Issue 183 – October 2012

Food sovereignty, forests and biodiversity

This month, while another meeting of the Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity was taking place in India, we also celebrated, on October 16, World Food Sovereignty
(Read More)

Convention on Biological Diversity: Opening the way for financial markets

The 11th meeting of the Conference of Parties (COP 11) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) took place October 8-19 in Hyderabad, India. Among the main themes addressed was
(Read More)
La Via Campesina at the CDB: “Keep biodiversity public”

La Via Campesina (LVC), the global peasants movement, have been watching the CBD discussions and in a press release asserted that “instead of protecting biodiversity, the CBD discussions are progressively
(Read More)
Gathering support for Indian forest communities at the CDB

In 2006, the Indian Parliament enacted the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act (popularly known as Forest Rights Act). The forest law has
(Read More)

Brazil: Continued destruction of forests and biodiversity in the state of Acre, considered a model of the “Green Economy” in the Brazilian Amazon

Over the last two decades, the Latin America and Caribbean region has lost 9% of its forest cover, primarily as a result of logging, the expansion of agribusiness, major
(Read More)
São Tomé and Príncipe: Biodiversity threatened by oil palm plantations

São Tomé and Príncipe is one of the countries on the West African coast that stands out when it comes to biodiversity. For this reason, since the end of the
(Read More)
Industrial logging cannot be sustainable

Barbara Zimmerman with the International Conservation Fund for Canada and Cyril Kormos, Vice President for policy with the WILD Foundation are the authors of a new study in Bioscience which
(Read More)

Cameroon: Major impacts of oil palm agribusiness on food sovereignty and livelihoods

In a context of massive land concessions in the country over the last five years – be it the expansion of existing plantations or the granting of new land
(Read More)
Indonesia: Farmers struggle against industrial oil palm and acacia plantations in defense of their land and food sovereignty

The struggle in Geragai District Up to 2011, a total of 18 companies had licenses over forest areas for a total of 663,809 ha distributed over 8 Regencies in Jambi
(Read More)
Portugal: Petition to protest the “eucalyptization” of the country

This past September 21, to mark the International Day Against Monoculture Tree Plantations, the Portuguese environmental organizations Liga para a Protecção da Natureza (League for the Protection of Nature)
(Read More)

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

About 40 farmers of a La Via Campesina member organization (Serikat Petani Indonesia) from Jambi province protested in front of the Germany Embassy on October 16 against the negative impacts
(Read More)
Brazil: Support the Indigenous Cause of the Guaraní-Kaiowa

The Brazilian organizations Juízes para a Democracia (Judges for Democracy) and CIMI have launched a petition addressed to various Brazilian authorities to demand the urgent demarcation of indigenous lands in
(Read More)
Indonesia: Court victory against oil palm company

The state administrative High Court in Medan, has decided in favor of the organization WALHI, cancelling administrative decisions that led to the issuance of the license to the oil palm
(Read More)
Burma/Myanmar: Letter of Global Solidarity against land grabs

The “Second Commercial Farm Asia”, a fair that brings together corporate investors and governments from Myanmar and other countries in the Southeast Asia, has taken place in Yangon, Myanmar on
(Read More)

Brazil: Documentary film exposes FSC plantations as “Sustainable on Paper” only

“Sustainable on Paper”, a documentary film by journalists An-Katrien Lecluyse and Leopold Broers released in Belgium in 2011, is now available on the internet. The film broadly denounces the
(Read More)
Motion on Sacred Natural Sites

The IUCN has approved a Motion on Sacred Natural Sites: ‘Support for Custodian Protocols and Customary Laws in the face of global threats and challenges.’ The initial Declaration was drafted
(Read More)