Forest-dependent Peoples in many countries are facing the destruction of their territories in the name of 'clean energy' and the 'energy transition'. These Peoples also continue to face devastation caused by the production of today's main source of energy: fossil fuels. This reality shows that 'clean energy' and the 'energy transition' only exist on paper.
Bulletin articles
An overview of the links between oil and gas extraction in the Niger Delta and deforestation and major oil spills that have occurred over recent decades in one of Africa's leading oil-producing regions. Their impact on a region of immeasurable environmental and cultural wealth has led many communities in Nigeria to fight against oil giants such as Shell.
What is being promoted globally as ‘clean energy’ is revealing expanding frontiers of mineral extraction shaped by conflict and cross-border tensions. In the Mekong and Salween basins, mining activities are destroying forests and polluting rivers and watersheds, particularly in Myanmar, one of the world’s most important exporters of heavy ‘rare earth’ minerals.
In a climate of repression, the Ecuadorian government is racing against the clock to begin construction on the largest hydropower dam in the country. This project could devastate dozens of Shuar communities and submerge a vast area of ancestral territory in the heart of the Ecuadorian Amazon.
Decades of industrial energy production have destroyed vast areas of forest in Southeast Asia. The ‘energy transition’ trend is triggering a new wave of activities that lead to more deforestation in the region. Forest conservation programs, meanwhile, put the blame for deforestation on forest-dependent communities.
The government of Brazil plans to increase gas production in the coming years and invest billions of dollars in infrastructure for the sector. Among the planned projects is a gas pipeline that could cross hundreds of kilometers of the Amazon rainforest, boosting predatory industrial activities and impacting communities.
More than 20 years after the article was first published in the WRM Bulletin, the dispute over minerals continues to fuel a violent conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The analysis presented 20 years ago sadly remains relevant today: "Behind the myth of ethnic rivalries are the old colonial powers that continue to plunder the riches of post-colonial Africa."
Wars and militarization are nothing new, especially in the Global South. But they have been increasingly normalized by imperialist governments, with the US at the forefront. WRM expresses its solidarity with the peoples who resist this violence characteristic of patriarchy and capitalism.
Resistance of communities from Cameroon and Sierra Leone whose lands have been invaded by the palm oil and rubber company Socfin for decades dealt an economic blow to the company. The company’s operations are particularly harmful for women, many of whom are facing threats for standing up against these violations and bringing them to public attention.
Communities in Indonesia living with mangrove forests face many threats like the imposition of nickel mining but also mangrove forest carbon projects. In different ways, these projects cause harmful impacts on their lives. Meanwhile, communities continue resisting and restoring mangroves by themselves, with women at the forefront.
The negative impacts of oil palm monocultures promoted by a national policy are already being felt in three villages in the state of Manipur. The turmoil it is creating at the plantation villages indicates a departure from the indigenous ways of land governance and relations to a system designed to cater to a corporate economic system.
Financial institutions and private investors from the global North are channelling hundreds of millions of dollars into the expansion of industrial tree plantations across Africa. This article provides an overview of the sector’s expansion in the region and examines its growth – both in terms of the area it covers and the conflicts it has caused.