The province of Mai Ndombe in the Democratic Republic of Congo has about 10 million hectares of forest. Of the population of 1.8 million living in Mai Ndombe, about 73,000 are indigenous people.
Author: Chris Lang
Jesse Ribot on REDD: “It is time to be angry about the abuses of rural communities”
Jesse Ribot is a Professor of Geography at the University of Illinois. In December 2017, Ribot wrote the foreword to a new book, “Global Forest Governance and Climate Change” edited by Emmanuel O. Nuesiri. Ribot’s contribution to the book is a blistering critique of REDD.
Philippine government labels human rights defenders “terrorists”
On 21 February 2018, the Philippines State Prosecutor of the Department of Justice filed a petition in a Manila court to declare the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People’s Army as terrorist organisations. The petition includes the names of more than 600 people, who the government claims are communist guerrillas.
Environmental organisations call on Democratic Republic of Congo not to open up its rainforest to loggers
Last week, José Ilanga the Director General in charge of forests at the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development in the Democratic Republic of Congo, announced that plans were underway to lift the country’s 16-year-old moratorium on new logging concessions. Today, more than 50 environmental and human rights organisations have written to key donor governments…
Brazil’s Federal Supreme Court has ruled against protecting the environment – including the Amazon rainforest
On 28 February 2018, Brazil’s Federal Supreme Court upheld the 2012 Forest Code as constitutional, including the Forest Code’s amnesty for landowners that illegally cleared forest before 22 July 2008.