The three leading Liberian civil society organizations Sustainable Development Institute (SDI), Save My Future Foundation (SAMFU), and Social Entrepreneurs for Sustainable Development (SESDev) released a statement on January 31, 2013, calling for a review of Liberia’s agricultural policy. Since 2006, the Government of Liberia has entered into binding contracts – known as concession agreements – with three major oil palm producing foreign investors: Sime Darby (Malaysia), Golden Veroleum (Indonesia), and Equatorial Palm Oil (UK).
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The Philippines has a great variety of minerals, including gold, copper, nickel, chromite, manganese, silver and iron. Mineral extraction increased rapidly after it was liberalized by the Philippine Mining Act of 1995, which gives full rights to foreign transnational mining corporations in indigenous territories, including 100% ownership, repatriation of profit and tax holidays thus violating indigenous peoples’ ancestral land rights.
On the occasion of International Women’s Day, March 8, the Red de Mujeres Defensoras de los Derechos Sociales y Ambientales (Latin American Network of Women Defenders of Social and Environmental Rights) – made up of women from Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay who represent a wide range of organizations, institutions, collectives and local groups, including environmental and research organizations, women from both the countryside and the city, professional women and others with a basic level of education – has published
The Singapore based agribusiness giant Wilmar - is expanding its operations in Africa. It already has approximately 50,000 hectares of oil palm plantations in Ivory Coast, Uganda and Ghana. More recently it has expanded to Nigeria going into a joint venture with PZ Cussons to set up huge extensions of oil palm plantations in Cross River State in the south east region of the country while promising the creation of thousands of job opportunities.
Tropical rainforests cover 85% of the total land area in Gabon. They are home to an immense diversity of species, on which some 300,000 people depend for their survival, through hunting, gathering, fishing and small farming.
The Garwula District, in Grand Cape Mount County, is one of the areas affected by the 63-year lease agreement signed by the Malaysian giant oil palm producer Sime Darby with the Government of Liberia in 2009. When the company established large scale export-oriented oil palm plantations the livelihoods of the local residents were disrupted, and women have had to cope with many difficulties.
A community petition on Avaaz.org calls for action against companies that subsidized by a European Union trade scheme, forcibly displace hundreds of thousands of Cambodian farmers from their land. These schemes are intended to benefit poor countries, but in Cambodia they have incentivized companies that steal people's land and make them poorer, while the benefits have flowed primarily to a business and political elite.
The organization Fian International - for the right to adequate food, began an action in October 2012 to end on 30 April 2013 in defense of peasant communities in Niassa province in Mozambique who have lost access to land used for food production and to natural forests and thus are facing food insecurity and violations of their right to food due to the establishment of large-scale tree plantations promoted and financed by Sweden.
Close to 3,000 members of the Peasant Women’s Movement (MMC), hailing from 23 different states, gathered on February 18-21 for the first national meeting of the organization. The central theme of the gathering was the fight against violence against women. On the morning of the last day, the women filled the plaza in front of the National Congress building in Brasilia with the colour purple and shouted out slogans.
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.