Wilderness Defence – Page 55

Campaigners block Shell’s peat haulage morning after An Taisce faces local community

Friday 18th November 2011

On Tuesday 15th November, An Taisce board member Attracta Uí Bhroin travelled to Belmullet Civic Centre to defend the withdrawal of An Taisce’s legal challenges to the validity of consents for the Corrib Gas project. An Taisce have claimed that their settlement is a 'victory for the environment' despite the fact that the State remains in breach of European environmental directives in proceeding with the Corrib project. The next day campaigners stopped Shell’s peat haulage outside Bellanaboy refinery site to demonstrate that despite An Taisce settling with the State, local campaigners will continue to defend the safety of the community.

“We'll have to fight for another day, the whole community. Ye might settle for money with them, but we are not going to.”

The next morning, peat extraction trucks were spotted for the first time travelling from the Aughoose compound to the Srahmore peat deposition site in Bangor Erris. Shell’s use of these very large trucks signals the start of their attempts to remove peat from Aughoose and haul stone in order to begin the process of tunneling through Sruwaddacon estuary.

Shell plan up to 475 truck movements a day through the affected route and villages in this period of construction. Members of the local community and Rossport Solidarity Camp responded by gathering at 12.30pm outside the Bellanaboy refinery to show their continuing opposition to the project. A peat truck was stopped at 12.45pm, as three campaigners climbed inside. A fourth campaigner locked on underneath the lorry at 2.30pm. With campaigners occupying the peat truck, local residents recorded that ten further trucks were prevented from either leaving the Aughoose compound and or leaving the refinery. The peat lorry blocked all Shell trucks to and from the Aughoose compound until 3.20pm.

Last Friday over 80 local residents and supporters came to Bellanaboy to demonstrate their opposition and honour eleven years of resistance. Banners were hung at the gates of Bellanaboy gas refinery which stated that the State is violating the European habitats directives in proceeding with the Corrib project. Local campaigners are asking people to travel to Erris and help to defend the safety of this community and place.

Mass environmental justice uprising engulfs Damietta on Egypt’s Mediterranean coast

Nov 15, 2011

The popular movement against a Canadian petrochemical plant has forced the Egyptian government to shut down the Agrium-Mopco gas-fertiliser factory, after residents shut down highways, bridges and a deepwater port, and battled the Egyptian military in the street.

Grainy photos and video-clips tweeted out – especially by Al-Jazeera’s @Mansourtalk – show locals standing up to military forces using live ammunition and tear gas. After 25 were arrested, fellow protestors besieged an army unit and APC until their friends were released. At least one local – Islam Abdullah – was killed by police or military and many others injured.

Twitter: Protestors besiege APC demanding release of their comrades @mansourtalk

Following the repression by the Egyptian state, the Damietta uprising has escalated its demands, calling for closure of other polluting factories in Damietta (including Methanex and SEGAS LNG – financed by RBS), and banning the construction of similar factories and complexes.

Repression threatens the uprising in Damietta @mansourtalk

The popular campaign against Agrium’s plant – using local gas to produce urea fertiliser – already scored a victory in 2008, forcing the Canadian company Agrium’s plans for a new petrochemical factory to merge with Egyptian Mopco. People in Damietta – and especially the Ras El-Barr island designated as the site – were worried about pollution destroying their health, the fish, the natural environment and potential for tourism. Fertiliser-producing plants are known to make local communities sick, with Agrium specifically facing controversy in several countries. Opposition to the new factory was strong across the town – including lawyers, fisherfolk, political activists, families and tourism developers. Black banners against the ‘factory of death’ were draped from homes and across streets: “Against Resource Drain and Pollution in Damietta…and No to Pollution in Ra’s al-Barr.”

Public unhappiness with the pollution from the existing factory and continuing construction grew since January, using the political space generated by the revolution. Newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm quotes a statement from the protestors:

“They told us Agrium factory was moved out of Damietta. In 2011, after the revolution, we found out that we were deceived and that the factory wasn’t moved. The committee formed to mull the region’s environmental status proved that this factory had caused people many diseases and dangerously affected man, animal, plant and fish resources.”

The paper also quoted a local resident, Mohamed Hassouna, as saying

“We are choking from the toxic fumes coming out of the garbage dumped close to residential areas. The fumes are causing serious respiratory problems among the elderly and the ill.”

The uprising – in which the local community successfully shut down Damietta’s massive deepwater port and blockaded the highways and bridges for days – has touched a nerve in Egypt. There is already widespread unhappiness about the collusion between foreign multinationals, military-controlled companies and private Egyptian elite interests in using Egyptian resources (land, natural gas, etc) – frequently subsidised – to make outrageous profits. The role of the military in attacking the Damietta community physically enacts this co-operation against the people.

Pollution and dumping of waste in Egypt – such as in Idku by BG and BP – is increasingly being publicly challenged as a political decision, that prioritises profits for those in charge over the lives and rights over fenceline communities. The language of the revolution is being used to describe environmental injustice.

The militarisation of the Susa Valley: final act & Brief History of the No TAV movement

12.11.11

Berlusconi’s moribund government has finally managed to pass a decree – with the opposition’s approval – that formalises the current state of militarisation in the Susa Valley. The construction site in La Maddalena will become a “site of strategic national interest”, that is, a military area. The consequences for those who trespass will be the same imposed by law for any other military area trespass: a prison sentence between 3 months and one year, or the payment of a fine between 51 and 309 Euro. That’s not it, though! The rock extracted on the site will become a legal construction material, even if contaminated by uranium, asbestos and other chemical products released by the excavation process. This will have a huge impact on the industry of the “great useless public works” beloved by the current government; and it’s a huge present to the construction mafia. Also, it’s another heavy attack to freedom of protest and dissent, and a clear message for the people of the Val Susa: don’t disturb the construction!

In the meantime, a couple of weeks ago a public youth hostel managed by an organisation close to the NO TAV movement was attacked and vandalised. The building is often used by NO TAV protesters coming from the surrounding areas. The attackers stole money and damaged the furniture. Special attention was reserved to the books, magazines and original materials about the Antifascist Resistance which the building makes available to the public. Just in case it wasn’t clear who was behind the attack.

Nevertheless, the state of permanent mobilisation declared last May by the NO TAV carries on; the national tour that started in October in Bologna will conclude in the next few days in Genoa, and more initiatives have been announced to protest against the new decree.

Sources: this article, and various other things borrowed and recycled from Italy Indymedia.

Written/translated by Italy Calling.

NO TAV (No to the High Speed Train) is a movement based in the Susa Valley in Piedmont that opposes the creation of the new high speed railway line between Turin and Lyon in France. This line is part of a EU project which plans to connect Lyon to Budapest and then onto Ukraine. Similar protest movements were active in the early 90s in Florence, Bologna and Rome, but their militancy and the brutal repression that this triggered in the Susa Valley has made the Piedmontese movement the most talked about.

The simple principle behind the movement is that a new high speed railway line in the Valley is completely useless and not needed, its only purpose being the profit of the many private companies that have shares in it. The NO TAV think that the current railway line between Piedmont and France is more than sufficient, considering that traffic in the area has never been incredibly high. More importantly, the construction of the line would utterly and irreversibly destroy a huge part of the Susa Valley, causing not only an environmental but also an economic and social disaster, with businesses closing down and villages being completely disfigured or disappearing.

High speed railway lines in Italy are considered to be of “strategic interest”, which translated from political bullshit language means that the law allows this type of works WITHOUT consulting the local population and institutions whatsoever. At a time of economic collapse such as Italy is going through, the works require billions of Italian taxpayers’ money, at the expense of primary services like education and health. It would mainly be construction and other private companies profiting from it, but when finished and in use, the low demand for the line would end up making it a loss-making burden on the taxpayers. Like in Rossport, Ireland, the locals’ concerns and proposals are being completely ignored in the name of the only Modern God: money.

The NO TAV came up with their own plan for the area which would include:
– changing the production and distribution processes to decrease transport of people and goods, especially on long distances
– supporting local sustainable trades instead of big industries
– creating or improving local means of sustainable and green transport for workers and students
– supporting and incrementing the use of the already existing local railway line

The main source of this article is Turin’s NO TAV website.

Occupy Shellanaboy set up at refinery gates in Erris (& solidarity with Ogoni 9)

November 11, 2011

About 40 Shell to Sea campaigners blocked the Aughoose compound this morning – all Shell employees prevented entering compound 7.30 to 9.30. The road was kept open to local traffic by the campaign. There was no Garda presence. Just after 10 Shell to Sea activists started setting up an Occupy Shell Corrib Camp at the gates of the refinery in a show of solidarity with the global Occupy movements!

At 9.30 campaigners started moving from the Aughhoose compound to the refinery site where there will be meet up at 10. This action was part of the day of solidarity called both to remember the execution of Ken Saro Wiwa and for people from around Ireland to stand in solidarity with the local community in Erris, Mayo.

Local residents and their supporters will gather at 10am at the gates of Shell’s inland refinery. From there they will walk to Bellanaboy Bridge to commemorate a baton charge by Gardaí on November 10th, 2006. The baton charge resulted in numerous injuries to campaigners and is one of the low points of the 11-year struggle against the inland refinery and high pressure pipeline. They will also be marking the 16th anniversary of the execution of nine activists in Ogoniland, Nigeria. Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight others were hanged by the Nigerian government on November 10th, 1995 for their opposition to Shell’s environmental destruction in the Niger delta. The walk which is now (11.20) underway is lead by people carrying the 9 crosses to commemorate the Ogoni 9 executed on this day in 1995. Over 100 people are taking part

How to use a bikelock to save the Great Barrier Reef – protest halts Gladstone dredging

9 November 2011

Derec Davies used a bicycle U lock to attach himself to a dredger in Gladstone Harbour this morning. The direct action was taken to protect the Great Barrier Reef against the development of Gladstone harbour liquefied natural gas facilities on Curtis Island to export Coal Seam Gas. Massive Dredging of the Gladstone harbour is occurring which fisherman and environmentalists say is causing turbidity in the water and causing illness of fish effectively closing down the local fishing industry. Development is endangering the World Heritage status of the Great Barrier Reef.

Related: In 2010 Conservationists criticised government over coal ship grounding on Great Barrier Reef near Gladstone | Capricorn Conservation Council: The LNG invasion of Curtis Island | ABC TV Four Corners: Great Barrier Grief | Getup! petition to Save the reef

Derec Davies, a Friends of the Earth campaigner, was whisked out to a dredger about 9.30am this morning by a fast inflatable boat. He unfurlled a banner on the dredge, which read "Save the reef, halt dredging" and chained himself. All dredging stopped when he locked onto equipment. The police were called and attended to cut him free. Dredging was stopped for over 2 hours.

Derec Davies was released from custody at 3:40pm today with three charges under the Transport Operations and Maritime Safety act. The charges carry a total maximum penalty of $74000 or one years imprisonment.

"The Great Barrier Reef is worth a lot more than $74 000, so I think that it was worthwhile," said Mr Davies. "We shouldn't have to take action like this, but our Environment ministers Vicky Darling and Tony Burke are letting us all down. Hopefully the judge will see that people need to have the right to protest, otherwise this destruction of the reef will go unchallenged." said Mr Davies.

Drew Hutton, a spokeperson for Friends of the Earth said that the purpose of the protest was to call for a halt to all dredging in the harbour until a genuine independent enquiry was held into the causes of the apparent ecosystem collapse in the harbour.

The ABC TV Four Corners current affairs Program on Monday night did an in depth report on port developments in Queensland and their impact on The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park and World Heritage Area. (Watch Great Barrier Grief)

In the 12 hours following the airing of the program some 19,000 people signed an online Getup! petition to Save the reef.

There are six major port developments already planned or underway along the Queensland coast to export coal and coal seam gas.

"ABC has reported that the chair of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority expressed ‘extreme concern’ to the Government about the dredging and its unacceptable impacts on marine life within the World Heritage area," said Senator Larissa Waters from the Greens.

“We now have a huge spike in marine animal deaths up and down the coast, a fish disease epidemic in Gladstone harbour and the fishing industry on its knees, after just 1.5 million of the 46 million cubic metres have been dredged. The turbidity conditions imposed by the federal Environment Minister for the dredging are being continually breached, and now we learn that three heavy metals – aluminium, copper and chromium – are exceeding the national safety guidelines. And still the dredging continues." Senators Waters said in a media release.

Mr Hutton said the disproportionate number of marine animal deaths and diseased fish in Gladstone harbour reflected an ecosystem under extreme stress and his organisation had no faith in the Queensland Government's preparedness to look seriously for the causes.

"This is an issue of concern to all Australians who believe the Great Barrier reef should not be sacrificed for fleeting economic development. The coal seam gas industry, once again, has demonstrated what a detrimental impact it is having on rural and regional Queensland." said Drew Hutton.

According to Drew Hutton in a report on Lock the Gate, neither the Queensland government nor the federal government were trusted by most people to get to the bottom of the problem because they had too strong a vested interest in seeing these projects go ahead.

"So far all we have seen from the Bligh government is flawed water quality monitoring, constant assertions that the problems of marine species’ deaths and fish disease have nothing to do with developments in the harbour and the desire to see developments proceed at breakneck speed."

"The Gladstone Port Corporation’s dredging program is one of the biggest in our history and we need to know if dredging up historic layers of industrial pollutants as well as the acid sulphate soils that are known to be in the area are linked with this catastrophe."

Drew Hutton has highlighted the links between the reckless pace of development in Coal Seam Gas wells, with the port expansion threatening major impacts to fisheries and tourism industries associated with the Great Barrier Reef.

"Coal seam gas is, in all likelihood, linked with the problems in Gladstone harbour but you can follow the trail of destruction and possible catastrophe back to the tens of thousands of hectares of bushland being cleared for gas pipelines and the long-term destruction of underground water." he said, "It is only people power that will force recalcitrant governments to act responsibly to bring the coal seam gas industry under control and to act to protect the Great Barrier Reef from high-impact development.."

Friends of the Earth is calling for a dredging halt, independent testing in Gladstone harbour, and the current enquiry announced by Federal and State Governments to widen its terms of reference to include all aspects of industrial development in the region.

Australia failed to notify the World Heritage Committee earlier this year regarding the port developments and their possible impact on the World Hertiage status of the Great Barrier Reef. They have called for a strategic assessment of all coastal assessments impacting on the reef. The reef may be in danger of losing its World Heritage status.

“Australians have to ask right now – are we prepared to lose one of our greatest national assets so we can turn the Great Barrier Reef into a coal and gas highway?” concluded Senator Waters.

EXCAVATORS VANDALIZED, SET ON FIRE, SWEDEN

reported anonymously to Örebro's ALF/DBF Press Office:

"The night to the 7th of November we vandalized 3 excavators in Ladugårdsängen Örebro. We crushed the windows of all of them and set one on fire with two explosive devices.

We did it for mainly three reasons:

reported anonymously to Örebro's ALF/DBF Press Office:

"The night to the 7th of November we vandalized 3 excavators in Ladugårdsängen Örebro. We crushed the windows of all of them and set one on fire with two explosive devices.

We did it for mainly three reasons:

1. For ALL the animals that get killed directly by these hellmachines– worms, snakes, ants and snails, and all the other living beings.

2. They are building a big road through the Wild animals habitat. They not only clearcut the forest and bush, they also crush the so often forgotten life under the ground.

3. For all the animals that could get killed on this road if we didnt do anything– and for the total suffering following global warming that roads contribute to.

This is for everyone that simply wants to live and not get crushed by a killing machine of mass destruction.

For all beings

ANIMAL LIBERATION FRONT SWEDEN

DBF"

http://www.youtube.com/embed/67jNXebCUP8

10.11.11
anonymous report received by Örebro's ALF/DBF Press Office:

"I saw another excavator in Örebro city vandalized. It was standing near the store Lidl on the west side.

Thanks alot! They mess up my home!

An observant rabbit"

Protests Continue Against Iron Mining in Armenia

9.11.2011

Opposition politicians and environmental activists joined on Wednesday about two hundred residents of the central Armenian town of Hrazdan in protesting against the opening of an iron mine which they believe would have grave ecological consequences.

The crowd rallied in Hrazdan’s central square before heading to a nearby hill rich in iron ore in a convoy of buses and cars.

Bounty Resources Armenia Limited (BRAL), a company partly owned by a Chinese firm, plans to launch open-pit operations there and in two other, larger iron deposits elsewhere in the country in the coming years. A team of geologists hired by BRAL is currently working there to ascertain iron reserves hidden underground through test drilling.

Environment protection groups are strongly opposed to iron mining in the area, saying that it would pollute air, agricultural land and the Hrazdan river, the main supplier of irrigation water to the fertile Ararat Valley in the country’s south.

Many Hrazdan residents share these concerns. Some of them already demonstrated against the project late last month.

“There is a ghost town in China near a similarly exploited mine,” said one woman taking part in the protest. “We would have the same situation here.”

Miasnik Malkhasian, a geologist coordinating test drilling at the site, dismissed such concerns as he and his workers were confronted by the angry crowd. “There is no danger whatsoever,” he said.

The protesters remained unconvinced. Some of them smashed wooden boxes containing drilling samples. Police officers monitoring the demonstration did not intervene.

“Such criminal decisions are not made in Hrazdan,” Karine Hakobian, a leader of the opposition Zharangutyun (Heritage) party, told the protesters before the march. “They are made in Yerevan, at the presidential palace and the government building. They have turned us into slaves in our own country.”

Sasun Mikaelian, a Hrazdan-based former parliamentarian affiliated with the opposition Armenian National Congress (HAK), singled out former Environment Minister Vartan Ayvazian for blame.

The Hetq.am news service reported last January that by Ayvazian and his family at least partly control BRAL. The ex-minister, who now chairs one of the standing committees of the Armenian parliament, did not deny that.

The Hetq report followed the announcement by the Chinese company Fortune Oil that it has paid $24 million to acquire a 35 percent share in BRAL. Fortune Oil has the option of raising the stake to 50 percent for an additional $16 million.

Ayvazian had considerable regulatory authority over the mining industry when he served as environment minister from 2001-2007.

http://www.azatutyun.am/content/article/24386103.html

Earth First! Winter Moot 2012 – 24-26th February 2012. Updated: location & what to expect

A weekend of discussion and networking for those taking direct action against ecological destruction.

Please note date & location change (due to date clash & venue problems):

24-26th February 2012, near Glasgow

Nearest train station: Lanark.

A weekend of discussion and networking for those taking direct action against ecological destruction.

Please note date & location change (due to date clash & venue problems):

24-26th February 2012, near Glasgow

Nearest train station: Lanark.

See earthfirstgathering.org.uk for further information about location, programme and contact details

Update:

Where – this years Earth First Winter Moot will take place in Glespin Village Hall, South Lanarkshire. Glespin is a small village about 14 miles south of Lanark, and 35 miles south of Glasgow. South Lanarkshire also has many beautiful areas with rivers, hills, forests and peat bogs. Full directions

What to expect – this years Earth First! Winter Moot takes place in South Lanarkshire, Scotland. In a months time environmentalists from across the UK and beyond will converge to discuss and debate. Below is an update from the organising collective who are working on the program.

The Moot 2012 collective has felt that at previous EF! Gatherings groups have primarily attended to recruit for their respective campaigns. Yet those who attend EF! Gatherings are predominantly already active, making them good places for networking, but not necessarily for outright recruitment. We recognise the effort gathering organisers put into planning agendas but often the more discursive aspects of the gatherings focus on larger, abstract questions and debates have often been framed by self-appointed experts. We feel that these discussions ineffectively attempt to find answers or reach consensus where this is inappropriate.

For example at the first EF! Gathering 20 years ago the question was asked: 'What is EF!?' 20 years later in 2011 at the last Moot the same question was still being asked . . .

The answer is EF! is what we make it, and this year we are going to make it a space in which we can approach our campaigns both critically and analytically by asking more specific and practical questions. Our activism should be constantly evolving not stuck in a rut asking the same questions again and again.

The agenda will be designed to ask questions around four key issues: the tactics we use; the strategies that we employ in our campaigns; community solidarity; and sustainable activism. There will be no attempt to reach conclusions or consensus especially about what EF! is. Instead we want to have discussions that lead to new ideas that could evolve ongoing campaigns or give creative inspiration to ones that are just getting started.

A free space will be provided in which campaigns will be able to hold meetings and have further discussions if they wish, and there will also be some space given for campaign updates with an emphasis on honest analysis rather than promotion.

For updates and more info check the website or email us.

efwintermoot@noflag.org.uk

Natural Gas Drilling Rig Stormed by Anti-Fracking Protesters

2.11.11

This morning nine people, from the national anti- fracking network from Frack Off, have halted work at Cuadrilla Resources drilling site in Hesketh Bank, Lancashire. They ran on to the Fracking site early this morning and scaled the drilling rig using climbing equipment. They aim to sit on top of the drilling rig for as long as possible to stop the drilling.

The action is aimed at highlighting the hypocrisy behind the ‘Shale Gas Environmental Summit’ starting today in London: a conference sponsored by a host of companies involved in the oil and gas industry who are trying to spin the rapid expansion into the untapped fossil fuel as ‘green’ [1].

Campaigners are acting in support of the ‘Frack Mob’ mass action happening outside the summit at 3pm later today [2].

Both actions aim to counter the PR offensive of the shale gas industry and bring public attention to the harm fracking has been linked to.

Hydraulic Fracturing, or ‘fracking’ is a controversial method of natural gas extraction, in which a mixture of water, sand and chemicals is injected into the ground at high pressure, cracking shale rock and releasing the gas [3]. It has been the subject of much contention due to numerous reports linking the method to water contamination, health problems and earthquakes [4]. The industry is in its infancy in the UK, and there are plans for up to 800 wells in Lancashire alone [5].

Jenny Boykin, a spokesperson for Frack Off, said “Fracking uses huge amounts of water mixed with toxic chemicals, a large fraction of which are never recovered. The fracking fluid also leaches chemicals like arsenic out of the rocks when it is used making it even more toxic and so the fluid that is recovered becomes a big disposal problem. The contamination of irrigation water means that everyone’s food supplies could potentially be affected. Fracking in the United States has already resulted in numerous spills of these fluids.”

Colin Eastman, one of the climbers, said, “Conventional fossil fuels have begun to run out and the system is moving towards more extreme forms of energy like fracking, tar sands, and deep water drilling. The move towards ‘extreme energy’ is literally scrapping the bottom of the barrel, sucking the last most difficult to reach fossil fuels from the planet at a time when we should be rapidly reducing our consumption altogether and looking for sustainable alternatives. In the UK fracking for shale gas is planned alongside, not instead of, extraction of conventional fossil fuels like coal.”

Pictures are being uploaded here: http://s.coop/7hwi

Look at the website for more info: www.frack-off.org
Follow us on twitter: @frack_off
Follow us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/frackoffuk
Or e-mail: media@frack-off.org
Phone: 07931195505

Notes:
[1] Environmental summit details: http://www.smi-online.co.uk/events/overview.asp?is=0&ref=3742

[2] press release for the frack mob: http://frack-off.org.uk/press-release-anti-fracking-protesters-plan-to-shut-down-an-industry-environmental-summit/

[3] short film explaining what fracking is:
http://frack-off.org.uk/fracking-hell/watch-the-film/

[4] http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2050025/Earthquakes-Lancashire-coast-WERE-caused-drilling-gas-experts-warn-energy-operation-threatened-closure.html

[5] http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/sep/21/gas-field-blackpool-dallas-sea

Defending the Xingu River basin from the Belo Monte Dam

Last week, on October 27 in Altamira, Brazil, the Belo Monte Dam construction site was occupied by 400 indigenous people, fishermen and community members intending to permanently occupy the site and calling allied organizations and movements to join them. The occupation was a collective decision made by 700 representatives from local communities who attended a seminar against the Belo Monte Dam held the week before in Altamira.

Protesters notified the Brazilian government about the occupation and participating groups released a statement saying: “In the face of the Brazilian government’s intransigence to dialogue and continuing disrespect, we occupied the Belo Monte construction site and blocked the Trans-Amazon highway. We demand a definitive cancellation of the Belo Monte Dam.”

Juma Xipaia, a local indigenous leader, explained, “We only demand what our Constitution already ensures us: our rights. Our ancestors fought so we could be here now. Many documents and meetings have already transpired and nothing has changed. The machinery continues to arrive to destroy our region.”

After 15 hours, protesters were disbursed from the construction site with the arrival of two justice officials and three lawyers from Norte Energia (the dam-building consortium), who carried an injunction in favor of the consortium. Upon informing the protesters about the judicial order, officials threatened that “Shock Troops” were surrounding the area, ready to act.

This was a substantial change from the Monday prior, when a federal judge in Brazil stated that the environmental licensing of the controversial Belo Monte Dam was illegal given the lack of consultations with affected indigenous communities.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) of the Organization of American States (OAS) also requested explanation from the Brazilian Government regarding the rights of indigenous peoples affected by the dam, in April. According to the OAS, the Brazilian Government is obligated to consult indigenous peoples who will be affected by the dam, before construction begins.

On October 26, the day prior to the occupation and blockade, Brazilian government officials refused to attend a closed hearing convened by the IAHCR intended to foster dialogue toward resolving this conflict.

A statement by groups participating in what they called “#Occupy Belo Monte Dam” said this of the blockade: “The unprecedented occupation of the Belo Monte construction site was a direct result of an autonomous and sovereign decision by indigenous people and fishermen from the Xingu River basin and is considered the landmark of a new alliance in the struggle against the Belo Monte Dam. The mutual recognition and partnerships sealed this week among the segments that will suffer the most with the destruction of the Xingu River marks a new, stronger level of the fight against Belo Monte. Such unprecedented partnership between indigenous people and fishermen shows that the people from Xingu are united to defend the river, nature and their traditional way of life.

Our resistance against this destructive project called Belo Monte remains unshakable. The occupation has sent a clear message to President Dilma Rousseff’s administration that the fight for the Xingu is more alive than ever. If the Brazilian government continues to insist on violating our rights, other resistance actions shall come.”

The statement was signed by the following groups:

-Coordenação das Organizações Indígenas da Amazônia Brasileira – COIAB
-Comissão Pastoral da Terra – CPT
-Conselho Indigenista Missionário – CIMI
-Movimento Xingu Vivo para Sempre – MXVPS

Hundreds of international solidarity action have also occurred around the world in recent months.

For more information, check out: