Issue 157 – August 2010

On 28 July, the United Nations General Assembly declared “the right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation as a human right that is essential for the full enjoyment of life and all human rights.” (1) This comes as a surprise; not because the resolution was adopted, but because it means that until now access to safe and clean drinking water had NOT been recognized as one of the most basic rights of every single human being! Having said the above, we of course welcome this declaration, that we consider an important milestone for addressing the problems currently being faced by almost 900 million people worldwide, that do not have access to clean water –and many more that might be facing the same fate in the near future.

Last April, the Central African Republic ratified ILO's Convention on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples thus becoming the first African country to ratify this convention. ILO Convention No. 169, adopted in 1989, is a legally binding instrument that attaches specific obligations to governments. Together with the UN declaration on indigenous peoples, it is the main international human rights instrument to deal specifically with the rights of indigenous peoples, and provides wide ranging protection for the rights of indigenous peoples. This convention is based on recognising cultural and ethnic diversity and emphasises principles of consultation and self-government.

On 3 August the Ecuadorian Government and the United Nations Development Programme signed the Ishipingo-Tambococha-Tiputini (ITT) Trust Fund agreement. The signing of this financial instrument is the first concrete step towards implementing the project launched 3 years ago which set out to keep 846 million barrels of crude oil under the ground in the Yasuni national park – one of the planet’s most bio-diverse places and home to the Waorani indigenous people and of indigenous groups living in voluntary isolation.

The Korean company POSCO arrived to India for business and entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the Government of Orissa on 22 June 2005. Its projects include a steel plant and a port as well as mining prospection in the Eastern State of Orissa (see WRM Bulletins Nº 147 and 155). The project has been largely opposed by local people who see that they not only won’t reap any  benefit from the project but will be severely impacted. Resistance started in 2005 in the area where the company intends to set up its steel plant, when a people's blockade was declared in three potentially impacted areas - continuing to date in one of the areas.

To mark the UN Day of Indigenous People, Survival International has released a new report highlighting the devastating impact on tribal people of a massive boom in dam-building for hydropower. Drawing on examples from Asia, Africa and the Americas, Survival’s report “Serious Damage” exposes the untold cost of obtaining ‘green’ electricity from large hydroelectric dams. A rapid increase in global dam-building is currently under way. The World Bank alone is pouring $11bn into 211 hydropower projects worldwide. The impact on tribal people is profound. One Amazonian tribe, the Enawene Nawe, has learnt that Brazilian authorities plan to build 29 dams on its rivers. Across the Amazon, the territories of five uncontacted tribes will be affected.

Kemenyan or locally known haminjon is a fragrant resin of benzoin. It has been cultivated and traded from Batak highlands of Indonesia's province of North Sumatra for centuries. Benzoin is produced from benzoin trees (Styrax benzoin) and is highly valued as ingredient in incense for burning in rituals ceremonies, for traditional and modern medicinal purposes, perfumery and for fragrant cigarettes.

A new negotiation round on climate change under the UN Climate Change Convention (UNFCCC) ended in Bonn on August 6. The protracted UNFCCC process which is crucial for the future of Humankind has become a very complex scenario full of technicisms and rather difficult to follow by non “experts”. The main danger of such a tangled structure is that it hides vested interests, powerful lobbies, bullying attitudes and unilateral decisions from the more powerful sectors and countries. The process allegedly advances towards an agreement that should be reached by the end of the year in Cancun containing the guidelines that the world countries would adopt to deal with climate change. Two main tracks of this negotiation processes are:

Faced with greenhouse gas emissions at every stage of the production chain, the timber industry has a choice. It could look at reducing emissions. Or it could attempt to greenwash its operations, in effect attempting to evade responsibility. Perhaps not surprisingly, given its record, the industry is opting for the latter.

During the climate summit held in Copenhagen (COP 15) in December 2009, thousands of people from around the world gathered there to challenge the farcical political negotiations at the UNFCCC Bella Center. They demanded just solutions to the climate crises. They demanded climate justice. The Danish government replied with a massive police repression followed by thousands of preventive arrests, month-long surveillance of telephone and raids of private homes and accommodations.

La production d’huile de palme est séculaire au Bénin et elle s’est toujours faite surtout par des méthodes artisanales. Ce sont précisément les femmes qui fabriquent l’huile de palme pour la consommation locale. Or, au nom de la « modernisation de la production », le rôle des femmes se voit aujourd’hui menacé.

Apesar da grande campanha ideológica das elites brasileiras em busca de apresentar o agronegócio como uma agricultura moderna, as contradições deste modelo de produção agrícola são difíceis de esconder. Em pleno século XXI seu modelo produtivo continua igual à época da invasão portuguesa, baseado no latifúndio, em sua maioria fruto de grilagem e expulsão de quilombolas, indígenas e camponeses; no trabalho escravo ou extremamente degradante; na devastação das florestas e do solo, na utilização desenfreada de agrotóxicos (o Brasil se tornou há dois anos o maior consumidor de agrotóxicos do mundo); e no acesso a gigantescos créditos governamentais, sempre seguido de calote das dívidas.

A comunidade quilombola de São Domingos, tradicionalmente instalada no norte do Espírito Santo, viveu um momento histórico nos dias 26 e 27 de junho. Nesta ocasião, formou-se um grande coletivo solidário a fim de trazer de volta a agrobiodiversidade à terra reconquistada, após anos de uso da área como monocultura de eucalipto de uma empresa privada transnacional. Em cerca de 13 hectares que antes foram posse indevida da Aracruz Celulose (hoje conhecida como Fíbria), iniciou-se a reconversão agrícola, ou seja, a terra voltou a ser usada para cultivo de alimentos saudáveis. 

Honduras, que fue uno de los principales productores de granos básicos de Centroamérica, ha pasado a producir la mitad de sus necesidades. 2,8 millones de hondureños del área rural viven con un nivel de ingreso inferior a la línea de pobreza. Este grupo representa más del 75 por ciento de la población rural y más del 70 por ciento de los pobres de todo el país. Cada año hay un déficit de más de 10 millones de quintales de maíz, y hay que importar 200 mil quintales de frijoles y 500 mil quintales de arroz. Esta pérdida de soberanía alimentaria para gran parte de la población se ha agravado por la implementación del monocultivo de la palma africana, cuyo destino es abastecer el desmedido consumo de los países industrializados del Norte.