This briefing, compiled by the World Rainforest Movement (WRM) and the Timberwatch Coalition (TW), is now also available in Swahili. It focuses on various internal and external factors determining changes in the extent of land under industrial tree plantations in 11 eastern and southern African countries: Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe; Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda; South Africa, Swaziland and Lesotho; and Madagascar.
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Global Campaign to Reclaim Peoples Sovereignty, Dismantle Corporate Power and Stop Impunity press release:
The UN session in New York was finally closed WITHOUT including the nefarious paragraph proposed by the European Union and no change was made in the budget for the next sessions of the UN Working Group on the Binding Treaty (OEIGWG).
Since 2003, the camp that bears the name of environmentalist, José Lutzenberger, has reconciled the production of foods free of agrochemicals with the recovery of native “Mata Atlantica” forest. For this reason, it was chosen for the Juliana Santilli award, in the category of increasing and conserving agro-biodiversity. The area, which for decades was degraded by landowners' cattle ranching activities, has been slowly recovering.
A new Survival International report documents serious instances of widespread and systematic human rights abuses between 1989 and the present day in Cameroon, the Republic of Congo, and the Central African Republic (CAR) by wildlife guards funded and equipped by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), the parent organization of New York’s Bronx zoo. Documented abuses and harassment are likely just a small fraction of the full picture of systematic and on-going violence, beatings, torture and even death.
In October, the Inter-governmental Working Group of the United Nations Human Rights Council met in Geneva to develop an "an international legally binding instrument to regulate, in international human rights law, the activities of transnational corporations and other business enterprises." The Global Campaign to Reclaim Peoples Sovereignty, Dismantle Corporate Power and Stop Impunity presented its draft Treaty on Transnational Corporations and Human Rights, which was the result of a broad collaborative process among affected communities, social movements and civil society organizations.
Russia's Numto Nature Reserve in western Siberia contains a sacred lake, endangered cranes and valuable wetlands for the indigenous Nenet and Khanty peoples. Last year, the nature reserve's borders were redrawn by the regional government to make way for new drilling operations for the Russian oil company Surgutneftegas, forcing out indigenous groups.
An interview with University of Ghana professor, Dzodzi Tsikata, makes it clear how "anyone who declares himself/herself to be a feminist cannot fail to recognize the connection between women's rights and the right to land." Therefore, she adds that "women's rights affect many interconnected spheres that cannot be separated. If one focuses only on one aspect and ignores the rest, women's rights are not realized."
The commercial power of the oil palm industry in Indonesia is intertwined with politicians and government authorities at the highest level, which leads to violent grabbing of land from peasant and traditional communities. This article, part of the series “Indonesia for sale”, is the story of money, politics and power in Seruyan, Borneo, Indonesia, one of the main focal areas of the oil palm industry in the country.
Access the article in English here.
The current wave of murders directly aimed at environmental and feminist activists demands a reflection that includes a gender perspective. The many community projects based on the cooperative model of self-management are being led by women: women who know and want to be free of exploitation—be it work-related, material, cultural or patriarchal—and who understand they are not free as long as their sisters are not.
Read the article in Spanish here.
This new briefing, published by the NGOs Re:Common and Counter Balance, exposes the absurd logic behind biodiversity offsets and explains how it is deployed by private companies – with the support of governments and the legitimization of some conservation organizations and academics – to greenwash their reputation and continue with business-as-usual.
Access the briefing on English here.
As WRM team, we are shocked and sad with the news that Wally Menne passed away, given the force and energy with which Wally always contaminated us, given his friendship, attention with us and other friend-activists.
MALOA, SILNORF, WRM, Bread for All and GRAIN | 25 September 2017
On September 21, 2017 about 150 to 200 women were stopped by police on their way to Pujehun to urge local authorities to take action against the Luxembourg-based oil palm plantation company SOCFIN for grabbing their lands and committing other related human rights abuses. The women were travelling from Malen Chiefdom and were stopped by road blocks set up by the police at Benga Junction, about 4 km outside of Pujehun, the capital of Pujehun District, Sierra Leone.