by | 2011-12-02 · 10:46

La Via Campesina Invites Allies to Share Perspectives in Durban

La Via Campesina, the largest federation of peasant farmers in the world, has brought a delegation of hundreds from across Africa to gatherings in and around the UNCOP 17 Climate Summit. As a federation of smallholder farmers and fisher groups, La Via Campesina opposes the kinds of top-down, market-driven policies promoted by the World Bank and the UN Climate Regime.

Yesterday we were invited, along with several of our friends and colleagues, to participate in a working session with La Via Campesina at their encampment near a highway overpass miles from the official summit.

Forthcoming, we hope to report on what La Via itself is doing here in Durban. For now, here are some snapshot portraits of GJEP’s allies and what they had to say yesterday. (Reporting: Jeff Conant. Photos Orin Langelle/GJEP)

“The talk now on the table at the COP is to base the Green Climate Fund on private investment. But if there is an investment, they need a return. What does that mean, a return on investment? It means the corporations, the private sector, and the financial industry want to set up the Green Climate Fund in a way that returns money to them. That’s why we call it the Greedy Corporate Fund.”

Lidy Nacpil, Jubilee South

 

“They say we are talking about the transition to a Green Economy – that capitalism has to turn green. This is like saying that a tiger is going to become a vegetarian.”

Lucia Ortiz, Rede, Brazil

 

“Before you trade anything, you have to determine, whose property is it? Before they can trade seeds, they have to determine, ‘who owns that seed?’. Some corporations own that seed. Well, who owns the carbon dioxide in the air? That’s what they are working out in the carbon markets and at these UN climate conventions. That’s why we call the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change the World Trade Organization of the Sky.”

Tom Goldtooth, Indigenous Environmental Network

 

“More than half of the gases that cause global warming come from the industrial food system. They say the industrial food system feeds the world. It’s bad food, it’s toxic food, it’s not very nutritious, but they say, ‘we are feeding the world,’ so we have to live with it. Well guess what? They’re lying. The industrial food system produces 30 percent of the food. The other 2/3 is produced by small farmers and fishers. Now they say they will stop using all the oil. Don’t believe them. They will use every drop of oil. But with that excuse, they say now, they will make green fuels. They will make fuels out of biomass. What is biomass? It is forests, it is fields, it is your harvest. They want to use all of this to make their fuels.”

Sylvia Ribeiro, ETC Group

 

“The FAO and others have reduced agriculture to counting carbon and putting a price on it. The value of the carbon is added to the value of the water and the crops that could be grown on the land, and this makes it appealing to investors, which leads to land grabs. But today, a ton of carbon is worth about 3 euros – less than a pizza. This may explain the somber mood of the talks in Durban.”

Rachel Smolker, BiofuelWatch

 

Renaldo Chingori Joao, Member of the International Coordinating Committee of la Via Campesina, Mozambique

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by | · 05:56

Durban UN climate “news”–Expo brews up plenty of interest

Note: If there is any hope of preventing climate catastrophe, it surely isn’t at this dog and pony show.  As the Conference of Polluters nears the end of the first week, we thought we’d share a little bit of the absurdity coming from the exposition center located in the UN controlled compound.

-The GJEP Team

Cross-posted from Times Live   Sapa | 02 December, 2011

An environmental activist paints a banner during a demonstration outside the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference of the Parties meeting (COP17) in Durban. Image by: MIKE HUTCHINGS / REUTERS

At the Climate Change Response Expo in Durban you can drink a Whistling Weasel or watch a man whip up a tornado at the flick of a switch.

You can also talk to scientists about Gizmo, the new South-African-developed pencil buoy used to study water quality, while clutching a replica of the collar bone of an ancient Australopithecine.

The expo, next to the Durban Convention Centre (the COP17 climate change summit’s venue) was bustling yesterday morning, despite oppressively hot weather.

“This is like February,” said Karen Owen, who managed a stall serving beer and wine in the expo’s food court.

The beer – brewed up-province at Nottingham Road – is good, but the names on the bottles are better. You can order a Whistling Weasel pale ale, a Tiddly Toad light lager, a Pye-Eyed Possum Pilsener or a Pickled Pig porter.

Nearby, Alex Kofer spoke to whoever would listen about his “Wizzard” worms. He had 20000 of them, in a snooker table-sized tray.

Despite their numbers, the worms were difficult to see. They were hidden under a mound of soggy newspaper, cardboard and lettuce leaves, which Kofer fed them to encourage them to produce more compost.

“They can eat their own body weight in a day,” he said, hauling out a wriggler for inspection.

Kofer said the worms ate kitchen waste and wet cardboard, and took about four months to produce a tray of compost.

Elsewhere at the expo, SA Weather Service meteorologist Hugh van Niekerk demonstrated how to make a tornado in a glass chamber the size of a fridge.

By creating water vapour and blowing in air to simulate wind while switching on an extractor fan in the chamber ceiling, he created a mini tornado.

The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research’s stand boasted a glass case containing a section from the trunk of a 1200-year-old baobab . It was found in the Pafuri area near in the Kruger National Park.

According to an attached notice, isotopes in its growth rings have been analysed and the data used by scientists to gain an insight into the climate change that happened during the tree’s growth span.

A woman at the international conservation organisation WWF’s stall handed out pencils made from newspaper, each bearing the iconic panda logo.

“Have one – they show there is a future for the newspaper industry,” the former journalist said.

The expo will run until next Friday.

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by | 2011-12-01 · 09:34

Land conflicts, carbon piracy and violations of indigenous peoples’ rights: New report by Amazonian indigenous peoples exposes the reality of REDD+ in Peru and proposes solutions

A new report published today by Peruvian indigenous organisations, AIDESEP, FENAMAD and CARE, and international human rights organisation the Forest Peoples Programme (FPP), reveals the impact that REDD projects and programmes are already having on the lives of indigenous peoples. The reality of REDD+ in Peru: Between theory and practice – Indigenous Amazonian Peoples’ analyses and alternatives finds that REDD pilot projects run by some NGOs and companies are already undermining the rights of indigenous peoples, and are leading to carbon piracy and conflicts over land and resources. Persistent advocacy efforts by indigenous peoples’ organisations to secure respect for the fundamental rights of indigenous peoples have resulted in some government commitments to modify national REDD programmes financed by the World Bank. Nevertheless, solid guarantees for respect of these rights are yet to materialise.
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Roberto Espinoza Llanos, coordinator of AIDESEP’s Climate Change Programme and one of the lead authors of the report, explains, “The commitments made by the previous government in 2011 were not made lightly, they were assumed by the State and approved in a global meeting of the World Bank’s FCPF [Forest Carbon Partnership Facility]. We hope that the present government and international entities like the World Bank will deliver on their promises to respect land and territorial rights. Continual monitoring will be necessary to make sure they keep their word.”
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Carbon piracy
The AIDESEP-FPP report highlights how, without any form of regulation, carbon piracy is already rife in Peru. Project developers are roaming the jungle attempting to convince indigenous peoples and local communities to enter in to REDD deals with promises of millions of dollars in return for signing away their rights to control their land and forest carbon to third parties. Many deals are being conducted using strict confidentiality clauses and with no independent oversight or legal support for vulnerable communities. Some of these peoples are not yet fully literate in Spanish, but are being asked to sign complex commercial contracts in English that are subject to English law. Many communities have already come to regret some early deals made with carbon traders and NGOs, and are now attempting to extricate themselves. One leader from the community of Bélgica in South East Peru explained,
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“…We were presented with a trust fund in which the community is obliged to hand over the administration of communal territory and be subject to the decisions of the developer for 30 years….this will not allow us to make decisions about our territory or plan for the future of our children.”
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Land grabs
Many other communities have no secure land rights, as an estimated 20 million hectares of indigenous peoples’ customary territories in the Peruvian Amazon still possess no legal recognition (including those of isolated or ‘autonomous’ indigenous peoples). This is in violation of Peru’s international obligation to recognise and secure indigenous peoples’ traditional possession of their forest lands. At the same time, hundreds of formal requests for ‘conservation concessions’ (with the intention of establishing REDD projects) have been submitted to the government by private individuals and environmental NGOs. Many of these ‘would be concessions’ directly overlie indigenous peoples’ territories still awaiting legal recognition, thereby setting the stage for a state-backed land grab.
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Conrad Feather, Project Officer for FPP and the report’s other lead author said, “REDD is not just a policy instrument being negotiated at the UN; unregulated REDD developments are already turning Peru into a centre of international carbon piracy and the site for a potential land grab of indigenous peoples’ territories on a massive scale. Urgent measures are needed to protect the lands and livelihoods of indigenous peoples.”
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Indigenous alternatives to REDD+
Indigenous peoples’ organisations, however, are not only ringing alarm bells, they are also proposing alternatives. They are urging the new Peruvian government to re-think the forest and climate plans developed by their predecessors and use REDD funds to secure indigenous peoples’ forest territories and support community-based solutions to tackle climate change.
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The report concludes that instead of squandering the money on unproven and unstable carbon markets, more modest and selective funding could be targeted to secure the land and territorial rights of indigenous peoples and support sustainable community forest management. These community and rights-based approaches are cost-effective and proven to protect forests. Community-based alternatives will not only reduce emissions from deforestation and keep forests standing but will also lead to poverty reduction, increased livelihood security and biodiversity conservation. In the words of Alberto Pizango Chota, President of AIDESEP, “Only in this way can REDD truly become an opportunity for indigenous peoples instead of a threat.”
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The reality of REDD+ in Peru: Between Theory and Practice: Indigenous Amazonian Peoples’ analyses and alternatives is available for free download at: http://www.forestpeoples.org/the-reality-of-redd-plus-in-peru-indigenous-amazonian-peoples-analyses-and-alternatives

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by | · 08:34

KPFK Earth Segment Interview with Nnimmo Bassey: Nigerian activist and winner of 2010 Right Livelihood Award

Note: Today’s Earth Segment on the Sojourner Truth show will not be aired due to a severe wind storm that knocked out KPFK’s transmission.  Climate Chaos strikes again!

–The GJEP Team

Global Justice Ecology Project partners with the Sojourner Truth show on KPFK Los Angeles for a weekly Earth Minute and weekly interviews with activists on key environmental and ecological justice issues.  In addition, during major events such as the UN Climate Conference we are attending right now in Durban, South Africa, we organize daily interviews Tuesday through Thursday.

The interview we organized for Wednesday, 30 November featured Nigerian activist and Right Livelihood Award winner (the alternative Nobel prize), Nnimmo Bassey.  To listen to the interview, click the link below and scroll to minute 34:30.

Nnimmo Bassey Interview

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by | · 07:05

Indigenous and Community-led Forest Initiatives Offer Solutions to Today’s Problems–Local Communities Need Rights and Respect, Not REDD

Studies show that the best guardians of forest lands are the people who live there. Indigenous Peoples and other forest-dependent peoples agree. Yet, all over the world, they are increasingly beset by policies and incentive schemes imposed by governments and outside agencies that degrade their forests, their cultures, their livelihoods, and their life ways.

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“It’s a pity that indigenous peoples have to submit to these limited approaches to ‘development’ when we know, from centuries of experience, that our own biocultural values may very well provide the solutions for the problems of today,” said Fiu Mataese Elisara of Samoa, Board Chair of Global Forest Coalition. “They might be considered ‘primitive’ in the eyes of the world, but our methods are not only sacred, holistic, and appropriate to our cultures, they have served us for generations. And they continue to work.”
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In a seminar held this week at the University of Kwazulu Natal, representatives of indigenous peoples, peasant movements, women’s movements, and local communities shared their perspectives on the most appropriate, equitable and effective forms of support for their forest conservation and climate change mitigation initiatives.
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Across the board, participants in the seminar agreed that what is needed to aid their forest restoration efforts is recognition of Indigenous territorial rights, autonomy, traditional knowledge and governance systems; land reform, food sovereignty and sustainable alternative livelihood options; and a definitive end to destructive activities like logging, mining, large tree plantations and land grabbing.
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The seminar also discussed the impacts of schemes to Reduce Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation and enhance forest carbon stocks (REDD+).

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“REDD+ and other projects that convince communities to sign misleading Payment for Enviromental Services agreements create conflicts and undermine livelihoods,” the participants agreed, in a collective statement. “Top-down programs undermine rights, spiritual value systems, and governance, ignore women’s rights and needs, impose economically unviable or otherwise senseless alternative livelihoods on Indigenous Peoples and local communities; and trigger land privatization and the commodification of nature.”

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Simone Lovera, director of the Global Forest Coalition, cited studies from research institutions like the Centre for International Forestry Research, showing that forests are better protected in Indigenous and community conserved territories than in official protected areas.[1]

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“These territories need legal and political recognition,” said Lovera, “not top-down Payment for Environmental services schemes that undermine local authority and enable carbon cowboys to trick community leaders into false carbon offset deals.”
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Notes:
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[1] The seminar ” The ‘do’s and don’ts’ of supporting forest conservation and restoration initiatives by local communities and indigenous peoples” was organized by the Global Forest Coalition, the Task Force on REDD and Communities of the Theme on Governance, Equity and Rights of the IUCN Commission on Environmental, Economic and Social Policy and the International Consortium on Indigenous Conserved Territories and Community Conserved Areas
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[2] See for example: http://www.cifor.org/publications/pdf_files/articles/AGuariguata1101.pdf

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by | · 03:35

Got News….!

One of the tasks GJEP undertakes at the COPs is to wrangle media to capture grassroots events and perspectives. When we get the major media, we’re pleased. When our allies at Indigenous Environmental Network joined local groups to protest at a local Shell Oil refinery yesterday, we wrangled AP, Al Jazeera, and Reuters to come along. Reuters produced this short video.

We haven’t been able to track down the others’ coverage yet (too busy here at the COP!) — so if you see coverage of the events on AP, Al Jazeera or other major outlets, send us a shout! — the GJEP team

 

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Filed under Actions / Protest, Climate Change, Climate Justice, Media, UNFCCC

by | 2011-11-30 · 13:48

Live from South Durban: Indigenous activists from North America join African activists to target Shell

South Durban, South Africa, across the city from the conference center where thousands of UN delegates debate climate change solutions, is home to the second largest petrochemical complex in Africa. Like petrochemical plants around the world, South Durban is a site of daily climate crimes and massive community health problems from toxic releases, explosions, fires and workplace accidents and hazards. The asthma rate among schoolchildren is a staggering 80 percent. Two months before COP17 convened here, a refinery explosion and fire caused 100 children at a nearby school to be hospitalized with burns and acute skin and respiratory issues. Engen, the petrochemical Company responsible, responded by donating 100 new uniforms to the school. A second explosion occurred two days before COP17 began.

As National delegates to the climate conference down the road negotiate, for the seventeenth straight year, over how to “leverage funds” and build “private sector engagement” to make a transition to a “green economy” and “climate friendly development,” here is what a handful of North American Indigenous People and their African allies have to say about the cost of ongoing fossil fuel development, which shows no sign of abating.

For more in-depth note, see the previous post. For the street-level view, watch the short videos below.

– Jeff Conant, for GJEP

Daniel T’seleie, K’asho Got’ine Forst Nation, Fort Good Hope, Canada:

Ben Powless, Mohawk from Canada:

Nnimmo Bassey of Nigeria, Chair of Friends of the Earth International and Director of Environmental Rights Action:

 

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Filed under Actions / Protest, Climate Change, Climate Justice, Indigenous Peoples, Pollution, Tar Sands, UNFCCC

by | · 11:06

KPFK in Los Angeles airs reports Tuesday through Friday from the UN Climate Conference in Durban, South Africa–1st Dispatch

Note:  For the third year in a row GJEP has teamed up with KPFK Pacific Radio’s Sojourner Truth Show with Margaret Prescott.  KPFK’s show yesterday featured our Earth Minute weekly feature with GJEP’s Anne Petermann and an interview with Bobby Peek, a Durban local and Goldman Prize winner.   Peek is the director of  groundWork’s and has received international recognition for his campaigning work in the South Durban basin around toxic industry and waste issues.

 He has also been active in campaigning locally and internationally around the Thor Chemicals debacle.

-The GJEP Team on the ground in Durban, South Africa

To listen to this week’s show, go to:

http://archive.kpfk.org/parchive/mp3/kpfk_111129_070010sojourner.MP3

For Bobby Peek’s interview, please go to to minute 20:36

This week’s Earth Minute can be found at minute 32:25

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