Fossil fuels have driven current modes of civilisation for over one and a half centuries. Coal, crude oil and gas enabled the world to shift from humans and animals as energy generators to machines that opened the highway to endless consumption. Crude oil appears cheap because the real costs are externalised. Today, with the days of easy oils ending we are seeing a push into extraction in deep waters and fragile ecosystems.
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Under the slogan ´Our Future is Now´, more than 150 people – men, women, youth and elderly - from communities inside oil palm concession areas in Liberia gathered between 27 and 29 November in Bopolu City – Gbarpolu County - to discuss the expansion of export-oriented oil palm plantations in Liberia and the impacts of this expansion on their livelihoods. Two big oil palm companies are active in Liberia: the Malaysia-based company Sime Darby with a 311,187 ha concession area, conceded through a 63-years contract with the Liberian government, signed in 2009.
On 1st of December 2012, aggrieved landowners from 36 villages in Malen Chiefdom, affected by large-scale oil palm plantations of the Socfin company, sent a letter through their local association (MALOA) to the Human Rights Commission in Sierra Leone, denunciating human rights abuses such as ongoing harassment, molestation and intimidation.
Elimination of customary laws through regulations
In 1950, Indonesia’s forests spanned over 162,290,000 hectares, covering 80% of the country’s 192,257,000-hectare land area. According to the 1999 Forestry Law, the forest area owned by the state accounted for 133,876,645.68 hectares.
The community-based organization Pangalasag is a member organization of the regional alliance Kalumbay and an organization of Higaonon indigenous people in the municipality of Opol, Misamis Oriental. “Pangalasag”, which means indigenous shield, was created to become a driving force in the resurgence of Higaonon customary laws especially in decision-making and granting of consent, aside from its literal meaning to defend against aggressors.
In early December of this year, the Brazilian National Development Bank (BNDES) announced that it was granting a new loan of 22.5 billion reais, the largest in its history, to the Belo Monte hydroelectric dam project.
The documentary video “Bajo Aguán: Grito por la Tierra” (Bajo Aguán: Cry for the Land) (1) was presented in Honduras on December 10 during a Human Rights Forum organized by the Committee of Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared in Honduras.
Chile is currently debating amendments to Decree Law 701, which was passed during the first years of the military dictatorship and has been used for decades to promote the expansion of large-scale monoculture tree plantations. This expansion is driven by hefty government subsidies, and has been achieved at the expense of the violation of the rights of Mapuche indigenous communities, who have been violently evicted from their lands and left marginalized in their own ancestral territory.
The Observatory of Mining Conflicts in Latin America (OCMAL) and Latin American Observatory of Environmental Conflicts (OLCA) have developed the “Map of Mining Conflicts in Latin America” to serve as a database and information system for community management of mining-related social and environmental conflicts in the region. http://basedatos.conflictosmineros.net/ocmal_db/
“World Summit on Sustainable Forest (-destruction)”, a satirical blog on the summit that will be held on March 5th-6th 2013 in Stockholm (Sweden). You are invited to attend or follow this World Forgery Summit on sustainable forest destruction. Some of the key questions in the agenda:
*Can we find a way to rebrand monoculture plantations as being sustainable?
*Is there a way to make the bankrupt carbon trading system look like a part of the solution to the climate crisis?
“Mining, plantation firms reported for rights abuses”, a Jakarta Post headline informs that mining and plantation companies are among the actors that should be held responsible for numerous human rights abuses in the country, according to a National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) report. The rights commission revealed that companies ranked second — trailing behind the National Police — in its list of institutions reported for human rights violations.
“Manufacturing Consent” is a film that features evidence and first-hand testimony of the abuses of PT Borneo Surya Mining Jaya (PT Borneo) in Muara Tae. The company, a subsidiary of First Resources Ltd, bulldozed farmland and forests belonging to the indigenous community of Muara Tae, assisted by the intimidation of armed police brought in to protect the company, while trying to obtain RSPO certification under fake information.