On October 17, 2011, a Brazilian federal judge ruled that the controversial Belo Monte Dam licenses are illegal and should be revoked since the Brazilian government did not hold proper consultations with Indigenous communities that would be affected by the project.
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.
Papua New Guinea’s government announced that it will restore the right of landowners to challenge in court any project they feel could be detrimental to the environment. According to reports in The National The National Executive Council agreed to repeal the Environmental Amendment Act, passed by the legislature in May 2010, which denied landowners this right.
On October 10, over 100 protesters marched to the Presidential Palace in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, to demand a halt to the construction of the Patuca III hydroelectric dam. Miskitu, Garifuna and Lenca marchers called on the government to address 16 issues of concern to the Indigenous peoples of Honduras.
Last week, Indigenous landowners rested their appeal to Papua New Guinea’s Supreme Court, asking for a permanent injunction to prevent a Chinese nickel mine from dumping toxic mine waste into the Bismarck Sea.
The Oglala Sioux Nation has declared opposition to plans for the Keystone XL gas pipeline project unless the US government can agree to certain conditions set by the Nation.
A Brazilian judge brought construction of the Belo Monte Dam project to a halt last week as he ruled in favor of environmental activists to protect fish species and the Indigenous people who depend on them for food and livelihoods.
The following video was produced by Global Witness based on interviews and research in 67 communities of the Democratic Republic of Congo. It tells the personal stories of the impacts of large-scale logging companies.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxn5jfgED1w&feature=player_embedded
As the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) climate talks opened in Panama this week, Indigenous leaders from around the world gathered in Finland and called upon the international community to remove scientific bias against Indigenous knowledge from climate change science and policy.
On September 29, 2011 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced it will clean up approximately 1.4 million tons of radium and uranium contaminated soil at the Northeast Church Rock Mine, the largest uranium mine on the Navajo Nation in New Mexico.
Russia and China took a step forward in their negotiations to build a
pipeline that would carry natural gas from Russia to China, transecting the
sacred Ukok Plateau. This week the two countries' companies agreed on a
formula to calculate the price of the natural gas, according to an
announcement by Gazprom Deputy CEO Alexander Medvedev. See the complete
report here.
To write letters to Russian and Chinese officials, opposing the proposed
On September 26, 2011 over 200 people protesting Canadian government's support for Alberta's Tar Sands and the Keystone pipeline XL were arrested trying to carry out a sit-in in the House of Commons in Ottawa.
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.
