Brazil scraps 11 new Amazon protected areas covering 2,316 square miles.

Themes: Conservation, Parks, Indigenous people

In recent months, the state deputies of the Legislative Assembly of Rondonia had moved to create 11 new protected areas in the Brazilian Amazon, covering about 600,000 hectares (2,316 square miles) of forest. However, the bancada ruralista agribusiness lobby, bitterly opposed to the action, launched a counter legislative measure, attaching the scrapping of the protected areas to an emergency state funding bill. On 25 September, that funding bill passed, effectively killing the conserved areas. Thirty years ago, only 2 percent of Rondonia’s forested land had been felled. That has increased to 28.5 percent today, the highest level in any Amazonian state due to a massive influx of land-hungry families, relocation encouraged by the government, along with the uncontrolled expansion of logging and land clearing for ranching. Conservationists fear that continued illegal incursions into conserved areas could result in escalating violence as land grabbers, illicit loggers and cattlemen conflict with indigenous groups and Brazilian law enforcement over Amazon land claims.

Court grants an interim order restraining the government of Tanzania from evicting residents in the land bordering Serengeti National Park

Press release from the East African Court and comments from The East African and The View from the Termite Mound

Themes: Conservation, FPIC, Indigenous people, Human rights, Pastoralists, Parks

East African Court of Justice, Arusha, 25th September, 2018: The First Instance Division has granted an interim order restraining the government of Tanzania and its agents from evicting the residents of Ololosokwan Village Council and 3 other Villages from the disputed land bordering Serengeti National Park.

Silence, Torture, Stupidity, Affidavits, and Soldiers in Loliondo

More from 'A View from the Termite Mound'

Themes: Conservation, Human rights, Indigenous people, Parks

The bizarre case of mistaken identity and illegal arrests; Thomson Safaris back to violence (if they ever stopped), using soldiers; Reported arrests of OBC rangers, but details are scarce and confused; Attack by soldiers at orpul in Ololosokwan; The government’s affidavits.... Now Summary of osero and OBC developments of the past decades

Fortress conservation in Kahuzi-Biéga National Park.

Evictions and extrajudicial killing.

Themes: Conservation, Human rights, Indigenous people, NGOs, Parks, FPIC

The Kahuzi-Biéga National Park in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo was established in 1970 by a Belgian photographer and conservationist Adrien Deschryver. In creating the park, almost 6,000 Batwa indigenous people were violently evicted from the area.

The future of forest conservation.

Themes: Conservation, Indigenous people, Human rights, Poverty, Parks

History is being made in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Local communities have participated in redrawing the borders of a nature reserve. They now seek effective participation in the management of the reserve. If successful, this experience could become a model for future conservation projects.

Indigenous peoples are crucial for conservation – a quarter of all land is in their hands.

Themes: Indigenous people, Human rights, Conservation

DRC adopts a strategy that will bolster community forestry, conservation group says.

Themes: Conservation, Human rights, Indigenous people, Parks, Policy

A new community forestry strategy in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) could help provide Congolese communities with a say in the management of the country’s forests. A group of local and international organizations, government agencies and community groups developed the strategy to strengthen the capacity of provincial authorities and ensure that the country’s community forestry laws do in fact include and benefit communities. The plan calls for an “experimental phase” over the next five years to gradually provide access to areas of the roughly 700,000 square kilometres (more than 270,000 square miles) of available forest through community management permits.

HOW CONSERVATION BECAME COLONIALISM.

Indigenous people, not environmentalists, are the key to protecting the world’s most precious ecosystems.

Themes: Conservation, Human rights, Indigenous people