Category Archives: Indigenous Peoples

by | 2012-12-07 · 15:00

Statement on Doha Outcomes by Tom Goldtooth of Indigenous Environmental Network

Note: Indigenous Environmental Network is a close partner of Global Justice Ecology Project and one of the leading Indigenous groups organizing against both REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) and the Tar Sands gigaproject in Alberta, Canada.

December 07, 2012

Doha, Qatar – Hurricane Sandy; Typhoon Bopha; the continued melting of the ice in the Arctic directly impacting the livelihood of its Arctic Indigenous peoples and; to drought conditions throughout the world. Mother Earth is speaking. Nature is speaking, but the governmental parties here at COP 18 are not listening.

Indigenous Peoples here in Doha are speaking for the rights of Mother Earth and the collective rights of indigenous peoples who continue to be vulnerable to the accelerating downward spiral of climate change. The indigenous voice has remained firm calling upon the governmental parties to reach agreement on commitments for a stringent global emission reduction regime that would stabilize greenhouse-gas emissions beyond 2013. A weak agreement here in Doha is a death warrant for Indigenous peoples throughout the world.

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Filed under Climate Change, Climate Justice, Forests, Indigenous Peoples, Land Grabs, REDD, Rights, Resilience, and Restoration, UNFCCC

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by | 2012-12-06 · 10:40

Doha: Forest groups denounce false solutions to forest loss at UN climate summit

From Global Forest Coalition, Biofuelwatch and Global Justice Ecology Project

For immediate release – 6 December 2012

UK alleges it will address drivers of climate change – but aims to subsidise a massive expansion of wood-based biomass industry

Doha, Qatar – As negotiations failed to finalise an agreement on a controversial forest policy called REDD+ [1] during the ongoing UN Framework Convention on Climate Change talks in Doha, Qatar [2], forest groups published a letter challenging claims that the drivers of forest change are being addressed by countries within the REDD+ negotiations.

Negotiations on REDD+ turned sour in Doha as developing countries realised they can expect very little funding for this highly controversial forest scheme over the coming years. “The REDD honeymoon is obviously over” states Simone Lovera, executive director of the Global Forest Coalition, who followed the talks.

Furthermore, at the same time that REDD+ is being promoted within the UNFCCC to supposedly protect forest carbon, there is a massive expansion of the biomass industry underway, which will generate increased international trade in wood. This is being actively supported by governments such as that of the UK, and will dwarf any attempts made to protect forests within the UNFCCC.

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Filed under Biodiversity, Bioenergy / Agrofuels, Carbon Trading, Climate Change, Climate Justice, False Solutions to Climate Change, Forests, GE Trees, Green Economy, Greenwashing, Illegal logging, Indigenous Peoples, Industrial agriculture, Land Grabs, REDD, UNFCCC

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by | 2012-12-05 · 13:30

Making Contact Radio: Saving or Selling the Planet? REDD, Climate Change and Indigenous Lands | National Radio Project

Note: This episode of Making Contact is based upon the Global Justice Ecology Project DVD “A Darker Shade of Green: REDD Alert and the Future of Forests,” produced earlier this year.

To order a copy of the DVD, which includes two bonus features, email: info@globaljusticeecology.org

To listen to the Making Contact episode, click the link below:

making contact

Saving or Selling the Planet? REDD, Climate Change and Indigenous Lands | National Radio Project.

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Filed under Actions / Protest, Carbon Trading, Chiapas, Climate Change, Earth Radio, False Solutions to Climate Change, Forests, Green Economy, Greenwashing, Illegal logging, Indigenous Peoples, Land Grabs, Latin America-Caribbean, REDD, Rights, Resilience, and Restoration

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by | 2012-11-19 · 15:36

Should Chiapas farmers suffer for California’s carbon?

Note: Jeff Conant is the former Communications Director for Global Justice Ecology Project.  In March of 2011, he and Orin Langelle, then Co-Director of GJEP, went to Amador Hernandez in Chiapas, Mexico to investigate the threatened forced relocation of the community and its relation to REDD+ and the California-Chiapas-Acre, Brazil climate deal.

–The GJEP Team

By Jeff Conant, November 13 2012. Source: Yes! Magazine

Photo: Jeff Conant

“We are not responsible for climate change—it’s the big industries that are,” said Abelardo, a young man from the Tseltal Mayan village of Amador Hernández in the Lacandon jungle of Chiapas. “So why should we be held responsible, and even punished for it?”

Abelardo was one of dozens of villagers who had traveled to the city of San Cristóbal de las Casas to protest an international policy meeting on climate change and forest conservation. At a high-end conference center, representatives from the state of California and from states and provinces around the world were working out mechanisms intended to mitigate climate change by protecting tropical forests. The group was called the Governor’s Climate and Forests Task Force (GCF), and California’s interest was in using forest preservation in Chiapas as a carbon offset—a means for meeting climate change goals under the state’s 2006 Global Warming Solutions Act.

Such an agreement among subnational governments is unprecedented, and California officials view it as an important way for the world’s eighth largest economy to help the developing world. But judging from the reaction on the streets of San Cristóbal, Mexican peasants see it differently. The lush, mountainous state of Chiapas has a long history of human rights abuses, and the Mexican government has forcibly evicted indigenous families from their lands in the name of environmental protection. To indigenous peasants in the Lacandon jungle, the pending agreement has all the hallmarks of a land grab.

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Filed under Actions / Protest, Carbon Trading, Chiapas, Climate Change, Ending the Era of Extreme Energy, False Solutions to Climate Change, Green Economy, Indigenous Peoples, Land Grabs, Latin America-Caribbean, REDD

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by | 2012-11-15 · 15:27

Special Report! KPFK Earth Watch: GJEP’s Anne Petermann and Orin Langelle, and Clayton Thomas-Muller of Indigenous Environmental Network

Note: Global Justice Ecology Project Executive Director Anne Petermann, Board Chair Orin Langelle, and Board Member Clayton Thomas-Muller are on the ground in Los Angeles today for a special one hour nationally-aired episode of the Sojourner Truth show.

-The GJEP Team

GJEP executive director Anne Petermann, GJEP board chair and photojournalist Orin Langelle, and GJEP board member and Indigenous Environmental Network’s Tar Sands Campaigner Clayton Thomas-Muller join Sojourner Truth for a special Earth Watch.  They discuss the interlinkages between climate change, indigenous rights, tar sands, genetically engineered trees, and the global struggle for climate justice.


Global Justice Ecology Project teams up with KPFK’s Sojourner Truth show for weekly Earth Minutes every Tuesday and Earth Watch interviews every Thursday.

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Filed under Bioenergy / Agrofuels, Climate Change, Climate Justice, Corporate Globalization, Earth Radio, Ending the Era of Extreme Energy, False Solutions to Climate Change, Indigenous Peoples, Rights, Resilience, and Restoration, Tar Sands

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by | 2012-11-09 · 09:00

KPFK Sojourner Truth Earth Watch: Tom B.K. Goldtooth on the re-election of President Obama

Tom B.K. Goldtooth, Executive Director of Indigenous Environmental Network, discusses the re-election of President Obama, climate change and the work ahead.  Global Justice Ecology Project teams up with KPFK’s Sojourner Truth show for weekly Earth Minutes every Tuesday and Earth Watch interviews every Thursday.

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Filed under Climate Change, Climate Justice, Ending the Era of Extreme Energy, Indigenous Peoples

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by | 2012-11-07 · 13:30

KPFK Sojourner Truth Earth Segment: Kandi Mossett of Indigenous Environmental Network on the struggle to stop a new refinery in Fort Berthold, North Dakota

Kandi Mossett, organizer with Indigenous Environmental Network and citizen of the Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara Nation, discusses the impacts of fossil fuel extraction on her community, and their struggle to stop a new refinery on the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota.

Global Justice Ecology Project teams up with KPFK’s Sojourner Truth show for weekly Earth Minutes every Tuesday and Earth Segment interviews every Thursday.

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Filed under Climate Change, Ending the Era of Extreme Energy, Hydrofracking, Indigenous Peoples, Mining, Oil

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by | 2012-10-26 · 12:00

Eriel Deranger talks about the Indigenous tar sands campaign on this week’s Earth Segment on KFPK Sojourner Truth Show

Margaret Prescod, host of the Sojourner Truth show, talks with Eriel Deranger of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation about the ongoing efforts to stop the mining of tar sand deposits in Alberta, Canada and the environmental damage such exploitation has wreaked on the region’s indigenous communities.

Global Justice Ecology Project teams up with the Sojourner Truth show for weekly Earth Minutes and Earth Segment interviews.

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Filed under Actions / Protest, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Earth Radio, Ending the Era of Extreme Energy, Energy, Forests, Indigenous Peoples, Tar Sands

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