Civil society organizations demand respect for indigenous rights and the upholding of the democratic rule of law in Roraima

Prominent institutions, including CNBB, SBPC, ABONG, FDDI, Instituto Ethos, ABA and others, have issued a statement in support the removal of illegal occupants from the Raposa-Serra do Sol indigenous area and calling for respect for the democratic rule of law in Roraima. The statement is open for further signatures by civil society institutions. Read the full text and see who has already signed.

NGOs launch groundbreaking initiative to end deforestation in the Amazon

Proposal for pact to acknowledge the value of the forest and reduce deforestation to zero by means of financial compensation to those conserving forests and of annual targets. Federal and state governments, parliamentarians and authorities participate in the launch in the Chamber of Deputies

Dumb Line Regarding the Soya “Moratorium

The agreement between Greenpeace, Abiove and trading companies for a moratorium regarding the purchase of soya originating from new deforestation is being interpreted in a twisted way by European importers, who are segregating producers without fomenting improvements of the social-environmental quality of the production. It would be better to share the costs pertaining to improved quality along the productive chain.

ISA releases Mining in Protected Areas in the Brazilian Amazon and calls for mining licences granted in federal environmental conservation areas to be revoked

Publication overlays official data and information and shows that mining activities can represent threats to forest integrity, even in legally protected areas. The launch took place in Brasília on Tuesday, 18 April. At the same time ISA requested Ibama, the federal environment agency, to revoke 337 licences that allow mining activities within federal environmental conservation areas

COP-8 ends like a marked cards castle

The 8th COP (Conference of Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity) ends like it started: negotiations obstructed by economical questions, decisions threatened by the lobby of the transgenic and the Brazilian government painting small advances as big conquests.

Members of civil society reveal frustration with COP-8

While waiting the beginning of the final plenary of the 8a Conference of the Parties (COP) of the Convention on Biological Diversity, that finished last Friday [31/3], participants were invited to make a brief evaluation of the event, considered the most important realized in Brazil since Rio-92. The opinions, in its majority critics, pointed the lack of progress in the main themes discussed; among the main responsibles for this result: the delegations of Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Read below some parts of the testimonies.

"While the children play on the playground of CBD..."

COPTRIX discusses the dependence of countries, communities, agricultures and consumers generated by biotechnology corporations and the influence of the commercial treaties over the CBD.

European Union Commissioner for the Environment reaffirms deadlock in the negotiation of the International Regime on Access and Benefit Sharing

Stavros Dimas kept the ambiguity peculiar to the EU in the discussions of CBD.

Debates on ABS are stuck in (in)definite articles: “a” or “the”?

The discussions on ABS and the international regime are not “estimulated”, as CBD recommends. Delegates spent all Monday, March 27th, inside the plenary discussing if the negotiations on an international regime on benefit sharing should be based on “a” document, or “the” document”.

"These seeds were made to enslave us"

In interview conceded to ISA, Colombian indigenous leader Lorenzo Muellas Hurtado speaks about genetic use restriction technologies, the so called GURT, the Convention on Biological Diversity and about the regime on access to genetic resources that is being negotiated at COP-8, in Curitiba, and intends to establish international rules to regulate the relations between provider and user countries.