A resolution adopted by the Chilean government’s National Geology and Mining Service ordered a temporary but total stoppage of drilling and clearing work on the Pascua Lama mine project in the province of Huasco in the Atacama region. Work was halted due to a contravention of mining safety regulations, namely excessive levels of dust that pose a serious risk to the health of workers.
Bulletin articles
The 6th Pan-Amazon Social Forum was held on December 1 in Cobija, in Bolivia’s Amazon region, on the triple border between Peru, Brazil and Bolivia. “Under the protection of the rubber and chestnut trees, symbols of the Bolivian Amazon,” the Amazonian peoples launched a call for unity to transform the world.
At 9:00 a.m. on December 4, uniformed officers of the National Police set fire to the homes and crops of residents and families in Bilsa, located in the canton of Muisne in Esmeraldas province. This community has ancestrally inhabited this spot, where they make a living through gathering crabs and agro-ecological farming practices. The fact that they have lived here for more than 20 years means they have the right to legal title to the land in compliance with the provisions of the country’s Civil Code.
It is becoming increasingly evident that efforts by governments, NGOs, institutions and corporations to make REDD their principal strategy for reducing deforestation in countries with tropical rainforests are not working. Trees continue to come down at record rates in the name of “development projects” such as mining, industrial palm oil, soy and other crops, hydroelectric power plants and infrastructure for facilitating the displacement of raw materials. Even supposed “sustainable forest management” ends up causing more destruction.
The WRM has produced a new guide of “10 CommunityAlerts about REDD,” intended to provide broad information about REDD. The guide sums updifferent communities’ individual experiences with REDD projects throughout the world, recorded by WRM. The following is a summary of the contents of this new publication, written for a broad audience.
Big NGOs’ support of REDD projects help polluter corporations to greenwash their image.
Article based on a field visit and conversations with villagers in 5 of the 7 most affected communities by this project.
Testimonies of community women impacted by carbon and forest conservation projects that today are included in the so-called Green Economy.
Social organizations try to prevent a Chiapas-California REDD agreement from going forward. They denounce the potential for increased emissions in California on the one hand and landgrabs in Chiapas on the other.
Costa Rica is currently known throughout the world for its efforts in forest conservation. This “success” is mainly attributable to its Payment for Environmental Services (or PSA for its initials in Spanish), a forerunner to the REDD program in Costa Rica.
A story of the peoples of the Atlantic Forest in southern Brazil in a disputed territory where the green economy competes with community-based economies.
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 Day.