World Bank

ADB energy policy proposal 'misled' govts, stakeholders

Kailash — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 09:06:42 +0000

MANILA, Philippines – The Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB) was criticized for “deliberately misleading” stakeholders and governments of its member-countries regarding its energy policy.

The bank’s energy policy draft — which governments and stakeholders had earlier commented on — “was later submitted to the ADB board for approval as a binding policy document that had already undergone public scrutiny,” NGO Forum on the ADB claimed in a statement.

As a result of this perceived irregularity, the process was a “sham of a review of the ADB’s energy policy,” said the

33 Guatemalan Municipalities Give Thumbs Down to Mining

Kailash — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 09:22:47 +0000

GUATEMALA CITY – The 500,000 residents of 33 municipalities in western Guatemala expressed their opposition on Tuesday to the possible granting of mining licenses in their communities. The position of the area’s overwhelmingly Indian population was conveyed by the Council of the Peoples of the West, which includes communities in the provinces of Quetzaltenango, San Marcos, Totonicapan, Solola, Quiche and Huehuetenango.

In the community referendums conducted, residents said “No” overwhelmingly to mining projects, council members Milton Santos and Mario Lopez said in a press conference.

World Bank excludes indigenous peoples from climate change discussions

johnacuna — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 02:42:48 +0100

Amazonian civil society organizations demand that the World Bank adhere to international standards by increasing the participation of indigenous peoples in meetings on forests and climate change.
Indigenous leaders have petitioned the World Bank to “stop excluding them from climate change discussions” according to a press release issued by Amazon Alliance, an international network of indigenous organizations and NGOs that aim to safeguard the environment of the Amazon.
The discontent from indigenous leaders comes as the World Bank hosted its “Global Forest Leaders Forum on Forests and Climat

Pay indigenous people to protect rainforests, conservation groups urge

johnacuna — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 03:34:59 +0100

Rich countries should try to cut the greenhouse gas emissions caused by deforestation by first investing in the people who live and use forests, rather than relying on the financial carbon markets to encourage conservation, leading development experts have proposed.

If not, they risk unleashing a wave of land grabs, corruption, cultural destruction and civil conflict, said the Washington-based Rights and Resources Initiative, a coalition of of UN- and government-funded research organisations including the World Conservation Union and the Center for International Forestry Research (Cifor).

How the World Bank Let 'Deal Making' Torch the Rainforests

rafael — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 11:49:07 +0100

By Lisa Friedman of ClimateWire

The World Bank ignored its own environmental and social protection standards when it approved nearly $200 million in loan guarantees for palm oil production in Indonesia, a stinging internal audit has found.

The report, detailing five years of funding from the International Finance Corp.

Indigenous groups key in climate change debate: Zoellick

whit — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 21:32:49 +0000

WASHINGTON (AFP) –World Bank chief Robert Zoellick said Wednesday it was critical for indigenous people tobe included in climate change talks, saying they were among groups most affected by global warming.

Two weeks before the opening of a major United Nations conference on climate change in Copenhagen, Zoellick said indigenous peoples carried a “disproportionate share of the burden of climate change effects.”

He spoke at a Washington round table that brought together native and tribal group representatives from around the world as well as non-governmental organizations, the private se

Action, not words needed on Equator Principles BankTrack calls upon Citi, new chair of Equator Principles to take bold steps

Kailash — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 09:31:11 +0100

Nijmegen, Netherlands – BankTrack, the international NGO network monitoring commercial bank operations, today welcomes the take over by Citi of the chair of the steering committee of the Equator Principles. We congratulate Mr. Shawn Miller for taking up this prestigious role on behalf of Citi.

Statement to the Third session of the UN Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

Kailash — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 12:55:17 +0100

By Cathal Doyle on behalf of Indigenous Peoples Links (PIPLinks); the Forest Peoples Programme (FPP); the Asian Indigenous Peoples Pact (AIPP); the Foundation for Aboriginal and Islander Research Action (FAIRA); Russian Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North (RAIPON); Organizacions de Naciones y Pueblos Indigenas en Argentina (ONPIA) and Middlesex University Department of Law.

This intervention will focus on the implementation of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, specifically on the responsibilities of specialized agencies of the UN under Articles 41 and 42 of

The Indian Law Resource Center responds to the proposed International Finance Corporation policy that affects Indigenous peoples

Kailash — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 08:58:09 +0100

The Indian Law Resource Center has made public its “Comments and Recommendations on the IFC’s proposed Policy on Social and Environmental Sustainability and Performance Standards” (http://ilrc.xinsys.net/sites/default/files/2010-07-29%20Center%27s%20IFC...). This paper is in response to the IFC review process of its Sustainability Framework, including the Policy on Social and Environmental Sustainability, Performance Standards, and the Policy of Disclosure of Information.

The IFC is the private sector lending arm of the World Bank.

IFC must demonstrate its commitment to respect human rights

whit — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 21:40:38 +0000

In December 2010, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) published the final proposed draft of its revised Sustainability Framework, which is intended to manage social and environmental risks associated with IFC activities. The undersigned civil society organisations are writing to express our deep concern that the current draft does not include adequate safeguards to ensure that the human rights of people and communities affected by IFC’s activities are respected and protected.