Economic growth, obesity, and the creed of greed

Who’s right? Gordon Gekko (greed is good) or Tim Jackson (prosperity without growth)? It should be a simple question, but the answer is not so clear

by Garry Egger | Feb 27 2012 by The Daly News in Energy Bulletin | Feb 27 2012

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Canadian natives warn against pipeline to Pacific

Aboriginal leaders opposed to a C$5.5 billion ($5.4 billion) oil sands pipeline backed by Canada's government warned on Tuesday that the project could devastate fishing and traditional life on the rugged Pacific Coast and called for it to be stopped

By Jeffrey Jones | Reuters | Jan 10, 2012

Hereditary Chief of the Haisla First Nation, Sam Robinson (L), testifies next to Henry Amos, a band councillor, before the Enbridge's Inc's Northern Gateway pipeline Joint Review hearing in Kitamaat Village, British Columbia, January 10, 2012. Aboriginal leaders opposed to a C$5.5 billion ($5.4 billion) oil sands pipeline backed by Canada's government warned on Tuesday that the project could devastate fishing and traditional life on the rugged Pacific Coast and called for it to be stopped. Credit: Reuters/Robin Rowland

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Nigeria's oil disasters are met by silence

The global media have had little to say on Nigeria's latest oil spill and the hundreds of others that have destroyed so many lives

Michael Keating | guardian.co.uk | 9 January 2012

A man covers his hands in crude oil during a Nigerian protest against Shell after last month's spill. Photograph: George Esiri/EPA

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The Future of Indonesian Palm Oil

If there were any doubts about the fierceness of the debate over Indonesia's palm oil controversy, they were silenced effectively outside the Jakarta's House of Parliament on December 21. Ten protestors joined 18 of their fellow migrants and activists from Riau province in the ultimate act of protest against a government concession to a pulp and paper company near their land on Padang Island. They sewed their mouths shut

Joseph Kirschke | Wordpress.org | December 29, 2011

On Nov. 19, 2008, an orangutan with a tranquilizer dart in his side is made to sleep before rangers relocate him to another place on Borneo island, away from this palm oil plantation. (Photo: AFP, Getty Images)

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Indonesia’s Bima clash needs to be investigated independently

While an investigation into bloody clashes between security forces and local people that claimed the lives of nine people in Mesuji, Lampung province, was still in progress, another incident involving police and residents happened in Bima district, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB), on Saturday, leaving to two locals dead

By Andi Abdussalam | ANTARA | December 26 2011

Situation after incident involving police and residents happened in Bima district, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB), Saturday (Dec. 24). (ANTARA/Rinby)

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Niger Delta: a quiet resistance

Sokari Ekine meets women’s movements in the Niger Delta and discovers that in this militarised country even small acts take courage

Sokari Ekine | Red Pepper | December 2011

Women stand next to an oil wellhead that since 2004 has been regularly spilling crude oil near the community of Ikot Ada Udo in the Niger Delta. Photo: Kadir van Lohuizen/Science for Human Rights

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Vaclav Havel's Lasting Words

Vaclav Havel, who died on December 18, was the last president of Czechoslovakia and the first president of the Czech Republic. He was also a renowned writer and humanist who became a staunch advocate for the Euro-Atlantic alliance and a leading global voice for human rights. Following are a few of his seminal writings and speeches

Robert McMahon | Council on Foreign Relations | December 18, 2011

Soldiers stand guard next to a tribute to late former Czech President Vaclav Havel at Prague Castle in Prague. (David W Cerny/Courtesy Reuters)

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Timber plantations are not forests

Environmentalists have always clearly defined commercial plantations and forests. The latter being natural and the former destroying indigenous biodiversity and natural resources with the aim to maximise profits. The social consequences of timber plantations have also displaced communities

by Michelle Simon | Earth Times | 05 Dec 2011

Timber plantation via Shutterstock

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The second wind of the worldwide social justice movement

During the protests in Tahrir Square in November 2011, Mohamed Ali, age 20, responded to a journalist's query as to why he was there: "We want social justice. Nothing more. That's the least that we deserve"

by Immanuel Wallerstein | Dec 5 2011 by Fernand Braudel Center, Binghamton University in Energy Bulletin | Dec 5, 2001

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Durban climate summit: ALBA to fight for humanity

Representatives from the Latin American and Caribbean governments that make up the Bolivarian Alliance of the Peoples of Our Americas (ALBA) met in Bolivia on November 17-18 to coordinate their battle plan ahead of the international climate change summit in Durban later this month

By Federico Fuentes | Green Left Weekly | November 28, 2011

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Ideals that don’t make money

Environmental activists have done a lot for rural communities, but some are feeling the pinch

Laurens Bakker | Inside Indonesia | 29 October 2011

An abandoned village bauxite mine now run by a large mining company - Laurens Bakker

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New report calls for “An end to forest offsets!”

A new manual by six Europe-based NGOs calls for an end to forest offsets. The report argues that there are two motivations for forest offsets: “reducing the pressure to do something about fossil fuel emissions and the short term profit motive”

By Chris Lang | REDD-Monitor | 21st October 2011

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10 ways to support the Occupy movement

The #OccupyWallStreet movement continues to spread with more than 1,500 sites. More and more people are speaking up for a society that works for the 99 percent, not just the 1 percent

B Sarah van Gelder | Oct 16 2011 by YES! Magazine in Energy Bulleting | Oct 16 2011

In Westlake Park, Seattle, shortly before police removed the tent and arrested occupiers. Sign reads: 250,000 Homeless Vets Is Unacceptable.: Photo by Sarah van Gelder.

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BDS campaign declares: 'Occupy Wall Street not Palestine!'

We are part of the world’s 99% yearning for freedom, justice and equal rights!

Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal | October 13 , 2011

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Indigenous Peoples excluded from French-Norwegian partnership on forests

On 11 March 2010, an international conference took place in Paris, hosted by French President Nicolas Sarkozy: the International Conference on the Major Forest Basins. While 64 nations took part in the conference, Indigenous Peoples were not invited. A press release from the Forest Peoples Programme denounces the lack of transparency and participation in the discussions

By Chris Lang | REDD-Monitor | 19th March 2010

The Paris conference was widely hailed as a success, with a furtherUS$1 billion committed. The Paris meeting is to be followed by a meeting in Oslo in May. “The REDD+ Partnership process must build real momentum for countries to move ahead with REDD+,” WWF Forest Carbon Initiative Leader Chris Elliott said in a statement. “It is important this remains an open and inclusive process.” Elliott seems oblivious to the fact that the process is not even remotely “open and inclusive”.

The risks posed by REDD for Indigenous Peoples are huge. Gabon’s environment minister, Martin Mabala, inadvertently revealed the risks the day before the Paris meeting. Associated Press reported him as saying that the world and indigenous populations need to view the forest differently. “Forests are a planetary asset and no longer the concern of individual countries,” Mabala said. “This is the business of all humanity.” In this view, the rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities are rendered invisible by the world’s need for forests as stores of carbon.

According to Associated Press:

The 64 nations agreed to create a core structure of some 10 countries to work on the mechanics of equitably distributing funds and other issues. The idea is to arrive at the U.N. climate talks in Cancun, Mexico, in December with a concrete plan devoted specifically to the critical issue of deforestation.

Norway’s Environment Minister, Erik Solheim, explained the idea of the French-Norwegian partnership on forests to Reuters: “The idea is to establish a partnership of everyone who wants to be included” in safeguarding forests. “It will be open to everyone, even if you don’t contribute one single dollar, even if you don’t have a single tree,” he said.

Indigenous Peoples groups are demanding to be involved in this process. But the principle of free, prior and informed consent has already been stifled behind the closed doors of the Paris conference.

PRESS RELEASE – March 19, 2010

INDIGENOUS PEOPLES DENOUNCE LACK OF TRANSPARENCY AND PARTICIPATION IN FRENCH-NORWEGIAN PARTNERSHIP ON FORESTS AND CLIMATE DISCUSSIONS.

INDIGENOUS peoples were excluded when forest countries and donor governments met in Paris on March 11, 2010 to discuss a major forests and climate initiative. The parties met under an invitation from the French and Norwegian governments to start developing governance structures for the 3.5 billion USD Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) readiness funds announced in Copenhagen at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) COP15 last December. The UNFCCC negotiations are still far from delivering final commitments in full respect of indigenous peoples’rights.

“Failure to include indigenous peoples from the very inception of the French-Norwegian initiative is unacceptable. The lock-out from the Paris meeting is further evidence of the urgency to ensure full and effective participation of indigenous peoples at all levels of negotiations and discussions on issues related to their land, resources and territories and to their rights as recognized by international legal agreements and instruments such as the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP)” said Mina Setra, an indigenous representative from The Alliance of Archipelagic Indigenous People (AMAN), Indonesia.

“Lack of proper engagement and consultation with indigenous peoples is not only confined to international processes but is also a common feature of key REDD processes at the national level. We therefore urge governments to ensure that any architecture under discussion to administer REDD readiness funds be rights-based, accountable, transparent and participatory” said Pacifique Mukumba Isumbisho from CAMV (Support Center for Indigenous Pygmies and Vulnerable Minorities), Democratic Republic of Congo.

Forest Peoples Programme (FPP) continues to work with the broader indigenous peoples coalitions to ensure that any decision on interim REDD financing will be anchored to the recognition of Indigenous Peoples’ rights, such as the right to access to information, consultation and participation, the right to Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) and the right to their land and forests.

FPP calls on the Norwegian government to ensure that indigenous peoples are fully involved and consulted in the process leading up to the meeting to be held in Oslo in May when heads of government and heads of state are expected to approve the REDD partnership proposal.

For further information please contact:

Francesco Martone francesco@forestpeoples.org
Senior Policy Advisor
Forest Peoples Programme

REDD-Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License

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ENVIRONMENT-INDIA: Law on Forest Rights Fails to Deliver

A four-year-old landmark law that was supposed to bring profound changes in the lives of India’s tribal and forest-dwelling peoples has failed to deliver on that promise

By Manipadma Jena | Inter-Press Service | Mar 13 , 2010

The Dongria Kondh community depends entirely on its forests for livelihood. Credit:Manipadma Jena/IPS

According to activists and government officials alike, the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act – better known as the Forest Rights Act (FRA) of 2006 – has remained nothing more than ink on paper as general confusion, corruption, and an intransigent forest department complicate the already feeble efforts to implement it.

"Despite being a complicated law, no substantial step is even now underway to increase ground-level awareness among revenue and forest department personnel and village-level committees (the base level nodal agency to process the land claims)," says Tanushree Das of the Bhubaneswar-based non-government organisation Vasundhara. "Every level is still floundering."

"The government’s handling of community or village forest land claims is a complete failure," adds Sheikh Sahajahan Bari, who works for the non- government organisation Pragati in tribal-dominated Koraput district.

"The rules governing FRA were notified more than two years back, in January 2008. (Yet) the concerned officials themselves still remain unclear on them," said Bari, who took part in a March gathering here of some 600 grassroots women leaders and activists from Orissa’s 30 districts to discuss forest land and rights issues.

Millions of India’s traditional forest dwellers are thus in the same spot that they have been since colonial times: bereft of any rights on the forest land that they have lived off for generations.

This is the situation that forest rights act is supposed to change. For one, it allows claims to individual family titles to already occupied or cultivated forest land that are currently considered ‘encroachments’.

For another, the law allows access to, as well as the use and selling of, forest produce that has been traditionally collected. This includes particular leaves that are used as leaf-plates, palm-tree juices, medicinal plants, and fruits.

The forest rights law also gives a community -- usually one village unit -- the right to manage and protect forests it has customarily managed, even though these are government property.

Tribal communities constitute over eight percent of the country’s more than one billion people. Some eight million of India’s tribal people can be found here in the forest-rich eastern state Orissa, which has the third largest tribal population in the country, following Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand.

But even Ashok Kumar Tripathy, principal secretary of Orissa’s Scheduled Tribe and Scheduled Caste Development Department -- the highest state- level FRA nodal agency -- recently observed in an internal circular that although there have been "repeated clarifications on ensuring the recognition of Community Forest Rights" under the law, "very little progress has been made in different districts so far (in the state)".

Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes, also known as ‘dalits’ and ‘adivasis’, are granted special reservation quotas by the Indian Constitution in educational institutions and government jobs, in order to uplift their socio- economic status.

For sure, some stipulations in the law make its implementation difficult.

One provision, for example, says that a tribal claimant should have used the land prior to the 1980s while a non-tribal claimant should have chalked up at least 75 years. In most cases, however, the latter is impossible to prove as members of deprived communities – like those covered by the law – usually do not live beyond 50 years.

Biswar Kumar Nayak, special secretary in Orissa’s Scheduled Tribe and Scheduled Caste department, concedes that one of the reasons why more than two-thirds of the 300,000 ownership applications received as of Mar. 1 were rejected was because the claimants could not prove that they had been using the forest land for 75 years.

Nayak says, however, that while contentious issues remain, the pace of the implementation of the forest rights act is "fair".

As it is, some remote areas remain unsurveyed while in others, land demarcation is untraceable. In one area, Maoist rebels burnt down an administrative building with all land records. Clashes between neighbouring villages over contested boundaries and mature plantations are other reasons delaying land transfer.

Activists themselves say that, too often, mailed applications are simply not reaching their destination.

But they also note that past and present forest officials are among the most serious hindrances to the full implementation of the law. According to the activists, this may be because the forest rights law gives people a significant amount of the power once wielded exclusively by the department over forests.

States across India have seen legal petitions filed by retired forest officers seeking a stay in the implementation of the law. In Orissa, one such petition – which argued that communities would destroy forests and wildlife if granted ownership – was quashed just last year.

Bari also echoes other activists in saying that forest officials often do not extend any help to those wanting to exercise their rights over forest land as stipulated in the law.

For instance, Bari says, a community wanting to lay claim on forest produce must first provide details such as the curative qualities of the medicinal plants that they are harvesting, the demarcation of grazing grounds, and the names and quantity of the products they will be getting from forest flora. They must also provide a hand map demarcating the claim area.

Yet, says Bari, "after completing this tortuous process, a forest official who is a mandatory member of the joint verification team often does not turn up".

Corruption has muddled the process as well. According to Sebati Behera, who works in 35 villages the community organisation Adima Adibasi Ekta Manch (Forum for Primitive Tribe Unity) in Boudh district, low-level government personnel who visit villages to measure land usually ask 5,000 rupees (110 dollars) in exchange for processing a claim.

Some three months back, recalls Behera, she came across a group representing nine tribal families as it was paying state personnel some 22,000 rupees (500 dollars) in grease money. She says she snatched the money and returned it to the families.

Forest dweller Bidulata Danayak, a mother of four, says she has been asked for a bribe. She says that village committee members demanded 5,000 rupees to vouch for her claim on 1.62 hectares of forest land that she farms. (END)

Copyright © 2010 IPS-Inter Press Service. All rights reserved

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Dealing with climate change demands a more gendered approach

Equal Rights, Equal Opportunities: Progress for all -- with this very theme, the women of the world will be observing International Women's Day 2010

Rezina Sultana | The Financial Express | March 7 2010

The major concern of the present world is climate change and environmental degradation. In fact, involving women inprotecting the environmentwould help societies develop the sense of responsibility needed to maintain a good balance between humans and the earth's resources.

Environmental degradation, however, is a result of the dynamic interplay of socio-economic, institutional and technological activities. Environmental changes may be driven by many factors including economic growth, population growth, urbanization, intensification of agriculture, rising energy use and transportation. Poverty still remains a problem at the root of several environmental problems.

Idiatou Camara, Guinea's National Environment Director, one of four environmental protection experts exchanging views with the Commission on the theme of the gender perspective in environmental management and disaster mitigation, said: "Women need to participate at the national level and get their countries to empower women in regions unable to afford protection activities. They must encourage democratization and discourage the economic oppression that led to massive population movements degrading the environment. They must mobilize to reverse the poverty which excluded the poor from protecting the environment because limited knowledge and technical ability prevented them from addressing problems."

Marie Yolene Surena, Director, Civil Protection, Ministry of Interior of Haiti, said, "Investing in women for roles in environmental risk management was not only beneficial, but profitable. Managing environmental risk was part of the development process, while managing disasters now is a drain on development funds. The priorities must be to develop human resources, change laws, address food security and slow population increases."

Women's role after Haiti disaster: When Haitian commercial banks remained closed after the terrible effect of the earthquake, Fonkoze, the Haitian branch of the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh, mobilized over one weekend to get funds to its members in rural towns as well as Port-au-Prince. Between 2 a.m. and 2 p.m., on January 23, 2010 Fonkoze brought in 2.0 million dollars in cash from their US bank and distributed it by helicopters to regional offices in the most remote parts of the country.

Fonkoze has been operating in Haiti for 15 years. Ninety-nine per cent of its members are women. In addition to micro-lending programmes, Fonkoze sponsors major literacy, health care and micro-insurance programmes. Its remittances and savings accounts serve more than 200,000 people, making it a significant part of the country's financial system.

It isn't the first time that a micro-lending network of mostly women has taken a lead role in helping rebuild a country's economy after a natural disaster. In Poland, after a devastating flood in the mid-1990s, the US-backed Fundusz Mikro became the conduit for credit to small businesses, ultimately funnelling more than US$10 million to rebuild when the central government proved inept and also tone-deaf to the challenge.

Salving Briceno, Director, United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, said economic losses due to natural disasters had increased nearly ten-fold during the past four decades. In some cases, as in Afghanistan now, persistent drought was amplifying man-made emergencies. Numerous elements of a comprehensive and sustained policy for hazard awareness and disaster reduction should be looked at from a gender perspective. Balanced and equal participation of men and women informulating and implementing policies and programmes was essential.

The case of Bangladesh: The problems of women and environmental degradation have recently been addressed by women's groups. NGOs have been the most active, with 600 registered organizations. Among these 40 per cent were international, 38 per cent national, and 22 per cent local. NGOs have promoted the recent inclusion of environmental concerns into development plans.

The data shows about 100 NGOs are engaged in forestry projects. The National Association for Resource Improvement, for example, involves women in tree planting along roadsides and income-generating activities. About 75 per cent of upazilas (sub-districts) have environmental and women's projects, but fewer than 20 per cent of all villages are affected and 1.0 per cent landless people are reached.

In fact, women's groups have created awareness on women's problems and advocated for socio-economic changes. Women, despite cultural and social restrictions imposed on them, have changed environmental and economic conditions. Women's leadership and organizing abilities have contributed to public awareness of environmental degradation. Because Bangladesh is a delta, a rise in sea level from greenhouse effects would have serious consequences for the land and population.

Global warming has contributed to river flooding and climate changes that have increased rainfall and tropical storms. Deforestation upriver adds to the water overflow problems. About 20 per cent of the cultivable land area is affected by natural disasters. Population density is 760 persons per sq km. About 50 per cent of forested areas have been destroyed within the past 20 years. Around 4.0 per cent of gross domestic product comes from forest activity. The lack of wood fuel limits the ability of people to boil water and contributes to the increased incidence of diarrhoea, other intestinal problems, and less nutritious food.

Drought is another problem. Urban migration has overwhelmed the ability of urban centres to provide basic services. Coastal areas have been settled by 20 per cent of total population, but coastal storms regularly impact on people's lives and livelihoods.

The different roles and responsibilities of women and men in water resources use and management are closely linked to environmental change and well-being. This is true both for how women and men affect the environmentthrough their economic and household activities and how the resulting environmental changes affect people's well-being. Understanding these gender differences is an essential part of developing policies aimed at both better environmental outcomes and improved health and well-being.

Women play a critical role in the field of environment, especially in the management of plants and animals in forests, arid areas and wetlands. Ruralwomen in particular maintain an intimate interaction with natural resources, the collection and production of food products.

As their knowledge is transmitted through generations, girls and women often acquire a thorough understanding of their environment, and more specifically of its biodiversity. Their experience gives them valuable skills required for the management of the environment. Women have an important role to play in preserving the environment and in managing natural resources to achieve ecologically sustainable production (UNEP, 2004).

Despite women's assumed special relations to nature it should be stressed that all people depend on the environment and all should share the responsibility for sustainable use of water and other natural resources.

The impacts of the degradation of the environment on people's everyday lives are not the same for men and women. When the environment is degraded, women's day-to-day activities, such as fuel and water collection, require more time, leaving less time for productive activities. When water becomes scarce, women and children in rural areas must walk longer distances to find water, and in urban areas are required to wait in line for long hours at communal water points.

Despite their efforts, women living in arid areas tend to be categorized among the poorest of the poor, and have absolutely no means to influence real change. They are often excluded from participating in land development and conservation projects, agricultural extension activities, and policies directly affecting their subsistence. Men make most decisions related to cattle and livestock, and even in households headed by women, men still intervene in the decision-making process through members of the extended family. However, because of the important contribution of women, the fight against the degradation of arid areas requires a gender-inclusive approach.

In conclusion, we may say that women's status in conserving biodiversity may be enhanced through the following types of actions to integrate gender concerns into environmental planning:

• Improve data collection on women's and men's resource use, knowledge of, access to and control over resources. Collecting sex-disaggregated information is a first step towards developing gender-responsive policies and programmes.
• Train staff and management on the relevance of gender issues to water resources and environmental outcomes.
• Establish procedures for incorporating a gender perspective in planning, monitoring, and evaluating environmental projects.
• Ensure opportunities for women to participate in decisions about environmental policies and programmes at all levels, including as designers, planners, implementers, and evaluators.
• Foster commitment at all levels -- local, national, and international -- to integrate gender concerns into policies and programmes which will lead to more equitable and sustainable development.
• Incorporate a gender perspective into national environmental policies, through a gender policy declaration that demonstrates the government's commitment.

So, it is evident that the gender perspective should feature strongly in all our development efforts, especially in dealing with the adverse affects of climate change and environmental degradation, where women have equal stakes as men, if not more.

The writer works as a general training manager in Bangla CAT and teaches part time at Dhaka University

© The Financial Express 2009

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UN report condemns Botswana’s treatment of Bushmen

Report demands ‘urgent’ action by government over water

Survival International | 3 March, 2010

UN Special Rapporteur Prof. James Anaya has called for 'urgent' action on water for the Bushmen  © Colegio de Antropólogos de Chile

The UN’s top official on indigenous rights has condemned Botswana’s continued persecution of the Bushmen in a new report.

Prof. James Anaya, UN Special Rapporteur for indigenous peoples, highlights the government’s harassment of the Bushmen and Bakgalagadi tribes in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, who, despite winning a 2006 High Court ruling that their eviction from the reserve was unlawful, continue to face ill-treatment.

In the report Prof Anaya writes that the ‘denial of services to those currently living in the reserve does not appear to be in keeping with the spirit and underlying logic of the [2006 High Court] decision, nor with the relevant international human rights standards.’

He states that, ‘Indigenous people who have remained or returned to the reserve face harsh and dangerous conditions due to a lack ofaccess to water, a situation that could be easily remedied by reactivating the boreholes in the reserve. The Government should reactive the boreholes or otherwise secure access to water for inhabitants of the reserve as a matter of urgent priority.’

He also notes that, ‘the Government’s position that habitation of the reserve by the Basarwa [Bushmen] and Bakgalagadi communities is incompatible with the reserve’s conservation objectives and status appears to be inconsistent with its decision to permit Gem Diamonds/Gope Exploration Company (Pty) Ltd. to conduct mining activities within the reserve, an operation that is planned to last several decades and could involve an influx of 500-1200 people to the site, according to the mining company.’

Finally he recommends that the Government should ‘fully and faithfully implement’ the 2006 High Court ruling and facilitate ‘the return of all those removed from the reserve who wish to do so, allowing them to engage in subsistence hunting and gathering in accordance with traditional practices, and providing them the same government services available to Botswanans elsewhere, including, most immediately, access to water’.

Survival’s director Stephen Corry said today, ‘Criticism is now growing of the government’s continued, appalling refusal to allow the Bushmen access to water. It is deeply unpleasant, bullying behaviour, and shocks those who learn about it. Survival now directly reaches more than a million people and we will ensure they know about this. It’s astonishing that the government continues to behave in this way. As long as it does so, the Bushmen issue will remain a cancer at the heart of Botswana’s international reputation.’

© Survival International, 1969–2010

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Can palm oil help Indonesia's poor?

Panorama last week reported on the disturbing destruction of orangutan habitats in Indonesia for palm oil plantations. But are there benefits from these plantations for local people?

By Bill Law | Food Fights, BBC Radio 4 | BBC News | 1 March 2010

Are these palm oil saplings on cleared rainforest a sign of hope or of doom?

Environmentalists have long decried the destruction of Indonesia's rainforests, first for timber and more recently for palm oil.

The logging was a one-time deal that mostly benefitted the country's corrupt elite and foreign corporations.

But does palm oil have the potential to generate new wealth for this nation of 250 million people?

There is one key fact that is often overlooked in the debate.

Rural middle class

Of the more than 7 million hectares (17.2 million acres) in palm oil cultivation, nearly half is in the hands of smallholders, ordinary folk trying to better themselves and look after their families.

In pictures: Palm oil's impact

"We are seeing the emergence of a rural middle class," says John McCarthy of the Australian National University.

He is an economist and expert on the Indonesian palm oil industry.

"I was doing research in a town in Sumatra and I went to a local school and nine of the 13 teachers had oil palm plantations," he said.

Intrigued, Mr McCarthy carried out a survey in several villages in the region. What he found startled him.

Villagers with four hectares (10 acres) or more were earning on average $12,000 (£7,775) a year. A second group with 2 hectares were earning much less -$2,000 (£1,300) a year - but were still enough to provide financial security for themselves and their families.

Villagers without palm oil all fell below the poverty line.

The growth of this new middle class has profound implications for both prosperity and the prospects of furthering democracy in Indonesia.

Fairer

There are huge abuses. Plantations continue to be opened up that flout the laws. Corruption flourishes. Local communities are being marginalised, habitats terribly degraded. So what is the way forward?

In the often polarised debate about palm oil, it is rare to find converging views between activists and owners.

Sawit Watch is an Indonesian NGO that has campaigned for several years on the palm oil front.

Achmad Surambo is the executive director of Sawit Watch.

When I meet him he is happy to make one point clear to me: palm oil in itself is not a bad thing for Indonesia. But the system needs to change.

Laws have to be enforced, people and the environment need to be protected, the land rights of local communities must be respected.

"We have to make the system more fair, accommodate the interests of farmers, communities and labourers," he says.

"The system right now is tilted toward the big companies and that has to change."

Increase productivity

Lyman Agro is a small plantation company managing 60,000 hectares in West Kalimantan (Borneo).

Steaven Halim of Lyman Agro points to the roads, schools and health clinics that have been built as proof of the company's commitment to its social responsibility.

Steaven Halim is sure that productivity can be increased instead of acreage

"We have also helped (smallholders) build up cooperatives so they can handle their own business," he says.

The government and the industry until recently talked about doubling the land area in production.

Sensitive to negative press about deforestation, they are now talking instead about doubling the output in 10 years from 20 million to 40 million tonnes to help meet world demand.

When I ask Mr Halim whether this can be achieved with existing plantations he nods vigorously.

"Yes, indeed. Indeed it can," he says.

The key for him is increasing productivity for smallholders.

"If we can get them to 35 tonnes a hectare per year [it now is about 20 tonnes] we can do it."

That is not far off what Sawit Watch wants. It has called for a moratorium on expansion, as well as more support and better treatment of farmers and labourers.

Steaven Halim acknowledges there are "some bad guys, no doubt" in the industry, but that the time is now to talk.

"Let's sit down together and try to find the way out. People have to be fed."

---

Bill Law presents Food Fights on BBC Radio 4 on Monday 1 March at 2000. You can also get it on the iPlayer .

© MMX

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INDIA: Indigenous Groups Step Up Protests Over Mining Project

When 5,000 indigenous Dongria Kondhs trekked Sunday to Niyam Dongar hill, the abode of their presiding deity Niyam Raja, and designated it as inviolate, it meant they were stepping up their resistance to a controversial alumina refinery and bauxite mine project here

By Manipadma Jena | Inter-Press Service | Feb 23, 2010

 

 

 

 

 

 

Six out of 10 people in Kalahandi in India's Orissa state live on less the one dollar a day. Credit:Manipadma Jena/IPS

They carried out religious rituals to Niyam Raja - the sacred dispenser of law, and then put up a totem pole in the area located in Niyamgiri hills in their homeland Lanjigarh, a bauxite-rich hilly area in Kalahandi of Orissa state in eastern India.

This was the latest act of defiance here against the backdrop of unrest since 1997 among communities, environmental and rights activists over the 2.13 billon U.S. dollar mining project by Vedanta Aluminium Ltd, the Indian arm of London-based Vedanta Resources Plc.

The alumina refinery, capable of producing one million tonnes of alumina from bauxite per annum, has been operating for over a year now at the foothills of Niyamgiri. Alumina is used in the production of aluminium metal.

Since 2007, Vedanta has been seeking clearance for a six-fold expansion of its refinery and 721-hectare bauxite mining project. The bauxite project however has been stalled by a forest law.

The mining operations would affect some 8,000 Dongria, Kutia and Jharania Kondh in 112 tribal and dalit villages in Kalahandi and adjacent Rayagada district, two of the most underdeveloped areas in Orissa.

For the forest-dwelling locals, Vedanta’s mining project would result in the demolition of the Dongria’s centuries-old sacred grove on Niyamgiri, threatening their ancient way of life, right to water, food, livelihood and cultural identity.

"These villages never had basic amenities like medical facilities, drinking water and properly functioning schools. The mining project will now take away even the sources of livelihood from them," explained Dadhi Pusika, leader of Niyamgiri Surakhya Samity (Nayamgiri Protection Committee) that was formed by members of affected villages.

"Life is so hard. Old women and children are dying. They are living like dogs," said 45-year-old Ladha Sikaka of Lakpaddar village, referring to the impact of the alumna refinery.

Six people from Rengopalli and villages near the refinery and its huge red mud pond – a receptacle of wastewater that is a mix of highly toxic alkaline chemicals and heavy metals - have died over the past year from undiagnosed respiratory ailments.

The Orissa State Pollution Control Board has issued several warnings to Vedanta since its refinery trial started in 2006, calling its attention to the shoddy protective lining of the red mud pond that leeches wastewater into Vamsadhara river flowing next to it. Villagers use that water for drinking.

Skin rashes and sores are common among residents. Some 40,000 truckloads of bauxite are transported to the refinery from outside Orissa per year, creating colossal air pollution from dirt roads, says Bhubaneswar-based environmentalist Biswajit Mohanty.

"If the mountain remains, our children remain, rains come, winter comes, the wind blows – the mountain will bring all the water, crops will grow. If they take away the rocks, water will dry, we will die," said Ladha. "The mountain is our soul, we will lose our soul."

"We cannot allow mining even if we are beheaded," he added.

The Dongria’s Sunday protest comes on the heels of Amnesty International’s recent report on the Vedanta project, called ‘Don’t Mine Us Out of Existence’. The report alleges that 12 pollution-affected villages have never received direct information on the refinery.

Green activists say the gravest concern pertains to water. Hilltop mining will dry up perennial water sources, while possible poor management of refinery wastewater could degrade surface water and pollute groundwater too. There is also concern about the huge quantities of water that the expanded refinery will consume daily.

An expansion of the current Vedanta project would mean its bauxite requirement would jump from three to 18 million tonnes per annum, resulting in not just one but possibly several open-cast mines on Niyamgiri.

But Vedanta clarifies that its mineralisation area of three million tonne per annum is mere 3.5 percent of 250 square-kilometre hill range, and that its 30-metre deep excavations would not disturb the water table 78 metres below ground level.

Three rivers, Vamsadhara, Sakota and Nagavalli, flow four, 7.5 and 13 km respectively from the mine’s buffer zone, as do perennial streams. The larger rivers provide drinking water and irrigation to hundreds of thousands in Kalahandi, Rayagada and the neighbouring state of Andhra Pradesh. Watchdog groups point out that excavation will destroy the hills’ water recharging capacity because the porousness of the bauxite layer increases water retention. This will eventually kill the rivers, make the habitat drier and affect agriculture, wild vegetation and pasture, they add.

Pavan Kaushik, head of corporate communications for Vedanta group, countered this in earlier letter to journalists. "Bauxite extraction… removes a hard rocky layer called laterite which will allow rain water to percolate deep… increasing afforestation post-mining."

Flash floods, which are common here, will be aggravated by hilltop deforestation. A flash flood in Vamsadhara can breach the red mud pond, causing disastrous wastewater spills into the river.

Three-quarters of the targeted hill have thick forests. The 300 species of plants in them include 50 species of medicinal plants and trees, six of which are in the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of threatened species. An elephant reserve, the forests are home to tigers, leopards, barking deer.

A tribal woman from Sindhabahal said, "The forest gives leaves, bamboo, roots, medicinal herbs, fruits, juice from the giant palm trees (to make liquor). These we sell or use for food. Hill slopes, known as ‘dongar’, are our cultivation fields."

Local will have nothing less than the cancellation of Vedanta’s Niyamgiri mining lease.

They want the India Forest Rights Act of 2006, which gives forest-dwelling communities rights to land and other resources, implemented. They have demanded an irrigation dam from perennial hill streams, schools in each and one hospital for every 10 large villages, assured daily wage work under government schemes and support prices for forest products.

"The government is largely satisfied with its (Vedanta) pollution control measures at this time," said a senior official of the Orissa government, Vedanta’s stake-holding partner, who spoke to IPS on condition of anonymity because "Vedanta has become a political issue".

But "Vedanta’s corporate social responsibility however needs to shape up," he underscored.

In an email reply to IPS, Mukesh Kumar, Vedanta’s chief operating officer at Lanjigarh, says that his company believes in sustainable development. "It is providing livelihood to tribal people through vegetable cultivation, pisciculture, poultry and goatery. Nutrition to children, health check-ups and malaria control are other programmes. Direct and indirect employment has been given to 20,000 people while 13 villages now have electricity," he added.

Meantime, the London-listed mining major Vedanta Resources Plc has been seeing international investors sell their stakes in it due to ethical concerns over the Orissa project. Britain's Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust is the latest to leave, after the Church of England, the Norwegian government and Martin Currie Investment Management.

Said woman tribal leader Kulunji Sikhola: "It is our land; we will sit - the Dongria people - and decide directly".

Copyright © 2010 IPS-Inter Press Service. All rights reserved

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