Ba Jawi community sues logging group Samling and the Sarawak state government in order to protect 15,000 hectares of high-conservation-value tropical rainforest
Ba Jawi (Sarawak), MALAYSIA. The Penan community of Ba Jawi in Sarawak's Upper Baram region has today lodged a collective action lawsuit against Malaysian timber giant Samling and the state government of Sarawak over 15,000 hectares of primary rainforest in order to protect their livelihood from being destroyed by logging.
Ensure the full recognition of our rights in a Cancun climate decision
Forum of Indigenous Peoples Mining, Climate Change and Well Being
National Museum, Lima, 18 to 20 November 2010
Indigenous peoples, communities and social organizations Abya Yala, brothers of Africa and Europe, children of Mother Earth, assembled in the Mining Forum, Climate Change and Good Living in the city of Lima, after three days of deliberations and declare:
Whereas:
After a three-day Forum on Mining, Climate Change and Well-being at the Museum of the Nation from November 18 through 20 in Lima, Peru, Indigenous delegates from all over Latin America issued the so-called Lima Declaration demanding the end of large-scale mining by multinational corporations on Indigenous lands.
On November 15th the Ingaricó, Macuxi, Patamona, Taurepang and Wapichana Indigenous Peoples of Raposa Serra do Sol, Brazil finally received a favorable decision from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Commission found that the government’s treatment of Indigenous Peoples in Raposa may violate human rights is now in the final stage of reviewing the case and will soon issue a concluding report.
On November 11th, international and Brazilian human rights organizations filed a formal petition with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to stop the construction of Belo Monte Dam on the Xingu River in the Brazilian Amazon. The petition urgently calls on the commission to adopt "precautionary measures" that would put pressure on the Brazilian government to halt plans to build the dam, planned to be the world's third largest.
Mr. President, Honourable Ministers, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, Distinguished delegates, Indigenous brothers and sisters; Today I’m speaking on behalf of the International Indigenous Forum on Biodiversity (IIFB).
After two weeks of continuous work, long discussions and many negotiations we reach the end of COP10. The IIFB representatives, including Indigenous women, have actively engaged in all these discussions with our proposals and deliberations.
Negotiations on an international regime on Access and Benefit Sharing for the use of genetic resources resulted in a new protocol at the tenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) in Nagoya, Aichi, Japan, from 18 to 29 October 2010, where over 200 Indigenous representatives participated. The protocol was adopted in Japan on October 29th, and is now known as the Nagoya Protocol. A protocol is a treaty developed within a treaty, in this case within the CBD.
Canada came under severe criticism in the current negotiations on an international regime on Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) for the use of genetic resources at the tenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 10) to the Convention on Biodiversity was held in Nagoya, Aichi, Japan, from 18 to 29 October 2010, where over 200 Indigenous representatives participated. Canada stood alone in its shameful opposition to preambular text "Taking into account the significance of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples" (UNDRIP) in the proposed ABS Protocol.
Land Acknowledgement
We acknowledge that we are headquartered on Massachusett land, in Cambridge, MA, and we thank the past, current, and future Indigenous stewards of this territory.
