environment Network has helped in understanding the role forests play in enhancing people’s livelihoods, confirming that forests do provide an important source of rural income, but...
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Women groups converge in parallel to the Southern Africa Development Community Heads of State Summit (14-18 August)
Women from all corners of the Southern African region descended on Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, to participate in the People’s Summit. They aimed to share their experiences on how they have been affected either by decisions made by governments...
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Videos
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Disputed Territory. The green economy versus community-based economies
Produced by the World Rainforest Movement Interviews: Winnie Overbeek Camera and Edition: Flavio Pazos. A story of the peoples of the Atlantic Forest in southern Brazil. In Brazil, the Atlantic Forest, which covered the country’s...
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Forests. Much more than a lot of trees
Produced by the World Rainforest Movement Directed by Flavio Pazos The United Nations declared 2011 as the International Year of Forests You may have already heard that the livelihoods of over 1.6 billion people depend on forests, that...
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