Bulletin 268 - December 2023

Almost 30 years of UN climate negotiations have resulted in the establishment of policies and practices that facilitate the constant expansion of the fossil fuel-based economy (and its profits) while hiding its implacable negative impacts for the territories where it expands.

President Jokowi calls the Kalimantan Industrial Park Indonesia (KIPI) “the largest green industrial area in the world”. But in reality, there is nothing green about the KIPI. It will lead to massive fossil fuel use, land and water grabbing, while threatening thousands of people in coastal communities with forced eviction. (Available in Indonesian).

In the past two years, tree plantation initiatives aimed at generating carbon credits have doubled. Whether as large monocultures or as nicely sounding projects with grassroots communities, tree plantations for carbon offsetting are neither a solution to the climate chaos nor beneficial to rural communities in the Global South.

Carbon offsetting projects jeopardise small-scale farming, the felling of trees for subsistence, and other centuries-old practices of Indigenous Peoples and traditional communities in the Amazon region. Contracts promoted by companies undermine local care strategies and workers’ creativity, undervaluing or even denying them completely.

A compilation of articles from the WRM Bulletin aims to expose the damaging role played by companies and organizations involved in certification schemes. After three decades, what is clear is that the only “sustainability” that they guarantee is that of corporations’ business and that of certification industry itself.

The Afrise women's association launched an international petition to stop the replanting of oil palm monocultures around their homes and over the grave sites of their ancestors. They are denouncing decades of sexual abuse, land dispossession and misery. They are demanding that their territory be returned to them, so that they can lead a life of dignity.

For decades, Mapuche communities have been resisting the impacts of a forestry model based on large-scale monoculture plantations. In this interveiw, Pablo Reyes Huenchumán, spokesperson for the Paillakawe community, explains how they organize, and what the main challenges are in the struggle to recover their territory and maintain their culture.

2023 culminates with a victory for the popular struggle to defend life in Panama. This will influence every corner on earth where, in the face of environmental conflicts, people are resisting and defending their territory.

In the context of the recent UN climate conference in Dubai, we propose to re-read the article Climatology / Ideology, from the WRM Bulletin 247, published in January 2020.

In the wake of a year filled with scandals involving REDD-type projects, this report by SOMO released in November 2023 reveals that the North American company Wildlife Works is responsible for serious human rights violations in its Kasigau project, in Kenya. The report is based on dozens of testimonies from members of the local community who reported widespread sexual harassment and abuse by senior members of Wildlife Works staff and project guards. One is dealing here with yet more evidence of how, in the patriarchal society we live in, women are always the most impacted, in particular in initiatives and mechanisms in which they are relegated to passive roles.

Members of the Yes to Life, No to Mining network, with others, expressed their solidarity with the people of Palestine and its struggle for self-determination by means of a statement making the connection between colonialism, mining, militarization and war. The Statement is still open for signatures.

Friends of the Earth International made available a very useful tool for organizations and activists that oppose false climate solutions.

The material presents a broad overview of the theme, with data on use and impacts of agrotoxins on agriculture, health and the economy, among others.