Global – Page 61 – Earth First!

Earth First! Locks Down to Forest Service Office in NC

On Monday July 12th, Earth First!

On Monday July 12th, Earth First! held a large protest outside of the Forest Service office on Zillicoa St. in Asheville to protest the commercial logging of national forests and their continued plan to cut the Globe Forest in Blowing Rock, NC. One member u-locked his neck to the office front door. As negotiations continue on this timber sale to remove an old-growth stand from the project, Earth First! wishes to call attention to the continued exploitation of our disappearing forests by timber companies. Recent studies show the United States now leads all developed countries in deforesting its land the fastest, and this trend is most prevalent in the Southeast.
The Globe Forest provides important habitat and nesting sites for woodpeckers and migratory songbirds whose numbers are declining due to forest fragmentation. The Forest Service continues to cut stands of trees that are directly connected to old-growth forest communities, causing destructive edge effects, and they have refused to provide a buffer because it is not required in their “Forest Plan.” Treating and cutting these stands will cause erosion, soil destruction, and will pollute the nearby streams with herbicides. Until all of Thunderhole Creek is protected, Earth First! will campaign to stop the cut.

Earth First! Demands That the Forest Service in North Carolina:

-stop attempting to cut old-growth habitats including any stands connected

to these rare areas.
-put an end to all commercial logging in our national forests
-immediately revise the Forest Plan to include rehabilitating previous
clear-cuts into early successional habitat instead cutting healthy, mature
forest expanses.
-an end to road building in our national forests

“Any cuts within the Globe will affect vital old-growth ecosystems and our stance is to end all commercial logging of our national forests,” says Joseph Ferguson, a Croatan Earth First! activist. “Historically the Forest Service has catered to timber companies, but we believe the public does not support logging in our National Forests.”

Russian ELF protect forest

On thursday, July the 8th a bulldozer was torched in the northern Moscow at the construction site. City authorities decided they can go about ordering destruction of plant life and what’s left of forests in Moscow area. We thought they should pay. Dozer was covered with tree branches and foliage (construction site is situated in the freshly-cut grove), an assortment of rags and construction garbage. Then set aflame.

ELF-russia

Penan tribe fights rainforest destruction with blockade

8th July 2010
Nomadic tribespeople in Borneo are blockading a road to stop loggers destroying their rainforest.

Members of the Penan tribe have mounted the blockade in Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo, to stop the destruction of the forests they depend on for their survival.

8th July 2010
Nomadic tribespeople in Borneo are blockading a road to stop loggers destroying their rainforest.

Members of the Penan tribe have mounted the blockade in Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo, to stop the destruction of the forests they depend on for their survival.

Malaysian timber company Lee Ling is logging in the area, and there are plans to clear the Penan’s forests completely to establish plantations of fast-growing trees for paper production.

The Penan say the plantations will leave them with nothing. They live by hunting, gathering and fishing, and will have nowhere to find food if the forests are chopped down.

Penan protesting at the blockade in northern Sarawak say they have experienced a violent attack by a logger. They are also going hungry, because manning the blockade means they are unable to spend time finding food.

The protestors include nomadic Penan, and those living in settled villages.

One Penan man told Survival, ‘We can’t live in a plantation environment. It is like asking fish to live on the land.’

Survival’s director Stephen Corry said today, ‘How many more Penan protests, and how much more intimidation by the loggers, will we see before Malaysia recognizes that this land belongs to the Penan?’

Earth First! Blocks the Blade, USA

7th July 2010
Earth First! honored the No Compromise stance towards environmentalism by executing a beautiful action that cut to the heart of local organizing, bio-centrism and direct action in defense of the Earth. Earth First! concluded this year’s Summer Rendezvous in Maine with a dynamic and intense blockading an access road to the latest land destroying development scheme—the clearcutting of Maine’s Sisk Mountain for TransCanada’s wind turbines.

Beginning in the early morning, more than five EF!ers eluded police tails and entered Plum Creek land on Sisk Mountain, the site of TransCanada’s prospective wind farm, with the intention of blockading the access road. Although police assisting the corporations found the activists quickly, the access road was blockaded for the entire morning by a cavalcade of police and, interestingly enough, border patrol. They did our job for us, and nobody was arrested; only warnings were issued to the brave activists who sparked the blockade.

At around noon, police issued an order to disperse, and many EF!ers returned to the Rondy site pleased at the fact that, for that morning, the blades of wind turbines did not pass through the power of the people. At the access road, however, things were just getting started.

Earth First!ers remained to continue protesting, most moving to the opposite side of the highway to get support from passing automobiles. One person, Turtle, was arrested for refusing to move from the access road. Soon, a massive truck emerged from the bend, hauling behind it the blade itself, the awesome length of which resembled a small airplane. As the truck entered the access road, EF!ers made their move, rushing to stop it from entering the site. Meanwhile, Willow, locked herself to the undercarriage of the truck. The trucker hauling the blade began revving the engine, revealing the intention to drive on with an activist locked to his rig. Heroically, Anna jumped on top of the truck and thrust a sign over the windshield, obstructing the truckers’ view. Finally, the police, realizing they had been defeated for the moment, told the trucker to stop his engines.

When all was said and done, the truck had been blocked for hours and three people had been arrested. Their bail was set for $500, and they were released that night. Through the intensity of the day, the gathering stood strong, successful action in tow. Earth First! is showing that the attention to oil and offshore drilling is only the tip of the iceberg. We protested off-shore drilling in Santa Barbara in February, months before the Deep Horizon spill. We need to look forward to a future of resistance to the false solutions of wind power in wild areas, “clean coal” and biomass.

This years’ Rondy action has been called the Green Tea Party, and that might not be far off. With the irrevocable ecological damage done to this planet, a new era must come about. The most recent global protests in favor of environmentalism indicate that more and more people are taking up the slogan, “We won’t stop until they do. Earth First!”

Brazilian Indians protest against dams

1st July 2010
Enawene Nawe Indians in Brazil are demonstrating against a series of hydroelectric dams which are killing the fish they rely on.

Three hundred Indians have gathered in the town of Sapezal in the Amazon state of Mato Grosso, armed with bows and arrows to protest against the dam project.

Survival International is calling for the Enawene Nawe’s rights to their land to be upheld.

Unlike most tribes in the Amazon, the Enawene Nawe do not eat meat, so fish are essential to their diet.

A total of 77 small hydroelectric dams are planned for the Juruena River, upstream of the tribe’s land. Five are already under construction.

The Enawene Nawe were not consulted about the project, and they say that since work started the Juruena and its tributaries have become polluted.

During the protests the Enawene Nawe have met with the Brazilian authorities to reiterate their opposition to the dams. They are also demanding a full, independent environmental impact study.

Every year the Enawene Nawe perform yãkwa, an important ritual in which they build intricate dams across the smaller rivers and trap fish in large baskets.

The fish are smoked and transported back to the village, where some are offered to the yakairiti spirits of the underworld in elaborate ceremonies.

This year and last year the Indians caught almost no fish, a disaster for the tribe, who rely on fish as their main source of protein.

In 2008 the Enawene Nawe occupied one of the dam construction sites and destroyed much of the equipment on the site.

Just Do It: Get Off Your Arse and Change the World

Documentary following the fortunes of environmental activists in 2009 launches innovative crowd-funding appeal

***

Documentary following the fortunes of environmental activists in 2009 launches innovative crowd-funding appeal

***

In early 2009, Emily James began filming the clandestine activities of several environmental direct action groups across the UK. Allowed unprecedented access, Emily documented a year of escalating action that began in spring with the now infamous G20 demonstrations in London. Always in the thick of it and with ever her trusty camera to hand she saddled up with The Climate Rush “Bike Rush” as they brought Westminster to a standstill, pitched up with The Climate Camp as they occupied Blackheath, masked up with The Great Climate Swoop as they stormed the fences at Ratcliffe-on-Soar coal power station, and then accompanied them all to wintry Copenhagen as they took their protest to the streets outside the UN COP 15 climate talks. And those are just the headlines!

‘Just Do It’ follows the triumphs, traumas and clandestine activities of civil disobedient environment activists as they take on the combined forces of global capitalism, run away climate change and the pesky Metropolitan Police. Having gathered over 250 hours of material, she and her team are now embarking on the challenging task of turning this footage into a feature length film, which will inspire people to take action on climate change. Check out the trailer here: http://just-do-it.org.uk/.

Set for release in 2011, the Just Do it model can be thought of as the ultimate in independent film production. Unlike a TV funded documentary, our innovative crowd-funding model allows us to work completely free from external interference, be it editorial or stylistic. This means that we can focus entirely on making a film that does justice to the exciting footage we have captured. Our production model gives us complete control. This is bottom up filmmaking, not the usual top-down, and it is driven by passion and creative vision, rather than by desire for ratings or commercial imperative.

“It’s precisely the kind of film that wouldn’t get made within the existing profit and ratings-driven funding structures,” explains Just Do It director, Emily James, “Crowd-funding through donation enables us, as creative artists, to be supported by our audience in a more direct way, without the involvement of cultural gatekeepers. This is another nail in the coffin for traditional media.“

‘Just Do It’ aims to tell an important story frequently obscured by the agenda of the corporate media. If you too think this is a story which should be told, then please donate here: http://just-do-it.org.uk/fund-this-film – whether it’s a tenner or a grand, it will be gratefully received.

Mining applications ‘frozen’ after protest in Philippines

24 June 2010
Six hundred indigenous people and farmers took to the streets on Palawan Island in the Philippines on June 7, to protest against plans to mine nickel on their land.

The demonstrators called upon the provincial government to prevent the companies Macro Asia and Ipilian Nickel Mining Corporation (INC) from mining in the UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve, which is their home. They also expressed their anger at news that Canadian mining company MBMI has been granted initial approval to mine.

As a result of negotiations with protesters, the provincial government agreed that its endorsements of both Macro Asia and INC’s plans required further investigation. The companies’ applications have been ‘frozen’ until all issues are clarified.

The protestors called their demonstration a ‘Karaban’ rally; Karaban is the indigenous Palawan’s word for the bamboo quiver that contains darts for their blowpipes. It is a symbol of their identity, and signifies, they say, that they are willing to take ‘whatever action is necessary’ to stop the mining companies entering their traditional territories

Indigenous spokesperson for ALDAW (Ancestral Land/Domain Watch) Artiso Mandawa, said, ‘Mining is not development, it creates conflict among people, and it destroys our culture by bringing foreign values to our community. Some of my people still have limited contact with the outside and are not even registered in the national and provincial census. They are the first inhabitants to arrive on this island and yet, for the government, they appear not to exist.’

Maman Tuwa, an elder of the isolated Palawan tribe from Mt Gantong, fears that mining will destroy his community. ‘If our mountains are deforested, how are we going to survive? What are we going to plant if the soil of the uplands will be washed down to the lowlands? How are we going to feed our children? We’ll surely die’.

Survival’s director Stephen Corry said, ‘We welcome the decision to freeze the mining applications on the land of the Palawan tribal people, and we urge the Philippine government to ensure that no mining takes place on their land without their genuine free, prior and informed consent. We also call upon President-elect Benigno Aquino III, to revoke the 1995 Mining Act which has been so disastrous for the indigenous peoples of the Philippines.’

Innu block access to mining projects on their territory

June 14, 2010

Innu communities are blocking access to two mining projects in northeastern Quebec and western Labrador in an attempt to protect their Indigenous rights and ensure no mining can proceed on their territory without their prior consent.

June 14, 2010

At the moment, roughly 100 Innu from the communities of Matimekush-Lac John and Uashat mak Mani-Utenam are attending the blockade, which officially began on Friday, June 11.

That number could easily swell if the governments and the two mining companies, New Millennium Capital and Labrador Iron Mines Holdings (LIM), fail to act responsibly. Both communities are members of the Innu Strategic Alliance (ISA), which represents some 12,000 people or 70% of all Innu in the province of Quebec. The ISA supporting the blockade.

On June 9, the Alliance chiefs said they have no choice to set up a blockade, which “complies with the existing Innu traditional juridical system,” because the Provincial and Federal governments are undermining their rights.

“We are open to constructive dialogue with the governments and the companies as long as our cultural, economic, social, environmental and spiritual aspirations are respected. We are not against all forms of development of the territory but we are against all development held without our consent,” stated the Chiefs in a joint statement.

Matimekush-Lac John Chief Real McKenzie and Uashat mak Mani-Utenam Chief Georges-Ernest Grégoire also reaffirmed Innu ownership of the natural resources within their territory, stating, “We have never ceded, abandoned or renounced our Aboriginal rights or our Aboriginal title. The governments therefore have the constitutional obligation to consult us and to accommodate our rights and interests.”

The ISA notes that, in 1927, the Quebec-Labrador border was imposed on them by the British Crown, which created an “artificial division of Nitassinan (Innu territory)”.

The division opened the floodgates for Canada’s standard aboriginal policy, including residential schools, the banishment of hunting Caribou (which the Innu heavily rely on) and, ultimately, the exploitation of Nitassinan.

The region was stripped of its resources in the 1950s and 60s; the Innu barred from exercising their rights and benefiting in any way meaningful.

“Our community will not be fooled like in the 60s. For many years, our territory was stripped of its resources without our consent and without any benefit for our community. When the governments completed their mining operations, [Schefferville] was destined for doom; the governments left it deprived of economic activity and resources and without taking account of our presence and without concern for our rights. If they now wish to take up mining again, they have to do so under our conditions,” said Chief McKenzie, prior to a general meeting last month held to discuss the future of Innu lands.

More recently, Chief McKenzie said the blockade will stay up as long as it takes for the governments and the companies to act. “It’s up to them.”

Eagle Rock Defenders camp ‘crushed’ by Police

Dozens of heavily armed Police and State Troopers have raided the peaceful defenders camp at Eagle Rock in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula; “crushing” the month-long effort to protect the sacred site from a controversial sulfide mine.

BIG BAY, Mich. – The defenders of sacred Eagle Rock sat in a circle and wept as they were surrounded by dozens of heavily armed state and local police officers who raided the Eagle Rock encampment the morning of May 27 arresting two campers at the request of Kennecott Eagle Minerals, who wasted no time destroying the month-old camp to make way for their nickel and copper mine.

Witnesses say there were about six people at Eagle Rock when police moved in including four campers who had spent the night and two supporters who arrived with a warning the raid was imminent. Armed with high-powered rifles, Michigan State Police and mine security could be seen atop Eagle Rock scanning the vast Yellow Dog Plains with binoculars apparently looking for trespassers.

Two handcuffed campers, who refused to leave when ordered by police, were taken away by sheriff’s deputies and driven nearly one hour to the Marquette County Jail and were released on bond. Arrested were Keweenaw Bay Indian Community members Chris Chosa, 28, and Charlotte Loonsfoot, 37, both of Baraga, Mich.

Loonsfoot was one of three women who set up the encampment April 23 protesting the arrest three days earlier of environmentalist Cynthia Pryor and hoping to protect Eagle Rock from the Eagle Project nickel and copper mine. Despite federal treaties that allow Ojibwa to hunt, fish and gather on the Yellow Dog Plains, the state of Michigan leased the land to Kennecott to open a sulfide mine. The mine portal is planned near the front of Eagle Rock and the tunnel will travel underneath the rock.

“Today, we got a message in camp that police were on their way,” said non-Native camper Catherine Parker of the warning from two members of the Yellow Dog Watershed Preserve who arrived shortly before police. “Charlotte and Chris had no intention of leaving voluntarily.”

Parker said the Eagle Rock defenders wept for the land as they sat in a circle.

“There were a lot of tears and passionate remarks because the people have come to care a lot about each other out here,” said Parker of Marquette, Mich. “We have all been working together, Native Americans and whites to protect something that is tremendously important to us.”

After police arrived, “we stayed as long as we could, we kept asking to stay with our friends (Chosa and Loonsfoot),” said Parker, wiping away a tear. “We sat down with them repeatedly, we were pushed verbally numerous times by law enforcement.”

“It’s breaking my heart,” said a crying Parker as she witnessed heavy equipment roaring up the entrance to Eagle Rock. “This mine is not going to perform (safely) as they say it will. What is going to happen if the mine collapses into the Trout Salmon River?”

Police from several agencies “literally surrounded us in a big circle,” said Kalvin Hartwig, a member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa who spent the night of May 26 at Eagle Rock but was not arrested after agreeing to leave the property with his car.

When police arrived, “three of us and two visitors were down by the sacred fire and another one of our campers (Charlotte Loonsfoot) was up on the hill fasting,” Hartwig said. “I think this whole situation is pretty sad.

“The water and this land is at-risk. These people (Kennecott) are here illegally about to destroy it.”

According to the Save The Wild UP Web site, about 20 police cars were sent and warned to expect a riot that never occurred. Many supporters and the media rushed to the scene after hearing the Powell Township emergency personnel dispatched with instructions to stage at the main entrance to the mine including an ambulance and fire trucks. No injuries were reported.

Atop a pole at the entrance to the camp, a lone eagle feather fluttered in the dusty wind as heavy equipment moved in. Mine officials doused the grandfather fire, uprooted the Eagle Rock Community Garden, removed two flags from atop Eagle Rock and bulldozed the camp.

Deputies blocked the dusty, remote, seasonal Triple A Road at the mine entrance but allowed the media and campers to walk the three-quarters of a mile to the former entrance to the camp that was blocked by heavy machinery as mine employees erected a metal cyclone fence. The media was not allowed to see the remains of the encampment.

“They are putting up a fence and they are wrecking our garden we planted,” said Gabriel Caplett, who has posted daily updates about the campers activities on the Stand for the Land Blog and has written countless stories about the fight to stop the mine since it was announced in 2004. “They are putting out the sacred fire” that has burned since the first night.

There was no word on what happened to the tents and a large cache of food and other supplies donated by supporters. About 10 campers spent the night of May 25 at Eagle Rock, but several left to prepare for activities planned at the rock for Memorial Day weekend.

Two non-Native campers, not present for the raid, broke into tears while walking to Eagle Rock.

“It’s heartbreaking, it’s really disconcerting to feel the rights of the corporations have been put above and beyond the rights of the people,” said Amy Conover of Marquette, Mich. When politicians “get into power they don’t act on behalf of the people, they act on behalf of the money.”

A Detroit native attending nursing school in Marquette said she “can’t understand how hardened the hearts have become of the people who are doing this.”

“To not feel how wrong it actually is – is a very scary thing,” said Laura Nagle. “The police officer said this is a ‘bummer’ this was happening, it is not a bummer, it is a catastrophe, a tragedy and a misfortune for us all. This can still be stopped.”

Brazilian tribal opposition to Belo Monte dam

A Kayapó Indian leader has appealed for support for his tribe, which is campaigning against the Belo Monte dam on the Xingu river in the Brazilian Amazon. He said, ‘I have always prevented my people from fighting, but I am very worried now. It is time that we take back what belongs to us’. He added that ‘3,000 warriors’ are ready to take up arms.

If constructed, the dam would be the third largest in the world and it would flood a large area of land, dry up certain parts of the Xingu river, cause huge devastation to the rainforest and reduce fish stocks upon which Indians in the area depend for their survival.

The influx of immigrants to the region during the construction of the dam threatens to introduce violence to the area and bring diseases to these Indians, putting their lives at risk.

The Indians have organized many protests against the dam. Most recently, they have blockaded a ferry which crosses the Xingu river and are planning to form a ‘multi-ethnic community’ which will occupy the area where the dam is due to be built, in the ‘Big Bend’ of the Xingu river.

Raoni and other Indian leaders stated, ‘We do not accept the Belo Monte hydroelectric dam because we understand that it will bring more destruction to our region… more corporations, more ranches, more land invasions, more conflicts, and even more dams. If the white man continues to carry on like this, everything will be destroyed very quickly… We already warned the government that if Belo Monte were built, they would have war on their hands’.

Kayapó leader Megaron Txucarramãe, in a letter to the international press, said, ‘We want the plans to build the Belo Monte dam to be canceled… Lula has shown himself to be the Indians’ number one enemy…We Indians are being seriously abandoned, since we Indians, the first inhabitants of this country, are being neglected by Lula’s government which wants to destroy us’.

Brazil’s Public Prosecutor’s Office is calling for the license for the dam to be canceled, stating that the environmental impact studies were incomplete, and that the Indians and other people who will be affected were not properly consulted.

Indians and activists marched against Amazon mega-dam in April