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Lest We Forget

In a world of increasing populations and declining natural resources the need for greater accountability was never so important. Trans-national corporations are increasingly focused on gaining access to natural resources, often at great cost to human life and biological diversity - but in particular for forest campaigners.

 

13 December 2016: The battle over land and resources turned bloodier. An average of nearly 16 farmers, indigenous people and advocates of land rights were killed every month through November worldwide, or three times the average in 2015, according to advocacy group PAN Asia Pacific (PANAP). More...

21 June 2016: At least 185 environmental activists were killed during 2015, the highest annual death toll on record and close to a 60% increase on the previous year, according to a UK-based watchdog. MORE>>

July 2014: Rising murder toll of park rangers calls for tougher laws

http://www.iucn.org/?17196/Rising-murder-toll-of-park-rangers-calls-for-tougher-laws

Fighting the poachers on Africa's thin green line

http://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2013/jun/15/poachers-africa-thin-green-line

 

15th December, 2013: Lest we forget the dangers and risks that individuals run when working on issues that touch on the interests of the powerful in Southeast Asia: 15 December is the anniversary of the disappearance/abduction of Lao human rights activist Sombath Somphone (http://sombath.org). Somphone founded the Participatory Development Training Centre PADETC in Laos in 1997. He is internationally respected for standing against authoritarianism, and had won the Ramon Magsaysay Award honoring greatness of spirit and transformative leadership, one of the most prestigious awards for human development in Asia. Somphone’s condition and whereabouts remain unknown.

 

World Ranger Day 2014

 

April 2013 - Russia

Russian journalist Mikhail Beketov, who was beaten nearly to death in 2008, died on Monday 12th April at age 55. Mourners in Russia have expressed outrage over the death of the journalist who tried to protect a forest and died this week after a savage beating had left him brain-damaged.More...

STOP IKEA destroying Russia's forests

December 2012- Congo

Wildlife ranger murdered-bringing to 120 murdered in the Congo in the last 10 years.

He began as a junior ranger, not for lack of education or competence (he was a qualified teacher before joining the park service), but slowly steadily climbed through the ranks. More...

September 2012 - Cambodia

Another Murder on the Resource Frontier – This Time a Journalist in Cambodia

Now fresh blood appears to have been spilled in the fight over forest resources, this time that of a Cambodian journalist trying to report on forest clearing there. Details are still emerging, but the basics are in an AFP account out of Phnom Penh yesterday [12 September, 2012]. More...

June 2012- The Guardian newspaper claims: Environmental activists 'being killed at rate of one a week'
Death toll of campaigners involved in protection of forests, rivers and land has almost doubled in three years...More...

 

April 2012 - Cambodia

On Thursday 26th April 2012 Chut Wutty, Director of Cambodian environmental watchdog Natural Resource Protection Group (NPRG), was shot and killed by members of the Cambodian Military Police while carrying out field research into illegal logging and land seizures. More - Global Witness

September 2011 - Kenya

Wangari Maathai's compelling life story is inextricably linked with the social and political changes that so much of Africa has been through since the idea of throwing off European colonialism began to gain traction shortly after World War II. More... Green Belt Movement

May 2011- Brazil

Amazon rainforest activist and his wife ambushed and shot dead
José Cláudio Ribeiro da Silva fought against illegal loggers and had received death threats but was refused police protection- The Guardian article - BBC article  - Botanic Gardens Conservation International

December 1988 - Brazil

Francisco Alves Mendes Filho,[1] better known as Chico Mendes (December 15, 1944 – December 22, 1988), was a Brazilian rubber tapper, trade union leader and environmentalist. He fought to preserve the Amazon rainforest, and advocated for the human rights of Brazilian peasants and indigenous peoples. He was assassinated by a rancher on December 22, 1988. More... Earthkeeper Heroes

November 1995 - Nigeria

Ken Saro-Wiwa was hanged today for speaking out against the environmental damage to the Niger Delta caused by Shell Oil through its 37 years of drilling in the region. Ken Saro Wiwa was campaigning for what Greenpeace considers the most basic of human rights: the right for clean air, land and water. His only crime was his success in bringing his cause to international attention," said Thilo Bode, Executive Director of Greenpeace International. More Greenpeace

International CSOs call on Madagascar Government for transparency..

"We are concerned by recent reports indicating that initial sales of confiscated rosewood stocks will not be carried out under transparent, third-party monitored conditions. Such sales risk benefiting those responsible for the illegal logging and would put international buyers at legal risk. We urge the government, involved international institutions and trading partner countries to study this issue very carefully before agreeing to any process for sale or immediate disposal of seized wood stocks."

See full contents of letter below...

See also The Thin Green Line website

February 2012: International CSOs sign letter demanding transparency on stockpiling of Rosewood and Ebony
application/pdfInternational CSO sign-on re stockpiles_0.pdf (72.99 KB)
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Tom Roche (trading as) Just Forests Ltd.
Ringfort Workshop, Rathcobican, Rhode, Offaly, Ireland
Phone: +353 (0)86 8049389  |  E-mail: info@tomroche.ie
Company Registration Number: 612423 This website is an education awareness initiative of Just Forests Ltd Copyright © 2024 Tom Roche (trading as) Just Forests Ltd.