Tag Archive for 'business'Page 17 of 52

20
Feb

Indigenous participants withdraw from mining workshop

Rights Action reports that, after a delegation of indigenous representatives were invited to take part in a workshop to discuss “mining exploration and exploitation in Guatemala,” they learned the workshop was being co-financed by… “Goldcorp (Montana Exploradora de Guatemala), Skye Resources (Compañía Guatemalteca de Níquel), the Mining Association of Canada (MAC) and the Prospectors and Developers’ Association of Canada (PDAC).

This prompted the delegation to formally withdraw from the workshop and issue a statement, which you can find below.

Before reading the statement, please note that while this may have been a good opportunity for the delegation to voice their concerns, they were basically expected to do so under false pretense. If there is to be any sort of consultation or diaolgue it should be carried out in the open, not in a way that both Goldcorp and Skye could manipulate.

Secondly, the statement …

Published on
February 20, 2008
  0 Comments 744 views

20
Feb

Chile Government Endorses the HidroAysen Project

Late last week, the highly contested HidroAysen dam project received a major endorsement by a member of Michelle Bachelet’s Chilean Government.

According to the Santiago Times

[on Thursday] Energy Minister Marcelo Tokman joined Interior Minister Edmundo Perez-Yoma to announce a series of measures aimed at alleviating Chile’s current energy crisis… while the announcements themselves came as no surprise, Perez-Yoma’s response when questioned about the HidroAysen project certainly did. “Do you support pushing forward with the Aysen dams?” a reporter asked him. “Yes, I’m for it… Of course I am. I think so. With all due respect to the environmental issue,” the interior minister answered.

Leaving little room for interpretation, Perez-Yoma on Friday reiterated his support for the project. “What we have is water and we need to take advantage of it… We ought, with as much energy possible, to push forward with …

Published on
February 20, 2008
  0 Comments 954 views

20
Feb

Jewelrs urge protection for Alaska’s Bristol Bay

Last week, five of America’s leading jewelry retailers announced their support for the protection of Alaska’s Bristol Bay from large-scale mining; particularly against the proposed Pebble gold-copper mine.

Featured in the report, Golden Rules: Making the Case for More Responsible Mining (pdf), the proposed Pebble mine would come to be “the largest mine in North America, covering over 15 square miles (39 square kilometers) of land and generating more than 3 billion tons of mine waste over its life. The waste [would] be impounded in a seismically active area behind a number of dams. If built to the proposed dimensions, two of these dams will be the largest in the world—far bigger than the giant Three Gorges Dam in China.

The project world utterly devastate the Bristol Bay watershed, and with it a wealth of natural resources:
The world’s …

Published on
February 20, 2008
  1 Comment 777 views

17
Feb

Fiji: de-reservation of native land proposed

A worrisome proposal was recently tabled in Fiji that seeks the de-reservation of all Indigenous lands, allegedly, to ensure the survival of the Sugar Cane Industry on which thousands of people depend. This request was prompted in a report authored last November which stated the land could be ‘better utilised’ if the military-backed interim government de-reserved native land and increased the size of sugar cane lots from 4 hectares to 40 and 400.

The Fiji Times reports that interim Finance Minister Mahendra Chaudhry, who has in the past tried to undermine Fiji lands, gave the report to the permanent secretary for Finance, Peni Sikivou, along with a note asking him to “send it to the Native Land Trust Board for further action.” Mr Sikivou says that he was concerned about some of the recommendations in the proposal, especially the

…

Published on
February 17, 2008
  0 Comments 768 views

16
Feb

Blue Gold: World Water Wars

This is the trailer for the film Blue Gold: World Water Wars, a documentary that explores the current and emerging world water crisis from an ecological, social, and political standpoint.

Through examining Court cases, U.N. conventions, local protests, and numerous situations where people are struggling for their basic right to water, Blue Gold reveals the breadth of what we face unless there are changes to the way the world’s water is managed.

As expressed on Facebook,

In every corner of the globe, we are polluting, diverting, pumping, and wasting our limited supply of fresh water at an expediential level as population and technology grows. The rampant overdevelopment of agriculture, housing and industry increase the demands for fresh water well beyond the finite supply, resulting in the desertification of the earth.

Corporate giants force developing countries to privatize their water supply for profit. Wall Street investors target desalination and mass bulk …

Published on
February 16, 2008
  0 Comments 1,489 views

13
Feb

Indigenous people vow to stop Inco pipeline

The Mining Advocacy Network reports that indigenous people in Kanaky, more commonly known as New Caledonia, began mobilizing over the weekend to stop a waste pipe that Inco is hurriedly laying for its Goro nickel mine.

A little over a week ago, the company won an appeal case filed by the indigenous concern group Rheebu Nuu in November 2006. The groups says the waste pipe is an imminent threat to the environment.

Kanaky is one of the world’s top biodiversity hotspots. The majority of species are endemic, which means they are not found anywhere else in the world.

An exceptional geological discovery was also made beneath the path of the waste pipe. The details have yet to be made public, but a formation of this kind is thought to be the origin of life on Earth. Inco …

Published on
February 13, 2008
  1 Comment 747 views

12
Feb

Peru: isolated and uncontacted Peoples now in danger

A few months back there was a story about a company that plans to use megaphones if they come across any uncontacted tribes while working in the Peruvian Amazon. Repsol YPF, the company calls itself.

Well, the stage is now set for those indigenous People to be aurally assaulted by megaphones. In December, the government of Peru gave Repsol along with Barrett Resources permission to go ahead with their oil exploration plans. Incidentally, Barrett also plans to contact any people they come across, but rather than use megaphones they’re choosing to give away free trinkets.

The Bane of Ignorance

In all probability, first contact will happen very differently from what these companies envision in their juvenile policies. And no matter their intent, it will be to the detriment of the uncontacted and isolated people.

For one, they will be exposed to …

Published on
February 12, 2008
  2 Comments 4,013 views

Video activism and the Chiapas Media Project

In the following presentation, Claudia Magallanes-Blanco from the University of Western Sydney talks about the role of video activism as a world-wide tool for empowerment and the Chiapas Media Project, a collaborative effort based in Mexico that provides indigenous Zapatistas in Chiapas and peasants in Guerrero with training and equipment to produce their own videos.

Since forming in 1998, CMP has distributed over 6000 videos, including: Zapata’s Garden, a film that looks at the society the Zapatista’s are building; …


I Am A Defender of the Rainforest

Known as ‘Soy defensor de la selva’ in Spanish, I am a Defender of the Rainforest is an award-winning documentary that was filmed, edited, and directed by members of the Sarayaku community in southern Ecuador.

The film shows how the …


Underreported Struggles #19, October 2008

In this month’s Underreported Struggles: 400,000 Guatemalans Reject Development Model, Philippines Indigenous People Unite for the Land, Riot Police Target Algonquin Blockade, Chagos Islanders Denied the Right of Return, and 17 other stories …


Top
Hosted by May First / People Link