EarthAction

Important Foreign Policy Article on Herakles Farms in Cameroon

Christiane Badgley, a journalist who has worked on stories and projects in Africa for more than 20 years, has had her article on Herakles Farms and their planned palm oil plantation in Cameroon published in Foreign Policy magazine.

"A New York tycoon won a sweetheart deal to build a massive "sustainable" palm oil plantation in Cameroon. What followed were accusations of intimidation, corruption, bribery, and deceit."

This is the first story EarthAction shares in a series of recent articles about the unfolding situation in Cameroon. Click here to subscribe to our RSS Feed so you won’t miss a post.

In 2009 Herakles Farms negotiated a deal with the Cameroonian government to cultivate a palm oil plantation in a region known for its rain forests and diverse animal population. The plantation would be more than 12 times the size of Manhattan. Herakles Farms claimed that upon implementation, the plantation would be one of the biggest commercial palm oil operations in Africa.

The project has been very controversial. Locals have accused the company of using donations of goods and services to gather support. Scientists have argued against Herakles' claims of environmental sustainability. Many observers question the economic benefits promised, fearing the project is much more likely to strip local communities of land and livehiloods than it is to lift them out of poverty.

Christiane Badgley: "Standing there, amid the desolation, I recalled the voices of local villagers: The forest is our life. Because of the deal their government struck with Herakles Farms, that life is now in danger."

Click here to view the article.

TAKE ACTION Our friends at Greenpeace have set up a quick and easy way for you to send a message to the Cameroon Minister of Forest and Wildlife and other important policymakers to save this forest. 

Photo by Christiane Badgley

Larry Merculieff "Native Knowing"

Our friends at the Sacred Fire Foundation who support people and projects to strengthen indigenous cultures around the world, sent us a wonderful announcement about their 2014 annual campaign. You can view their announcement here. We encourage you to support their work.

Their announcement  included a link to a fabulous TEDx talk by Aleut Elder, Larry Merculieff, a 2012 Ancient Wisdom Rising presenter, teaching about this time in which "we have reversed the laws for living." See Larry's TEDx talk below.

 

Gratitude to the Sacred Fire Foundation and all the projects they support that are doing this important work.

Migrant Women Document Their Journeys

This piece originally posted at The Nation, by Erin Corbett.   

“Migrant Women Documenting Their Experiences Crossing the Border,” by Verónica Bayetti Flores. Feministing, June 12, 2014. 

In this piece, Verónica discusses part of what’s missing from the discourse of crossing the border, and that’s the stories of women. Bayetti Flores points to the work of freelance photographer Encarni Pindado, known as MigraZoom, which provides disposable cameras to migrants so that they can document their own journeys. One of the themes from the women migrants’ photos, which Bayetti Flores focuses on, is sexual violence and strategies to avoid violence, but also “harm reduction practices such as taking contraceptives before crossing the border to avoid pregnancy should they get raped along the way.” What I found most important about this project is that it is a reminder that these individuals are people, often brutally dehumanized, who, as one immigrant womanexplains, “deserve respect…deserve a chance to work, and to live well and to study.”

Choose Life Without Weapons

From World Future Council:

Sunday 15 June marked the start of Argentina and Bosnia and Herzegovina’s campaigns to win football’s biggest trophy as both countries faced each other in their opening FIFA World Cup match at Rio de Janeiro's legendary Maracanã stadium. Less widely publicised, that day also saw the start of a season of collaboration between the two nations off the pitch.

The World Future Council (WFC) and the UNDP ‘Choose Life Without Weapons’ coalition will partner up throughout 2014 to share community disarmament experiences from both countries.

In the spirit of #GoalsNotGuns, the football match was screened at Art kino Kriterion in Sarajevo. For Bosnia and Herzegovina, the event had particular resonance, as their first World Cup tournament since gaining independence in 1992.

FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter congratulated the partners on “their joint project in Bosnia and Herzegovina aimed at reducing the dangers of firearms - thus protecting youth and developing a culture of peace - which football will help to promote. I’m glad that, like us, you believe in the power of football to foster positive social change.”