Survival International :: RSS News, blogs and campaigns from Survival International |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Ce jour : 186 informations libres : [1-20] [21-40] [41-60] [61-80] [81-100] [101-120] [121-140] [141-160] [161-180] [181-186]
Tribal people appeal to James Cameron Lundi 8 Février 2010 :: Survival International :: RSS
 |
| Survival's appeal to James Cameron appears today in Variety magazine. © Survival |
Survival has appealed to Avatar director James Cameron on behalf of an Indian tribe through an ad in the film industry magazine Variety (published today 8 February 2010).
In the ad Survival asks Mr Cameron to help the Dongria Kondh tribe of Orissa, India, whose story is uncannily similar to that of the Na’vi in Avatar. The ad says:
Appeal to James Cameron
Avatar is fantasy .. and real.
The Dongria Kondh tribe in India are struggling to defend their land against a mining company hell-bent on destroying their sacred mountain.
Please help the Dongria.
We’ve watched your film – now watch ours:
www.survivalinternational.org/films/mine
Survival’s ten-minute film ‘Mine: story of a sacred mountain’ - narrated by Joanna Lumley - exposes the Dongria’s plight.
The Dongria live in the Niyamgiri Hills in Orissa state, India. British FTSE-100 company Vedanta Resources is determined to mine their sacred mountain’s rich seam of bauxite (aluminium ore). Vedanta is majority-owned by Indian billionaire Anil Agarwal.
The Dongria and other local Kondh people are resisting Vedanta, and are determined to save Niyamgiri from becoming an industrial wasteland. Other Kondh groups are already suffering from a bauxite refinery, built and operated by Vedanta, at the base of the Niyamgiri Hills.
Survival’s director Stephen Corry says, ‘Just as the Na’vi describe the forest of Pandora as ‘their everything’, for the Dongria Kondh, life and land have always been deeply connected. The fundamental story of Avatar – if you take away the multi-coloured lemurs, the long-trunked horses and warring androids – is being played out today in the hills of Niyamgiri in Orissa, India.
’Like the Na’vi of ‘Avatar’, the Dongria Kondh are also at risk, as their lands are set to be mined by Vedanta Resources who will stop at nothing to achieve their aims. The mine will destroy the forests on which the Dongria Kondh depend and wreck the lives of thousands of other Kondh tribal people living in the area.
‘I do hope that James Cameron will join the Dongria’s struggle to save their sacred mountain and secure their future.’
Church takes 'unprecedented' step to sell stake in Vedanta Vendredi 5 Février 2010 :: Survival International :: RSS
 |
| Vedanta's planned mine in Orissa, India, has become hugely controversial. © Survival |
In a shock move, the Church of England decided today to disinvest from controversial miner Vedanta Resources on ethical grounds, dealing a devastating blow to the company’s credibility.
The Church stated that ‘we are not satisfied that Vedanta has shown, or is likely in future to show, the level of respect for human rights and local communities that we expect…’ adding that maintaining investments in Vedanta ‘would be inconsistent with the Church investing bodies’ joint ethical investment policy’.
The Church’s decision is extremely unusual, as it almost always prefers a policy of ‘constructive engagement’ to disinvesting, and is just the latest in a string of PR disasters for the company. Survival International has been lobbying the Church to disinvest from Vedanta for over a year.
Last year the FTSE 100 company was publicly rebuked by the British Government for failing to respect the human rights of India’s Dongria Kondh tribe, in a similarly unprecedented move. The government said that ‘a change in the company’s behaviour’ was ‘essential’.
Survival’s director Stephen Corry said today, ‘The Church’s unprecedented and very welcome decision sends a strong signal to companies that trample on tribal peoples’ rights: we will not bankroll your abuses. Anybody that has shares in Vedanta should sell them today if they care about human rights.’
The Church is not the first organisation to disinvest from Vedanta on ethical grounds. In 2007 the Norwegian government sold its US$13m stake , saying ‘there is little reason to believe that the company’s unacceptable practice will change in the future.’
In addition, Martin Currie Investments sold their £2.3 million stake last year, and BP’s pension fund reduced its holdings in Vedanta due to ‘concerns about the way the company operates.’
Uncontacted tribes’ land: ‘most biodiverse’ in South America and threatened by oil Jeudi 4 Février 2010 :: Survival International :: RSS
 |
| Crossed spears left by an uncontacted tribe in Peru where Perenco and Repsol YPF are working. © Marek Wolodzko/Survival |
New research by scientists has found that a vast region of the Ecuadorian and Peruvian Amazon is the most biodiverse in South America.
But this region, home to some of the world’s last uncontacted tribes, is gravely threatened by oil exploration and drilling.
The research, published in PLoS ONE, found parts of eastern Ecuador and northern Peru to be uniquely rich in amphibians, birds, mammals and plants. But the scientists also say that oil companies are working, or due to work, in a massive 79% of the region.
‘Unfortunately, the most biodiverse area in South America is included in oil lots 39, 67, 121, 123 and 129,’ says Dr Matt Finer from Save America’s Forests, one of the authors of the report.
Repsol-YPF is working in Lot 39 and Perenco in Lots 67 and 121. Perenco has already discovered vast oil deposits, but Repsol is still exploring.
‘These findings form the scientific basis for policy recommendations, including stopping any new oil activities and road construction in Yasuní (in Ecuador) and creating areas off-limits to large-scale development in adjacent northern Peru,’ says the report.
Peru’s national Amazon indigenous organisation, AIDESEP, has appealed to Peru’s courts to stop oil work in the region. It has also filed a complaint with Latin America’s top human rights body, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
Extinct: Andaman tribe’s extermination complete as last member dies Jeudi 4 Février 2010 :: Survival International :: RSS
 |
| Boa Sr was the last member of the Bo tribe. © Alok Das |
The last member of a unique tribe has died on India’s Andaman Islands.
Boa Sr, who died last week aged around 85, was the last speaker of ‘Bo’, one of the ten Great Andamanese languages. The Bo are thought to have lived in the Andaman Islands for as much as 65,000 years, making them the descendants of one of the oldest human cultures on Earth.
Boa Sr was the oldest of the Great Andamanese, who now number just 52. Originally ten distinct tribes, the Great Andamanese were 5,000 strong when the British colonized the Andaman Islands in 1858. Most were killed or died of diseases brought by the colonizers.
Having failed to ‘pacify’ the tribes through violence, the British tried to ‘civilize’ them by capturing many and keeping them in an ‘Andaman Home’. Of the 150 children born in the home, none lived beyond the age of two.
The surviving Great Andamanese depend largely on the Indian government for food and shelter, and abuse of alcohol is rife.
Boa Sr survived the Asian tsunami of December 2004, and told linguists, ‘We were all there when the earthquake came. The eldest told us ‘the Earth would part, don’t run away or move’. The elders told us, that’s how we know.’
Linguist Prof. Anvita Abbi, who knew Boa Sr for many years, said, ‘Since she was the only speaker of [Bo] she was very lonely as she had no one to converse with… Boa Sr. had a very good sense of humour and her smile and full throated laughter were infectious.’
‘You cannot imagine the pain and anguish that I spend each day in being a mute witness to the loss of a remarkable culture and unique language.’
Boa Sr told Abbi she felt the neighbouring Jarawa tribe, who have not been decimated, were lucky to live in their forest away from the settlers who now occupy much of the Islands.
Survival’s director Stephen Corry said today, ‘The Great Andamanese were first massacred, then all but wiped out by paternalistic policies which left them ravaged by epidemics of disease, and robbed of their land and independence.
‘With the death of Boa Sr and the extinction of the Bo language, a unique part of human society is now just a memory. Boa’s loss is a bleak reminder that we must not allow this to happen to the other tribes of the Andaman Islands.’
Listen to Boa Sr singing in Bo:
Brazil grants license for controversial Amazon mega-dam Mercredi 3 Février 2010 :: Survival International :: RSS
 |
| Kayapó dance at an anti-dam protest in 2006 © T Turner |
The Brazilian government has granted an environmental license for the construction of the controversial Belo Monte hydro-electric dam in the Amazon.
The dam, planned for the Xingu River in the northern state of Pará, will be the third largest in the world and is estimated to cost $17 billion.
It will flood 500 square kilometers of land, causing huge devastation to the rainforest, and have a major impact on fish stocks.
The livelihoods of thousands of tribal people who depend on the forest and river for food and water will be destroyed. Some face removal from their ancestral land.
Indigenous peoples are at the forefront of current protests. Last October Kayapó Indians and Indians of other tribes held a week-long protest against the dam.
In a letter to President Lula the Kayapó said ‘We don’t want this dam to destroy the ecosystems and the biodiversity that we have taken care of for millenia and which we can still preserve’.
The Bishop of the Xingu, Dom Erwin Krautler, also opposes the dam and warned that the Indians could resort to violence if their voice is not heard. ‘They will cry, they will shout, they will rise up’, he said.
Brazil’s Public Prosecutor’s Office is calling for the license to be canceled, stating that the environmental impact studies were incomplete, and that the Indians and other people who will be affected were not properly consulted.
Previous attempts to build the dam in the1980s failed following worldwide protests led by Kayapó Indians.
Dam building is a central part of Brazil’s Accelerated Growth Programme, which aims to stimulate the country’s economic growth by building a vast infrastructure of roads and dams, mainly in the Amazon region.
There was huge pressure on ministers to grant the license for the Belo Monte dam, which caused division and resignations within the government’s environment agency IBAMA.
Survival has protested to the government about the project.
Read more about dams affecting other indigenous peoples around the world.
Protestors gather at Tiffany stores worldwide Mercredi 3 Février 2010 :: Survival International :: RSS
 |
| Protestors outside Tiffany's store in London © Marc Cowan/Survival |
Survival supporters demonstrated today outside Tiffany stores in London, San Francisco, Madrid, Paris and Berlin to protest at the company funding water boreholes for game animals on Bushman land where the people are forbidden access to their own borehole.
The protestors handed in a letter at their respective stores asking Tiffany to withdraw its financial support for the boreholes.
Bushman spokesman, Jumanda Gakelebone, said, ‘Tiffany is supporting the government but ignoring the Bushmen. It should not be giving money to the government while we don’t have any water. Its money is being used to oppress us. This is our land and we love it.’
Survival supporters demonstrated to start a campaign calling on the company to withdraw from cooperating with the government until the Bushmen are allowed to exercise their right to water.
Pictures available here:
 | Protestors outside Tiffany's store, London Download hi-res image Credit: © Survival |
 | Protestors outside Tiffany's store in London Download hi-res image Credit: © Marc Cowan/Survival |
 | Protestors outside Tiffany's store, London Download hi-res image Credit: © Marc Cowan/Survival |
 | Protestors outside Tiffany's store in London Download hi-res image Credit: © Marc Cowan/Survival |
 | Protestors outside Tiffany's store in London Download hi-res image Credit: © Marc Cowan/Survival |
Tribe sights uncontacted Amazon Indians Mercredi 3 Février 2010 :: Survival International :: RSS
 |
| Awá children, Brazil. The confirmation of the existence of the Indians near to the Katukina tribe comes just after confirmation of a group of uncontacted Awá Indians in the eastern Amazon. © Fiona Watson/Survival |
A previously unknown Indian tribe has been spotted in the south-western Amazon.
The group, who were encountered by members of a neighboring tribe known as the Katukina, were apparently short, long-haired, and had painted their bodies with urucum [red annatto] dye.
The Katukina said that the uncontacted Indians were not aggressive and that they tried to communicate verbally. ‘We could understand everything’, one Katukina called Carnaval said.
Having received consistent accounts from various Katukina Indians of signs of the uncontacted Indians, FUNAI, Brazil’s Indian Affairs Agency, has decided to mount an expedition to the Rio Biá indigenous territory to search for and record traces of the uncontacted Indians in order to protect them from outsiders.
Non-Indians pass through the area where the uncontacted Indians are believed to live, and it is close to an illegal airstrip, possibly used by drug traffickers.
It is feared that outsiders in the area could pass on diseases to the uncontacted Indians, to which they have little immunity. Past occasions of first contact with Indians have led to many dying from illnesses such as flu.
Demonstrations in Kenya against Ethiopian dam Mardi 2 Février 2010 :: Survival International :: RSS
 |
| The Mursi in Ethiopia will be severely affected by the dam. © Marco Trovato/Survival |
Demonstrators have protested in four towns in Kenya, against the construction of a controversial dam that threatens the survival of a hundred thousand indigenous people throughout the Lower Omo Valley in Ethiopia and around Lake Turkana in Kenya.
Ethiopia’s Omo River is a lifeline for various tribes, who cultivate crops on the fertile floodplains in an otherwise challenging environment. The river is the largest source for Kenya’s famous Lake Turkana, the most saline of Africa’s large lakes, essential to the survival of many Kenyan tribes. The Lower Omo Valley and Lake Turkana are both UNESCO World Heritage sites, in recognition of the ‘exceptional’ conditions there.
Friends of Lake Turkana organised the simultaneous demonstrations, but had to hold a press conference in Nairobi, because of a ban on public demonstrations in the capital.
A FoLT representative said, ‘Based on research and advice from environmentalists, we the Friends of Lake Turkana (FoLT) are concerned about the drastic two year infilling of the dam as well as the limited amount of water to be let out into Lake Turkana to maintain ecological needs.’
In Ethiopia it is much harder for people to demonstrate against the project. The government has introduced legislation to stop local organisations from working on human rights, democracy, justice and law issues. Most people know virtually nothing about the dam and its impacts.
The Italian company Salini Construttori has already built one third of the dam, called Gibe III. The Italian government and various multinational banks are now considering funding the project.
However, independent experts say it will disrupt the seasonal flooding of the Lower Omo Valley, decimating the forests around the river and making it almost impossible for the tribes of the valley to grow their crops.
Several NGOs have made formal complaints to the Africa Development Bank urging it not to fund the dam.
The volume of water flowing in to Lake Turkana is likely to fall dramatically. Tribes including the Turkana, Dassanech, Rendille and Samburu rely on lakeside livestock grazing, crop cultivation, as well as fishing in the lake itself.
Survival is calling on the Ethiopian government to freeze the dam project until an independent environmental and social impact assessment has been carried out and the Omo Valley tribes have been properly consulted.
Tiffany's target of global Survival protest Mardi 2 Février 2010 :: Survival International :: RSS
 |
| Tiffany's faces protests in five countries over its controversial activities in Botswana. © Survival |
Survival supporters will demonstrate tomorrow (3 February) outside Tiffany stores in five countries to protest at the company funding water boreholes for game animals on Bushman land where the people are forbidden access to their own borehole.
In 2006, Botswana’s High Court ruled that the government’s eviction of the Bushmen from the Central Kalahari Game Reserve four years earlier was illegal and that the Bushmen had the right to live in their reserve. However, the government has still tried to stop them returning to their ancestral land. It says they cannot use – even at their own expense – a borehole which it deliberately cut off, forcing them to make a 300 mile round trip to fetch water from outside the reserve. At least one Bushman has died from dehydration since the borehole was cut off.
Botswana’s Director of Wildlife and National Parks, Trevor Mmopelwa, has made it clear that the new boreholes must not be used by the Bushmen, defying the high court by saying the reserve ‘should be reserved for wildlife’. As well as drilling new boreholes, the government has also allowed a new tourist lodge, complete with swimming pool and a supposed ‘Bushman experience’, in the reserve.
Survival supporters will demonstrate outside Tiffany stores in London, Paris, Berlin, Madrid and San Francisco, to start a campaign calling on the company to withdraw from cooperating with the government until the Bushmen are allowed to exercise their right to water.
Bushman spokesman, Jumanda Gakelebone, said today, ‘Tiffany is supporting the government but ignoring the Bushmen. It should not be giving money to the government while we don’t have any water. Its money is being used to oppress us. This is our land and we love it.’
Survival’s director Stephen Corry said today, ‘This is a very well-known case. The Botswana government has been proven to be acting in breach of its own laws and constitution in its efforts to destroy the only remaining hunting Bushmen in southern Africa. Tiffany must know this. Foreign companies should not be supporting it so long as it favours animals to the country’s original inhabitants.’
Penan feature in Eden Project oil palm exhibit Lundi 1 Février 2010 :: Survival International :: RSS
 |
| The Eden Project's new oil palm exhibit features the Penan tribe. © Eden Project/Survival. |
A new exhibit at the world famous UK visitor attraction the Eden Project features the Penan of Sarawak and the destruction of their forests to make way for oil palm plantations.
The oil palm exhibit in the Eden Project’s hugely popular Rainforest Biome includes a quote from a Penan man whose community is trying to stop oil palm companies moving on to their land:
‘The oil palm plantation companies – they destroy the forest. They will destroy our natural habitat and that is the only source of food for the Penan. I wish that the government would stop doing this type of ‘development’, as they call it.’
Last year Survival visited Penan communities whose forests had been cleared and their land planted with oil palm by the company Shin Yang. One Penan man told researchers, ‘When the logging started, we thought we had a big problem. But when oil palm arrived, logging was relegated to problem number two! Our land and our forests have been taken by force. Our fruit trees are gone, our hunting grounds are very limited, and the rivers are polluted.’
Another group of Penan have told researchers, ‘Oil palm plantations have not benefited us at all; they have only robbed us of our resources and land… oil palm plantations have destroyed our source of livelihood and made us much poorer. A lot of people are hungry every day because our forest has been destroyed.’
Survival’s director Stephen Corry said today, ‘Just like the logging companies that precede them, the oil palm companies are taking the Penan’s land without their consent and without any consultation. The Malaysian government must stop sanctioning this theft and instead start ensuring that the indigenous people of Sarawak’s land rights are respected.’
An Eden Project spokesperson said, ‘Eden is home to the largest rainforest in captivity… By connecting people to the plants from which everyday products are made Eden hopes to make the survival of the rainforests and other environments more relevant to its visitors.’
The Eden Project is in Cornwall, in the southwest of England. It receives over a million visitors every year.
Imminent: Anglican Church decision on Vedanta Resources' abuses Mercredi 27 Janvier 2010 :: Survival International :: RSS
 |
| There have been numerous protests against Vedanta's plans. © Survival |
The Church of England is meeting this week to decide what to do with its £2.5 million investment in UK mining company Vedanta Resources.
The Ethical Investment Advisory Group of the Church will meet to decide whether to recommend selling their stake in Vedanta Resources, or to keep their money with the miner and continue to ‘engage’ them in dialogue.
The UK government has already declared that Vedanta’s plan to mine aluminium ore from a hill range in Orissa, India, ignores the human rights of the Dongria Kondh tribe who live there, and flouts international law. But the government, which began investigating Vedanta Resources after a complaint from Survival, has no power to stop the company.
Last November a Church representative visited the region of India where Vedanta has already built an alumina refinery and intends to start the mine. During his visit he met people who have lost almost everything to the refinery, and was able to get some sense of what the Dongria Kondh who will be affected by Vedanta’s mine, stand to lose.
The Dongria Kondh tribe have never been formally consulted about the mine, which will destroy their sacred mountain and irrevocably change their forest home. When Survival visited the tribe in December 2009, they found that some Dongria do not even know exactly where the mine is going to be, and no one from Vedanta has ever tried to explain the likely impact on their lives and land.
Stephen Corry, Survival’s Director, said today, ‘If the Church of England now decide to keep their cash with the company it will be in the full knowledge that the Dongria Kondh’s rights are about to be trampled. The UK government has already told Vedanta that the project is unacceptable, but Vedanta has ignored them – it’s painfully clear that words, without action, are meaningless. The Church must take action, and sell its stake in Vedanta Resources.’
HIV reaches Yanomami in Amazon Mercredi 27 Janvier 2010 :: Survival International :: RSS
 |
| Yanomami mother and child.
© Steve Cox/Survival |
Brazil’s National Health Foundation, FUNASA, has confirmed the first case of HIV amongst the Yanomami Indians in northern Brazil.
FUNASA says that there are 28 cases of HIV amongst Indians in the Amazonian state of Roraima, where many Yanomami live. The majority of these cases are women, and two are children.
The Yanomami are one of the largest relatively isolated tribes in South America. Today their population stands at about 32,000 and straddles the border of Venezuela and Brazil.
In 1992, the 9.6 million hectare Yanomami Park was created on the Brazilian side of the border, following the recognition of the Yanomami’s right to live undisturbed on their land. In Venezuela, the Yanomami live in the 8.2 million hectare Alto Orinoco – Casiquiare Biosphere Reserve.
However, the Yanomami still suffer from invasion of their land. Over 1,000 gold-miners are now working illegally in the Yanomami territory, polluting the rivers and forest with mercury, and transmitting deadly diseases like malaria and possibly HIV/AIDS.
Cattle ranchers are also invading and deforesting the eastern fringe of their land.
The Yanomami organization, Hutukara, has made several urgent appeals to the Brazilian authorities to remove all the illegal goldminers and ranchers from their land. So far the government has taken no action.
Survival’s report ‘Progress can kill: how imposed development destroys the health of tribal peoples’ explains that outsiders in tribal peoples’ territories can bring prostitution, the abuse of tribal women and children, and sexual diseases.
European protests to stop bulldozers on uncontacted tribe's land Mardi 26 Janvier 2010 :: Survival International :: RSS
 |
| Protesters gathered in London, Paris and Madrid today. © Survival |
Protestors gathered in London, Madrid and Paris today to oppose the destruction of land belonging to one of the world’s last uncontacted tribes.
The protestors stood outside the Paraguayan embassies in Madrid and London holding placards reading, ‘Save the Ayoreo.’ The Ayoreo-Totobiegosode are losing their forest to a Brazilian company bulldozing it to graze cattle for beef.
In Paris, a letter was handed in to UNESCO’s head office expressing their concern for the Totobiegosode. The forest being destroyed by the cattle-ranchers is part of a UNESCO ‘biosphere reserve’, but despite pleas from the Totobiegosode to stop the destruction UNESCO has yet to respond.
The company, Yaguarete Pora S.A., recently won Survival’s ‘Greenwashing Award 2010’ for its decision to create a ‘nature reserve’ on the Totobiegosode’s land while destroying thousands of hectares of their forest. Yaguarete denies it is acting illegally and claims the land it is destroying does not belong to the Totobiegosode, despite the fact that many studies prove it belongs to them and a legal claim made by the Totobiegosode is based on one of those studies.
See the company’s deforestation plans.
Satellite photos clearly show the destruction of the Totobiegosode’s forest. They are the only uncontacted tribe in the world losing their land to beef.
Survival director, Stephen Corry, said today, ‘People all over the world are beginning to wake up to what is happening to the Totobiegosode. Paraguay risks being more famous for this tragedy than anything else.’
Click to download hi-res images
London protest urging action by the Paraguayan government at its embassy in Kensington. © Marc Cowan
London protest urging action by the Paraguayan government at its embassy in Kensington. © Marc Cowan
Madrid protest urging action by the Paraguayan government.
© Iñaki Luis/Survival
Madrid protest urging action on the plight of the Ayoreo by the Paraguayan government. © Aitana Luis/Survival
Paris protest urging action by the Paraguayan government.
© Survival
‘Avatar is real’, say tribal people Lundi 25 Janvier 2010 :: Survival International :: RSS
 |
| Avatar's story is being played out in real life. © 20th Century Fox |
Following the film ‘Avatar’’s win at the Golden Globes, tribal people have claimed that the film tells the real story of their lives today.
A Penan man from Sarawak, in the Malaysian part of Borneo, told Survival, ‘The Penan people cannot live without the rainforest. The forest looks after us, and we look after it. We understand the plants and the animals because we have lived here for many, many years, since the time of our ancestors.
‘The Na’vi people in ‘Avatar’ cry because their forest is destroyed. It’s the same with the Penan. Logging companies are chopping down our big trees and polluting our rivers, and the animals we hunt are dying.’
Kalahari Bushman Jumanda Gakelebone said, ‘We the Bushmen are the first inhabitants in southern Africa. We are being denied rights to our land and appeal to the world to help us. ‘Avatar’ makes me happy as it shows the world about what it is to be a Bushman, and what our land is to us. Land and Bushmen are the same.’
Davi Kopenawa Yanomami, known as the Dalai Lama of the Rainforest, said, ‘My Yanomami people have always lived in peace with the forest. Our ancestors taught us to understand our land and animals. We have used this knowledge carefully, for our existence depends on it. My Yanomami land was invaded by miners. A fifth of our people died from diseases we had never known.’
Director James Cameron received his Golden Globes awards for ‘Avatar’ last week, and revealed one of the central ideas of the film.
‘Avatar asks us to see that everything is connected,’ he said in his acceptance speech, ‘All human beings to each other, and us to the earth.
Cameron was inspired by the Maori language of New Zealand when devising the language spoken by the Na’vi.
Survival’s director Stephen Corry says, ‘Just as the Na’vi describe the forest of Pandora as ‘their everything’, for most tribal peoples, life and land have always been deeply connected.
‘The fundamental story of Avatar – if you take away the multi-coloured lemurs, the long-trunked horses and warring androids – is being played out time and time again, on our planet.
‘Like the Na’vi of ‘Avatar’, the world’s last-remaining tribal peoples – from the Amazon to Siberia – are also at risk of extinction, as their lands are appropriated by powerful forces for profit-making reasons such as colonization, logging and mining.’
‘One of the best ways of protecting the our world’s natural heritage is surprisingly simple; it is to secure the land rights of tribal peoples.’
*
A feature article about ‘Avatar’ and tribal peoples is available for publication from Survival.
Contact Miriam Ross:
E mr@survivalinternational.org
T +44 (0)20 7687 8734
UN to Colombian armed groups: ‘Stop recruiting indigenous children’ Vendredi 22 Janvier 2010 :: Survival International :: RSS
 |
| The Nukak are one of many tribes affected by Colombia's armed conflict. © Gustavo Pollitis/Survival |
A report by the UN rapporteur on indigenous peoples urges armed groups in Colombia to stop recruiting indigenous children to their causes.
The report, written by Professor James Anaya, cites armed conflict between Colombia’s army and groups such as the left-wing guerrilla army FARC as one of the biggest threats to Colombia’s indigenous population. It has led to repeated killings, forced displacement, a serious lack of food, and it has particularly affected indigenous women and children who are subject to sexual violence or forcibly recruited.
‘It is evident that the plight of indigenous people in Colombia is being exacerbated and intensified by the armed conflict. According to almost all indications, the armed conflict disproportionately affects indigenous people in the country,’ the report says.
The main reason why indigenous people are particularly affected by the armed conflict is a result of the location of their territories. These have strategic value for the armed groups and for the drugs trafficking they are fighting over.
The report also cites government inaction, lack of justice, ‘mega-projects’ and fumigations aimed at wiping out illegal crops as reasons for the ‘serious, urgent and deeply concerning’ plight of Colombia’s indigenous population. The fumigations have led to serious health problems and ‘food crises’.
Based on a visit to Colombia by Professor Anaya last year, the report was released on 8 January.
The nomadic Nukak tribe, ‘forcibly displaced into urban areas’ from the rainforest, is singled out for special mention.
Read the UN report (in Spanish) via Colombia’s national indigenous peoples’ organisation.
Police killers of Papuan independence leader given special commendations Jeudi 21 Janvier 2010 :: Survival International :: RSS
 |
| Yali men, Papua
© William Milliken/Survival |
Fifty Indonesian police officers have received special commendations from the National Police Headquarters for killing the Papuan independence leader, Kelly Kwalik, last month.
The Indonesian police shot Kelly Kwalik in the thigh on December 16, 2009, and he died shortly after. The exact circumstances of his death remain unclear.
The Indonesian military and police have a long history of extra-judicial killings, arrest and torture of those suspected of supporting West Papua’s independence movement.
Despite having been involved in rebel activities with the Free Papua Movement (OPM) in the past, Kwalik had for many years renounced violence and had committed to seeking independence by peaceful means. Only weeks before his death he met with senior Indonesian security officials, at their request. Many Papuans suspect that he may have been lured into a trap by the promise of another such meeting.
Police have defended his killing by claiming that Kwalik was involved in the 2002 ambush of a convoy of buses that killed three teachers near the huge US-owned Grasberg copper and gold mine. They also said they believed he was behind a number of attacks in the mine area last year which had left eight people dead. However, the police at the time of both the 2002 and more recent killings had rejected the suggestion of OPM involvement.
Survival is calling on the government of Indonesia to investigate the circumstances of Kwalik’s death fully and to ensure that those members of the security forces who commit acts of violence against the Papuan people are brought to justice.
UN publishes report detailing ‘critical situation’ of indigenous people Jeudi 21 Janvier 2010 :: Survival International :: RSS
 |
| Deforestation caused by loggers in a Penan region in Borneo, Malaysia. © Andy and Nick Rain/Survival |
The United Nations has released a report highlighting the challenges faced by indigenous peoples, describing their situation as ‘critical’, and urging that land rights are crucial for their cultural and physical survival.
‘The State of the World’s Indigenous Peoples’ asserts that ‘many of these communities are now on the brink of what some describe as genocide’, and highlights as particularly threatening the construction of dams and the clearing of forests for logging, mines and soy plantations.
The report says that these projects often cause large-scale environmental destruction, introduce diseases such as malaria and flu to which many indigenous people have little resistance, and result in the forced eviction of indigenous people from their ancestral lands.
It echoes the message of Survival’s short report ‘Progress Can Kill’, which demonstrates that policies designed in the name of ‘progress’ often bring huge misery to tribal peoples in the form of disease, obesity, suicide, addiction and reduced life expectancy.
The UN report also draws attention to indigenous peoples living in ‘voluntary isolation’, i.e. ‘uncontacted’ tribes, who face particularly severe risks as invaders move in to their territory. The case of loggers working illegally on the land of uncontacted tribes in Peru is higlighted.
It also emphasises the particularly high suicide rates experienced by indigenous people, such as the Guarani, whose suicide rate was nineteen times higher than the national rate between 2000 and 2005.
The report discusses the problems surrounding the creation of national parks on indigenous peoples’ land, and highlights the ruling by the Botswana High Court that the 2002 eviction of the Bushmen from their ancestral lands in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR) was unlawful.
At the launch of the report in Rio de Janeiro, indigenous leader Marcos Terena denounced the ‘paternalistic policies’ surrounding ‘development’ projects, which fail to respect the self-determination of indigenous people.
Survival names winner of 'Greenwashing Award' 2010 Mercredi 20 Janvier 2010 :: Survival International :: RSS
 |
| 'Survival's 'Greenwashing Award 2010' has been won by ranching company Yaguarete Porá'. © Survival |
A Brazilian company bulldozing an uncontacted tribe’s land in Paraguay has won Survival’s ‘Greenwashing Award 2010’.
The company, Yaguarete Porá S.A., has won the award for ‘dressing up the wholesale destruction of a huge area of the Indians’ forest as a noble gesture for conservation’, says Survival’s director Stephen Corry.
Yaguarete owns 78,549 hectares of forest that is part of the Ayoreo-Totobiegosode tribe’s ancestral territory. After satellite photos were published around the world revealing that it has destroyed thousands of hectares of the tribe’s forest, the company issued a press release announcing it intends to create a ‘nature reserve’ on its land.
But plans submitted by Yaguarete to Paraguay’s Environment Ministry reveal that the amount of ‘continuous forest’ in the reserve will be just 16,784 hectares out of the 78,549 hectares total, and the company in fact plans to convert around two thirds of the land to cattle ranching.
Some of the Totobiegosode have already been contacted and vehemently condemned the plans for the ‘reserve’, pointing out that it violates their rights under both Paraguayan and international law. The contacted Totobiegosode have been claiming legal title to this land since 1993, but most of it is still in private hands.
The Totobiegosode are the only uncontacted Indians in the world having their territory destroyed for beef production.
Survival director, Stephen Corry, said today, ‘This is textbook ‘greenwashing’: bulldoze the forest and then ‘preserve’ a bit of it for PR purposes. The public won’t fall for it. Yaguarete should stop playing games and pull out of the Totobiegosode’s territory once and for all.’
See Yaguarete’s plans here.
The Totobiegosode in numbers:
2,800,000
Estimated hectares of Totobiegosode territory 50 years ago
550,000
Hectares claimed through the courts by the Totobiegosode
78,549
Hectares of Totobiegosode land ‘owned’ by Yaguarete Pora S.A.
57,000
People around the world who have signed a petition in support of the Totobiegosode
16,784
Hectares of ’continuous forest’ planned by Yaguarete for a ‘private nature reserve’ on Totobiegosode land
3,000
Estimated hectares destroyed by Yaguarete in 2009
2,533
Resolution number passed in 2008 by Paraguay’s Environment ministry canceling Yaguarete’s licence to work on Totobiegosode land
169
International law that Yaguarete is violating by working on Totobiegosode land
6
Minimum number of bulldozers operating on Totobiegosode land in recent months
0
Public statements by President Lugo about the Totobiegosode
Avatar is not a fantasy, says Survival Mardi 19 Janvier 2010 :: Survival International :: RSS
|
| Avatar © 20th Century Fox |
Director James Cameron received his Golden Globes awards for ‘Avatar’ yesterday, and revealed one of the central ideas of the film.
‘Avatar asks us to see that everything is connected,’ he said in his acceptance speech. ‘All human beings to each other, and us to the earth.’
Yet the futuristic story of an indigenous tribe living in harmony with nature and facing the decimation of their community and their ancestral lands by aggressive invaders is not only a fantasy.
Like the Na’vi of ‘Avatar’, the world’s last-remaining tribal peoples – from the Amazon to Siberia – are also at risk of extinction, as their lands are appropriated by powerful forces for profit-making reasons such as colonization, logging and mining.
Like the Na’vi, tribal peoples are discriminated against by a world that believes them to be backward because they do not aspire to the ways of life of industrialized countries and often choose to rely, as they have done for millennia, on their natural environments to survive.
Just as the Na’vi describe the forest of Pandora as ‘their everything’, for most tribal peoples, life and land have always been deeply connected.
Many tribal peoples believe that a sustainable attitude to the caretaking of the earth is essential. It is ironic that while the Arctic melts, the seas rise, the rainforests burn – as ecosystems are damaged beyond repair – so the peoples with a detailed understanding of them are also threatened, such as the Jarawa, who inhabit the Andaman Islands’ last remaining tracts of virgin rainforest.
James Cameron added, ‘If you have to go four and half light years to another made up planet to appreciate this miracle of a world we have here – that’s the wonder of cinema.’
One of the best ways of protecting the miracle of our world’s natural heritage is to secure the land rights of indigenous peoples.
A full version of this article is available for publication from Survival International. Contact Miriam Ross on (+44) (0)20 7687 8734 or mr@survivalinternational.org
Bangladesh: Rape and repression continue, despite promises of peace Mardi 19 Janvier 2010 :: Survival International :: RSS
 |
| Chakmas, Bangladesh
© Mark McEvoy/Survival |
One year since the Bangladesh government promised finally to halt the persecution of the country’s indigenous people, reports are emerging of new abuses.
Decades of conflict between the indigenous people, known as Jummas, and Bengali settlers and armed forces, were supposed to have come to an end with the signing of a ‘Peace Accord’ in 1997. Under the terms of the deal, the army was supposed to close its numerous camps in the mountainous south-east of the country, an area known as the Chittagong Hill Tracts, where the Jummas live.
The army, and the settlers who had colonised the Hill Tracts with their support, had committed countless atrocities in the area, in turn provoking armed resistance from the Jummas.
When a peace deal was signed between the two sides in 1997, hopes were high that the Jummas’ persecution had come to an end. But successive governments failed to honour the terms of the deal, and many Jummas who had fled their homeland to India are yet to get their homes and lands back.
In 2009 the Awami League, the political party which had signed the peace deal, returned to power, and promised finally to fulfil the terms of the Peace Accord. But one year on, little appears to have changed. Many military camps remain open, and the army still dominates in the Hill Tracts, causing widespread intimidation and fear.
In November last year, a soldier from Ghilachari army camp attempted to rape a Jumma woman. Jummas, mostly women, blockaded roads in protest against the assault, demanding the soldier be prosecuted and his army camp disbanded.
Seven people were injured, some seriously, when soldiers tried to break up the protest. Journalists who attempted to interview the injured women in hospital were denied access. Despite written promises by the authorities that the solider would be prosecuted, no action has been taken.
Hundreds of Jumma girls and women have been raped by soldiers and settlers since the 1960s, when the government began a programme of transferring poor Bengalis into the region.
Jumma activist Subir Chakma said, ‘Our girls and women are not safe. They cannot go to schools, they cannot go to the rivers to fetch water or to take baths, they cannot go to their work, they cannot go to the temples, they cannot visit their relatives, they cannot go to the market places, they cannot go to the nearby jungles, they cannot work in the paddy fields, and now they cannot even stay home, they are raped everywhere.’
There have been some signs of progress in the implementation of the accord. An army brigade and some temporary military camps have been withdrawn, and a commission to resolve land disputes has been formed. However, many temporary military camps remain and the continued presence of the military and settlers (who are supported and fed by the army) means the Jummas are still vulnerable to abuse.
Reports of torture, rape, land grabbing and intimidation remain widespread. Many Jummas who fled from earlier violence have still not recovered much of their land.
[1-20] [21-40] [41-60] [61-80] [81-100] [101-120] [121-140] [141-160] [161-180] [181-186]
