France: Zad Activists Light Barricades, Vow Continued Resistance

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Sep­tem­ber 24, 2014 – Bar­ri­cades were lit on RN165 in response to the evic­tion of the Herbin fam­i­ly, from the vil­lage of Lim­in­bout on the ZAD de Notre-Dame-Des-Lan­des to make way for con­struc­tion of the air­port project.

In a state­ment released by the Zad activist they declare “Each step of the project, each attack against the move­ment of strug­gle (work, tri­al, etc.), will bring an imme­di­ate response.

“Every­thing we have achieved so far, adding fail­ure of the César oper­a­tion until the sus­pen­sion of the con­struc­tion, was by a com­mon deter­mi­na­tion of resis­tance and tac­ti­cal diver­si­ty.

“All of these vic­to­ries were also pos­si­ble through actions of sol­i­dar­i­ty every­where in france.”

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They con­tin­ue in the state­ment with a dec­la­ra­tion of sol­i­dar­i­ty.

“It is our turn to be present at the side of the var­i­ous strug­gles. Space and the autonomous polit­i­cal force gained by the ZAD have served to inspire and strength­en the revolt of those who do not fit in the row.

Thus, we sup­port mate­ri­al­ly and moral­ly peo­ple with­out paper from Nantes who, after being expelled from their place of life this sum­mer, orga­nize them­selves to take up again recent­ly. At Calais, fac­ing the police and evic­tions in rep­e­ti­tion, refugeess con­gre­gate. With­out papers or air­port, the ZAD is land of asy­lum.”

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“We are whole­heart­ed­ly with the SEITA de Car­que­fou work­ers, reviv­ing offen­sive prac­tices (destruc­tion of stocks, occu­pa­tion of fac­to­ry, seques­tra­tion) giv­ing con­fi­dence to those who feel reduced to impo­tence by polit­i­cal par­ties and trade unions.

“In Picardy, the farm­ers opposed to the project of the fac­to­ry farm of 1000 cows stat­ed their posi­tion by block­ing sev­er­al days the arrival of the dairy.

“Bure, against the nuclear waste dis­pos­al cen­tre, the strug­gle con­tin­ues on the ground, and a cam­paign for action, Bure 365 is launched.

“On the ZAD of Testet plays a deci­sive moment for oppo­nents to 16 dams. By our action, we wish to achieve the warm breath of Notre-Dame-Des-Lan­des to this strug­gle that cross­es a turn­ing point.”

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Resis­tance moved to the inter­net with a list of hacked sites on the link in the tweet below.

Video here has Eng­lish sub­ti­tles.

Wetlands destruction and resistance

#TESTET #ZAD

#TESTET #ZAD

About an hour’s dri­ve north of Toulouse (sw France)  there is an area of wet­lands called the Testet, in the for­est of #Sivens . This is the last area of wet­lands (“Zone Humide” in French) in the depart­ment of the Tarn. It is home to rare and endan­gered species.

This area (13hectares) will be drowned by a dam. The pur­pose of the dam is prin­ci­pal­ly to irri­gate large-scale maize pro­duc­tion.

It will also be used to reg­u­late the lev­els of water in the riv­er Tescou, so that pol­lu­tion will be dilut­ed and the local author­i­ties can claim to respect Euro­pean envi­ron­ment leg­is­la­tion. The water can also be used if dif­fi­cul­ties arrive at the Golfech nuclear reac­tor.

Maize pro­duc­tion is not appro­pri­ate to this region, it is a high­ly pol­lut­ing form of agri­cul­ture. Euro­pean and French rules say that it should no longer receive sub­si­dies. (Dam financed by local, region­al and Euro­pean bud­gets)

The pro­ject­ed dam is not nec­es­sary, small­er, high­er dams exist upstream, and are not used.

The stud­ies of water avail­abil­i­ty and use, of the cost, impact and of the need for the dam are flawed and par­tial. (Local politi­cians who favour the project have inter­ests in the com­pa­ny which pro­duced the stud­ies — which just hap­pens to be the com­pa­ny which will pock­et the mon­ey for build­ing the dam.…)

Claims about the need to dilute indus­tri­al pol­lu­tion down­stream are non­sense: the milk coop­er­a­tive which used to pump efflu­ent into the Tescou has had fil­ters since 2006.

Envi­ron­men­tal­ists have been defend­ing the wet­lands for almost a year. Log­ging start­ed on the 1st of sep­tem­ber, the army and mil­i­tary police corps have com­mit­ed acts of vio­lence against non-vio­lent pro­tes­tors.

A hunger strike is in progress.

Hun­dreds of dam oppo­nents are active on the site ( block­ing roads, slow­ing the chain­saws, nego­ci­at­ing and demon­strat­ing). Oth­er activists are demon­strat­ing in front of local gov­erne­ment offices (and being sav­age­ly beat­en for their efforts)

Calls for the pub­lic to show oppo­si­tion to this unnec­es­sary and destruc­tive project are online.

Wel­come groups exist for par­tic­i­pants in direct action. The strug­gle is grad­u­al­ly grow­ing, all and any help is need­ed. Sad­ly, at the time of writ­ing the GIGN (spe­cial forces) are clear­ing resis­tance from the Zone.

Futher info:

http://collectif-testet.org/

http://tantquilyauradesbouilles.wordpress.com/

https://www.facebook.com/SoutienTestet

Earth First! Summer Gathering 2014 — exact location & other practicalities added

Updates: Exact loca­tion has been releas­es — see here

Trav­el - book your trav­el to Cas­tle Cary or Bru­ton train sta­tion, then it’s a bus jour­ney and 20 minute walk.

Updates: Exact loca­tion has been releas­es — see here

Trav­el - book your trav­el to Cas­tle Cary or Bru­ton train sta­tion, then it’s a bus jour­ney and 20 minute walk.

Bus times are : 8.14am — 9.44am — 11.44am — 12.33pm — 2.14pm — 4.33pm (last bus).  There’s no Sun­day ser­vice so we will timetable a shut­tle bus to return.

Cycling: Bru­ton is bet­ter if you are cycling as it is a mile short­er, and there is also a bus from there too. The last bus from here leaves lat­er.  (Bus times from Bru­ton are: 9:09am — 10:39am — 12:12pm — 1:39pm — 3:54pm — 5:39pm)

We will post the exact address three weeks before the gath­er­ing.

Refresh­ments — ‘This year there is no bar on site. Peo­ple are wel­come to bring their own but we ask that there’s no drink­ing before dinner/7pm. Any­one caus­ing a nui­sance or break­ing our Safer Spaces pol­i­cy will be asked to stop and/or leave. There will be a cafe & snack bar on site.’

Dogs — ‘This year dogs are wel­come, but please get in touch in advance, and keep them on a lead at all times on the site.’  Fur­ther info

—————-

28th-31st August 2014, in the South West.…

A place for peo­ple involved in rad­i­cal green direct action to come togeth­er.…
to talk.…share skills.…learn.…listen.…play.…rant.… find out whats going on.…
scheme.…live outdoors.…hang out.…laugh.…
expe­ri­ence non hier­ar­chi­cal, low impact, fam­i­ly friend­ly liv­ing.

An activist camp that spans 5 days and con­sists of a pro­gramme of work­shops through­out each day facil­i­tat­ed by peo­ple like you and me who think they have a skill or a lev­el of knowl­edge in a sub­ject that is valu­able to share with oth­ers to improve their activism.

Is this camp for you?  Whether you’re just start­ing out in the world of direct action or you’re an old (glued and paint-stained) hand at it, you’re wel­come here.

More info here

Action dates & gatherings now working again!

The action dates and protest gath­er­ings page is once again work­ing!  Apolo­gies, we acci­den­tal­ly delet­ed it!

If there’s any eco­log­i­cal actions that are open­ly adver­tised, protest camps or cam­paign gath­er­ings, that you want to add to it, do it through the sub­mit report link and in the sub­ject, make it clear it’s to add to the cal­en­dar.  Thanks.

The action dates and protest gath­er­ings page is once again work­ing!  Apolo­gies, we acci­den­tal­ly delet­ed it!

If there’s any eco­log­i­cal actions that are open­ly adver­tised, protest camps or cam­paign gath­er­ings, that you want to add to it, do it through the sub­mit report link and in the sub­ject, make it clear it’s to add to the cal­en­dar.  Thanks.

Summary of Repression from ZAD

Screen shot 2014-06-30 at 12.46.24 PM 30th June Sum­ma­ry of arrests and tri­als since the demo in Nantes, Feb­ru­ary 22nd, accord­ing to infor­ma­tion found by the anti-repres­sion com­mit­tee (CARILA)

Screen shot 2014-06-30 at 12.46.24 PM 30th June Sum­ma­ry of arrests and tri­als since the demo in Nantes, Feb­ru­ary 22nd, accord­ing to infor­ma­tion found by the anti-repres­sion com­mit­tee (CARILA)

Feb­ru­ary 22nd: 14 arrests, two released with­out charge. Of the 12 peo­ple charged, 5 had imme­di­ate tri­als the next day, and the 7 oth­ers will have tri­als lat­er (3 on June 19th, 2 minors in children’s court, and no news for the 2 oth­ers).

Feb­ru­ary 24th: 5 imme­di­ate tri­als, 4 of them judged for “vio­lence against some­one with pub­lic author­i­ty”, and “par­tic­i­pat­ing in an armed group”. They were all con­vict­ed.
- 100 hours of com­mu­ni­ty ser­vice
- 5 months sus­pend­ed sen­tence
- 5 months of prison
- 5 months of prison and 1 month pro­ba­tion
- 6 months of prison and 6 months of pro­ba­tion + 500 euros for the under­cov­er cops sup­pos­ed­ly injured

Of all those con­vict­ed this day, no one went direct­ly to prison. This means that they can nego­ti­ate a lighter sen­tence.

March 31st: First wave of arrests after the demo: 9 peo­ple were arrest­ed at home (in Car­que­fou, St. Herblain, Nantes, and Ille-et-Vilaine).

- 2 were released with­out charges
- 4 were judged the next day in imme­di­ate tri­als
- 2 minors: one accused of throw­ing fire­works at the police judged in juve­nile court, placed under house arrest until their tri­al in 2015, the oth­er we don’t think they were charged but we have no con­fir­ma­tion
- 1 per­son had a tri­al lat­er but we don’t have con­tact with them

April 1st: Imme­di­ate tri­als for those arrest­ed the day before

- P: 4 months sus­pend­ed sen­tence, for­bid­den to car­ry weapons for a year, for­bid­den to protest in Notre Dame des Lan­des and Nantes for a year
- J: 5 months of prison, for­bid­den to car­ry weapons for 2 years, for­bid­den to protest in Nantes for 2 years
- G: 2 months sus­pend­ed sen­tence + 2 months prison (sus­pend­ed sen­tence from last arrest), aquit­ted for van­dal­ism
- E: 1 year of prison, start­ing imme­di­ate­ly after the tri­al, for­bid­den to protest for 3 years, for­bid­den to have explo­sives or flam­ma­ble mate­ri­als for 3 years. The judge dou­bled the sen­tence that the DA asked for!

May 14th: G arrest­ed in Paris under a war­rant for van­dal­ism Feb­ru­ary 22nd. He refused an imme­di­ate tri­al, fuzzy pho­tos were the only evi­dence. He was placed in pre­ven­ta­tive deten­tion, but got out a month lat­er because of a pro­ce­dur­al error. His tri­al is July 16th.

May 27th: R. arrest­ed in the street in Rennes by under­cov­er cops, trans­ferred to Nantes. He refused imme­di­ate tri­al, and was put under house arrest, and for­bid­den from the Loire-Atlan­tique region until his tri­al, June 19th.

June 13th: Addi­tion­al tri­al for some­one con­vict­ed Feb­ru­ary 24th to decide how much they should pay in dam­ages to the under­cov­er cops. No infor­ma­tion on the ver­dict for the moment.

June 18th:
- O. arrest­ed at home in Rennes, accused of van­dal­ism, he has an imme­di­ate tri­al the next day.
- Some­one from the ZAD arrest­ed in Nantes, who had a war­rant out for vio­lence against the police and par­tic­i­pat­ing in an armed group.

June 19th:
- Tri­al for 3 peo­ple arrest­ed dur­ing the demo ‑K: con­vict­ed of throw­ing paving stones towards the police and arrest­ed in pos­ses­sion of a ham­mer and an iron bar, 4 months sus­pend­ed sen­tence, 18 months pro­ba­tion (forced to find a job or go to voca­tion­al school, and for­bid­den to car­ry weapons) + 105 hours of com­mu­ni­ty ser­vice ‑C: con­vict­ed of par­tic­i­pa­tion in an armed group and throw­ing a beer can at the police, sen­tenced to 2 months sus­pend­ed sen­tence ‑G: arrest­ed in pos­ses­sion of a ham­mer, sen­tenced to 1 month sus­pend­ed sen­tence
- Hear­ing for O. (arrest­ed in Rennes the day before): he refus­es his tri­al and is put under house arrest until his tri­al, July 10th
- Tri­al of R. (arrest­ed in Rennes, May 27) for van­dal­ism and par­tic­i­pat­ing in an armed group. Sen­tenced to 8 months sus­pend­ed sen­tence + 1 month sus­pend­ed sen­tence + 5218 euros in dam­ages for the city of Nantes+ for­bid­den from Loire-Atlan­tique region for 2 years.
- Hear­ing for 5 peo­ple arrest­ed 2 days before by under­cov­er cops while dri­ving: ‑one per­son (a hitch-hik­er) accept­ed the imme­di­ate tri­al, con­vict­ed to pos­ses­sion of 1 gram of hash + refus­ing fin­ger­prints and DNA. No sen­tence 3 peo­ple refused imme­di­ate tri­als and are put under house arrest until their tri­al, July 18th 1 per­son refused an imme­di­ate tri­al and is in prison await­ing tri­al (July 18th)

“They were arrest­ed tues­day after a “ran­dom” iden­ti­ty con­trol by under­cov­er cops on the ring road in Nantes. Amoung them was R., who had a tri­al Thurs­day and was on their way to Nantes to see their lawyer with their friends. After 48 hours of police cus­tody, 4 of them were charged with “pos­ses­sion of stolen goods”, sus­pect­ed of hav­ing stolen… a head lamp. Also they refused to give fin­ger­prints and DNA. More seri­ous­ly, they are accused, based on some fly­ers in their car and a tool­box, of “asso­ci­a­tion of wrong-doers”, and “intent to com­mit an armed assem­bly in front of the cour­t­house in Nantes”. They risk up to 5 years in prison.”

June 20th: Hear­ing for S., who lives on the ZAD. He was arrest­ed 2 days before in Orvault, accused of hav­ing stolen 2 books. He had a war­rant out for par­tic­i­pat­ing in the Feb­ru­ary 22nd demo. He is accused of theft (with pri­or con­vic­tions), refus­ing fin­ger­prints and DNA (with pri­or con­vic­tions), and par­tic­i­pat­ing with a weapon in an armed group, and vio­lence against the police. He refused an imme­di­ate tri­al and has been put in jail await­ing his tri­al on July 7th.

2 peo­ple are cur­rent­ly in pre­ven­ta­tive deten­tion, await­ing tri­al.

Blockade Halts Old-Growth Logging in Mattole Forest

10496184_1431644777121536_4907229880304137323_o30th June A for­est defend­er has tak­en to the trees to defend an impor­tant area of the Mat­tole Riv

10496184_1431644777121536_4907229880304137323_o30th June A for­est defend­er has tak­en to the trees to defend an impor­tant area of the Mat­tole Riv­er water­shed in North­ern Cal­i­for­nia. Going by the name “Skunk,” the block­ad­er is stop­ping the con­struc­tion of a new log­ging road into old-growth for­est.

Skunk is sup­port­ed by res­i­dents of Hum­boldt coun­ty and allies who have worked for months to stop Hum­boldt Red­wood Company’s plan for 1,000 acres of log­ging in the Mat­tole For­est.

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In April, activists hung a ban­ner across from Hum­boldt Red­woods State Park to protest the log­ging in the Mat­tole.

While Hum­boldt Red­wood Com­pa­ny claims they are not log­ging old-growth, their def­i­n­i­tion restricts log­ging only areas with more than 8 old-growth trees in the span of an acre. They also define old-growth as exist­ing in the year 1800, cut­ting out any trees younger than exact­ly 214 years.

Skunk insists, “Our main demands to Hum­boldt Red­wood Com­pa­ny are very simple—don’t cut unlogged for­est, and don’t cut old-growth. This road threat­ens to destroy for­est that has nev­er been logged before, and will pave the way for log­ging even more impor­tant habi­tat if the com­mu­ni­ty does not rise up to stop it.” 

The Mat­tole pro­vides shel­ter to Gold­en Eagles and Spot­ted Owls, among oth­er rare species, and has long been the home of old-growth Big Leaf Maple, Dou­glas Fir, Tanoak, and Madrone.

This area of North­ern Cal­i­for­nia has a long his­to­ry of for­est defense against Maxxam/Pacific Lum­ber through­out the 1990s. What we are per­haps see­ing is just the begin­ning of a new chap­ter.

 

Karawang Farmers Defend Land From Corporate Eviction

jjjj2 28th June About 1200 peas­ant farm­ers of the vil­lage of Karawang, Indone­sia pre­pared to defend 350 hectares of farm lands that they have tend­ed and sur­vived off of for gen­er­a­tions.

jjjj2 28th June About 1200 peas­ant farm­ers of the vil­lage of Karawang, Indone­sia pre­pared to defend 350 hectares of farm lands that they have tend­ed and sur­vived off of for gen­er­a­tions.  The land in dis­pute has been des­ig­nat­ed by local Indone­sian gov­ern­ment for the expan­sion of a fac­to­ry owned by Agung Podomoro and the peo­ple of Karawang seem to have no recourse except to resist.

On Tues­day the 24th, about 7000 ful­ly equipped riot police forces descend­ed on the vil­lage with two water can­non vehi­cles to enforce the land rul­ing. The local res­i­dents had pre­pared tire bar­ri­cades and hand weapons yet tried first to non-vio­lent­ly resist the encroach­ing forces.

This agrar­i­an con­flict has led to the evic­tion of the 1,200 res­i­dents. It has become evi­dent that the coun­try is in favor to the own­ers of cap­i­tal and indif­fer­ent to ordi­nary peo­ple, such as farm­ers. The proof is the ver­dict of PK No. 160 PK/PDT/2011 des­ig­nat­ing the Pri­ma­ry Water Source (PT SAMP) on land owned by res­i­dents of three vil­lages in the Dis­trict Teluk­jambe.

Based on the deci­sion of the PT SAMP the land has been pur­chased by the Agung Podomoro group and Falkirk Dis­trict Court forced the evic­tion on June 24, 2014, requir­ing 7,000 riot forces.

Results of the inci­dent report­ed by the Con­sor­tium for Agrar­i­an Reform there were 10 work­ers who were assault­ed and one farmer who was shot by riot police and there are 13 peo­ple who were arrest­ed.

The pitch today is still tense as Riot police have set up com­mand posts in dit­i­ga, Marga­mulya and Wanasari Wanaker­ta vil­liages. They also put up a barbed wire fence in the con­flict area, cov­er­ing an area of ​​350 ha. Cur­rent­ly elec­tric­i­ty have been cut into the homes of res­i­dents who inhab­it the land dis­pute.

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So far there has been no response or attempts to pro­vide tem­po­rary hous­ing by the evic­tion com­pa­ny. But offi­cials Falkirk Farm­ers Union (patch) said that the res­i­dents will sur­vive even if the com­pa­ny and Riot police evic­tion use heavy equip­ment.

The Karawang peo­ple demand:
1. Stop the dis­place­ment towards the peas­ants man­dat­ed by state court of Karawang since the land has been plowed and owned legal­ly by the peas­ants who pay tax­es reg­u­lar­ly and obe­di­ent­ly to the states for tens of years.
2. Pull sev­en thou­sands armed mobile brigade back from agrar­i­an con­flict area in Karawang because they intim­i­date and pro­voke the peo­ple.
3. Sol­i­dar­i­ty from all Indone­sians and com­rades in strug­gle who sup­ports the agrar­i­an reform to con­demn the injus­tice suf­fered by the peas­ants.

Villager Wins Court Battle Against Hydroelectric Plant Construction

Screen Shot 2014-06-26 at 12.29.06 PM 26th June An admin­is­tra­tive court in the Black Sea province of Rize has ruled to halt the con­struc­tion of a hydro­elec­tric pow­er plant (

Screen Shot 2014-06-26 at 12.29.06 PM 26th June An admin­is­tra­tive court in the Black Sea province of Rize has ruled to halt the con­struc­tion of a hydro­elec­tric pow­er plant (HES) that was being built on the Andon Riv­er, which pro­vides fresh water to at least 3,000 peo­ple in the vil­lage of Küçükçayır.

Küçükçayır vil­lage was declared an envi­ron­men­tal­ly pro­tect­ed site in 2011. The village’s res­i­dents held a protest in Feb­ru­ary against a HES being con­struct­ed near the riv­er, clos­ing the main road of the vil­lage for hours as part of their protest and not allow­ing con­struc­tion equip­ment to oper­ate at the site.

Accord­ing to a Cihan news agency report on Wednes­day, Kezım Delal, one of the vil­lagers, sold a cow and took a loan from a bank in order to file a law­suit against the con­struc­tion com­pa­ny. Empha­siz­ing that he has been strug­gling in court against the con­struc­tion plan, which is like­ly to harm the envi­ron­ment, Delal said the injunc­tion to halt con­struc­tion stands as an impor­tant step towards pro­tect­ing the envi­ron­ment from oth­er upcom­ing pow­er plant con­struc­tion projects that might destroy the country’s nat­ur­al beau­ty.

“I have been liv­ing in this vil­lage for 70 years. I was born here. This is my home. I am so hap­py that court ruled in favor of our future. Now, I just want to see the con­struc­tion com­pa­ny leave us alone right away,” he told the press.

Empha­siz­ing that they have been keep­ing watch for almost eight months in order to pre­vent the con­struc­tion com­pa­ny from doing any dam­age, Delal thanked all his friends who did not leave his side dur­ing the protest. “This vic­to­ry belongs to all of us. Now we can move on with our lives,” he added.

Stat­ing that they were tak­en into cus­tody by gen­darmes many times due to the their protests, Yusuf Esir, anoth­er vil­lager, said that he was hap­py to take a stand against the con­struc­tion plans. “In order to intim­i­date us, gen­darmes took us into cus­tody many times. But nobody can deter us. If any­body should leave this vil­lage, it’s the con­struc­tion com­pa­ny, not us. Because this is our vil­lage,” Esir stat­ed.

Three More Vehicles Sabotaged in Italy’s No TAV Struggle

14th June We receive from anony­mous mail and trans­mit:

“Genoa—In the night of 3rd June 2 exca­va­tors and 1 con­crete mix­er were sab­o­taged at the Ter­zo Val­i­co Erzel­li yard.

To stop it is up to us

To stop it is pos­si­ble

Let’s sab­o­tage every­thing

No TAV Ter­zo Val­i­co”

 

14th June We receive from anony­mous mail and trans­mit:

“Genoa—In the night of 3rd June 2 exca­va­tors and 1 con­crete mix­er were sab­o­taged at the Ter­zo Val­i­co Erzel­li yard.

To stop it is up to us

To stop it is pos­si­ble

Let’s sab­o­tage every­thing

No TAV Ter­zo Val­i­co”

 

[See this arti­cle for more info on the No TAV move­ment]

Patagonia Dam CANCELED!

chao hidroaysen13th June After an eight-year strug­gle, Chile’s grass­roots and envi­ron­men­tal move­ments have suc­cess­ful­ly won the rejec­tion of five planned megadams on two Patag­on­ian rivers!

chao hidroaysen13th June After an eight-year strug­gle, Chile’s grass­roots and envi­ron­men­tal move­ments have suc­cess­ful­ly won the rejec­tion of five planned megadams on two Patag­on­ian rivers!

It’s not every day we cel­e­brate a vic­to­ry as sig­nif­i­cant and hard-won as today’s tri­umph in the eight-year cam­paign to pro­tect Chilean Patag­o­nia from the destruc­tive HidroAysén dam project!

This morn­ing, Chile’s high­est admin­is­tra­tive author­i­ty – the Com­mit­tee of Min­is­ters – made a unan­i­mous deci­sion to over­turn the envi­ron­men­tal per­mits for the con­tro­ver­sial five dam mega-project, which was planned on the Bak­er and Pas­cua rivers. This high­ly antic­i­pat­ed res­o­lu­tion effec­tive­ly can­cels the project, rul­ing that assess­ment of the project’s impacts was insuf­fi­cient to grant project approval back in 2011.

The Com­mit­tee, which con­sists of the Min­is­ter of Envi­ron­ment, Health, Econ­o­my, Ener­gy and Min­ing, Agri­cul­ture, and Tourism, eval­u­at­ed 35 appeals which were filed by the Patag­o­nia Defense Coun­cil and local cit­i­zens in response to the project’s Envi­ron­men­tal Impact Assess­ment after it was approved in May 2011. Though it has tak­en more than three years, with meet­ings and deci­sions being repeat­ed­ly delayed and even­tu­al­ly passed on to the new admin­is­tra­tion, today’s deci­sion is a recog­ni­tion of the tech­ni­cal and pro­ce­dur­al flaws sur­round­ing HidroAysén as well as the sig­nif­i­cant impacts the project would have had on one of Chile’s most icon­ic regions.

What began as a grass­roots effort to pro­tect the pris­tine Bak­er and Pas­cua rivers, and the com­mu­ni­ties and cul­ture of Patag­o­nia, has devel­oped into a ful­ly-fledged inter­na­tion­al cam­paign and gal­va­nized a nation­al envi­ron­men­tal move­ment. Over the past four years Chileans have tak­en to the streets to demand a halt to HidroAysén and around the world an inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty has ral­lied around this call. Today it is these voic­es that have won out, and togeth­er have set in motion a new path towards a bright future for Patag­o­nia and the hope of a tru­ly sus­tain­able ener­gy future for Chile.

Pascua River, Patagonia: Undammed!

Pas­cua Riv­er, Patag­o­nia: Undammed!

To bor­row some words from Patri­cio Rodri­go, Exec­u­tive Sec­re­tary of the Patag­o­nia Defense Coun­cil, “The government’s defin­i­tive rejec­tion of the HidroAysén project is not only the great­est tri­umph of the envi­ron­men­tal move­ment in Chile, but marks a turn­ing point, where an empow­ered pub­lic demands to be heard and to par­tic­i­pate in the deci­sions that affect their envi­ron­ment and lives.”

We are thrilled that the gov­ern­ment is sid­ing with the major­i­ty of Chileans and tens of thou­sands of peo­ple around the world to say no to HidroAysén! We com­mend Pres­i­dent Bachelet for remain­ing loy­al to her cam­paign promise that HidroAysén would not have her sup­port. And we are look­ing to the future, with the hope that mea­sures will be put in place to pro­tect this unique region from future threats. (In fact, Pres­i­dent Bachelet and the Min­is­ter of Envi­ron­ment recent­ly for­mal­ized a bill that would cre­ate the Depart­ment of Bio­di­ver­si­ty and Pro­tect­ed Areas (SBAP) with the aim to pre­serve crit­i­cal ecosys­tems through­out Chile.)