by | 2012-06-22 · 14:35

Rio+ 20: Greed Economy alive and well in the hotels of Rio de Janeiro

Global Justice Ecology Project Press Release, 22 June, 2012

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil–Alongside the multilateral government negotiations happening at the Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development are business negotiations and so-called “public-private partnerships” being driven by corporate networks such as the Consumer Goods Forum–a global industry group of 650 corporations that have combined sales of over US$3 trillion. [1]

Sir Richard Branson waves from his cockpit of his Virgin train. Nothing phallic here… Source: PacificCoastNews.com

One such industry-led event in Rio this week, hosted by the Avoided Deforestation Partners, featured executives of Coca Cola and Unilever [2], alongside celebrities such as the Prince of Wales (via video), Dr. Jane Goodall, US Climate Change Envoy Jonathan Pershing, rainforest advocate Bianca Jagger and Sir Richard Branson.

In response to the dominance of the private sector in discussions such as this that affect everyone, members of Global Justice Ecology Project (GJEP) and Biofuelwatch attended and disrupted the event with placards and chants denouncing the green economy as the new face of corporate capital.

“We took action at this event to underscore the fact that civil society efforts cannot focus solely on the official UN negotiations. While the ‘green economy’ has been heavily contested inside the Rio+20 UN conference and outright rejected at the Peoples’ Summit [3], private corporate-organized conferences and meetings are imposing their new economic model in a totally undemocratic and non-transparent way”, stated Anne Petermann, Executive Director of Global Justice Ecology Project.

Such events make it clear that the public-private partnership model is at the heart of the green economy. During the Avoided Deforestation event, Ambassador Donald Steinberg of USAID emphasized the importance of the industry meetings at Rio. “These events are not side events, these are the main events,” Steinberg said.
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by | · 12:00

Rio+20: Impressions from the Peoples’ Summit: forging a global social movement

By Avery Pittman, for Climate Connections

Henry Saragih, General Coordinator for La Via Campesina, and Alberto Gomez, from La Via Campesina Mexico listen as former Bolivian Ambassador to the United Nations and director of Focus on the Global South talks about the need for a unified social movement strategy to challenge the green economy. Photo: Will Bennington for GJEP

June 21, 2012 – Rio de Janeiro – On the second day of UN Rio+20 “Earth Summit” negotiations, an hour away at the People’s Summit in downtown Rio, a crowd gathered to discuss moving forward as a global movement against the forces of the green economy. A mic was passed around the listening crowd, sitting in a ring of chairs three rows deep. There were bleachers and a stage at the venue, but the organizers of the event insisted that everyone be able to see each other and sit as equals. To the audience, Pablo Solon of Focus on the Global South posed the question “what can we do together, as social movements, after the Peoples Summit?”

Leaders and members from various social movements sat among the inner ring of chairs. The gathering was intimate and diverse, but the message was clear: together, social movements must deepen an analysis of the interconnections of oppression and create a road map to effectively and intentionally counter the logic of capitalism that commercializes nature.
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by | · 11:00

Indigenous deliver Kari-Oca II Declaration to Rio+20, as military halts hundreds

By Brenda Norrell, cross-posted from NarcoNews

Photos by Ben Powless, Mohawk, IEN

June 21, 2012 – RIO DE JANEIRO – Indigenous Peoples delivered the Kari-Oca II Declaration for the Protection of Mother Earth to leaders at Rio+20, the UN Conference on Sustainability, after the military halted hundreds of Indigenous Peoples from entering the area.

The Indigenous delegation delivering the Declaration today included members of the Indigenous Environmental Network and Lakota Chief Arvol Looking Horse, 19th generation Keeper of the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe.

The Kari-Oca II Declaration was presented to the UN Director for Sustainable Development Nikhil Seth, and Gilberto Carvalho, the Chief Minister to the Presidency of Brazil.

As world leaders seek to profiteer from nature at the summit, Indigenous Peoples, barred by the military from attending, are holding their own encampment at the Kari Oca II and produced the Kari-Oca II Declaration for the protection of Mother Earth. Indigenous leaders are demanding a halt to the false carbon market schemes which allow the world’s worst polluters to continue polluting and profiteering from nature.

Kandi Mossett, Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara from North Dakota, was in the delegation of the Indigenous Environmental Network. Mossett said only a small group of Indigenous were allowed past the military to deliver the Declaration.
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by | · 09:00

Video: Indigenous Declaration of Kari-Oca II delivered to UN summit; condor visits solemn ceremony

June 22, 2012 — Yesterday at Rio+20, 400 Indigenous people from throughout the world attempted to enter the UN Rio+20 summit to deliver the Kari-Oca II Declaration to United Nations leaders (see previous post). Only a handful of the delegates were permitted to enter the summit due to military intervention. The delivery of the declaration was visited on by the overflight of a condor.

The Kari-Oca II Declaration (available here) states, in part:

“We see the goals of UNCSD Rio+20, the ‘Green Economy,’ and its premise that the world can only ‘save’ nature by commodifying its life-giving and life-sustaining capacities as a continuation of the colonialism that Indigenous peoples and our Mother Earth have faced and resisted for 520 years… Indigenous activists and leaders defending their territories continue to suffer repression, militarization, including assassination, imprisonment, harassment and vilification as ‘terrorists.’ The violation of our collective rights faces the same impunity. Forced relocation or assimilation assault our future generations, cultures, languages, spiritual ways and relationship to the earth, economically and politically.”

(listen to audio interviews with members of the delegation here and here).

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by | 2012-06-21 · 19:07

Rio+20 Breaking News: GJEP and Biofuelwatch disrupt industry event with Richard Branson

For Immediate Release 21 June 2012

Activists Disrupt Sir Richard Branson at Avoided Deforestation Rio +20 Event

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil–Activists from Global Justice Ecology Project and Biofuelwatch disrupted Virgin Airlines owner Branson’s speech with chants and placards at the Rio+20 Earth Summit event titled “Advancing Public-Private Partnerships for Deforestation-Free / Sustainable Agriculture” today at the Windsor Barra hotel in Rio.

“We came here to interfere with this event because we recognize that the negotiations inside the UN’s official Rio+20 Conference are essentially irrelevant,” stated Anne Petermann, Executive Director of Global Justice Ecology Project. “The real negotiations that will determine the fate of the planet are being held outside of the UN space at these industry-sponsored events,” she added.

Ambassador Donald Steinberg, Deputy Administrator of USAID was clear on this point when he stated during his presentation at the event, “these [public-private partnership] events are not side events, these are the main events.”

“Biofuelwatch took part in this action because of Richard Branson’s key role in promoting large-scale biofuels for aviation, geo-engineering and other destructive techno fixes,” stated Almuth Ernsting. “Branson is responsible for vast carbon emissions from his airline to which he now wants to add space tourism – his ‘solutions’ include more destructive monoculture plantations which harm forests, peoples and climate.”

Parallel to the negotiations that have been going on around Rio+20, the UN Climate Conferences and other UN forums, industry is coming together with countries like Norway to create ways to implement highly controversial market-based approaches like REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation) that cannot be passed in the multilateral meetings.

Participants in the event included executives from Coca Cola and Unilever, both of which are implicated in serious human rights abuses and environmental destruction.

“We took this action in solidarity with Indigenous Peoples, local communities and small farmers whose livelihoods are threatened by the privatization of their lands for Green Economy-style projects”, stated Keith Brunner of Gears of Change and Global Justice Ecology Project. “Public-private partnerships, such as those discussed here, are driving a vast transfer of wealth, resources and land into private hands–from the 99% to the 1%.”

After the disruption, participants in the action left the premises.

Contact: Anne Petermann, Global Justice Ecology Project +55.21.8079.0538

Email: anne@globaljusticeecology.org

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Filed under Actions / Protest, Climate Justice, Corporate Globalization, False Solutions to Climate Change, Green Economy, Greenwashing, REDD, Rights, Resilience, and Restoration, Rio+20

by | · 19:00

Earth Audio Podcast: Sacajawea “Saki” Hall on KPFK Sojourner Truth Show, June 21, 2012

Interview with Sacajawea “Saki” Hall, the membership coordinator at the US Human Rights Network, in Rio de Janeiro with the Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, on KPFK’s Sojourner Truth show, June 21, 2012.

Global Justice Ecology Project partners with Margaret Prescod and the Sojourner Truth show for weekly Earth Minutes every Tuesday and Earth Segment interviews every Thursday–as well as daily interviews during international gatherings such as the Peoples’ Summit in Rio.

Click here to listen/download

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by | · 18:35

Video: What’s wrong with the green economy?: Dr. Mohammed Taghi Farvar of ICCA Consortium

Throughout the week, Climate Connections will post short videos of participants in Rio+20 and the Peoples’ Summit talking about the meaning of the “green economy.”

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by | · 17:00

Rio+20: Opening statement of the Farmers Major Group by La Via Campesina

Cross-posted from La Via Campesina

Read by Henry Saragih, international coordinator of La Via Campesina at the opening of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development Rio+20

June 20, 2012, Rio de Janeiro

Mr. Chair, Heads of States, Your Excellencies and esteemed representatives, we have been debating the future of the planet and humanity for the past two years. It is clear that sustainable agriculture is essential to the discussion on sustainable development.

Our constituencies include: farmers, artisanal fishers, pastoralists, agricultural workers, youth and indigenous peoples. They are often among the most affected by multiple crises, in particular women and young people. They also hold the solutions for sustainable development in their hands.

In order to be able to implement systems that nourish our people and sustain our planet, institutional change is necessary, particularly in the area of participation and empowerment of the most vulnerable, the majority of whom reside in rural areas. The new path of development entails the empowerment of these constituencies to produce and harvest, this requires the rights to equitable access to land tenure – regardless of gender, marital status, religious or ethnic origins – and to productive resources, including seeds, inputs, trade and markets.

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