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Schweden: Sami gegen Bergbau-Industrie

Donnerstag, Oktober 13th, 2011

“Sweden: Saami Communities Say NO To Mining On Traditional Lands

By Ahni

 

 

Two Saami communities have said they will do everything in their power to stop a mining company from exploiting their internationally-protected lands in Northern Sweden.

The Saami communities of Girjas and Laevas recently found out that Kiruna Iron AB, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Australian company Scandinavian Resources Ltd., wants to develop two separate iron mines in the Kalix River Valley at Ruovdenjunnji and Rakkurijokkialong. Both sites are located within the Saami’s nationally-recognized reindeer herding grounds and the European Union’s Natura 2000 ecological network of protected areas.

The two communities have since declared that will not accept mining or exploration on their traditional lands.

“These mines would have catastrophic impacts for both our Saami communities and would completely undermine the possibility for us to continue reindeer herding on our lands. This would also open up our undeveloped mountain areas to international developers, whose only goal is to make money for their international shareholders” said Ingemar Blind, chairman of the Girjas Saami community, in a joint statement issued last month.

“We will do everything we can to stop this short-term plundering of our mountains,” said Tor-Erik Huuva, chairman of the Laevas community. “We also know that other stakeholders in our region are of the same opinion: that an important natural environment will be permanently destroyed.”

Since making their position clear, two well-known Saami organizations–the Saami Council and the National Association of Swedish Sami (Svenska Samernas Riksförbund, SSR)–have rallied in support of the communities.

“Kiruna Iron’s planned exploitation would violate fundamental human rights of the local Saami reindeer herders”, said Mattias Åhrén, Chief Lawyer at the Saami Council. “The communities hold property rights to land under Swedish and international law. In addition, reindeer herding is protected under the right to culture. If necessary, we will bring this matter to relative authorities”, he continues.

The two NGOs have also expressed concern about those who back Kiruna Iron, since they too would be contributing to human rights violations.

As a part of their response, the Saami Council is now in the process of contacting the company’s business partners and investors to “advise them of the high environmental and social risks associated with mining in the Kalix River Valley” .

“[We] have run similar successful campaigns in the past, targeting companies that do not respect Saami rights, by undertaking shareholder and investor dialogues, media campaigns and filing complaints with the domestic governments of foreign companies and international bodies such as the UN Human Rights Committee,” the NGOs explain in their own joint statement.

If reason, justice and faith have anything to say about it, they will succeed again.

Contacts
Tor-Erik Huuva, Laevas community chairman +46 (0)70-251 76 43
Ingemar Blind, Girjas community chairman +46 (0)70-663 31 28
Mattias Åhrén, senior lawyer at the Saami Council email: mattias.ahren(at)saamicouncil.net mobile phone no. +47 47 37 91 61

Support the Saami!
If you would like to show your support for the Saami, send an email to Damian Hicks, Chairman of Scandanavian Resources, dhicks(at)scandinavianresources.com

 

Letter to investors and partners of Kiruna Iron from the Saami Council

September 2011

Dear investors and partners of Kiruna Iron AB (Scandinavian Resources Ltd),

The Saami Council [1] writes to you as potential or existing partners/investors in Kiruna Iron AB (“Kiruna Iron”), a wholly owned subsidiary of Scandinavian Resources Ltd (ASX:SCR). We would like to respectfully outline our concerns in regards to Kiruna Iron’s proposed mining activities in the Kiruna area, in the far north of Sweden, and highlight the human rights violations associated with the activities.

As part of our work, the Saami Council monitors mining, windpower, forestry and other industrial activities in the Saami areas, seeking to ensure that indigenous rights are respected. We have been contacted by one of our member organisations, SSR – the National Swedish Saami Association – and the Saami reindeer communities of Girjas and Laevas.

The communities have recently expressed their firm opposition over Kiruna Iron’s plans to mine in the Kalix River Valley [2]. The proposed mining activities would destroy the environment and wipe out Girjas and Laevas possibility to pursue their traditional livelihood of reindeer herding, as inherited from their ancestors.

International law affirms that indigenous peoples’ communities hold property rights to areas traditionally used. This position of international law has also been confirmed by Swedish law, most recently by the Supreme Court’s ruling in the so called Nordmaling Case.

Consequently, no industrial activities are allowed in Saami reindeer herding communities’ traditional territories unless an agreement is reached with the relevant community. This property right is protected by the Swedish Constitution, as well as of Article 1 of Additional Protocol 1 to the European Convention on Human Rights, in addition to other international legal instruments such as the UN Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

As mentioned, in this instance, Girjas and Leavas Reindeer herding communities are not interested in negotiating an agreement, as mines in the relevant areas would force them out of their traditional livelihood.

In addition, the right to culture as enshrined e.g. in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights Article 27, as interpreted by the UN Human Rights Committee, establishes that the right to culture prohibits any activity that renders it seriously more difficult for indigenous individuals to continuously pursue their traditional livelihoods, such as reindeer husbandry.

Multiple international guidelines stipulate that investors and partners of resource extraction companies must ensure that they are not complicit in breaching indigenous rights. For instance, companies and investors involved in the Kiruna Iron project risk breaching the Equator Principles (to which all reputable investments banks are now signatories), the OECD Guidelines (which apply to multinational enterprises operating in or from adhering countries) and the UN Global Compact.

The General Policies of the OECD Guidelines underline, for example, that enterprises must contribute to economic, social and environmental progress with a view to achieving sustainable development, and respect the human rights of those affected by their activities consistent with the host government’s international obligations and commitments. The Saami Council respectfully suggests that if Kiruna Iron goes ahead with its plans, the company – and all those partners and financial institutions involved in Kiruna Iron and/or Scandinavian Resources – are in breach of the General Policies of the OECD Guidelines.

Shareholders, and those banks providing guarantees or project financing for controversial projects on indigenous territories, have increasingly found themselves facing sustained NGO campaigns. Protest by indigenous peoples against controversial projects has led to losses of millions of dollars for project proponents, project sponsors and project partners.

These risks are relevant for both investors and partners of Kiruna Iron AB. The Saami Council has run similar successful campaigns in the past, targeting companies that do not respect Saami rights, by undertaking shareholder and investor dialogues, media campaigns and filing complaints with bodies such as the UN Human Rights Committee. We will act in the same manner if the mining plans in the Kiruna area continue.

The Saami Council also wishes to draw your attention to the fact that the principal position of Swedish law, as well as relevant international legal norms, has not been incorporated into Swedish mining legislation. Foreign companies investing and operating in Sweden commonly place a high level of trust in Swedish public authorities and regulatory bodies.

This trust is often misguided. The Swedish mineral law and permitting processes have been heavily criticised by the UN for excluding Saami communities and not respecting indigenous rights, most recently in UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples´ report on the Saami people. In other words, complying with Swedish law is in no way any guarantee for Kiruna Iron, or its investors and partners, that they are not in breach of human rights.

Kiruna Iron plans to apply for planning permission for two mines – one for Ruovdenjunnji/Ekströmsberg and one for Rakkurijokki. The planning permission is the first step towards opening the mines and the environmental impact assessment processes have already begun. The proposed mine site at Ruovdenjunnji, south of the Kalix river, is on the traditional lands of the Girjas saami community and in previously undeveloped mountain areas.

These lands are important autumn grazing lands for the reindeer before they migrate down from the summer pastures in the mountains to the west, and continue down to the winter forest pastures in the east. However, during the last few winters, as the snow conditions further east have made grazing difficult, the reindeer have remained grazing in the Ruovdenjunnji area well into the winter. This means that the Ruovdenjunnji area is of crucial importance to Girjas saami community and their traditional livelihood. There is simply not room for a mine, with associated roads and transports.

The proposed mine at Rakkurijokki also poses an enormous threat to reindeer herding in the Saami community of Laevas. The expansion of LKAB’s mining activities, in combination with new rail lines and roads associated with the town’s relocation, have left Laevas Saami community with a tight bottleneck through which they must carefully herd the migrating reindeer between their small remaining pockets of pasture. It is in this bottleneck, with nationally protected migration routes and crucial grazing lands, which Kiruna Iron now wants to mine. There are no reserve pastures to replace these grazing lands and no mitigation measures that could lessen the impacts: if the mine were to go ahead Laevas’ grazing lands would be cut into two, destroying the Saami community’s reindeer herding forever.

Both proposed mining sites are in nationally recognised reindeer herding zones and within Natura 2000 protected areas.

We hope that we have provided some clarity on the significance of the human rights breaches associated with the proposed mining activities of Kiruna Iron. Should you wish to receive any further information please do not hesitate to contact us.

Yours respectfully,
Mattias Åhrén
Chief Lawyer
Saami Council
Telephone: +47 47 37 91 61

Cc:
Board of Directors
Scandinavian Resources Ltd

1 The Saami Council is a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), representing the Saami people, indigenous to northern Fennoscandinavia and the Kola Peninsula of the Russian Federation. It is an umbrella organisation, whose members are the major representative Saami organisations in Norway, Sweden, Finland and the Russian Federation. The Saami Council has represented the Saami people at an international level for 30 years, and has consultative status with the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the UN Economic, Social and Cultural Council (ECOSOC). It is also a permanent participant to the Arctic Council.

2 http://www.sapmi.se/pressmeddelande_110913_FINAL_engelska.pdf“

 

(Quelle: Intercontinental Cry.)

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Posted in Bergbau, EU, Indigene Völker, Menschenrechte | No Comments »

USA / Kanada: Indigene im zivilen Ungehorsam gegen Öl-Pipeline-Bau

Dienstag, August 30th, 2011

“Native American and Canadian First Nations To Take Part In Largest Act of Civil Disobedience to Stop Keystone XL Pipeline

Washington DC: The Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) is a national environmental justice and indigenous rights organization taking part in the largest act of civil disobedience in decades happening in front of the White House in Washington D.C. from August 20 to September 3, 2011.

The purpose of these actions is to send a direct message to President Obama to deny approval of the 1,702 mile Keystone XL pipeline. The pipeline would be transporting pollution from the tar sands (also known as oilsands) of Canada to the United States by carrying 900,000 barrels per day of thick, corrosive, toxic, synthetic crude oil for refining in Texas and the Gulf States. If approved, the Keystone XL would lock the US into a dependency of energy intensive, hard-to-extract dirty oil and create a massive expansion of the world’s dirtiest and most environmentally destructive form of oil development currently taking place in northern Alberta Canada. These operations are already producing 1.5 million barrels per day and having horrendous environmental justice and human rights impacts on the way of life and health of the local Native communities of Cree, Dene and Métis.

The proposed pipeline threatens to pollute freshwater supplies in America’s agricultural heartland and grasslands with increased emissions in already-polluted communities of the Gulf Coast. The Keystone XL would cross Indian Country; States of Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas encompassing Indian-US treaty territories crossing water aquifers and rivers, grasslands, cultural sites and ecological sensitive areas. Leaks and spills are common occurrences from such pipelines that could result in disproportionate impact to Native Nations and thousands of tribal members. A spill from the Keystone XL poses an even greater threat, given that the pipeline would run directly through the Ogallala aquifer, which supplies one-third of our nation’s ground water used for irrigation, and drinking water to 2 million citizens.

The Indigenous Environmental Network is bringing tribal governmental and grassroots leaders from US and Canada, directly impacted by the proposed pipeline and the tar sands oil operations, to say “NO KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE” to President Obama. This Indigenous Day of Action on September 2, 2011, at the gates of the White House will express the solidarity of Native Nations, standing with concerned citizens, workers, farmers, ranchers, unions, youth and a coalition of environmental groups from across the continent, in peaceful protest to protect Mother Earth and demand Obama respect the treaty rights and survival of Native Nations of the US and Canada.

“Nature is speaking, but Obama is not listening. The Keystone XL pipeline is a 1,700 mile fuse of the world’s largest carbon bomb. The Canadian tar sands, the proposed Keystone XL and all the other current and proposed pipelines are weapons of mass destruction leading the path to triggering the final overheating of Mother Earth”, says Tom BK Goldtooth, Executive Director of the Indigenous Environmental Network. “President Obama made promises to Native Nations and here is an opportunity for him to honor those promises and be a man of conscious by standing up to corporate power and say NO to the Keystone XL pipeline.”

A barrel of tar sands oil emits up to three times as much climate-disrupting gas as conventional oil. Building Keystone XL would be the greenhouse gas equivalent of adding roughly 6.5 million passenger vehicles to the road, or constructing 12 new coal-fired power plants

“IEN is putting out a national call for ACTION and Solidarity on September 2nd. Even if your homes won’t be crossed by this pipeline, we are raising the consciousness of America to reevaluate its relationship to Mother Earth that would be ruined by the intensity of environmental devastation and of greenhouse gases created by the enormous tar sands oil infrastructure crossing North America. It’s like a giant spider web crossing our Turtle Island”, added Goldtooth

National Native organizations such as the National Congress of American Indians, the oldest and largest Native organization representing Native Nations are calling for a moratorium and better management practices on expanded tar sands development and opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline. NCAI requests the U.S. government to take aggressive measures to work towards sustainable energy solutions that include clean alternative energy and improving energy efficiency.

The IEN delegation will arrive in DC on August 30th and be participating in the August 31st Canadian Day of Action and staying until the Indigenous Day of Action on September 2nd.

For more information, please contact:

Marty Cobenais IEN Pipeline Campaigner
Cell: (218) 760 0284
Email: martyc@ienearth.org

Clayton Thomas-Muller IEN Tar Sands Campaigner
Cell: (613) 297 7515
Email: ienoil@igc.org

Tom Goldtooth IEN Executive Director
Cell: (218) 760 0442
Email: ien@igc.org

Kandi Mosset IEN Tribal Climate Campaigner
Cell: (701) 214 1389
Email: iencampusclimate@igc.org

Or visit www.ienearth.org/tarsands.html or www.tarsandsaction.org”

 

(Quelle: Indigenous Enviromental Network.)

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Posted in Bergbau, Erdöl, Indigene Völker, Konzern, Umwelt/Ökologie, Widerstand | No Comments »

Global: Gewalt gegen Frauen in Minderheiten

Freitag, Juli 8th, 2011

“Minority Women Fight Back Against Mistreatment

By Elizabeth Whitman

Women in minority and indigenous communities are especially vulnerable to wide-ranging forms of violence, abuse and discrimination, according to a new report released Wednesday by Minority Rights Group International (MRG), a human rights group that works on behalf of minorities and indigenous peoples.

With limited access to political mechanisms of justice and protection, they are disproportionately the targets of attacks and discrimination, during times of conflict or peace, the report said.

Dalits in India, Muslims in Britain, Uzbeks in Kyrgyzstan, Batwas in Uganda, Aborigines in Australia – these are just a few of the communities spanning the globe who are sometimes welcomed, but more often not, by the dominant national cultures.

The disproportionate levels of abuse and discrimination that these women face – including rape, other forms of sexual violence, and trafficking, from government forces, paramilitaries, or members of their own communities – can be attributed to the fact that their identity exists at the intersection of two rather marginalised groups, women and minorities, making them easy targets.

In spite of the compound disadvantage, these women are standing up for themselves and challenging the status quo, even as government policies fail to provide the rights and protections they deserve, or, in some cases, attempt to write discrimination into their very laws.

One hundred percent of Batwa women in Uganda interviewed by MRG said that they had experienced some form of violence, whether ongoing or in the past year.

Dalit women in India experience horrific discrimination as part of the “Untouchables” within the traditional caste system. Even though “untouchability” is illegal according to India’s constitution, in practice, it is alive and pervasive in many forms.

In Kyrgyzstan in June 2010, ethnic Uzbek girls and women were subject to widespread rape and sexual violence. Yet in women’s crisis centres sympathetic to them, they could not receive residential support due to “hostility among ethnic Kyrgyz clients”, the report said.

Speaking up

In countries where discrimination towards minorities is the norm, women from these groups have a particularly difficult time ensuring that they are protected, in law and in reality, from attacks and that perpetrators do not enjoy impunity, especially where socio-economic and geographic factors entrench discriminatory practices further.

Because minority and indigenous women often hail from poor socioeconomic backgrounds and remote areas, they have less access to education, employment, or justice. Without these opportunities, their channels through which to fight violence and discrimination are extremely limited, and opportunities to ameliorate the situation are scarce.

Nevertheless, “many are actively fighting for their rights as women, for the rights of their communities and for their rights as minority or indigenous women,” the report stated, even at the risk of violent reprisals from majority communities or their own.

Dalit women “have come out very powerfully to fight for their rights and for justice,” said Manjula Pradeep, executive director of Navsarjan, a grassroots Dalit human rights organisation.. “They are the ones that are really fighting for the rights,” even if they receive little support from families and community members, she said.

For instance, over the nearly two decades that Pradeep has worked with Navsarjan, she has witnessed a shift in reportage of cases of abuse. When she first began, few cases of violence against Dalit women were reported to police. Now, she says, women are coming out and speaking about sexual abuse by landlords and employers.

The double standard applied to Dalit women exemplifies the horrors they face. “At one level you don’t allow a Dalit woman to fetch water from a public well, but on the other side you rape the woman,” Pradeep said. “At one level you see her as a defiled person, somebody who is very impure, but you rape the same woman.”

Developed countries have poor records too

“Politicians in the developed world sometimes speak as if the violation of women’s rights was simply a problem in the developing world,” Mark Lattimer, executive director of MRG, told IPS, “but the evidence shows that that is simply not the case.”

In Australia, for instance, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women determined that indigenous women “have fewer opportunities, are less likely to participate in public life, and have more restricted access to justice, and to quality education, health care and legal aid services.”

In Britain, Muslim women endure verbal and physical assault, and different countries in Europe have sought to ban the hijab or fine those wearing it.

Nor is discrimination limited to the practices of daily life – it reaches the higher echelons of society as well. Lattimer noted that “in almost every developed democracy, minority women are grossly underrepresented in politics, in the judiciary, in corporate boardrooms and in other positions of power and influence.”

What we need to do is listen to women who speak out and risk their lives to protect their rights, he concluded, “and take seriously their own recommendations for how their rights should be protected.”

(END)

 

(Quelle: IPS News.)

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Posted in Diskriminierung, Frauen, Gewalt, Indigene Völker, Minderheit, Sexualisierte Gewalt, Widerstand | No Comments »

Botswana: ” Ohne unser Land sterben wir “

Freitag, Juni 3rd, 2011

“Dankesrede von Roy Sesanazur zur Verleihung des Right Livelihood Awards, Stockholm, 2005

Mein Name ist Roy Sesana. Ich bin ein Buschmann vom Stamm der Gana und Gwi aus der Kalahari, die heute Botswana heißt. In meiner Muttersprache heiße ich “Tobee” und unser Land heißt “T//amm”. Wir leben dort schon länger als alle anderen Völker irgendwo auf der Welt.

Als ich jung war, ging ich fort, um in den Bergwerken zu arbeiten. Ich zog meine Felle aus und trug Kleidung. Aber nach einer Weile ging ich wieder nach Hause. Bin ich deswegen weniger Buschmann? Ich glaube nicht.

Ich bin ein Anführer. Als ich noch ein Junge war, da brauchten wir keine Anführer und führten ein gutes Leben. Jetzt brauchen wir sie, da uns unser Land gestohlen wird und wir um unser Überleben kämpfen müssen.

Dass ich ein Anführer bin, bedeutet nicht, dass ich den Leuten sage, was sie zu tun haben. Im Gegenteil: Sie sagen mir, was ich tun soll, um ihnen zu helfen.

Ich kann nicht lesen. Sie wollten, dass ich diese Ansprache schreibe, deshalb haben mir meine Freunde geholfen, aber ich kann keine Worte lesen – es tut mir leid. Aber ich weiß, wie man das Land liest und die Tiere. Alle unsere Kinder konnten das. Wenn sie das nicht gekonnt hätten, wären sie schon vor langer Zeit gestorben.

Ich kenne viele, die Worte lesen können und viele, die – wie ich – nur das Land lesen können. Beides ist wichtig. Wir sind nicht rückständig oder weniger intelligent: Wir leben genau jetzt, im selben Jahr wie Sie. Fast hätte ich gesagt, wir leben unter den selben Sternen, aber nein, sie sind verschieden und es gibt mehr davon in der Kalahari. Die Sonne und der Mond sind der selbe.

Als ich aufwuchs, wurde ich ein Jäger. Alle unsere Jungen und Männer sind Jäger. Jagen bedeutet, zu den Tieren zu gehen und mit ihnen zu sprechen. Man stiehlt nicht. Man geht und fragt. Man stellt eine Falle auf oder geht mit Pfeil und Bogen oder einem Speer. Es kann Tage dauern. Man stellt der Antilope nach. Sie weiß, dass du da bist. Sie weiß, dass sie dir ihre Kraft geben muss. Aber sie rennt und du musst auch rennen. Während du rennst, wirst du wie sie. Es kann Stunden dauern und ihr verausgabt euch beide. Du redest mit ihr und du schaust ihr in die Augen. Und dann weiß sie, dass sie dir seine Kraft geben muss, damit deine Kinder leben können.

Als ich das erste Mal jagte, war es mir nicht gestattet zu essen. Teile der Steinantilope wurden zusammen mit einigen Wurzeln verbrannt und auf meinen Körper gestreut. So lernte ich. Es ist ein anderes Lernen als Ihres, aber es funktioniert gut.

Der Bauer sagt, er sei weiter entwickelt als der rückständige Jäger, aber ich glaube ihm nicht. Seine Herden geben ihm nicht mehr Essen als unsere. Die Antilopen sind nicht unsere Sklaven, sie tragen keine Glocken um ihre Hälse und können schneller rennen als die faule Kuh oder ihr Hirte. Wir rennen gemeinsam durch das Leben.

Wenn ich die Hörner der Antilope trage, dann hilft mir das, mit meinen Ahnen zu kommunizieren – und sie helfen mir. Die Ahnen sind so wichtig: Ohne sie wären wir nicht am Leben. Jeder weiß das tief in seinem Herzen, aber manche haben das vergessen. Wäre irgendwer von uns hier, ohne seine Ahnen? Ich glaube nicht.

Ich wurde zum Heiler ausgebildet. Man muss die Pflanzen und den Sand lesen. Man muss Wurzeln ausgraben und tüchtig sein. Manche der Wurzeln setzt du für morgen zurück, damit deine Kinder und Enkel sie finden und essen können. Du lernst, was das Land dir sagt. Wenn die Alten sterben, dann begraben wir sie und sie werden zu Ahnen. Wenn jemand krank ist, dann tanzen wir und sprechen zu ihnen. Sie sprechen durch mein Blut. Ich berühre die kranke Person und finde die Krankheit und heile sie.

Wir sind die Ahnen der Kinder unserer Enkel. Wir kümmern uns um sie, genau wie auch unsere Ahnen sich um uns kümmern. Wir sind nicht um unserer selbst willen hier. Wir sind hier für einander und für unsere Kinder und Enkelkinder.

Warum ich hier bin? Weil meine Leute ihr Land lieben und weil wir ohne es sterben. Vor vielen Jahren hat der Präsident von Botswana gesagt, dass wir immer auf unserem angestammten Land leben könnten. Wir brauchten eigentlich niemanden, der uns das sagt. Natürlich können wir leben, wo Gott uns erschaffen hat!

Aber der nächste Präsident sagte, wir müssen umsiedeln und begann uns zu vertreiben. Sie sagten, wir müssen wegen den Diamanten gehen. Dann behaupteten sie, wir würden zu viele Tiere töten. Aber das ist nicht wahr. Sie sagen viele Dinge, die nicht wahr sind.

Sie sagten, wir müssten gehen, damit die Regierung uns entwickeln könne. Der Präsident sagt, wenn wir uns nicht verändern, werden wir untergehen wie einst der Dodo. Ich wusste nicht, was ein Dodo war. Aber ich habe es herausgefunden: Es war ein Vogel, der von den Siedlern ausgerottet wurde.

Der Präsident hatte Recht. Sie bringen uns um, indem sie uns von unserem Land vertreiben. Wir wurden gefoltert und man hat auf uns geschossen. Sie haben mich verhaftet und verprügelt.

Danke für die Verleihung des Right Livelihood Awards. Dies ist eine weltweite Anerkennung unseres Kampfes und wird unsere Stimme durch die ganze Welt ertönen lassen. Als ich erfuhr, dass ich den Preis erhalten habe, kam ich gerade aus dem Gefängnis. Sie sagen, ich – der ich hier und heute stehe – sei ein Verbrecher.

Ich frage Sie, was das für eine Entwicklung sein soll, wenn die Menschen kürzer leben als vorher? Sie stecken sich mit HIV an und bekommen Aids. Unsere Kinder werden in der Schule geschlagen und gehen nicht mehr hin. Manche von ihnen werden Prostituierte. Sie dürfen nicht jagen. Sie prügeln sich, weil sie gelangweilt und betrunken sind. Sie beginnen sich umzubringen. So etwas haben wir vorher noch nie gesehen. Es tut weh, dies zu sagen. Ist das “Entwicklung”?

Wir sind nicht primitiv. Wir leben anders als Sie, aber wir leben auch nicht genau so wie unsere Großeltern – genau wie Sie auch nicht. Waren unsere Ahnen “primitiv”? Ich glaube nicht. Wir respektieren unsere Ahnen. Wir lieben unsere Kinder. – Das gilt für alle Menschen.

Wir müssen nun die Regierung daran hindern, unser Land zu stehlen, denn ohne es werden wir sterben.

Wenn jemand viele Bücher gelesen hat und denkt ich wäre primitiv, nur weil ich noch kein einziges gelesen habe, dann sollte er all diese Bücher wegwerfen und sich eines besorgen, das besagt, dass wir alle Brüder und Schwestern unter Gott sind und dass auch wir ein Recht haben zu leben.

Das ist alles. Danke.”

 

(Quelle: Organisation für Eine solidarische Welt.)

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Posted in Bergbau, Indigene Völker, Kulturen/Lebensweisen, Menschenrechte, Regierung, Repression, Widerstand | No Comments »

Global: Nicht in unserem Namen, Greenpeace…

Montag, Mai 30th, 2011

REDD Light!

Indigenous say offset plan threatens traditional title

by Dawn Paley

 

Hector Rodriguez, posing defiantly in front of riot police, was among the thousands of Indigenous peoples, small farmers, women, environmental groups and other activists who took action and made their voices heard throughout the two-week COP 16 conference. “The market will not protect our rights,” reads a statement by the Indigenous Environmental Network, which represents front-line Indigenous communities. “Approaches based on carbon offsetting, like Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation [REDD], will permit polluters to continue poisoning land, water, air, and our bodies [and] will only encourage the buying and selling of our human and environmental rights.”

 

SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS, MEXICO—The carbon market was the hottest issue at last year’s Conference of the Parties (COP)-16 summit in Cancun. Inside the meeting, delegates approved the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation and Conservation program (REDD+). However, outside the official meeting, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and Indigenous-led organizations clashed over its merits.

Opponents of REDD+ (or simply “REDD”), say the mechanism is a false solution to the climate crisis which will intensify a pattern of land grabs by the private sector throughout the Third World. The final Cancun text on REDD does little to address these concerns, as it does not contain wording that would prevent conservation projects from encroaching on the rights and title of Indigenous peoples living in forest-rich lands.

Deforestation is responsible for at least 18 per cent of global carbon emissions—more than aviation and global transport combined—according to a report by carbon management company Carbon Planet. REDD is a mechanism by which forests in developing countries are “sustainably managed” or designated as carbon sinks in order to mitigate climate change. Though REDD primarily emerged from the COP-13 in Bali in 2007, the idea germinated during Kyoto Protocol negotiations in 1997.

In Cancun, a clear anti-REDD message unified many Mexican Indigenous, environmental and peasant groups, but NGOs such as Greenpeace International, the World Wildlife Federation, the Environmental Defense Fund, and Conservation International promoted the REDD agreement.

No REDD projects have yet been implemented in Chiapas, which, as a state with heavy forest cover, is a target region for the program. According to Gustavo Castro Soto, an organizer with Otros Mundos (“Other Worlds,” a social and environmental justice organization) in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, the mechanisms for measuring the effectiveness and impact of REDD programs have yet to be designed.

Already, precursors to the implementation of REDD have people like Castro worried. Barring people’s access to forests on ejidos (communally-held lands) is the first necessary step in putting these forested areas on the carbon market.

“This is how the government will ensure that there is a forest in each ejido, and this will obviously be sold as an Environmental Service [a UN-defined category of the carbon market], for which the government will receive a quantity of money, of which the community will receive a fraction,” said Castro.

“This is what they call sustainable community forest management,” he said dryly.

Decisions about how exactly to finance REDD have been postponed to COP-17 in Durban.

“If REDD is going to be financed through the carbon market, it won’t be a real solution to climate change,” Mariana Porras of Friends of the Earth Costa Rica told The Dominion in a phone interview from San Jose. “We’ve denounced this, but government groups don’t see it the same way,” she said.

Market-based financing for REDD will likely complement the ongoing privatization of forest reserves, which moves ownership and access rights of forests currently owned communally by Indigenous or peasant communities into the hands of individuals.

In Costa Rica, as in Mexico, the government is in the early phases of implementing REDD, which means engaging in public consultations. “If you see who gets invited to the meetings about REDD—to the consultations—it’s rare that you’ll see a peasant community, or peasant organizations,” said Porras. “Mostly, you’ll see people who own private lands, or people from private organizations.”

In Cancun, the Indigenous Environmental Network stood in opposition to the discourse of many other NGOs. In a final statement from Cancun, they berated COP-16 as the “World Trade Organization of the sky,” and harshly criticized the REDD plan. “The agreements implicitly promote carbon markets, offsets, unproven technologies and land grabs—anything but a commitment to real emissions reductions,” reads their final release.

In the streets of Cancun, Greenpeace International brought delegates from around the world to show support for popular movements, but the organization’s language fell short of grassroots solidarity. Days before the final agreement was reached, Executive Director Kumi Naidoo released a statement saying that “a good REDD deal would benefit biodiversity, people and the climate.”

Greenpeace was steadfast in its support for the outcome of the climate negotiations in Mexico, and after COP-16 wound down, Naidoo posed for a photo with Mexican President Felipe Calderon, and praised the president’s leadership in reaching a global climate agreement.

Resistance to the REDD program did not end with COP-16. Activists say that the COP-17 meeting in Durban at the end of the year will be decisive as to the future of REDD, and the carbon market is sure to be a key issue in the months preceding the conference.

Dawn Paley is a journalist based in Vancouver.

 

(Quelle: The Dominion.)

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Posted in Indigene Völker, Klima, Nichtregierungsorganisationen, Umwelt/Ökologie, Wald | No Comments »

Chile: Mächtige Umweltmafia

Montag, Mai 16th, 2011

Fischer und Mapuche protestieren gegen Abwasser-Pipeline in den Pazifik

Von Benjamin Beutler

Der chilenische Zellulose-Multi »Celulose Aurauco y Constitución« (CELCO) ist mit einer jährlichen Produktion von rund fünf Millionen Tonnen der weltweit drittgrößte Zelluloseproduzent. Zugleich sorgte der Konzern für eines der großen Umweltprobleme in Südchile.

Über eine halbe Million Tonnen Zellulose im Jahr spuckt die Zellulosefabrik aus, die nahe gelegene Ortschaft San José de la Mariquina versorgt ein angeschlossenes Biomasse-Kraftwerk mit Strom. Nicht weit vom qualmenden Industriekomplex strömt der breite Río Cruces vorbei, wenige Kilometer stromabwärts liegt die Regionalhauptstadt Valdivia. Im Mai 1960 zerstörte das stärkste je gemessene Erdbeben so gut wie alle Ortschaften der südchilenischen Region.

Doch das jüngste Unglück in Valdivia ist von Menschenhand gemacht. Im Jahr 2004 stampfte der Zellulose-Multi CELCO sein riesiges Werk aus dem Boden. Chile ist der fünftgrößte Zellulose-Exporteur der Welt. Vor Ort wurde den skeptischen Bewohnern, darunter viele Gemeinden der indigenen Mapuche-Lafkenche, dasselbe wie eh und je versprochen: Arbeit, Sozialversicherung und geregeltes Einkommen. Doch damals wie heute lebt rund ein Drittel der Menschen in Armut, das Gros der CELCO-Spezialisten kam aus dem Norden. Richtig misstrauisch gegenüber der Fabrik wurden Anwohner und Naturschützer, als im stromabwärts gelegenen Schutzgebiet »Carlos Anwandter« die ersten der nur in Südamerika heimischen Schwarzkopfschwäne starben. 2005 war die Art, deren Brutgebiet sich von der Mitte Chiles und dem Südosten Brasiliens bis zum südlichsten Zipfel Südamerikas erstreckt, in dem Schutzgebiet komplett verschwunden.

Schnell wurde klar: Für den Tod der über 5000 Tiere konnte nur CELCO verantwortlich sein, die ihre giftigen Abwässer ungeklärt in den Cruces-Fluss eingeleitet hatte. Autopsien hatten eine hohe Konzentration von Metallen ergeben. Im Juli 2007 wurden zudem tausende verweste Fische angetrieben, einer von vielen »Störfällen« von CELCO. Heute ist das Feuchtgebiet tot. Die Schäden für Umwelt, Fischer und Tourismusindustrie erreichten 86 Millionen Euro, allein 2007 sei der Tourismus um 50 Prozent eingebrochen, belegen unabhängige Studien. Aktuell läuft ein Prozess gegen das Unternehmen, das mit Imagekampagnen und gekauften Expertisen jede Verantwortung von sich weist. Im Rahmen einer außergerichtlichen Einigung zahlte CELCO der Tourismus-Branche eine knappe Million Euro. Nun plant das Unternehmen eine Abwasser-Pipeline in die 40 Kilometer entfernte Pazifikbucht von Mehuín.

Auch wenn die »Katastrophe von Valdivia« in Chile erstmals Umweltverschmutzung in die Öffentlichkeit gebracht hat und zur Schaffung eines Umweltministeriums und von Überwachungsgremien führte, so hat die Zellulose-Wirtschaft doch weiter starke Freunde in der Politik. Chiles Ex-Präsident Eduardo Frei etwa wehrte im Senat die Vorwürfe gegen CELCO erfolgreich ab. Da es den Fischern der Mehuín-Bucht an einer starken Lobby fehlt, haben sie angesichts der drohenden Vernichtung ihrer Lebensgrundlagen Klage vor der »Interamerikanischen Menschrechtskommission« (CIDH) der »Organisation Amerikanischer Staaten« (OAS) eingereicht. Doch die Mühlen der Justiz mahlen langsam. Chiles Umweltministerium hat schon 2010 grünes Licht für die Pipeline gegeben.

 

(Quelle: Neues Deutschland.)

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Posted in Biodiversität, Holz, Indigene Völker, Industrie, Konzern, Naturschutz/Artenschutz, Umwelt/Ökologie, Widerstand | No Comments »

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