Category Archives: Chiapas

by | May 8, 2013 · 4:00 pm

International outcry against California forest offset scam

May 8, 2013. Source: Indigenous Environmental Network

Indigenous Peoples and allies from Chiapas and the Amazon protest California REDD in Sacramento in front of the capital building, after a California Air Resources Board hearing where they testified on the adverse impacts that the possible inclusion of REDD was already having on communities. October 18, 2012. Photo: Jeff Conant/Friends of the Earth-US

Indigenous Peoples and allies from Chiapas and the Amazon protest California REDD in Sacramento in front of the capital building, after a California Air Resources Board hearing where they testified on the adverse impacts that the possible inclusion of REDD was already having on communities. October 18, 2012. Photo: Jeff Conant/Friends of the Earth-US

From Africa to the Amazon, from Chiapas to Siberia, global civil society is raising an international outcry to resoundingly reject California’s proposed forest offset scam called REDD, which would let climate criminals like Chevron and Shell off the hook, cause human rights abuses and worsen global warming. May 7, 2013, was the last day for public comments on the draft California REDD Offset Working Group recommendations regarding linking California’s cap-and-trade program with a program to supposedly reduce deforestation in Chiapas and Acre, Brazil.

California’s Global Warming Solutions Act, AB32, is posed to include REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation), a false solution to climate change, whereby California polluters could use the forests of Chiapas, Mexico and the Brazilian Amazon as sponges for their pollution instead of reducing greenhouse emissions at home. California REDD is considered a model for the world and if launched will probably be replicated both nationally and internationally.

“The global movement against REDD has been born!” cried Susannah, a delighted volunteer with the No REDD Group Initiative as she tallied letters from all over the world to California Governor Jerry Brown and the California Air Resources Board demanding that REDD be immediately stopped in its tracks. “The world is uniting against California REDD because it may unlock an avalanche of REDD-type projects around the world.” Continue reading →

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Filed under Actions / Protest, Africa, Carbon Trading, Chiapas, Climate Change, Climate Justice, Commodification of Life, Ending the Era of Extreme Energy, False Solutions to Climate Change, Forests, Forests and Climate Change, Green Economy, Indigenous Peoples, Land Grabs, Latin America-Caribbean, REDD, Rights, Resilience, and Restoration, The Greed Economy and the Future of Forests

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by | May 2, 2013 · 3:00 pm

KPFK Sojourner Truth Earth Watch: Jeff Conant on REDD forest offsets and California’s carbon market

Note: Jeff Conant is a good friend and former Communications Director for Global Justice Ecology Project.

-The GJEP Team

kpfk_logoJeff Conant, International Forests Campaigner for Friends of the Earth, discusses the dangers of including REDD forest offsets in California’s Global Warming Solutions Act.  Global Justice Ecology Project teams up with the Sojourner Truth show on KPFK Pacifica Los Angeles for a weekly Earth Minute each Tuesday and a weekly Earth Watch interview each Thursday.

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by | April 30, 2013 · 5:00 pm

“We reject REDD+ in all its versions” – Letter from Chiapas, Mexico opposing REDD in California’s Global Warming Solutions Act (AB 32)

By Chris Lang, 30th April 2013.  Source: REDD-Monitor

Organisations based in Chiapas, Mexico have written to California’s Governor, Jerry Brown, to oppose the inclusion of REDD in California’s Global Warming Solutions Act (AB 32).

Young girls in Amador Hernández Photo: Langelle/GJEP-GFC

Young girls in Amador Hernández Photo: Langelle/GJEP-GFC

In March 2011, Global Justice Ecology Project travelled to Chiapas and documented the problems that REDD and other conservation projects were causing for communities in the Lacandón jungle. Jeff Conant, who was then Communications Director for GJEP, wrote a series of articles based on the visit. The articles are collected on GJEP’s blog, Climate Connections. And Orin Langelle, GJEP’s Board Chair, produced a photo essay about the visit to Chiapas.

GJEP also produced a video about REDD: “A Darker Shade of Green”, which includes interviews with communities in Chiapas (the part about Chiapas starts at 10:45). One of the villagers describes REDD from his perspective:

“They see our Mother Earth as a business, and for us you should never see it like that, it’s our Mother, she can’t be sold. Now they’re developing this REDD Project that’s about carbon capture, it doesn’t serve us. We struggle simply to feed ourselves.”

In December 2012, an article was published in Truthout about the impact of REDD on communities in Chiapas. The title is very appropriate: “Colonialism and the Green Economy: The Hidden Side of Carbon Offsets”. The impacts of carbon offsets on the communities in Chiapas, it seems, remain largely hidden from view in California.
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Filed under Actions / Protest, Indigenous Peoples, Climate Change, Climate Justice, Forests and Climate Change, Pollution, Latin America-Caribbean, REDD, Carbon Trading, False Solutions to Climate Change, Chiapas, Land Grabs, Green Economy, Commons, Commodification of Life, The Greed Economy and the Future of Forests, Ending the Era of Extreme Energy, Rights, Resilience, and Restoration, BREAKING NEWS, Forests

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by | April 25, 2013 · 3:00 pm

Take Action: Stop California REDD now!

Note: Global Justice Ecology Project has worked alongside Indigenous Environmental Network to oppose REDD since its conception, helping break the story about the California-Chiapas-Acre REDD deal following a trip to the Indigenous community of Amador Hernandez in Chiapas, Mexico in March 2011.

Following the trip, GJEP produced a 28 minute film, A Darker Shade of Green: REDD Alert and the Future of Forests — click here to view it.

–The GJEP Team

Source: Indigenous Environmental Network

Image: IEN

Image: IEN

Dear Friends,

IEN has been part of the struggle against REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation), a market-based, land grabbing false solution to climate change, since its conception because it threatens the very existence of our Indigenous Peoples, forest-dependent communities, and peasant farmers.

Please sign this petition immediately to reject the inclusion of REDD in the State of California’s Global Warming Solutions Act, AB32. This is a crucial moment in a worldwide battle for climate justice, human rights and the rights of Indigenous Peoples. Please stand with us now!

Sign the petition here: http://www.mynewsletterbuilder.com/email/newsletter/1411712655

Please share widely.

With gratitude,

Tom B.K. Goldtooth

Executive Director

Indigenous Environmental Network Continue reading →

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by | April 11, 2013 · 11:00 am

International carbon markets expanding but still contentious

Note: Jeff Conant is a good friend and former Communications Director of Global Justice Ecology Project.

-The GJEP Team

By Carey Biron. April 10, 2013. Source: Inter Press Service

Carbon credits can be used to protect forestlands. About 80 percent of Guyana’s forests, some 15 million hectares, have remained untouched over time. Photo: Desmond Brown/IPS

Carbon credits can be used to protect forestlands. About 80 percent of Guyana’s forests, some 15 million hectares, have remained untouched over time. Photo: Desmond Brown/IPS

WASHINGTON – Nascent carbon emissions-trading exchanges in several countries are increasingly looking at options to interlink with one another, which advocates say would offer investors long-term stability, increase revenues for the development of renewable energy and strengthen corporate support for climate policy.

Yet critics warn that so-called cap-and-trade systems are inefficient and create incentives for polluting industries to continue with business as usual. They also warn that the new systems in the United States are dependent on mechanisms that adversely impact on poor and indigenous communities in developing countries.

The law is supposed to be creating incentives for innovations, whereas cap and trade merely allows the fossil fuel industry to keep polluting at historical levels.

“I’ve been incredibly struck at the recent groundswell of interest by countries – including China and Korea – looking to develop carbon markets,” Harinder Sidhu, an Australian civil servant, said Wednesday at a panel discussion here.

“It’s very apparent that the pace is picking up in terms of both interest and action on the part of countries thinking about how to develop carbon markets. This really moves the conversation away from how acting on climate change creates costs to how doing so creates opportunity and economic benefit.” Continue reading →

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Filed under Biodiversity, Carbon Trading, Chiapas, Climate Change, Climate Justice, Commodification of Life, Ending the Era of Extreme Energy, Energy, False Solutions to Climate Change, Forests, Forests and Climate Change, Green Economy, Pollution, REDD, The Greed Economy and the Future of Forests

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by | April 9, 2013 · 9:00 am

New colors of capitalism: REDD+ and the green economy

Note: Martha Pskowski is a PopDev Political Research Fellow, as well as a Global Justice Ecology Project Researcher focusing on domestic and international forest carbon offsets.

–The GJEP Team

By Martha Pskowski, April 8 2013. Source: PopDev

March against REDD+ at the Cancun climate summit. Photo: www.allanlissner.net

March against REDD+ at the Cancun climate summit. Photo: http://www.allanlissner.net

Negotiators, big NGOs, and companies In U.N. environmental summits are promoting the “Green Economy” as a win-win-win for people, the environment and business interests.  Yet global South social movements denounce the Green Economy for serving the interests of transnational corporations and wealthy nations, and for stomping on the rights of those most impacted by climate change and environmental degradation.  At the heart of the dispute is one big question– can capitalism solve the climate crisis?  In January 2013 I traveled to Chiapas, Mexico to learn about the impacts of one Green Economy program, Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+), on local communities.  In PopDev’s latest DiffernTakes article I describe the Green Economy and the dangers of REDD+.

Negotiated in the U.N. climate change summits, REDD+ is a mechanism to transfer funds from Northern countries to forested countries in the global South for forest conservation.  The U.N. wants to make this a global market, where Northern countries would buy carbon credits from countries in the global South who commit to forest conservation, buying the right continue emitting carbon domestically.  Rather than wait for a binding U.N. program to start REDD projects, the Chiapas government entered into an agreement with the state of California through the Governors Climate and Forest Taskforce (GCF).  California hopes use carbon credits from REDD in Chiapas in the new California carbon market.  A California company could buy the right to emit carbon, because it is “offset” by forest conservation in Chiapas. Continue reading →

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by | April 5, 2013 · 9:00 am

REDD+ offsets don’t add up: Report shows why use of international forest offsets won’t reduce carbon emissions

April 4 2013. Source: Food and Water Watch

Photo: redd-monitor

Photo: redd-monitor

Brussels — Developments in the United States may lead to the adoption of international forest offsets being permitted in the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS). California’s newly launched carbon market is considering allowing offsets from REDD+ programs while at the same time the state is considering linking its market with the EU’s. California would be the first carbon market to allow international forest offsets. A new report, Bad Trade: International Forest Offsets and the Carbon Market, released by Food & Water Europe today, demonstrates that international forest offsets should not be allowed into any carbon market because they don’t encourage emission reductions at the source, but instead privatize natural resources, present opportunities for corrupt offset trading, and threaten the livelihoods and resources of indigenous communities.

Forest offsets would allow for a polluter in one location to pay for the protection of a section of forest in another location anywhere in the world, based on the idea that trees, which absorb carbon, can offset the emissions of the polluter. This methodology puts a financial value on the prevention of deforestation and degradation, essentially turning areas in countries with heavy forest cover into a financial opportunity for corporate greed. Continue reading →

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by | March 13, 2013 · 12:00 pm

Crossing borders: California tries to cultivate green roots with Chiapas

Note: As the climate crisis deepens and communities step up to the task of adapting,  political solutions remain half-baked at best. In California, despite serious concerns from environmental justice groups, the nation’s only compliance  cap-and-trade market came into effect this year. Now, the state is poised to consider international forest offsets, or REDD credits, in its portfolio of loopholes for polluters. In a recent piece for Race, Poverty and the Environment, I looked at the reality gap between what community-based groups are doing and what California’s cap-and-trade market promises.

As the question of international offsets reaches its decision-point in California (with public comments due by April 30), the state media is beginning to cover it. After years of work on the ground in Chiapas, including a serious investigation there during my tenure with Global Justice Ecology Project, I am convinced that the California-Chiapas-Acre agreement will be a disaster for all parties – except  the corporate polluters and the carbon consultants who will come away declaring it a big “win-win”.  In the article below, the Sacramento Bee reached out to me for the critical perspective, and while my intervention was given pretty short-shrift, at least there’s acknowledgment that not all of us are on board …

-Jeff Conant for GJEP

By Pia Lopez, March 10, 2013. Source: The Sacramento Bee

Chiapas, Mexico’s southernmost state, is a remote frontier, the gateway to Mayan ruins, chilly highland forests and steamy rain forestjungle.

Americans, however, might be acquainted with it more for the ubiquitous “Chia Pet” (remember the clay pots with chia seeds?) or for the anti-globalization Zapatista uprisings that began in 1994 than for the state’s rich biodiversity and cultural heritage.

You might not expect this to be a place that draws California lawmakers.

But indeed it does, as I learned recently from Sen. Kevin de León, D-Los Angeles. Last November, after the election of the new Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto, the California state Senate sent a delegation to Mexico City,and the Environmental Defense Fund invited de León to visit Chiapas.
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Filed under Carbon Trading, Chiapas, Climate Change, False Solutions to Climate Change, Forests and Climate Change, Industrial agriculture, Land Grabs, Latin America-Caribbean, Posts from Jeff Conant, REDD

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by | January 30, 2013 · 12:00 pm

California defeats lawsuit against cap-and-trade program

Note: This decision is very bad news, both for communities in California living under the shadow of polluting industries, and the communities in places like Chiapas that face forced relocations so that the forests they live in can be used to supposedly “offset” that pollution.  And the cherry on the sundae is that it will also not do a damn thing to stop climate catastrophe.  A losing scenario all the way around.

-The GJEP Team

By Karen Gullo and Lynn Doan, January 28, 2013.  Source: Bloomberg

California environmental regulators running the nation’s first economy-wide carbon cap-and-trade program defeated a lawsuit that claims the system contains a loophole so companies can avoid reducing carbon emissions.

State court Judge Ernest Goldsmith in San Francisco rejected claims by two environmental groups challenging the way the program allows polluters to buy greenhouse gas emission credits from entities that aren’t part of the program.

“The court’s decision is welcome news for one of California’s most important clean energy and clean environment regulations, and provides a bright green light for further investment in pollution reduction projects,” Timothy O’Connor, an attorney for the Environmental Defense Fund, said today in an e-mailed statement. The defense fund sided with state regulators in the case.

Citizens Climate Lobby and Our Children’s Earth Foundation sued California’s Air Resources Board claiming the offsets are a loophole because the projects aren’t new efforts to lower carbon and would occur even without investments from polluters. The complaint sought a court order repealing and invalidating the offset program and prohibiting the state from using offsets as a compliance instrument in the cap and trade program.
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Filed under Carbon Trading, Chiapas, Climate Change, Ending the Era of Extreme Energy, False Solutions to Climate Change, Forests and Climate Change, Indigenous Peoples, REDD

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by | January 27, 2013 · 12:00 pm

EZLN – Them and Us: The overseers

By Subcomandante Marcos.  Translated by Kristin Bricker, January 24, 2013.  Source: Compañero Manuel

Somewhere in Mexico…

The man hits the table, furious.

-Annihilate them!

-Sir, with all due respect, we’ve been trying to do that for 500 years.  Each successive empire that has arisen has attempted to do so with all of their era’s military might–

-So why are they still there?

-Err…we’re still trying to figure that out–the lackey glares reproachfully at the man in a military uniform.

The aforementioned man gets up and, standing at attention, extends his right hand frontward, with his hand out[1], and shouts enthusiastically:

-Heil!… Sorry, I meant to say that I salute you, sir — After shooting a threatening look that shuts up the snickering from other guests, he continues:

-The problem, sir, is that those heretics don’t confront us where we’re strong; they turn around and attack us where we’re weak.  If it were all just a matter of lead and fire, well, those lands, with their forests, water, minerals, people, would have been conquered a long time ago and you would have been able to offer them up as a tribute to the great Ruler, sir.  Those cowards, instead of confronting us with just their heroic bare chests, or with bows, arrows, and spears, and go down in history as heroes (beaten, yes, but heroes), they prepare, they organize, they reach agreements, they give us the slip, and they hide when they take off their masks.  But we wouldn’t be in this situation if you had listened to me when everything began– and he glares reproachfully at the guest whose place card says “chupa-cabras version 8.8.1.3.”[2]
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