The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has issued a statement condemning the State of Belize for violating the rights of Indigenous Peoples in the Toledo district.

The Commission has been closely following the illegal extraction and destruction of natural resources conducted by foreign companies with support from the government of Belize since 2004, when they issued a recommendation that the government “delimit, demarcate and title the [Mayan] territory” and until that has happened, abstain from any projects that might affect these lands.

The following editorial by Samuel Nguiffo was published in Al Jazeera on April 14^th.

Samuel Nguiffo is the Secretary General of the Centre for Environment and Development (CED), Cameroon, and a recipient of the Goldman Environmental Prize in 1999.  He is currently being sued by the government of Cameroon for tarnishing the state's reputation when he advocated against an oil palm plantation concession.

New York-based New Tang Dynasty Chinese television channel produced a video covering the continued fight to protect the Ukok Plateau in Russia's Altai region from a gas pipeline that would bring natural gas to China.  They highlight the environmental, cultural, and archeological concerns about the project that would bisect the UNESCO heritage site that is sacred to the Indigenous Telengit People. 

Karuturi Global Ltd, an India-based agricultural company and the world’s largest rose grower, has stated that it will pursue funding from an undisclosed sovereign wealth fund after development banks denied the corporation financial assistance to continue projects in Ethiopia.

By Madeline Hall

By Coletivo Buopés

By Jessica Minor

Nestled inside a narrow moat of rainforest between the famous Arenal volcano and the Nicaraguan border lies the Maleku Indigenous Reserve of Guatuso, Costa Rica. Within the three small neighborhoods inside the reserve – Palenque Tonjibe, Palenque Margarita, and Palenque El Sol – around six hundred Maleku spend their days farming the land, painting wooden masks and jícara, or gourd bowls, performing for tourists in their traditional palm clothing, or planting trees in an ongoing reforestation effort.

Protests are ramping up again against the Keystone XL project after the US Department of State released a draft of a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) covering the pipeline route from Nebraska to the Canadian border.  The proposed pipeline remains under review at the State Department, and will take comments for 45 days.  Obama recently announced

Cultural Survival is accompanied by Greenpeace and dozens of other organizations in calling for Herakles Farms to own up to their abuses in Cameroon. Read the following release by Greenpeace on their new report- "Herakles: A showcase in bad palm oil production" and video (below), and take action by writing to Herakles directly. 

National Public Radio's All Things Considered is running a two-part series on the relationship between China’s need for raw materials and the exploitation of Cambodia’s resources, specifically destruction of its forests. The first part of the program, which is set in Prey Lang, can be heard here: http://www.npr.org/2013/01/29/170580214/as-china-builds-cambodias-forests-fall

Amid a flurry of recent protests, strikes, negative press, and shareholder divestment, British coal company GCM Resources’ executive Grahram Taggart resigned last week.

The company has plans to construct an open-pit coal mine in Northern Bangladesh that is widely opposed by local Indigenous Peoples, grassroots organizations, environmentalists and UN Special Rapporteurs.