Forests and Logging

Indigenous rights ignored

whit — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 14:07:58 +0000

ONE event on the sidelines of the climate talks in Poland dealt with the negative effects of the proposed forestry solution to climate change called Reducing Emission from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD).

Victor Hugo Vela told of the problems faced by the Chiquotano tribe in Bolivia with the controversial Noel Kempff Mercado Climate Action Project.

Into its 11th year, the project is one of the earliest carbon sequestration scheme initiated by The Nature Conservancy with the government of Bolivia .

Encroachment - Sakai lose land to dark forces

whit — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 07:50:12 +0000

PHATTHALUNG : About 30 Sakai nomadic people have been brutally expelled from their ancestral forest in Pa Bon district by local influential figures and civil servants whose business interests were jeopardised by the tribe’s presence, a source says.

The ethnic minority group, the source said, was an impediment to illegal poaching and logging involving the local mafia and authorities who had encroached on the forest where they were living.

The Sakai were intimidated by b rutal tactics and forced out of settled areas in a wildlife sanctuary on Bantad mountain range so the poachers could g

Why They Kill the Awá

johnacuna — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 14:40:54 +0000

It is overcome by pain and sadness that we write these lines. We write from the shared rage we feel towards this criminal act, apparently committed by the FARC, whom we condemn for these irreversible horrors and the shedding of innocent blood.

As we write, the Colombian Minister of Defense, Juan Manuel Santos, is arriving in the Department of Nariño to conduct the military operations that constitute the government’s response to the massacres and terror these indigenous communities are now facing.

Joint Indigenous Peoples and NGO Statement on the relationship between climate change and human rights

whit — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 14:04:55 +0000

Joint Indigenous Peoples and NGO Statement on the occasion of the presentation of the Report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on the relationship between climate change and human rights

Statement to the Human Rights Council, Agenda item 2

Submitted by: International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs, Tebtebba Foundation, Saami Council and RAIPON

We, the undersigned indigenous peoples’ organizations and support NGOs, welcome the report of the OHCHR on the relationship between climate change and human rights.

Guiana Shield indigenous leaders discussing Amazon Basin protection

whit — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 21:29:58 +0100

DELEGATES to the Guiana Shield Regional Meeting of Indigenous Leaders are continuing discussions, begun Monday at Regency Suites Hotel in Hadfield Street, Georgetown, on the critical importance of the Amazon Basin.

Addressing the opening of the five-day deliberations, Mr. Trevor Stevenson, Executive Co-Director of Amazon Alliance, pointed out that the sustainability of the Amazon is directly linked to the survival of its indigenous communities.

“The Amazon is not just a forest.

The Anchorage Declaration

Kailash — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 13:40:46 +0100

From 20-24 April, 2009, Indigenous representatives from the Arctic, North America, Asia, Pacific, Latin America, Africa, Caribbean and Russia met in Anchorage, Alaska for the Indigenous Peoples’ Global Summit on Climate Change. We thank the Ahtna and the Dena’ina Athabascan Peoples in whose lands we gathered.

We express our solidarity as Indigenous Peoples living in areas that are the most vulnerable to the impacts and root causes of climate change.

'We are fighting for our lives and our dignity'

Kailash — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 12:31:29 +0100

It has been called the world’s second “oil war”, but the only similarity between Iraq and events in the jungles of northern Peru over the last few weeks has been the mismatch of force. On one side have been the police armed with automatic weapons, teargas, helicopter gunships and armoured cars.

Support Indigenous Protesters: Stop Government Repression

Kailash — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 20:23:26 +0100

Ecuadorian police have attacked peaceful Shuar Indigenous protesters near the town of Macas in the southern Ecuadorian Amazon, leaving at least one Shuar teacher dead.

Please join Cultural Survival in condemning this state violence and urge Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa to refrain from further violence, investigate the Macas violence, and negotiate directly with Indigenous organizations to address their concerns and uphold their rights.

Indigenous Peoples in the Ecuadorian Amazon launched protests early this week against a new Water Law and the Mining Law.

New Climate Deal Risks Impoverishing Indigenous Peoples

whit — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:42:55 +0000

Bangkok, – If parties agree on a new climate change deal in Copenhagen in December, indigenous peoples might be the main victims of it. Environmental and human rights groups call on policymakers to explicitly recognize indigenous peoples’ rights when designing a new climate change agreement.

“Millions of people worldwide depend on forests for their survival”, says Simone Lovera, managing coordinator of the Global Forest Coalition.

U.S. Will Settle Indian Lawsuit for $3.4 Billion

whit — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 11:37:15 +0000

WASHINGTON — The federal government announced on Tuesday that it intends to pay $3.4 billion to settle claims that it has mismanaged the revenue in American Indian trust funds, potentially ending one of the largest and most complicated class-action lawsuits ever brought against the United States.

The tentative agreement, reached late Monday, would resolve a 13-year-old lawsuit over hundreds of thousands of land trust accounts that date to the 19th century.