Cultural erosion among indigenous groups in Venezuela brings new risks for Caura rainforest
Caura Futures is trying to change this by taking a non-conventional approach to conservation.
Themes: Conservation, Human rights, Parks, Poverty, Indigenous people, REDD
Unlike adjacent parts of the Amazon where the chief dangers to the forest ecosystem are conversion to industrial agriculture and cattle pasture, infrastructure projects, and fire, one of the most immediate threats to the Caura Basin is more subtle: cultural loss among the people who have traditionally served as its protector.
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Nov 16, 2011
Video - 'The Endorois Case - Litigating the Right to Development'
This clip was edited by Zoe Young from two earlier films, and screened at the United Nations OHCHR Social Forum, marking 25 Years of the Right to Development.
Themes: Human rights, Indigenous people, Parks, Conservation, Poverty
In the 1970s, the Endorois people of Kenya's Rift Valley were forced from their land to make way for the Lake Bogoria National Reserve. In 2010, they won their case before the African Commission on Peoples' and Human Rights, creating a major legal precedent for the Right to Development and recognising indigenous people's rights over traditional lands and resources.
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Nov 11, 2011
Kenya: Rights Groups Threaten to Sue KWS Over Samburu Perennial Land Disputes
The emerging struggle for the Laikipia East farm purportedly purchased by conservation NGOs
Themes: Conservation, Parks, Indigenous people, Human rights
"KWS purchase of the land was illegal because the Samburu have acquired rights to this land under the Kenyan Constitution and international law by residing on the land continuously for over 90 years."
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Nov 07, 2011
Indian tribe secures unprecedented rights to tiger reserve
In 1974 members of the Soliga tribe were evicted from their homes in the Biligirirangan Hills, Karnataka state, by a local government intent on protecting the state’s wildlife.
Themes: Conservation, Parks, Human rights, Poverty, Indigenous people
As recently as January, 1,500 Soliga thought they would lose their homes when the Sanctuary was re-classified as a tiger reserve in order to ‘protect’ 30 of the big cats.
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Nov 05, 2011
Landless Batwa Long for Return to Forests
They live destitute lives as squatters on other people's land and their hopes for government help remain just a pipedream.
Themes: Poverty, Human rights, Indigenous people, Parks
The ethnic group had for centuries lived in the jungles of Bwindi and Mgahinga with wildlife as hunters and fruit gatherers until 1991 when the government evicted them from their ancestral dwelling to pave way for the wild life conservation.
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Nov 01, 2011
Human Rights Violations by the Head of KaengKrachan National Park
Statement from the Karen Network for Culture and Environment, and NGOs, government networks and academic institutions - "Case of Human Rights Violations by the Head of KaengKrachan National Park against Ethnic Karen Villagers"
Themes: Human rights, Parks
According to the KaengKrachan National Park and Thai military, the villagers are illegally occupying this area and are accused of destroying forest resources, supporting and supplying the Karen National Union along the border and serving as a source of drug production.
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Oct 12, 2011
A very different kind of Walt Disney production
"The survival of the forests and the communities who depend on them in the DRC cannot be allowed to become hostage to the sale of carbon credits under the logic of REDD."
Themes: Conservation, Human rights, Parks, Poverty, REDD
"It is simply unacceptable for local communities.......to be forced to endure even more suffering, in order to allow a U.S. corporation to continue polluting the atmosphere while boosting its image as a protector of the forests through a relatively minor investment."
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Oct 05, 2011
Evading indigenous consultation in Bolivia
The TIPNIS - the Isiboro Secure Indigenous Territory and National Park - is both a national park and an autonomous territory held in common by the Yuracare, Moxeno and Chiman peoples.
Themes: Parks, Human rights, Indigenous people
Despite international requirements such as ILO Convention 169 and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, governments often avoid engaging in informed consultations with their indigenous populations.
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Sep 17, 2011
