Documents

Securing Rights, Combating Climate Change

Securing Rights, Combating Climate Change analyzes the growing body of evidence linking community forest rights with healthier forests and lower carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. This report makes a strong case for strengthening the rights of indigenous and local communities over their forests as a policy tool for mitigating climate change. (Rights and Resources Initiative, 2014)

Know Your Rights Related to REDD+

Know Your Rights Related to REDD+ provides fundamental information about human rights that you can use to defend the rights of communities and indigenous peoples in confronting issues related to Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) initiatives. It is also relevant in the context of other forest governance initiatives, such as the Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade Action Plan. (Center for International Environmental Law, 2014)

Licence to Launder

The oil palm plantation being developed by Herakles Farms in the southwest region of Cameroon – an area of great biodiversity surrounded by five protected areas – illustrates what happens when irresponsible companies are not held accountable to local laws and processes. The companies activities pose a serious threat to forested areas and the communities who rely upon the forest for their livelihoods. In this report, Greenpeace reveals how the company is now colluding with the Cameroonian government to commercialise the timber – much of which was illegally felled – from its project, despite previously categorically stating that it had no intention to do so. (Greenpeace, 2014)

The Great Land Heist

Over recent years, a global land rush has resulted in a massive rise in the number of people in developing countries being evicted or denied access to their own land – sometimes in violent confrontation with the authorities – as big business moves in. . Offered little in the way of compensation or alternative livelihoods, millions are being forced into increased poverty, hunger and dispossession. (ActionAid, 2014)

Surrendering Our Future

A new report released by the Oakland Institute reveals how the lives and livelihoods of more than 9,000 pastoralists and a protected ecosystem in northwestern Senegal are directly threatened by a foreign-controlled 20,000-hectare plantation. Owned by an international conglomerate with hidden investors and suspicious connections, Senhuile SA is a joint venture controlled by Italy's Tampieri Financial Group, Senegalese investors, and Agro Bioethanol International, a shell company registered in New York. (Oakland Institute, 2014)