WWF to war against indigenous in India?

India is the subject of huge battles.

All of those of us who support indigenous and respect nature are pleased that new forest laws restore commons.

However in practice the commons is still being eroded.

A recent change has seen commons extended for forests across the whole of India.

But there is a worry that groups like the WWF will attack commons rights as a means of 'conservation'.

'Conservation' should be for both people and tigers.

Watch this space.

I salute my ecosocialist comrades in India, I hope to blog regularly on the struggles for ecosocialism in India.

It is a victory for a community to get rights under the Forest Rights Act, in the Community Forest Resource Category (the first framing of rights to the commons for Indigenous people that cover the whole of India and not just the scheduled areas. India having the largest population of indigenous people of any country, at 8% of c. 1.2 Billion odd.)

The big issue is that this is in a Tiger Reserve and their is an anticipation of trouble from the Forest Deparment, and that WWF et al. "Conservation Refugees" (Mark Dowie) and "Celebrity and the Environment" (Dan Brockington) style will ride roughshod over these rights.