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Posted by The EarthAction Team at 05:37 PM in Blog Post, Current Affairs, EarthAction, Environmentalism, Press Release | Permalink | Comments (0)
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Nominations for the 2021 Land for Life Award of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) opened today. The submission of nominees will close after two months, on 28 January 2021.
The Award recognizes initiatives to halt, reduce and/or reverse land degradation that have had a positive impact on people and their land by using a holistic approach as well as practices that address both the environmental and social aspects of land management.
Under the theme “Healthy Land, Healthy Lives,” the 2021 Award will spotlight changemakers doing innovative land restoration and conservation that is both promoting the well-being of communities and improving their relationship with nature. It will reflect land as part of the solution, as the communities around the world recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and build back better around a social contract for nature.
Winners will be invited to present their projects and work at international forums, including the Kubuqi International Desertification Forum in China, where the Award Ceremony will take place in mid-2021, and at the Fifteenth session of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention at the end of 2021. These forums offer winners special access to potential new funding partners and stakeholders.
Previous winners include World Vision (Australia), SEKEM (Egypt), Watershed Organization Trust (India) and Réseau MARP (Burkina Faso).
By winning the prestigious award, some have expanded their projects, secured new partnerships or been recognized by other international and national awards.
Mr. Tony Rinaudo, World Vision Australia, said “The Land for Life Award has played a significant role in lifting the profile of a relatively obscure intervention – Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR) globally, giving it wider visibility and validating it as an effective tool in land and tree restoration. […] Today, FMNR is a normal part of the development lexicon when it comes to land restoration approaches and is considered a ‘best practice’ by many donors and development practitioners alike.”
“So much has awareness grown that the flagship intervention being promoted by the Global Evergreening Alliance, a coalition of NGOs, conservation groups, research institutions and professionals – is FMNR. In the seven years since World Vision was granted the Land for Life Award, the practice of FMNR, and individuals promoting it, have gone onto win other nationally and internationally significant awards,” Mr Rinaudo said.
”In our quest to establish a new social contract for nature and ensure a healthier and safer future for all, we need to promote the connection between people and their environment, on the one hand, and focus on innovative approaches that involve communities, empower women and promote new technologies on the other. In these uncertain times where a growing number of infectious diseases is coming through land use change, we are searching for positive and inspiring models that are creating healthy lives by turning degrading land into healthy land,” says Ibrahim Thiaw, Executive Secretary of the UNCCD.
The Land for Life Award also has a special China Award that celebrates exceptional commitment to sustainable land management in China.
Elion Foundation is the main sponsor of the Land for Life Programme, but leads the special China Award together with the National Forestry and Grassland Administration, Ministry of Science and Technology, and Provincial Governmental of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
Additional Quotes from Previous Winners:
Ms. Marcella D’Souza, WOTR Centre for Resilience Studies (W-CReS): "The L4L Award helped us connect and engage with the ELD Secretariat at the GIZ based out of Bonn, who we had met at Kubuqi. This resulted in a new project on Economic Valuation of regenerating degraded lands through Watershed Development, implemented by our research unit - the WOTR Centre for Resilience Studies (W-CReS). In addition, the Award and the exposure it provided us helped transition our watershed-focussed interventions to a more holistic ecosystems-based approach targeted at building adaptive capacities and resilience of rural communities to climate and non-climate risks. This led to another partnership and project with the ambition to develop a state level "Roadmap for Ecosystems-based Adaptation" which involves multi-stakeholder and multi-sectoral engagement and collaboration across scales."
Mr. Mathieu Ouédraogo, Réseau MARP: “Winning the Land for Life Award is certainly a great honor, but above all a major opportunity. This distinction led the communities we work with to be more thorough in the actions they carry out daily, focusing on tangible results. Quantitatively, we have doubled our objective in terms of achievements in the field, thanks to the worldwide recognition of our efforts.”
Mr. Awadalla Hamid, Practical Action Sudan: “The award has definitely a great impact on the project and the life of the people of Darfur, as we managed to secure an additional fund for a second phase of the same project, 10M Euros from the European Union to support more families in Wadi ElKu project area, and to cover additional 180km along the Wadi ElKu Catchment in North Darfur.”
For further information regarding the rules and criteria, visit the Land for Life Award webpage.
Contact person : Caroline Galipeau, Coordinator of the Land for Life Programme, cgalipeau@unccd.int
Posted by The EarthAction Team at 06:16 PM in Action Alert, Blog Post, Climate change, Conservation, Culture, Current Affairs, Health, Human Rights, Press Release | Permalink | Comments (0)
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We are pleased to share with you the news and all associated digital assets of the 2020 launch of UNEP's flagship youth initiative, Young Champions of the Earth. We’re now live!
Help spread the call for applications:
We would greatly appreciate your help in amplifying the call for applications through your social media networks, to inspire a new wave of young innovators to apply this year. We’re looking for the artists, scientists, economists, communicators and entrepreneurs from all walks of life —with big, bold ideas— for the environment, for humanity, for a greener future.
If you could share on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn or Facebook the below on #YoungChamps - we would be so very appreciative.
Links to all launch posts on social media:
All digital assets:
About:
For the 4th year running, UNEP is calling on 18-30-year-old innovators to submit their creative solutions to the world’s most pressing environmental challenges.
Representing every global region, seven applicants with the most promising solutions will be recognized as Young Champions of the Earth – the world’s preeminent environmental honour for young people. Each winner will receive seed funding, mentorship and participation in a high-level UN meeting and global publicity.
How to apply: Applications can be submitted in 7 UN languages via a portal on the Young Champions website. The deadline for submissions is 10 April 2020 (see here for a complete timeline).
We would greatly appreciate your support in amplifying the call and reaching out through your networksto headhunt for stellar candidates. (And should you know of any stellar individuals in particular, please let me know so that we can look out for their applications).
Thank you, as always, for your cooperation and kind support.
Posted by The EarthAction Team at 10:00 AM in Action Alert, Blog Post, Civil Liberties, Climate change, Conservation, Current Affairs, Press Release | Permalink | Comments (0)
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Photo Credit: Basel Peace Office
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists today moved the hands of the symbolic Doomsday Clock to 2 Minutes to Midnight, indicating that the world is the closest to possible nuclear armageddon since the height of the Cold War in 1953.
The group of experts who made the adjustment to the clock pointed to rising nuclear tensions between the U.S. and North Korea, specifically “hyperbolic rhetoric and provocative actions on both sides.”
The group, which was founded in 1945 by Manhattan Project scientists, specifically notes “the decline of U.S. leadership and a related demise of diplomacy under the Trump administration” as a global concern and a reason for this year’s leap closer to midnight.
Nuclear risk reduction measures
Today's announcement highlights the need for nuclear risk reduction measures, such as those being advanced by U.S. Senator Ed Markey, Co-President of Parliamentarians for Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament.
Markey has introduced legislation into the Senate (with companion legislation in the House introduced by Ted Lieu) to restrict the authority of the U.S. President to launch a nuclear attack without first consulting congress.
Markey has also organized joint congressional letters to the U.S. Secretaries of State, Defense and Energy calling on the current Nuclear Posture Review to include measures to lower nuclear threat postures, reduce the risk of nuclear weapons use, and advance the goal of the global elimination of nuclear weapons.
See Joint letter to Trump administration on reducing role of nuclear weaponsand Joint letter to the Trump administration opposing the production of new destabilizing nuclear weapons.
UN High-Level Conference
In May 2018, the United Nations General Assembly will hold the first ever High-Level Conference on Nuclear Disarmament.
In light of the increased risks of nuclear war, this conference has become even more important than when it was first proposed to the UN five years ago. World leaders participating in this event should be encouraged - and will be expected - to take action to reduce these risks and advance nuclear disarmament.
Take action:
Call on your government to attend the UN High-Level Conference on Nuclear Disarmament at the highest level (Prime Minister, President or Foreign Minister) and to do their best at the conference to reduce nuclear risks and advance the abolition of nuclear weapons.
Click here for a sample letter and list of government contacts.
From the Basel Peace Office
Posted by The EarthAction Team at 08:27 AM in Action Alert, Blog Post, Current Affairs, Disarmament, Military Spending, Nuclear Nonproliferation, peace, Press Release, Weapons | Permalink | Comments (0)
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Photo Credit: freedomunited.org
We're delighted to join our partners in the win! The UN is taking action to secure justice for victims of modern slavery in conflict.
Finally, after impressive efforts in the pursuit of justice, especially by our partner Yazda and Nadia Murad, strengthened by more than three years campaigning and 287,451 actions from Freedom United supporters, the UN Security Council has passed resolution 2379. This paves the way for securing justice for victims of modern slavery and crimes against humanity, perpetrated by ISIS in Iraq.
Yazda and Nadia Murad have sent us this message:
"We thank each and every one of the many thousands of Freedom United supporters who joined this effort. Knowing we had your support gave us strength."
We launched our first campaign back in August 2014. We could not ignore the horrors experienced by the minority Yazidi population following the fall of Mosul in Iraq. Our campaign called for ISIS to be held accountable for modern slavery, including forced marriage and sexual slavery, in Iraq. Seeing the dire lack of protection for those in conflict zones, in December 2015, we launched a second campaign calling for the creation of a UN special representative to tackle slavery in conflict, collecting 185,010 signatures.
Since then we’ve climbed lots of steps to reach our goal:
Resolution 2379, tabled by the UK, was passed unanimously last Thursday. It calls on the UN Secretary-General to establish an Investigative Team, headed by a Special Adviser, to support efforts to hold ISIS to account in Iraq.
Even when success is slow to achieve, our partners don’t give up and neither should we.
Please share the news on Twitter and Facebook!
In solidarity,
Joanna, Miriam, Kat and the whole Freedom United team
Posted by The EarthAction Team at 09:00 AM in Blog Post, Human Rights, Press Release | Permalink | Comments (0)
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April 24, 2012
Reply to: lois@earthaction.org
EarthAction, a global network of over 2,000 organizations in 160 countries, and Cultural Survival, an advocacy organization for Indigenous Peoples’ rights, have begun a worldwide campaign to protect the Prey Lang forest in Cambodia—its people, its trees, its life. The international campaign supports and complements the local efforts of the Prey Lang Community Network, a group of mostly Indigenous people whose villages surround the Prey Lang forest and whose livelihoods depend on the forest’s resources. Prey Lang, about the size of Rhode Island, is the last large primary forest of its kind on the Indochina peninsula.
Campaigners point out that Prey Lang is to Cambodia, what the Amazon is to Brazil. A few decades ago, almost no one recognized the imminent destruction of the Amazon rainforest and its potential damage to global ecosystems. “That's where we are today with the imminent destruction of Prey Lang,” states Lois Barber, EarthAction’s Executive Director.
This global campaign has won a legion of new supporters as the destruction of the forest has accelerated and threats to indigenous people have escalated. A recent unconfirmed report from insiders that Cambodia’s government has granted four additional land concessions in the core of the Prey Lang area has galvanized the campaign. “If true, and these concessions are allowed to go ahead”, says Barber, “we fear it is ‘game over’ for the forest and its communities.” She adds, “At this point, the only way to stop the granting of concessions and the illegal logging is to exert international pressure on the Cambodian government.”
Despite government intimidation, threats of violence, and the presence of the police and the military, hundreds of local villagers are patrolling the forests—day and night—to stop the illegal logging. On March 26, 2012, the Phnom Penh Post reported that 500 villagers from the Prey Lang area were patrolling the forest on 250 motorbikes. The Post reported the villagers “have vowed to continue patrols in coming days and to block a road used by rubber company CRCK if authorities don’t take action.”
Local and global campaigners are calling on the government to stop the threats to activists who are trying to protect the forest, even while illegal logging and clear cutting continue. An informal national alliance of grassroots groups and NGOs that includes farmers, fishers, tourist workers, vendors, and other informal workers from all across the country are standing in solidarity with the Prey Lang Network. Outrage over Prey Lang’s destruction is mobilizing opposition throughout the country in a way that few issues have.
Soem Sean, a village representative from Kampong Thom, said, “The reason we decided to do this is because the number of illegal loggers is increasing, but the authority has done nothing to stop these people. So we have to do it.”
Thai Bunleang, a Kuy elder, farmer, and Prey Lang Network activist, adds, “Without forest there is no life. In the Kuy language, ‘Prey Lang’ means ‘Our Forest.’ This forest is for everyone. Prey Lang is our forest, but it is your forest too. You can help save it.”
For years the Prey Lang forest has been under attack from illegal road builders and loggers, agribusiness, and mining companies who have made quick profits by extracting and exporting the forest’s natural resources. The villagers have been unable to determine where the trees are taken, but it is believed that much of the wood is illegally smuggled into China and Vietnam where it is made into cheap patio furniture and other wood products that are exported around the world.
Paula Palmer, director of Cultural Survival’s Global Response program, points out, “In 1970, 70 percent of Cambodia’s land was covered with old-growth forests. Today it is only 3 percent. The Kuy people are calling on us to help them save what’s left.” Palmer adds, “Studies show that forests thrive best when they are managed by Indigenous communities, so it is important for the Prey Lang Community Network to play a role in managing the Prey Lang forest.”
The Prey Lang Global Campaign calls on people everywhere to send a message to the Cambodian Prime Minister urging him to take immediate action to protect the Prey Lang forest. Specifically, the campaign supports the local indigenous people who are calling on Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen to:
--CANCEL all logging and mining concessions in the greater Prey Lang area
--CONFER Prey Lang with protected status and enforce its protection
--COMMIT to sustainably managing the forest in cooperation with the Prey Lang Community Network and replant and rehabilitate all clear cut areas
Campaigners note that messages can be sent to Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, care of the Cambodian UN Mission, 327 East 58th Street, New York NY 10022 USA, Email: Cambodia@un.int.
At www.earthaction.org/ourforest, people and organizations can add their name to a sign-on letter to Prime Minister Hun Sen, and request a free Prey Lang Action Kit.
Previous campaigns organized by EarthAction in collaboration with local groups faced with the destruction of their forests have resulted in saving the Lopè Forest Reserve in Gabon, Clayoquot Sound in British Columbia, Canada (both of which are now UN Biosphere Reserves), and the Imataca Forest in Venezuela.
Previous campaigns organized by Global Response with local groups have saved rainforests in Costa Rica, Venezuela, Nigeria, Honduras, Chile, and Nicaragua.
* * *
About EarthAction. EarthAction is a global network of over 2,000 civil society organizations in more than 160 countries, along with policymakers, journalists and citizens, who take timely, focused, action together to protect the global environment, preserve peace, and promote human rights. EarthAction has initiated over 90 global campaigns since its launch at the Earth Summit in Rio in 1992.
EarthAction
PO Box 63
Amherst, MA 01004 USA
Contact: Lois Barber, Executive Director, Tel: +1 413 549 8118, Cell: +1 413 427 8827, Email: lois@earthaction.org
About Cultural Survival. For 40 years, Cultural Survival has partnered with Indigenous Peoples around the world to protect their lands, languages and cultures. At the request of Indigenous communities that are struggling to prevent environmental destruction in their territories, the Global Response program organizes international public-pressure campaigns to change the policies and behaviors of governments and corporations.
Cultural Survival
Cambridge MA, Boulder CO, and Guatemala
Web campaign: http://www.culturalsurvival.org/take-action/cambodia
Contact: Paula Palmer, Director of the Global Response Program, Tel: +1 303 444 0306, Cell: +1 303 335 8629, Email: paula@cs.org
ADDITIONAL SOURCES OF INFORMATION
In Cambodia:
--Terry Parnell, East West Management Institute, can facilitate contact with Khmer speakers. Tel: 855 23 224 782, 855 23 221 164, Email: tparnell@ewmi-praj.org
--Sokheng Seng, press contact for The Prey Lang Community Network. Tel: 855 92 324 668, Email: seng.sokheng@gmail.com
Websites:
Prey Lang Community Network: preylang.com also, http://ourpreylang.wordpress.com/
Amnesty International video: http://www.amnesty.org.au/poverty/comments/27241
YouTube 5 minute video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJHEiYmleVo&feature=player_embedded#
CNN iReport, 2 minute video about the Avatar protest, May 2011:
http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-613176?ref=feeds%2Flatest
PRI’s The World, 4 minute audio report of the Avatar protest, May 25, 2011: http://www.theworld.org/2011/05/indigenous-protest-cambodia/
List of media coverage of the May 2011 Avatar Protest: http://ourpreylang.wordpress.com/2011/05/26/prey-lang-avatars-in-world-news/
* * *
PREY LANG FACT SHEET
The Bigger Picture: In 1970, 70% of Cambodia’s land was covered with old-growth forests. Today it is only 3%. Cambodia has the third highest deforestation rate in the world, behind only Nigeria and Vietnam.
Size: The core area of Prey Lang consists of primary, lowland, evergreen, forests, that cover about 200,000 acres. It is surrounded by over 600,000 acres of secondary forest. The entire Prey Lang area is roughly the size of Rhode Island.
Population: 200,000 people depend on the Prey Lang forest for their livelihoods, their culture, and their lives. Some 300 villages and family rice fields are also at risk that are scattered through a large buffer zone of secondary forest that surrounds Prey Lang.
Not Legally Protected: The Prey Lang forest is not fully legally protected by law, and existing laws are not enforced. Illegal loggers are clear-cutting large areas of old-growth trees.
Industrial Concessions: More than 30 companies have been granted economic and mining land concessions in the greater Prey Lang area by the Cambodian government. Old-growth forests are clear-cut and replaced with rubber tree and cassava plantations (the latter to provide ‘eco-friendly’ ethanol), or mined for iron and other ores.
Rate of Destruction: A botanical team from a top European University recently conducted several surveys in Prey Lang and predict that at the current rate of destruction, the entire Prey Lang forest will be gone within five years.
Language: In the language of Cambodia’s Kuy people, Prey Lang means “Our Forest.”
Biodiversity: Prey Lang is Cambodia’s ‘Amazon’. The forest has seven distinct ecosystems, including primordial swamp forest, that provide habitat to more than 50 endangered animal and bird species including sun bears, tigers, and leopards. Most areas remain largely unexplored by scientists. Elephants and tigers may still roam in parts of Prey Lang.
Water & Food Security: The Prey Lang forest is a vital source of water for Cambodia’s rice growing region and for the Mekong delta. As a primary watershed regulating water and sediment flow to the Tonle Sap Basin, and as an important fish spawning area, Prey Lang is vital for Cambodia’s long-term environmental sustainability and for food and water security.
Climate Stabilization: Left standing, the Prey Lang forest has among the highest carbon sequestration values in the region and is a powerhouse for fighting global warming. Cambodia’s Forest Administration has identified Prey Lang as an important area for conservation, with high potential for carbon-credit financing.
Meeting the Needs of Villagers: The Prey Lang forest meets the food, water, livelihood, and spiritual needs of the Kuy communities. They build their rice fields along Prey Lang’s edges and go into the forest for hunting, fishing, and gathering fruits and herbs for food and ceremonies. They tap several species of trees and collect the resin for making torches and caulking boats. Resin has become the main source of cash for many Kuy families who sell it for industrial use. Overall, the forest is the spiritual center of their lives.
Short Lived Victory: In 2002, the Prey Lang people and other forest communities persuaded the government to ban logging concessions. But their victory was short-lived as the government continued to award concessions to agro-industry and mining companies, both of which clear-cut the land.
Avatars: In May 2011, members of the Prey Lang Network gained international media attention for their staged demonstrations in Phnom Penh where they painted themselves blue and green, wore leaf hats, and called themselves Avatars, after the James Cameron film. (see links in the Additional Information Section above)
Repression & violence: Police armed with AK-47s have broken up Prey Lang Network meetings and Network members are being increasingly threatened with physical harm and criminal charges.
Posted by The EarthAction Team at 08:26 PM in Blog Post, EarthAction, Environmentalism, Indigenous Rights, Nature Conservation, Press Release, Prey Lang | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
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EarthAction's mission is to inform and inspire people everywhere to turn their concern, passion, and outrage into meaningful action for a more just, peaceful and sustainable world.