rainforests

Deforestation in central Africa brings HIV/AIDS to indigenous communities, mainly women

Submitted by FdN on Sun, 04/06/2008 - 21:05
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Mon, 07/30/2007 - Indigenous peoples living in the tropical rainforests of Central Africa are widely dispersed and identify their groups by a variety of names. Numbering a total of 300,000 to 500,000 people, those members of communities from several ethnic groups characterized by their small stature are identified under the generic name of “pygmies” (see WRM Bulletin Nº 119).

Peru's rainforest: oil and gas run through it

Submitted by rains on Sun, 04/06/2008 - 20:05
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Indigenous groups are threatened as Peru gears up for an energy boom.

POROTOBANGO, PERU

Raised in palm huts deep in the Peruvian Amazon, Gregorio Torres never imagined that below his home was something called natural gas.

Now his Machiguengua Indian settlement in this rain-forest river clearing has solar-powered radio gifted by an international oil company, corrugated tin roofs, T-shirts with company logos, and a shelf of Western medicine.

But this incipient natural-gas boom is bringing new worries, too.

EIA report on illegal logging and corruption -includes info re West Papua

Submitted by Alezev on Sun, 04/06/2008 - 19:59
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The full report (‘The Thousand-Headed Snake’ ) is available at http://www.eia-international.org/files/reports135-1.pdf Summary below from INCL newsletter and also from www.eia- international.org and www.telapak.org

Timber Smuggling from Indonesia Rises as Judicial Corruption Ensures Masterminds Behind US$20 billion Forest Crime go Unpunished

EIA/Telapak - March 28, 2007 Jakarta

Statements: British MP condemns World Bank-backed plans for rainforest logging in the Congo

Submitted by FdN on Sun, 04/06/2008 - 09:44
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Member of Parliament Bob Blizzard (Waveney) yesterday said in a Westminster Hall debate that "there was no chance at all" that a World Bank-backed plan to 'develop' the rainforests of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which are the second largest on Earth, would bring any benefits to impoverished local people. Instead, the planned expansion of the timber industry would, the MP said, damage the livelihoods of some of the poorest people on Earth, including those of local 'Pygmies'.