World Rainforest Movement
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THE FOCUS OF THIS ISSUE: WATER, FORESTS AND CLIMATE
Life on Earth found its origin in water. And water continues to sustain all forms of life. This precious natural element has been respected and valued by all cultures except for the present dominant market-based culture which is increasingly converting water into a mere resource to be used and abused. Forests are a key component of the global water cycle. Forest degradation and destruction affects water reservoirs which together influence the earth’s climate. In turn, climate change is impacting on forests, water and people. The main drivers of deforestation –transnational corporations– by appropriating and destroying water and forests are putting at stake our common future on Earth. We intend this month’s bulletin serves as a tool to highlight these connections and raise local communities’ denounces.
In this increasingly privatized world, to talk about water is almost synonymous with talking about its appropriation by some company to turn it into merchandise and source of profit. The (Read More)
“The surface of the earth had not appeared. There was only the calm sea and the great expanse of the sky. There was nothing brought together, nothing which could make (Read More)
The relationship between forests and water has long pre-existed the appearance of humans on the planet. Wherever water comes down from the skies with certain frequency, there is a forest. (Read More)
In the symbiosis between water and forest referred to in the previous article, another component should also be considered: climate change. Climate is a determining factor of the forest, of (Read More)
Yesterday I could cry and shed watery tears I could labour and freely shoot watery sweat But today Not so, not so Riverbeds turned dustbowls Rivers diverted into private (Read More)
The proposed Phulbari open pit coal mine in Bangladesh would divert a river, suck an aquifer dry for 30 years and evict thousands of people from their homes. Vast machines (Read More)
In a country already suffering severe economic hardship and repression under its military rulers, thousands of people mainly in rural areas face losing their homes and lands to seven large (Read More)
The Pampas of Argentina and Uruguay is one of the largest uncultivated grasslands in the world. Grasses have dominated the Pampas for at least three thousand years. Starting in the (Read More)
Lake Chini is dying. The beautiful lake in the state of Pahang is one of the only two large natural freshwater bodies in Malaysia –and is dying. It used to (Read More)
Together with the arrival of large-scale monoculture tree plantations is the departure of water. This affects the whole village community, but for women, the effects are particularly differentiated. They tell (Read More)