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Authorities in India have approved two huge new coal projects on Adivasi (Indigenous) land, defying a vociferous Adivasi resistance movement.

The unique Hasdeo Forest in Chhattisgarh, home to 20,000 Adivasi people, is being targeted for a massive increase in coal mining:

• Approval has been given for the vast Parsa mine, located in forests that are home to thousands of Gond and Oraon Adivasi, and Dalit, people. Besides the destruction of people’s lands and livelihoods, 200,000 trees will be felled.

• The existing PEKB mine, which has already destroyed lands vital to thousands of Adivasi people living in Hasdeo, will be expanded.

Large numbers of Adivasi people are staging an indefinite protest in Hasdeo. Muneshwar Porte, an Adivasi man from Fatehpur village, which is now scheduled to be destroyed, said: “We are facing a critical situation now and so we are doing an indefinite protest. If our lands are taken away, our future generations will lose their identity and our existence will be lost forever.”

Both projects will be operated by Adani, the notorious company that operates the existing PEKB coal mine in Hasdeo.

The Parsa mine will produce 5 million tonnes of coal a year over 45 years to provide power for the state of Rajasthan – despite Rajasthan having enormous solar energy potential.

Dr. Jo Woodman of Survival International said: “The Adivasi people of Hasdeo have spent a decade knocking with all their might on every door to protect their sacred and vital forest, including marching 300km to meet the Chief Minister. But the government has chosen to prioritise coal mining above the rights of Indigenous people and India’s Constitution and laws.

“It’s also catastrophic for the fight against climate change. The Adivasis, the true owners of Hasdeo Forest, are stepping up their brave resistance to mining that they have not consented to. Standing with them as they defend the Forest and strive to keep the coal in the ground should be a global priority.”

Note to Editors

Under Indian law mines on Adivasi land should not go ahead without the people’s consent. Claims that communities have consented to the Parsa mine have been fiercely contested by the people themselves, who have labelled them “fake.” Chhattisgarh’s Governor promised to launch an inquiry into how the “consents” were obtained, but the government has now approved the mining project anyway.

A national park famed for its gorilla-spotting treks has been the scene of appalling atrocities including gang rape, torture and murder, according to a devastating new report from Minority Rights Group International.

Guards patrolling the Kahuzi-Biega National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, together with the Congolese military, have in recent years committed a series of horrific atrocities against the Indigenous Batwa people whose lands were taken to create the park:

- Dozens of Batwa women have been gang-raped at gunpoint
- At least 20 Batwa have been killed
- Several Batwa, including children, have been burnt alive
- Batwa corpses have been mutilated
- Hundreds of Batwa have been evicted, often repeatedly, in successive waves of attacks

Thousands of Batwa were evicted when the park was expanded in 1975. Since then they’ve mostly lived outside it, in conditions of absolute poverty, but some have tried to return to their lands inside the park.

The abuses detailed in the report are part of a clear pattern of horrific abuse in conservation projects that has been revealed by Survival and others in recent years.

Shockingly, European and US funding agencies and WCS appear to have violated a UN arms embargo by supporting the park’s paramilitary activities without notifying the UN Security Council. In addition, they have known about the abuses but continue to fund those responsible. The report’s author says: “[The] international backers … are complicit in these abuses.”

Among the key funders of the park and its guards are:

- The German government, through its development agencies KFW and GIZ
- The US-based non-profit the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS – the parent organization of the Bronx Zoo)
- The US government’s development agency USAID
- The French public development agency AFD is also planning to channel funds to the park

The report says: “The organized violence documented in this report is unlikely to have taken place without decisive support from international supporters of the [park].”

And the report makes clear that these appalling abuses are not isolated incidents conducted by rogue officers, but “part of an institutional policy sanctioned and planned at the highest level by the park leadership.”

In 2017, seventeen year old Mbone Christian was shot dead while collecting medicinal plants in the park. His father, who was also wounded but survived, issued a desperate plea to WCS saying: “We struggle to find enough to eat and are forced to cope with new diseases and the loss of many forest medicines…Yet no one has ever come to seek our consent for the Kahuzi-Biega National Park. Why then does WCS continue to fund and support it?”

Caroline Pearce, Survival International’s Director, said today: ““This report provides a horrific demonstration of how some of the biggest players in the conservation sector continue to pour millions into the abusive “fortress conservation” approach. Under the guise of doing ‘good’ for the planet, they’re funding yet another park whose Indigenous people are being raped and killed with impunity.

“The German and American governments and WCS have turned a blind eye to these atrocities, continuing to fund the park while its guards have killed and raped dozens of Batwa people.

“A racist and colonial model of conservation that sees human beings and their rights as disposable will never succeed in its objectives. Governmental and non-governmental funders must immediately cease all funding to these fortress conservation projects – including the plan to designate 30% of the earth as ‘protected’ by 2030 – and instead recognise Indigenous land rights, which is a far more effective way to safeguard the environment. Otherwise, they will continue to be complicit in such atrocities.”

The role of German funding in Kahuzi-Biega National Park and other international conservation projects in Africa will be one of the key subjects of a conference taking place in Berlin later this month. “No biodiversity without human diversity” is free to attend both in person and online.

WARNING: Contains images some may find disturbing

A devastating new report from Survival International – launched on International Women’s Day, March 8 – exposes how Adivasi (Indigenous) women in India are being brutally persecuted for defending their lands against a massive corporate and governmental mining rush.

Amongst its key findings:

- This mining rush, including plans to increase coal production to one billion tonnes a year, is massively concentrated in six central states that are home to 57 million Adivasi people, who rely on their land for their livelihoods and sacred sites.

- Adivasi women are playing a central role in resisting this destruction of their land by mining, and are being beaten, arrested, raped, imprisoned and killed because of it. Their attackers almost always act with impunity.

- Government agencies, police and the security forces are intimately involved in these attempts to terrorise Adivasi women.

- Draconian anti-terrorism laws are used to silence dissent, and any who resist are falsely labelled as members of the Maoist armed insurgency. Since Narendra Modi came to power, the number of women charged with “sedition” has nearly trebled.

The report highlights several Adivasi women who have become victims of state repression:

- Hidme Markam: At an International Women’s Day event in Chhattisgarh in 2021, Adivasi activist Hidme Markam was bundled into a vehicle and taken into custody, where she remains. Her arrest was punishment for her active, public stance on resisting the mining of a site sacred to her Koya Adivasi people. She had previously said: “Villagers who protest against the government handing over these lands to corporations are being jailed. We have lost faith in the government but will continue to fight to save our sacred lands and our forests.”

- Kuni Sikaka: a Dongria Kondh woman targeted for her role in defending her people’s sacred mountain, Kuni Sikaka was arrested and paraded in front of local media as a “surrendered insurgent.”

- Soni Sori: Adivasi activist and leader Soni Sori has been incarcerated, tortured, sexually abused and faced barrages of defamation and harassment for galvanising Adivasi women to resist the violation of their lands, rights and bodies. Soni was a teacher and activist when she was arrested as an ‘insurgent’ and imprisoned, enduring horrific torture and sexual violence in prison. On her eventual release, Soni was attacked by men who rubbed caustic paste on her face, burning and scarring her. Soni continues to fight for an end to the violation of Adivasi rights and lives.

- Madkam Hidme: Security forces dragged Madkam Hidme into the forest in front of her distraught mother. Her body was returned, beaten and wrapped in plastic, a few days later. The police claim she was ‘encountered’ in the forest, and released a photo of her in crisply ironed, spotless black overalls with a gun at her side – killed, they said, after a “fierce gun battle.”

Dayamani Barla, an Adivasi leader from Jharkhand is quoted in the report: “Modi’s government is violating our constitutional rights and is trying to sell every inch of our lands, mountains and rivers. Adivasi people – not only in Jharkhand but right across India – are not safe and neither are their lands and territories. Every inch of our lands is being given to the corporates.”

Dr. Jo Woodman of Survival International said today: “Across central India tens of thousands of Adivasi people are defying the corporate takeover of their lands with incredible bravery. Women are at the forefront of this resistance, and are being abused, imprisoned and killed for their courage on a truly horrific scale.

“The repression they face isn’t crushing their spirit – on the contrary, resistance is growing. But there’s an urgent need for support from around the world to join Adivasi people in opposition to this illegal and immoral assault on their lands and lives.”

Dear Humanity,

We have a problem. Governments, conservation organizations and the most polluting companies, predominantly from the global north, are promoting a dangerous plan. They say it will help solve both the climate and biodiversity crises, but it won’t.

During an unnoticed high-level meeting taking place in Geneva in a few days, governments are preparing to agree on a plan that will have a dramatic impact on all of us.

They want to turn 30% of the planet into Protected Areas. This plan, known as 30×30, will be the biggest land grab in history. It will involve taking vast areas of Indigenous Peoples’ lands and turning them into militarized national parks and reserves where evictions, killings, torture and rape are commonplace.

Instead of fighting the real causes of environmental destruction and tackling those most responsible: growing overconsumption and exploitation of resources for profit led by the Global North, it is Indigenous people who will bear the brunt of these measures.

Indigenous people represent around 6% of the world’s population yet their lands make up 80% of the most biodiverse places on earth. They, who have protected the planet best, and are least responsible for environmental degradation, are set to lose the most.

Big conservation organizations, well known for their appalling human rights records, like WWF and Wildlife Conservation Society support the 30×30 plan. They’ll make millions managing the new parks and through using the stolen lands to sell carbon offsets — the notorious trick that allows polluting companies to carry on polluting, while pretending they are green. No wonder the world’s largest corporations support it too. This will only protect the interests of elites who pollute the most, while the climate, biodiversity and the world’s most vulnerable people continue to be destroyed.

As Kipchumba Rotich of the Sengwer tribe (Kenya) said: “The 30×30 conservation rule … will see more Indigenous people lose their homes, will see more Indigenous people lose their livelihoods, will see more Indigenous people lose their lives — millions of people around the world.”

This is not only a disaster for Indigenous Peoples, but for the whole of humanity. Study after study has shown respecting the land rights of Indigenous Peoples is the best way to protect our planet.

Crucial negotiations on whether the 30% target will be set are on a knife edge. It’s not too late to stop this dangerous plan. Survival has declared March 2nd as ‘Human Diversity Day’ — to draw global attention to the devastating impact of 30×30 on the whole of humanity. Without human diversity there will be no biodiversity.

30×30 will destroy millions of Indigenous and local people and give a green light to the world’s biggest polluters to carry on polluting, we cannot allow it to happen. On Human Diversity Day we’re asking the whole of humanity to join together to take action, for all our futures.

Please write to those negotiating this dangerous plan. For more information, please follow the hashtag #DearHumanity on social media networks.

Yours,
Survival International

- Organizations representing hundreds of thousands of Indigenous people in South America make public appeal for action

- Fate of unique uncontacted tribe now at a “tipping point” between survival and extermination

- Paraguay’s government has stood by and watched for years as illegal deforestation threatens the group

- Urgent call for the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the United Nations to intervene

Leading Indigenous organizations from across South America have made an unprecedented public appeal for urgent action to prevent the genocide of one of the most threatened uncontacted tribes in the world.

Uncontacted members of Paraguay’s Ayoreo tribe are the last uncontacted Indigenous people in South America outside the Amazon.

Vast swathes of the once-extensive Chaco forest have been cut down all around them, so the Ayoreo now live in an ever-shrinking island of forest surrounded by a sea of destruction. The area suffers the fastest rate of deforestation in the world.

Although contacted members of the tribe submitted a formal land claim to the authorities in 1993, only some parcels of land have been returned to them (following lengthy battles). Most of the Ayoreo’s ancestral forest remains in private hands, and it is being rapidly bulldozed for beef production. The beef is exported mainly to Chile, Russia and Brazil, while most of the leather is exported to the EU, almost entirely to Italy.

In the face of this imminent threat to the Ayoreo’s survival, leading Indigenous organizations across South America have now made an extraordinary public appeal for action.

They include:

- AIDESEP (inter-ethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Rainforest) [represents Indigenous communities across Peru’s Amazon]
- CAOI (Coordinating Body of Indigenous Organizations of the Andes)
- COIAB (Coordinating Body of Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon)
- COICA (Coordinating Body of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin)
- CONFENIAE (Confederation of Indigenous Nations of the Ecuadorian Amazon)
- FENAMAD (Native Federation of Madre de Dios, Peru)
- ONIC (National Indigenous Organization of Colombia)
- ORPIA (Regional Organization of the Indigenous Peoples of Amazonas State, Venezuela)
- ORPIO (Regional Organization of Indigenous Peoples of the Eastern Amazon, Peru)
- UNIVAJA (Union of Indigenous Peoples of the Javari Valley, Brazil)

In their public appeal they demand that:

- the Ayoreo’s lands be returned and titled to them as a matter of urgency;
- the ranching businesses now occupying their land be expelled;
- the territory then be properly monitored and protected to prevent future destruction.

The organizations, and the Ayoreo, believe that only if outside bodies such as the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights intervene, will the Paraguayan government do anything to stop the destruction.

Survival International, which has worked with the Ayoreo since the 1980s, is coordinating a worldwide email action and Twitter storm on February 23.

One of the contacted Ayoreo leaders, Porai Picanerai, said: “If the state refuses to act when we protest at the invasion of our territory, the cattle ranchers will occupy all our land, our relatives will die and we could soon disappear too.”

Teresa Mayo, head of Survival’s Ayoreo campaign, said today: “This unprecedented and unique appeal for the Ayoreo by Indigenous organizations from across South America shows how serious the situation now is. Despite the grave threats to their own survival, they can see just how urgent and desperate the Ayoreo case is.

“For years the Paraguayan authorities have stood by and watched as the Ayoreo’s priceless forest goes up in smoke. Satellite images from recent decades show a truly horrifying rate of destruction. It’s now only major international pressure that can prevent the total destruction of the uncontacted Ayoreo people, and the forests they have cared for for so long.”