The following is an opinion piece from the the World Rainforest Movement’s Bulletin for the month of April (links added by me).
If you would like to read or download the entire Bulletin, please visit www.wrm.org.uy.
A Tale of Two Conventions
Once upon a time … the governments of the world got together and agreed that the Earth was facing severe environmental problems and that something needed to be done about it. The historic event was named the Earth Summit and it took place in 1992 in the tropical scenario of Rio de Janeiro.
Everyone was feeling very enthusiastic because governments had committed themselves to a new type of development -which they defined as “sustainable”- which would prevent the negative environmental impacts of the until then prevailing development model.
People became even more hopeful about the future when they were told that from then on governments would ensure that all types of production would be socially equitable and environmentally friendly.
As proof of the seriousness of governments’ commitments, a Convention for the protection of biodiversity (CBD) was agreed upon and so was another one for the prevention of climate change (UNFCCC).
However, both conventions where soon highjacked by the ogre present in most tales. Even worse, this particular story had a large number of extremely nasty ogres who were only interested in devouring all the Earth’s resources. The only sustainability they were interested in was that of the flow of money into their pockets.
As we all know, this is –unfortunately- a true tale about the takeover of the two conventions by transnational corporations. As a result, instead of protecting biodiversity, the CBD has opened up spaces for corporate control over the Earth’s biological wealth –including genetic manipulation of life forms. Instead of working to prevent climate change, the UNFCCC has helped to create a useless –in terms of climate- but extremely profitable carbon market [also see here] for the benefit of the same corporations that are destroying the climate.
These corporations have been so successful that 16 years after the two conventions were approved, biodiversity continues to disappear in forests, grasslands and wetlands, while climate change continues to increase. Even worse, the two conventions have become useful tools for corporate profits in industries such as biotechnology, agribusiness, hydroenergy, nuclear power and others, while enabling the worse biodiversity and climate criminals –headed by the oil industry- to continue business as usual.
For making the two conventions comply with their original mandate -to conserve biodiversity and to avert climate change- it is therefore necessary to remove the highjackers’ influence from both processes and to build pressure from organized civil society demanding governments to change course.
The story is still unraveling. The two conventions will meet this year: the CBD in May and the UNFCCC in December. A happy ending is still possible, but the outcome will depend on civil society’s capacity to counter corporate influence and to put peoples’ needs on the conventions’ agendas.
Speaking of the Carbon Market, here’s a related email I just got (Also, if anyone knows of any information relevant to these issues, please feel free to share it.)
From: Jihan Gearon
Date: May 2, 2008 12:48:40 PM MST
To: IEN
Subject: Please Forward Widely: Indigenous Peoples Critical of
Position on Carbon Trading of UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, May 2, 2008
Indigenous Peoples Critical of Position on Carbon Trading of
UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues
Contacts: Juan Carlos, Amazon Alliance, 202-285-0153 (Spanish)
Marcial Garcia, Kuna People, ariasmarcial@hotmail.com (Spanish)
Jihan Gearon, Indigenous Environmental Network, 218-760-1370 (English)
New York City, NY – Indigenous Peoples attending the Permanent Forum are outraged that their rejection of the carbon market has been ignored in the final report of the 7th Session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (PFII). The final report of the PFII hails World Bank funded carbon trading, like the Clean Development Mechanism, as “good examples” of partnership despite the human rights violations and environmental destruction they have caused.
“Indigenous Peoples attending the 7th session of the Permanent Forum are profoundly concerned that our key recommendations on climate change are not being taken into account by the Permanent Forum. This Permanent Forum was created precisely to recognize, promote, and support the rights of Indigenous Peoples,” says Florina Lopez, Coordinator of the Indigenous Women’s Biodiversity Network of Abya Yala.
Throughout the two weeks of the Permanent Forum, Indigenous community representatives have consistently testified about the injustices associated with the clean development mechanism projects and have asked that the Permanent Forum not promote the projects. However, in the final report of the Permanent Forum (document E/C. 19/2008/L.2) adopted today, these injustices have been ignored.
In response, many groups under the name of the Indigenous Caucus of Abya Yala took the floor today to express their concerns. Their statement affirmed that the recommendations of the Permanent Forum do not properly reflect their positions. They used the opportunity to affirm their rejection of carbon trading mechanisms and concerns over specific implementations. Over 30 organizations at the forum called for the final report to include a section outlining their concerns.
In the background paper for this session (Document E/C.19/2008/10), three projects are being upheld to illustrate the “clean development mechanism projects that are being implemented in indigenous peoples territories with good results.” However, there are grave problems with each of these projects including violations of the rights enshrined in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. For example, the Jeripachi wind power project in Colombia did not get the free, prior, and informed consent of the Wayuu people to build this wind farm in a sacred territory of the Wayuu People. Indigenous Peoples’ organizations contend the assassination of over 200 Wayuu People prior to the implementation of the project was to clear the area for this and other projects. Additionally, most of the energy generated from the wind farm is used to power the Cerrajon mine, the biggest open air coal mine in the world, which itself is known for numerous human rights violations and environmental damages. Representatives of the Wayuu people who attended the Permanent Forum didn’t even know the project was being promoted as a good example.
“In promoting the clean development mechanism projects and carbon trading, the Permanent Forum is allowing oil companies who are the biggest emitters for greenhouse gases, to continue to pollute,” says Tom Goldtooth, Executive Director of the Indigenous Environmental Network. “Promoting the commodification of the air is a corruption of our traditional teachings and violates the original instructions of Indigenous Peoples.
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Jihan Gearon
Indigenous Environmental Network
Native Energy and Climate Campaign
P.O. Box 2696
Flagstaff, AZ 86003
928.214.8301
https://www.ienearth.org>
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