Issue 186 – January 2013

A new year has begun. But a change in the calendar does not necessary imply a change in the intensification of the processes of domination and destruction that are the reason for the resistance struggles of so many peoples and communities, and the social organizations who work alongside them. Nevertheless, it is a symbolic opportunity to stop for a moment, look back and look forward, gather forces, raise banners, and feel hope.

In this issue of the WRM Bulletin we analyze the large-scale generation of energy from wood biomass. This is a new trend which, particularly in the European Union, involves the ever increasing use of wood as a means to meet “renewable energy” targets. What was initially portrayed as an environmentally friendly way to take advantage of waste wood has rapidly turned out to be another large-scale process that requires growing consumption of wood. It has also led to the emergence of new energy market commodities, such as wood chips and wood pellets.

Biomass is the oldest energy source used by humans. It is found in abundance in almost every part of the planet and today, more than two billion people depend on it for cooking, heating and lighting, particularly in the countries of the global South. Energy produced from biomass is called bioenergy. One of the traditional ways of generating bioenergy is from biomass in solid form, such as firewood. But technological development has also made it possible to obtain energy from wood chips and wood pellets. Biomass can also come in liquid form, such as ethanol (produced from crops like sugar cane, maize and wheat) and biodiesel (made from oilseed crops like oil palm, jatropha, sunflowers and soy beans), and in gas form, such as biogas.

On January 29, 2013, at about 4:30pm, a protest of peasants was violently repressed in South Sumatra by the Regional Police. About 25 people were beaten and arrested, peasants and also three activists including Anwar Sadat, Director of WALHI South Sumatra, the main environmental NGO of the country. Please help release Anwar and the other arrested people by signing the On Line Petition: www.change.org/ReleaseAnwar

Since 1881, the Chilean state has attempted to “Chileanize” the Mapuche indigenous people, maintaining them in a state of permanent colonialism. The Mapuche people have responded with a long, hard-fought struggle of resistance and defence of their self-determination, as well as demanding the return of their ancestral lands which are currently under the control of large landholders and tree plantation companies.

Sombath Somphone, a farmer, scholar, scientist and community developer as well as a well-known activist in land issues and against mega-dams, has spent his life working for his people and country. He led several projects to improve food security through the use of low-cost and eco-friendly technologies and trained many people including women in participatory planning for integrated rural development as a means to tackle rural poverty.It was through this experience that Sombath came to believe that to alleviate poverty, development approaches must be multi-dimensional and multi-sectoral.

On January 25-27, 2013, social and political organizations and movements from numerous countries in Latin America, the Caribbean and the European Union gathered in Santiago, Chile for the Chile 2013 People’s Summit, held in parallel to the summit between the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) and the European Union (EU), and the CELAC Summit, also held in the Chilean capital. The hundreds of organizations participating in the People’s Summit issued a call to move beyond struggles for specific demands to building alternatives that contain comprehensive social-political national proposals.

Brazil’s Landless Workers Movement (MST) has announced, “We are beginning the year 2013 with several struggles, which represent MST’s response to the irresponsibility of governments. If we do not fight for agrarian reform, which is currently at a standstill, and for the punishment of murderer Adriano Chafik, who killed five landless workers and remains at large eight years later, it would be as if we ourselves were all dead.”

The French industry ministry recently issued a gold mining permitfor an area in the middle of Guiana Amazonian Park in French Guiana.Thousands of prospectorsare digging up the French Guianese jungle and river sediments insearch of gold, polluting the region and destroying itsecosystems. The residents of the affected rainforest village Saül are voicing their protest together with environmentalists and researchers.

Following a collaborative study conducted in the four Protected Areas: Nagarhole, Bandipur, Mudumalai and Wayanad, several social groups came together in Gudalur on December 21- 22, 2012. After discussing the state of the Protected Areas of the Nigiris Biosphere Reserve, repeated violation of the Forest Rights Act, 2006 and the Wildlife Protection Act - Amendment of 2006, the continued dispossession of the communities from their traditional habitat and community resources, The Gudalur Declaration was adopted declaring all the Tiger Reserves in the Nilgiris Biosphere Reserves as illegal. Ref: AIFFM Secretariat < aiffmsecretariat@gmail.com > and Mamata Dash <mamata68@gmail.com>

Through its Google Group and Facebook page Aldaw will provide periodical updates of news and articles on oil palm development in the Philippines, as well as globally.The bulletin may include information and news on related topics suchas biofuels, bioenergy, industrial agriculture and forestry monocultures. There will be no specific dates for releasing the bulletin which will be circulated as soon as a sufficient amount of information is collated. Aldaw Indigenous Network can be contacted through facebook at http://www.facebook.com/Aldaw.network.palawan.indigenous.advocacy?ref=ts&fref=ts

The documentary video “Bajo Aguán: Cry for the Land” presented in Spanish in Honduras on December 10 during a Human Rights Forum organized by the Committee of Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared (see Bulletin 185), has been launched in the English version. The new video denounces rights violations under the exploitative oil palm plantation model, and can be seen and downloaded athttp://wrm.org.uy/countries/Honduras/Grito_por_la_tierra.html