Eighty-five organizations, including Cultural Survival, sent a letter sent to investors, urging them to withhold financing for the Phulbari Coal Project in Bangladesh.  The project is controlled by Global Coal Management Resources plc (GCM), a London-based company,  and its largest investor is Polo Resources, of South Africa.  The letter  is signed by leading human rights and environmental organizations based in 25 countries.

The people of Bangladesh continue to protest the construction of a large coal mine in the Northwest region of Phulbari. The mine will displace thousands of Indigenous people and destroy their agricultural lands. Cultural Survival launched a letter-writing campaign in February, 2011 to prevent this mine's construction.

A recent article, “Displacing People For Profit: Obama Administration Supports Controversial Coal Project in Bangladesh,” written by Christine Shearer and Joshua Frank and published by Ale

Two thousand Bangladeshi citizens blocked major highways and railways for six hours on March 28 and demanded a response from the prime minister by April 11. They are calling on her to honor a 2006 agreement to ban open-pit coal mining in the country. For seven years, Bangladeshi citizens, including the National Indigenous Union (Jatiya Adivasi Parishad) have fiercely protested a British company’s plan for open-pit mining in Phulbari.

The following two articles regard massive protests that took place in Bangladesh yesterday demanding a ban on open pit mining scheduled to break ground in the northwest region of Phulbari.  See Cultural Survival's Action Alert on Bangladesh here to send a letter in solidarity with the Indigenous farmers of this area against the destruction of their land. 

On Friday, March 25th, Global Response program director Paula Palmer was interviewed on Bob Kincaid's radio program "Head On" regarding the campaign in Bangladesh against the Phulbari coal mine.  A native of West Virgina, Bob is very interested in communities struggles against the coal industry.

By Kate Hoshour, IAP Senior Research Fellow
Roughly 2,000 protesters united to blockade a highway in the Phulbari region this week and demanded that the government honor a six-point agreement, signed on August 31, 2006.