#environmentalactivists — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #environmentalactivists, aggregated by home.social.
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Returning land to tribes is a step towards justice and #sustainability, say #Wabanaki, #EnvironmentalActivists
by Emily Weyrauch, December 1, 2020
"Last month, the Elliotsville Foundation gave back 735 acres to the #PenobscotNation, a parcel of land that connects two Penobscot-held land plots. While this return of land is a significant milestone in terms of the work of conservation groups in Maine, it also reflects a larger shift in thinking about land ownership, from property and caretaking toward #IndigenousStewardship.
"Before European settlers arrived, the land in Maine was stewarded by the Wabanaki people—a confederacy of five nations including Penobscot, #Passamaquoddy, #Maliseet, #Mikmaq and #Abenaki.
"Early treaties between Indigenous tribes and settlers were signed, but not upheld. Early Maine court cases set the precedent for #LandTheft. The state legally prohibited treaty obligations from being published in its constitution. Ever since the 1980 Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act, the state government has significantly limited tribes’ sovereignty and access to ancestral lands. Now, the Maine legislature is preparing to take up a bill that would make 22 law changes to the 1980 act to promote Wabanaki sovereignty and correct the impacts of the 40-year-old piece of legislation that placed Wabanaki people in a separate category from other federally-recognized tribes.
"Currently, a vast majority—90 percent—of land in Maine is privately owned, unlike in states like Nevada, Utah and Idaho, where the vast majority of land is owned by the U.S. government. Less than one percent of Maine land is owned by #Wabanaki people.
"To many Indigenous people, the legacy of white-led conservation groups in Maine and nationwide represents a failure of true environmental stewardship.
"'Across the country, land conservation groups and land trusts participated in depopulating, cutting off Indigenous access to certain lands and resources,' said Dr. Darren Ranco, associate professor of Anthropology and coordinator of Native American Research at the University of Maine.
"Dr. Ranco said that the history of environmental protection in the U.S. starts in the 19th century and focuses on two movements: conservation and preservation.
" 'On the one hand, you have people saying, ‘You want to use the public lands wisely’ — and that often led to extreme forms of exploitation through oil and gas contracts. The other side of it was, ‘Let’s just keep it wild and preserve it as-is, as a wild space,' " said Dr. Ranco, who is a member of the Penobscot Nation. 'Ironically, both of those approaches in the 19th century sought to displace Indigenous people.'
" 'A lot of the [conservation] practices in the past actually marginalized native people, and didn’t allow for their voice to be heard, and discouraged their voices,' said Suzanne Greenlaw, a #Maliseet forestry scientist and PhD student at the University of Maine.
" 'The native approach is very much in the center—we do harvest, but we harvest in a sustainable way that actually forms a relationship with the resource,” said Greenlaw, who conducts research on the sustainable harvesting of sweetgrass by Indigenous people.
"In fact, the way that Indigenous people understand land is markedly different from western ideas of ownership.
" 'The idea of private property puts us in this framing where the land, the water, and the air, and the animals, and everything else—all our relations—are meant to serve us, they are things below us, things to dominate and control and take ownership over,' said Lokotah Sanborn, a Penobscot activist.
" 'For us, it would be absurd to say ‘I own my grandmother,’ or ‘I own my cousin,’ or ‘I own my brother.’ You don’t talk about things like that. And so when we’re talking about land ownership, it’s that same idea —these are our relations, these are things that hold a lot of significance to us,' said Sanborn.
"While the planet’s Indigenous people make up less than five percent of the global population, they manage 25 percent of its land and support 80 percent of global biodiversity, research shows.
" 'We’ve been led down this path toward climate catastrophe and the extinction of millions of species, all to drive #ExtractiveIndustries,' said Sanborn. 'If we wish to reverse these things, we need to give land back into the hands of Indigenous peoples and to respect our ability to protect those lands,' said Sanborn.
"This growing recognition of Wabanaki #stewardship is part of the mission of First Light, a group that serves to connect Wabanaki people with conservation organizations who seek to expand Wabanaki access to land. Currently, 50 organizations are participating, including #MaineAudubon and #TheNatureConservancy.
"Lucas St. Clair, president of the Elliotsville Foundation, participated in First Light’s year-long educational program before fulfilling a request by #JohnBanks, Natural Resources Director for the Penobscot Nation, to return the 735-acre property to the Penobscot Nation. This comes four years after the foundation gave 87,500 acres of land to the federal government for the establishment of Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument. St. Clair said the foundation currently holds 35,000 acres of land.
" 'In the grand scheme of things, this is not a lot of land,' said St. Clair, about the foundation’s recent transfer of 735 acres. 'It was more about justice, relationship-building and awareness.'
" 'You see this move toward Indigenous knowledge and practices of management and conservation that have existed for hundreds of years, and this possibility with land conservation groups and Wabanaki people having a more central role in understanding and managing the lands is coming to the fore,' said Dr. Ranco.
"And while organizations undergo the learning and transformational processes that precede giving back land, and as the legislature and courts are taking up questions of Wabanaki sovereignty and stewardship, people are working on the ground everyday to re-imagine relationships with land.
"Alivia Moore, a Penobscot community organizer with the #EasternWoodlands #Rematriation collective, said that a crucial part of the work of expanding Indigenous access to land in Maine is recognizing and restoring the history of matriarchal Indigenous societies.
" 'To restore land to Indigenous #matriarchies is to make sure that everybody has what they need on and from the earth. There’s enough for everyone,' said Moore
"With #EasternWoodlandsRematriation, Indigenous people are growing their connections to #RegenerativeFoodSystems. Whereas cultural use agreements are more formal ways Indigenous people can access resources from the private land of people and organizations, Moore said other relationships can form and strengthen even informally.
"Years ago, a white farmer offered land to Indigenous women to use for farming to restore their connection to the land. That has been an ongoing relationship that became one of mutual exchange of information and resources, shared learning and shared meals, said Moore.
"The movement to give land back to Indigenous stewardship is not confined to a single organization, legal battle, or project. For Indigenous people—and a growing number of environmental organizations—it is a step toward justice and a sustainable future.
"'Land back is not just about righting past wrongs. The point of land back is that it’s the future, if we wish to adequately address and avoid further global devastation from climate change,' said Sanborn."
#LandBack #WabanakiConfederacy #Wabanakik #WabanakiAlliance #MaineFirstNations #Maine #TraditionalEcologicalKnowledge #IndigenousPeoplesDay
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#RSN: The Deadly Fight for #EnvironmentalJustice in #Honduras
The assassination of #Honduran #WaterDefender #JuanLópez offers a chilling reminder of the threats local leaders face in the most dangerous region in the world for #EnvironmentalActivists.
by Giada Ferrucci / NACLA
22 October 24"On September 14, 2023, Juan Antonio López, a prominent environmental defender, anti-corruption activist, and community and faith leader in Tocoa, Honduras, was murdered. He was in his car after attending a religious event at a local Catholic church when an unidentified hitman shot him multiple times. Due to previous death threats and harassment linked to his defense of the Guapinol River, López had received precautionary measures from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), the same measures that failed to protect fellow environmental defender Berta Cáceres from being killed in 2016.
"López’s assassination has sent shockwaves through the region, a chilling reminder of the violence and impunity that threaten environmental activists across Latin America and globally. His murder also reflects a disturbing pattern of attacks on those who dare to challenge economic and political powers in Honduras, a country that consistently ranks as one of the most dangerous in the world for environmental activists. These risks are especially pronounced in highly militarized areas like the Aguán Valley, where López lived, a resource-rich epicenter of land grabs and conflicts along the north coast. Dozens of Aguán environmental defenders have been systematically targeted, threatened, and murdered for more than a decade.
In 2023, 18 environmental defenders were killed in Honduras, the highest number per capita of any country in the world, according to Global Witness. Among the victims were three fellow Guapinol defenders: Aly Magdaleno Domínguez Ramos, Jairo Bonilla Ayala, and Oquelí Domínguez Ramos. In López’s case, authorities have arrested the alleged hitman and an accomplice.
"The Honduran state’s failure to protect López despite IACHR protective measures speaks to the broader issue of impunity and lack of political will to safeguard those who defend natural resources and human rights in the face of powerful economic interests. His murder also highlights systemic corruption, recently laid bare by scandals involving drug traffickers and high-profile political figures. In short, López’s assassination is part of a wider global crisis of relentless violence and persecution targeting activists who stand up to mining, logging, and other extractive industries."
Read more / support:
https://www.rsn.org/001/the-deadly-fight-for-environmental-justice-in-honduras.html#ReaderSupportedNews #IACHR #ExtractiveIndustries #Mining #Logging #LandDefenders #WaterIsLife #GuapinolRiver #BertaCáceres #HumanRights #AlyMagdaleno #DomínguezRamos #JairoBonillaAyala #OquelíDomínguezRamo #Capitalism #Greed #Corruption #CorporateColonialism
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Missing voices: The violent erasure of land and #environmental #defenders
September 2024
"This report and our campaign are dedicated to all those individuals, communities and organisations bravely taking a stand to defend human rights, their land, and our environment.
"Last year [2023], 196 people were murdered for doing this work.
"We also acknowledge that the names of many defenders who were killed last year may be missing, and we may never know how many more gave their lives to protect our planet. We honour their work too."
Read their names here:
https://www.globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/environmental-activists/missing-voices/#LandDefenders #WaterProtectors #HumanRightsDefenders #IndigenousActivists #EnvironmentalDefenders #EnvironmentalActivists #AfricanActivists #Indonesia #India #Phillipines #GlobalWitness
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“Another Appalling Year” of Violence Against #LandDefenders as Nearly 200 Killed Worldwide in 2023
via #DemocracyNow
September 12, 2024"At least 196 #environmental defenders were killed last year, most of them #Indigenous or #Afro-descendant. The deadliest country was #Colombia, where at least 79 land, water and climate defenders were killed. '2023 was yet another appalling year for those who want to protect their lands and their environment,' and this violence is likely to 'intensify as the consequences of the climate crisis become more apparent,' says Laura Furones, senior adviser to the land and environmental defenders campaign at #GlobalWitness, which published the numbers in a new report."
Read more:
https://www.democracynow.org/2024/9/12/global_witness_report_land_defenders#WaterDefenders #LandDefenders #ClimateDefenders #EnvironmentalActivists #IndigenousActivists
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#Lawsuits Have Become the Weapon of Choice Against #Activists
Legal intimidation suits known as “#SLAPPs” are becoming the norm for private #corporations and #governments trying to silence those who speak out on matters of public interest.
by Katie Redford
July 17, 2023“On May 31, #Atlanta #SWAT teams with riot gear and battering rams broke down #MarlonKautz’s door. Police dragged Kautz and two colleagues to jail in their pajamas, charging them with #MoneyLaundering and charity fraud.
“Kautz, Adele MacLean, and Savannah Patterson, are volunteer board members of the #NetworkForStrongCommunities Inc., which was incorporated in 2020. Through it, they are able to raise funds for the #AtlantaSolidarityFund (#ASF). Since 2016, the fund has bailed out people arrested in #Georgia while exercising their First Amendment right to protest and helped them find legal help.
“Recently, the ASF has supported Atlanta activists who have been protesting a new $90 million police training center known as '#CopCity,' arguing that it will rob Atlanta of a #VitalGreenLung and increase inequality in surrounding neighborhoods. The state of Georgia, on the other hand, has charged dozens with 'domestic terrorism' for participating in largely peaceful protests.
“Georgia authorities claim that the money laundering charge is based on evidence of a fund transfer to another organization, but they haven’t shared any other details about their allegations. Magistrate Judge Altman, who presided over the bail hearing, described the state’s evidence as 'unimpressive,' reinforcing the defendants’ claims that the arrests are politically, not legally, motivated.
“Shortly after the arrest, Governor Brian Kemp announced that the state would go after everyone involved, and Attorney General Chris Carr tweeted that the funders of the bail and legal defense fund were next. As an executive director at a climate philanthropy who made charitable donations to the ASF for legal defense, I had to wonder: Was my door going to be battered down next?
“Some of the accused may have trespassed or destroyed property, but to charge protesters with 'domestic terrorism' and a legal defense fund with money laundering is a cynical political act that bears no relation to the misdemeanors alleged. Any American committed to democracy should be interested in making sure these charges lose in both the court of law and the court of public opinion.
“These charges seek to silence and stop opposition to an unpopular development project. They also telegraph a message to others in the state and nationwide: We will not tolerate lawful protest in Georgia. This strategy is known as strategic litigation against public participation (SLAPP), which is an intimidation lawsuit, typically used by private corporations against those who speak out on matters of public interest. Various state governments are increasingly deploying this tactic, too.
“SLAPPs don’t usually win in court, but that’s not what they’re intended to do. Instead, they set out to threaten activists and drain the financial resources of social movements. They often unfold as years-long wars of attrition, where corporations and governments with disproportionately large resources grind down the financial, emotional, and legal capacities of activists. The threat of such a suit—typically brought against individuals or groups that confront powerful people or institutions—discourages free speech and association, chilling democracy itself.
“As a lawyer on the front lines of climate justice activism, I witnessed firsthand how a SLAPP was used to weaponize the law against free speech and association. During the mass protests by Indigenous water protectors and environmentalists campaigning against the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, SLAPPs were used widely.
“As #StandingRock became a global cause célèbre, the pipeline’s owners brought a $900 million #racketeering case against individuals and #NGOs like #BankTrack and #Greenpeace, alleging a vast global conspiracy to damage the company’s reputation and bottom line through fraud and #defamation.
“A federal court ultimately dismissed the lawsuit. But despite its eventual failure in court, the SLAPP tactic served its intended purpose: intimidation. #KrystalTwoBulls, one of the Standing Rock organizers that my organization represented, said that being sued tangled her up, practically and emotionally, in a legal battle that diverted her attention, taking her away from her work on the climate crisis and #Indigenous #LandRights.
“She began to #censor herself; she withdrew from her community and the movement, fearing that conspiracy allegations might extend to anyone she touched. And that, of course, is the point of these suits: to send out the message to either shut up or suffer the consequences.
“The case against #Kautz in #Atlanta similarly seeks to spark fear in activists and donors against supporting #FirstAmendment rights and legal defense. There is reason to believe that prosecutors may also be preparing #RICO charges against anti–Cop City activists, another dangerous use of the legal system to quell #grassroots movements.
“Since Standing Rock, over 20 states have passed '#CriticalInfrastructure' laws, which dramatically increase civil and criminal penalties related to protests at or near #FossilFuel projects. #DomesticTerrorism laws like that in Georgia have a similar intention: to weaponize the legal system against critics and stifle #DissentingVoices.
“I have no doubt that the majority of the domestic terrorism charges around Cop City will fail. But in the process, a political point will have been made, at the expense of the constitutional right to free speech. People protesting to protect the #environment and #climate will have been publicly accused of being harmful to America’s security, and they will have been forced to defend themselves—likely at exorbitant cost—against a 30-year jail sentence. Other potential activists will surely remember these charges when they consider whether it’s worth it to attend a concert, sit-in, or protest.
"The best strategy for stopping SLAPP suits in their tracks, whether they emanate from the private sector or are used by the state, is to keep speaking out, to support defamed activists, and to make the litigants pay a price. About 30 states have introduced legislation that protects against SLAPPs. And last year, #Jami Raskin introduced the #SLAPPProtectionAct of 2022 to #Congress. It must be reintroduced.
“My organization, #EquationCampaign, created a fund to provide lawyers and legal support for people who face this kind of legal retaliation for their environmental and climate work. I’m astonished at the wide range of people who need our help: from #farmers and ranchers to #journalists and #IndigenousActivists. All of them are on the receiving end of David vs. Goliath legal tactics that have long served powerful interests with near-endless resources.
“Absent federal protections, we all must be vigilant in the face of the egregious proliferation of #antiprotest laws and lawsuits.
“#Democracy and the future of this #planet require people to speak up. The law should serve—not silence—those of us who do."
https://www.thenation.com/article/activism/slapp-legal-intimidation-activists/
#ForestDefenders #DefendTheForest #StopCopCity #DirectAction #Fascism #RICO #CriminalizingDissent #WaterProtectors #EnvironmentalActivists #ClimateActivists #ClimateJustice #SilencingDissent #CorporateColonialism #EcoActivists #Censorship #HumanRightsViolations #Article20 #RightToProtest #SlowMarch #BigOilAndGas #EnvironmentalRacism #NoDAPL #DakotaAccess #StandingWithStandingRock
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#IndigenousActivists are risking their lives for #butterflies
In #CentralMexico’s forests, armed community members defend an iconic butterfly from cartel-backed logging.
By Anjan Sundaram Dec 20, 2023
"Every winter, northwest of Mexico City, the branches of the Oyamel fir trees ignite in orange, colored by the wings of #MonarchButterflies that have made the epic journey south from Canada and the United States.
"The forest is home to the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, created by presidential decree in 1986 and designated as a Unesco World Heritage site in 2008. The reserve shelters nearly 90 percent of the region’s over-wintering monarch butterfly population.
"Despite the fact that the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve is internationally protected, decades of degradation of the forest have posed an existential threat to this fragile ecosystem. Over the past four decades, the number of winter roosting sites for the butterflies in the reserve has fallen by over 50 percent, driven in part by illegal logging.
"After researchers found that 10 percent of total canopy cover had been lost between 2001 and 2012, the Mexican government ramped up enforcement of laws prohibiting logging. Government raids on illegal sawmills in the reserve sharply reduced logging. Yet according to an analysis by the World Wildlife Fund, the rate of forest degradation in the reserve tripled in 2022.
"To protect these forests — one of the few remaining wintering refuges for migrating monarchs — the local #Mazahua Indigenous community in Crescencio Morales has established its own security force.
"As these self-described forest defenders from Crescensio Morales fight to protect the monarch butterfly’s refuge, Indigenous leaders took the global stage at the United Nations annual climate change summit in Dubai to wage this battle on a second front: to convince world leaders to recognize the dangers environmental land defenders, particularly in Latin America, face and to build stronger mechanisms to support them.
"Around the world, environmental activists face increasing violence
"As their weapons indicate, the world’s environmental defenders need defending. Every day, the councils of Crescencio Morales’ guardia comunales work in shifts, patrolling their community as well as the boundary of the Monarch Biosphere Reserve. They say they are threatened by #sicarios, cartel #hitmen, who also benefit from the #IllegalTrade, and are allied with clandestine loggers who camp in the surrounding forests. The guardia comunales run well-armed patrols through their territories to prevent the sicarios from expanding their territories and cutting down the precious Oyamel fir trees.
"These conflicts put environmental #activists at great risk. Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador has promised to stop such violence, but the country remains among the world’s deadliest for those defending its pristine ecosystems. In January 2020, the body of the anti-logging activist and monarch butterfly defender #HomeroGómezGonzalez was found in a community near Crescencio. Activists suspect his death was connected to illegal logging disputes, the Guardian reported.
"The pressures that Mexico’s Indigenous activists face are emblematic of similar conflicts arising globally. Communities like Crescencio Morales are on the front lines of a battle to protect their local environment from a mounting scramble for natural resources, amplified by corruption.
"Members of Crescencio Morales’s community told me that in addition to fighting the illegal loggers, they also protect their forested mountains from #mining companies seeking to extract #gold, #silver, and #copper — #minerals now in high demand as the world transitions to clean energy technologies.
Land defenders around the world — in countries including Mexico, #Brazil, The Democratic Republic of the #Congo, and the #Philippines — face increasing violence as they defend their territories, according to #GlobalWitness, an accountability nonprofit that studies the link between #NaturalResources, #conflict, and #corruption. A 2023 investigation by the organization found that nearly 2,000 #activists have been killed over the last decade for their efforts to protect the planet, many of them from Indigenous communities trying to preserve their ecological heritage."The majority of recorded killings of #LandDefenders in 2022 took place in #LatinAmerica, making the continent perhaps the most dangerous place for #EnvironmentalDefense.
"#IndigenousLands include some of the planet’s most threatened landscapes
"The Mexican constitution protects the right of Indigenous communities’ self-determination — which, among other forms of #sovereignty, allows them to govern their land communally. In 2023, more than 50 percent of Mexico’s land fell under these legal regimes, termed #TierraComunal or #TierraEjidal — which roughly translates to communal land. This, according to a study by the Rights and Resources Initiative, is the highest percentage of land collectively owned by Indigenous and local communities of any country in the #Americas.
"This unique aspect of #MexicanIndigenous heritage means that broad swaths of land in Mexico remain protected. Yet mounting effects from climate change as well as political and economic pressures mean that some of Mexico’s Indigenous communities have been forced to block highways in protest and appeal for help to protect themselves, their communities, their ecosystems, and their way of life.
"#Mexico’s unique legal regime is especially important for Crescencio Morales because it offers communities in the area, with deep historical and cultural ties to the monarch butterflies, the legal authority to protect the reserve. But the law can only do so much to protect the refuge and its migrating butterflies from illegal logging pressure.
"To prevent destruction of the Monarch Biosphere Reserve, Indigenous activists have taken their security and that of the butterflies’ precious trees into their own hands. When I visited Crescencio Morales earlier this year, I walked with a community policeman named Aurelio during an armed patrol along his community’s border. (We are withholding his identity and using a pseudonym to protect him from being targeted by local violence.) At the summit of one of the hills surrounding the community, Aurelio told me Crescencio Morales had been forced to arm itself to protect its people, butterflies, and #Forests.
"The security situation in towns such as #CrescencioMorales is complex. According to other community leaders I spoke with this year, who wished to remain anonymous due to security risks, the locals did not trust the army or the state police, which they often suspected of cutting business deals with the cartels. Armed security volunteers who protected the community from #taladores, the illegal loggers, patrolled their town in pickup trucks.
"These hyperlocal battles — on highways and in open warfare by the #GuardiasComunales — have larger stakes: Mexican Indigenous environmental activists are defending landscapes that have implications for global #biodiversity. Without their efforts, environmentalists fear systemic #deforestation from illegal logging, which would not only destroy habitat for vulnerable species but also increase the #GreenhouseGas emissions that further drive #ClimateChange. And without the preservation of the Crescencio Morales Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, an important chain in a migration that connects ecosystems from Canada to Mexico would be severed."
Full article:
https://www.vox.com/climate/24006471/cop28-rising-danger-environmental-activism#ForestDefenders #JusticeForHomero #DirectAction #CriminalizingDissent #DefendTheForest #IndigenousRights #Extinction #EnvironmentalActivists #ClimateActivists #ClimateJustice #Fascism #DirectAction #SilencingDissent #CorporateColonialism #EcoActivists