Malaysian timber giant drops lawsuit against SAVE Rivers
Two years after Malysian timber giant Samling filed a defamation lawsuit against Indigenous grassroots organization SAVE Rivers, the logging company has dropped the case on 18 September. The lawsuit, scheduled for trial the same day at the Miri High Court, was canceled after a last minute settlement.
Nickel mining for energy transition could destroy unique Indonesian forest
The energy transition requires huge amounts of minerals and metals, which are used, for example, in batteries and solar cells. Due to the increasing demand for nickel for rechargeable batteries, Indonesia’s Tompotika peninsula on the island of Sulawesi is threatened by mining. This would be at the expense of tropical forests and coastal ecosystems, such as coral reefs, which in turn are crucial for addressing the climate, water and biodiversity crisis. The Alliance for the Tompotika Conservation (AlTo) and IUCN NL co-produced a video to tell the story of Tompotika.
Indigenous governments participated in an intercultural dialogue with Colombia’s Constitutional Court to discuss the effects of mercury pollution associated to illegal mining in their territories
The Court convened the dialogue after a long legal battle held over 20 years. Gaia Amazonas participated with the intention of promoting the opening of civic space by providing legal advice and helping prepare all the necessary materials for the conversation.
Commitments, collaboration and connections - takeaways from a Strategy Workshop on Women's Rights to Land and the Rio Conventions
During 3-5 July 2023, I had the privilege to participate in a Strategy Workshop on Women’s Land Rights and the Rio Conventions (climate change [UNFCCC]; biological diversity [UNCBD]; and combatting desertification [UNCCD]). Co-organised by the TMG Think Tank for Sustainability, the Robert Bosch Foundation, and the UN Convention on Combatting Desertification, the workshop was the first time that actors working across the three conventions were brought together to exchange and develop concrete actions on strengthening women’s land rights.
Green Livelihoods Alliance hails Supreme Court’s Writ of Kalikasan against Palawan miners, DENR
The Green Livelihoods Alliance in the Philippines lauds the Writ of Kalikasan issued by the Supreme Court of the Philippines last August 16, 2023, to compel the the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Mines and Geosciences Bureau, Ipilan Nickel Corporation and Celestial Nickel Mining and Exploration Corporation to provide evidence to dispel concerns regarding the potential harmful impact of a mining project to the Mt. Mantalingahan Protected Landscape.
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: A Historical Deal for Biodiversity
It was an awkward incident: right at the moment that the Chinese environment minister serving as chairman of the 15th Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biodiversity (CBD COP15) wanted to adopt what has been touted as the “Paris Agreement of biodiversity”, the representative of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) asked for the floor and stated that the agreement was unacceptable because it did not include a new independent Global Biodiversity Fund. It seems his words, spoken in French, were lost in translation for Chinese Environment Minister Huang Runqiu. He looked confused, quickly consulted the CBD Secretariat, and then lowered the hammer saying that the agreement was adopted as nobody had “objected”.
Indigenous youth in Bali are leading the way to keep their forest and lake sacred
August 9 commemorates the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples. Indigenous youth are working as agents of change at the forefront of the climate and biodiversity crises. The youth of the Adat Dalem Tamblingan Indigenous people in Bali are leading the way: in order to protect the biodiversity in their lake and forest and preserve the values of their ancestors, they are raising awareness and documenting their culture through videos. The Green Livelihoods Alliance interviewed them:
Exploring Locally Led Adaptation
Decisions on how to tackle the interconnected crises of climate change, biodiversity loss and entrenched poverty are mostly made far away from local contexts. Only a small proportion of resources are channelled to the local level for locally-designed and locally-led resilience initiatives. Locally Led Adaptation enables people to take the lead, by providing them the information, capacity, and resources they need to deal with the challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss and deprived livelihoods.
MOPP and PACs Strengthening Relationship Following SDI’s Intervention
With funding support from the Green Livelihoods Alliance Forest for a Just Future Program, the SDI and Milieudefensie conducted a research on the operations of MOPP in 2022. Findings from the research were released in February 2023. The findings showed social and environmental harms at the Maryland Oil Palm Plantation (MOPP).