Eight Indigenous communities in northern Huehuetenango have joined together to defend their traditional territories against transnational projects.

James Anaya, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, dedicated his official visit to Peru this December to learning about the situation of the country’s Indigenous Peoples, especially with respect to the right to Free, Prior, and Informed Consent regarding development projects and the effects of extractive industries on Indigenous Peoples in voluntary isolation and initial contact. He met with government officials, Indigenous leaders, and corporate representatives in Lima, as well as in diverse towns and villages affected by resource extraction.

Thanks to your commitment, thousands of letters were sent to Federal Review Panel and Canadian government officials during the Panel Review of the proposed New Prosperity Mine at Fish Lake. 

By Forest Peoples Programme

The Kenyan government has sent police troops to Embobut forest area (in Elgeyo Marakwet County, Western Kenya) to forcefully evict thousands of the indigenous inhabitants of the Sengwer and Cherangany communities from their ancestral forestlands. The eviction is expected to commence as early as tomorrow.

The Court of First Instance Limbe has fined the New York based palm oil company US$4.5 Million after a lawsuit filed by former executive Blessed Okoye for his wrongful termination.

By the Phnom Penn Post

The extent of the devastation of Cambodia’s forests was brought into sharp relief as 2013 drew to a close, with a series of detailed maps and satellite data released by NGOs showing the drastic depletion of the Kingdom’s woodland ecosystems.

Images released by Open Development Cambodia (ODC) earlier this month showed that the ratio of forest cover has fallen from about 72 percent in 1973 to only 46 per cent this year.

On December 2, 2013, the UN Global Compact released “

In a groundbreaking decision, the Constitutional Court of Guatemala ruled last week that community consultations against mining projects should be considered as binding legal decisions. The government is now obligated to respect the results of consultas populares or community referendums regarding mining projects.

Press release by Greenpeace Africa and Oakland Institute:

Greenpeace Africa and the Oakland Institute are alarmed by the decision of the Cameroonian government to award US agribusiness company Herakles Farms a three-year provisional land lease to develop a palm oil plantation in the South West region of the country. The move disproves Herakles Farms’ claim that it had all the necessary permits from the start, and confirms that the company has in fact been operating illegally for more than three years.