News archive October 2013

(6) October 2013

Swallowed by coal: UK profits from Indonesia’s destructive mining industry

Funded by British investment, mining brings deforestation, health problems and pollution to Samarinda, part of 'coal's last frontier' (Vidal / The Guardian)

Mining referendums in Colombia, Guatemala

In Colombia and Guatemala three rural and indigenous communities vote on mining projects and demand the right to free, prior and informed consent. (LAMMP)

The Mexican village that got itself talking

The Mexican village of Talea de Castro has long been ignored by Mexico's mobile phone companies as too remote to put on their networks, but as the BBC's Will Grant reports, they have responded by building their own. (BBC)

A move to blend culture with maps to save vanishing forests

In Indonesia and around the world there's a movement afoot to blend map-making with cultural knowledge to help people without formal land title hang on to what's left of their homes. (Christian Science Monitor)

Police arrest Penan as tribe blockades dam site

Tensions are mounting at the Murum dam in the Malaysian state of Sarawak. The Penan, whose forest homes are due to be flooded, are demanding greater compensation, and more of the forest to be protected so they can continue to hunt and gather in their resettlement villages. (Survival)

Brazil: 1500 Indigenous Peoples occupy the Esplanade of Ministries

Nearly 1,500 Indigenous Peoples from across Brazil on Wednesday occupied a central road in the federal capital Brasília. The protesters are trying to stop a legislative assault that threatens to severely undermine or extinguish Indigenous rights in the country. (Intercontinental Cry)