COONAPIP, the National Coordinating Body of Indigenous Peoples in Panama, has withdrawn from the UN-REDD process in Panama. In a letter to the UN, COONAPIP explains that UN-REDD “does not currently offer guarantees for respecting indigenous rights [nor for] the full and effective participation of the Indigenous Peoples of Panama.”
Author: Chris Lang
Indonesian pulp giant APRIL is bulldozing Indigenous community forests
Once again, an Indonesian pulp and paper company is clearing the forests of indigenous communities to replace them with industrial tree plantations. Once again, villagers are protesting. Once again, the police and authorities are siding with the company.
The REDD contradiction: Deforestation and oil palm plantations in the Congo Basin
Since 2009, companies have announced new oil palm plantation projects in the Congo Basin covering a total area of 1.6 million hectares. Projects currently underway cover 500,000 hectares. A new report by Rainforest Foundation UK warns that vast areas of the Congo Basin forests are potentially threatened by the expansion of oil palm plantations.
Is the Knifton family behind Carbon Neutral Investments?
In November 2012, REDD-Monitor reported on a company called Enviro Associates. The BBC had secretly filmed Luke Ryan, a director of the company, making misleading claims about carbon credits as investments. Ryan said there was “serious money” to be made.
Indigenous rights and the Harapan Rainforest Project: A letter to PT REKI from the Bathin Sembilan of Simpang Macan Luar
Harapan Rainforest Project’s website states that, “The partnership between management of Harapan Rainforest and Bathin Sembilan Tribe who lives in the forest is going well from beginning.” But a recent letter from some of the Bathin Sembilan communities suggests that things may not be going as well as Harapan would like us to believe.