“The crucial characteristic of monocultures is that they do not merely displace alternatives, they destroy their own basis. They are neither tolerant of other systems, nor are they able to reproduce themselves sustainably.” So wrote Vandana Shiva in her classic 1993 essay “Monocultures of the Mind.”
Bulletin articles
The territories that make up what is known today as Latin America have two main features in the eyes of big corporations and business conglomerates: they encompass vast areas of land, and they are a source of highly coveted commodities: wood, palm oil, commercial crops, meat, wool, raw materials for agrofuels, genetic resources, land, water. As such, they are a magnet for big capital.
On 28 July, the United Nations General Assembly declared “the right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation as a human right that is essential for the full enjoyment of life and all human rights.” (1)
This comes as a surprise; not because the resolution was adopted, but because it means that until now access to safe and clean drinking water had NOT been recognized as one of the most basic rights of every single human being!
Last April, the Central African Republic ratified ILO's Convention on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples thus becoming the first African country to ratify this convention.
On 3 August the Ecuadorian Government and the United Nations Development Programme signed the Ishipingo-Tambococha-Tiputini (ITT) Trust Fund agreement. The signing of this financial instrument is the first concrete step towards implementing the project launched 3 years ago which set out to keep 846 million barrels of crude oil under the ground in the Yasuni national park – one of the planet’s most bio-diverse places and home to the Waorani indigenous people and of indigenous groups living in voluntary isolation.
The Korean company POSCO arrived to India for business and entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the Government of Orissa on 22 June 2005. Its projects include a steel plant and a port as well as mining prospection in the Eastern State of Orissa (see WRM Bulletins Nº 147 and 155).
To mark the UN Day of Indigenous People, Survival International has released a new report highlighting the devastating impact on tribal people of a massive boom in dam-building for hydropower.
Drawing on examples from Asia, Africa and the Americas, Survival’s report “Serious Damage” exposes the untold cost of obtaining ‘green’ electricity from large hydroelectric dams.
A rapid increase in global dam-building is currently under way. The World Bank alone is pouring $11bn into 211 hydropower projects worldwide.
During the climate summit held in Copenhagen (COP 15) in December 2009, thousands of people from around the world gathered there to challenge the farcical political negotiations at the UNFCCC Bella Center. They demanded just solutions to the climate crises. They demanded climate justice.
The Danish government replied with a massive police repression followed by thousands of preventive arrests, month-long surveillance of telephone and raids of private homes and accommodations.
La production d’huile de palme est séculaire au Bénin et elle s’est toujours faite surtout par des méthodes artisanales. Ce sont précisément les femmes qui fabriquent l’huile de palme pour la consommation locale. Or, au nom de la « modernisation de la production », le rôle des femmes se voit aujourd’hui menacé.
Apesar da grande campanha ideológica das elites brasileiras em busca de apresentar o agronegócio como uma agricultura moderna, as contradições deste modelo de produção agrícola são difíceis de esconder.
A comunidade quilombola de São Domingos, tradicionalmente instalada no norte do Espírito Santo, viveu um momento histórico nos dias 26 e 27 de junho. Nesta ocasião, formou-se um grande coletivo solidário a fim de trazer de volta a agrobiodiversidade à terra reconquistada, após anos de uso da área como monocultura de eucalipto de uma empresa privada transnacional.
Honduras, que fue uno de los principales productores de granos básicos de Centroamérica, ha pasado a producir la mitad de sus necesidades. 2,8 millones de hondureños del área rural viven con un nivel de ingreso inferior a la línea de pobreza. Este grupo representa más del 75 por ciento de la población rural y más del 70 por ciento de los pobres de todo el país.