Late Monday afternoon five Lakota tribal members were arrested when they formed a blockade to prevent trucks carrying equipment for the Keystone pipeline across the Pine Ridge Oglala Lakota Reservation. Some 75 members of the Lakota tribe arrived to the town of Wanbli, South Dakota, responding to a call to action from KILI Radio, a community radio station of Pine Ridge Reservation.
The Indigenous Peoples Confederation of Honduras (CONPAH) released a statement calling on the government of Honduras to withdraw a REDD proposal submitted to the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility. The Indigenous Confederation called on donors to suspend all activities relating to REDD in Honduras. The statement declares that the Honduran government submitted a proposal for a REDD project without consulting the Indigenous peoples whose land would be used for forestation programs.
Indigenous rights activists across Mexico and the world are celebrating the news that a federal court suspended 38 mining concessions in the sacred Wirikuta Reserve in San Luis Potosí, Mexico. The court prohibited the granting of any further permits within the municipality of Real de Catorce, San Luis Potosí, as long as the core issues of the conflict between the Huichol (Wixarika) people and mining companies remain unresolved.
TransCanada announced on Monday that the company will proceed with the construction of the southern half of the Keystone XL pipeline, the segment that would extend from Cushing, Oklahoma, to the Gulf of Mexico. Since this segment would not cross the Canada-US border, it does not require US government approval. TransCanada plans to begin construction despite a lack of approval for the northern leg of the pipeline.
Cultural Survival joins the International Accountability Project and Bangladeshi organizations in celebrating a victory in the fight against the Phulbari coal mine. On Tuesday, seven United Nations Special Rapporteurs issued a joint press release calling for an immediate halt to the project due to the many human rights risks and violations it poses.
The Public Broadcasting Network aired a Center for Investigative Reporting video during the PBS Newshour on February 28. The video is episode 3, “A Land Grab in Ethiopia,” of a series called Food for Nine Billion. Anuak people tell how the government forcibly removed them from their homelands so that foreign agro-industrial investors can plant food and fuel crops for export. The problem is examined from the point of view of feeding the world’s growing population.
The Bedouin are traditionally a pastoral, semi nomadic Arab people, Indigenous to the Sinai Peninsula and the Negev desert in southern Israel. Today, while most live in towns and villages, they are still considered the “Arab nomads” of Israel -- a minority within the Arab minority -- in the Jewish state. There are an estimated 160,000 Bedouin in Israel, 110,000 of which live the Negev. As one, Sarab Abu-Rabia-Queder remembers growing up among the three distinct cultures in her hometown of Beer Sheva, the largest city in the Negev. Sarab was the first Bedouin woman to earn her Ph.
The BBC World Service is hosting a series of debates on the topic, "Is 'land-grabbing' good for Africa?" The debates are taking place within Africa, with participation from local communities who are experiencing the impacts of foreign agricultural investment. The first debate was held today in Freetown, Sierra Leone, with panelists including representatives of the Sierra Leone minister of agriculture, foreign investors, local activists, and The Oakland Institute.
On February 17, the prime minister of Cambodia signed a sub-decree that protects 480,000 hectares of the Prey Lang forest as a conservation area. Local activists from the Prey Lang Network are celebrating the decision, but remain skeptical of the plans.
Human rights organizations and government institutions of Southeast Asia formed a joint statement after a four-day workshop in Bali, Indonesia, this past November. The workshop was convened by the Indonesian National Human Rights Commission and organized by Forest Peoples Programme and Indonesian NGO SawitWatch, with participation of 60 individuals from Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines and Cambodia.
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.
