In this 10-minute video, Kuy villagers in Cambodia show their determination to protect Prey Lang (“Our Forest”) as bulldozers tear it down for agro-industry expansion and mining projects.  

Walking along a narrow path through ancient trees, Kuy elder Ru Lark says, “Our people are worried. How long can Prey Lang survive? Kuy people know we can look after it. It is part of our belief. We have lived here for many years, and the forest has not been lost. If the government can work with our communities, we know that we can save this forest.”

November 8, 2011– On today’s Moscow Times Opinion page,  the co-founder of Russia’s Party of People’s Freedom blasted the Medvedev government and the state oil company, Gazprom, for violating national laws and international accords. Vladimir Ryzhkov also hinted at corruption in the government’s project to build a natural gas pipeline across the Ukok Plateau, despite its status as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  Ryzhkov served as a State Duma representative from 1993 to 2007 and currently hosts a political radio talk show.

November 7, 2011- An estimated 10,000 people ringed the White House on Sunday, calling on President Obama to reject a proposal to build a pipeline that would carry crude oil from Canada’s tar sands to the Gulf of Mexico. Among them were prominent Native Americans and First Nations people, who urged the president to honor his promise of a “new deal” with Native Peoples and his pledge to take action against global warming.

On October 26 and 27, hundreds of Huichol people traveled 20 hours to the Mexican capital to demand, once more, that President Felipe Calderón cancel mining concessions in their sacred lands and fulfill his promises to the Huichol people.

October 31, 2011- In reply to a letter from Cultural Survival, Russia’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment acknowledged “high ecological risks” in the proposed construction of a natural gas pipeline across the Ukok Plateau, reiterating its preference for alternate routes. The letter, signed by N.R.

October 28, 2011- Native Americans got President Obama’s attention during a speech he was giving in Denver this week. As Native protesters held banners saying, “President Obama, Yes You Can Stop the Keystone XL Pipeline” and “Honor Indian Treaties,” Tom Poor Bear, Vice-President of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, called out to the president from the back of the packed auditorium. Obama interrupted his prepared speech and acknowledged Poor Bear, saying, “I hear you. No decision has been made. I know your deep concern about it. We will address it. “

The Wixárika Regional Council and its allies in the Front for the Defense of Wirikuta Tamatsima Waha'a are mobilizing public events and demonstrations in Mexico City this week. They urge everyone to join them, both locally and internationally, in calling for permanent protection for the Wirikuta Natural and Cultural Reserve. Read their call to action below, in English, and the original Spanish here on their website.

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.

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.