Dams and Water

Putin Petitioned to Kill Plans for Siberian Hydropower Station

whit — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 14:48:23 +0000

MOSCOW, Russia – A petition against the construction of a giant hydroelectric power station in Siberia that critics say would threaten the indigenous population and an entire larch forest ecosystem was handed to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin this week.

Signed by more than 8,000 people, the petition was organized and presented to Putin by WWF-Russia, Greenpeace-Russia, and the Russian Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North as well as other nongovernmental organizations.

The construction project, in the Evenk municipal district, could drive as many as 2,000 Evenki out of

The Dam Industry’s Brave New World

johnacuna — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 17:48:20 +0000

There was a time when we were all expected to follow the law. There was a time when we had to respect clear social and environmental standards if we wanted to build a dam. These days may soon be over if the hydropower industry has its way. A new initiative called the Hydropower Sustainability Assessment Forum puts social and environmental rights and standards at risk.

Over the last 20 years, the World Commission on Dams, the World Bank and various UN bodies issued standards and policies on the development of international infrastructure, mining and forestry projects.

The Anchorage Declaration

Kailash — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 13:40:46 +0100

From 20-24 April, 2009, Indigenous representatives from the Arctic, North America, Asia, Pacific, Latin America, Africa, Caribbean and Russia met in Anchorage, Alaska for the Indigenous Peoples’ Global Summit on Climate Change. We thank the Ahtna and the Dena’ina Athabascan Peoples in whose lands we gathered.

We express our solidarity as Indigenous Peoples living in areas that are the most vulnerable to the impacts and root causes of climate change.

Plundering the Amazon jungle

Kailash — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 10:03:38 +0100

For four decades, Edimar Bentes and his family have survived by farming tiny clearings in the jungle near their dirt-floor shack in the state of Para in the Brazilian Amazon. On this April afternoon, Bentes, 56, squats in the driving rain and dips a glass into what just four years ago was a crystal-clear stream that provided drinking and bathing water. He frowns as the glass fills with brown silt. A thin man with short-cropped dark hair and a tanned, deeply wrinkled forehead, Bentes gazes around his land.

United Nations Special Rapporteur On Indigenous People Arrives In Krasnoyarsk Territory, Russia

whit — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:09:06 +0100

UN special rapporteur on the situation in human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people James Anaya arrived in Russia’s Krasnoyarsk territory on a two-day visit on Sunday. He will visit Evenki settlements and discuss local legislative initiatives in support of indigenous peoples, a source at the territorial administration told Itar-Tass.

Krasnoyarsk authorities are working on a bill, which will protect the habitat and traditional lifestyle of indigenous people.

Support Indigenous Protesters: Stop Government Repression

Kailash — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 20:23:26 +0100

Ecuadorian police have attacked peaceful Shuar Indigenous protesters near the town of Macas in the southern Ecuadorian Amazon, leaving at least one Shuar teacher dead.

Please join Cultural Survival in condemning this state violence and urge Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa to refrain from further violence, investigate the Macas violence, and negotiate directly with Indigenous organizations to address their concerns and uphold their rights.

Indigenous Peoples in the Ecuadorian Amazon launched protests early this week against a new Water Law and the Mining Law.

Chile’s Supreme Court Upholds Indigenous Water Use Rights

whit — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 15:59:23 +0000

Court’s unanimous decision invokes ILO Convention 169 and could have far reaching consequences for Chile’s mining industry

Chile’s Supreme Court last week handed down a landmark ruling on indigenous water rights in a case that pitted Region I Aymara communities against Agua Mineral Chusmiza, a company seeking the rights to bottle and sell freshwater from a source used historically by Aymara indigenous residents.

The court ruled unanimously in favor of granting a water flow of 9 liters per second to Chusmiza and Usmagama communities.

Getting wild where the rivers run

Kailash — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 09:06:00 +0000

A YEAR ago, Wayne Butcher planted 5000 pongamia seedlings on the banks of Queensland’s Claudie River, to grow a biofuel plantation employing hundreds of Aboriginal people in the remote Cape York community of Lockhart River.

Today, the plan to expand to 20,000 trees has withered away.

No entry: Trans-Amazonian highway blockaded in Brazil to protest against Belo Monte dam

Kailash — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 22:03:50 +0100

Nearly 400 activists of the Movement of Dam-Affected People (MAB) blockaded the Trans-Amazonian highway to protest against the construction of Belo Monte dam on Xingu river, which is being promoted by Luis Inacio “Lula” da Silva’s administration.
Indigenous and fisher folk participated in the demonstration.

Ecuador's Oil-Waste Victims Share Solidarity

Kailash — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 22:10:57 +0100

Luis Yanza traveled nearly half way around the world this week only to find that oil companies use the same toxic practices and treat indigenous people in the United States the same as in Ecuador.
For some reason, the Ecuadorean thought he would just see an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Instead he saw a pattern of corporate abuse, pipeline canals dug through marshlands and oil waste pits next to homes like those in the Grand Bois community.
“If oil companies have been successful in globalizing their bad practices all to make a profit …