Legal Land Theft

In most countries with tropical forests, governments uphold the colonial legacy that declared the State to be the owner of forest lands. This has enabled governments to legally grant land to private investors, often violating communities' customary ownership of the land. As a result, corporate activities that destroy forests continue to expand.

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brazil_B267
Bulletin articles 25 October 2023

WRM’s reply to Biofílica Ambipar’s “Clarification Note”

WRM’s reply to Biofílica Ambipar’s “Clarification Note” about the article "REDD and the Green Economy exacerbate oppression and deforestation in Pará, Brazil", written by WRM and published in its Bulletin of July 2023.
RedAlerta-Mozambique_B267
Bulletin articles 25 October 2023

Communities from Brazil and Mozambique exchange experiences in the fight against industrial tree plantations

Exchanges between activists put the voices of those who fight to defend their territories at the center of the conversation. In September, members of communities from Brazil and Mozambique united their struggles and connected their histories once again, helping to strengthen solidarity in the fight against industrial tree plantations.
MPA Brasil Para
Bulletin articles 16 June 2022

Green Deserts: The Advance of Oil Palm Plantations in the Amazonian State of Pará

In Brazil, oil palm plantations are expanding rapidly, mainly in the Amazonian state of Pará. BBF (Brasil BioFuels), the largest oil palm company in Brazil, stands accused of environmental crimes and violence against indigenous, quilombola and peasant communities such as Virgílio Serrão Sacramento, a community linked to the Small Farmers’ Movement (MPA).
Suzano Brazil Bahia
Bulletin articles 16 June 2022

​Quilombola Communities’ Resistance Against Suzano Company in the Southernmost part of Bahia, Brazil

A conversation with the president of the Volta Miúda Quilombola Association and of the Southernmost part of Bahia Quilombola Cooperative revealed how Suzano, the world’s largest paper and cellulose corporation, continues to operate with serious violations and illegalities. Communities keep fighting to reclaim their lands back.
concesiones
Bulletin articles 23 March 2022

Forest Concessions, Colonial Concept

What a certain historiography terms civilizational expansion or capital’s expansion has in fact been the invasion and de-territorialization of peoples and communities using much epistemic and territorial violence. Concessions have been granted in areas that are not demographic voids, a colonial concept that ignores the fact that they have been populated for millennia.
women brazil
Bulletin articles 23 March 2022

No Concession at PETAR: Combating Privatization is a Women’s Struggle in Brazil

Women from the Ribeira River Valley -in the state of São Paulo, Brazil- have devoted themselves to opposing the concession of one of the region’s most important tourist parks. Their struggle is fundamental, and part of diverse resistances against the privatizing trend of creating ‘territories without people’. They remind us that their territory has been and is rooted in their stories, voices and resistance.
Bulletin articles 4 January 2022

Arbaro Fund: A Strategy to Expand Industrial Tree Plantations in the Global South

The false idea that industrial plantations are a solution to the climate crisis is a golden opportunity for investment funds like Arbaro, which access scarce climate funding for expanding destructive monocultures.

Other information 17 December 2021

In the midst of the pandemic, land invasions and killings of indigenous people increased in 2020

Bulletin articles 18 May 2021

Brazil: The Impacts of Nature-based Exclusions on Women’s Bodies-Territories

This text shares reflections that emerged from our discussions with women impacted by Green Economy projects in Brazil.

Bulletin articles 17 November 2020

Development: Understandings from the Ground

WRM spoke with close allies from Brazil, Gabon, India, Mexico and Mozambique, to hear from them and learn about their understandings of development.

Articles 16 April 2020

Organisations ask Sierra Leone Government to move forward with resolution of the land conflict between plantation company Socfin and communities

Civil society organizations have welcomed the finalization of a report of a Technical Committee about a legal dispute between the multinational company Socfin and communities affected by the company’s oil palm plantations in the Malen Chiefdom in Sierra Leone.
Bulletin articles 14 May 2019

Misguided funding: Green Climate Fund support for REDD+

Despite the government of Brazil announcing cutbacks to action against deforestation, the Green Climate Fund awarded US$ 96 million for alleged emission reductions in the Brazilian Amazon. These avoided emissions in part exist only on paper.