#indigenousrights — Public Fediverse posts

Reindeer and rare-earth minerals: Swedish politicians take aim at Indigenous Sami in mining dispute https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2026/sep/07/reindeer-and-rare-earth-minerals-swedish-politicians-take-aim-at-indigenous-sami-in-mining-dispute #Sweden #Indigenous #Sami #UNDRIP #mining #reindeer #IndigenousRights

Reindeer and rare-earth minerals: Swedish politicians take aim at Indigenous Sami in mining dispute https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2026/sep/07/reindeer-and-rare-earth-minerals-swedish-politicians-take-aim-at-indigenous-sami-in-mining-dispute #Sweden #Indigenous #Sami #UNDRIP #mining #reindeer #IndigenousRights

Reindeer and rare-earth minerals: Swedish politicians take aim at Indigenous Sami in mining dispute https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2026/sep/07/reindeer-and-rare-earth-minerals-swedish-politicians-take-aim-at-indigenous-sami-in-mining-dispute #Sweden #Indigenous #Sami #UNDRIP #mining #reindeer #IndigenousRights

Reindeer and rare-earth minerals: Swedish politicians take aim at Indigenous Sami in mining dispute https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2026/sep/07/reindeer-and-rare-earth-minerals-swedish-politicians-take-aim-at-indigenous-sami-in-mining-dispute #Sweden #Indigenous #Sami #UNDRIP #mining #reindeer #IndigenousRights

Reindeer and rare-earth minerals: Swedish politicians take aim at Indigenous Sami in mining dispute https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2026/sep/07/reindeer-and-rare-earth-minerals-swedish-politicians-take-aim-at-indigenous-sami-in-mining-dispute #Sweden #Indigenous #Sami #UNDRIP #mining #reindeer #IndigenousRights

#News: Save Our Springs campaign by @GreeenpeaceNZ launches urgent petition to expand #Kahurangi National Park. The move aims to protect Sams Creek from #mining and safeguard the sacred Te Waikoropupū Springs. Sign the petition to protect our pristine waters! #Maori #IndigenousRights @palmoildetect #HumanRights 💧🌿
https://community.greenpeace.org.nz/petitions/expand-kahurangi-national-park?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=Palm+Oil+Detectives&utm_campaign=publer

#News: Save Our Springs campaign by @GreeenpeaceNZ launches urgent petition to expand #Kahurangi National Park. The move aims to protect Sams Creek from #mining and safeguard the sacred Te Waikoropupū Springs. Sign the petition to protect our pristine waters! #Maori #IndigenousRights @palmoildetect #HumanRights 💧🌿
https://community.greenpeace.org.nz/petitions/expand-kahurangi-national-park?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=Palm+Oil+Detectives&utm_campaign=publer

#News: Save Our Springs campaign by @GreeenpeaceNZ launches urgent petition to expand #Kahurangi National Park. The move aims to protect Sams Creek from #mining and safeguard the sacred Te Waikoropupū Springs. Sign the petition to protect our pristine waters! #Maori #IndigenousRights @palmoildetect #HumanRights 💧🌿
https://community.greenpeace.org.nz/petitions/expand-kahurangi-national-park?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=Palm+Oil+Detectives&utm_campaign=publer

#News: Save Our Springs campaign by @GreeenpeaceNZ launches urgent petition to expand #Kahurangi National Park. The move aims to protect Sams Creek from #mining and safeguard the sacred Te Waikoropupū Springs. Sign the petition to protect our pristine waters! #Maori #IndigenousRights @palmoildetect #HumanRights 💧🌿
https://community.greenpeace.org.nz/petitions/expand-kahurangi-national-park?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=Palm+Oil+Detectives&utm_campaign=publer

#News: The #Indigenous #Dayak Benuaq in #Borneo are forming human barricades as an #RSPO-certified #palmoil company bulldozes their #forest home. Violent evictions prove that "sustainable palm oil" is pure greenwash. Protect #Indigenousrights. #BoycottPalmOil 🌴🚜🔥 @palmoildetectives
https://eia-international.org/news/palm-oil-firm-fails-to-act-as-clearing-and-evictions-re-start-in-indigenous-lands-in-borneo/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=Palm+Oil+Detectives&utm_campaign=publer

#News: The #Indigenous #Dayak Benuaq in #Borneo are forming human barricades as an #RSPO-certified #palmoil company bulldozes their #forest home. Violent evictions prove that "sustainable palm oil" is pure greenwash. Protect #Indigenousrights. #BoycottPalmOil 🌴🚜🔥 @palmoildetectives
https://eia-international.org/news/palm-oil-firm-fails-to-act-as-clearing-and-evictions-re-start-in-indigenous-lands-in-borneo/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=Palm+Oil+Detectives&utm_campaign=publer

#News: The #Indigenous #Dayak Benuaq in #Borneo are forming human barricades as an #RSPO-certified #palmoil company bulldozes their #forest home. Violent evictions prove that "sustainable palm oil" is pure greenwash. Protect #Indigenousrights. #BoycottPalmOil 🌴🚜🔥 @palmoildetectives
https://eia-international.org/news/palm-oil-firm-fails-to-act-as-clearing-and-evictions-re-start-in-indigenous-lands-in-borneo/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=Palm+Oil+Detectives&utm_campaign=publer

#News: The #Indigenous #Dayak Benuaq in #Borneo are forming human barricades as an #RSPO-certified #palmoil company bulldozes their #forest home. Violent evictions prove that "sustainable palm oil" is pure greenwash. Protect #Indigenousrights. #BoycottPalmOil 🌴🚜🔥 @palmoildetectives
https://eia-international.org/news/palm-oil-firm-fails-to-act-as-clearing-and-evictions-re-start-in-indigenous-lands-in-borneo/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=Palm+Oil+Detectives&utm_campaign=publer

“There were elders who started to get sores in their mouths because of the pesticides. We use our mouths to help in basket weaving,” Young says.

“And then if you’re cooking in these baskets and the material has been sprayed, then people can be ingesting it.”

Link: https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2026/08/maidu-native-groups-denounce-record-glyphosate-spraying-national-forests-california-bayer-forest-service/

#Forest #Nature #Climate #Environment #Pollution #Pesticides #Herbicides #Toxins #IndigenousRights #NativeAmericans #NaturalResources

Independence from Canada could cost Albertans a lot more than it saves them
#Indigenous #Alberta #Canada #IndigenousRights #Politics #Taxes #AlbertaIndependence #Economy #AlbertaSeparation #CanadianPolitis #Economics #Federalism #Pensions
#Referendum
https://the-14.com/independence-from-canada-could-cost-albertans-a-lot-more-than-it-saves-them/

Philippines: Revised Guidelines Threaten Indigenous Rights https://www.hrw.org/news/2026/08/04/philippines-revised-guidelines-threaten-indigenous-rights #Phillipines #IndigenousRights #UNDRIP #FPIC

"This is a zombie economy, sustained by extraction and speculation rather than a progressive vision for #Canada’s future." https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/the-new-rules-of-carneys-carve-out-economy

#CarneyCons #neoliberalism #corporateCapture #cdnpoli #IndigenousRights #environment #justice

Canada's Liberals particularly with #MarkCarney have no real interest in social responsibility, #humanrights, #labourjustice, socialjustice, environmentaljustice, or #IndigenousRights domestically or internationally. https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/carney-eliminating-canadian-ombudperson-for-responsible-enterprise-9.7232539

#cdnpoli #CorporateCorruption #CorporateResponsibility

We all knew this could happen!!!

#Uranium Ore Truck Collision Endangered #Navajos near #Shonto on #NavajoNation

May 11, 2026, via @bsnorrell.blogspot.com

"A uranium ore haul truck traveling from a uranium mine in the Havasupai's homeland in the Grand Canyon, to a mill site in the White Mesa Ute's community in Utah, was struck by a vehicle, which exposes the danger from the #radioactive haul trucks covered only with tarps. The trucks travel from #EnergyFuels #PinyonPlain #UraniumMine in the #GrandCanyon, from #Havasupai ancestral land, through #Flagstaff, and across #Navajo and #Hopi lands before reaching Energy Fuels mill site on Ute ancestral land in #Utah." -- Censored News

Read more:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2026/05/uranium-ore-truck-collision-endangered.html

#USPol #NativeAmericanNews #PinyonPlainUraniumMine #NoUraniumMining #UraniumMilling #NuclearColonialism #TheLongFight #WhiteMesa #Ute #WhiteMesaUte #UraniumMilling #ProtectWhiteMesa #BlandingUtah #BluffUtah #EnvironmentalActivism
#PinyonPlain #IndigenousRights
#NoUranium #ProtectTheSacred
#WhiteMesaUte #WhiteMesaMill #WhiteMesaUraniumMill
#WaterIsLife #DontNukeTheFuture
#NoUraniumMining #NukingTheUte
#UteNation #NoNukes #FourCornersToFukushima #MotherEarth #ProtectMotherEarth
#DefendTheSacred #Environment
#EnvironmentalRacism

The fight isn't over to #ProtectTheSacred!

"#NDNCollective, a Rapid City-based nonprofit that advocates for #IndigenousRights, is among the lawsuit plaintiffs.

" 'From the #LandDefenders who occupied two active drill pads for a week, to fighting in the courts through multiple lawsuits and a temporary restraining order, today’s win is multi-faceted and offers a blueprint for future #LandDefense fights,' NDN said Friday in a press release.

"Future fights include one scheduled for the week of May 18. The state Board of Minerals and Environment is scheduled to conduct a hearing in Hot Springs on a proposal to conduct exploratory drilling for #uranium in the southern #BlackHills.

"That project would be near #CravenCanyon, where the rock walls are carved with Native American petroglyphs believed to be thousands of years old."

Read more:
https://southdakotasearchlight.com/2026/05/08/company-withdraws-from-controversial-black-hills-exploratory-drilling-project/

#ProtectTheSacred #IndigenousResistance #LakotaYouths
#BlackHillsCleanWaterAlliance

Made this during Trump's first term. Felt relevant to dust off while the billionaires are still pretending to pick sides.

Usually my work doesn't lean so political: https://foxandthistle.studio/

#foxandthistle #Illustration #PoliticalArt #Satire #PoliticalSatire #EditorialIllustration #Mastodon #Art #Resist #Trump #NFLDraft #Washington #Commanders #Redskins #DigitalArt #MastoArt #IndigenousRights

Made this during Trump's first term. Felt relevant to dust off while the billionaires are still pretending to pick sides.

Usually my work doesn't lean so political: https://foxandthistle.studio/

#foxandthistle #Illustration #PoliticalArt #Satire #PoliticalSatire #EditorialIllustration #Mastodon #Art #Resist #Trump #NFLDraft #Washington #Commanders #Redskins #DigitalArt #MastoArt #IndigenousRights

Made this during Trump's first term. Felt relevant to dust off while the billionaires are still pretending to pick sides.

https://foxandthistle.studio/

#foxandthistle #illustration #politicalart #satire #politicalsatire #editorialillustration #mastodon #art #resist #trump #nfldraft #washington #commanders #redskins #digitalArt #mastoart #indigenousrights

Made this during Trump's first term. Felt relevant to dust off while the billionaires are still pretending to pick sides.

https://foxandthistle.studio/

#foxandthistle #illustration #politicalart #satire #politicalsatire #editorialillustration #mastodon #art #resist #trump #nfldraft #washington #commanders #redskins #digitalArt #mastoart #indigenousrights

Made this during Trump's first term. Felt relevant to dust off while the billionaires are still pretending to pick sides.

https://foxandthistle.studio/

#foxandthistle #illustration #politicalart #satire #politicalsatire #editorialillustration #mastodon #art #resist #trump #nfldraft #washington #commanders #redskins #digitalArt #mastoart #indigenousrights

This #ecosystem that is #sacred and #ceremonial to the #local #Indigenous people is in #danger of being #destroyed. Raise your #voice to #protect it! #environment #biodiversity #BiodiversityCrisis #culture #bipoc #IndigenousRights #IndigenousSoverignty
https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-the-us-forest-service-take-back-permit-for-drilling-at-sacred-place-pesla-in-the-black-hills-national-forest/?link_id=3&can_id=aa47064a7d4d123f7d91c07720acdb80&source=email-re-urgent-sacred-site-in-danger&email_referrer=email_3134004&email_subject=re-urgent-sacred-site-in-danger&&

“This decision puts our river, our homelands, and our Treaty rights at risk. We will not allow #mining companies or governments to decide the future of the Ring of Fire without us.” https://www.nationalobserver.com/2026/02/27/news/ring-of-fire-mine-project-assessments?nih=5R7c1Jp8vEqqCRhTFxdSpuPbuGcu6cvJEkp2Gf2U8xc

#cdnpoli #onpoli #IndigenousRights #UNDRIP #HumanRights #NeverTrustLiberals #NeverVoteConservative

#Trump's Plan to Seize #Greenland Would "Militarize the Arctic," Trample #IndigenousRights

#DemocracyNow, January 7, 2026

"Following the U.S. attack on Venezuela, the Trump administration has renewed its campaign to take over Greenland, which has been controlled by Denmark for more than 300 years. The White House says it’s considering 'a range of options,' including the use of military force. Danish Prime Minister #MetteFrederiksen has warned that if the U.S. were to attack Greenland, it would spell the end of #NATO.

" 'Greenland is not up for sale,' says #AajuPeter, a Greenlandic #Inuit activist and attorney, who says #IndigenousGreenlanders want their independence from both the U.S. and Denmark.

"We also speak with analyst Pavel Devyatkin, who says the U.S. is 'acting like a #RogueState' and enacting a policy of 'pure imperialism.' "

Read more / watch / listen:
http://www.democracynow.org/2026/1/7/greenland_trump

#USPol #WorldPol #DonroeDoctrine #MoronDoctrine #MonroeDoctrine #USImperialism #NoNewWars #NoWar #WarMongers #USWarCrimes #CorporateColonialism #IndigenousSovereignty

I am a native Malaysian person, specifically from the Sabah region. It seems that, although I am a native of this land, it feels like nothing belongs to me here. Capitalists and cronies own the land; our rights to electricity are being denied, and our voices are constantly suppressed or harassed.

#Sabah #Malaysia #IndigenousRights #LandRights #NativeVoices #CronyCapitalism #EnergyJustice #ClimateJustice #HumanRights #SocialJustice #Decolonise #AntiColonial #PowerToThePeople #CommunityRights #CulturalSurvival #VoiceForTheVoiceless #JusticeForSabah #NoToLandGrabbing #ProtectOurLand #ElectricityForAll #SystemicOppression #RiseUp #WeAreStillHere #Resist #LandBack #EnergyAccess #SabahStruggles #PeopleOverProfit #StandWithSabah #FightInjustice #NativeLand #OrangAsal #Borneo #MalaysianPolitics #Equity

A unanimous decision made by the #Sipeknekatik #FirstNation chief and council, have moved to ban #NovaScotia #Premier Tim Houston, #AttorneyGeneral Scott Armstrong and Minister of #Indigenous Affairs Leah Martin from their lands and events.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CYVArsBuNE0

#APTNnews​ #APTN #IndigenousRights #Decolonization #NSpoli #Maritimes #IndigenousSovereignty #KKKanada #LandBack #UNDRIP #IndigenousNews #Banned #Mikmaw

In Canada, the histories of residential school survivors are being challenged by a surge of denialism. Dismantling Denialism confronts those attempts to rewrite history — and explores what it will take to defend truth and reconciliation.

APTN Investigates: Dismantling Denialism | By Christopher Read

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=y-Pv8-99Sp4&list=WL&index=1&pp=gAQBiAQB

#APTNInvestigates #APTN #ShortDocs #HotDocs #CDNpoli #KKKanada #Colonialism #Documentary #DocFilm #Racism #Indigenous #ResidentialSchool #TruthBeforeReconcilliation #ColonialAbuses #ColonialCrimes #Injustices #ChildAbuse #IndigenousGenocide #NativeCanada #TruthAndJustice #Whitewashing #CrimesAgainstHumanity #IndigenousRights #HumanRights #Denialism #SystematicAbuse #SystemicRacism #EthnicCleansing #DecolonizeYourMind #Decolonization #BelieveVictims #SupportVictims

Indigenous Peoples Fight Climate Change

In the wake of the worst wildfires in living memory in Mexico and Central America in 2024, news outlets were looking for someone to blame. Howler monkeys and many species of parrots perished in the blazes. Slash and burn farming practices by Belize‘s indigenous communities were singled out as a primary cause. Yet this knee-jerk reaction is not evidence based and doesn’t take into account forces like corporate landgrabbing for mining and agribusinesses like meat, soy and palm oil.

Belize’s indigenous Maya communities are rebuilding stronger based on the collective notion of se’ komonil: reciprocity, solidarity, traditional knowledge, gender equity, togetherness and community.

In the wake of horrific #wildfires in #Belize and #Mexico caused by #climatechange, #indigenous #Maya are rebuilding using the notion of se’ komonil: reciprocity #community and solidarity. #indigenousrights #landrights #BoycottPalmOil @palmoildetect https://wp.me/pcFhgU-924

Written by James Stinson, Senior Research Associate and Evaluation Specialist, Young Lives Research Lab, Faculty of Education, York University, Canada and Lee Mcloughlin, PhD student, Global Sociocultural Studies, Florida International University This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Driven by extreme heat and drought, some of the worst wildfires in living memory raged across Mexico and Central America through April and May 2024.

News agencies reported howler monkeys dropping dead from trees, and parrots and other birds falling from the skies.

In Belize, a state of emergency was declared as wildfires burned tens of thousands of hectares of highly bio-diverse forest. Farmers suffered huge losses as fires destroyed crops and homes, and communities across the country suffered from hazardous air quality and hot, sleepless nights. Many risked their lives to fight off the approaching fires.

As the wildfire crisis subsided with rains in June, public attention shifted toward identifying the causes and allocating blame. Many singled out the “slash and burn” farming practices in Belize’s Indigenous communities as the primary cause. This simple knee-jerk reaction ignores the underlying causes of the climate crisis, are scientifically unfounded and stoke resentment of Indigenous Peoples.

Fanning the flames

On June 5, one of Belize’s major news networks ran a story with the headline “Are Primitive Farming Techniques Responsible for Wildfires?” The story placed blame for Belize’s wildfires on “slash-and-burn farming”, arguing that “there has to be a shift away from this destructive means of agriculture.”

The story was followed by an op-ed published online asserting that “because of the increased amounts of escaped agricultural fires, aided by climate change, global warming and drought, slash and burn has become more of a problem than the solution it once was.” This sentiment was further reinforced by Belize’s prime minister, who declared that “slash аnd burn has to be something of the past.”

While some of the recent fires in Belize were connected to agricultural burning — and poorly managed fire-clearing practices can have negative air-quality impacts — blaming “slash and burn” for the wildfire crisis ignores the larger context and conditions that made it possible, namely global warming.

May 2024 was the hottest and driest month in Belize’s history. This extreme heat is part of a broader global trend, with June 2024 marking the 13th consecutive “hottest month on record” globally.

More fundamentally, these statements confuse other forms of slash-and-burn agriculture with the distinct “milpa” systems employed by Indigenous people in Belize.

Indigenous knowledge undermined

Throughout Belize, Indigenous Maya farmers commonly practise a form of agriculture referred to as milpa in which fire is used to clear fields and fertilize the soil. Within this system, small areas of forest are chopped down, burned, and planted with maize, beans, squash and other crops. After being cultivated for a year or two, the field is then left fallow and allowed to regenerate back to forest cover while the farmers move on to a new area within a cyclical pattern where areas are reused after a regenerative period.

https://youtu.be/ok787HRp_gA

Commonly derided as slash-and-burn farming, milpa has long been perceived as environmentally destructive. This perspective has been perpetuated by long-standing myths and misconceptions that portray the farming practices of non-Europeans, and specifically the use of fire, as wasteful and irrational.

In Belize, this negative view of slash and burn has driven many colonial and post-colonial interventions to modernize Maya farming practices.

Recent research, however, has shown that the lands of Indigenous Peoples around the world have reduced deforestation and degradation rates relative to non-protected areas. The southern Toledo district of Belize, where the majority of Maya communities are located, boasts a forest cover rate of 71 per cent, significantly higher than the national average of 63 per cent.

Further research has found that the species composition of contemporary Mesoamerican forests has been shaped by the agricultural practices of ancient Maya farmers.

In Belize, fire has been found to play a role in promoting ecosystem health and resilience and intermediate levels of forest disturbance caused by milpa can increase species diversity. Well-managed milpa farming can support soil fertility, result in long-term carbon sequestration and enriched woodland vegetation.

Research has also shown that previous studies of deforestation in southern Belize significantly overestimated the rate of deforestation due to milpa agriculture by not accounting for its rotational process.

Many researchers now believe that milpa is a more benign alternative, in terms of environmental effects, than most other permanent farming systems in the humid tropics. Indeed, findings such as these have led to a growing appreciation for the role of Indigenous Peoples in advancing nature-based and life-enhancing climate solutions.

Unfortunately, research in the region has also found that climate change is undermining the ecological sustainability of milpa farming by forcing farmers to abandon traditional practices and adopt counterproductive measures in their struggle to adapt. In some cases, this has resulted in a decrease in the biodiversity and ecological resilience of the milpa system. This issue is compounded by the decreasing participation of young people, resulting in a further generational loss of traditional ecological knowledge.

Together, these issues are serving to alter and undermine a livelihood strategy that has proven sustainable for thousands of years. However, rather than call for Maya farmers to abandon slash and burn, we encourage support for the self-determined efforts of Maya communities to adapt to this changing climate. https://www.youtube.com/embed/ok787HRp_gA?wmode=transparent&start=0 A video documenting the Maya response to the 2024 wildfire crisis.

Planting seeds of collaboration

Since winning a groundbreaking land rights claim in 2015, Maya communities in southern Belize have been working to promote an Indigenous future based on principles of reciprocity, solidarity, traditional knowledge, gender equity and, most significantly, se’ komonil, the Maya notion of togetherness and community.

Led by a collaboration of Maya leaders and non-governmental organizations, work toward this has included efforts to revitalize traditional institutions and governance systems, as well as the development of an Indigenous Forest Caring Strategy and fire-permitting system. In an effort to encourage and support the participation of youth in this process, Maya leaders have collaborated with the Young Lives Research Lab at York University to develop the Partnership for Youth and Planetary Wellbeing.

Building on previous research with Maya youth, the project has produced innovative youth-led research and education on the impacts of climate change, the importance of food sovereignty, traditional ecological knowledge and the struggle to secure Indigenous land rights in Maya communities. This work has been shared with global policymakers at the United Nations and local audiences in Belize.

Rather than fanning the flames of climate blame, we must work together to revitalize Indigenous knowledge systems and plant seeds of climate collaboration and care.

Written by James Stinson, Senior Research Associate and Evaluation Specialist, Young Lives Research Lab, Faculty of Education, York University, Canada and Lee Mcloughlin, PhD student, Global Sociocultural Studies, Florida International University This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

ENDS

Read more about human rights abuses and child slavery in the palm oil and gold mining industries

SOCFIN’s African Empire of Colonial Oppression: Billionaires Profit from Palm Oil and Rubber Exploitation

Investigation by Bloomberg exposes that despite being RSPO members, #SOCFIN plantations in #WestAfrica are the epicentre of #humanrights abuses, sexual coercion, environmental destruction, and #landgrabbing. Operating in #Liberia, #Ghana, #Nigeria, and beyond, SOCFIN’s…

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Palm Oil Threatens Ancient Noken Weaving in West Papua

Colonial palm oil and sugarcane causing the loss of West Papuans’ cultural identity. Land grabs force communities from forests, threatening Noken weaving

Read more

Family Ties Expose Deforestation and Rights Violations in Indonesian Palm Oil

An explosive report by the Environment Investigation Agency (EIA) details how Indonesia’s Fangiono family, through a wide corporate web, is linked to ongoing #deforestation, #corruption, and #indigenousrights abuses for #palmoil. Calls mount for…

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West Papuan Indigenous Women Fight Land Seizures

Indigenous Melanesian women in West Papua fight land seizures for palm oil and sugar plantations, protecting their ancestral rights. Join #BoycottPalmOil

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Greasing the Wheels of Colonialism: Palm Oil Industry in West Papua 

A landmark study published in Global Studies Quarterly in April 2025 has revealed that the rapid expansion of the #palmoil industry in #WestPapua is not only fuelling #deforestation, #ecocide and environmental destruction but…

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2. Contribute stories: Academics, conservationists, scientists, indigenous rights advocates and animal rights advocates working to expose the corruption of the palm oil industry or to save animals can contribute stories to the website.

Wildlife Artist Juanchi Pérez

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Mel Lumby: Dedicated Devotee to Borneo’s Living Beings

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Anthropologist and Author Dr Sophie Chao

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Health Physician Dr Evan Allen

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The World’s Most Loved Cup: A Social, Ethical & Environmental History of Coffee by Aviary Doert

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How do we stop the world’s ecosystems from going into a death spiral? A #SteadyState Economy

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3. Supermarket sleuthing: Next time you’re in the supermarket, take photos of products containing palm oil. Share these to social media along with the hashtags to call out the greenwashing and ecocide of the brands who use palm oil. You can also take photos of palm oil free products and congratulate brands when they go palm oil free.

https://twitter.com/CuriousApe4/status/1526136783557529600?s=20

https://twitter.com/PhillDixon1/status/1749010345555788144?s=20

https://twitter.com/mugabe139/status/1678027567977078784?s=20

4. Take to the streets: Get in touch with Palm Oil Detectives to find out more.

5. Donate: Make a one-off or monthly donation to Palm Oil Detectives as a way of saying thank you and to help pay for ongoing running costs of the website and social media campaigns. Donate here

#belize #boycottPalmOil #boycottpalmoil #childLabour #childSlavery #climatechange #community #goldMining #humanRights #hunger #indigenous #indigenousActivism #indigenousKnowledge #indigenousRights #indigenousrights #landRights #landgrabbing #landrights #maya #mexico #palmOil #poverty #slavery #wildfires

Rethinking internal trade: the urgent need for a harmonized approach
#IndigenousPeoples #Canada #InternalTrade #Economy #TradeBarriers #GDP #InterprovincialTrade #Growth #Politics #Provinces #IndigenousRights #Tariffs #IndigenousEconomies #Reconciliation
https://the-14.com/rethinking-internal-trade-the-urgent-need-for-a-harmonized-approach/

Gaddi Community’s Demand for Inclusion in Land Records to Trigger Assembly Siege.

https://aliyesha.com/sub/articles/news/display/hp_gaddi_community_demand_inclusion_land_records

#himachal #himachalpradesh #india #news #press #Gaddi #GaddiCommunity #LandRecords #TribalRights #Kangra #AssemblySiege #SocialJustice #IndigenousRights

Enjoy tracker free reading with us. #privacy #privacymatters

2025 #UraniumFilmFestival - The Long Fight

USA, 2025, Directed, shot and edited by Ella Warnick, English, 17 min.

"In southeastern Utah, just a few miles upstream of the White Mesa Ute Mountain Ute Tribal reservation, sits the last operating uranium mill in the United States. The Long Fight tells the story of one family's decades-long resistance to the mill and its toxic reign over their ancestral homeland."

Watch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaWVirPquKk&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ellawarnick.com%2F&embeds_referring_origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ellawarnick.com&source_ve_path=OTY3MTQ

FMI:
https://www.ellawarnick.com/documentary

#NuclearColonialism #TheLongFight #WhiteMesa #Ute #WhiteMesaUte #UraniumMilling #ProtectWhiteMesa #BlandingUtah #BluffUtah #EnvironmentalActivism
#PinyonPlain #IndigenousRights
#NoUranium #ProtectTheSacred
#WhiteMesaUte #WhiteMesaMill #WhiteMesaUraniumMill
#WaterIsLife #DontNukeTheFuture
#NoUraniumMining #NukingTheUte
#UteNation #NoNukes #FourCornersToFukushima #MotherEarth #ProtectMotherEarth
#DefendTheSacred #Environment
#EnvironmentalRacism #InternationalUraniumFilmFestival

@thenarwhal
I pull this #meme out often, regarding the government's partnership with ecocidal corporations to exploit more unceded Indigenous lands. It's how #Canada really puts the #RECON in #reconciliation.

#BCpol #CDNpoli #CSIS #Colonialism #Capitalism #WhitewashingThieves #GreenwashingThugs #BanCorporateLobbyists #StopCorporateWelfare #Ecocide #EcoJustice #IndigenousRights #UNDRIP #Landback #NativeLand #Unceded #CorporateGreed #GreedKills #Corruption #Bribery #DirtyDeals #BackroomBribes #PublicTransparency #PublicAccountability #PublicScrutiny #CrimesAgainstHumanity #RCMP #CIRG #FederalDomesticTerrorists #Inhumane #RemoveQualifiedImmunity #neoliberals #ColonizersLieCheatSteal #ColonialCriminals #StopTheWhitewash #KKKanada

“Weapons of Health Destruction...” How Colonialism Created the Modern Native American Diet

The Impact of Systematic Oppression on Indigenous Cuisine in the United States

#Frybread, sometimes called “#DieBread” or a “weapon of health destruction,” has multiple origin stories, and they all involve oppression and perseverance.

by Andrea Freeman, July 24, 2024

Excerpt: "On the hit television show #ReservationDogs, the only series ever to feature all #Indigenous writers, directors, and main cast members, the Indian Health Center invites rapper Punkin’ Lusty, played by real-life #Mvskoke rapper #StenJoddi, to perform his hit song '#GreasyFrybread.' [A song Dr. Lowry played during today's broadcast.] The occasion is #Diabetes Awareness Month. Lusty raps,

Baby girl looking deadly (Yeah!)
Why she acting all Rezzy (Yeah!)
Hotter than a pan of frybread grease!
Have a Native hittin’ Powwow Beats!
Gotcha Auntie in the kitchen
Like no he didn’t
Got her Gramama’s skillet
Like she ’bout to kill it!

The song solidly locates frybread within Indigenous culture.

Sofkee [a corn drink or soup] on the burner
Hokte Hokte [woman] head turner
Water baking powder
Choppin’ up that white stuff
All purpose flour
Gotta mix it right up
Hit the Rez with the Shits
They eats it right up! Watch the grease pop
Watch her waist drop
She got that blue bird bag [Blue Bird flour comes in a twenty-pound cloth bag and claims to be “The Native American Frybread Secret”]
In her tank top
he got that white powder
All over everything
She gettin’ to bussin’ man
But we ain’t cousins man!
We from the same tribe
But a different clan
She my Rez Bunny
And I’m her Red Man
She love my Tattoos
And my two braids
Frybread money at the Creek Fest get paid! On that!”

Foregrounding this song in the Health Center’s battle against diabetes underscores the other side of frybread’s legacy, also emblazoned on a T-shirt that announces 'Frybread: Creating #Obesity Since 1860.' #Cheyenne and #HudulgeeMuscogee #IndigenousRights activist #SuzanShownHarjo, who vowed to give up frybread as a New Year’s resolution, explains, 'Frybread is emblematic of the #LongTrails from home and freedom to confinement and #rations. It’s the connecting dot between healthy children and obesity, #hypertension, diabetes, #dialysis, #blindness, #amputations and #SlowDeath.' Reflecting on stereotypes that dehumanized Indigenous people to justify #colonization, such as the worn-out trope of Indians drinking 'firewater,' Harjo asserts that frybread love is another way to portray them as 'simple-minded people who salute the little grease bread and get misty-eyed about it.'

"In The #HeartbeatOfWoundedKnee, scholar #DavidTreuer introduces health educator #ChelseyLuger, who is #Ojibwe and #Lakota. Chelsey talks to Indigenous communities about the perils of frybread as part of her efforts to steer their diets in new directions, even in the face of limited food options. 'Sometimes people get defensive, but we are able to make the conversation positive. We say we grew up with it and like it and we say frybread is not power. We say frybread kills our people. It’s that serious. It causes diabetes and heart disease. We have to look at those colonial foods as a kind of enemy.' "

Read more:
https://lithub.com/weapons-of-health-destruction-how-colonialism-created-the-modern-native-american-diet/

#colonization #Colonialism #Decolonize #NativeAmericans #TraditionalFoods #FoodInsecurity #FoodSovereignty #IndigenousFoodSovereignty #Comods #CommodityBoxes #CulturalErasure

From sanctuary to shipping lane: LNG Canada tankers threaten BC’s whale haven
#IndigenousPeoples #BC #Canada #GitgaatNation #IndigenousStewardship #IndigenousRights #LNGCanada #BCWhales #DouglasChannel #HumpbackWhales #FinWhales #MarineLife #Oil #Gas
https://the-14.com/from-sanctuary-to-shipping-lane-lng-canada-tankers-threaten-bcs-whale-haven/

Greasing the Wheels of Colonialism: Palm Oil Industry in West Papua 

A landmark study published in Global Studies Quarterly in April 2025 has revealed that the rapid expansion of the #palmoil industry in #WestPapua is not only fuelling #deforestation, #ecocide and environmental destruction but also perpetuating colonial-era patterns of land dispossession, #violence, and erasure of #Indigenous #Papuan communities #BoycottPalmOil

#Study finds #palmoil expansion in #WestPapua isn’t just fuelling #deforestation but also colonialist-style #landgrabbing #violence and systematic erasure of #Indigenous #Melanesian cultures and languages. #Boycottpalmoil 🌴🪔☠️🩸🚜🔥🧐⛔️ @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2025/06/22/greasing-the-wheels-of-colonialism-palm-oil-industry-in-west-papua/

https://youtu.be/nRagiSBNT4A

Researchers Szilvia Csevár and Yasmine Rugarli found that Indonesia’s government has shifted its palm oil plantation focus from Sumatra and Borneo to West Papua, granting private companies nearly unlimited concessions over millions of hectares—including protected forests and Indigenous lands. “Oil palm plantations and associated infrastructure in West Papua have proliferated on a massive scale,” the authors report, noting that this expansion is driven by global demand and a system ‘rigged’ by corruption and profit motives, with little regard for the rights of indigenous peoples and their sovreignty.

The study highlights that large companies overwhelmingly rely on monoculture and invasive agricultural methods, despite evidence that intercropping and smallholder farming could minimise environmental harm. “Profit-driven large companies remain reluctant to adopt these practices; a disturbing status quo resulting from a rigged system of corruption in Indonesia,” Csevár and Rugarli write.

The findings echo long-standing warnings from West Papuan leaders and human rights advocates. Douglas Gerrard, writing for the Office of Benny Wenda, describes how “the most critical years of West Papuan history are told entirely from the colonisers’ perspective,” contributing to a process of historical erasure that keeps Indonesia’s occupation and its consequences out of international view. Gerrard urges the world to “put West Papua back into history”—a call that resonates with the study’s documentation of ongoing land theft and displacement.

Human rights groups and scholars have repeatedly accused the Indonesian state of using military force to suppress Papuan self-determination and facilitate resource extraction. As Jacobin’s Ben Knobloch reported in 2021, “Indonesia’s repression hasn’t broken the West Papuan freedom struggle,” but it has resulted in widespread violence, mass displacement, and the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Papuans since the 1960s. The International Center on Nonviolent Conflict notes that West Papua’s decolonization was never completed, and that “the people of West Papua have the legal right to self-determination because the decolonisation process following Dutch rule was never completed.”

Csevár and Rugarli’s study underscores that the palm oil industry is now a central force in this ongoing conflict. The authors warn that unless global consumers and policymakers act, West Papua’s forests—and the cultures they sustain—will continue to be sacrificed for cheap palm oil. “The continued expansion of oil palm plantations in West Papua is inseparable from the broader colonial dynamics and the ongoing denial of Indigenous rights,” the study concludes.

As calls grow to boycott palm oil linked to deforestation and human rights abuses, Papuan leaders and their allies urge the international community to recognise the region’s history, support Indigenous land rights, and demand an end to the colonial exploitation of West Papua.

Original Paper: Greasing the wheels of colonialism: Palm oil industry in West Papua

Csevár, S., & Rugarli, Y. (2025, Apr 26). Greasing the wheels of colonialism: Palm oil industry in West Papua. Global Studies Quarterly, 5(2), Article ksaf026. https://doi.org/10.1093/isagsq/ksaf026

Abstract

This article explores the links between colonial conflict, palm oil extraction, and displacement of Indigenous communities in Indonesia’s Papua region (“West Papua”). In West Papua, Indigenous communities are systematically subjected to extractive violence and forced displacement, with large part of these incidents closely linked to the palm oil industry. Unsound practices of plantation development to satisfy demands of economic growth has led to an increased militarization of Indigenous lands with a particularly harmful impact on Papua women. West Papua’s colonial origins led to decades of military rule, underdevelopment, and political exclusion entrenching a power structure through violence that can only be sustained in continuing conditions of oppression. The palm oil industry functions within a predatory political economy where revenue-generating activity depends on inequality and vulnerability to violence. This article exposes the continuance of colonial mentality, in which an exploitative and deeply unequal economy is sustained to control wealth and resources. This not only fuels multiple forms of insecurities for Papua communities but also diminishes the importance of their traditional environmental knowledge for climate adaptation. Building on the concept of human security, we conceptualize the intersecting threats created by conflict, plantation development, ethnicity, and gender in West Papua as a humanitarian catastrophe, contributing to the development of a principled understanding of such harms that will ultimately disrupt the existing colonial order.

Introduction

While the palm oil sector continues to be a growing industry, it begs many questions and belies a range of controversies. As certain impacts of large-scale plantation development have by now become unavoidable, particularly on the regional and local levels, there is a growing need to understand the linkages between political and economic forces that are driving social conflict, extraction activities, and their impact on Indigenous communities. There is a growing body of evidence highlighting the various gender dimensions of the interaction between environmental issues and security (Detraz 2017, pp. 146–173; UN Environment Programme [UNEP] 2020; Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance [DCAF] 2022). Access to, use of, and control of natural resources are well-known drivers of conflict and insecurity, which play out against the backdrop of a range of interrelating power structures and pre-existing structural inequalities impacting upon gender and ethnic relations as factors of social differentiation. The variety of forms in which environmental insecurity manifests is difficult to generalize, and the way in which it will interact with other forms of insecurity will greatly depend on the specific context and personal circumstances of women and men. With reference to the situation in West Papua, this article aims to highlight the inextricable links between the palm oil industry and racialized gender-based harms impacting historically oppressed communities. It seeks to demonstrate that contemporary legal and policy frameworks remain rooted in a colonial mentality and therefore are inherently incapable of addressing structural causes of such harms that are supported by the economic interests of the state.

One of the main characteristics of extractive activities on Indigenous lands is the presence of security forces, either state or private or both, to secure economic state interests in the region. Such practices of militarized extraction have a particularly harmful impact on Indigenous communities trying to defend their lands and resources (Human Rights Council [HRC] 2013). In West Papua, oil palm plantations and mining projects are routinely guarded by military forces, creating a widespread and systematically racist pattern of rights abuses targeting Indigenous Papuans (Csevár 2020, pp. 5–9). In fact, military repression against Indigenous communities opposing oil palm plantation development on their traditional lands is endemic across the Indonesian archipelago (Forest Peoples 2021). In the Philippines, legitimate objection to national development projects by Indigenous groups has led to the entrenchment of paramilitary units on traditional lands to violently suppress community opposition (Alternative Law Groups Inc et al. 2009, pp. 55–64). The decades-long campaign of “red-tagging” by the Philippine government, labeling Indigenous and human rights defenders as supporters of the communist insurgency, has created a narrative in which violent attacks against Indigenous Peoples are not only deemed tolerable but are in fact encouraged (Amnesty International 2021; International Commission of Jurists [ICJ] 2022). Similar patterns and issues are frequently reported across different regions (Global Witness 2023), with Indigenous Peoples systematically subjected to extractive violence, albeit with different degrees of intensity, both in the Global South and the Global North (Inter-American Commission on Human Rights [IACHR] 2015; Hitchcock 2019, para. 302; Nachet et al. 2021). Such practices have led to persistent patterns of environmental racism in the Global South, where environmental justice remains elusive due to the inherent male and white bias maintaining racial hierarchies at the expense of communities of color (Batur and Weber 2017; Falzon and Batur 2018), with a particularly harmful impact on Indigenous women. At the same time, environmental security threats greatly weaken women’s ability to cope with and adapt to climatic changes. This is particularly disturbing as environmental knowledge—traditionally created, held, and transmitted by Indigenous women—is crucial for climate change resilience (McGregor et al. 2020; Spencer et al. 2020; Climate Investment Funds [CIF] 2021; Mekonnen et al. 2021).

Despite disturbing patterns of violence, international response to these concerns has been slow, if not completely absent. International discourse remains embedded in outdated state-centric approaches to peace and security and is thus unable to provide an effective response to human suffering not associated with national security interests as a military matter (Chinkin and Kaldor 2017). Conceptions of human security, developed mainly by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP 1994, 2022), continue to be downplayed in security narratives, and efforts to adapt international frameworks to interconnected layers of violence remain uneven and precarious. While frameworks such as environmental peacebuilding or the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda promote human security, they remain rooted in the traditional mentality of a narrow understanding of security, which puts virtually exclusive emphasis on the security of the territory and capital of the state (Csevár 2021). The intersecting threats created by environmental pressures, gender and ethnicity, and traditional environmental knowledge systems are thus largely discounted, and the international security discourse continues to draw on Western traditions shaped by pervasive racial and cultural biases. It is such colonialist approaches that this article takes issue with. The central argument is that contemporary frameworks enable the continued colonial dispossession of Indigenous Peoples by the extractive industry, supporting an abnormal political economy in which revenue-generating activity depends on violence and coercion. It exposes how the palm oil industry continues to reproduce harmful colonial binaries (civilized vs. primitive) and how neoliberal demands of endless economic growth and security of capital dismiss, often violently, any Indigenous resistance to unsound and exclusionary extraction practices on traditional lands. Building on the concept of second-generation human security, we conceptualize the situation in West Papua as a humanitarian catastrophe, shifting the focus away from national security interest to local needs and priorities, blurring harmful binaries, and ultimately disrupting the existing colonial order.

Section 2 of this article starts with describing issues of internal colonialism and contested indigeneity in Southeast Asia. It then highlights the concept of second-generation human security, which has gained some attention in literature as a consequence of the inadequacy of contemporary frameworks to provide effective responses to situations of exacerbated conflict, and human suffering. This forms the conceptual basis for analysis in the following sections. Section 3 describes the palm oil industry in West Papua, highlighting its coloniality, which has created an exploitative and deeply unequal economy facilitating dispossession of and violence against Indigenous Papuans. Section 4 illustrates the intersectional harms experienced by Papua women as their traditional roles and knowledge are eroding as a consequence of the loss or degradation of their lands. Section 5 offers some concluding remarks.

Colonialism and Indigeneity: Gaps in Human Security Models

The post-WWII era of decolonization marked a shift towards denouncing colonialism. The right to self-determination was adopted in numerous United Nations (UN) instruments, serving as a foundational norm for the UN-led process of decolonization. While most of the territories under European colonial power have indeed achieved some measure of self-determination, the process of decolonization continues to be shaped by certain antimonies (Anghie 2004). Established and dominated by Western powers, UN primacy in decolonization efforts and post-colonial state-building has led to serious concerns as such an approach was thought to “simply change[d] the form of European hegemony, not its substance” (Otto 1996, p. 340), a process that entrenched power relations established during colonial times and thus contributing to continuing oppression of historically marginalized communities. Indeed, international law—largely a Eurocentric system (Bedjaoui 1985; Koskenniemi 2011)—was instrumental in applying decolonization to some situations of violent domination, but not to others. The “salt-water theory” was introduced to exclude Indigenous communities from decolonization efforts by establishing a binary system in which colonial domination was assumed to exist only between a European and non-European entity (Bennett 1978). Also known as the blue-water theory, this concept served to prevent a broad application of Chapter XI of the UN Charter on non-self-governing territories. Under this theory, decolonization efforts were applied only to geographically separate overseas territories, and thus excluded self-determination by native communities residing within the territory of UN member states (Ofuatey-Kodjoe 1977; Stavenhagen 1990, pp. 5–6).1 At the same time, the historical trajectory of indigeneity as a concept of international law tracks to some extent that of decolonization. Grounded in the peoples’ right to self-determination, and as a result of decades of tireless efforts by Indigenous representatives, Indigenous rights have gradually gained acceptance by the international community (Anaya 2004) and have been formally espoused by the General Assembly with the adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007. This process too was however largely shaped by Western understandings of indigeneity centered around white settler colonial experiences on the American continents, Australia, and New Zealand (Muehlebach 2001; Merlan 2009). The prevalent UN standards of decolonization and indigeneity are therefore too narrow, largely ignoring ethnic and cultural differences within the borders of the newly independent states exposing traditionally marginalized communities to various forms of internal colonization.

Settler colonialism is best conceptualized as a structure rather than a singular historical event, underscoring its permanent, ongoing and systemic nature (Wolfe 1994, 96; Wolfe 1999, 2). Unlike other colonial formations, settler colonialism’s primary goal of elimination is not race but the expropriation of land. This process is perpetuated through various mechanisms, seeking to “destroy to replace” (Wolfe 2006, 388), which differs from genocide as it encompasses not only physical elimination but also cultural erasure, assimilation, and the systematic destruction of Indigenous identities, land fragmentation and a wide array of biocultural assimilation (O’Brien 2010). Settler colonial narratives actively erase Indigenous Peoples while memorializing them as relics of the past—perpetuating the myth of the “vanishing Indian” (Kēhaulani Kauanui 2016, 3) which serves as an ideological tool to deny Indigenous presence and rights, thereby legitimizing settler claims to land (O’Brien 2010). The colonization experiences in Southeast Asia, as well as that of several African nations, are distinct from this practice in several ways. In its most renowned work, Fanon (1963) provides a powerful analysis of colonial structures, pointing to the emergence of new post-colonial forms of imperialism and political distortions entrenching racialized forms of violence and leading to the continued exploitation of former colonies. Tracing colonial techniques and strategies, Casanova (2007) explains internal colonization as the dominance and exploitation of natives by natives. Indeed, the concept of internal colonization refers to the practice of racialized classification of minority ethnic groups as subordinate to the dominant ethnicity within the borders of a single state. Such “domestic subset of a larger colonial (or imperial) paradigm” (Chávez 2011, p. 786) bears on all social relations, including political and extractive violence. Southeast Asia is particularly suitable to illustrate the various patterns and harmful impacts of internal colonization on traditional communities, closely linked to a narrow understanding, or even non-existence, of indigeneity in the region. Post-colonial state forming in most Southeast Asian countries denied the existence of specific Indigenous groups on the territory, claiming that the concept “internationalist indigeneity” (Merlan 2009, p. 303), as developed within the UN system, is inherently linked to European domination through settler colonialism and therefore inapplicable to Southeast Asian territories, which did not experience significant European settlement. What has become known as the “Asian controversy” (Kingsbury 1998), a peculiar all-or-nothing approach to indigeneity, is a common feature in qualifying indigeneity in the region (Baird 2020).

While there are notable parallels with the patterns of classic European settler colonialism, the current neo-colonial administration in West Papua clearly exhibits methods of internal colonization as well. Indonesian settlers under the Dutch colonial administration became the post-colonial elite and ruling class, perpetuating colonial structures and systems after independence. Their position was further strengthened by a large-scale, government-sponsored migration from other parts of Indonesia in successive years, increasingly marginalizing Indigenous Papuans, reducing them to a minority and dispossessing them of their ancestral lands (Chauvel 2007; International Coalition for Papua [ICP] 2020, 168–175). Given Indonesia’s historically discriminatory policies toward ethnic minorities within its territory, internal colonization has thus emerged as the most prevalent political structure. As a result, the concept of indigeneity remains highly controversial in Indonesia, where the government has explicitly denied the applicability of international standards of indigeneity on its territory. Instead, it refers to “customary law societies,” which are thus seemingly deprived from the possibility of asserting their Indigenous rights to land and resources as a matter of international law (Permanent Mission of Indonesia 2022). Such approaches were challenged by Gray (1995, p. 35), who linked the existence of Indigenous communities to the notion of internal colonialism, asserting that they are “colonized peoples (. . .) who are prevented from controlling their own lives, resources, and cultures.” Indeed, despite initial rejections on the state level, native communities across Southeast Asia have increasingly invoked the concept of indigeneity as an attempt to redress long-standing ills and grievances concerning land use and cultural extinction, albeit with various degrees of success (Baird 2019). Indonesia’s despising position notwithstanding, local organizations in West Papua have embraced the concept and assert their identity as Indigenous on the international level (Franciscans International 2022).

There might not be much sense in making clear distinctions between settler and internal colonialism or internationalized and local standards of Indigenous identity. Beyond the definitions and labels we apply, colonialism in any form shows high levels of oppression and violent events targeting traditional communities, which continue to be perceived as inferior to those in power, their opposition to development and extractive activities on their lands viewed as disruptive to the existing hierarchical order established during colonial times. Indigenous peoples thus remain disproportionately vulnerable to colonial depredation and military violence, their social status and security deteriorating. As traditional approaches prioritize the political and economic security of the state at the expense of marginalized communities, the emergence of the human security concept showed a promising attempt to generate alternative responses to such pervasive forms of human insecurity. Since its inception with the UNDP in 1994, human security has generated significant academic discussion (Martin and Owen 2014). In any event, the concept was both welcomed and met with concern, regularly criticized for its lack of precision, which gave rise to various interpretations of its scope (Paris 2001). In its report, the Commission on Human Security (CHS 2003, p. 4) defined human security as “the vital core of all human lives in ways that enhance human freedoms and human fulfilment”; a “threshold approach” embracing both human rights and human development, which seemingly reconciled the debate surrounding the scope of human security (Owen 2004, 2014), referring to a set of minimum or basic standards to guarantee survival, livelihood and dignity.

A common understanding of a vital core of human security suggests a homogenous concept, which is of course not the case. What constitutes minimum conditions of tolerable livelihood and dignity, survival even, will largely depend on the prevalent gender dynamics and societal norms within the local community. Human security is thus highly contextual. There have been incremental, though sporadic attempts to implement the human security framework in global policy and legal tools. Within the environmental peacebuilding discourse studies tend to adopt a narrow focus and analyse the environment-security nexus based mainly on the potential of environmental issues to influence and aggravate armed conflict (Swain and Öjendal 2018). While the benefits of environmental peacebuilding are significant, Ide (2020) cautioned about its potential to generate harmful and exclusionary practices. Such practices result from discounting the linkage between environment, security and ethnic and gender equality, feeding into broader concerns about international law normalizing systemic forms of environmental violence (Cusato 2021). At the same time, these linkages are significantly marginalized in the WPS framework as well, which has so far ignored environmental factors as drivers of violence against women, and thus failing to adopt an intersectional human security approach (Csevár 2021; Yoshida and Céspedes-Báez 2021). Indeed, WPS implementation and knowledge production is heavily criticized by its whiteness, whereby Global South actors are generally viewed as mere recipients of norms developed by actors in the Global North (Haastrup and Hagen 2021; Henry 2021; Parashar 2019). In parallel, linking environmental concerns and security issues has gained more attention in global debates, which, however, fail to properly consider the gender and ethnicity dimensions of environmental security (HRC 2015; Detraz 2017, para. 16). As they privilege theories advanced by Western actors to understand environmental insecurity in the Global South, colonialist assumptions and biases remain inherent in these frameworks (Kashwan and Ribot 2021; Sultana 2022). Current human security frameworks thus fail to address the abusive ethnic, racial, and gender paradigm of conflict situations, which has given rise to calls for reinterpretation. Chinkin and Kaldor (2017, pp. 479–526) argued powerfully for the need of a “second-generation human security.” A new model which builds on the existing critique on human security, shifting the focus away from top-down solutions introduced by dominant powers to an effective adoption of bottom-up approaches prioritizing local knowledge and needs. They reconstruct human security as a strategy of resistance, where insecurity emanates from a specific context that is generated by interrelated factors such as gender or ethnicity. International intervention should be developed based on local priorities, aimed at assisting local people, rather than imposing pre-set structures designed to advance Western geo-political or economic agendas.

Adequate responses to long-standing and mostly unresolved colonial practices remain one of the key gaps in human security models. Contemporary approaches often suit the geo-political or economic agenda of the dominant powers, rather than the needs of affected communities. The current study understands second-generation human security as an important opportunity to reflect on the interactions of power structures such as colonialism, militarism, and resource extraction. There is an urgent need for the model to account for complex histories of political violence rooted in colonial encounters, elucidating how unsound practices of extraction on Indigenous lands create a predatory political economy reproducing harmful colonial binaries and thus entrenching inequality and vulnerability affecting traditional communities the most. The next section examines the palm oil industry in West Papua and its implications for Indigenous Papua communities.

Colonial Manifestations of the Palm Oil Industry

The palm oil industry in West Papua operates within the context of an ongoing political conflict rooted in the region’s colonial history. Amid global security concerns during the Cold War, Indonesia’s invasion and continued military action in West Papua forced the Netherlands, the colonial power at the time, into accepting a bilateral agreement which transferred control of West Papua to Indonesia after a brief period of UN administration (Agreement No. 6311, 1962). The promised act of self-determination2, the 1969 UN-supervised Act of Free Choice, was marred by coercive military tactics by Indonesian forces (UN 1969; UNSF Background). Following such a frustrated process of decolonization and West Papua’s forceful integration (Drooglever 2009), Indonesia maintains a military control over the territory, entrenching power relations established through violence and facilitating extractive practices associated with continuing insecurity stemming from ethnic and racial marginalization of native Papua communities. As the connections between colonial grievances, violent Indonesian rule and the extractive industry in West Papua were discussed elsewhere (Csevár 2020, 2021), the focus of this section is on highlighting current practice enabling the palm oil industry to treat Indigenous lands as “empty land” at the expense of Indigenous Papuans to satisfy neoliberal demands of endless economic growth.

Oil palm plantations across Indonesia are expanding at a rapid pace, solidifying its position as the world’s largest exporter of palm oil. Building on the already extensive exploitation in other regions, the Indonesian government has shifted its plantation development focus to West Papua by granting private companies with concessions for virtually unlimited period of time and ensuring their access to an area of millions of hectares, encompassing not only agricultural land, but also protected forests and Indigenous settlements (awasMIFEE! 2012; Wakker 2005, p. 20). Since the late twentieth century, oil palm plantations and associated infrastructure in West Papua have indeed proliferated on a massive scale (Gaveau et al. 2021). As the global demand for palm oil continues to intensify, its trading price is relatively low, promoting an economy of scale whereby producers can remain competitive only by maintaining small prices and providing high quantities of the commodity (Tandra et al. 2022), necessitating invasive agricultural methods, such as monocultures, to maximize production. Despite growing evidence on intercropping providing a more sustainable method for palm oil cultivation, already implemented by smallholder farmers (Slingerland et al. 2019), profit-driven large companies remain reluctant to adopt these practices; a disturbing status quo resulting from a rigged system of corruption in Indonesia (The Gecko Project 2018, 2020).

As planation development in West Papua has grown, so have socio-ecological concerns about Indonesian palm oil. The rapid growth of plantations is affected by large-scale conversion of forests and traditional lands resulting in significant environmental harm, loss of biodiversity, and Indigenous livelihoods (Adrianto, Komarudin, and Pacheco 2019; Susanti and Maryudi 2016; Runtuboi et al. 2020). The scale of deforestation and displacement driven by plantation development in West Papua is thus significant. Mega-projects such as the billion-dollar business “Tanah Merah” (The Gecko Project 2018, Prologue) or the “textbook land grab” (Ginting and Pye 2013, p. 161) Merauke Integrated Food and Energy Estate (MIFEE) destroys millions of hectares of rainforests and Indigenous lands. At the same time, they operate within the context of military oppression, with direct roots in colonial histories, where resource extraction activities are characterized by a “steady marginalisation of [I]ndigenous Papuans, with top-down projects imposed from outside, and often accompanied by the threat of, or the use of violence to enforce plans” (Marr 2011; see also Csevár 2020). West Papua’s political conflict and environmental crises are thus inextricably intertwined—spatial evidence gathered by INTERPRT, an independent project investigating environmental crimes, reveals a disturbing territorial convergence between state violence and ecological devastation driven by corporate interests, underscoring a direct territorial link between genocide and ecocide. Consequently, the landscape transformation is not merely emblematic of a political conflict but represents a tangible conflict eroding the land, soil, water, people, fauna, and flora extending over time and space across West Papua (Center for Creative Ecologies 2018).

The harmful impacts of “colonial-style large scale corporate monoculture” (Li 2018, p. 328) did not go unnoticed by Indonesia’s key trade partners. Becoming increasingly aware of the environmental and social issues attached to palm oil, the European Union (EU) sought to enforce higher sustainability standards in trade agreements by restricting its palm oil import (de Clerck and Harmono 2019; European Parliament 2020) and introducing Trade Sustainable Development (TSD) chapters in free-trade agreements (Nessel and Orbie 2022). While the EU urgently needs to reflect on the inherent coloniality within its own environmental policies (Almeida et al. 2023), such attempts to “green” investment and trade agreements are long overdue. Indeed, Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs) and trade agreements prioritize nationalistic economic agendas to secure foreign investments in developing states to facilitate economic growth (Gonzalez and Mutua 2022, p. 150; Vandevelde 1998), and thus play a significant role in extractive violence enacted against Indigenous Peoples (HRC 2016; 2018, paras. 34–35; 2023, paras. 14, 21). In response to mounting socio-ecological concerns, Indonesia introduced the Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO) certification scheme, which it, however, failed to effectively implement (Putri et al. 2022). In West Papua, the Manokwari Declaration was adopted, aimed at boosting forest conservation through better monitoring of illegal logging by palm oil companies (Cámara-Leret et al. 2019). While these commitments appear ambitious, they merely create a veneer of legitimacy that shrouds ongoing racial-capitalist exploitation. Engaged in a systemic structure of greenwashing, major palm oil enterprises in Indonesia operate by maintaining a seemingly sustainable production under various certification schemes, providing them access to the EU market, while also engaging in a “shadow” practice of deforestation and violation of community rights, enabling the continuous expansion of plantations (Greenpeace Indonesia 2024; The Gecko Project 2024). Palm oil certification schemes are indeed often function in an exclusionary way, designed to benefit large enterprises and beyond the reach of smallholders (Saadun et al. 2018). In that sense, the current blue-print of “green” agreements and sustainability certification schemes are part of the problem, not the solution, entrenching rather than undoing colonial practices of Indigenous land dispossession and ecological destruction.

Unchecked processes of plantation development in West Papua have been largely enabled through the continuous subjugation of Indigenous Papua communities resulting in persistent rights violations stemming from land-grabbing practices. Such pervasive patterns of exploitation find their roots in colonial dynamics—land-grabbing practices have long been legitimized under the terra nullius principle, or “empty land,” historically invoked to justify the seizure of Indigenous territories, thereby erasing Indigenous presence and history in the process (Saito 2020). In contemporary practice, this is further shaped by racial capitalism, prioritizing the pursuit of economic profits at the expense of human, non-human, material, and natural resources (Gonzalez and Mutua 2022). While Indigenous communities have historically maintained a harmonious relationship with nature, living in interconnected and reciprocal ways with their lands and forests, the arrival of colonial forces in West Papua, first Dutch and then Indonesian, marked a significant shift, triggering the slow but steady erosion of Indigenous knowledge systems. Historically, Papuan tribes maintained stewardship over their land with territorial boundaries marked by natural elements like large trees, stones, or rivers. These boundaries were rarely written, rather preserved through oral topography—reflecting a deep interconnection with the environment and a profound wisdom. (Asia Justice and Rights [AJAR] 2021, pp.160–161). These traditions were disrupted by colonial forces imposing a model of linearly demarcated territories infused with racial connotations, as slow institutional violence facilitated the commodification of nature (Ahmed 2015; Gonzalez and Mutua 2022, pp. 147). To justify the displacement of Indigenous communities, racialized myths propagated the idea that Indigenous Peoples were inherently inferior, warlike savages incapable of properly managing the land (Gonzalez and Mutua 2022, pp. 146–147). In the context of West Papua, Eichhorn (2023, p. 996) introduced the term “industrial racism” to describe the dehumanization and racialization of Indigenous Papuans linked to resource extraction, orchestrated by the intermediary of the industrial colonizer and the “civilizing” colonial master, the Indonesian government. This structural model of racialized oppression in West Papua shares notable parallels with the fate of Black African diasporic communities. Indigenous Papuans have been discriminated for their “blackness” through the time of the Dutch colonization which relied on racial politics that placed them at the bottom of the colonial societal pyramid, while “native” Indonesians and Chinese were playing the role of colonial mediator (Budiardjo and Liong 1998, p. 4; Kusamaryati 2021). This racialized model of oppression kept its long-lasting nature, persisting in the industrial colonization and still executed today within the extractive industry (Chao 2021a; Eichhorn 2023).

The palm oil industry in Indonesia is intricately tied to the country’s capitalistic agenda, driven primarily by the pursuit of state economic profit and financial security. Plantation projects operate within structures of internal colonialism and racial capitalism, where government-sponsored land-grabs treat Indigenous territories as empty land and thus facilitate an exploitative and deeply unequal economy whereby revenue-generating activity depends on the continued dispossession of Papuan communities and concurrent violence. Massive scale deforestation and loss of traditional lands also erodes Indigenous knowledge and traditions, integral to the communities’ livelihood, dignity, and survival. To fully comprehend such manifestations of culturally specific colonial violence, the next section will address the intersectional harms generated by the interplay between race and gender.

Intersectional Harms in West Papua

Embedded in Black feminism and critical race theory, the term intersectionality was coined by Crenshaw (1989) to describe the unique experiences of African American women who grappled with intersecting oppressions within the feminist movement. The term intersectionality is intended to recognize that individuals harbor multiple intersecting identities, such as class, gender, ethnicity, religion, and sexuality, among others (Davis 2008; Cho et al. 2013; Kaijser and Kron-Sell 2014). These identities profoundly shape their experiences and interact dynamically, exposing them to varying forms and layers of oppression or privileges. It is imperative to not only center the experiences and identity construction of those positioned at these intersections, but also to scrutinize how social, political, economic, and interpersonal inequalities are constructed and perpetuated (Collins 2022). Indeed, May (2015) expands upon this analytical paradigm by framing it as a “matrix of oppression”; the juncture where various experiences intersect. Ultimately, embracing intersectional perspectives requires holistic, open, and dynamic “matrix thinking.”

The externalization of costs stemming from the ecological devastation and socio-political insecurity in West Papua is spread unequally among various groups in society. Race and ethnicity are not the only drivers of insecurity; gender is another. As racialized expansion of palm oil monocultures continues, Indigenous Papuan women shoulder a disproportionate burden of environmental devastation and land dispossession as their traditional roles as community caregivers and environmental stewards are deeply intertwined with their reliance on forests and gardens (AJAR 2019, 2021). Traditionally, Papua women keep small farm plots adjacent to their houses to grow traditional food staples and harvest medicinal plants (Kadir and Mahadika 2019; Kadir 2022, Katmo 2016). They cultivate extensive knowledge of their local environments, cherish and care for the forests so that nature will provide them with a sustainable source of nutrition. Such practices thus constitute the source of traditional knowledge centralizing biodiversity, making Indigenous women the guardians of the ecosystem, as well as the cultural heritage of their communities (Mies and Shiva 1993, pp. 164–173). Despite the undeniable centrality of women in agricultural and ecological systems, Indigenous women generally fall in the “gender gap” in land access, as they have no decision-making and ownership rights over the lands they cultivate (Food and Agriculture Organization [FAO] 2018). In addition to government-sponsored industrial land-grabs, testimonies of Papuan women highlight further loss of access to their gardens when these are sold by male family members to the Indonesian government for the expansion of palm oil monocultures (AJAR 2019). This has a deeply detrimental impact on women’s health and well-being, further amplified by plantation-induced ecological degradation and diminished control over traditional resources.

Displacement not only imperils Papuan communities’ means of sustenance, but also threatens their sense of identity and cultural heritage. Papuan women have emphasized the vital role of sustenance and conservation practices in nurturing their innate connection to nature (Malinda 2021; Pusaka 2022). Commonly referred to as “Mother Earth” in metaphorical language, the land carries the feminine energy, which women nurture in their daily practices (Ortner 1972). Papua Indigenous philosophy encapsulates this profound bond with the idiomatic expression “Land is Mama” (Malinda 2021). The gathering and processing of traditional food staples carry profound social and communal significance, serving as rituals through which Indigenous women reaffirm their bonds with one another and cultivate reciprocity with nature, encapsulating the notion of “mutuality of being” (Ellen 2006; Chao 2020). The sense of belonging among Papuan women is interfered with by physical and sexual violence perpetrated by Indonesian forces as tools of domination, aimed at maintaining control over women’s agency and facilitating land grabbing (Csevár 2021). These injustices result in intergenerational stigmatization, which corrodes community ties and exposes women to increased discrimination, pushing them further into a cycle of poverty and marginalization. As the sense of identity and cultural heritage is undermined, a colonial agenda of domination and exploitation takes precedence, leading to catastrophic consequences for the long-term survival of ecosystems. In Maibo, women explained how large-scale logging destroyed the rivers, serving as the main water source of communities, leaving the land barren with no attempt at reforestation. Unsound logging practices also created a dependency on new seeds and chemical fertilizers, perpetuating the cycle of pollution and loss of biodiversity (AJAR 2019). In the Marind region, Indigenous women associate palm oil plantation with insatiable greed: “Oil palm is always hungry for more land and more water, […] it devours everything in its path—the trees, the cassowaries, the rivers. It does not think about what amay need to thrive. It does not care about the wellbeing of others—the plants, the animals, or us Marind” (Chao 2021b, p. 19). Displacement and alterations in landscapes play significant roles in the decline of wild foods and agrobiodiversity, thus influencing changes in dietary habits (Broegaard et al. 2017; Ickowitz et al. 2021). In the Merauke region, Papuan women have reported a marked decrease in the consumption of wild foods, notably sago and tubers—integral components of their diets known for providing sustained energy essential for lengthy hunting expeditions by men and for ensuring the health of women during childbirth. The harvesting of sago now entails longer walking distances compared to a couple of decades ago (Purwestri et al. 2019; Chao 2020). Due to the heightened reliance on processed foods supplied by transmigrants and the heavy presence of chemical fertilizers, high rates of malnutrition are found, with Indigenous women bearing particularly detrimental health impacts (AJAR 2019).

Conflict over land thus becomes recurrent both between state and community, as well as within communities exacerbating the risk of domestic violence. In all these instances, women have two major relationships to navigate: with the security forces present in the region and their personal relationships with their community and family. The interaction between these two creates a multi-layered insecurity for women, created by the matrix of militarized extraction, land dispossession, and the prevalent gender dynamics and societal norms within the local community. Papua women’s relationship with security forces, and the authorities whose economic interests they are protecting is closely linked to ethnicity or race, reinforcing violent discriminatory behaviors introduced during colonial times. Under the oppressive Indonesian regime, with the sole aim to maximize profit at the expense of local communities, Papuans are perceived as inferior to those in power, silenced when opposed to foreign investments and resource extraction on their lands. Indigenous women are disproportionately vulnerable to military violence in these situations, as gender-based violence is employed as a tactic to disrupt the community. At the same time, such practices enhance the possibility of domestic violence against women as a result of social stigmatization and the break-down of traditional gender structures, and thus have a detrimental impact on women’s personal relationships with their families. Domestic tensions are further accentuated by the loss of lands and resources, which makes women unable to carry out their traditional gender-based roles within the community. The changing climate aggravates these challenges. The intersectional harms greatly weaken women’s ability to cope with and adapt to environmental changes. This is particularly disturbing as environmental knowledge held by Indigenous women is crucial for climate change resilience (Jessen. et al. 2021). Their physical and spiritual connection with their traditional lands results in excellent observation and interpretation of changes to the environment. Indigenous practices in response to environmental challenges thus suggest proven adaptation methods. Continued land dispossession and displacement, however, lead to the loss of traditional environmental knowledge.

Conclusion

The outcome of decolonization as a matter of international law notwithstanding, West Papua’s forceful integration into Indonesia reproduced colonial structures intensifying local experiences of violent oppression. The environmental challenges faced by Indigenous Papuans, particularly women, are tightly linked to political, social, and economic norms rooted in colonial legacies; the manifestation of racial-capitalist exploitation reveals the inherent coloniality in the Indonesian palm oil industry. As oil palm plantations increasingly encroach on Indigenous lands, the ongoing presence of military forces not only pose risks to the survival of Indigenous communities, but also exacerbate community-level gender disparities by maintaining colonial power differentials. Within Papuan Indigenous communities, power structures and societal expectations heavily influence gender-based roles and resource access and, as a consequence, increase women’s exposure to various levels and forms of insecurity while also disempowering them as drivers of change, discounting the importance of their environmental knowledge in climate adaptation. The entrenched patriarchal dynamics subject Indigenous women to compounded vulnerabilities, exacerbated by the pervasive state of political and environmental insecurity in the region. Despite growing empirical evidence in ecofeminist discourse linking women’s marginalization with environmental destruction (Mellor 1981; Mies and Shiva 1993, pp. 164–165; Shiva 1988), the mainstream approach to environmental security remains ethnic and gender blind. Hence, addressing the complex challenges in West Papua necessitates an intersectional perspective, one that recognizes the interplay between environmental, racial, and gender factors that shape the experiences of Indigenous women.

Contemporary human security models remain reluctant to address structural causes of violence that are supported by the geo-political and economic interests of the state. The use of racialized extractive violence remains widespread, utilized to reinforce a hold on traditional communities with the aim to compel them to comply with development narratives. Such pervasive patterns of extractive violence feed into long-standing colonial structures of dispossession and displacement. Historically oppressed, Indigenous Peoples continue to be locked into a highly racialized classification of disposability, their presence deemed incompatible with extraction strategies drawing on Western tradition of thoughts. Conflict over land remains at the heart of extractive violence, where the state’s economic interest facilitates corporate practices in expropriation of Indigenous lands and resources. Moving towards a second-generation human security, there is an urgent need to deconstruct existing models and to develop alternative intersectional approaches to pervasive forms of human suffering in the name of economic development. New models must prioritize local experiences providing traditional communities with a right to resist oppressive regimes that operate at the matrix of colonialism, racial capitalism and ethnic, and cultural biases. Second-generation human security thus needs to critically examine and reflect on the ongoing complex ramifications of colonial legacies, contributing to a principled understanding of and sharper focus on racialized extractive violence enacted against historically marginalized groups.

Conflict of Interests

The authors declare no conflict of interests.

Csevár, S., & Rugarli, Y. (2025, Apr 26). Greasing the wheels of colonialism: Palm oil industry in West Papua. Global Studies Quarterly, 5(2), Article ksaf026. https://doi.org/10.1093/isagsq/ksaf026

ENDS

Further Information

Benny Wenda: The Permanent People’s Tribunal proves that West Papua needs freedom. (2024, December 9). Free West Papua Campaign. https://www.freewestpapua.org/2024/12/09/benny-wenda-the-permanent-peoples-tribunal-proves-that-west-papua-needs-freedom/

Chauvel, R (2017) Self-determination and rights abuses: Papua petitions the UN. Indonesia at Melbourne University. https://indonesiaatmelbourne.unimelb.edu.au/self-determination-and-rights-abuses-papua-petitions-the-un/

Csevár, S., & Rugarli, Y. (2025, Apr 26). Greasing the wheels of colonialism: Palm oil industry in West Papua. Global Studies Quarterly, 5(2), Article ksaf026. https://doi.org/10.1093/isagsq/ksaf026

Gerrard, D. (2024, Nov 22). Putting West Papua back into history. Office of Benny Wenda. https://www.bennywenda.org/2024/putting-west-papua-back-into-history/

Harrison, K. (2024, May 16). Oil palm plantations drive alarming environmental change in West Papua’s rainforests. Environment + Energy Leader. https://www.environmentenergyleader.com/stories/oil-palm-plantations-drive-alarming-environmental-change-in-west-papuas-rainforests,1329

Knobloch, B. (2021, January 12). Indonesia’s repression hasn’t broken the West Papuan freedom struggle. Jacobin. https://jacobin.com/2021/01/indonesia-west-papua-colonialism-occupation

MacLeod, J. (2021). The struggle for self-determination in West Papua (1969–present). International Center on Nonviolent Conflict. https://www.nonviolent-conflict.org/struggle-self-determination-west-papua-1969-present/

(n.d) Indigenous land rights under threat – the impact of palm oil expansion in Papua. Human Rights Monitor. https://humanrightsmonitor.org/news/indigenous-land-rights-under-threat-the-impact-of-palm-oil-expansion-in-papua/

Papua conflict. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved June 14, 2025, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papua_conflict

West Papua accelerates issuance of sustainable palm oil regulation. (2025, March 19). Palm Oil Magazine. https://www.palmoilmagazine.com/regulation/2025/03/19/west-papua-accelerates-issuance-of-sustainable-palm-oil-regulation/

West Papua and the right to self determination under international law – Melinda Janki. (n.d.). United Liberation Movement for West Papua. https://www.ulmwp.org/west-papua-and-the-right-to-self-determination-under-international-law-melinda-janki

‘West Papua has no future in Indonesia’: Chairman Wenda’s Speech. (n.d.). United Liberation Movement for West Papua. https://www.ulmwp.org/west-papua-has-no-future-in-indonesia-chairman-wendas-speech

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3. Supermarket sleuthing: Next time you’re in the supermarket, take photos of products containing palm oil. Share these to social media along with the hashtags to call out the greenwashing and ecocide of the brands who use palm oil. You can also take photos of palm oil free products and congratulate brands when they go palm oil free.

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Indigenous Empowerment to Reverse Amazonia’s Mineral Demand

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Written by Yolanda Ariadne Collins, Lecturer, International Relations, University of St Andrews. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Illegal mining for critical minerals needed for the global renewable energy transition is increasingly driving deforestation in Indigenous lands in the Amazon.

In recent years, these illegal miners, who are often self-employed, mobile and working covertly, have expanded their gold mining operations to include cassiterite or “black gold”, a critical mineral essential for the renewable energy transition. Cassiterite is used to make coatings for solar panels, wind turbines and other electronic devices. Brazil, one of the world’s largest exporters of this mineral, is now scrambling to manage this new threat to its Amazon forests.

The need for developing countries such as Brazil to conserve their forests for the collective global good conflicts with the increasing demand for their resources from international markets. To complicate matters further, both the renewable energy transition and the conservation of the Amazon are urgent priorities in the global effort to arrest climate change.

But escalating deforestation puts these forests at risk of moving from a carbon sink – with trees absorbing more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than they release – to a carbon source, whereby trees release more carbon dioxide than they absorb as they degrade or are burnt.

Indigenous and other forest-dwelling communities are central to forest conservation. In 2014, I spent a year living in Guyana and Suriname, two of the nine countries that share the Amazon basin. I studied the effectiveness of international policies that aim to pay these countries to avoid deforestation.

I met with members of communities who were bearing the brunt of the negative effects of small-scale gold mining, such as mercury poisoning and loss of hunting grounds. For decades, mining for gold, which threatens communities’ food supply and traditional ways of life, has been the main driver of deforestation in both countries.

Small-scale mining operations can damage both communities and the natural world. Gold mining, which generates gold for export used for jewellery and electronics, usually begins with the removal of trees and vegetation from the topsoil, facilitated by mechanical equipment such as excavators. Next, the miners dig up sediment, which gets washed with water to extract any loose flecks of gold.

Miners usually then add mercury, a substance that’s known to be toxic and incredibly damaging to human health, to washing pans to bind the gold together and separate it from the sediment. They then burn the mercury away, using lighters and welding gear. During this process, mercury is inhaled by miners and washed into nearby waterways, where it can enter the food chain and poison fish and other species, including humans.

My new book, Forests of Refuge: Decolonizing Environmental Governance in the Amazonian Guiana Shield, highlights the colonial histories through which these countries were created. These histories continue to inform the land-use practices of people and forest users there. Having seen the dynamics firsthand, I argue that these unaddressed histories limit the effectiveness of international policies aimed at reducing deforestation.

Some of the policies’ limitations are rooted in their inattentiveness to the roughly five centuries of colonialism through which these countries were formed. These histories had seen forests act as places of refuge and resistance for Indigenous and Afro-descendant communities. I believe that power structures created by these histories need to be tackled through processes of decolonisation, which includes removing markets from their central place in processes of valuing nature, and taking seriously the worldviews of Indigenous and other forest-dependent communities.

But since 2014, small-scale mining-led deforestation in the Amazon has persisted, and even increased. The increase in mining worldwide, driven partly by the renewable energy transition, indicates that these power structures might be harder to shift than ever before.

Added pressure

When crackdowns on illegal gold mining took place in Brazil in the 1970s and ’80s, miners moved en masse to nearby Guyana and Suriname, taking their environmentally destructive technologies with them. Illegal miners of cassiterite are now following a similar pattern, showing that the global effort to reduce deforestation cannot simply focus on a single commodity as a driver of deforestation on the ground.

My work shows that the challenge of mining-led deforestation in the Amazon is rooted in historically informed, global power structures that position the Amazon and its resources as available for extraction by industries and governments in wealthier countries. These groups of people are now seeking to reduce their disproportionately high emissions through technological solutions and not through behavioural change.

These tensions also have roots in the readiness of governments and forest users in postcolonial countries, like Brazil and Guyana, to respond positively and unquestioningly to international demand for these resources.

In the Amazon, outcomes are affected by whether different groups of people have access to livelihoods that do not drive deforestation, such as those based on non-timber forest products. The situation is further shaped by the extent to which governments can work together to ensure that crackdowns in one part of the Amazon, such as Brazil, do not just drive deforestation elsewhere to Suriname, for example.

Until the power structure that disadvantages Indigenous and other historically marginalised groups changes, the negative effects of developing technologies to “save” the planet will continue to disproportionately burden these groups, even as their current way of life remains critical to supporting sustainable development outcomes.

Written by Yolanda Ariadne Collins, Lecturer, International Relations, University of St Andrews. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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2. Contribute stories: Academics, conservationists, scientists, indigenous rights advocates and animal rights advocates working to expose the corruption of the palm oil industry or to save animals can contribute stories to the website.

Wildlife Artist Juanchi Pérez

Mel Lumby: Dedicated Devotee to Borneo’s Living Beings

Anthropologist and Author Dr Sophie Chao

Health Physician Dr Evan Allen

The World’s Most Loved Cup: A Social, Ethical & Environmental History of Coffee by Aviary Doert

How do we stop the world’s ecosystems from going into a death spiral? A #SteadyState Economy

3. Supermarket sleuthing: Next time you’re in the supermarket, take photos of products containing palm oil. Share these to social media along with the hashtags to call out the greenwashing and ecocide of the brands who use palm oil. You can also take photos of palm oil free products and congratulate brands when they go palm oil free.

https://twitter.com/CuriousApe4/status/1526136783557529600?s=20

https://twitter.com/PhillDixon1/status/1749010345555788144?s=20

https://twitter.com/mugabe139/status/1678027567977078784?s=20

4. Take to the streets: Get in touch with Palm Oil Detectives to find out more.

5. Donate: Make a one-off or monthly donation to Palm Oil Detectives as a way of saying thank you and to help pay for ongoing running costs of the website and social media campaigns. Donate here

#Canada votes on Monday, 28 April, 2025

#REMINDER This is what you are voting on:

VOTE FOR THE #BANKER, NOT THE WANKER.

#CdnPoli #VOTE #ABC #Elxn45 #Election
#Citizenship #Passports #CriminalLaw #Currency #FederalTaxes #Fisheries #Oceans #ForeignAffairs #Trade #IndigenousLands #IndigenousRights #NationalDefence #OfficialLanguages #PostalServices #VeteransAffairs #Immigration #Agriculture #Transportation #Environment #Federal #ON #QC #NS #NB #MB #BC #PEI #SK #AB #NL #NT #YT #NU

New Research: Indigenous Communities Reduce Amazon Deforestation by 83%”

Although #deforestation rates in the Brazilian #Amazon have halved, this globally critical biome is still losing more than 5,000km² every year. That’s an area three times larger than Greater London. By combining satellite imagery for the entire Amazon region with data from the Brazilian national census, our new study found that deforestation in areas protected by #Indigenous communities was up to 83% lower compared to unprotected areas.

Results demonstrate that returning lands to Indigenous communities can be extremely effective at reducing deforestation and boosting #biodiversity to help address #climatechange. Yet, forest conservation should not come at an economic cost to people living in Indigenous-managed lands.

The world’s largest #rainforest the #Amazon 🫁🌳🌿 is vanishing. Yet a bright spark of hope finds #deforestation in #Indigenous protected areas is 83% lower. They are the KEY to saving the #forests and animals! #BoycottGold4Yanomami #Boycott4Wildlife https://wp.me/pcFhgU-8SM

Written by Johan Oldekop, Reader in Environment and Development, University of Manchester; Bowy den Braber, Postdoctoral Researcher, School of Biosciences, University of Sheffield, and Marina Schmoeller, PhD Candidate, Ecology, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG)vThis article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Despite this win for indigenous-led conservation, our results also show that Indigenous communities had the lowest levels of socioeconomic development. Incomes in Indigenous territories were up to 36% lower compared to other land uses.

Indigenous people are among the most disadvantaged groups of people in the world. Although Indigenous communities in Brazil have strengthened their political representation in recent years, 33% of people living below the poverty line are Indigenous.

Improving the economic wellbeing of Indigenous people is not only the socially just thing to do but can also be environmentally effective. Research in Nepal showed that communities with higher levels of socioeconomic development are less likely to trade off development with deforestation. Providing communities with the ability to protect and conserve their local forests and develop economically can be a win-win for both people and the environment.

In 2022, governments across the world agreed to protect 30% of the planet’s surface by 2030. To meet the commitments of this 30×30 agenda, many countries need to drastically increase their conservation efforts to reverse deforestation in the Amazon and beyond.

Governments and philanthropic organisations pledged unprecedented political and financial support for forests and Indigenous peoples and local communities at the 2021 COP26 climate summit in Glasgow. These pledges have helped raise the voices of Indigenous peoples and ushered in a new era of commitments to return ancestral lands.

Yet, forests and their resources across the world remain coveted by many different interest groups, including mining and large agribusiness. The Supreme Court in Brazil is currently debating the constitutional validity of the controversial “Marco Temporal” or time limit framework which could substantially limit the ability of Indigenous peoples across the country to make claims for lands. This legal theory states that Indigenous peoples are only entitled to make claims for lands if they can prove that they were in possession of them on or before October 5 1988 when the Brazilian constitution came into effect.

Perhaps surprisingly, our results show that agricultural business development of the Brazilian Amazon is unlikely to provide greater socioeconomic benefits for local, non-indigenous communities than protection-focused alternatives that preserve forest cover but allow sustainable resource use by rural communities. But the agribusiness lobby in Brazil, who are often in direct conflict with Indigenous people, often argues that agricultural expansion will provide economic development for the region.

Our results demonstrate that returning lands to Indigenous communities can be extremely effective at reducing deforestation and boosting biodiversity to help address climate change. Yet, forest conservation should not come at an economic cost to people living in Indigenous-managed lands.

Access to land and opportunity

Indigenous communities need to regain access to their ancestral lands while also gaining access to development opportunities. Indigenous people in Brazil are eligible to receive support from social welfare programmes, such as the family allowance scheme (or bolsa familia in Portuguese), which is credited with lifting millions of Brazilians out of poverty and reducing inequality.

However, many rural and isolated communities face substantial difficulties accessing support. For example, fuel costs to take long boat trips from remote communities to urban centres to collect payments are high and many communities lack access to technology to even apply for such schemes.

President Lula Da Silva’s government is considering developing an Indigenous family allowance programme to address access problems faced by Indigenous communities in Brazil. As efforts to return rights to land ramp up in the wake of the 30×30 agenda, more governments and nongovernmental organisations should support the many other rights that Indigenous peoples have and reduce the structural barriers that prevent rural communities from claiming them.

Written by Johan Oldekop, Reader in Environment and Development, University of Manchester; Bowy den Braber, Postdoctoral Researcher, School of Biosciences, University of Sheffield, and Marina Schmoeller, PhD Candidate, Ecology, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG)vThis article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

ENDS

Read more about human rights and indigenous rights

Concerns Mount Over Palm Oil Expansion in Nagaland

Concerns Mount Over Palm Oil Expansion in Nagaland | The Nagaland Climate Change Adaptation Forum (NCCAF) has raised grave concerns about the environmental and social impacts of expanding palm oil plantations in the…

Read more

Palm Oil Is Ruining Kalangala Uganda — Locals Paying the Price

A catastrophic storm in #Uganda’s Kalangala district left nearly 1,000 households homeless. The real culprit? Rampant #deforestation for #palmoil. Once rich in native forests that buffered storms, Kalangala is now a fragile landscape…

Read more

Violence for Palm Oil Against Peasant Communities in Honduras Meets Resistance

In the Aguán Valley of northern Honduras, peasant communities reclaiming ancestral lands face increasing violence and intimidation from armed groups linked to organised crime. The Dinant Corporation, a prominent palm oil producer, is…

Read more

The Great Malaysian Timber and Palm Oil Swindle

A joint investigation by Malaysiakini and Pulitzer Center’s Rainforest Investigations Network (RIN) reveals alarming deforestation in Pahang, #Malaysia, caused by one of the country’s largest #palmoil plantations. The plantation threatens endangered species like…

Read more

The origins of animal words in SE Asia and what this reveals to us about our connection to them

South East Asia is home to many fascinating creatures and rich biodiversity. The secrets of animal origins and ancient legends are revealed in their names: #Orangutan, #Gibbon, #Binturong and #Siamang in South East…

Read more

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Take Action in Five Ways

1. Join the #Boycott4Wildlife on social media and subscribe to stay in the loop: Share posts from this website to your own network on Twitter, Mastadon, Instagram, Facebook and Youtube using the hashtags #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife.

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2. Contribute stories: Academics, conservationists, scientists, indigenous rights advocates and animal rights advocates working to expose the corruption of the palm oil industry or to save animals can contribute stories to the website.

Wildlife Artist Juanchi Pérez

Read more

Mel Lumby: Dedicated Devotee to Borneo’s Living Beings

Read more

Anthropologist and Author Dr Sophie Chao

Read more

Health Physician Dr Evan Allen

Read more

The World’s Most Loved Cup: A Social, Ethical & Environmental History of Coffee by Aviary Doert

Read more

How do we stop the world’s ecosystems from going into a death spiral? A #SteadyState Economy

Read more

3. Supermarket sleuthing: Next time you’re in the supermarket, take photos of products containing palm oil. Share these to social media along with the hashtags to call out the greenwashing and ecocide of the brands who use palm oil. You can also take photos of palm oil free products and congratulate brands when they go palm oil free.

https://twitter.com/CuriousApe4/status/1526136783557529600?s=20

https://twitter.com/PhillDixon1/status/1749010345555788144?s=20

https://twitter.com/mugabe139/status/1678027567977078784?s=20

4. Take to the streets: Get in touch with Palm Oil Detectives to find out more.

5. Donate: Make a one-off or monthly donation to Palm Oil Detectives as a way of saying thank you and to help pay for ongoing running costs of the website and social media campaigns. Donate here

#Amazon #AmazonRainforest #biodiversity #BoycottGold #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4wildlife #BoycottGold4Yanomami #Brazil #climatechange #deforestation #forests #humanRights #indigenous #IndigenousActivism #indigenousKnowledge #indigenousMedicine #indigenousRights #landRights #PalmOil #rainforest #Yanomami

*The #Saugeen #FirstPeoples won their lawsuit 👏 Appeals court dismissed #Ontario government's appeal. Justice was finally served.*

Ontario's top court has upheld a lower court's ruling that a strip of #SaubleBeach, a popular Ontario tourist spot, has always belonged to a local #FirstNation.

In a 121-page decision on Monday, the Ontario Court of Appeal dismissed appeals brought by the Municipality of South #BrucePeninsula, the Ontario government, and several local families to the April 2023 ruling by Superior Court Justice Susan Vella.

"Justice was done today," said Saugeen First Nation Chief Conrad Ritchie in a statement, calling it a "powerful moment" for the Saugeen community.

In her 2023 decision, Vella ruled that "Chi-Cmiinh," a roughly two-kilometre strip of beach at the northern end of Saugeen Reserve No. 29, had always belonged to Chippewas of Saugeen First Nation, and that the federal government breached its treaty rights.

The Crown, Vella wrote, failed to protect and preserve the #treaty it signed in 1854, Treaty 72, in which the First Nation and neighbouring #Chippewas of Nawash surrendered Saugeen Peninsula, excluding five #Indigenous reserve territories. One would become #ReserveNo29.

https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.7405601

#GoodNews #CDNpoli #ONpoli #FirstNationsJustice #JusticeServed #NativeCanada #IndigenousCanada #IndigenousRights #HumanRights #GovernmentOfCanada #HonourTheTreaties #FirstNations #Legal #CanadianLaw #TruthBeforeReconciliation #OntarioLaw #lawsuit #UNDRIP

Recommended decolonial educational resource.

The #TreatyMap.
#IndigenousPerspectives on #Treaties in #Canada

Covering every #Canadian #treaty from 1763 to the present, The Treaty #Map aims to challenge the commonly held view of treaties as land surrenders and offers a #comprehensive, #interactive #learning and #teaching tool, grounded in #Indigenous perspectives of #treaties.

https://treatymap.yellowheadinstitute.org/

#Decolonization #ReadAndLearn #Education #FirstNations #IndigenousCanada #NativeCanada #BrokenTreaties #Colonialism #IndianTrust #IndigenousRights #TruthBeforeReconciliation #NativeRights #FirstPeoples #NativeMastodon #HonourTheTreaties #DecolonizeYourMind #CanadianHistory #KKKanada #Landback #BIPOC

#RecommendedReading for #Decolonial #Education. #Free #OpenAccess report.

About Murder by Decree

Murder by Decree is an #uncensored #record of the planned #extermination of #IndigenousChildren in #Canada’s murderous Indian #ResidentialSchools. It is issued as a corrective #CounterReport to the miscarriage of #justice by Church and State known as the “Truth and Reconciliation Commission” #TRC. Based on eyewitness #testimonies and #archival #documentation deliberately suppressed or ignored by the TRC, Murder by Decree proves that the #genocide of #IndigenousPeople began as a religion-led campaign and continues to be a deliberate governmental policy in Canada. This Counter Report reveals these startling facts: – Over half of Indian residential school children began dying the very first year these church-run facilities were opened – This huge mortality rate continued unabated for over a half century because of deliberate practices of germ warfare according to a prescribed monthly “death quota” – Evidence of these crimes and their intentional nature has been continually destroyed by the RCMP and the #Catholic, #Anglican and #UnitedChurch since at least 1960 – The same genocide continues today, is aimed at indigenous women and children, and is driven by foreign corporate interests hungry for #NativeLands and resources Murder by Decree is issued by The International Tribunal for the Disappeared of Canada (ITDC), an international #coalition of #jurists and #HumanRights groups. The ITDC was formed in December, 2015 to investigate the disappearance of people in Canada, prosecute those responsible and prevent a further #whitewash by Canada of its #CrimesAgainstHumanity. This report is an answer to these #crimes and an urgent summons to the world and to all #Canadians to live no longer under #genocidal #regimes.

Published by the #ITDC Central Offices in #Brussels and #Toronto. For more information write to [email protected] .

http://murderbydecree.com/

#CDNpoli #IndigenousRights #ColonialViolence #CoverUp #KKKanada #FirstNations #NativeCanada #IndigenousCanada #Decolonization #DecolonizeYourMind #NativeRights #UNDRIP #Injustices #ColonialCrimes #TruthBeforeReconciliation

Leading the fish farms out of BC waters flotilla:
#Laichwiltach hereditary Chief Tsahaukuse (George Quocksister Jr.).
https://www.nationalobserver.com/podcast/salmon-people/occupation

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laich-kwil-tach

Chiefs who came to support:
#Homalco Hereditary & Council Chief Darren Blaney (Married to MP Rachel Blaney).
https://www.homalco.com/

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/bc-landslide-science-tsunami-earthquake-1.6075933

Bill Wilson(Kwak'wala name, Puglaas) hereditary Chief of the #Musgamgw #Tsawataineuk & part of Laich-kwil-tach, which are part of the #Kwagiulth & #Kwakwakawakw First Peoples. Married to 2nd wife, Bev Sellars, a Chief of the #Xatsull First Nation. Father of Jody Wilson-Raybould, lawyer & former MP. Bill was the first Indigenous BC Chief to travel to Ottawa to meet Prime Minister Trudeau (Pierre) to negotiate & draft 1st & only amendment to Canada's constitution in 1982(Section 35).
He helped found BC First Nations Congress, which led to creation of BC Treaty Commission (signed by Wilson, Harcourt & Mulroney).

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Wilson_(chief)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kwakwaka%CA%BCwakw

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsawataineuk_First_Nation

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/jody-wilson-raybould-reconciling-history-1.7364336

#VancouverIsland #BCIndigenousChiefs #NativeChiefs #IndigenousLeaders #BCFirstNations #NativeBC #IndigenousBC #NativeLeaders #IndigenousSovereignty #BCpoli #CDNpoli #BCTreatyCommission #BrokenPromises #BrokenTreaties #IndigenousRights #DemandMPAs

Unfortunately, the #ShundahaiNetwork's website is no longer maintained by the group. #CorbinHarney founded the group years ago. I managed to find it on the #InternetArchive. Here's a snapshot from 2002. I had a link to their website from the now-defunct What? Magazine Online back when I first heard about Shundahai back in 1998/1999.

"Shundahai Network was formed at the Nevada Nuclear Test Site in 1994, by a council of long-term nuclear disarmament activists, at the request of #CorbinHarney, a #WesternShoshone Spiritual Leader. We have evolved into an international network of activists and organizations bridging the gap between the environmental, peace and justice and indigenous land rights communities.

"Shundahai Network opposes all nuclear weapons research, development, testing and production. We actively seek to close down the Nevada Test Site to all nuclear weapons programs except for radioactive contamination containment and cleanup. Shundahai Network also opposes all nuclear waste dumping on indigenous peoples lands. We are fighting to halt the proposed high-level nuclear waste dumps at #YuccaMountain and #SkullValleyReservation. We work to educate about the dangers of #RadioactiveWaste transportation and promote a safe and sane energy policy based on conservation and #renewable resources. To this end, Shundahai Network organizes and participates in nonviolent direct actions, demonstrations, workshops and conferences.

"Shundahai Network Mission Statement

"Shundahai Network, is a nonprofit organization dedicated to breaking the nuclear chain by building alliances with #indigenous communities and #environmental, #peace and #HumanRights movements. We seek to abolish all #NuclearWeapons and an end to #NuclearTesting. We advocate phasing out #NuclearEnergy and ending the transportation and dumping of #NuclearWaste. We promote the principles of #EnvironmentalJustice and strive to insure that indigenous voices are heard in the movement to influence U.S. Nuclear and environmental policies. All of our campaigns and events incorporate the values of community building, education, spiritual ceremonies and nonviolent #DirectAction.

"Our staff and volunteers work on a wide range of community outreach, education and public action campaigns. Through our events and campaigns, Shundahai Network helps train activists in community organizing and the use of nonviolent direct action to generate public awareness and apply political pressure on nuclear and #IndigenousRights issues."

Here's the URL:
https://web.archive.org/web/20021122082933/http://www.shundahai.org/

Violence and Repression: #Indigenous from #Russia, #Algeria and #Nicaragua Appeal to the #UnitedNations

#CulturalSurvival: "#LatinAmerica is one of the most dangerous regions to be an #IndigenousRights and #environmental defender. Three out of four assassinations of environmental defenders take place in Latin America. Indigenous defenders face a double threat: defending rights and being Indigenous."

By #BrendaNorrell, #CensoredNews
July 17, 2024

GENEVA -- "The #coal and #GoldMining in Russia has driven #IndigenousPeoples from their homes and poisoned their rivers. In Nicaragua, the assassinations and imprisonment of #LandDefenders has fractured families and communities, presenters told the United Nations Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

"In Algeria, the people have barely survived 3,000 years of violent #colonization and #genocide.
'Other people should not undergo what we have experienced – which is the case now in #Palestine,' said the representative from the Algeria Association, Learned Society of scientific research, religious and mystical bodies. Describing the genocide in Algeria, he said France has thousands of bones and craniums of the people in French museums.

"An Indigenous woman from #Khakassia Republic in Siberia described the coal and gold mining: 'Coal is mined, despite mass protests, the government used land, private property for this, and citizens were driven out of their homes.' Now, she said, the conditions are no longer good for livestock breeding, which is their way of life.

"'The government is only interested in the presence of natural resources -- but we are a resource ourselves,' she told the #UnitedNations.

"'Our language is disappearing, and we only have one school in the republic where the language is taught. We are #Khakas but we do not govern #Khakassia.'

"'Nothing has been done to protect our land. The main priority is the mining for materials.'

"'I also note the #Shors are suffering from gold mining, they have territory for traditional nature management created by the Republic of Khakassia, traditionally they are fishers and hunters and so on.'

"'However, companies are #polluting rivers, and this water should be used for vital needs. This water flows through villages, however it is polluted, but companies do not put an end to their activities."

Read more:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/07/violence-and-repression-indigenous-from.html

#WaterIsLife #Indigenous #FirstPeoples #NativeRights
#HumanRights #Deforestation #GreedKills #StopEcocide
#StopIndigenousGenocide
#Environmental #ClimateCrisis
#StopKillingForests #IndigenousLand #NativeLand #EcoJustice #InformedConsent
#FirstNations #Colonialism
#CorporateColonialism
#Mining #CulturalGenocide
#IndigenousSovereignty
#LandBack #WaterIsLife
#Canada #LandDefenders
#sovereignty

Encountering the World’s Most Endangered Kangaroo: The Wondiwoi Tree Kangaroo

Encountering the Wondiwoi tree kangaroo, the world’s most endangered kangaroo, in West Papua’s lush forests is a bittersweet tale. Rediscovered in 2018 by British botanist Michael Smith, this rarest kangaroo, with soulful eyes and burnt umber fur, symbolises tranquillity amidst severe threats like palm oil deforestation and hunting. Less than 50 kangaroos remain alive, underscoring the urgent need for conservation efforts prioritising indigenous sovereignty. To help save these remarkable creatures, join the #Boycottpalmoil and #Boycott4Wildlife and take action via this website.

The rediscovery of the rarest #kangaroo alive the Wondiwoi kangaroo in #WestPapua 🌿is bittersweet as they were previously thought to be #extinct 🙀learn about their rare beauty 😍🦘 and #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife ✊🌿 @palmoildetect https://wp.me/pcFhgU-8yg

The Wondiwoi tree #kangaroo 🦘🌿 is the most endangered kangaroo alive due to #palmoil #deforestation 🪔🌴 and hunting across their range of #WestPapua. Take action to help these wide-eyed beauties #Boycottpalmoil 👎 #Boycott4Wildlife 🚫 @palmoildetect https://wp.me/pcFhgU-8yg

https://youtu.be/1pzwtverGhU

A Bittersweet Rediscovery of the Rarest Kangaroo Alive

In the dense, emerald heart of the Wondiwoi Mountains, in West Papua the trees echo with the haunting refrains of the vogelkop superb bird-of-paradise. Underfoot, the ground is soggy and dense with mossy herbaceous fragrances and the scuttling of an eastern long-beaked echidna as she burrows into her subterranean domain. In 2018, an extraordinary moment was captured forever on camera in 2018. High in the treetops, amidst the thick moss-covered branches, a shy Wondiwoi tree kangaroo lay in quiet repose, a symbol of sturdy, plump beauty. This creature was believed to be extinct for nearly a century. Yet a chance encounter by British amateur botanist Michael Smith in 2018 has thrust this creature back into the spotlight.

Wondiwoi tree kangaroos Dendrolagus mayri have an odd combination of kangaroo and monkey qualities. Large and soulful eyes blink from behind long eyelashes and thickly furred paddle-like arms culminate in strong sharp claws fit for grasping tree branches. Their bodies are the colour of burnt umber and terracotta and embody the tranquillity of Papua’s majestic montane forests where they blend into the painter’s palette of the jungle.

Smith’s serendipitous discovery of Wondiwoi tree kangaroos, known as the world’s rarest and most endangered kangaroo, highlights their precarious existence due to human-related threats like palm oil deforestation, rare mineral mining and hunting throughout their range.

A Journey Fuelled by Passion and Curiosity

Michael Smith is an amateur botanist from England. He spends a lot of his free time traversing remote locations like Indonesia, Pakistan and Kurdistan in the faint hope of encountering the rarest species on earth.

“I want these animals to be the poster children for seriously threatened and ancient habitats. I’m trying to get evidence of something interesting – and in terms of getting people involved and excited about conservation, it seems to be effective.”

Michael Smith, interview in the Guardian, 2023.

He understands that time is of the essence to save these animals and many others from the relentless growth of palm oil deforestation.

It’s hard to know if things will change fast enough for there to be anything left. In the 1990s, Papua New Guinea was just a big forest, with a few people. Now it’s still 80% or 90% forest, but there is huge pressure from people and investors who want to make palm oil.” 

Michael Smith, interview in the Guardian, 2023.

The Enigmatic Wondiwoi Tree Kangaroo

The bittersweet rediscovery of the Wondiwoi tree kangaroo underscores their gravely precarious position as the rarest kangaroo in the world. Originally they were discovered in 1928 by Ernst Mayer and known only by a single specimen. Papuan non-profit Tenkile Conservation Alliance estimates that less than 50 individuals remain alive.

The Wondiwoi tree kangaroo’s habitat is under severe threat from palm oil deforestation and the extraction of rare minerals such as mica and gold. The forests of West Papua, once a haven for diverse wildlife, are being decimated in silence.

The Guardians of the Forest

The survival of the Wondiwoi tree kangaroo is intricately linked to the sovereignty, and land stewardship of the Papuan indigenous peoples. Their deep spiritual and ancestral connection to the land and its human and more-than-human inhabitants stands in stark contrast to the destructive policies of the colonialist Indonesian government. Conservation efforts must prioritise indigenous rights and knowledge, recognising that true protection of these animals lies in the hands of those who have lived in harmony with the forest for many millennia.

Tenkile Conservation Alliance have a range of programmes helping indigenous peoples to understand the importance of conserving rather than hunting tree kangaroos and providing them with ways to harvest alternative sources of food. They have developed tree kangaroo hunting moratoriums as well alongside village communities.

The Jungle Kingdom of Dendrolagus: Tree Kangaroos

The genus Dendrolagus, more enchantingly known as tree kangaroos, embody arboreal grace and irresistible chubby cuteness. These marsupials are lesser known than their iconic ground-dwelling cousins further south in Australia and possess a range of distinctive traits making them masters of the jungle canopy.

Their exceptionally long, pendulous tails act as elegant counterbalances, helping with every leap and bound. Strong forelimbs, paired with shorter and broader hind feet, provide them with superior strength and agility. Long curved claws and spongy paws enhance grip, like natural bouldering shoes, allowing them to climb and cling effortlessly to branches.

Females possess a forward-opening pouch (marsupium) containing four teats. These provide a nurturing haven for their developing young. Their teeth are adapted for shearing leaves, reveal their dietary preference for the verdant foliage of the treetops.

The almost ‘bears’ and barely there Dendrolagus genus:

• Doria’s Tree Kangaroo Dendrolagus dorianus: With their robust build and dark brown fur and are listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. Learn more.
• Lowlands Tree Kangaroo Dendrolagus spadix: Known for their reddish-brown fur, gentle demeanour andd striking striped tails, these kangaroos are also listed as Vulnerable. Learn more.
• Ifola Dendrolagus notatus: A shy and elusive tree kangaroo with dark fur, this species is classified as Endangered, mostly from hunting and habitat loss. Learn more.
• Tenkile Dendrolagus scottae: Also known as the Scott’s tree kangaroo, the tenkile is critically endangered, with fewer than 300 individuals remaining. Learn more.
• Golden-mantled Tree Kangaroo Dendrolagus pulcherrimus: Known for their vibrant golden fur the colour of a sunset, these tree kangaroos are sadly critically endangered. Learn more.
• Vogelkop Tree Kangaroo Dendrolagus ursinus: Endemic to the Vogelkop Peninsula, these kangaroos have unique black and grey fur. Learn more.
• Huon Tree Kangaroo Dendrolagus matschiei: A portly and robust tree kangaroo known for their rich reddish-brown fur, tragically classified as endangered. Learn more.
• Goodfellow’s Tree Kangaroo Dendrolagus goodfellowi: A striking red and gold coat announces the arrival of the Goodfellow’s tree kangaroos, sadly they are now endangered. Learn more.
• Grizzled Tree Kangaroo Dendrolagus inustus: Distinguished by their grey fur and gentle eyes, these kangaroos are classed as vulnerable. Learn more.

Taking Action: How You Can Help

The rediscovery of the Wondiwoi tree kangaroo underscores the urgent need for consumer action. Here’s how you can make a difference:

1. Boycott Palm Oil: Reject RSPO greenwashing and avoid products containing “sustainable” palm oil. Use your purchasing power to demand palm oil free in the supermarket. Join the #Boycottpalmoil and #Boycott4Wildlife movement on social media.
2. Raise Awareness: Share posts on social media and engage in supermarket sleuthing to expose brands that use palm oil. Highlight the ongoing deforestation and animal cruelty.
3. Support Indigenous Sovereignty: Advocate for the rights and sovereignty of Papuan indigenous peoples, recognising their crucial role in conserving rainforest habitats and as guardians of rare species.
4. Donate: Support the ongoing advocacy of Palm Oil Detectives and the non-profit Tenkile Conservation Alliance, who work tirelessly to protect indigenous peoples, endangered species and their environments.
5. Get Involved: Participate in local and global conservation efforts. Whether through social media activism, community education, or direct action, every effort counts.

By taking these steps, you can help ensure that the Wondiwoi tree kangaroo and other endangered species in Papua have a fighting chance to survive and thrive.

The fight to protect the Wondiwoi tree kangaroo is a testament to the resilience of nature and the enduring spirit of people all over the world who strive to safeguard it. Together, we can shine a light on the darkness of deforestation and exploitation, ensuring a brighter future for these remarkable creatures and their forest home.

Further Reading

Pickrell, J. (2018). Rare Wondiwoi tree kangaroo rediscovered. National Geographic. Retrieved from https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/rare-wondiwoi-tree-kangaroo-discovered-mammals-animals

IUCN. (2015). Dendrolagus mayri. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Retrieved from https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/136668/21956785#assessment-information

Tenkile Conservation Alliance. (n.d.). Wondiwoi tree kangaroo. Retrieved from http://www.tenkile.com/wondiwoi-tree-kangaroo.html

Smith, M. (2024, January 10). I discovered a tree kangaroo that had only been seen once – by the man who shot it in 1928. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/jan/10/i-discovered-tree-kangaroo-only-seen-once-1928-aoe

Palm Oil Detectives. (2021, February 3). Doria’s Tree Kangaroo. Retrieved from https://palmoildetectives.com/2021/02/03/dorias-tree-kangaroo-dendrolagus-dorianus/

Palm Oil Detectives. (2021, February 3). Lowlands Tree Kangaroo. Retrieved from https://palmoildetectives.com/2021/02/03/lowlands-tree-kangaroo-dendrolagus-spadix/

Palm Oil Detectives. (2021, January 31). Ifola. Retrieved from https://palmoildetectives.com/2021/01/31/ifola-dendrolagus-notatus/

Palm Oil Detectives. (2021, January 26). Tenkile. Retrieved from https://palmoildetectives.com/2021/01/26/tenkile-dendrolagus-scottae/

Palm Oil Detectives. (2021, January 26). Golden-mantled Tree Kangaroo. Retrieved from https://palmoildetectives.com/2021/01/26/golden-mantled-tree-kangaroo-dendrolagus-pulcherrimus/

Palm Oil Detectives. (2021, January 26). Vogelkop Tree Kangaroo. Retrieved from https://palmoildetectives.com/2021/01/26/vogelkop-tree-kangaroo-dendrolagus-ursinus/

Palm Oil Detectives. (2021, January 26). Huon Tree Kangaroo. Retrieved from https://palmoildetectives.com/2021/01/26/huon-tree-kangaroo-dendrolagus-matschiei/

Palm Oil Detectives. (2021, January 26). Goodfellow’s Tree Kangaroo. Retrieved from https://palmoildetectives.com/2021/01/26/goodfellows-tree-kangaroo-dendrolagus-goodfellowi/

Palm Oil Detectives. (2021, February 3). Grizzled Tree Kangaroo. Retrieved from https://palmoildetectives.com/2021/02/03/grizzled-tree-kangaroo-dendrolagus-inustus/

Image credits: Peter Schouten Illustration, Greenpeace, Craig Jones Wildlife Photography, Khlongwangchao and Michael Smith.

ENDS

Read about other animals endangered in Papua

Learn about other animals endangered by palm oil and other agriculture

Ecuadorean Viscacha Lagidium ahuacaense

Keep reading

Southern Pudu Pudu puda

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Blue-streaked Lory Eos reticulata

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Blonde Capuchin Sapajus flavius

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Savage’s Glass Frog Centrolene savagei

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Pesquets Parrot Psittrichas fulgidus

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Learn about “sustainable” palm oil greenwashing

Read more about RSPO greenwashing

A 2019 World Health Organisation (WHO) report into the palm oil industry and RSPO finds extensive greenwashing of palm oil deforestation and the murder of endangered animals (i.e. biodiversity loss)

Take Action in Five Ways

1. Join the #Boycott4Wildlife on social media and subscribe to stay in the loop: Share posts from this website to your own network on Twitter, Mastadon, Instagram, Facebook and Youtube using the hashtags #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife.

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2. Contribute stories: Academics, conservationists, scientists, indigenous rights advocates and animal rights advocates working to expose the corruption of the palm oil industry or to save animals can contribute stories to the website.

Wildlife Artist Juanchi Pérez

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Mel Lumby: Dedicated Devotee to Borneo’s Living Beings

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Anthropologist and Author Dr Sophie Chao

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Health Physician Dr Evan Allen

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The World’s Most Loved Cup: A Social, Ethical & Environmental History of Coffee by Aviary Doert

Read more

How do we stop the world’s ecosystems from going into a death spiral? A #SteadyState Economy

Read more

3. Supermarket sleuthing: Next time you’re in the supermarket, take photos of products containing palm oil. Share these to social media along with the hashtags to call out the greenwashing and ecocide of the brands who use palm oil. You can also take photos of palm oil free products and congratulate brands when they go palm oil free.

https://twitter.com/CuriousApe4/status/1526136783557529600?s=20

https://twitter.com/PhillDixon1/status/1749010345555788144?s=20

https://twitter.com/mugabe139/status/1678027567977078784?s=20

4. Take to the streets: Get in touch with Palm Oil Detectives to find out more.

5. Donate: Make a one-off or monthly donation to Palm Oil Detectives as a way of saying thank you and to help pay for ongoing running costs of the website and social media campaigns. Donate here

#animals #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4wildlife #BoycottPalmOil #CriticallyEndangeredSpecies #deforestation #extinct #hunting #indigenousRights #kangaroo #Mammal #Marsupial #PalmOil #palmOilDeforestation #palmoil #PapuaNewGuinea #slavery #WestPapua #WestPapua #WondiwoiTreeKangarooDendrolagusMayri