Thanks to all who wrote letters to the World Bank, urging it to stop financing industrial logging in the Congo, the world's second-largest rainforest. Our letters demanded that the Bank carry out consultations with indigenous "Pygmy" communities throughout the vast rainforest region, and honor their needs and rights regarding any logging plan.

Under pressure, the Bank's Inspection Panel undertook an investigation of the Bank's policies and practices in the Congo. The Panel's report, just released, finds the Bank in violation of many of its own policies and standards.

SAHABAT ALAM MALAYSIA [SAM]
FRIENDS OF THE EARTH, MALAYSIA
21, Lintang Delima 15, 11600 Penang, Malaysia
Tel : (6) 04 - 6596930 Fax : (6) 04 - 6596931

PRESS STATEMENT AUG 27, 2007

 SAM would like to call the attention of the Malaysian Government, both at the Federal and Sarawak level on the latest developments surrounding the two blockades set up by the Sarawak native communities in the middle and upper Baram, Miri Division.

By Greenpeace, Amsterdam / Utrecht

Amsterdam/Utrecht 20 April 2007 – Greenpeace is relieved that laundering illegal timber has become less easy from today. The Board of Appeal of Keurhout ruled today that Keurhout wrongly approved a MTCC(1) certificate as guaranty for legality. This ruling was given in a process instituted by Greenpeace, knowing that timber from Malaysia may have been logged illegally. Keurhout has now been ordered to immediately withdraw the wrongly awarded Keurhout Legal certificate.

The Global Costs of Mining

Newmont Cleared in Indonesia
By Richard Martin, 4-24-07

A judge in Indonesia today cleared Denver-based Newmont Mining Corp. and its local chief, Richard Ness, of polluting a bay by dumping dangerous levels of toxic mine tailings into the ocean. The case has drawn international attention as an examination of the global mining industry, with Newmont as its most profitable company, and a test of environmental law in the mineral-rich Southeast Asian Island nation.

In September SATIIM won a decisive victory over U.S. Capital Energy in the Supreme Court. The victory was not complete, but it was enough to stall seismic testing in the Sarstun Temash National Park and force government to form a ministerial subcommittee to resolve issues between the U.S. Capital Energy concession and SATIIM which manages the park.

PRESS STATEMENT 20 APRIL 2007

STOP THE ENCROACHMENTS! GAZETTE OUR VILLAGES & FOREST RESERVES

We would like to make some clarifications on the five blockades which have been set up by Penan communities in Baram since last week to avoid any misunderstanding on the part of other parties. The villages which are involved in this blockade are Long Sayan and Long Belok in Sungai Apoh, Long Lutin in Sungai Patah, Long Kevok in Sungai Layun, Tutoh and the nomadic group Ba' Bevan in Sungai Si'ang, Tutoh.

Letter To Paula Palmer, Global Response Program Director:

By this letter we want to thank you and recognize the valuable collaboration that you and your organization, Global Response, have given in the international campaign ?No Coal Mining? in the Perija Mountains and in indigenous territories of the Wayuu, Yukpa and Bari peoples of Zulia State in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

Victory!

VENEZUELA- After more than a year of intense pressure, on March 21 President Chavez issued a Presidential Decree that no new coal mines will be built in the Sierra de Perija, and no expansion will be permitted in existing coal mines. "By saying today 'Not one more mine in Zulia state,' president Hugo Chavez brings back hope for the future of the indigenous peoples of the Sierra de Perija and for life itself," said the Wayuu and Yukpa communities in a press release.

For the last two years, Global Response has issued action alerts to support the indigenous Penan in Sarawak, Malaysia, who are determined to stop logging companies from destroying their rainforest home. Most recently we helped form a coalition of 37 international organizations urging investors and banks to refuse financing to Samling, the logging company that is entering Penan traditional territory with the aid of Malaysian police forces.

For updates on the Penan struggle, please see two articles, below.

A Maya man was shot to death last week after a heated discussion with workers from a mine that has opened on his community’s land.

Workers from the Glamis Gold Marlin mine are being held responsible for the March 12 death of Alvaro Sánchez, a Sipakapense villager from Pie de la Cuesta, Guatemala.

Since the controversial mining project began, tension has risen in the area and both community members and outside mine workers have started carrying arms on a regular basis.

We denounce the forced relocation of indigenous families from their traditional lands at the hands of the Venezuelan government and the multi-national coal corporations.

By Paul Malone 

The Canberra Times, Saturday, 10 March 2007

THE BLOCKADE the Penan had erected looked pitiful in the rain, a few bamboo poles strung together across the muddy logging road that cuts through the rainforest near Long Benalih in the upper Baram River region of Malaysian Sarawak, near the Kalimantan border in Borneo. No one was in sight to man the blockade, nor was there any sign of the police who had knocked it down days earlier, or the men from the giant multinational logging company, Samling, on whose behalf they had acted.