What really happens when forests are commodified -- by Global Forest Coalition

Turning forests into fuel for the new bio-economy – Voices from around the world, a video repository (for UNFCCC Doha COP-18, reprinted from Global Forest Coalition website)

 

Forests, their biodiversity, and their inhabitants are under attack as never before. In addition to existing problems with respect to the commodification forests, such as illegal logging and the clearing of forests to grow food crops for export, a variety of new policies threaten to escalate this situation dramatically.

Increasing demand for biofuels is already leading to escalating pressure for land to grow crops, including quick-growing tree plantations. In addition, the development of a new industrial strategy in numerous countries — known as the ‘bio-economy’ — will exacerbate this situation dramatically. This approach focuses on replacing fossil fuels with biomass, both as an energy source and to provide the raw materials for a new phase of industrialisation. It could also facilitate the release of genetically engineered trees with dire consequences for forests.

In addition, governments’ ‘green economy’ approach to resolving deforestation and other environmental problems is also exacerbating the commodification of forests, because it is based on the use of uncertain and complex market mechanisms, with a view to drawing private investment in, seemingly without regard for the consequences.

A key policy that impacts on forests is REDD – Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation — which is explicitly premised on increasing the value of standing trees. But as the value goes up, so does competition for those forests, leading to more and more land being grabbed from people living in or dependent upon them. Furthermore, since REDD policies mistakenly equate diverse and ancient forests with quick-growing and other wide barren monoculture plantations, REDD still permits the destruction of forests and their replacement with plantations.

The current corporate-friendly neo-liberal approach aims to find alternatives to fossil fuels and climate change mitigation, without addressing the underlying causes of deforestation and forest degradation, including overconsumption. Companies in the Global North are being guaranteed a suitable policy environment in which they can continue to generate profit, even though this will be at the expense of peoples in the Global South, the very same people who have been custodians and have safeguarded these precious ecosystems for centuries.

The Global Forest Coalition (GFC) has compiled this video repository because collectively, these videos — made by numerous different organisations and communities — tell a powerful story about the way in which the same problems are being encountered and challenged across the continents. The commodification of forests is driving land grabbing, forest loss, the expansion of tree plantations, fraud, corruption, the violation of human rights and more…

From Brazil to Australia, testimonies from different stakeholders show the very real cases of communities impacted by this dynamic. In addition, the videos show how the current approach to climate change is increasing the pressure on forests and forest peoples, and why the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change’s proposed ‘solutions’ to climate change are not real solutions.

The current repository is divided into 3 sections:

1- Exporting commodities: timber and agrofuels
2- Carbon: schemes, scams and cowboys
3- Rights and Resistance

The lament of Bonny Portmore -- sung by Loreena McKennit

O bonny Portmore, you shine where you stand
And the more I think on you the more I think long
If I had you now as I had once before
All the lords in Old England would not purchase Portmore.

O bonny Portmore, I am sorry to see
Such a woeful destruction of your ornament tree
For it stood on your shore for many's the long day
Till the long boats from Antrim came to float it away.

O bonny Portmore, you shine where you stand
And the more I think on you the more I think long
If I had you now as I had once before
All the Lords in Old England would not purchase Portmore.

All the birds in the forest they bitterly weep
Saying, "Where shall we shelter or where shall we sleep?"
For the Oak and the Ash, they are all cutten down
And the walls of bonny Portmore are all down to the ground.

O bonny Portmore, you shine where you stand
And the more I think on you the more I think long
If I had you now as I had once before
All the Lords of Old England would not purchase Portmore.

Un orme se meurt -- par Noëlle de Roo Lemos

D'origine hollandaise, Mme Lemos habite Montréal, et élève des abeilles sur sa feme au nord (où se situent ses articles précédents sur abeilles 1, 2, 3, et à propos d'une rivière sux saumons). En anthropologue, elle a publié des recherches  sur les dernières potières de Saint-Anne, Martinique. Ce video de 1m40s est une élegie pour un orme mourant dans les Laurentides.

Grassy Narrows First Nation Wins Anti-Logging Court Case

(For the history of this case, see our previous post 7 Aug 2011). The Grassy Narrows First Nation (Asubpeeschoseewagong Netum Anishinabek) has just won its court case in Ontario, after 11 years. This is a landmark in the right to FPIC ("free prior and informed consent" in UNDRIP, which Canada has been doing its best to sabotage). The following news is cross-posted from the native network Indian Country Today.

photo: Schledewitz redlineagency.com, via Grassy Narrows First Nation

In a lengthy decision, Ontario Superior Court Justice Mary-Anne Sanderson ruled that the province of Ontario, which had authorized logging on the lands, had overstepped its bounds. Logging and mining rights, she explained, are established by treaty and therefore a federal and not provincial issue. In a triumphant press release, Chief Simon Fobister said that the decision ultimately “will require protecting the way of life of the Anishinaabe who were here before the logging industry came to these lands and will be here after the logging companies have moved on to other forests.”

An article in the Globe and Mail paraphrased the insights of Robert Janes, the lawyer for the Grassy Narrows First Nation, who said Justice Sanderson conceded that “the federal government promised to defend their rights, but hasn’t done so for many years.” Janes also said the ruling would have repercussions for numerous other cases in Canada.

Grassy Narrows activists have been actively and successfully blockading Slant Lake against logging trucks since December 2, 2002; an article from March of this year at Missisauga.com said the blockade is one of the longest-running in Canadian history, and that Amnesty International has taken up the Grassy Narrows cause with the provincial government.

***

See also:
-- video by Jennifer Preston of CFSC explaining her 20-year involvement in UNDRIP and FPIC, what they mean to Quakers and native peoples. This is the best analysis I know. It will soon be posted on the CFSC website with other key documents.

-- web archives of native groups' testimony at the 16th Protecting Mother Earth Gathering (July 2011); and of UN hearings on UNDRIP and FPIC

-- The Mining Mini-grants Program of Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) and Western Mining Action Network (WMAN) to assure that mining projects do not adversely affect human, cultural, and ecological health of native communities in the U.S. and Canada.

Clear cutting our way of life: native testimony from Grassy Narrows -- by Tim Nafziger with Peter Haresnape

CPT delegates at Grassy Narrows

This article originally appeared in Christian Peacemaker Teams' newsletter Signs of the Times (Apr-Jun 2011) along with many other stories of CPT work around the world.

(* = names below have been changed to protect the innocent.)

Grassy Narrows First Nation, Ontario: As a child, Fred* followed the trap line with his family in the winter.  Then the Royal Canadian Mounted Police took him away from his family and placed him in a residential school where staff beat him if he spoke his language.

Over 150,000 First Nations, Métis and Inuit children were placed in church-run residential schools.[6]  The first were established in the 1840s and the last one closed just 15 years ago in 1996.  Recorded mortality rates at these schools reached as high as 69% through a combination of poor nutrition, brutal discipline, disease, abuse and neglect.

Dryden pulp mill used mercury

Eventually, Fred was able to rejoin his family and return to his community’s traditional ways of hunting and fishing.  Then the Dryden Chemical Company dumped 9,000 kilos of mercury into the English River water system.  Consumption of mercury-contaminated fish over a sustained period causes permanent damage to the nervous system.  

Today Fred shows prominent signs of Minamata disease caused by severe mercury poisoning.  His symptoms include slurred speech, shaky hands and an unsteady walk. Many others in the community show symptoms as well, but only 38% receive any compensation.[1]

Jay* was walking home from school on the reserve one day when a driver pulled up and offered him a ride home.  But the car didn’t take him home.  It took him to a foster home.  It wasn’t until his mid-twenties that Jay finally got back home to Grassy Narrows.

Appalling as they are, these stories are neither isolated nor even unusual.  They point to the ongoing strategy of targeting children in a systemic process of destroying indigenous language, culture and identity.  As the residential school system began to decline, child welfare agencies increasingly relied on foster care as a means to this end.  In 1959, 1% of indigenous children were removed from their parents.  By the late 1960s, the rate was 30-40%.[2]  Today, indigenous children are three times more likely to be placed in state care than non-indigenous children.[3]

recent clearcut, from Amnesty report

Charles Wagamese of Grassy Narrows First Nation describes the foster care system as “clear-cutting” their way of life [4]  – undermining their culture through destroying intergenerational relationships just like intensive logging in the forest destroys whole ecosystems. [5]

Understanding the many layers of oppression that colonialism inflicts on communities like Grassy Narrows is a necessary part of standing in solidarity with them.  Learning this history is a first step in working to undo these oppressions.

Notes

[1] J. Rebick, "40 years later people at Grassy Narrows are still suffering mercury poisoning" Canadian Dimension blog 5 Jul 2010.
[2] E. Alston-O’Connor, "The Sixties Scoop", quoting Fournier and Crey, (1997) p. 83.
[3] "The Sixties Scoop: How Canada’s “Best Intentions” Proved Catastrophic", First Nations Drum (Mar 2009).
[4] Youtube video "The scars of mercury". See also en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontario_Minamata_disease
[5] Abitibi and Weyerhauser corporations have been clear-cutting the region's forests. See reports in No One is Illegal, freegrassy.org/; Amnesty International's open letter to Ontario premier (2008) and its report (2009) with photos of native teens blockading logging roads and the Trans-Canada highway.
[6] See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Indian_residential_school_system and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truth_and_reconciliation_commission#Canada

 ***

(For the full story, read Trip reports of Christian Peacemaker Teams Kenora / Asubpeeschoseewagong (2009-2010) on the CPT website. After the 2010 road blockade, the province finally admitted "numerous concerns" and started land-use negotiations. The governments' game is endless delay. The province's negotiations drag on, while the government jails protesters and native elders. Ottawa for years delayed ratification of UNDRIP for "free, prior, and informed consent" with natives before issuing permits for mining etc, and has yet to take concrete action. Despite lip service, colonialist policies continue, with callous disregard for native rights. - Ed.)

Atlantic Friends Gathering May 2011 -- Keith Helmuth

See Windhorse Farm website - more pictures

Over 60 Friends from the Atlantic region of Canada came together for their annual gathering at Windhorse Farm near Bridgewater Nova Scotia. Both the setting and the gathering theme focused our minds and spirits on the ever-present reality of the human-Earth relationship and the health of our social and economic relationship within this larger context.

Windhorse Farm combines a sustainably managed forestry operation with permaculture

gardening and natural building design projects. It is, in addition a Buddhist retreat centre. Our weekend theme was “ sustainability” with particular attention to food.

Geoff Tansey, a Friend from the UK and co-editor and primary author of the award winning book, QIAP's The Future Control of Food, provided a powerful view of what is happening with the world food situation. He outlined three potential futures which are yet to be determined: collapse and human catastrophe; corporate control aiming at the survival of the wealthy and write off of the poor; the development of a science led, community based, agro-ecological food system.

The five-acre garden of Windhorse Farm, which is a good example of what the third outcome looks like, was a five-minute walk from our meeting place, and we had an instructive tour. Likewise, our host provided a walking tour and a seminar on forest ecology and the woodlot management practices of the Farm. Additional seminars on building with material native to the environment and on how to grown shitake mushrooms were on the agenda. With time for small group discernment, worship sharing, and a generous helping of music-making and story-telling.

Tansey's co-author Tasmin Rajotte  in Jan 2011 attended the 13^th Biennial Conference for the International Association for the Study of the Commons (IASC) in Hyderabad, India. See its Commons Digest online. Key themes of the conference were climate change; forests; the impacts of external global forces such as the increasing privatization of land and resources; better recognition of the commons; and new business models for financing work. She held a pre-conference workshop on “Changing perspectives within policy processes” with John Powell of the Countryside and Community Research Institute at the University of Gloucester (UK): dealing with top down policy imposition, violent conflict over forests in Kenya; corrupt deals in Indonesian coastal communities and in the Forest Rights Act of India. 

Brazilian NGOs protest against REDD+

Ministry of External Relations (Itamaraty), Brasilia

Brasilia and Bonn, June 09th 2011
(English translation of the original)
To: Ambassador Luiz Alberto Figueiredo Machado
Minister of External Relations André Corrêa do Lago

Dear Sirs,
We, organizations and social movements that fight for climate justice and are members of the Belem Letter group, have followed the national policies on climate change and the negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto Protocol.       

We were very worried about the outcome of the decisions of Cancún that were not enough to take concrete steps to confront the climate crisis, nor showed an effective way to reduce emissions in countries of origin and the creation of mechanisms to support the populations that are already vulnerable and will be impacted by climate change.

We reiterate our demand for the Brazilian government to reject the use of REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation) as a carbon market mechanism and that it would not be accepted as an offsetting to emissions from the North, under any conditionality.

We reaffirm our rejection of market mechanisms as instruments to reduce carbon emissions, based on the firm conviction that the market is not the space capable of taking responsibility for life on the planet. The latest COPs, particularly Copenhagen and Cancun, and its aftermath have shown that governments are not willing to undertake commitments consistent public and thus transfer the responsibility of practice greetings to private goals, while domestic policies, as in the case of Brazil, also have been appropriate to market interests. This makes public investment and control over the achievement of goals legitimize the global CO2 market, which appears as a new form of investment and speculative financial capital and survival to a model of production and consumption bankrupt.

We urge the Brazilian government to reaffirm the [Kyoto] principle of common but differentiated responsibilities, to ensure that decisions on the offsetting mechanisms and new forms of carbon market are not adopted, both for REDD+ as under general sources of funding for the second period commitment for the Kyoto Protocol or in new sector policies.

We believe that the offsetting mechanism will not lead to emission reductions required in developed countries and only divert the focus of negotiations which should converge towards an agreement at COP 17. This agreement must be guided by emission reduction targets for developed countries and higher than 40% compared to 1990, for the period 2013-2017, based on science and to consider the historical responsibility and climate debt.

We realize from the projects already underway, that a deregulated market for offsets can also have serious consequences for communities and local populations in the South, both in relation to the management and violation of rights to land and territories and on their ways of life associated with the forest management and conservation.

Brazil has seen in recent weeks the massive increase in deforestation in the Amazon and impending relaxation of the most important landmark environmental development, the Forestry Code, with an increase of 540% between March and April this year in the state of Mato Grosso alone, according to data from IBAMA. The current attempt to deregulate the national environmental regime could have serious implications for achieving the international targets assumed in both the Climate Convention and the Convention on Biological Diversity, putting Brazil in the position of serious contradictions between its foreign policy and domestic initiatives.

For all these reasons, the undersigned organizations argue that international negotiations on climate cannot be focused on the shift to achieve emissions reductions, by market mechanisms such as REDD+. Brazil, one of the most biodiverse countries of the world, has undertaken the challenge of a real transition to a new model of production, distribution and consumption, sponsored by the State. This model should be based on proposals already underway from the matrix of agroecology, solidarity economics, land and urban reform, democratization of the use and occupation of land in the territories,  and community management of a diverse and decentralized energy model, which guarantee the right to an ecologically balanced environment and food security and sovereignty.

Signed:
Actionaid Brazil
Amigos da Terra Brasil- Friends of the Earth Brazil
ANA - Articulação Nacional de Agroecologia
APTA - Associação de Programas em Tecnologias Alternativas – ES
Associação Global de Desenvolvimento Sustentado
CEAPAC - Centro de Apoio a Projetos de Ação Comunitária
CEPEDES – Centro de Estudos e Pesquisas para o Desenvolvimento do Extremo Sul da Bahia
CIMI – Conselho Indigenista Missionário
ESPLAR- Centro de Pesquisa e Assessoria
FASE – Solidariedade e Educação
Fórum Carajás 
Fórum Mudanças Climáticas e Justiça Social
GAMBA – Grupo Ambientalista da Bahia
GIAS – Grupo de Intercâmbio em Agricultura Sustentável – Mato Grosso
INESC – Instituto de Estudos Socioeconômicos
Jubileu Sul Brasil - Jubilee South Brazil
Plataforma DHESCA Brazil
Rede Alerta contra o Deserto Verde
Rede Brasil sobre Instituições Financeiras Multilaterais
Terra de Direitos
Via Campesina Brazil

Death in Oaxaca -- LAWG

Making the world safe for investors can make it violently unsafe for the poor and powerless. (AP photo: CNS News)

On Tuesday, April 27th a peace caravan of 25 human rights observers, reporters and teachers was ambushed by an armed group of paramilitaries in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico. We agree with Latin America Working Group (LAWG) that violent attacks on aboriginal rights are an essential part of modern "resource wars".

"They started to spray us with fire," said one of the survivors (see video). "When we tried to back up, they shot out the tires. We threw ourselves on the floor. The vehicle was shaking from the bullets."

29 Apr CSN reported that 40 people were in the caravan to the Triqui Indian mountain town of San Juan Copala. At least three other foreign accompaniers, and an unknown number of Mexicans, are missing, presumed dead.

28 Apr Boston.com said that San Juan Copala was surrounded and cut off by paramilitaries. The Caravan was meant to be a peaceful way to break the blockade.

30 Apr Amy Goodman interview traced the violence to paramilitaries (set up by PRI governor Ulises Ruiz). Of the two shot in the head, Finnish human rights activist Jyri Jaakkola had come to Oaxaca to do environmental workshops; Betty Cariño was the director of CACTUS, an organization for indigenous rights.

30 Apr Christian Peacemaker Teams said the caravan was carrying food, water, and other basic necessities. San Juan Copala declared itself an autonomous community in January 2007 in a nonviolent effort to create a space for political participation.

Similar peace-town declarations have been made in Colombia. There too, paramilitaries have attacked with impunity. In both countries, the US War on Drugs/Terror has been a pipeline for military aid to paramilitaries.

4 May CDHAL reports that death squad threats continue in Chiapas.

Socialist Project tells the story of the "Oaxaca Commune" aka APPO, and violent attacks by PRI on it since 2006. The source of the conflict is not explained but is likely encroachment by mines, paper co's, ranchers and agribusiness connected to the corrupt government, on traditional native lands. Among US resource companies in Oaxaca are Arco Resources, Rio Tinto/Kennecott, Boise Cascade and others (for a full list see below).

The conflict stems from the NAFTA "road to resources" Plan Puebla-Panama, whose corridors go through Oaxaca -- part of the Security and Prosperity Partnership plans that include tarsands pipelines, rail, bridge and truck corridors from Canada and Latin America to serve US imperial interests and corporate profits.

PPP map from Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM): note the corridors running though Chiapas and Oaxaca. Click on image to see details.

1 Apr Mamaradio/Z magazine says a US military-funded mapping project is direct aid to corporate interests and Mexican opponents of indigenes. "Mapping and property rights are necessary tools to advance U.S. security strategies, such as Plan Colombia."

*****

Other references:
1 Feb interview with one of the murdered human rights accompaniers

video of repression in Oaxaca 2006
Global Exchange analysis of Plan Puebla Panama
Nadir.org and Project Censored documents on environmental impacts and earlier murders
Oaxaca Mining Wiki lists the US, Canadian and multinational companies that are profiting from death and repression
LAWGEF`s Just the Facts
CDHAL en français
LAWG is affiliated with FCNL

Protesting pirate loggers in Amazonia -- by Brenda Balletti

Articulo en español en bajo. All photos and English article by Brenda Baletti, an expert on on environmental politics in Brazil, are taken from Grist 12 Jan 10. In theory, Brazil's Economic and Ecological Zoning plans (ZEE) protect indigenes, quilombolas (descendants of runaway slaves), traditional river people, landless peasants, and nature. But since 1990 over 500 people have been murdered by plantation bosses and land grabbers. The grileiros' violence and corruption of officials continue, making a mockery of "ecosystem management".

*****

indigenous protesters at Gleba Nova Olinda
Early one morning in late November 2009, a group of 30 people set out by motorized canoes from the community of Santa Maria of Uruará, in the lower Brazilian Amazon to the junction of the Tamataí and Uruará Rivers, at the boundary of the Extractive Reserve Renascer.* The group set up a camp on the riverbank in order to do what the government has not — block illegal loggers who have been taking wood from inside the reserve.

In June of 2009, after more than a decade of conflict between the traditional riberinho (river dweller) communities of the region and loggers and commercial fishers, the Renascer Extractive Reserve was created, albeit at half of the size that the communities had requested. The size was limited in order to accommodate logging and mineral interests, according to government officials involved with the process.

But the creation of the reserve changed nothing—illegal loggers protected by armed gunman have continued to extract timber from inside the reserve’s boundaries. The state and federal government agencies (SEMA and IBAMA respectively) say they have no resources to monitor and enforce restrictions inside the reserve. In fact, after the creation of the reserve, the number of timber barges leaving the area actually increased; until the locals started blocking shipments of logs, up to five barges per day were floating down the river with a total of up to 5,000 cubic meters of wood illegally logged from the reserve.

The camp that started in late November quickly grew to hundreds of people, blocking passage of river barges and waiting for government agents to come and negotiate with them. What started as a few hammocks strung up in a muddy, mosquito-ridden forest has grown to a village. They cleared out the brush, and each family built a makeshift house from plastic and wood and dug a fire pit. They take turns fishing, and periodically one of them sacrifices a cow to feed the group.

Because the protesters prevented barges from floating down the river for more than a month, the thwarted loggers began to retaliate. Their planes periodically make threateningly low flyovers; loggers in passing boats yell threats. One night, five men set fire to brush next to the camp.

The Jaurú logging company attempted to bribe the community members to let wood pass down the river. When their offer was rejected, the company hired gunmen to accompany their barges to market. In the early morning of Jan. 3, five log-laden barges set forth, accompanied by 40 armed men. When they reached the encampment, they opened fire on the sleeping, unarmed protestors. Two people were shot. The victims were rushed to the hospital; they survived.

The demonstration at Renascer was in part inspired by action taken a month earlier and 100 miles to the west, in an area called Gleba Nova Olinda at the source of the Arapiuns River. On Nov. 12, people from over 40 indigenous and traditional communities—frustrated after more than a decade of failed negotiations with the state for territorial rights, and increasingly suffering threats and attacks against their leaders—closed the Arapiuns River to logging traffic and sequestered two barges full of timber. The protestors camped on the river’s edge for a month as they waited, to no avail, for state and federal governments to arrive and address the problem. Finally, they set fire to the 2,000 cubic meters of wood on the barges. The fires blazed on for three days.

Over the last 10 years, logging has increased dramatically in the west of Pará, where both of these conflicts are located. Pará is a state in lower Brazilian Amazon that is larger than most countries and is notorious for violent land conflict. The incursion of logging into their territories there has resulted in traditional and indigenous people demanding land rights as a way to protect their communities. But the people have grown increasingly frustrated at the government’s unwillingness or inability to protect their homelands; often, land rights are not granted, reserves are not protected, and laws and management plans are not enforced.

In some cases, the government is asking for GPS coordinates and photos to prove that illegal logging is taking place—a totally unrealistic request of people who have on average studied to a fifth-grade level, live from subsistence and small-scale market agricultural production, and have only recently gotten gas-powered motors that provide electricity to their homes. Even when NGOs and outside researchers collect this data, it frequently comes to naught, because officials never follow up and because laws are written or circumvented in favor of logging interests.

So the river dwellers and other indigenous people are taking matters into their own hands, trying to stop the injustices committed against their communities. Ironically, they’re now the ones being branded as criminals.

In the case of the Renascer encampment, the loggers got a municipal judge to issue an order saying that the camp must be disbanded or the people imprisoned. Two weeks ago, the police began an action to put six of the leaders from the Arapiuns in “preventative prison,” which would lock them up indefinitely until they are exonerated of all charges. Such imprisonment is normally imposed on people who are at risk of fleeing or who lack physical addresses and jobs, neither of which applies to these leaders.

This sort of punitive action accomplishes two things — it robs the movement of its leadership, and it diverts the movement’s time and energy into a legal battle, distracting from its larger goal of fighting for land rights and curbing illegal logging.

Thus are the power relations in rapidly industrializing Brazil. For people in the United States, tussles over territorial rights and protest camps can seem provincial and distant — regrettable, yes, but in a world overflowing with injustice, not cause for excessive concern.

But the Amazon is not your average disputed territory. In recent decades, tropical forests have absorbed 20 percent of global fossil-fuel emissions, and the Amazon has been the biggest carbon sink of them all, absorbing nearly 2 billion tons of carbon dioxide a year. The river dwellers aren’t defending a vision of the rainforest as a pristine carbon sink, but rather as a homeland that can support a broad range of species and vegetation, including humans. That might not be what Western environmentalists what to hear, but it’s surely a more ecologically responsible vision than clear-cutting followed by vast soybean monocrops.

*****

See also *Renascer as failed ecosystem management, in New Statesman 28 Jun 07; John Frevalds on the origin of the word grileiros; Laura Molinari, "Land Conflicts between Grileiros and Peasants in Para, Brazil" American University, ICE 2005; "Battle in Amazonia" by Brenda Baletti, Gilson Rego and Antoni0 Sena in Counterpunch 13 Jan 10;" Local Battles to Save the Brazilian Amazon Pit Residents against Loggers and Government" by the same authors in Americas Program 6 Jan 10; photos of Uruará and Gleba Nova Olinda on Flickr.com; a 2006 report on illegal soy plantations in the region, linked to Cargill and other corporations. Oxfam video about climate change with Muriel Saragoussi of Brazil Ministry of Environment (Portugese with English subtitles).

*****

Las batallas locales por salvar la Amazonia brasileña enfrentan a los pobladores con las empresas taladoras y el gobierno

tirado de Programa de las Américas 12 de enero de 2010. Brenda Baletti vive en Santarém y las investigaciones que realiza para su disertación doctoral versan sobre las luchas por los derechos territoriales en la parte oeste de Pará. Gilson Rego es licenciado en Sociología por la Universidad Federal de Pará y trabaja para la Comisión Pastoral de la Tierra o Comissao Pastoral da Terra en Santarém. Antonio Sena es estudiante de Derecho en la Universidad Federal del Amazonas y se especializa en investigaciones sobre derechos a la tierra.

Tras más de una década de denuncias ignoradas, negociaciones infructuosas con el gobierno e incontables amenazas a sus dirigentes de parte de las empresas taladoras y sus mercenarios, los pobladores de la región Arapiuns en la Amazonia brasileña realizaron una protesta pública contra la tala ilegal en sus tierras. Más de 500 miembros de 40 comunidades se unieron, usando sus rabetas (canoas con motor fuera de borda) para cerrar el Río Arapiuns a la actividad de la tala en la Gleba Nova Olinda. Los manifestantes tomaron dos barcazas de troncos.

La protesta se prolongó durante más de un mes, mientras funcionarios del gobierno estatal y federal alternativamente les ignoraban o respondían con evasivas. Al final los manifestantes, frustrados, decidieron volver más apremiante su mensaje. El 12 de noviembre, luego de una segunda reunión con funcionarios estatales y federales que de nuevo dejaron sin solución sus problemas, incendiaron las barcazas.

La llamada Gleba Nova Olinda comprende 172,900 hectáreas entre los ríos Maró y Aruá, en el nacimiento del Río Arapiuns, municipio de Santarém. Sus recursos naturales son vitales para la sobrevivencia del pueblo Arapiuns. La protesta une a 14 comunidades de todo ese territorio, en el "Movimiento en Defensa de la Vida y la Cultura de los Arapiuns."

Las comunidades indígenas y campesinas de la Gleba Nova Olinda han estado solicitando al gobierno el reconocimiento legal de sus derechos territoriales desde hace trece años, cuando se creó la vecina Reserva Extractiva Tapajós-Arapiuns. A lo largo de los últimos diez años, los programas de intercambio de tierras estatales y de incentivos para el desarrollo atrajeron a explotadoras forestales y agricultores potenciales de soya a la Gleba Nova Olinda. Su entrada despertó conflictos, que pronto se volvieron violentos, por los derechos a la tierra y a los recursos con los habitantes del área. La violencia efectiva y las amenazas de violencia son medios comunes para la resolución de conflictos en el estado de Pará, donde recursos valiosos como la madera conducen a conflictos donde mucho se arriesga y la coacción estatal es mínima.

Las explotadoras forestales han dividido a las comunidades de la región, expandiendo el conflicto más allá de la tradicional confrontación entre taladoras, especuladores de tierras y comunidades. Las empresas han comprado a bajo precio el apoyo de algunas comunidades proporcionándoles infraestructura que el gobierno nunca les entregó, como generadores y edificaciones comunitarias, o empleos que convierten a los pobladores del área en agentes de la deforestación. Sin embargo, casi toda la población continúa protestando contra la presencia de las compañías taladoras.

Las comunidades de la Gleba Nova Olinda, el sindicato de trabajadores rurales y la Comisión Pastoral de la Tierra colaboraron durante tres meses en un proyecto de plan de tenencia de la tierra que garantizaría los derechos de los pobladores. Este plan se basó en años de discusiones entre las comunidades de la Gleba Nova Linda y la región de Arapiuns, más amplia. Después de todos sus esfuerzos, el gobierno del estado escogió ignorar su propuesta en favor de otra presentada por las compañías madereras y las cooperativas que reclamaban ilegalmente tierras y recursos dentro del área.1

En los hechos, el gobierno estatal de Pará resolvió no expulsar a las taladoras y especuladores de tierra que operan en los territorios tradicionales e indígenas. Por el contrario, la propuesta autorizó once "planes de administración sostenible" y redujo el tamaño del Proyecto de Asentamientos de Reforma Agraria Agroextractivistas Vista Alegre, de 25,000 hectáreas a 5,000 hectáreas.

Entre tanto, el proceso legal llevado por la Fundación Nacional del Indio (FUNAI) para que se reconozca y se demarque el área, ha permanecido estancado por años.2 La renuencia del FUNAI a demarcar el área ha permitido a las taladoras de la región y al gobierno estatal seguir ignorando los derechos del pueblo indígena Borari-Arapiuns construyendo caminos para el transporte de troncos, otorgando licencias para planes administrativos y negándose a hacer cumplir las normas para la tala y transporte de madera y tenencia de la tierra dentro del territorio indígena.

El Traslado de las Tierras y los Recursos al Mercado

En el estado de Pará, la vasta existencia de recursos naturales ha desembocado en corrupción incrustada en las instituciones. En una combinación tanto de manipulación legal como de violación de leyes con la impunidad, el gobierno frecuentemente facilita y encubre los delitos ambientales en la región. Como lo explica el especialista sobre la Amazonia Leal Aluzio, "a fin de cuentas, quienes tienen el poder de impedir o permitir la ilegalidad son las autoridades; ésta es la autoridad investida de poder institucional. Así la ilegalidad, cuando es 'liberada', se expresa en diversas formas de transgresión, desde lo claramente ilegal a lo presuntamente 'legal', que se encuentran 'protegidos' por la ley."3

Los cambios recientes en el uso del suelo y distribución territorial en la Amazonia brasileña siguen en general dos vertientes: Ha habido un ímpetu hacia el reconocimiento de derechos étnica y culturalmente fundamentados a tierras/territorio para los pueblos indígenas y nativos a consecuencia de movimientos populares de base más fuertes y convenciones internacionales. A los pobladores indígenas, quilombolas (descendientes de comunidades de esclavos fugitivos), pueblo "tradicional", campesinos sin tierra y a la naturaleza se les ha asignado sus propios polígonos en los "mapas de zonificación Económica y Ecológica", los planos territoriales de la región amazónica creados por la iniciativa del Banco Mundial para poner en práctica el "desarrollo sostenible participativo."4

La rezonificación inspirada por el Banco Mundial tiene por objeto facilitar otra meta de redistribución territorial del desarrollo económico, a saber, el desarrollo de mega-infraestructura y la apertura de áreas nuevas a la extracción maderera y minera, agroindustria y operación de ranchos. Los planos para la Zonificación Económica y Ecológica (ZEE por sus siglas en portugués), pretenden integrar los intereses ambientales y sociales al desarrollo económico en la Amazonia, pero se han convertido en un medio para "disfrazar de verde" el desarrollo económico de Brasil. El último plan de desarrollo económico brasileño, el Programa para el Crecimiento Acelerado (PAC - Programa de Aceleração do Crescimento), tiene destinados 95 mil millones de dólares de E.U. a la construcción de carreteras, vías fluviales y presas en la Amazonia en un período de cuatro años. La Zonificación Económico-Ecológica para el Oeste de Pará (ZEE – Oeste do Pará) fue creada en respuesta a preocupaciones ecológicas en torno al proyecto PAC para pavimentar la Carretera Santarém-Cuiaba (BR 163). Esta carretera es la única que cruza la Amazonia de sur a norte, y es potencialmente la vía más veloz para transportar cosechas de soya desde el sur de Brasil al Río Amazonas para su exportación. La Zonificación Ecológico-Económica divide a la región en áreas con diferentes clasificaciones según su uso.

En 2009, los gobiernos estatal y federal aprobaron rápidamente una serie de leyes y políticas que facilitan los cambios de usos del suelo contenidos en los planos ZEE. Estas leyes reorganizan las funciones territoriales y estatales para agilizar el desarrollo económico regional, e incluyen la creación de nuevas clasificaciones de tierras que relajan los reglamentos que permiten concesionar la agricultura y la extracción maderera y mineral. Algunas leyes crean también nuevos títulos de tierras o concesiones para uso colectivo.

Otras leyes atacan el código forestal brasileño. La misma ZEE reduce efectivamente la extensión de tierra que los tenedores deben conservar como bosque en su propiedad, del 80% al 50% en muchos casos.5 Actualmente se discute una medida para permitir que rancheros compren áreas de reserva fuera (y lejos) de su propiedad para dejarlos deforestar una mayor porción de su propia tierra, aun en áreas que están protegidas.6

Presuntamente las tierras indígenas y áreas de conservación están protegidas contra el desarrollo, mientras todas las demás áreas se dedican a "consolidar" o "expandir" actividades productivas para los mercados internos y externos, tales como operación de ranchos, agroindustria, y explotación forestal.7 Una vez delimitadas dichas áreas, leyes y políticas diversas obligan a que cada área funcione de acuerdo con su clasificación en los ZEE. La Gleba Nova Olinda está clasificada como zona de expansión, es decir que da prioridad al desarrollo por encima de la conservación, y permite a los desarrolladores obtener licencias para dichas actividades productivas.

La ambigüedad en la situación de la tenencia de la tierra es considerada un obstáculo para el desarrollo en el estado de Pará. Muy pocas personas tienen seguros sus derechos de propiedad en la forma de títulos sin gravámenes y gran parte del estado es terra devoluta, es decir, tierra de propiedad federal no clasificada, pero a menudo ocupada. En Pará, alrededor de 30 millones de hectáreas de esta tierra la tienen personas que la han ocupado ilegalmente 8 Existen programas de expedición de títulos de propiedad, asentamientos de reforma agraria, y áreas de preservación para resolver este problema.

Leyes como la de "terra legal", promulgada en 2009 [B1] legalizarán todas las reclamaciones de títulos de tierras en la Amazonia brasileña que constituyan tierra federal, hasta por 1,500 hectáreas. Pará promulgó una ley similar a nivel estatal. Estas leyes modernizan el traslado de las tierras, de propiedad pública, a propiedad privada.

Movimientos sociales, políticos de izquierda y algunos científicos han criticado estas leyes por abrir la puerta a la legalización de tierras obtenidas mediante invasiones ilícitas. También se han criticado estas leyes por promover la mercantilización de las tierras a gran escala, tergiversando la legalidad en beneficio de grandes terratenientes y de invasores de tierras, más conocidos como grileiros.9 El presidente Luiz Inácio da Silva trajo al profesor de Harvard Mangabeira Unger y lo nombró Secretario Especial de Asuntos Estratégicos para que presentara toda la argumentación política necesaria para lograr la aprobación de estas leyes: convencer legisladores, hacer tratos e infundir al proyecto el prestigio de Harvard. Unger renunció y regresó a Estados Unidos dos días después de que esta ley (federal) fue aprobada.

Frecuentemente se trata a los territorios indígenas y áreas de conservación como si estuvieran "fuera del mercado", pero los conflictos por el uso de la tierra en estas áreas demuestra que mientras contengan recursos viables, es improbable que se libren de la explotación. Las demoras extremas en la clasificación legal de áreas protegidas abren grandes oportunidades para la extracción rápida de los recursos antes de que dicha protección entre en vigor. Esto es práctica común.10 Cada vez más, los asentamientos de reforma agraria y las nuevas áreas de preservación son reducidas a una fracción de las dimensiones originalmente solicitadas, en favor de los intereses madereros y mineros.

El Caso de la Reserva Extractiva Renascer

La Reserva Extractiva Renascer fue creada como área de preservación dentro de la ZEE el 5 de junio de 2009 tras diez años de lucha. Las comunidades de la región comenzaron a cabildear para la creación de una reserva cuando grandes compañías de explotación forestal como Madenorte se mudaron a la región a finales de los 1990s, ocuparon el territorio y aseguraron sus límites mediante amenazas y violencia. Los organismos regulatorios federales se desentendieron de innumerables pedidos de sacar a las taladoras de la región. En 2006, el pueblo de Santa Maria do Uruará realizó una serie de acciones en el curso de tres meses, cerrando el camino al puerto, apoderándose de barcazas de troncos, y quemando finalmente una que transportaba 1,000 metros cuadrados de madera.

Fue sólo tras el incendio de las barcazas que el gobierno, por fin, respondió. En diciembre de 2006, el gobierno federal puso en práctica el "Operativo Renascer" contra la tala ilegal, que produjo nueve arrestos y eliminó la tala ilegal en la región, durante algún tiempo. Sin embargo, tres años después, todavía no se ha establecido la reserva y han regresado las mismas taladoras. Las empresas en sí no cambian: su personal e infraestructura siguen siendo los mismos. Solamente cambian su denominación y conservan las mismas prácticas. Madenorte, por ejemplo, funciona ahora como Jaurú, empleando los mismos aserraderos e instalaciones portuarias dentro de la reserva.

Después de negociaciones entre el estado, el gobierno federal, el WWF, y los miembros del sindicato de trabajadores rurales y el sindicato de pescadores, se creó la reserva Extractiva Renascer en junio pasado con la mitad de la extensión originalmente propuesta. La porción de la reserva con recursos minerales potenciales, la vasta mayoría de los bosques primarios, y las fuentes de los tres ríos de la zona quedaron excluidas, de acuerdo con altos funcionarios del Instituto Chico Mendes para la Conservación de la Biodiversidad (ICMBio), que administra las unidades de preservación en Brasil, a menudo a favor de los intereses madereros y mineros. Con la creación de la Reserva en el papel, la velocidad a la que se está extrayendo ilegalmente la madera ha crecido exponencialmente. Los habitantes informan que diariamente abandonan el área hasta cinco barcazas que transportan entre 1,000 y 2,000 metros cúbicos de madera.

En respuesta a las denuncias reiteradas de miembros de la comunidad, el Instituto Chico Mendes y la SEMA, Secretaría Estatal del Medio Ambiente, responsable de hacer cumplir las reglas de la tala en las tierras estatales y federales dentro de Pará, declararon que no pueden hacer nada sin tener que agotar largos procesos burocráticos. Afirman necesitar más información específica como datos y fotos obtenidos por geolocalización satelital (GPS), lo que rebasa la capacidad de las comunidades, siendo también su obtención un peligro para ellas. Así, las acciones y omisiones gubernamentales mandan las tierras y los recursos, teóricamente protegidos, directamente al mercado.

El pasado 27 de noviembre, los habitantes de Renascer y de Santa Maria de Uruará, en los límites de la reserva, decidieron que ya no podían esperar que el gobierno resolviera. Establecieron un campamento junto al límite de la Reserva en la confluencia de los ríos Tamataí y Uruará. Avisaron a las taladoras y a los gobiernos municipal, estatal y federal que ya no permitirían el paso de una sola barcaza maderera más. Una barcaza que iba en camino río abajo regresó de inmediato a su puerto y ninguna otra traspuso el bloqueo durante más de un mes.

Después de varias semanas de que las comunidades acamparon al lado del río (Tamataí), el Instituto Chico Mendes emitió la orden de cerrar el puerto. Un juez municipal también ordenó que se cerrara el puerto hasta que se ejercitaran las leyes contra la tala ilegal dentro de la Reserva. Con todo, la tala dentro de la Reserva no se detuvo, y los gobiernos estatal y federal siguieron asegurando que la falta de recursos hacía prohibitivo el cumplimiento de la ley ordenado por el juez. Los miembros de la comunidad siguen recibiendo amenazas diarias, tanto verbales como de los barcos y aviones que pasan cerca. Más de 200 personas siguen acampadas en la boca del Tamataí, impidiendo la salida de barcazas y exigiendo la respuesta gubernamental.

Después de intentar vanamente sobornar a los miembros de la comunidad para que permitieran la tala ilegal, el 3 de enero de 2010 las compañías taladoras contrataron a pistoleros para que transportaran su madera al mercado. Al llegar al campamento, y al cerrar los miembros de la comunidad el río con sus canoas, los mercenarios abrieron fuego hiriendo a dos pobladores, y las barcazas de troncos siguieron su camino hacia el mercado.
Intervenciones

Los actos de desobediencia civil de los movimientos sociales para llamar la atención hacia las violaciones de sus derechos son criminalizados en la prensa, descalificados por ONGs internacionales que afirman haberlos apoyado, y se les abren procesos legales con mayor frecuencia.11 Los líderes de los movimientos tanto de Arapiuns como de Renascer han sido citados por la policía y amenazados con la cárcel mientras las taladoras siguen actuando impunemente. Empero tales actos parecen las únicas opciones para arrancar una respuesta al gobierno y hacer retroceder a quienes han delinquido contra ellos.

Los gobiernos del G-20, la prensa, la mayoría de las ONGs ecológicas internacionales importantes, y muchos científicos, han celebrado esta preservación orientada al desarrollo, y obtenida por medio de acciones oficiales basadas en el mercado, como la mejor forma de salvar la Amazonia. Sin embargo estas políticas ya están demostrando ser insuficientes, conflictivas y contraproducentes, tal como se ha visto en los casos de la Gleba Nova Olinda y la Reserva Renascer. Los costos sociales y ecológicos de "disfrazar de verde" este tipo de desarrollo inherentemente destructivo son enormes. Los graves problemas de los debates posteriores al protocolo de Kyoto, la actual crisis económica global y las múltiples crisis del paradigma de los mercados libres crean un contexto de explotación acelerada justo cuando los líderes mundiales honran la conservación ambiental de dientes para afuera.

Si los países y organizaciones del hemisferio norte realmente quieren detener la destrucción de los bosques y los pueblos de las regiones tropicales, deben reconocer, valorar y poner en práctica las innumerables propuestas para la conservación ambiental no basadas en el mercado. Los habitantes de estos bosques son quienes pueden garantizar su supervivencia a través de sus conocimientos y prácticas diversos [B1].

Los burócratas del G-20 harían bien en aprender de esta gente. Un paradigma más humano y considerado comienza por reconocer que nuestros modelos de consumo y de gobierno internacional son directamente responsables de gran parte de la destrucción.

La comunidad internacional puede ayudar más a la conservación de la Región Amazónica prestando la atención debida a los temas que surgen en los debates de la localidad, en lugar de recurrir al discurso generalizado de "buen gobierno" y de soluciones basadas en el mercado a los problemas planteados por los patrones mundiales de consumo. Un enfoque más razonable es el de presionar a los gobiernos en los niveles estatal y nacional para que reconozcan y respeten los derechos de la población a gobernar sus propios territorios y recursos en la práctica y no sólo en la retórica.

Éste no es un llamado romántico al localismo; es una cuestión trascendental de soberanía política. Los pueblos de la Gleba Nova Olinda y la Reserva Renascer ¿no tienen el derecho de determinar su identidad, demarcar sus territorios y decidir cómo administrar las tierras y los recursos dentro de ellos?
Notas

1. Treccani, G.D. 2009. Regularizacao Fundiaria da Regiao Mamuru Arapiuns. Presentación en Power Point. Seminario Ideflor. Santarém.
2. El proceso de reconocimiento de derechos indígenas a la tierra se inicia con una investigación antropológica de la historia y la cultura de los pueblos aunada a una investigación geográfica de las dimensiones de su territorio. Se publica un informe sumario en el Diario de la Federación, y se abre un proceso de 90 días durante el cual las partes interesadas pueden contender por los derechos al área. Toda la documentación se envía al Ministerio de Justicia, el cual anuncia oficialmente la demarcación. La demarcación física de los límites es realizada por un tercero contratado por el gobierno. La investigación antropológica y geográfica respecto a la Gleba Nova Olinda se completó en 2007. El informe sumario todavía no se publica.
3. Leal, Aluizio. Trabalho Escravo Os porquês da questão? Texto inédito en portugués.
4. ACSELRAD, Henri. O Zoneamento Ecológico-Econômico da Amazônia e o panoptismo imperfeito. P&A Editora: Rio de Janeiro, 2002.
5. Véase la ley Nº 7,243, del 9 de enero de 2009. Mientras que el código forestal ordena una reserva de 80%, estipulando que si un individuo posee tierra que está deforestada en más de 80%, esa tierra debe reforestarse, la ZEE cambió este requisito. Los tenedores de tierra ya deforestada pueden utilizar hasta el 50% de esa propiedad en lugar de reforestarla.
6. Véase http://www.socioambiental.org/noticias/nsa/detalhe?id=.
7. Véase la ley Nº 7,243 del 9 de enero de 2009.
8. Benatti 2007.
9. Como ejemplo, véase la carta abierta de Marina Silva sobre esta medida: http://www.socioambiental.org/nsa/detalhe?id=2896.
10. Benatti, J.H. 2007. Internacalizacão da Amazônia e a questão ambiental: o direito das populações tradicionais e indígenas a terra. Revista Amazônia Legal de estudos sócio-jurídico-ambientais. 1(1): 23-39.
11. Como ejemplo véase "Moradores incendeiam balsas com Madeira no Pará http://www.greenblog.org.br/?cat=202.

Ver también estas noticias de Greenpeace Brasil en portugues: uno, dos.

Mystic Lake Declaration by US natives

US first nations urge people of good will to rely on indigenous knowledge and ancient wisdom to save the planet. The Declaration (below) was written at a 4-day workshop by indigenous peoples of North America, whose forebears lived 14,000+ years in a "green economy" in harmony with nature. It demands full respect of aboriginal rights and an end to false solutions such as geo-engineering, nukes, CCS (so-called "clean coal') and carbon trading.

Call for ecojustice, respect for indigenous knowledge and "homeland maturity" at the National Museum of the American Indian, 23 Oct 07.

“It wasn’t our culture, our economies that created this problem, but we are facing the disproportionate and deadly effects of this incredible climate crisis...The way out of this mess is for us is to look at our own intellectual heritage, our indigenous ingenuity to address the problems,” says Daniel Wildcat, director of the Haskell Environmental Research Studies Center and co-chair of the Workshop. The Declaration will be taken to COP-15 at Copenhagen.

THE MYSTIC LAKE DECLARATION

From the Native Peoples Native Homelands Climate Change Workshop II: Indigenous Perspectives and Solutions

At Mystic Lake on the Homelands of the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community, Prior Lake, Minnesota

November 21, 2009

As community members, youth and elders, spiritual and traditional leaders, Native organizations and supporters of our Indigenous Nations, we have gathered on November 18-21, 2009 at Mystic Lake in the traditional homelands of the Shakopee Mdewakanton Dakota Oyate. This Second Native Peoples Native Homelands Climate Workshop builds upon the Albuquerque Declaration and work done at the 1998 Native Peoples Native Homelands Climate Change Workshop held in Albuquerque, New Mexico. We choose to work together to fulfill our sacred duties, listening to the teachings of our elders and the voices of our youth, to act wisely to carry out our responsibilities to enhance the health and respect the sacredness of Mother Earth, and to demand Climate Justice now.

We acknowledge that to deal effectively with global climate change and global warming issues all sovereigns must work together to adapt and take action on real solutions that will ensure our collective existence. We hereby declare, affirm, and assert our inalienable rights as well as responsibilities as members of sovereign Native Nations. In doing so, we expect to be active participants with full representation in United States and international legally binding treaty agreements regarding climate, energy, biodiversity, food sovereignty, water and sustainable development policies affecting our peoples and our respective Homelands on Turtle Island (North America) and Pacific Islands.

We are of the Earth. The Earth is the source of life to be protected, not merely a resource to be exploited. Our ancestors’ remains lie within her. Water is her lifeblood. We are dependent upon her for our shelter and our sustenance. Our lifeways are the original “green economies.” We have our place and our responsibilities within Creation’s sacred order. We feel the sustaining joy as things occur in harmony. We feel the pain of disharmony when we witness the dishonor of the natural order of Creation and the degradation of Mother Earth and her companion Moon.

We need to stop the disturbance of the sacred sites on Mother Earth so that she may heal and restore the balance in Creation. We ask the world community to join with the Indigenous Peoples to pray on summer solstice for the healing of all the sacred sites on Mother Earth.

The well-being of the natural environment predicts the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual longevity of our Peoples and the Circle of Life. Mother Earth’s health and that of our Indigenous Peoples are intrinsically intertwined. Unless our homelands are in a state of good health our Peoples will not be truly healthy. This inseparable relationship must be respected for the sake of our future generations. In this Declaration, we invite humanity to join with us to improve our collective human behavior so that we may develop a more sustainable world – a world where the inextricable relationship of biological, and environmental diversity, and cultural diversity is affirmed and protected.

We have the power and responsibility to change. We can preserve, protect, and fulfill our sacred duties to live with respect in this wonderful Creation. However, we can also forget our responsibilities, disrespect Creation, cause disharmony and imperil our future and the future of others.

At Mystic Lake, we reviewed the reports of indigenous science, traditional knowledge and cultural scholarship in cooperation with non-native scientists and scholars. We shared our fears, concerns and insights. If current trends continue, native trees will no longer find habitable locations in our forests, fish will no longer find their streams livable, and humanity will find their homelands flooded or drought-stricken due to the changing weather. Our Native Nations have already disproportionately suffered the negative compounding effects of global warming and a changing climate.

The United States and other industrialized countries have an addiction to the high consumption of energy. Mother Earth and her natural resources cannot sustain the consumption and production needs of this modern industrialized society and its dominant economic paradigm, which places value on the rapid economic growth, the quest for corporate and individual accumulation of wealth, and a race to exploit natural resources. The non-regenerative production system creates too much waste and toxic pollutions. We recognize the need for the United States and other industrialized countries to focus on new economies, governed by the absolute limits and boundaries of ecological sustainability, the carrying capacities of the Mother Earth, a more equitable sharing of global and local resources, encouragement and support of self sustaining communities, and respect and support for the rights of Mother Earth and her companion Moon.

In recognizing the root causes of climate change, participants call upon the industrialized countries and the world to work towards decreasing dependency on fossil fuels. We call for a moratorium on all new exploration for oil, gas, coal and uranium as a first step towards the full phase-out of fossil fuels, without nuclear power, with a just transition to sustainable jobs, energy and environment. We take this position and make this recommendation based on our concern over the disproportionate social, cultural, spiritual, environmental and climate impacts on Indigenous Peoples, who are the first and the worst affected by the disruption of intact habitats, and the least responsible for such impacts.

Indigenous peoples must call for the most stringent and binding emission reduction targets. Carbon emissions for developed countries must be reduced by no less than 40%, preferably 49% below 1990 levels by 2020 and 95% by 2050. We call for national and global actions to stabilize CO2 concentrations below 350 parts per million (ppm) and limiting temperature increases to below 1.5ºc.

We challenge climate mitigation solutions to abandon false solutions to climate change that negatively impact Indigenous Peoples’ rights, lands, air, oceans, forests, territories and waters. These include nuclear energy, large-scale dams, geo-engineering techniques, clean coal technologies, carbon capture and sequestration, bio-fuels, tree plantations, and international market-based mechanisms such as carbon trading and offsets, the Clean Development Mechanisms and Flexible Mechanisms under the Kyoto Protocol and forest offsets. The only real offsets are those renewable energy developments that actually displace fossil fuel-generated energy. We recommend the United States sign on to the Kyoto Protocol and to the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

We are concerned with how international carbon markets set up a framework for dealing with greenhouse gases that secure the property rights of heavy Northern fossil fuel users over the world’s carbon-absorbing capacity while creating new opportunities for corporate profit through trade. The system starts by translating existing pollution into a tradable commodity, the rights to which are allocated in accordance with a limit set by States or intergovernmental agencies. In establishing property rights over the world's carbon dump, the largest number of rights is granted (mostly for free) to those who have been most responsible for pollution in the first place. At UN COP15, the conservation of forests is being brought into a property right issue concerning trees and carbon. With some indigenous communities it is difficult and sometimes impossible to reconcile with traditional spiritual beliefs the participation in climate mitigation that commodifies the sacredness of air (carbon), trees and life. Climate change mitigation and sustainable forest management must be based on different mindsets with full respect for nature, and not solely on market-based mechanisms.

We recognize the link between climate change and food security that affects Indigenous traditional food systems. We declare our Native Nations and our communities, waters, air, forests, oceans, sea ice, traditional lands and territories to be “Food Sovereignty Areas,” defined and directed by Indigenous Peoples according to our customary laws, free from extractive industries, unsustainable energy development, deforestation, and free from using food crops and agricultural lands for large scale bio-fuels.

We encourage our communities to exchange information related to the sustainable and regenerative use of land, water, sea ice, traditional agriculture, forest management, ancestral seeds, food plants, animals and medicines that are essential in developing climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies, and will restore our food sovereignty, food independence, and strengthen our Indigenous families and Native Nations.

We reject the assertion of intellectual property rights over the genetic resources and traditional knowledge of Indigenous peoples which results in the alienation and commodification of those things that are sacred and essential to our lives and cultures. We reject industrial modes of food production that promote the use of chemical substances, genetically engineered seeds and organisms. Therefore, we affirm our right to possess, control, protect and pass on the indigenous seeds, medicinal plants, traditional knowledge originating from our lands and territories for the benefit of our future generations.

We can make changes in our lives and actions as individuals and as Nations that will lessen our contribution to the problems. In order for reality to shift, in order for solutions to major problems to be found and realized, we must transition away from the patterns of an industrialized mindset, thought and behavior that created those problems. It is time to exercise desperately needed Indigenous ingenuity – Indigenuity – inspired by our ancient intergenerational knowledge and wisdom given to us by our natural relatives.

We recognize and support the position of the International Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate Change (IIPFCC), operating as the Indigenous Caucus within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), that is requesting language within the overarching principles of the outcomes of the Copenhagen UNFCCC 15th Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP15) and beyond Copenhagen, that would ensure respect for the knowledge and rights of indigenous peoples, including their rights to lands, territories, forests and resources to ensure their full and effective participation including free, prior and informed consent. It is crucial that the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) is entered into all appropriate negotiating texts for it is recognized as the minimum international standard for the protection of rights, survival, protection and well-being of Indigenous Peoples, particularly with regard to health, subsistence, sustainable housing and infrastructure, and clean energy development.

As Native Nations and Indigenous Peoples living within the occupied territories of the United States, we acknowledge with concern, the refusal of the United States to support negotiating text that would recognize applicable universal human rights instruments and agreements, including the UNDRIP, and further safeguard principles that would ensure their full and effective participation including free, prior and informed consent. We will do everything humanly possible by exercising our sovereign government-to-government relationship with the U.S. to seek justice on this issue.

Our Indian languages are encoded with accumulated ecological knowledge and wisdom that extends back through oral history to the beginning of time. Our ancestors created land and water relationship systems premised upon the understanding that all life forms are relatives – not resources. We understand that we as human beings have a sacred and ceremonial responsibility to care for and maintain, through our original instructions, the health and well-being of all life within our traditional territories and Native Homelands.

We will encourage our leadership and assume our role in supporting a just transition into a green economy, freeing ourselves from dependence on a carbon-based fossil fuel economy. This transition will be based upon development of an indigenous agricultural economy comprised of traditional food systems, sustainable buildings and infrastructure, clean energy and energy efficiency, and natural resource management systems based upon indigenous science and traditional knowledge. We are committed to development of economic systems that enable life-enhancement as a core component. We thus dedicate ourselves to the restoration of true wealth for all Peoples. In keeping with our traditional knowledge, this wealth is based not on monetary riches but rather on healthy relationships, relationships with each other, and relationships with all of the other natural elements and beings of creation.

In order to provide leadership in the development of green economies of life-enhancement, we must end the chronic underfunding of our Native educational institutions and ensure adequate funding sources are maintained. We recognize the important role of our Native K-12 schools and tribal colleges and universities that serve as education and training centers that can influence and nurture a much needed Indigenuity towards understanding climate change, nurturing clean renewable energy technologies, seeking solutions and building sustainable communities.

The world needs to understand that the Earth is a living female organism – our Mother and our Grandmother. We are kin. As such, she needs to be loved and protected. We need to give back what we take from her in respectful mutuality. We need to walk gently. These Original Instructions are the natural spiritual laws, which are supreme. Science can urgently work with traditional knowledge keepers to restore the health and well-being of our Mother and Grandmother Earth.

As we conclude this meeting we, the participating spiritual and traditional leaders, members and supporters of our Indigenous Nations, declare our intention to continue to fulfill our sacred responsibilities, to redouble our efforts to enable sustainable life-enhancing economies, to walk gently on our Mother Earth, and to demand that we be a part of the decision-making and negotiations that impact our inherent and treaty-defined rights. Achievement of this vision for the future, guided by our traditional knowledge and teachings, will benefit all Peoples on the Earth.

Approved by Acclamation and Individual Sign-ons.
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More details in Indian Country Today 25 Nov 09, Wikipedia indigeneous knowledge (IK), UNEP on indigenous peoples and IK links, World Bank on IK and MDGs, Indigenous Climate Portal on activities at COP-15. See also First Peoples Human Rights Coalition news.

For Canadian issues, see previous posts here tagged "native"; Kairoscanada dossiers en français & files in English; Inuit president Mary Simon "My homeland is melting" 24 Oct 09; Native reserves polluted CBC 3 Nov 09, Manitoba body bags scandal CBC 16 Sep 09, Caledonia/Grand River land dispute, Tyendinaga land dispute. Akwesasne protests 2009, Kahnesetake/Oka crisis (land dispute still unsettled), Burnt Church crisis, Gustafsen Lake, G&M 3 Sep 09 500 aboriginal women missing, 26 Nov 09 Haida protest, 29 Oct 09 and 6 Nov 09 fishing rights in BC, 14 Nov 09 no consultation in Quebec's plan nord, 31 Mar 07 deliberate Harper government underfunding of reserve health and education to put pressure on First Nations to settle land claims, Dec 2001 Canada's Apartheid series.