French energy company EDF has dropped their civil lawsuit against a group of UK campaigners involved in the No Dash for Gas group who occupied one of the company’s power plants in October 2012, after a massive solidarity response from civil society.
Friends of the Earth EWNI denounced that “EDF’s threat of claiming massive damages from climate activists represented a new low in corporate attempts to stifle the democratic right to protest." Hopefully the public outcry will make other companies think twice before taking similar legal action.
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Gathered at a fourth binational meeting, representatives of the Matsés indigenous peoples' from Brazil and Peru expressed their opposition to all oil industry activity within their territories in both countries. The Matsés have already suffered the social impacts of oil exploration and experienced its drastic consequences for the flora, fauna and water resources. This is why they demand that the authorities respect their stance, particularly with regard to the defence of the Yaquerana River basin, which is home to indigenous groups living in voluntary isolation, they stressed.
The aboriginal grass-roots movement Idle No More cut off access to the gold-copper-zinc mine of HudBay Minerals Inc, a Toronto-based mid-tier miner, in Lalor for several hours in early March.
The group seeks to renegotiate old mining agreements and seize more control over mining developments, whether they are on lands designated as native reserves or not.
"We've existed in this territory for millennia. We don't have a land claim - it's beyond that, actually. Our rights exist throughout all of our territories," said Arlen Dumas, chief of the Mathias Colomb Cree Nation.
The US Department of Agriculture Animal Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) announced that it is voluntarily preparing an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) regarding a petition to deregulate [legalize] the commercial sale of the first genetically engineered tree in the US, a freeze tolerant eucalyptus tree. Eucalyptus trees are not native to the US and are a documented invasive species. They are also highly flammable and known to deplete ground water. The freeze tolerant GE eucalyptus trees will be able to survive in regions too cold for their non-GE relatives.
A rally of indigenous groups demanding the revocation of the law marked the 18th year of the Philippine Mining Act .
The groups declared that after 18 years, the country has had more than enough reasons to call for the termination of the disastrous and killer mining law. “Corruption, violence, human rights violations, chilling disasters one after another –these are what Filipinos have suffered as a result of implementing the Mining Act of 1995,” Bayan Muna Partylist Rep. Neri Colmenares said.
A movie of An BACCAERT, Nico MUÑOZ and Cristiano NAVARRO (Directors)
Production of Directors - 2011
32 '
In the south region of Mato Grosso do Sul, in the border of Brazil and Paraguay, the most populous indigenous nation of the country silently struggle for its territory, trying to contain the advance of its powerful enemies.
“Credibility at Stake - How FSC Sweden Fails to Safeguard Forest Biodiversity”, a new report in English by the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation (SSNC), available at http://www.naturskyddsforeningen.se/sites/default/files/dokument-media/rapporter/2013_engelsk_rapport_skog_credibility_at_stake.pdf
“REDD plus or REDD “Light”? Biodiversity, communities and forest carbon certification”, a new report in English by the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation (SSNC), available at http://www.naturskyddsforeningen.se/sites/default/files/dokument-media/REDD%20Plus%20or%20REDD%20Light.pdf
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 29, 2013
Contact: NnimmoBassey +216 21003908 nnimmo@eraction.org
Outraged by the rampant land grabs and neocolonialism of REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest degradation), Africans at the World Social Forum in Tunisia took the historic decision to launch the No REDD in Africa Network and join the global movement against REDD.
On January 30, a Dutch court ruled that the Anglo-Dutch transnational corporation Shell is responsible for polluting the Niger delta, affecting heavily the lives of people at Ikot Ada Udo in Akwa Ibom State. Shell must clean up the oil pollution, compensate those affected and prevent further leaks from occurring. This case is unique because for the first time a Dutch multinational had to respond in front of a Dutch court for the acts of one of its subsidiaries.
On 3 February 2013, at around 4 am, twelve police platoons entered Govindpur and Nuagaon villages in Jagatsinghpur district of Orissa (present Odisha) and started beating up sleeping women & children, injuring many of them seriously, and arresting people at random. They are demolishing the betel vines in the area - the traditional and one of the most viable local livelihoods.
“Live or drive, a choice has to be made”, a case study of Sime Darby operations in Liberia, basta! and Friends of the Earth France, athttp://www.bastamag.net/IMG/pdf/Rap_LiberiaEN.pdf