EarthAction

LOOKING BACK AND LOOKING AHEAD: The 25th anniversary of the 1996 ICJ Advisory Opinion on the Legality of Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons!

 

 

8 July 2021
11am - 2pm Easten Time USA (EDT). 5pm-8pm Central European Time (CEST)
Hosted by the International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms
Click here to register

Basel Peace Office welcomes this important anniversary event organised by the International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms (IALANA), and encourages you to join the event. Two of our board members - Daniel Rietiker and Alyn Ware are amongst the speakers (see the program below).  Background On 8 July 1996, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) handed down its Advisory Opinion on the legality of the threat or use of nuclear weapons. It was the first authoritative international judicial opinion on nuclear weapons since their development in the 1940s. The ICJ affirmed that "the threat or use of nuclear weapons would generally be contrary to the rules of international law applicable in armed conflict, and in particular the principles and rules of humanitarian law," but with a caveat that "the Court cannot conclude definitively whether the threat or use of nuclear weapons would be lawful or unlawful in an extreme circumstance of self-defence, in which the very survival of a State would be at stake." The Court also affirmed that "There exists an obligation to pursue in good faith and bring to a conclusion negotiations leading to nuclear disarmament in all its aspects under strict and effective international control".  The anniversary webinar In this anniversary event, leading international lawyers and activists, professors of international law and experts on arms control and disarmament law will discuss the importance of the Advisory Opinion and its relevance for the present day struggle towards nuclear disarmament.  The webinar will also address more recent developments, such as the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and General Comment no. 36 on the right to life of the UN Human Rights Committee. Finally, it will address the question of what lessons can be drawn from the opinion regarding achievement of a world without nuclear weapons.  Inspiration for an ICJ case on climate change The 1996 ICJ advisory opinion has provided precedent, supportive legal arguments and inspiration for a number of subsequent legal actions and initiatives, inlcuding a new campaign from the World's Youth for Climate Justice and Normandy Chair for Peace to take the issue of climate change to the ICJ. For more information see the animated video introduction to ICJ and the Climate campaign and the facebook recordings of the recent webinar on the initiative at Session A (Americas/Europe/Africa) and Session B (Asia/Pacific).  July 8 Program  1st Session: Looking Back: General Discussion of the Advisory Opinion Opening and Introductory Remarks, Phon van den Biesen,  Attorney at Law in Amsterdam, Co-President IALANA The Ongoing Significance of the Nuclear Weapons Advisory Opinion, Christine Chinkin, Emeritus Professor of International Law, London School of Economics (LSE) The Legal Effect of Advisory Opinions, Paolo Palchetti, Professor of International Law, Université de Paris (Sorbonne 1) General Observations, Peter Weiss, President Emeritus IALANA The World Court Project. Alyn Ware, Former Executive Director, Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy; Global Coordinator, Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament, Director of the Basel Peace Office Video Message from Hiroshima. Takeya Sasaki, Co-president IALANA BREAK 2nd Session: Looking Ahead: Current and Future Trends Opening and Introductory Remarks, John Burroughs, Senior Analyst, Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy, and Vice President IALANA Nuclear Weapons and Human Rights, Daniel Rietiker, International Law Lecturer, Lausanne University, Co-President IALANA, Board Member of the Basel Peace Office Observations re Previous Presentation, Manfred Mohr, Professor of International Law, Board Member IALANA Germany Video Message from JALANA, Kenichi Okubo, President JALANA Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, Amela Skiljan, Vice-chair of IALANA Germany, PhD candidate Closing Remarks, Phon van den Biesen, Attorney at Law in Amsterdam, Co-President IALANA

The Surin Islands Beach Restoration Project Report

In 2020, EarthAction, in collaboration with the Save Our Spirits Fund, gave a grant to the Global Purpose Group to support their work with the Surin Islanders in a project to clean up their ancestral beaches and restore aspects of their culture, especially communication between youth and elders using song and stories. What follows is a report on their project. Donations to support the continuation and expansion of this project can be made to EarthAction on the donate page of our website. Please indicate your donation is for the Moken Beach Project. 

1. Describe the overall project, start and end dates, and how it went compared to your plans and objectives. Be as brief as possible while telling the story.

The project started the 4th of February and ended 5^th of May. The Beach Restoration team started work on the 9^th of February and collected up to 2800 kg of recyclable trash around the Surin islands. The group showed strong teamwork and one member Lek stood out in his ability to manage the team and was promoted team leader. The team went out with the longtailboat every other day to clear the remote bays from washed up marine debris. The day after the collected the trash was rinsed, sorted and packed to eventually be transferred to the mainland in order to be sold to Ranong Recycle for Environment Social Enterprise. Ten bays have been cleared of ocean plastics, including: Ao Sai Daeng, Ao Jaak, Sai Aen, Sai Aen Lek, Ao Bon Yai, Ao Bon Lek, Ao Saparot Lek, Ao Saparot Yai, Ao Tao Lek and Ao Tao Yai. The Beach Restoration went according to plans and objectives even exceeding them by starting a cooperation with the National Park in which they agreed to transfer all non-recyclables to the the nearest landfill on the mainland. The meeting with the National Park revealed approval and appreciation for the Moken initiative which is an important step for this indigenous community in the standing with the local Thai authorities. The initial objective to open labour possibilities in the village by having a rotation system among the different boat owners to share the job of going out to the remote bays did not work as most boat owners have long-term plans for the season. It made more sense to have one boat for the duration of the project. For the trash transfer to the mainland four different boats were used. For next season we plan to increase the amount of non-recyclable waste as we finally have secured free transfer to the mainland in the cooperation with the park authorities.

The Ancestral Knowledge Teaching was successful as for the first time in Moken history, Moken elders have been paid to be teachers to the Moken children. In total, seven Moken including Tat, Sabai, Jipen, Nin, Sutat, Ngui and Hook have shared their traditional knowledge of oral storytelling through songs, medicinal herbs and plants, sailing, rowing and diving with the children. For many children this was the first time they sailed on the traditional Moken houseboat. Teaching in the Moken school in the village is irregular which is based partly on strange system that is a kind of experience the government imposed on the Surin islands and partly due to absence of the teachers. This leads to irregular attendance of the students. Our objective was to take all the school children out on trip by the end of the project and this objective was met. In fact all regularly attending school children counting up to 27 children joined at least two times for the activities. From the irregularly attending students and including the pre-schoolers 10 kids joined for one trip. Initially we had planned to have more trips on a regular schedule. However, this being the first time for this initiative, the establishment of the structure took more effort. For the next season the groundwork has been laid to introduce a weekly schedule for the ancestral knowledge teaching. The Moken teachers were all enthusiastic about this opportunity and have shown interest to continue the coming season. The feedback from the students were overly positive and they look forward to more days of cultural education.

2. What did you learn from doing this work? Were there any ’surprises’ or discoveries?

Working with the Moken is an ongoing learning experience. This once free-roaming indigenous community has been forced to life door-to-door in an overpopulated village. Although it looks like a village, it actually lacks its infrastructures. Problems arise naturally and solutions to some village problems from an outsider perspective seem simple. However, given the nomadic history of this community simple village solutions fail easily. It is an ongoing learning experience to get a deeper understanding of the Moken and their socio-cultural history. This year I learned that the Moken culture exists without time structures and time plans. The spontaneously organized cultural teaching sessions always worked out, but when we tried to introduce a system based on recurring weekly schedules, it just didn't work. The same problem arose for village meetings. Navigating the insights is important to continue offering community based support. If freedom, spontaneity and a total detachment from structure is what defines the Moken, yet at the same is also what is threatening their existence, then how much structure can we bring in order to serve their spirit to be Moken and take on the challenges that their existence as a cultural minority in Thailand brings with it?

3. Do you have plans to build on this experience in the future. If so, describe them briefly.

We support the Moken to be in charge of their life, while offering assistance while they navigate through the troubled waters of a having been a free-roaming nomadic culture to being a sedentary minority in Thailand. Their journey leads through limited access of resources, being a tourist attraction in a National Park, and being discriminated against. In order to be able to stand up for their culture, their spiritual beliefs, their history and their traditions, they need to be in state to be able to do that. This project is the first self-initiated project by the Moken which is environmentally and culturally meaningful and helps the Moken to direct their own lives. As an outsider to the culture we continue to learn every year on how to assist the Moken better. At the moment the best support is to build on their initiative and continue adding small aspects to it that help strengthens their community. We will continue with the beach restoration project as of October next season and also continue the element of cultural education.

 

4. Did this project affect the spiritual aspects of individuals and the community? If so, please describe briefly.

The indigenous community of the Moken is closely connected to their surrounding nature. Dispossession of traditional land is a problem that many indigenous communities face around the world. In the extreme cases the spiritual connection to the land will be lost forever. The Moken still live around the ocean and the jungle, and although their access to its resources has been restricted, their connection is still intact. The Moken standing up for their environment because they witness the plastic pollution that happens on a global level is an important aspect to maintain the spiritual connection to their sacred lands. Two of the beaches that have been cleared from floating ocean plastics are burial grounds, while three other beaches have been their home in which ceremonies have been held. 

 

Frightened Palestinians Call On Israel To Speed Vaccine Delivery

 

At a time when the COVID-19 crisis is in retreat throughout much of the world, Palestinians are suffering through their worst lock-down since the start of the pandemic, with infections surging and no prospect of relief from vaccines.

“People here are panicked,” said Mohammed Sawalha, a professor at the Al-Najah University and founder of the Palestinian House of Friendship (PHF), a community center in the city of Nablus which provides services for children. “They are afraid of what is coming. There is no strategy, no plan and no vaccines.”

The Advocacy Project has partnered with PHF since 2015 and recently donated $500 to a PHF initiative, Boxes of Love, to help struggling families in Nablus.

According to The World Health Organization, 245,790 Palestinians have been infected in the West Bank and Gaza since the pandemic began. Cases rose by 4,193 between Tuesday and Wednesday, in spite of a severe lock-down. Deaths rose by 29 to 2,561.

Adding to the stress is a growing conviction that Israel has withheld vaccines to put pressure on the Palestinians. Seventeen members of the US House of Representatives issued an open letter on Monday accusing Israel of failing to live up to its responsibility as an occupying power.

With a population of around 160,000, Nablus has one of the highest rates of infection on the West Bank, partly because it serves as a referral center for the north of the West Bank and includes three overcrowded refugee camps.

Nablus has 12 hospitals and recently opened two centers for COVID-19 cases only. But both filled up quickly, according to Dr Abdelsalaam Al-Khaiyat, a Palestinian epidemiologist and professor who sits on the COVID emergency committee of the Nablus governorate.

“My worst nightmare has always been that there would be no beds for patients at hospitals,” said Dr Al-Khaiyat. “That’s what we now see. This has been absolutely the worst time since the start of the pandemic last March.”

Dr Al-Khaiyat said that 263 people had died from the virus in Nablus so far. Hospital wards are overflowing and sick patients are lined up in corridors. The virus is infecting a growing number of young people and endangering children. Half of the cases have occurred in the last ten weeks.

Mr Sawalha also painted a grim picture of life in Nablus during a wide-ranging Zoom meeting. As in any close community, deaths are difficult to bear and Mr Sawalha said that the virus has claimed the lives of five faculty members at his university. Two young members of his staff were recently diagnosed with the virus.

All shops in Nablus are closed except for pharmacies and bakeries, which are open for two days a week. This has further devastated an economy and administration that was already suffering from occupation and mismanagement.

The education system is collapsing in remote villages where families do not have access to the Internet or computers. Remote learning is even difficult in refugee camps that are close to the city said Ansaf Khalil, who teaches at the Balata refugee camp. Ms Khalil's daughter Dareen is depressed and “dreaming of an end to this nightmare,” she said.

With family food stocks running dangerously low, the authorities in Nablus are under growing pressure to ease the lock-down. This, however, could open the floodgates. “It is a very dark picture,” said Mr Sawalha.

The main line of defense against the virus – vaccines - is still not available to Palestinians. So far, according to press reports, the Palestinian Authority has only acquired 92,000 doses for a population of over 5 million. This includes 30,000 doses of the Russian vaccine Sputnik V and 58,000 doses of the Pfizer and AstraZenaca vaccines which recently arrived through COVAX, the international sharing program.

Learn more at The Adovcacy Project 

UNICEF Reports: COVAX Global Rollout of Covid-19 Vaccines

In what promises to be one of the best news of 2021 so far, COVAX announced the historic first shipment of Covid-19 vaccines to West Africa. On February 24th, Ghana was the recipient of 600,000 doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine licensed to Serum Institute of India. It was followed by the arrival of 504, 000 doses in Côte d’Ivoire two days later. The deliveries mark the start of what will be the largest, most rapid and complex global rollout of vaccines in history. In total, COVAX aims to deliver at least 2 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines by the end of 2021, including at least 1.3 billion to the 92 economies eligible for support through the COVAX AMC.     Over 10 million Covid-19 vaccine doses had been delivered to 12 countries in a week, including the deliveries of 340,000 doses of AstraZeneca/Oxford and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines in Rwanda; 487,200 doses of AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine to the Philippines; and the over 800,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Sudan, which has become the first country in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region to receive vaccines against COVID-19 from the COVAX facility yesterday.      COVAX is co-led by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), working in partnership with UNICEF as well as the World Bank, civil society organizations, manufacturers, and others.    Read more

 

World Future Day: Launch of Youth Fusion Elders on March 1

Launch of Youth Fusion Elders initiative
World Future Day/Nuclear Remembrance Day
Monday March 1, 2021. 6pm – 7:30 CET (12noon-1:30pm Eastern Time USA)

The World Future Day Launch of Youth Fusion Elders will be an intergenerational dialogue between youth and elders within the peace and nuclear disarmament fields. We will learn from the highly valuable experiences and knowledge of ‘Elders’ in a conversation facilitated by youth leaders.

Click here to register. Event facebook page.

Youth Fusion Elders:
‘Elder –a person having authority because of age and experience’
Merriam-Webster Dictionary

Youth Fusion highlights the importance of inter-generational dialogue, and of youth learning from the experience of those who have been long-time and effective leaders in the peace and disarmament fields. In this regard, we recognise and affirm Youth Fusion Elders, those we hold in high esteem, and whose leadership, accomplishments, ideas and wisdom we highlight online and through our activities.

March 1: World Future Day/Nuclear Remembrance Day
The Youth Fusion Elders launch event is held in conjunction with a 24 hour round-the-world conversation for World Future Day which starts in Aotearoa-New Zealand at 12noon and moves westward each hour to the next time-zone. March 1 is also Nuclear Remembrance Day, the anniversary of the most destructive nuclear weapons test ever conducted in the Pacific. The impact of the radiation dispersed from this test will last for generations.   

Youth Fusion:
Youth Fusion, the youth network of Abolition 2000, is a world-wide platform for young individuals and organizations in the field of nuclear disarmament, risk-reduction and non-proliferation. Youth Fusion  focuses on youth action and intergenerational dialogue, building on the links between disarmament, peace, climate action, sustainable development and building back better from the pandemic.

Please click here for more information. 

The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons enters into force

EarthAction celebrates that on January 22, 2021, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons entered into force. We share this news as written by The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN):

"More than 75 years after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the treaty banning these weapons with catastrophic humanitarian consequences enters into force. The countries that have joined the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons are bound to adhere to the treaty’s prohibitions and implement its obligations. The treaty’s normative impact will grow as states parties and civil society push for its full implementation and universalisation.

“Nuclear weapons have always been immoral, now they are illegal,” Beatrice Fihn, ICAN Executive Director said. “ The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons is a victory for all people, made possible by the efforts of civil society and the international community. A handful of nations have held the world hostage with these horrific weapons. With the treaty we break those chains and chart a new course to a world free of nuclear weapons.”

21 January 2021 is a critical milestone towards the total elimination of nuclear weapons. Around the world, ICAN campaigners are marking the historic day with at least 172 events, from commemorations to protests to educational events. There are protestors at institutions around the world including companies, banks, universities that are contributing to nuclear weapons to make clear this behaviour is now banned under international law. At nuclear weapon bases and laboratories activists are hanging banners. Diplomats and officials are rallying behind the treaty. Campaigners in countries that have joined the treaty are celebrating the leadership of their countries to bring the first international legal ban on nuclear weapons into force.

The entry into force of the TPNW is a day of paramount importance for ICAN and for international peace and security. It is the start of a new chapter: the end of nuclear weapons."

See more at: https://www.icanw.org/tpnw_enters_into_force

Peace is not everything, but everything is nothing without peace. No to war, militarism, and violence

The Doomsday Clock has moved for the first time in history to just 100 seconds to midnight. The
Nobel prize winners “The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists" justify this move by citing the
dangers of atomic war and the consequences of climate change. The dangers of a great
cataclysmic war have increased in view of the rivalries of the great powers, as have the quantity
and quality of regional conflicts and wars over resources and as consequences of climate
change. Wars are inseparable components of the "new normal."

Peace is not only the absence of war; it covers all dimensions of human existence and the
existence of nature. Peace means global justice and always includes climate justice. This is the
struggle for peace that the World Social Forum has waged since its conception, particularly
related to US interventionism. It is also a struggle against military confrontations wherever they
exist.

For these reasons we are planning on the one hand several public online discussions on the
ongoing military conflicts in West Asia (Yemen, Syria and Palestine) as well as on the
involvement of NATO in Eastern European countries like Ukraine, Armenia and Azerbaijan. On
the other hand, we are going to deal with the militarization of internal political conflicts,
especially in countries where the pandemic has led to an extreme polarization between
authoritarian regimes and its peoples. Some further notes:

1. Anti-militarism today is a rejection of and pressure against the biggest military alliance in
   the world: NATO and its ∼1000 military bases.
2. Special attention should be given to the economic and ecological reasons as well as the
   humanitarian consequences of the ongoing militarization processes in regards to
   repression, human rights violations, and the forced migration of millions of people.
3. Central to militarism is the gross excess of spending on military arms. 2 trillion US dollars
   per year cause deaths on a daily basis are partly responsible for poverty and hunger
   around the world. Disarmament is a central challenge for peace engagement and just
   shaping of the future.
4. Militaristic structures in individual countries and internationally also destroy democracy
   and participation; anti-militarism is therefore always also a struggle for democracy.
5. Small arms are the "weapons of mass destruction" of the 21st century. The daily killing
   and murdering with such weapons demand peace-based political and social responses
   and an international ban.

In all these panel discussions, the audience should be given the opportunity to deliberate the
strategies and mobilizations which not only engage the traditional peace movement, but also
activists, experts, and opinion leaders from other thematic areas like global justice, cultural
diversity, and climate change.

The 24th of January should reflect the diversity of these issues and the central challenge for
peace and global justice.

Reiner Braun, International Peace Bureau; Leo Gabriel, Prague Spring 2, network against far-
right extremism and populism; Kristine Karch, International network ‘No to war - No-to-NATO’.

Read more here

2020 EarthAction Report

2020 EarthAction Report

A Brief Overview of EarthAction’s Projects & Campaigns

2020 Action

Every month, 2020 Action and the 2020 Action Education Fund, both projects of EarthAction, educate and mobilize thousands of US citizens encouraging them to communicate with US policymakers on critically important peace and environmental issues. Each month, 2020 produces a timely Action Alert with meaningful actions for citizens to take to protect our environment and security—usually to contact a policymaker facing a critical decision. For details, read 2020’s 2020 Action Report at 2020Action.org. This is 2020 Action’s 35^th year!

Support for Indigenous Peoples—Save Our Spirits Fund

In 2020, we expanded our collaboration with the Save Our Spirits (SOS) Fund to provide increased support for indigenous and ancestral communities around the world to help them preserve, strengthen, and pass on the spiritual practices and ceremonies and the wisdom of their elders.

This year, EarthAction made SOS grants to support the work of the following groups:

The Elders Project (TEP) in Colombia: We continued to work with and provide assistance to the traditional authorities (Mamos) of the Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta (SNSM) in Colombia. Rick Harlow, the Project Director, made trips to Colombia to work directly with the traditional authorities to help strengthen their spiritual and traditional practices.

Indigenous Peoples Healing Fire at Assonet in Massachusetts was held on Saturday, November 28^th. It was organized by members of the Wampanoag Tribe. We hope this will help to lay the foundation for a permanent Indigenous Healing Ceremony Circle in the greater Boston area.

The Lalakea Foundation for their Nā Wāhine ʻĀpapalani, Hawaiian women cultural practitioners who have been conducting ritual and ceremony on Maunakea for many years and who are dedicated to honoring the sacred Piko O Wākea through prayer, chant and ceremony that acknowledge Nā Kānaka o ka Mauna, Deities of the Mountain, and form connectivity with the sacred through space and time. This project will extend into 2021.

Several Villages in the Hopi Community for their COVID-19 Emergency Response: Hopi Contact Tracing Project. This project will extend into 2021 and train people within the community to carry out contact tracing in a number of Hopi villages that are being hard-hit by the pandemic.

The Cordillera Peoples Alliance, Philippines to assist them with their response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, the distribution of food relief consisting of rice, sugar, salt and cooking oil to a total of 500 families of indigenous people among the Ayangan tribe in the province of Ifugao. They also shared information on COVID-19 and held discussions on food security during the relief distribution in communities and conducted psycho-social sessions among vulnerable groups such as farmers, elders, youth, and informal workers.

Grass-Roots Organization for Women (GROW) in Ghana, for support of their project: Community-based Initiatives to Address the Impact of Corona-19 Virus Pandemic in Rural Indigenous and Local Communities. They are strengthening outreach to prevent the spread of infection and addressing emerging public health issues that impact vulnerable populations in rural areas who lack access to essential services.

Kitanglad Integrated NGOs Inc. (KIN), in Philippines for support of their program: Indigenous Womens Relief Against COVID-19 by Nurturing Culture and Nature. From May through August, KIN provided food and other support to community members, especially women, mothers and youths and their families belonging to the Daraghuyan-Bukidnon Tribe of Dalwangan in Malaybalay City, and the Talaandig Tribe of Songco, Lantapan, and Mt. Nebo, Valencia City. These tribal beneficiaries are partners in forest protection, biodiversity conservation and cultural survival of the tribes of Mts. Kitanglad Range Natural Park and the Mt. Kalatungan Range Natural Park.

Samdhana Institute, Philippines to assist with a response to the COVID pandemic to provide food relief to Erumanen ne Menuvu tribe (Manobo) in Southern Bukidnon, Philippines. Four hundred selected Menuvu families received food relief, to help them survive through the difficult period of the pandemic until they are able to plant for their own food.

Other Campaigns

Throughout the year, EarthAction engaged in many global campaigns for peace, justice and protection of the environment through our website and social media. For example, working with others, we helped to end the construction of hundreds of dangerous dams in Bosnia & Herzegovina, thus protecting Europe’s last remaining wild rivers! For details visit: www.earthaction.org.

Thank You

EarthAction thanks all our Partner Organizations, individual members, donors and Board members for their ongoing participation and support. Special thanks to the Thomas D. Hormel Trust, the Stewart R. Mott Foundation, and the Save Our Spirits Fund.

Let's Celebrate the TPNW

 

On January 22^nd, the world will celebrate the entry into force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear weapons, supported by over 120 states at the UN in July 2017.

 

On this historic day, we call on members of the IPB family, our friends and all peace lovers to celebrate this historical step, and deliver this great news with noise and fun in your countries all across the globe, as the road to a world free of nuclear weapons is now wide open!

 

We invite you to join us for a virtual IPB Zoom party where we will celebrate this milestone toward nuclear disarmament together.

 

During the celebration, we want to pay tribute to generations of activists that have tirelessly raised awareness about the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons, since the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. The victims of these bombings and the survivors, the Hibakusha are in our hearts to celebrate together a new era: nuclear weapons are officially illegal when the TPNW will enter into force.

 

Our party will start at 1 p.m. CET and last approximately until 3 p.m. CET on Friday the 22^nd of January.

 

You can look forward to drinking one (or many) of our delicious signature TPNW cocktails in the company of fellow supporters of peace and disarmament.  We have a couple of surprise virtual guests and activities prepared for you but you will have to come and see by yourself!

 

You can attend by signing up to the event here: https://bit.ly/ipbprt

In Response to Global Call to Protect Europe’s Last Wild Rivers, Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina Ends Subsidies for Small Hydropower Projects

EarthAction’s Partner Organizations Helped to Win this Victory!

 

I hope you are well! In case you have not yet heard, I wanted to let you know that last week the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) announced that starting in 2021, the government would no longer provide subsidies that support the construction of small hydropower plants. I have been working with Marsela Pecanac and Lejla Kusturica at Atelier for Community Transformation and Ulli Eichelmann at Riverwatch on a press release that includes the logos and boilerplates from the original coalition members who signed onto the September press release. I have attached the new press release here. 

 

We are not looking for quotes this time--just confirmation that you'd like to be listed on the press release. We are aiming to get this out on Thursday, so I need to hear back from you by the end of the day tomorrow, Wednesday, Dec. 2. If I don't hear back from you by then, we'll remove your logo and boilerplate in the version that goes out to reporters Thursday (we can still add it back in on the online version). 

 

Please let me know if you have any questions and thank you for your ongoing support!

 

Lindsay, Director of Media Relations, Global Wildlife Conservation

 

Read more

Nominations for Prestigious UN Award Opens

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.”

About the UNCCD

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