The case for Rights of Nature in face of the Mirador Open Pit Copper Mining Project

Ecuador is facing one of its most challenging cases for Rights of Nature as the government moves ahead with a contract for open pit mining in Ecuador. Please add your support by signing a petition of concerned citizens.

Support Rights of Nature in Ecuador - The Petition Site http://www.thepetitionsite.com/888/727/673/support-rights-of-nature-in-ecuador/



In March 2012, the government of Ecuador signed a contract with Ecuacorrientes (ECSA), a company of Chinese capital to extract copper, gold and silver from the Condor Highland in southeastern Ecuador. Today the humid tropical forest of the Condor Highland is one of the richest and most biodiverse areas of South America. The proposed Mirador Project includes 6 open pit industrial mining concessions in an area encompassing almost 10,000 hectares (25,000 acres). Mirador’s open pit mines will eliminate all the vegetation and the superficial soil layer of the mined area including 4,000 species of vascular plants that contain the richest biodiversity in South America. Over 6,000 hectares (15,000 acres) of protected forest in the Condor Highland will be affected. The strong case highlights the fact that Walsh Consultant, hired by ECSA to make the Environmental Impact Assessment, determined that species of amphibians and reptiles, endemic to the zone could go extinct since the fragile habitats which their life depends on will be completely removed with the project and water sources and aquifers will be polluted. In spite of this report the Environmental License was given and the contract signed.

Environmental, human rights, and indigenous organizations along with local community members from the Condor region in Ecuador have joined together to file a lawsuit to stop the Mirador Mining Project and protect fragile ecosystems in the area. The suit claims that the mine would violate the protected rights of ecosystems guaranteed in Articles 71-73 on Rights of Nature in the Ecuador Constitution. The case is now being analyzed by the 25th Civil Court of Pichincha against the Ministry of Non Renewable Resources, the Ministry of Environment and Ecuacorriente with the plaintiffs asking to stop the Mirador Mining Project using the precautionary principle to guarantee Rights of Nature, Right to Water and Right to a Decent Life.

US agribusiness could carve ten Manhattans out of African forest: Greenpeace

New York, 19 February 2013 – Massive carbon emissions and the destruction of habitats critical to threatened animal species – those will be just some of the results if a palm oil plantation by New York-based agribusiness Herakles Farms in Cameroon is not stopped, according to investigations from Greenpeace USA.

“The Herakles Farms project can be seen as part of a wider land grab in Africa. The company sees only the opportunity to make money, ignoring the fact it will destroy a rainforest area of great biodiversity and the livelihoods of local people who farm it,” said Rolf Skar, Forest Campaign Director with Greenpeace USA.

Released today, Herakles Farms in Cameroon: A showcase in bad palm oil production details how at least 86% of the 73,000-hectare concession area in the Southwest Region of Cameroon is dense natural forest. Up to 9.5 million tonnes of carbon would be released into the atmosphere were the area flattened – the equivalent of all the carbon emitted by nearly 7 million cars in one year [1].

The report details how Herakles is trying to push the project through despite being in contravention of national law, large discrepancies in its environmental impact study and opposition from residents.

“We have been working in this area for 17 years, the proposed plantation is located between five protected areas and any attempt to open it up will have catastrophic effects on the environment,” said Nasako Besingi, Director of the Cameroonian NGO, SEFE, which has campaigned against the project for several years.

Opponents to the project in Cameroon, including Besingi, have been subjected to intimidation and arbitrary arrest.

The concession area, roughly ten times the size of Manhattan, is home to endangered species such as the Nigeria-Cameroon Chimpanzee subspecies, the Forest Elephant and the Drill as well as numerous other rare amphibians, birds and animals.

"Herakles Farms has named Nestle, Unilever, McDonalds and Walmart as potential customers for its palm oil, which is impossible. These companies have committed to sourcing policies which bar them from buying palm oil from companies like Herakles," said Skar.

Herakles Farms’ subsidiary in Cameroon SGSOC withdrew its membership from the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, after last year displaying an inability to meet even the most basic standards of palm oil certification.

Palm oil production in Africa has expanded greatly in recent years and when done well can produce a needed boost for both national and local economies. But when done badly it can destroy areas of natural beauty and the livelihoods of local farmers.

Please check out the following link; at the end is a link which allows you to email Herakles Farms directly to let them know how you feel. Public pressure at this stage is critical!

http://m.greenpeace.org/international/en/high/news/Blogs/makingwaves/answer-from-herakles-farms-cameroon/blog/44009/

Greenpeace / Global Witness respond to World Bank IEG Forests Review

Washington, 11th February 2013 - The World Bank Board of Directors has blocked a call by independent evaluators to review the outcomes of the Bank’s support for industrial-scale logging in tropical rainforests. The evaluators concluded in a report published last Friday that such operations have not been effective in reducing poverty, the World Bank’s core mandate, or achieving sustainability. Despite these findings, the Board voted unanimously against a recommendation that the Bank review the effectiveness of its support for tropical forest logging.

“The very survival of tropical forests and the way of life of people who live in them is under threat, and the World Bank is in denial about its contribution to the problem,” said Rick Jacobsen of Global Witness. “As a public institution tasked with reducing poverty, the World Bank should take very seriously its own evaluators’ finding that its approach is not helping vulnerable forest communities. It’s time for the Bank to stop defending destructive logging practices in the name of development benefits that never materialize.”

The Bank has been instrumental in putting into place policies in many tropical countries that result in widespread logging of tropical rainforests. Yet according to a growing body of evidence, industrial-scale logging contributes to tropical deforestation while doing little to improve the lives of forest-dependent communities and indigenous peoples. Corruption and lack of government oversight further aggravate the problem. In the countries of Africa’s Congo Basin, home to the world’s second largest rainforest next to the Amazon, law enforcement in the logging sector is ineffective and corruption and cronyism are widespread. Recent reports from a government-appointed independent observer in the Democratic Republic of Congo, for example, found that many international logging companies are carrying out illegal activities.

“After 10 years of World Bank-led reforms in the DRC, roughly 150,000 km2 of rainforest remain in the hands of poorly regulated international logging companies, while communities are once again being left behind,” said Susanne Breitkopf of Greenpeace International. The reform process in the DRC has been marred with irregularities and widely criticized; meanwhile, a law that would support community management of forests has been stalled for years, and the Bank is financing a forest zoning process that is likely to earmark huge areas of rainforest for industrial logging.

While the Bank fiercely rejected the evaluators’ criticism of its support for industrial-scale logging in the tropics, it accepted seven other recommendations made in the report. Two of these focused on the need to provide more support for forest-dependent communities to allow them to directly manage their own forest resources. The Bank has not yet indicated how it plans to implement these recommendations. Breitkopf remains skeptical: “In order to reduce poverty and deforestation, the Bank needs to put land rights and community forest management at front and center of its projects, rather than making them cosmetic add-ons.”

MAJOR BREAKTHROUGH IN PROTECTION FOR INDONESIA’S REMAINING RAINFORESTS

Jakarta, Indonesia, 5 February 2013 - Greenpeace hailed today’s commitment from Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) to end deforestation as a major breakthrough in efforts to save Indonesia’s rainforests, after a decade of public pressure and recent negotiations with Greenpeace.

APP, one of the world’s largest producers of paper and packaging, has published a new ‘Forest Conservation Policy’ which, if implemented, could spell the end of its long and controversial history of rainforest destruction.

“We commend APP for making this commitment to end deforestation, but it’s what happens in the forest that counts and we will be monitoring progress closely. If APP fully implements its new policies it will mark a dramatic change in direction, after years of deforestation in Indonesia,” said Bustar Maitar, Head of Greenpeace’s Forest Campaign in Indonesia.

Indonesia’s rainforests are a vital habitat for endangered species including the Sumatran tiger and home to thousands of forest communities. The Indonesian government has identified the pulp and paper sector as a lead driver of deforestation in Indonesia, along with the palm oil sector.

This move by APP is the result of years of pressure from Indonesian and international NGOs challenging its role in large-scale rainforest clearance, including vital wildlife habitat and areas claimed by local communities.

Greenpeace’s campaign to transform Indonesia’s pulp and paper sector has seen ground-breaking investigations of APP’s operations and high profile campaigns around the world exposing the global brands whose paper and packaging is supplied from APP.

Many global brands suspended contracts with APP and introduced policies removing deforestation from their supply chains after a wave of public pressure inspired by Greenpeace. Over 100 companies have taken action, including Adidas, Kraft, Mattel, Hasbro, Nestlé, Carrefour, Staples and Unilever.

APP’s new commitment comes at a crucial time for Indonesia’s forests. The two-year moratorium on deforestation decreed by President Yudhoyono in 2011 expires in May this year.

“We urge Indonesia’s government to use the momentum of APP’s move to strengthen and extend the moratorium, starting with a review of all existing forest concessions. As a matter of urgency, the government should improve enforcement of forestry laws to help companies like APP implement their conservation policies. Only concerted action from government, industry and Indonesian civil society can finally turn the tide of extinction facing Sumatra’s tigers,” said Maitar.

APP, part of the Sinar Mas group, is one of just two global pulp and paper producers in Indonesia that has relied on rainforest fibre for its products used by household brands across the world.

Greenpeace has today written to the CEO of APRIL (Asia Pacific Resources International), Indonesia’s second-largest pulp and paper producer, to ask when his company plans to make a similar commitment to end deforestation.