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Action Alert: Agrofuels on Stolen Lands Continue to Threaten Colombian Rainforests and Communities
It is gravely unethical and ecologically devastating to expand production of biofuels by allowing land to be stolen from local Afro-Colombian communities; and at the expense of Colombia's ancient primary rainforests, food security, water resources and regional climate
By
Rainforest Portal, a project of Ecological Internet
-
May 6, 2008
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1.) Inform Yourself
NOTE: This is a protest, not a petition, sending emails to many real decision makers on matters vital to the Earth.
Caption:
Rainforest and cultural devastation to feed cars is wrong (link)
Plantation expansion for agrofuels remains a major threat to the lives, livelihoods and the environment of Afro-Colombian and other peasant communities in Chocó, Colombia. This is one of the world's most biodiverse regions, with large areas of rainforest now facing destruction. The Chocó rainforests are home to 7,000 to 8,000 species, including 2,000 endemic plant species and 100 endemic bird species. Even before the current palm oil and agrofuel expansion, 66% had been destroyed. Communities and rainforests are under threat from palm oil and sugar cane expansion for agrofuels in other parts of Colombia, too, for example around Tumaco, near the border with Ecuador, in Santander and in Magdalena.
Following a campaign of violence, forced displacements and massacres since 1996, Afro-Colombian and other peasant communities have recently returned to their land, but have found much of it planted with oil palms, even though the communities hold legal land titles. Serious threats and human rights abuses continue against communities settled in Curvaradó and Jiguamiandó basin in Chocó. Community leaders who are opposing the planting of oil palms and supporting the communities holding legal land titles have been receiving death threats. Local people are being harassed and even shot by members of the paramilitary and military forces. Since 2001, 113 killings, 13 forced displacements, many death threats and illegal land occupations have been reported. Last December, the Attorney General filed a case against 23 representatives of palm oil companies but this has not led to any real efforts to stop the expansion of palm oil and cattle ranching on community lands.
If agrofuels -- growing food for fuel -- continue to expand in Colombia, food prices are bound to rise and the nation's food security erode as is happening around the world. Decisive government action is needed to guarantee the lives and the safety of community members and to ensure reparation for environmental destruction and the human rights abuses. The exiled community leader Ligia Maria Cheverra has summed up the situation: "Our territory is being given to the palm oil producers. We need to stop every monoculture and the projects that are targeting our Colombia. This will affect the whole continent. Everything will be lost: the land, the water, the air, the animals, the people. What belongs to us is being destroyed. In Colombia those who speak out with a loud voice are being killed. Here only the ones who sell themselves are rewarded, and those who don’t are called guerrilleros."
The government’s National Council for Political Economy and Social Affairs (CONPES) recently announced new policies to increase government support for agrofuel expansion with a view to turning Colombia into a major global agrofuel exporter. The human rights abuses in Chocó and elsewhere, and the accelerated destruction of rainforests and other vital and biodiverse ecosystems are the direct result of those government policies. Please ask the government to stop and reverse those policies and to protect Colombia's communities and rich environment from further destruction for agrofuels. This email alert is supported by the Inter-Church Commission for Justice and Peace (Comisión Intereclesial de Justicia y Paz) in Colombia, a human rights organisation.
Sample Email Sent
Outraged Colombia's agrofuels policy allows land theft and rainforest destruction
Dear Sir/Madam,
I am deeply concerned about the ongoing rainforest
destruction and human rights abuses in Chocó and other
regions in Colombia which are linked to the government's
support for agrofuel expansion. Large monoculture biofuel
plantations are already destroying some of the world's most
biodiverse ecosystems, such as in Chocó and Nariño, greatly
accelerating global warming and destroying both the present
and future livelihoods of the population. The National
Council for Political Economy and Social Affairs (CONPES)
has recently announced new plans to promote agrofuel
production which will mean large-scale expansion of
plantations, particularly of oil palms and sugar cane. Such
policies will aggravate environmental destruction and human
rights abuses. If growing food for fuel is allowed to
expand it is bound to raise Colombian food prices and erode
food security as is happening around the world.
Since this matter was first brought to your government's
attention in September of 2007, threats and other human
rights abuses continue against community members who have
returned to their lands and resist the illegal occupation
of that land by palm oil companies. In Curvaradó and
Jiguamiandó basin, department of Chocó, community leaders
have been receiving death threats. In February 2008, the
representative of a palm oil company offered a large sum of
money to a gunman to kill community leaders Ligia Maria
Chaverra and Manuel Denis Blandon. Other local people have
been harassed by members of the paramilitary and military
forces. Last September, two people were shot and injured by
men believed to be members of the paramilitary group
"Aguilas Negras" (Black Eagles). Since 2001, 113 killings,
13 forced displacements, many death threats and illegal
land occupations have been reported in Curvaradó and
Jiguamiandó.
A moratorium on agrofuel developments from large-scale
monocultures and a review of the government's biofuel
policy are essential to prevent further human rights abuses
and to avoid catastrophic biodiversity losses, freshwater
pollution and depletion, soil erosion and accelerated
global warming. A full enquiry into social and
environmental impacts of large-scale monocultures must now
be carried out. The government must guarantee the safety,
human rights and land rights of the communities in Chocó
and elsewhere and investigate and all prosecute human
rights abuses, including the recent death threats and
attacks. Government officials should stop questioning the
legal status of the Humanitarian Zone before the
Interamerican Commission for Human Rights. Further, it is
essential that the Colombian government:
* Immediately returns the ancestral land to communities
affected by monoculture plantations, such as the Curvaradó
Afro-Colombian communities affected by oil palm
plantations, and to implement the 169 Convention of the
International Labor Organization;
* Stops further deforestation and exploitation of large-
scale oil palm plantations and the processing of palm oil
in the Curvaradó river basin and elsewhere in Colombia;
* Guarantees the reparation of human and environmental
damages generated by the imposition of large scale
monoculture;
* Recognizes and respects local civilian initiatives aimed
at protecting the environment such as the recent creation
of Biodiversity Zones.
Those measures are essential to ensure Colombia's long term
ecological sustainability and development potential, and to
avoid a preventable social and environmental disaster. The
world is watching and expecting you to act.
Yours faithfully,
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