Local struggles for the Forests

Articles from the WRM Bulletin

2021

• When different forms of oppression come together on the same subjects

• Thailand’s imposition of National Parks: The Indigenous Karen People’s struggle for their forests and survival

• Sexual Exploitation and Violence against Women at the Root of the Industrial Plantation Model

• Predatory mining in Venezuela: The Orinoco Mining Arc, enclave economies and the National Mining Plan

• Organized land theft for industrial tree plantations in Brazil: The case of AMCEL

• Naming the crimes (and criminals) for what they are

• Law, Crime and Deforestation in the Thai Countryside

• Indonesia: Legalizing Crimes Under the Slogan of “Creating Jobs”

• Ecuador: The certification of industrial shrimp aquaculture intensifies rights violations and the destruction of mangroves

• (Thai) กฎหมาย อาชญากรรม และการตัดไม้ทำลายป่าในพื้นที่ชนบทของไทย

• (Bahasa Indonesia) Indonesia : Legalisasi Kejahatan di balik slogan ‘Penciptaan Lapangan Kerja’.

2020

• Women, Territories and Land Ownership. Reflections from Women in Mexico on Why We Want Land

• The Road that Threatens to Destroy the “Protected” Harapan Forest in South Sumatra, Indonesia

• The Pandemic in Forests in India: Escalated Attacks on Communities

• Patriarchies in the Forests in India: Communities in Peril

• Panama: Other Perspectives on “Doing Conservation”

• Nepal: A False Solution for the Conservation of Chure Region and its Impacts for Forest Peoples

• Indonesia: What is an Ecosystem Restoration Concession?

• Indonesia: How the Pandemic Strengthens Immunity for Mining Corporate-Oligarchy and Paves the Way to a New Dictatorship

• Indigenous peoples in Brazil fight against government policies… and the pandemic

• India: Women, Commons and Patriarchy

• Gabon: Communities Facing OLAM’s “Zero Deforestation” Pledges

• From Tanzania: Promoting Monoculture Tree Plantations for Firewood is a False Argument

• Driving “Carbon Neutral”: Shell’s Restoration and Conservation Project in Indonesia

• Development: Understandings from the Ground

• Democratic Republic of the Congo: The Batwa and their Return to Ancestral Lands in the Kahuzi Biega National Park

• Climatology / Ideology

• Brazil: Plantation Company Suzano Covers Up its Devastating Impacts with Claims of “Conservation”

• Brazil: Against Covid-19, Feminist Economics in the Countryside and the City

• A Different Vision of “Doing Conservation:” The Kawsak Sacha of the Kichwa People of Sarayaku, Ecuador

• (Bahasa Indonesia) Jalan yang Mengancam Kerusakan Hutan Harapan yang Dilindungi di Sumatera

• (Bahasa Indonesia) Indonesia: Bagaimana Pandemi Memperkuat Imunitas Oligarki Tambang dan Membuka Jalan menuju Kediktatoran Baru

• (Bahasa Indonesia) Indonesia : Apa yang dimaksud dengan Konsesi Restorasi Ekosistem?

• “The National Interest”: Neofascism in the Amazon Rainforest

2019

• Women, Forests and Extractive Industries: The Case of the Mikea Indigenous Women in Madagascar

• Women Stand Up to Fight the Suzano Paper Mill in Maranhão, Brazil

• The Wayana Indigenous Peoples in Suriname and Conservation NGO’s: A “true love” story?

• The Human Cost of Strictly Protected Areas in the Congo Basin

• The Amazon Waterway in Peru vs. Flowing Rivers

• Sarawak: Save the Mulu Rainforest from oil palm plantations!

• Mapuche Lavkenche Women’s Resistance to the Chilean Forestry Model

• Join the call for a new approach to conservation

• Infrastructure From and For Forest Communities: The MicroHydro Power in Long Liam, Sarawak

• Indonesia. The Gloomy Truth Behind Geothermal Energy: A misleading Narrative of “Clean Energy”

• Indigenous territories in Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo, threatened by monoculture plantations

• Indigenous Peoples Face Difficulties Accessing Justice on Land Matters in Cameroon

• Indigenous Baiga women in India: “Our story should be heard”

• India: Your urgent support is needed! More than one million people at risk of eviction from their land and forests!

• Guatemala: Conservation Perpetuates the Plunder of Forests

• Ecuador: Stories of Dispossession and Deforestation Caused by the Extraction of Palm and Wood

• Dynamics and Processes of Change in the Peruvian Amazon: Learning from the Kechwa-Lamas Peoples

• Displacement and Dispossession in Tanzania: How “Conservation” is Destroying the Maasai

• Cambodian Peasants Against the Bolloré Group

• Brazil: The Struggle of the Xinguara Peoples in the Amazon

• Brazil: Support Cacique Babau and his family

• Beyond Forests: Conservation NGOs have Turned into “Companies”

• Attempt to Re-Colonize Forests in India The new Draft Amendments to Indian Forest Act

• Argentina: No to Genetically Modified Seeds!

2018

• Yakuchaski Warmikuna (Women Messengers of the Rivers)

• The Amazon: A territory in the crossfire

• Tanzania: Community Resistance against Monoculture Tree Plantations

• Tanzania: call for international support to stop intimidation against Maasai villagers as they take the government to court

• Sign on statement: “RSPO: failing to eliminate violence and destruction from the industrial palm oil sector”

• Sengwer people cry for help in the Embobut Forest, Kenya

• Rising for the Right to Say NO: Southern Africa Peoples Permanent Tribunal

• Resistance by Women Defenders of Territory to Extractivism in Latin America

• Reimagining Wellbeing: Villages in Korchi taluka, India, Resisting Mining and Opening Spaces for Self-Governance

• Peru: forest inhabited by the indigenous Shawi to be handed over to Canadian mining firm

• Peasant communities and those dependent on the forests united in struggle

• No to ProSavana Campaign: Peoples’ Declaration

• No to ProSAVANA and MATOPIBA. Solidarity with people in Mozambique and Brazil!

• Marching forward: Women, resistance and counter-power:

• Indonesia: Forest burning and punished victims. The tragedy of the Delang indigenous community in Lamandau, Central Kalimantan

• India: Plantations uproot women from their customary forests

• How to Strengthen Resistance Movements?

• Challenging capitalist fire

• Cameroon: Urban and Rural Activists Against Industrial Plantations’ Abuses Towards Women

• California, United States: Decision on Tropical Forest Standard is postponed until April 2019

• Brazil: I am Kum’tum, I am of the Akroá-Gamela People

• Borneo: Penan village successfully resists logging operations

• A Reflection from Africa: Conquer the Fear for Building Stronger Movements

• (Bahasa Indonesia) Pembakaran Hutan dan Korban yang Dihukum. Tragedi Komunitas Adat Delang di Lamandau, Kalimantan Tengah

2017

• Women landowners in Central Bougainville block the Panguna Mine pact

• Women in the anti-mining struggle in El Salvador: “We are that swarm of bees”

• Women and Traditional Oil Palm: A Struggle for Life

• Why is it important to reflect about ‘rights’?

• What does rights of rivers mean?

• What are rights? Some lessons from struggle

• Traditional land “rights” in West and Central Africa

• The Rights of Nature: A balance, 10 years after its constitutional recognition in Ecuador

• The right to common

• The Ngäbe and Buglé Resistance: Keeping extractive industries out of their territories

• The Daily Struggle of Kichwa Women in Sarayaku, Ecuador

• Reflections on climate change, the rights of Indigenous Peoples and the right of Free, Prior and Informed Consent

• Indonesia: Protests on Java against forest destruction by the expanding cement industry

• Honduras and the Consultation Law: A trap that seeks to advance capitalism onto indigenous territories

• Harassed by palm oil company, villagers in Thailand defend land

• Food Production and Consumption: Resistance against domination

• Dercy Teles on the popular movement of rubber tappers in Brazil

• Brazil: Land occupation wins award for producing food free of agrochemicals while restoring the forest

• Brazil and land rights: A historical struggle that continues and intensifies

2016

• “The Mauzes”: defending territories and life

• Stories, identity and struggles: How local communities live with and talk about Mekong’s landscape

• Madagascar: Citizens’ protests put Soamahamanina mining project on hold

• From the loss of fish to climate change: A look into the recent dam movement in the Mekong Region  

• Forests to the highest bidder in Nigeria: how REDD proves unable to stop deforestation

• Bribris: a people never conquered who are standing up to REDD

• “Reasons for Taking Legal Action”: New Resistance Movements to Defend Guatemalan Indigenous Communities’ Heritage

2015

• Women defend mountain lagoons and promote “Living Well”

• Why are we in jail? A women’s fight against injustice and domination in India

• The resistance struggle of indigenous women in defence of life

• The Mundukuru peoples in Brazil: forestry concessions imposed on indigenous lands

• The multiple challenges for popular resistance and mobilization in defence of forests  

• The Farce of “Smart Forestry”. The Cases of Green Resources in Mozambique and Suzano in Brazil

• Testimony of unsustainability: The experience of the International Articulation of those affected by Vale

• Territories and food sovereignty: Where the struggles of peasants and forest communities converge

• Stop privatizing India’s Forests!

• REDD Alert! How REDD+ projects undermine peasant farming and real solutions to climate change

• Philippines: Resisting Land Grabbing and Corporate Oil Palm Plantations

• Mining, militarization and criminalization of social protests in Latin America

• Mining activity kills Indonesia’s peasants and fisher people

• Malaysia: Indigenous groups from around the globe adopt anti-dam declaration

• Living on the run: devastation of the Ayoreos’ lives and land at the hands of livestock farmers

• Liberia: Vambo Community Activists ask for international support against gold mining

• Leave fossil fuels in the ground! A call for an “Annex 0” group, supported up by the Shuar Nationality of Pastaza in Ecuador

• Learning from India’s Chipko movement: fighting for feminism and for the environment

• India: Appeal to the government and the UN on indigenous forest communities’ rights

• In defence of life in the Amazon, humanity and the planet

• Honduras’ Garifuna communities resist eviction and theft of land

• Honduras: 2015 Goldman Prize awarded to Berta Caceres

• Furthering mining in Africa in a Summit held at the centre of mining finance

• Corridors of Resistance: Stopping oil and gas pipelines

• Cambodia: Steps to Victory

• Broken Promises in Malaysia: Displaced by Dams

• Brazil: Three indigenous leaders and forest defenders were murdered

• Brazil: Forest Carbon Demonstration Project in the Tapajós-Arapiuns Extractive Reserve

• African women say No to coal

• African Amazons fight destruction of forests

• A grandmother standing up to mining and logging companies in the Solomon Islands

2014

• “NO to ProSavana” Campaign in Southern Africa

• Women fighting against extractive industries

• Why are women fighting against extractivism and climate change?

• Victory over Malaysian land grabbers in Papua New Guinea

• The roots of a forest

• The forests not seen on picture post-cards: looking beyond the tropical belt

• The complex debate about alternatives

• Thailand’s New ‘Forestry Master Plan’: Same old strategy dressed up in new clothes

• Support the struggle of the Tupinambá in Bahia, Brazil for the demarcation of their lands and against militarization!

• Southern Africa Development Community People’s Summit Declaration: “We reject externally driven false solutions to climate change such as REDD+”

• Sixth National Conference on Páramos and High Mountains, Water for Life!, Colombia,

• PRESS RELEASE – Forced Relocation of Sengwer People proves urgency of canceling REDD

• Petition to stop harassment of a defender of earth and water in Peru: Yes to Water, No to Mining!

• Peru: The Matsés, last shamans of the Amazon rainforest, fight back against transnational oil company

• Páramos in Colombia: a short reflection on current threats and resistance action

• Nigeria: social coalition demands amendment to PIB as a way of restoring transparency and accountability in the petroleum sector

• Movement of People Affected by Dams in Brazil denounces violations, proposes solutions

• Mexico, Lacandon Rainforest: Montes Azules REDDeldía Movement

• Letter to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights

• Kenya: Appeal against forced eviction from Embobut Forest

• July 26: International Day for the Defense of Mangrove Ecosystems

• Insisting on REDD is playing a game already lost for the climate and peoples

• Indonesia: forests are more than land

• Indian Forest Struggles: the quest for alternatives

• India: Struggles against POSCO’s steel plant in Odisha are determined to continue until company withdraws

• India: Forest struggles at the crossroads

• India: Evicted for “tiger conservation”

• Honduras: COPINH achieves partial victory against hydroelectric dam project

• HidroAysén project rejected by ministerial committee due to strong social pressure

• Grassroots organizations in France alert the participants of the International Symposium on Agroecology for Food Safety and Nutrition organized by FAO

• Gendering Peasant Movements, Gendering Food Sovereignty

• Forests in Mozambique face extinction

• Ecuador: Statement of the women’s gathering against extractivism and climate change

• Declaration of the People’s Summit on Climate Change, Lima, Peru

• Coastal forests threatened by tourism

• Carta de Macapá de los pueblos libres de la Panamazonia

• Brazil: The struggle of the tupinamba indigenous people to protect their territory and the conservation of forests

• An alternative to “alternatives”

• AlteRAtive Energies: When the only “alternative” is integral change

2013

• Women of the Amazon defend the rainforest from the dangers of oil drilling

• The struggle of the people who depend on mangroves: A struggle for visibility, for rights, and against destructive consumption

• The struggle and resistance of mangrove communities in Latin America

• Stop the Conversion of Mangrove Forests, Local Initiatives Support Save the Mangrove Forest

• Philippines: Rally for the revocation of Philippine Mining Act

• Peru and Brazil: Matsés indigenous peoples against oil industry activity

• No to gold mining in French Guiana

• Nigeria: Dutch court condemns Shell – but more justice is needed!

• Mega-dams in Sarawak: how indigenous peoples rise to defend their rights

• March 8: Women in defence of forests

• Mapuche conflict in Chile: The need for dialogue to address historic demands

• Malaysia: Penan indigenous peoples threatened by logging and mega dam

• Indonesia: Gold in Bukit Tiga Jurai affecting food sovereignty

• Indonesia: Action on Customary Forests

• Indian organizations declared all the Tiger Reserves in the Nilgiris Biosphere Reserves as illegal

• India: Steel-making POSCO strikes again

• Food sovereignty and struggles for territories and forests

• Ecuador: Demand for a popular consultation on Yasuní

• Does an International Day of Forests make sense?

• Canada: aboriginal movement threatens miners

• Cambodia: The struggle of rural people for their “community forest”, an essential part of their food sovereignty

• Brazil: Voices of local communities in Acre denounce violations in Community-based Sustainable Forest Management

• Brazil: The struggle to defend our fishing territory

2012

• To Communities: Alerts about REDD

• Thailand: Save the Mekong – Stop the Xayaburi dam!

• Support the struggle against the Belo Monte dam, a struggle that has not ended

• REDD and the Indigenous Peoples of Costa Rica

• Phillipines: Oil palm company A. Brown grabs Higaonon indigenous people’s lands

• Philippines: Continuing the campaign against mining in Palawan

• Open letter against the “green economy” and in favour of life

• Nigeria: Cocoa plantation project threatens pristine forest lands of the Etara and Ekuri-Eyeyeng

• Malaysia: Baram Dam would flood indigenous communities to benefit mining in Borneo

• Killings worldwide – the toll of land grabbing

• Indonesia: The Kalimantan Forests and Climate Partnership REDD project – little partnership, many problems

• Indonesia: Farmers struggle against industrial oil palm and acacia plantations in defense of their land and food sovereignty

• Indonesia: Farmers protest against eviction caused by Debt Nature Swap (DNS)

• Indonesia: Bayat Society Builds Life

• India: Michelin factory menaces forest of the “untouchables”

• Impacts of oil prospecting and exploration in Virunga National Park

• Honduras: Urgent Action Alert. Heavily armed paramilitary groups threaten Garifuna communities and could provoke a massacre

• Green Economics in Brazil: Women talk about the impact of the SPVS REDD project and a Boticário Foundation protected area

• Gathering support for Indian forest communities at the CDB

• Gabon: Resisting Olam land grabbing for oil palm plantations

• Environmental Human Rights Advocates Challenge REDD+ in Chiapas and in California

• El Salvador: Wide opposition to preparations for REDD+

• Ecuador: Pronouncement in Defence of Pachamama and Life

• Ecuador: Inter-American Court of Human Rights rules in favour Sarayaku people

• Disputed territory: new video on the green economy versus community-based economies in southern Brazil

• Brazil: Support the Indigenous Cause of the Guaraní-Kaiowa

• Brazil: Mundukuru indigenous people cancel REDD project

• Brazil: Indigenous Group Blocks VALE Railway

• A Timorese Forest Struggle

2011

• The necessary changes to genuinely celebrate the International Year of Forestsnter title here

• Philippines: Rally to stop Chinese mining in Palawan!

• Philippines: Attempts to undermine local resistance to mining

• Philippines: A call to stop mining in Palawan

• Peru: Land grabbing in indigenous peoples’ territories

• Mining and resistance

• Mining and indigenous women in the Philippines

• Mexico: REDD+ in Chiapas finances disease, death and intercommunity conflicts

• Mekong: International petition against the Xayaburi Dam

• Mekong dams heat up the region

• Mega-projects and the criminalization of struggles to defend people’s rights in India and Honduras

• Malaysia: Landmark decision against oil palm joint venture companies

• Iron mining threatens Guatemalan mangroves

• Indonesia: Sources of livelihood threatened by REDD+, mining and oil palm projects

• India: Women take the lead in the fight for their rights over forest

• India: Tribal women of Kaimur plant native trees to protest JICA-funded government tree plantation drive

• India: Saving Niyamgiri from mining

• India: Ravaged Landscape, Devastated People – Tales of Hydro Power CDM projects in Himachal Pradesh

• India: POSCO project approved but the struggle continues

• India: Freedom after a century of struggle

• Human rights crisis in palm oil estates in Indonesia

• Help Kuy People of Cambodia to Save their forest

• Forests with the people

• Forest carbon project in Paraná, Brazil: Reduction of deforestation and persecution of local communities

• False solutions to climate change enabling land grabbing in Africa

• Colombia: Popular revolt against gold mining

• Climate, human rights and forests in Thailand

• Brazil: Environmentalists murdered in the Amazon and debate over a new Forest Code: Impunity must end!

• Brazil: Belo Monte dam would turn the Xingú River into a river of blood

• Belo Monte dam site occupied!

• At the end of the International Year of Forests, is there anything to celebrate?

• Actions against dams around the world

2010

• The invisible women and men who resist against the destruction of their territory in the northern Great Chaco

• The Garo Women in Bangladesh: Life of a Forest People without Forest

• Peru: Resistance to the Romero oil palm group

• Panama: Land dispute and violation of the Naso people’s Human Rights

• Malaysia: Penan demand against government for forestry licenses

• Burma: Farmers fight plantation company threatening protected forests and tiger reserve in Hugawng Valley

• Bangladesh: Campaign for full implementation of the CHT Peace Accord to help the Jumma peoples regain control over their forests, lands, and destiny

2009

• Uganda: The Batwa issue declaration calling for their rights to be recognized

• The many invisible “Gaza Strips” in the forests

• The clash of two worlds in the Peruvian Amazon

• Social resistance against the World Forestry Congress

• Posco: Destroying forests in India and establishing carbon sink plantations in Uruguay

• Peru: Amazon peoples, bastions of resistance

• Nigeria: The long arm of justice is finally catching up on Shell

• Mangrove Action Day- July 26th

• Kenya: Projected sugar cane plantations may wipe out invaluable Tana River Delta

• Invisible women are becoming increasingly visible

• India: Lepchas arrested for opposing mega hydro project T

• India: Dehradun Declaration of forest people

• India: A human chain to defend Niyamgiri Hill from mining

• In Africa mangroves are disappearing and with them, the livelihoods of its people

• Ecuador: Statement by the indigenous peoples against forest/REDD CO2lonialism

• Ecuador: Memory and future emerge from women’s struggle for their mangroves

• Ecuador: Disputes against shrimp farming contribute to women’s lib

• Dominican Republic: The people say “no” to the cement factory at Los Haitises!

• Cambodia’s Prey Long forest is “equivalent to life itself” for local communities

• Argentina: Wichi and Guarani women raise their voices against deforestation linked to soybean expansion

Books and Briefings

• 

  Attacks on Forest-Dependent Communities in Indonesia and Resistance Stories

  Posted on April 6, 2021

  WRM Bulletin Compilation. Available in English and Indonesian.

  read more
• 

  (Bahasa Indonesia) Ancaman terhadap Komunitas Yang Bergantung Pada Hutan di Indonesia dan Kisah-Kisah Perlawanannya

  Posted on March 25, 2021

  Sebuah Kompilasi Berbagai Artikel di Buletin WRM. Available in English.

  read more
• 

  India: Compensating for Forest Loss or Advancing Forest Destruction?

  Posted on September 2, 2019

  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.

  read more
• 

  Booklet: 12 Tactics Palm Oil Companies Use to Grab Community Land

  Posted on April 4, 2019

  The booklet “Promise, Divide, Intimidate and Coerce: 12 tactics palm oil companies use to grab community land” aims to support communities who want to strengthen their resistance and better prepare themselves to stop corporations from establishing on their lands.

  read more
• 

  Impacts of Large Scale Oil Palm Plantations on Women

  Posted on August 20, 2018

  A Collection of Articles Published in the WRM Bulletin on the issue of Resistance, Women and the Impacts of Plantations.

  read more
• 

  10 things communities should know about REDD

  Posted on January 11, 2013

  The main goal of this booklet is to inform communities about the serious problems that a REDD project can cause for the people involved. WRM has visited a number of these communities over the past few years. All of them,...

  read more
• 

  REDD in the Congo Basin

  Posted on December 11, 2010

  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,...

  read more
• 

  Indigenous Peoples. Their forests, struggles and rights

  Posted on December 18, 2005

  By the World Rainforest Movement This book gathers articles published in the monthly electronic bulletin of the World Rainforest Movement (WRM) regarding indigenous peoples and their struggles in defence of the forest. These peoples are...

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• 

  Community Forests. Equity, use and conservation

  Posted on June 8, 2004

  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...

  read more
• 

  Protected Areas. Protected Against Whom?

  Posted on January 8, 2004

  by Oilwatch and World Rainforest Movement. This publication has been jointly produced by Oilwatch and the World Rainforest Movement for dissemination at the Seventh Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity which...

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• 

  Africa: Forests under threat

  Posted on August 9, 2002

  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...

  read more

News

• 

  International Day of the World’s Indigenous People

  Posted on August 11, 2005

  By the World Rainforest Movement. August 9 has been declared as International Day of the World’s Indigenous People. On this date, the WRM wishes to express its full support to the numerous indigenous peoples around the world that are...

  read more
• 

  Declaration: The Mumbai – Porto Alegre Forest Initiative

  Posted on February 1, 2005

  Background A number of participants at the World Social Forum 2004 met in Mumbai and believing that forest issues are in essence social and political and that forest communities are increasingly affected by globalization –and new...

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Other Relevant Information

• 

  Letter in Defense of the Amazon and Mother Earth, Against the Invasion of Capital, Extreme Violence and Green Scams

  Posted on June 10, 2021

  A call to Brazilian society and the peoples of the world to defend the territories from capitalism and its new “green” onslaught.

  read more
• 

  ALERT! Karen indigenous communities face danger after returning to their ancestral territory in Thailand

  Posted on February 22, 2021

  They have been living in the Kaeng Krachan forests for generations. When a National Park was created, they started to suffer violence and evictions. Karen indigenous people are mobilizing around the country in solidarity to the communities from Bang Kloi’s right to return home.

  read more
• 

  African Peoples Tribunal against Industrial Plantation Companies

  Posted on January 15, 2021

  Friends of the Earth organised the First session of the African Peoples Tribunal in Lagos, Nigeria, in November 2020. Affected communities and civil society presented testimonies on cases of human rights violations and environmental...

  read more
• 

  (Thai) นักกิจกรรมและองค์กรทั่วโลกร่วมสนับสนุนประชาชนไทยในการต่อสู้กับอุตสาหกรรมเหมืองแร่

  Posted on December 3, 2020

  ดาวน์โหลดจดหมายพร้อมลายเซ็นที่นี่

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• 

  International support to a struggle against mining in Thailand

  Posted on December 2, 2020

  Organisations, social movements and activists, from 40 countries express their support and solidarity with a community struggle in Northeastern Thailand to reclaim the land and forests encroached on by the Thor Silasitthi mining company.

  read more
• 

  Support the struggle against mining in Thailand!

  Posted on November 9, 2020

  We call organizations around the world to adhere to this letter of solidarity with the women and men human rights defenders (W/HRDs) of Khao Lao Yai-Pha Jun Dai Forest Conservation Group.

  read more
• 

  Legalising land theft in Brazil while the focus is on Covid-19

  Posted on May 13, 2020

  While most media is focusing on the Covid-19 crisis, new land laws in Brazil stand to usher an unprecedented dispossession of rural land in Brazil, expanding deforestation and destruction, pushed by the greed of the agribusiness and...

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• 

  An activist resource pack in front of the pandemic

  Posted on May 13, 2020

  The African women network against resource extraction (WOMIN) has compiled useful information for activists confronting the measures against the pandemic. The compilation gathers basic health information, tools to help organizing work (how...

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• 

  Martin, we remember

  Posted on April 4, 2020

  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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• 

  Cuidanderas: Guardians of the Amazon

  Posted on November 25, 2019

  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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• 

  Just(ice) transition is a post-extractivist transition

  Posted on November 25, 2019

  This recent publication from War on Want and London Mining Network highlights the immediate need for a full and rapid transition away from fossil fuels. But this transition, they argue, will not succeed, nor will it bring about justice or...

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• 

  Poster | September 21st – International Day of Struggle Against Tree Plantations

  Posted on September 17, 2019

  Solidarity with communities standing against tree plantations!

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• 

  Help stop the advance of oil palm plantations in Gabon!

  Posted on September 13, 2019

  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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• 

  “We should conserve forests in the first place for the people who depend on the forests”

  Posted on August 29, 2019

  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

  Posted on August 27, 2019

  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.

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• 

  China: Villagers sue a timber company and a local government for drying up their water sources

  Posted on July 15, 2019

  In a context of a thriving eucalyptus plantations industry in China, around 150 Yong’an residents are suing both Guangxi Lee & Man Forestry Technology Ltd. — the timber company that operates the nearly 300,000-square-meter...

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• 

  Clean Energy? Dams that Destroy in Guatemala

  Posted on July 15, 2019

  In the Yich K’isis region of Guatemala, the construction of three hydroelectric dams has been planned: Pojom I, Pojom II and San Andrés. These dams will receive water by diverting the Negro, Pojom, Yalwitz Primavera, Varsovia and...

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• 

  WRM Bulletin “Voices from the ground: communities in movement and resistance strategies” in Swahili

  Posted on July 15, 2019

  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,...

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• 

  A 40 meses del asesinato de Berta Cáceres exigimos juicio y castigo para los autores intelectuales del crimen

  Posted on July 4, 2019

  Only available in Spanish.

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• 

  International appeal against evictions of forest dwellers in India

  Posted on April 12, 2019

  Appeal to India, to its Supreme Court, States, Party Leaders, to the NHRC, NCST and to the UN organs to protect millions forest dwellers’ Human Rights and biocultural diversity from forced evictions.

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• 

  Defend FRA and Scrap Indian Forest Act!

  Posted on April 10, 2019

  Resist the anti-adivasi designs of the BJP government!

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• 

  Shareables: Educating FAO, an urgent need! – March 21st 2019

  Posted on March 18, 2019

  FAO chose Forests and Education as the theme for 2019 and underlines the importance of investing in forest education. But what does FAO mean by “forest education”?

  read more
• 

  India: Your urgent support is needed! More than one million people at risk of eviction from their land and forests!

  Posted on March 11, 2019

  On February 13, 2019, India’s Supreme Court passed an order that instructs state governments to evict forest dwelling communities if their claims to live in their forests have not been recognized under the Forest Rights Act (FRA). After...

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  Join the call for a new approach to conservation

  Posted on March 11, 2019

  The NGO Survival International has an on-going petition for a new conservation that respects indigenous peoples’ rights and promotes human and ecological diversity. The aim is to reach 20,000 signatures and they need your help! Sign the...

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  Brazil: Support Cacique Babau and his family

  Posted on March 11, 2019

  Cacique Babau, from Serra do Padeiro Tupinambá community, state of Bahia, has been suffering repeated threats against him and his family. Faced with this worrying situation, people and social organizations, through a letter to Governor...

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  Cambodian Peasants Against the Bolloré Group

  Posted on March 11, 2019

  After 11 representatives of the Bunong ethnic group in Cambodia were denied visas to go to France to attend judicial proceedings against plantation company, Bolloré, the hearing was postponed until October. In 2015, Bunong peasants in...

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  Argentina: No to Genetically Modified Seeds!

  Posted on March 11, 2019

  The Secretary of Family Farming, Coordination and Territorial Development in Misiones, Argentina, signed an agreement to develop the cultivation of genetically modified corn with high productivity, in Misiones and Northeast Corrientes. The...

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  India: Community Based Conservation Amidst Conflict

  Posted on March 11, 2019

  A report from the Indian organization Kalpavriksh documents community initiatives that protect biodiversity while ensuring their cultural, livelihood and food sovereignty in the Dooars region of North West Bengal. Indigenous communities in...

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  “Salvaging Nature. Indigenous Peoples, Protected Areas and Biodiversity Conservation”

  Posted on March 11, 2019

  Although this WRM publication was first published in 1994 and then updated in 2003, it is still very much relevant nowadays. It includes an extensive review and analysis on issues such as wilderness and preservation, the politics of parks,...

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  India: Reject attempts to reinterpret and subvert the FRA. Deepen the struggles

  Posted on March 1, 2019

  Statement from All India Forum of Forest Movements (AIFFM), 28 February, 2019.

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  Forest dwelling communities in India urgently need your support!

  Posted on February 22, 2019

  Please endorse the letter enclosed below that will be sent to the Indian Supreme Court and the Prime Minister of India urging them to stop this injustice!

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  Defend India’s forests and forest peoples: Defend Forest Rights Act!

  Posted on February 22, 2019

  Press Release. The Supreme Court of India, hearing a decade-old petition challenging the constitutional validity of the Forest Rights Act, ordered that forest dwellers whose claims for recognition of forest rights have been rejected would have to be evicted in a summary and time-bound manner.

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  Support Cacique Babau and his family

  Posted on February 21, 2019

  Cacique Babau, from Serra do Padeiro Tupinambá community (Brazil), has been suffering repeated threats. People and social organizations, through a letter to the Governor, demand that the state guarantee his safety. We urge you to sign-on the letter in solidarity.

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  Support this declaration! Chico Mendes in the Standoff Against the False Solutions of Green Capitalism*

  Posted on December 22, 2018

  The declaration is open for sign-on in solidarity until 31 January 2019.

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  Chico Mendes, 30 anos depois

  Posted on December 11, 2018

  (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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  Declaration: No to abuse against women in industrial oil palm plantations

  Posted on September 18, 2018

  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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  Argentina: Alert for the serious situation of the mbya guaraní Ysyry community

  Posted on September 7, 2018

  Available only in Spanish

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  Tanzania: call for international support to stop intimidation against Maasai villagers as they take the government to court

  Posted on July 9, 2018

  A report from Oakland Institute documents in detail the many rights abuses faced by the Maasai in the Ngorongoro and Loliondo regions of Tanzania. In recent years, hundreds of Maasai homes have been burned and tens of thousands of people...

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  Declaration from Sena Madureira, Brazil: “We carry forward the spirit of union among peoples, and opposition to capitalism’s “solutions”

  Posted on July 9, 2018

  From June 15-17, 2018, indigenous peoples and communities that live and work in forests gathered in Sena Madureira, Acre, to denounce the false solutions to environmental and climatic degradation that green capitalism proposes. They...

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  “Sacred Sites are living places”: the voices of Custodians in Africa

  Posted on August 30, 2016

  The short film “Sacred Voices”, supported by the African Biodiversity Network and the Gaia Foundation, shares the messages of eight traditional Sacred Site Custodians from Kenya, Ethiopia, South Africa and Uganda. Sacred Sites in...

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  Please take action: Stop the destruction of the Ekuri people’s ancestral rainforest in Nigeria

  Posted on February 29, 2016

  Dear friends, We need your urgent support. The Ekuri People’s ancestral land in Nigeria is under threat. The people of Ekuri live in Cross River State in the southeast corner of Nigeria almost on the border with Cameroon, deep in the...

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  Palawan: Stop blaming indigenous peoples’ farming practices for deforestation – look at boom crops, oil palm plantations and mining!

  Posted on November 10, 2015

  Traditional upland farming implemented through swidden (‘slash-and-burn’) technology (kaingin) in The Philippines is demonized and antagonized through restrictive legislation. In Palawan forests are being destroyed by agribusiness...

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  Community Forest Management: elements for its defense and strengthening

  Posted on November 10, 2015

  The publication recently launched by the Mexican organization Otros Mundos Chiapas is an effort to share many elements and experiences of community forest management. Facing a vast quantity of information disseminated by governmental and...

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  International petition to save the malagasy farmers and local communities against new threats to their lands

  Posted on October 16, 2015

  The platform SIF and Collective TANY call on the Malagasy public opinion and all citizens worldwide to sign a petition to urge the Malagasy authorities to adopt laws which secure the farmers and local communities rights on their...

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  Let’s save malagasy farmers against new threats to their lands

  Posted on October 16, 2015

  Ladies and gentlemen, The Platform of the Actors on Land – SIF – and the Collective for the Defense of Malagasy Lands – TANY offer you their greetings and would like to urge you to sign a petition. LET’S SAVE MALAGASY FARMERS...

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  Mekong governments: Listen to the people! – Statement to sign-on

  Posted on October 1, 2015

  Dear friends, Local communities in the Mekong region in Southeast Asia, who depend on the Mekong river and numerous other rivers and lakes for their livelihoods, need our urgent support. The dams already built on the main Mekong river and...

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  Stop police brutality, harassment and arrests of oustees of Kanhar Dam Project

  Posted on July 21, 2015

  Aklu Chero, a tribal leader protesting the construction of the dam, was shot at by the police on April 15. (Vipin Kumar/ HT Photos) Since April 14, 2015, the oustees of Kanhar Dam Project in the Sonbhadra distrct of the northern Indian...

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  Voices of Resistance: Women fighting for life

  Posted on July 10, 2015

  The “Weaving Resistances” project, from the Organization “Democracy and Global Transformation Program” in Peru, shares three videos that are testimony to a constant and courageous struggle of, especially, women from the...

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  Ecocidio en el río La Pasión, Guatemala

  Posted on June 12, 2015

  Only available in Spanish. Comunicado internacional.  Ante los hechos ocurridos  en el río La Pasión, en Sayaxché, Petén, Guatemala en donde se ha registrado la muerte masiva de peces y otras especies en su cauce (se habla de...

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  Struggles for territory and Living Well in Colombia: Resistance by Afro-Colombian women

  Posted on March 11, 2015

  An article by Charo Rojas, Marilyn Machado, Patricia Botero and Arturo Escobar charts the cumulative processes that have infringed the rights of Afro-descendant populations and destroyed their territories. These processes, they say, are of...

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  “Energy Alternatives, Surveying the Territory”

  Posted on December 21, 2014

  This report from the organization Corner House explores the question “What’s the alternative to current energy systems?” in a context of a growing climate crisis and increasing uncertainty over the future of fossil fuels. In energy...

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  Mekong Commons Internet site

  Posted on December 21, 2014

  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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  “A chance for change in the Congolese forests,” a video produced by the NGO FERN

  Posted on October 31, 2014

  This video shows the struggle of communities that depend on the forests in the Republic of Congo, and that of their defenders, to reduce the impacts of deforestation and to guarantee their rights to manage and control their own...

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  Thailand: Forest populations need a voice

  Posted on September 26, 2014

  In Thailand, both the army and civilian governments define forests as “wilderness free of inhabitants”, neglecting that tropical forests have always been home to indigenous and peasant communities. Laws have marked local people as...

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  Women groups converge in parallel to the Southern Africa Development Community Heads of State Summit (14-18 August)

  Posted on September 4, 2014

  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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  July 26: International Day for the Defense of Mangrove Ecosystems

  Posted on August 5, 2014

  Mangrove peoples and communities have a close bond with mangroves, fishing and the seas. Mangroves and the seas are wholly interconnected natural elements, as is the life of marine coastal peoples. That is why this July 26 the slogan for...

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  International Day of the Mangrove Ecosystem Defense – July 26, 2014

  Posted on July 28, 2014

  The mangrove ecosystem towns and communities have a close bond with the mangrove swamps, fishing and with the oceans. Mangroves swamps and oceans are natural elements that are closely linked with the coastal marine areas. Therefore, on...

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  Environmental Justice Atlas

  Posted on April 5, 2014

  Environmental Justice Atlas, by EJOLT, a large EU project bringing science and society together to catalogue ecological distribution conflicts and resistance struggles. The interactive map describes in detail 900+ cases of environmental...

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  International Day of Action for Rivers and Against Dams – 2014

  Posted on March 13, 2014

  March 14 is the International Day of Action for Rivers and Against Dams. Every year, thousands of people around the world lift their voices to celebrate the world’s rivers and those who struggle to protect them. The International Day...

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  PRESS RELEASE – Forced Relocation of Sengwer People proves urgency of canceling REDD

  Posted on March 12, 2014

  12 March, 2014 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Nairobi – The No REDD in Africa Network (NRAN) and hundreds of international allies strongly condemn the massive evictions and forced relocation of the Sengwer Indigenous Peoples Programme, as...

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  Forced Relocation of Sengwer People proves urgency of canceling REDD

  Posted on February 25, 2014

  February 25, 2014 Download here the full letter in pdf format with the final list of sign-ons  We, the No REDD in Africa Network (NRAN) together with the undersigned organizations and individuals, strongly condemn the massive evictions...

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  Your support in needed! The Sengwer people in Kenya is being forcibly evicted from its territory

  Posted on February 25, 2014

  Dear friends, your support in needed! The Sengwer people – an indigenous hunter-gatherer community in the Cherangany hills in Kenya- is being forcibly evicted from its territory. Many of us have been following closely the story, as...

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  Ecuador: Demand for a popular consultation on Yasuní

  Posted on December 3, 2013

  In response to the government’s decision to abandon the initiative to leave the oil in the Ishpingo-Tambococha-Tiputini (ITT) block beneath Yasuní National Park untapped, and to begin drilling operations, a youth organization called...

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  Moção pública de apoio à demarcação das terras indígenas no Acre

  Posted on October 30, 2013

  Only available in Portuguese. -Ao  Ministério da Justiça Exmo. Sr. José Eduardo Cardoso, Ministro da Justiça – À Diretoria de Proteção Territorial da FUNAI Sr. Aluísio Ladeira Azanha – Diretor (dpt@funai.gov.br) –...

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  Letter to the National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform and the Colonization and Land Institute of the State of Maranhão (Brazil) to demand the recognition and land tenure regularization of traditionally occupied territories

  Posted on September 20, 2013

  This action is being undertaken by our friends in Brazil, in the Bajo Parnaíbo region of the state of Maranhão. They have asked for our help to gather signatures for a letter that will be sent to the National Institute for Colonization...

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  Día Nacional do Cerrado – Actividad en Brasil

  Posted on September 11, 2013

  Only available in Portuguese –  11 de setembro – Dia Nacional do Cerrado. Movimento Geraizeiro apresenta suas reivindicações aos governos federal, estadual e municipais Neste momento centenas de famílias de Geraizeiros rumam...

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  Manufacturing Consent – VIDEO

  Posted on December 30, 2012

  “Manufacturing Consent” is a film that features evidence and first-hand testimony of the abuses of PT Borneo Surya Mining Jaya (PT Borneo) in Muara Tae. The company, a subsidiary of First Resources Ltd, bulldozed farmland and forests...

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  Call to Action from Sarayaku Indigenous Leaders – VIDEO

  Posted on December 14, 2012

  Against oil extraction in the Amazon forest in southern Ecuador:

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  How REDD and environmental services threaten the Lives of Forest People in Acre

  Posted on December 14, 2012

  By Sindicato dos Trabalhadores Rurais de Xapuri – Federação do Povo Huni Kui do Acre. What are the real problems of forest peoples in Acre? Why aren’t REDD and environmental services a solution to these problems? What concerns forest...

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  Recognising Sacred Natural Sites and Territories in Kenya: An Analysis of how the Kenyan Constitution, National and International Laws can Support the Recognition of Sacred Natural Sites and their Community Governance Systems

  Posted on December 14, 2012

  New report: “Recognising Sacred Natural Sites and Territories in Kenya: An Analysis of how the Kenyan Constitution, National and International Laws can Support the Recognition of Sacred Natural Sites and their Community Governance...

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  Green Economy in Brazil, the privatization of the Atlantic Forest: impacts from REDD projects and nature reserves on women and men in traditional communities

  Posted on November 25, 2012

  by Winfridus Overbeek The forest known as the Mata Atlantica (Atlantic Forest) in Brazil is one of the richest biomes in the planet in terms of biodiversity. It used to cover most of the coast of the country. But the process of brutal...

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  Open letter to the Gabonese government authorities

  Posted on September 10, 2012

  ACTION ALERT – GABON  As many countries in Africa, Gabon is facing an alarming rate of expansion of oil palm and rubber plantations. The government has given the Singapore based company Olam 300,000 hectares of land to establish...

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  Palawan: Our Struggle for Nature and Culture – VIDEO

  Posted on August 30, 2012

  A video documentary launched on July 27 by ALDAW, showing the cultural values of Palawan and the encroachment of mining operations in ancestral...

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  The Mumbai-Porto Alegre Forest Initiative as a real alternative for forests and forest peoples

  Posted on June 13, 2005

  “The worst immorality is a studied ignorance, a purposeful refusal to see or know” (Andrea Dworkin) ‘Development’ and International Financial Institutions (IFIs) together with the main decision makers within them, often attempt to...

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  Brief comentary on principles of the Mumbai Porto-Alegre Forest Initiative

  Posted on February 13, 2005

  The Mumbai Porto-Alegre Forest Initiative A number of participants at the World Social Forum 2004 met in Mumbai and believing that forest issues are in essence social and political and that forest communities are increasingly affected by...

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Videos

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  Video|Rio Tinto’s biodiversity offset in Madagascar: Community suffering continues

  Posted on March 23, 2020

  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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  Video: Testimonies of Resistance – 21 September

  Posted on September 17, 2019

  Three testimonies of resistance from Brasil, 2019.

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  Disputed Territory. The green economy versus community-based economies

  Posted on December 11, 2012

  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

  Posted on November 29, 2011

  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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  Defend Life!

  Posted on September 11, 2009

  Animation about the differences to local people between a forest and a tree plantation. Produced by the World Rainforest Movement Created by Flavio Pazos If you have troubles watching the video, try using Chrome You can download the...

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