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News Seeds of information, compiled by GRAIN

Saturday, July 11, 2009
Posted in Sustainability | Tagged Sustainability

One of the themes to emerge from this issue is resistance. Over the last decade communities around the world have become more vociferous in their opposition to large mining projects that destroy their way of life, damage biodiversity and exacerbate the climate crisis. In our special feature activists from two countries where resistance is strong - India and Ecuador - describe their struggles. The Dongaria Kondhs, a tribal people in Orissa, India, are fiercely resisting plans by Vedanta, a UK-based mining company, to set up an open-cast bauxite mine on mountainous forest land that the Dongaria have occupied for several thousand years. For them, the forest is a sacred place, inhabited by their deity, Niyam Raja. They treat it with great respect, felling a tree only if timber is needed for their everyday life, and collecting fruit and roots with great care so that plants will regenerate. In Ecuador indigenous movements from many different parts of the country have been protesting over a new mining law. They oppose it because it tramples over rights won by indigenous people in the recent new Constitution and was passed without proper consultation.

Ecuador also features in another article, about attempts in three Andean countries to prevent the further privatisation of knowledge and life. There is much at stake. Ecuador, Bolivia and Peru are, culturally and biologically, one of the richest regions in the world. They harbour a wide range of ecosystems, from cold highlands at over 4,000 metres in the Andes themselves to tropical lowlands in the Amazon basin. The Quechua and Aymara are the indigenous peoples with the biggest populations in the area - which has been densely populated for millennia but more than thirty other indigenous peoples also have their territories there.

The endeavours take different forms. In Peru the local government of Cusco is defying new regulations to weaken protection of biodiversity and traditional knowledge passed by the national government in compliance with the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiated with the USA. In Ecuador social and indigenous movements managed to get a new Constitution approved that recognises the “rights of nature” and identifies food sovereignty as a strategic goal. Bolivia’s new Constitution goes further, establishing clear limits to private property, allowing for the active participation of social organisations in discussion, and giving strong emphasis to the views, values and principles of indigenous and rural communities. With respect specifically to intellectual property rights, little progress has been made. Once again it is up to local people and their organisations to defend their knowledge and biodiversity.

These struggles are all fundamental in the search for a way forward. Despite the economic slowdown, the pressure on local livelihoods continues to increase, as is evident from our article on the impact on small fishers of the proposed FTA between ASEAN and the European Union. The EU is a leading exporter of fish and fish products, but its own stocks are declining sharply. Indeed, the bloc currently imports two-thirds of the fish it consumes. At present, the EU imports only minimal quantities of fish from ASEAN countries, so potentially it offers a big market. But small fishing communities are unlikely to benefit, as the EU will almost certainly impose such a restrictive regulatory regime that only big companies will be able to comply. Indeed, many fishing communities are already suffering severely from the recent wave of liberalisation: fish stocks are in decline; foreign vessels trawl sovereign waters; and many small fisherfolk have been forced to give up or, in desperation, to harvest what is left in the sea with dynamite and cyanide. And there is more to come, as countries sign away their oceans and their fisheries through trade agreements.

Considerable attention has been paid in the media over the last few months to swine flu. Recently, coverage has declined as, for the moment at least, the pandemic seems to be less virulent than was earlier feared. But the other pandemic - the food crisis - shows no signs of abating. Recent figures show that today more people than ever - over one billion - are permanently hungry. It is shocking to realise that 80% of these people are either farmers or farm labourers. Yet those in power continue to support an international food system that doesn’t feed the hungry but, instead, deprives even more people of adequate food. It is to this issue that we turn in the opening editorial.

The editor

CONTENTS

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THE OTHER ‘PANDEMIC’ editorial by GRAIN

http://www.grain.org/seedling/?id=607

Recent figures show that today more people than ever - over one billion - are permanently hungry. It is shocking to realise that 80% of these people are either farmers or farm labourers. Yet those in power continue to support an international food system that doesn’t feed the hungry but, instead, deprives even more people of adequate food.

SAYING ‘NO’ TO MINING

http://www.grain.org/seedling/?id=612&pdf

Over the last decade communities around the world have become more vociferous in their opposition to large mining projects that destroy their way of life, damage biodiversity and exacerbate the climate crisis. In this special feature, activists from India and Ecuador describe their struggles.

- Endangered tribals up against the terror of Vedanta by Living Farms

http://www.grain.org/seedling/?id=608

The British mining company Vedanta is pushing ahead with plans for an open-cast mine in the Indian state of Orissa to extract bauxite from the Niyamgiri Hills, a forested mountain range inhabited for centuries by the Dongaria Kondh tribal people. The move is being fiercely resisted by the Dongaria Kondh, who regard the mountain peak as sacred. They are receiving widespread support, at home and abroad, for their struggle.

- Yours today, ‘mine’ tomorrow! by Kanchi Kohli

http://www.grain.org/seedling/?id=609

The story of mining in Niyamgiri is one of people’s truth, bureacratic lies and judicial failure. It is deeply enmeshed in India’s growth agenda and is symbolic of a world view which puts industrial expansion first, even if it will ravage lives, cultures, livelihoods and natural spaces.

- Mining law in Ecuador is anti-constitutional by Gloria Chicaiza http://www.grain.org/seedling/?id=610

Ecuador has based its economy on the extraction of natural resources. This process has arbitrarily used, abused and polluted the environment, and established an economic model characterised by external dependence, growth in internal and external debt, and the destruction of ecosystems. The recent introduction of the Ecuadorian Mining Law inaugurated a new episode in this story, which has characterised Ecuador since the country was founded: namely, basing economic development on a single commodity and degrading its natural resources.

- Roger Moody - an interview by GRAIN

http://www.grain.org/seedling/?id=611

Roger Moody is an expert on mining and mining transnationals. He has spent years uncovering the facts about how mining companies operate. He edits the Mines and Communities website, which exposes the social, economic and environmental impacts of mining, particularly as they affect indigenous and traditional communities.

THE STRUGGLE AGAINST IPR IN THE ANDES by GRAIN

http://www.grain.org/seedling/?id=613

In Ecuador, Bolivia and Peru, initiatives have been taken recently that raise hopes that mechanisms might be created to stop the further privatisation of knowledge and life. So far, progress has been disappointing, with fundamental problems remaining unsolved. Once again, it is up to local people to defend knowledge and biodiveristy against destruction and privatisation.

EMPTY COASTS, BARREN SEAS by GRAIN

http://www.grain.org/seedling/?id=606

Gaining access to the territorial waters of many developing countries has been a goal of expanding global capital in recent years. It comes in different forms and under different names but with the single objective of extracting profits for big business. The European Union (EU) is at the forefront of this drive. Through fisheries partnership agreements (FPAs), the EU is able to sustain its lucrative fishing industry and export its overfishing problems to other parts of the world ? Africa, the Caribbean, the Pacific - often with disastrous consequences for local small fishers. Now the EU is testing Asia’s waters. In this article, GRAIN investigates how Asia’s small fishers stand under the proposed EU-ASEAN free trade agreement (FTA).

XUE DAYUAN - an interview by GRAIN

http://www.grain.org/seedling/?id=615

Xue Dayuan is Chief Scientist for Biodiversity at the Nanjing Institute of Environmental Sciences in China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection. He also works as a Professor and Chief Scientist at the College of Life and Environmental Sciences at the Central University for Nationalities in Beijing. He played a leading role in developing the National Programme for Conservation and Use of Biological Resources and China’s National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan.

SPROUTING UP

- African agricultural policies and the development of family farms by JINUKUN

http://www.grain.org/seedling/?id=616

JINUKUN, the national network for the sustainable management of natural resources in Benin, is the country’s focal point of COPAGEN, West Africa’s coalition to protect African genetic resources.

- Affirming Life and Diversity. Rural Images and Voices on Food Sovereignty in South India ? a review by GRAIN

http://www.grain.org/seedling/?id=617

These four DVDs, which contain 12 films with a total length of almost six hours, are a veritable treasure trove. They are the result of a seven-year collaboration between the UK-based IIED, the Deccan Development Society of Andhra Pradesh, India, and women’s sanghams (Indian village associations of the poor).

- Seeds of information, compiled by GRAIN

http://www.grain.org/seedling/?id=618

Includes: Andrés Carrasco’s findings on the herbicide glyphosate and it’s impact on amphibians - “I expected a reaction but not such a violent one”; Ghana’s farmers are among the latest victims of trade liberalisation; Brazil has become the world’s biggest consumer of pesticides; and, in early June 2009 a Constitutional Court judgement on genetically modified organisms in South Africa brought victory to the NGO Biowatch South Africa in its nine-year struggle for constitutional justice.

UPDATE ON SWINE FLU by GRAIN

http://www.grain.org/seedling/?id=619

Following our report on the swine flu outbreak in April 2009 (http://www.grain.org/articles/?id=48), we provide a short update here (July 2009).