Greenpeace New Zealand Weblog

The government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has recently completed a World Bank sponsored review of the logging industry with some positive results. Yet it has allowed an expansion of the industry to more than twice the recommended size.

Following the review, the DRC government refused 68 out of 87 appeals against cancelled logging contracts. Such a high number of rejections is a positive sign that it is starting to take a stand against the logging industry in order to protect the forest and the communities that rely on it. But there is still a lack of governance and enforcement within the industry. The rainforest is in urgent need of stronger protection. Read more »

Monitoring the effects of deforestation on the Amazon is a difficult undertaking. The Amazon is huge and it’s extremely difficult to keep tabs on what’s happening in the remote fringes of the rainforest. News of illegal logging and the spread of soya plantations can take a long time – if ever – to reach the authorities.

Community mapping

Our team in Brazil has been working with the local community to map the impacts of the soya industry in the Santarém region of the forest, the heart of soya production in the Amazon.

This is a collaborative project with the Brazilian organisations Projeto Saude e Alegria (Health and Happiness Project) and the Rural Workers Unions of Santarém and Belterra. The community mapping project focuses on training people to use GPS technology to pinpoint the damage caused by intensive agriculture practices and empowering the local community to defend its land and the rainforest. Even though there’s a moratorium at present on forest being cleared for new soya plantations, current farming in these areas is still damaging the environment and the communities who live in the region.

Research collected for the map between May 2007 and June 2008 shows damage has spread along the highways carved through the forest. Soya farming has affected rivers as well: herbicides used on the crops have leeched into the water. Some rivers have even been dammed by farmers, affecting water supplies for those downstream. Others have silted up when wetland forest cover has been removed.

View Map

Local groups take control

As their environment deteriorates, the future of local communities is at stake. Traditional routes through the forest are blocked by expansive soya plantations and people have been forced to sell their land as a result of pollution from agrochemicals.

The information collected for the maps even documents cases where entire communities have disappeared due to the destruction that has made their former way of life impossible.

The communities that continue to exist in spite of the destruction are also on the community map. Many rural communities that have managed to somehow adapt to the destruction are included in this project – for some, this is the first time they have ever been formerly identified on a map.

Documentation of the land in this region is an important step in the fight to save the Amazon. By helping local communities document what’s happening to the forest and rivers around them, control is finally back in their hands. Ever since US company Cargill announced its plans to build a controversial soya processing and port facility in Santarém, these communities have fought to show the detrimental effect a growing soya industry has on the region. The Cargill facility was built without the environmental impact assessment required by the government. Cargill finally submitted the assessment to the authorities at the end of last year and we are currently awaiting the announcement of the public hearing where further discussions will take place on this issue.

And finally, this mapping project could also provide a model for how the money from global funding mechanisms needed to stop dangerous climate change could be spent to ensure that local people are the guardians of their forests. This will be essential if we are to save the climate and protect forests in the Amazon and around the world in the long term.

View the map.

Greenpeace At Parihaka

Whaia te iti kahurangi
Ki te tuohu koe, me he maunga teitei
Pursue excellence
Should you stumble, let it be to a lofty mountain

This January Greenpeace was lucky enough to be at the annual Parihaka Peace festival. Not only sharing in the historical and cultural importance of the event we also enjoyed the festivities (hangi, fried bread, music and guarana smoothies among them!) However a great crowd also gave us the chance to spread a crucial message for 2009: looking after our oceans, climate, land and natural resources.

The annual Parihaka Peace Festival is held every year half way between Mount Taranaki and the Tasman Sea. The festival (Jan 9 – 11) commemorates the legacy of Tohu Kakahi and Te Whiti o Rongomai, two progressive Maori leaders who formed the small settlement of Parihaka in the 1860’s.
Read more »

Mount Rushmore National Memorial near South Dakota in the United States, where the faces of former US presidents are set into stone.

I cried brushing my teeth this morning, tears mingling with Colgate as I listened to Obama’s inauguration speech on the radio. It wasn’t just his conviction over climate change; it was his bold acknowledgment of all the world’s woes and his determination to solve them.

He tipped his hat to peace in a way we’d forgotten was possible from a US President.

“To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society’s ills on the West – know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy. To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.” Read more »

End of the Line, the world’s first major documentary about the devastating effect of overfishing, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival yesterday.

The doco examines the imminent extinction of bluefin tuna, brought on by increasing western demand for sushi; the impact on marine life, resulting in the huge overpopulation of jellyfish; and the profound implications of a future world with no fish that would bring certain mass starvation. The trailer below promises a riveting glimpse into the future of our oceans and what we can do now to address the problem.

The documentary team are also running a campaign where people can claim 2 hectares of ocean in return for a pledge of support: see the map of claims so far.

» Official movie website

The Save Happy Valley group are celebrating the third anniversary of their occupation of the site threatened by Solid Energy’s plans to strip mine the area.

Supporters of the environmental group will tramp into the valley, north of Westport, on the weekend of the 24th and 25th of this month, to celebrate three years of keeping the fragile biodiversity of this wetland safe from Solid Energy’s bulldozers.

They have issued an invitation to Solid Enrgy CEO Don Elder to attend the weekend’s anniversary.

Save Happy Valley Coalition spokesperson Graham Jury states, “Despite years of illegal surveillance, unlicensed spies and secretly funded “research” we wish to extend a warm welcome to Dr Elder to come and enjoy a scenic tramp in an area he has dismissed as being simply overburden to be strip-mined. Anybody can see that mining for coal in kiwi habitat is an exceptionally bad idea. We offer Elder a unique opportunity to see why.”

Read more at savehappyvalley.org.nz

Oscar winning actress Emma Thompson gets “incandescent with rage” over the UK government’s plans to expand Heathrow Airport. (Thompson joined Greenpeace to purchase a piece of land right in the middle of the area earmarked for the expansion).

British comedian Alistair McGowan stands at a plot of land in Sipson near Heathrow airport, site of the planned third runway project.©Jiri Rezac / GREENPEACE

In a canny move, Greenpeace UK – along with Oscar winning actress Emma Thompson, comedian Alistair McGowan (pictured) and prospective Conservative parliamentary candidate Zac Goldsmith – has purchased a piece of land smack bang in the middle of the proposed third runway site at Heathrow Airport near London. Read more »