Several weeks have passed since the World Peoples’ Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth, convened by Bolivian President Evo Morales. But in these times of fast-moving and disposable news, we should make an effort to ensure that the crucial significance of this meeting is not simply tossed on the junk news heap.
Bulletin articles
For many years now the world expansion of the pulp and paper business has been increasingly covering millions of hectares of land with large scale monoculture tree plantations. Mainly disguised as “forests” these “green deserts” have encroached on vast territories and rich ecosystems mostly in the global South.
Mangrove forests are vital for healthy coastal ecosystems in many regions of the world. They support an immense variety of sea life in intricate food webs associated directly with the mangrove trees themselves.
We received a message from the Amazonas Sustainable Foundation (FAS) expressing that the article ‘Brazil: Juma REDD test case in the Amazon’, published on the WRM bulletin, presents various inaccuracies. However, FAS's “clarifications”, posed as a question and answer game, do not clarify much. On the contrary, they basically serve to strengthen what the WRM article said.
Most Baka, Bagyeli and Bakola, recognised as “people of the forest,” still rely on hunting and gathering to secure their livelihoods, and even though some also cultivate annual crops, the majority still rely on the forests. For them, the forest is their ancestral home, their reliable grocery, the root of their existence, and their customary right (seeWRM Bulletin Nº 87).
Corría el año 1998 cuando los Pueblos Ancestrales del Ecosistema Manglar del Ecuador decidieron unir sus esfuerzos en una gran campaña denominada “¿Y si se Acaba el Manglar?” en la isla de Muisne, ubicada en la provincia de Esmeraldas en la costa norte del Ecuador, donde más del 85% de sus manglares se convirtieron en menos de 30 años en piscinas para la cría en cautiverio de camarón.
Si vemos un mapa de la cobertura forestal de la república de Guatemala, podremos observar que a lo largo de la línea costera del Pacífico se encuentran de manera interrumpida y dispersa los escasos bosques de manglar. Estos han quedado como islas rodeadas de una serie de actividades que comprometen su permanencia y los beneficios que aportan a las comunidades y a la conservación.
Every four years millions of people throughout the world suddenly become football fans. Many of us know that the organizer –FIFA- is a huge and corrupt money-making machine. We also know that football is big business for a large number of highly destructive transnational corporations. We even know that football players are in many cases no more than modern gladiators sold as human commodities in the FIFA market.
At present, the initiative for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) is rather a collection of proposals and some pilot schemes. However, it is being strongly pushed and at a remarkable speed inside as well as outside the United Nations process, with the aim of including carbon forest in the array of mechanisms for carbon permits and carbon offsets.
On 14 and 15 March, the Third Session of the People’s Permanent Tribunal was held in Madrid (Spain). This is an activity promoted by the Bi-regional Europe-Latin America and Caribbean Network “Enlazando Alternativas” (Linking Alternatives).
As we reported in October 2009, the Korean steel company POSCO has been granted the opportunity both in India and in Uruguay to occupy territory that is valued by the inhabitants of both countries.
The International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA) has issued a report on the indigenous Ayoreo people in Paraguay and the injustices they have been experiencing due to the expansion of ranching, illegal sale of land and extractive industries (1).
More than a report, it is an urgent wakeup call that Director of Iniciativa Amotocodie Benno Glauser introduces as follows: