Seeds of Hope
“What are the solutions to forest destruction?” “What are the alternatives?” Questions like these are often raised to squash possible debate that could lead to real solutions to deforestation and climate chaos. The way forward starts with ending the assault on forest peoples and their ways of life, and learning about their relationships with their territories. For generations, forest-dependent communities have lived in and with forests, and have protected them.
The inter-dependencies in and among communities with their life spaces and practices sheds light to the conservation practices of forest communities. And within these interdependencies lie the stories of women.
A feminist view on Commons reveals that accumulation opposes the basic principles of sharing and sustaining: receiving from nature’s abundance is done by ensuring that needs (and not wants or greed) define the extent of extraction.
Village assemblies in Korchi, along with resistance against mining, are actively engaged in reimagining and reconstructing local governance. Women’s collectives have also started to assert their voice in these emerging decision-making spaces. (Available in Swahili).
An interview with the activist Nasako Besingi. He organized communities in their protests against US agribusiness Herakles Farm’s palm oil plantations. Due to this engagement, he has been the victim of Herakles Farm and government physical attacks, intimidation and criminalization. (Available in Swahili).
Only available in French.
Peasants and other people working in rural areas are one step away from achieving a United Nations Declaration that could defend and protect their rights to land, seeds, biodiversity, local markets and much more.
On November 12, with the endorsement of organizations from five continents, Friends of the Earth International and World Rainforest Movement publish an open statement denouncing the failure of the RSPO to eliminate the violence and destruction that oil palm plantations.
We invite organizations to sign on and support the statement, which denounces that the RSPO, since it was created 14 years ago, has been a tool that served the corporate interests of the oil palm sector