In a victory for the movement for a fossil free Europe, a climate-damaging gas pipeline project between France and Catalonia has today been blocked by French energy regulators. Permission and funding for the central portion of the controversial ‘MidCat’ mega-project – the STEP (South Transit Eastern Pyrenees) – was refused by France’s Energy Regulatory Commission, on grounds of lack of necessity and high…
Dear President Cyril Ramaphosa This is the last action I am undertaking before groundWork closes for 2018. groundWork believes a Just Transition is urgently needed and that you need to be at the forefront of this as leader of the country to prevent a transition that will cripple South Africa and destroy the promise of democracy. The recent Intergovernmental Panel…
The UN Convention on Biological Diversity urged the governments on November 29th to conduct strict risk assessments and consult indigenous people and other local communities before releasing organisms into the environment with “exterminator technology” such as gene drives. The decision to consult the people about this dangerous genetic modification of organisms was celebrated by Friends of the Earth and the…
On December 3rd, 2017, a year and a week ago, Marivic Danyan, a young indigenous woman less than 30 years of age saw how the Philippine Army murdered her father, her two brothers, her husband, an uncle and cousins. It was a massacre. Today, Marivic spoke with Real World Radio, because the peaceful struggle for their lands continues. It all…
Days before the first anniversary of the murders of eight indigenous people of the Philippine village Datal Bonglangon, Mindanao Island, on December 3rd, 2017, one of the lawyers supporting the local community, Pochoy Labog, directly accused the company that has been occupying this native territory since early 1990s. He is also accusing Rodrigo Duterte´s administration, due to its policies complacent…
Monday marks the first anniversary of the massacre of eight indigenous people in Datal Bonglangon village, South Cotabato province, on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao. The inhabitants of the small community paid with their lives the demands for their ancestral lands and the resistance to the coffee and mining industry for export. Their blood taints the company and Rodrigo…
With certain advances in the recognition of the role of indigenous people and local communities in terms of the conservation of biological diversity, the 14th Conference of the Parties (COP 14) to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity came to an end in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. Nevertheless, some environmental organizations are worried about the role of corporations in the official…
[gallery columns="4" ids="3631,3619,3617,3615,3613,3611,3609,3607"] In a Buenos Aires fully armed, with helicopters and military officers, the only voices heard above the siren alarms are those of the social organizations against the G20 Summit and the return of neoliberalism in the region. This accelerated return has also meant the loss of rights acquired by the people in the past decade and…
This November, the West African Caravan on Water, Land and Seeds is traveling through West Africa to promote food sovereignty and agroecology. People are joining the caravan to defend small-scale food producers' access to natural resources. The Caravan represents hundreds of victims of land and water grabbing and exposes the failings of industrial food production. The Caravan is passing through…
The 14th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) started on Saturday in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, under the theme “Investing in biodiversity for people and planet”. The event will take place through November 29th. Environmental activist Isaac Rojas, Friends of the Earth International´s Forests and Biodiversity program coordinator, who is present at the COP, warned that…
