Forest people barred from Bali climate conference

Projects like REDD (Reducing Emissions from
Deforestation in Developing countries) sound very nice but they are trashing
our indigenous lands. People are being relocated and even killed; my own
people will soon be under water. That's why I call the money from the
projects blood money,"

Solutions to climate change are currently about buying and selling carbon and worst of all enclosing indigenous land, killing forests in the name of ecology and wrecking the lives of those who live most ecologically.


Serious green politics is about fighting this bloodshed, personality based environmentalism, 'green' consumerism and the official framework are still taking us towards destruction.

today's Economist argues that food prices are already rising because of biofuels

But the rise in prices is also the self-inflicted result of America's reckless ethanol subsidies. This year biofuels will take a third of America's (record) maize harvest. That affects food markets directly: fill up an SUV's fuel tank with ethanol and you have used enough maize to feed a person for a year. And it affects them indirectly, as farmers switch to maize from other crops. The 30m tonnes of extra maize going to ethanol this year amounts to half the fall in the world's overall grain stocks.


...see you all on the 10.30am December 8th demo at Regents Street (tesco metro) against the menace of biofuels


(forwarded on behalf of Hubertus Samangun, Indigenous Focal Point withrequest to forward widely)
7 December 2007

Indigenous Peoples Protest UNFCCC Indigenous Peoples shut out of Climate Change Negotiations

Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia- Indigenous peoples representing regions fromaround the world protested outside the climate negotiations today wearing symbolic gags that read UNFCCC, the acronym of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, symbolizing their systematic exclusion fromthe UN meeting. Yesterday a delegation of indigenous peoples was forcibly barred from entering the meeting between UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer and civil society representatives, despite the fact that the indigenousdelegation was invited to attend. This act is representative of the systematic exclusion of indigenous peoples in the UNFCCC process. "There is no seat or name plate for indigenous peoples in the plenary, norfor the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, the highest level body in the United Nations that addresses indigenous peoples rights,"stated Hubertus Samangun, the Focal Point of the Indigenous Peoples delegation to the UNFCCC and the Focal Point for English Speaking Indigenous Peoples of the Global Forest Coalition. "Indigenous peoples are not only marginalized from the discussion, but thereis virtually no mention of indigenous peoples in the more that 5 millionwords of UNFCCC documents," argued Alfred Ilenre of the Edo People ofNigeria. This is occurring despite the fact that indigenous peoples are suffering the most from climate change and climate change mitigation projects thatdirectly impact their lands. Indigenous peoples are here in Bali to denounce the false solutions to climate change proposed by the United Nations such as carbon trading,agrofuels and so-called "avoided deforestation" that devastate their lands and cause human rights violations. "This process has become nothing but developed countries avoiding theirresponsibilities to cut emissions and pushing the responsibility on to developing countries," stated Fiu Mata'ese Elisara-Laula, of the O LeSiosiomaga Society of Samoa. "Projects like REDD (Reducing Emissions from
Deforestation in Developing countries) sound very nice but they are trashing
our indigenous lands. People are being relocated and even killed; my own
people will soon be under water. That's why I call the money from the
projects blood money," he added. Marcial Arias of the Kuna People of Panama reminded the international community that indigenous peoples' right to participate was recognized inthe Earth Summit in 1992 and reaffirmed this year. "On September 13th ofthis year, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the UN Declaration on
the Rights of Indigenous Peoples [1] which enshrines the fundamental human rights of indigenous peoples to their lands, territories and environment. It is precisely these rights recognized by the UN itself that the UNFCCC isviolating," he explained.

Contact: Hubertus Samangun, Indigenous Focal Point to the UNFCCC(Bahasa, English) 0813-1077-8918 Orin Langelle, Global Forest Coalition Media Coordinator0813-3895-9742 (English) (photos available upon request)

Notes: [1] http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/en/declaration.html