By Matt Gilbert                                                                       

A Moscow News article describes the battle lines between environmentalists and Indigenous Peoples on one side and Russia’s Gazprom company on the other, leaving the future of the sacred Ukok Plateau uncertain. Environmentalists and Indigenous organizations are urging Gazprom to choose an alternate route that would spare the Ukok Plateau from desecration.

Building the pipeline across the Ukok would be “moral violence against people,” said Urmat Knyazev, a deputy in the Altai republic’s legislative assembly.

Local authorities in Cushing, Oklahoma forced Native Americans protesters of President Obama’s pro-Keystone speech to hold their event within a cage constructed in Memorial Park, miles away from the president’s event.

The Indigenous Environmental Network had the following report:

Thousands of Indigenous peoples and campesinos in Guatemala have embarked on a nine-day protest march to the capital city, covering over 214 kilometers.  Organized by the Comite de Unidad Campesino, (CUC) the march demands the attention of the State of Guatemala, as well as local, national, and international media to the issues facing the rural Indigenous and campesino majority of the country.

On March 8, 2012 in El Pangui, a small town in the southeastern Amazon region of Ecuador, a group of one thousand Indigenous people began a 400 mile journey north toward the capital of Quito. They walked in protest of mining explorations scheduled to take place on their tribal lands in the Southeastern Amazon. Meeting other Indigenous groups coming from the opposite direction, they reached their destination on March 22, demanding an explanation to the signing of mining exploration contracts signed by the government with Chinese-owned Ecuacorriente.

Ngöbe-Bugle leaders and Panama government officials reached an agreement last week that bans all mining in the Ngöbe-Bugle territory and requires community approval for any hydro-electric projects. The agreements were formed into the Special Law 415 and was debated at the National Assembly and approved during its second reading, yesterday.  

March 8, 2012 – International Woman’s Day – marked the beginning of the two-week march for “Water, Life, and Dignity of Indigenous Peoples” in Ecuador. Led by the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE), the trip will take protesters 435 miles to Ecuador’s capital, Quito. The route includes a number of places emblematic in the anti-mining struggle, and protesters have managed to gather support from various sectors of society.

Ouch Sam On, a deputy governor of Cambodia's Kampong Thom province, told Prey Lang activists last week that he "would not be responsible if they were shot while protecting Prey Lang Forest," according to our campaign partners at the Prey Lang Network.  The comment was made after Sam On ordered activists to desist their regular patrols through the forest, where they monitor for illegal logging. On their patrols, members of the Prey Lang Network regularly burn any wood they find that has been illegally cut down by loggers.