Category Archives: Biodiversity

Action, Biodiversity, Environment, Extractive Industries

Stopping the mine – Xeni Gwet’in leader wins Environmental Prize

NEW INTERNATIONALIST EASIER ENGLISH WIKI
newint.org

Marilyn Baptiste, leader of the Xeni Gwet’in. © Goldman Environmental Prize
Marilyn Baptiste, leader of the Xeni Gwet’in. © Goldman Environmental Prize

Marilyn Baptiste of British Columbia, Canada has won the Goldman Environmental Prize. She stopped the Taseko Mines gold mining project.

We are very happy that Marilyn Baptiste, leader of the Xeni Gwet’in has won the Goldman Environmental Prize. This is the biggest prize in the world for environmental activism. She stopped Taseko Mines’ Prosperity gold and copper mine.

Marilyn led the successful campaign to protect her community from the Prosperity mine. The mining project would be the worst kind of mining. It would destroy the beautiful First Nations’ lands and Fish Lake (Teztan Biny), full of fish.

If this plan had succeeded, many other similar mines would have been planned. The Canadian government has a history of giving more importance to mining than indigenous rights and environmental protection.

Industry, governments and local municipalities all supported the Prosperity plan. So it was a surprise to many people that it was not allowed. This shows the power of community protest.

Marilyn Baptiste led the fight. She had just been chosen as Chief of the Xeni Gwet’in. She led the environmental, cultural and economic studies to take to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency’s review group. More…

Biodiversity, Brazil, Environment

Peru’s mega-dam projects threaten Amazon River source and ecosystem collapse

by David Hill
April 28, 2015
news.mongabay.com

'The Marañón River in Peru where the government is proposing more than 20 dams on the main trunk.' Photo credit: David Hill
‘The Marañón River in Peru where the government is proposing more than 20 dams on the main trunk.’ Photo credit: David Hill

Peru is planning a series of huge hydroelectric dams on the 1,700-kilometer (1,056-mile) Marañón River, which begins in the Peruvian Andes and is the main source of the Amazon River. Critics say the mega-dam projects could destroy the currently free-flowing Marañón, resulting in what Peruvian engineer Jose Serra Vega calls its “biological death.”

In 2011, Peru passed a law declaring the construction of 20 dams on the main trunk of the Marañón to be in the “national interest” and that the projects will launch the country’s “long-term National Energy Revolution.” But many Peruvians following the issue believe the planned dams are less about meeting “national demand” for electricity as the law reads, and more about supplying mining companies, and exporting to neighboring countries.  More…

Biodiversity, Brazil, Climate Change, Development, Environment, Extractive Industries, Food Security, human rights, land, Latin America, Peace, Water

A note repudiating the criminal action of the Federal Police in the Munduruku Indian Village Teles Pires

Source: Indian Mission Council (CIMI)

Cimi comes before the people to publicly manifest vehement repugnance at the violent action and murder committed by the Federal Police during the operation called El Dorado. Using the pretext of carrying out judicial orders which determined the destruction of mining balsas in the Teles Pires River and sites of illegal mining, the commander of the operation, Antonio Carlos Muriel Sanchez, led the invasion on November 7, 2012 of the Indian Village Teles Pires, in the Jacareacanga county, state of Pará. According to declarations made in the Federal Public Ministry, there the police practiced all sorts of atrocities, such as: beatings, murder, attempted murder, destruction of houses, the school, the health station, cell phones, computers, the short wave radio, canoes and fishing boats e as balsas used for mining. Now the Indians are not able to fish, porque the river is totally polluted by the fuel in the balsas destroyed by the Federal Police. Continue reading A note repudiating the criminal action of the Federal Police in the Munduruku Indian Village Teles Pires →

Biodiversity

Western lifestyles plundering tropics at record rate, WWF report shows

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The Guardian

Living Planet report shows planet’s resources are being used at 1.5 times the rate nature can replace them – but long-term decline of animal life appears to have been halted.

WWF Living Planet map of ecological footprints worldwide

Join our campaign to tackle the global diodiversity crisis

The Earth’s population is using the equivalent of 1.5 planets’ worth of natural resources, but the long-term decline of animal life appears to have been halted, a WWF report shows.   The latest Living Planet report, published today by the conservation group, also reveals the extent to which modern Western lifestyles are plundering natural resources from the tropics at record levels. Continue reading Western lifestyles plundering tropics at record rate, WWF report shows →

Biodiversity, Food Security, Haiti, Uncategorized

An Open Letter to Oxfam America on its Stance on Biotechnology

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Mr. Jeremy Hobbs
Executive Director, Oxfam International
266 Banbury Road, Suite 20
Oxford OX2 7DL
United Kingdom

Mr. Ray Offenheiser
President, Oxfam America
1100 15th St., NW, Suite 600
Washington, DC 20005
United States of America
April 12, 2010
Dear Mr. Hobbs and Mr. Offenheiser:

We the undersigned, as part of the global food justice and food sovereignty movement, are writing to you to express our grave concerns with the recent position publicized by Oxfam America in support of agricultural biotechnology as a viable solution for addressing poverty faced by resource poor and subsistence farmers in developing countries. We deemed necessary to write to you not just because of a recently released book, but also because Oxfam America appears to be positioning itself as a ‘good broker’ for independent research on Bt cotton in West Africa with support from the Gates Foundation Continue reading An Open Letter to Oxfam America on its Stance on Biotechnology →

Biodiversity, Uncategorized

No life without diversity

Swiss Aid

African Charter Article# 17: Every individual shall have the right to education, cultural life, and the promotion and protection of values.

Summary & Comment: Species diversity must not be left in the hands of agri-businesses and laboratories. The FAO estimates that during the 20th century three quarters of the genetic base of agricultural crops disappeared. The practice of farmers for thousands of years to develop, grow, or breed plants and animals according to their very specific cultural needs and geographic and climatic conditions has been compromised. Support the SWISSAID “Our seeds, our life” campaign. Globally, just 15 plants and eight animal species supply 90% of our food. Rice, corn, and wheat meet half of our food requirements. Continue reading No life without diversity →