#déforestation

A tale of two maps: Brazilian state won’t use new atlas to close Cerrado deforestation loophole
▻http://news.mongabay.com/2015/0413-sri-borrell-cerrado-deforestation-loophole.html

Farmers in north-central Brazil, where the savanna meets the Amazon rainforest, are clearing land at an unprecedented rate. The government hasn’t stopped the cutting, partly because it is using inaccurate, outdated maps that hugely underestimate the extent of its endangered dry forests. State regulators in Tocantins have continued using the old maps, even after commissioning superior, detailed vegetation maps that could identify at-risk forest patches and help curb deforestation.

“Years from now when we are without water, they will regret it,” says Ricardo Haidar, a forest engineer based in the city of Palmas. “The government paid for the study, but they are not using the data.”

Tocantins, Brazil’s newest state, was named in 1988 after its shape which looks like a toucan’s beak with the tip pointing north toward the Amazon River, some 400 miles away. Though the majority of the state is within the biodiverse savanna known as the Cerrado, it has some of the region’s most extensive forests and forms a critical transition zone that merges into Amazonia.

In December 2014, Kátia Abreu — the Tocantins senator who environmentalists have called “Miss Deforestation” and the “Chainsaw Queen” — was named Brazil’s Minister of Agriculture, putting the state’s poor environmental record in the national spotlight. All along the Belem-Brasilia Highway, one of the state’s major north-south thoroughfares, locals have watched Tocantins’ forests being razed for soy and rice crops at a stunning pace. Forests in this corner of the Cerrado shrank by 66 percent between 1977 and 2008, and they will likely vanish completely in the next 25 years unless action is taken, says a 2013 study published in Biotropica.

http://mongabay-images.s3.amazonaws.com/15/0413_bb2_Map_2008_Small_600.jpg http://mongabay-images.s3.amazonaws.com/15/0413_bb2_Map_2012_Small_600.jpg

#cartographie #cerrado #forêt #déforestation #Brésil

Deforestation in the Amazon Aggravates Brazil’s Energy Crisis | Inter Press Service
▻http://www.ipsnews.net/2015/04/deforestation-in-the-amazon-aggravates-brazils-energy-crisis

In Brazil water and electricity go together, and two years of scant rainfall have left tens of millions of people on the verge of water and power rationing, boosting arguments for the need to fight deforestation in the Amazon rainforest.

Two-thirds of Brazil’s electricity comes from dammed rivers, whose water levels have dropped alarmingly. The crisis has triggered renewed concern over climate change and the need to reforest river banks, and has given rise to new debate about the country’s energy system.

“Energy sources must be diversified and we have to reduce dependency on hydroelectric stations and fossil fuel-powered thermoelectric plants, in order to deal with more and more frequent extreme climate events,” the vice president of the non-governmental Vitae Civilis Institute, Delcio Rodrigues, told Tierramérica.

Hydroelectricity accounted for nearly 90 percent of the country’s electric power until the 2001 “blackout”, which forced the authorities to adopt rationing measures for eight months. Since then, the more expensive and dirtier thermal power has grown, to create a more stable electricity supply.

Today, thermal plants, which are mainly fueled by oil, provide 28 percent of the country’s power, compared to the 66.3 percent that comes from hydroelectricity.

#déforestation #eau #hydroélectricité #énergie #climat

Subsidies to industries that cause deforestation worth 100 times more than aid to prevent it | Environment | The Guardian
▻http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/mar/31/subsidies-to-industries-that-cause-deforestation-worth-100-times-more-t

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2015/3/31/1427815770465/737152c8-4d27-434f-b171-1f74875b74e8-2060x1236.jpeg

Brazil and Indonesia spent over 100 times more in subsidies to industries that cause deforestation than they received in international conservation aid to prevent it, according to a report by the Overseas Development Institute (ODI).

The two countries handed out over $40bn (£27bn) in subsidies to the palm oil, timber, soy, beef and biofuels sectors between 2009 and 2012 – 126 times more than the $346m they received to preserve their rainforests from the United Nations’ (UN) #REDD+ scheme, mostly from Norway and Germany.

#déforestation #forêt #subvention #aides #agroforesterie #écologie #redd+

Tree Cover Loss Spikes in Russia and Canada, Remains High Globally
▻http://blog.globalforestwatch.org/2015/04/tree-cover-loss-spikes-in-russia-and-canada-remains-high-glo

Global tree cover loss in 2013 continued to be high at over 18 million hectares (69,500 square miles)—about twice the size of Portugal—slightly lower than 2012, but a troubling 5.2 percent increase over the 2000-2012 average. In 2011-2013, Russia and Canada topped the list (mostly due to forest fires), jointly accounting for 34 percent of total loss.

Tree cover loss is a measure of the total loss of all trees within a specific area regardless of the cause. It includes human-driven deforestation, forest fires both natural and manmade, clearing trees for agriculture, logging, plantation harvesting, and tree mortality due to disease and other natural causes. Tree cover gain also happened during 2013, but is not included in the 2013 update or this analysis as it is more difficult to monitor than loss. Much of the tree cover loss is only temporary, as forests regenerate after disturbances such as fire, though in the boreal region this is a very slow process.

#forêts #déforestation

La #faim sévit dans le nord de la #Colombie
▻http://www.lecourrier.ch/128941/la_faim_sevit_dans_le_nord_de_la_colombie

http://www.lecourrier.ch/sites/default/files/courrier/images/articles/pyj_1211.jpg

Des arbustes rachitiques disputent le territoire sablonneux aux cactus. Le climat semi-désertique du département de La Guajira, dans le nord de la Colombie, ne facilite pas l’abondance des récoltes. Mais le soleil a bon dos. #Contamination, #corruption, #déplacements_forcés, irresponsabilité des autorités locales et abandon de la part des pouvoirs publics (lire ci-dessous) sont quelques-unes des causes de la malnutrition qui entraîne la mort de centaines d’enfants chaque année. Officiellement, trois mille mineurs sont décédés entre 2008 et 2013. Mais il ne s’agit que des cas dûment enregistrés. Selon de nombreuses sources locales, l’hécatombe serait bien plus importante.

#enfant #malnutrition #déforestation merci @cdb_77

We’re treating soil like dirt. It’s a fatal mistake, as our lives depend on it
George Monbiot
▻http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/mar/25/treating-soil-like-dirt-fatal-mistake-human-life

It’s literally and – it seems – metaphorically, beneath us. To judge by its absence from the media, most journalists consider it unworthy of consideration. But all human life depends on it. We knew this long ago, but somehow it has been forgotten. As a Sanskrit text written in about 1500BC noted: “Upon this handful of soil our survival depends. Husband it and it will grow our food, our fuel and our shelter and surround us with beauty. Abuse it and the soil will collapse and die, taking humanity with it.”

The issue hasn’t changed, but we have. Landowners around the world are now engaged in an orgy of soil destruction so intense that, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation, the world on average has just 60 more years of growing crops. Even in Britain, which is spared the tropical downpours that so quickly strip exposed soil from the land, Farmers Weekly reports, we have “only 100 harvests left”.

Landowners around the world are now engaged in an orgy of soil #destruction
To keep up with global food demand, the UN estimates, 6m hectares (14.8m acres) of new farmland will be needed every year. Instead, 12m hectares a year are lost through soil degradation. We wreck it, then move on, trashing rainforests and other precious habitats as we go. Soil is an almost magical substance, a living system that transforms the materials it encounters, making them available to plants. That handful the Vedic master showed his disciples contains more micro-organisms than all the people who have ever lived on Earth. Yet we treat it like, well, dirt.

#sol

Who’s funding palm oil?
▻http://news.mongabay.com/2015/0319-shibao-mrn-palm-oil-financing.html
Part 1 of 5 of a series on palm oil financing

Estimates indicate that as much as 50 percent of the products used by the average Western consumer every day contain palm oil or its derivatives [3].

In 2013, the global market for palm oil was estimated at $44 billion [4]. This figure is likely to increase in the near future, as manufacturers look for alternatives to trans fats in processed food products, and consumers in rapidly industrializing economies such as China and India add to growing global demand.

#huile_de_palme #agrobusiness

Brazil confirms rising deforestation in the Amazon
▻http://news.mongabay.com/2015/0313-brazil-deforestation.html

Figures released last week by the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) shows that forest clearing detected by DETER — a short term deforestation monitoring system based on coarse satellite imagery — is 63 percent higher for the twelve months ended January 31, 2015 relative to the year earlier period.

[...]

Some environmentalists are blaming changes in the country’s forest code for the rising rate of forest. In 2012, the #agribusiness lobby in Congress pushed through new legislation that relaxed environmental regulations governing maintenance of forest cover on private land and eliminated penalties for illegal clearing by small farmers.

But macroeconomic factors may offer a better explanation. The recent economic downturn in Brazil has hit its currency, the real, making export-driven agriculture more profitable since soy and cattle products sold in international markets fetch dollars, while costs are paid in less valuable reais. At the same time, grain and meat prices have risen off their financial crisis lows. A more profitable farm sector makes speculative forest clearing a more attractive option relative to other investments, especially in the context of a flagging Brazilian stock market.

[...] with rates pacing well-ahead of last year, there seems to be a high likelihood that deforestation for the 12-months ending July 31, 2015 will be substantially higher than the previous year’s rate for the first time since at least the early 2000s. Only a sharp drop in clearing over the the next few months could avoid that fate.

#Brésil #Amazonie #forêts #déforestation

Growing threat to Amazon’s crucial carbon sink - Climate News Network

▻http://www.climatenewsnetwork.net/growing-threat-to-amazons-crucial-carbon-sink

http://www.climatenewsnetwork.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/CROP-RB_Amazon_24.02-Credit-Georgia-Pickavance-RAINFOR-GLC2000-300x285.jpg

By Tim Radford

Massive new study shows that pressures on the Amazon rainforest mean it can no longer be relied on to soak up more CO2 from the atmosphere than it puts out.

LONDON, 19 March, 2015 − The Amazon rainforest, for so long one of the vital “green lungs” of the planet, is losing its capacity to absorb carbon from the atmosphere, according to new research.

Two decades ago, the forest drew down a peak of two billion tonnes of carbon dioxide each year from the atmosphere. Now, according to a massive new study in Nature journal by more than 90 scientists, the rate of withdrawal has fallen to around half that total.

#forêt #amazonie #climat #déforestation #co2

#Déforestation : l’UE pas à l’aise dans ses biftecks - Libération
▻http://www.liberation.fr/terre/2015/03/17/deforestation-l-ue-pas-a-l-aise-dans-ses-biftecks_1222694

Et ses résultats donnent le vertige. « Toutes les deux minutes, entre 2000 et 2012, la superficie d’un terrain de football a été déboisée de manière illégale pour exporter ces matières premières vers l’UE », dénonce Fern (« fougère » en anglais). En 2012, l’UE « a importé l’équivalent de 6 milliards d’euros de #soja, #bœuf, #cuir et #huile_de_palme issus de cultures ou d’élevages pratiqués sur des #terres déboisées illégalement dans des zones tropicales ». Près d’un quart des matières premières agricoles issues de la déforestation illégale sur le marché mondial est destiné à l’#UE. A eux seuls, cinq pays (Pays-Bas, Royaume-Uni, Allemagne, Italie et France) « importent 75% et consomment 63% de ces produits entachés d’illégalité affluant vers l’UE ». Chacun ayant sa triste spécialité. Avec l’Allemagne, les Pays-Bas « sont les plus gros importateurs d’huile de palme destinée aux cosmétiques et aux produits alimentaires ». Au royaume italien des chaussures et des sacs de créateurs, le cuir domine. « Il n’est pas surprenant que, dans la principale puissance agricole de l’UE, la France, ce soit le soja, utilisé pour nourrir les animaux », ajoute le rapport. Outre-Manche, le bœuf est le produit estampillé « déforestation illégale » le plus importé.

Plus de la moitié de la superficie des terres déboisées illégalement pour approvisionner l’UE en denrées agricoles est située au Brésil. Et un quart en Indonésie, où les plantations de palmiers à huile et de bois sont les principales causes de déforestation et où « au moins 80% de ces exploitations sont illégales ». Mais ce phénomène touche aussi la Malaisie, le Paraguay, la Papouasie-Nouvelle-Guinée ou les bassins du Congo et du Mékong.

(j’en ai carrément ras le bol que le terrain de foot serve de mesure de référence)

New report: commercial agricultural expansion fueling illegal logging and land conflicts in Myanmar
▻http://farmlandgrab.org/post/view/24646-new-report-commercial-agricultural-expansion-fueling-illegal-log

http://farmlandgrab.org//uploads/images/photos/8733/large_0312-Forest_Trends_forest_clearance_for_agribusiness_concession_in_Tanintharyi_Region.jpg?1426235533

The Myanmar government has been allocating land for large-scale private agricultural businesses in the country’s biodiversity-rich forests at an alarming rate, according to a new report released this week by Forest Trends, a Washington-based non-profit organization. And these concessions may be fueling illegal timber harvests and intensifying land conflicts, the report alleges.

Between 2010 and 2013, the area of land marked for commercial agriculture has increased from nearly 2 million acres to 5.2 million acres, a jump of almost 170 percent, according to the report. Much of these land concessions are within high conservation value forests. The government has also identified an additional 11 million acres of these forests for private agribusiness projects, the authors report.

#birmanie #terres #déforestation #forêt #agro-industrie

▻http://www.theguardian.com/environment/andes-to-the-amazon/2015/mar/07/palm-oil-peru-23000-hectares-primary-forest?CMP=share_btn_tw

Satellite data suggests forest loss is accelerating
▻http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/02/us-forest-satellites-idUSKBN0LY1M720150302

The FAO assessment has been based in large part on self reporting from tropical forest countries, Kim said. In contrast, Kim and his University of Maryland colleagues analyzed 5,444 Landsat images from 1990, 2000, 2005 and 2010 to assess how much forest was lost or gained 34 countries, which account for about 80 percent of tropical forest land in the world.

During the 1990 to 2000 time period, the annual net forest loss across all the countries was 4 million hectares (about 15,000 square miles or 40,000 square kilometers) per year, according to the study.

From 2000 to 2010, the net forest loss increased 62 percent to 6.5 million hectares (about 25,000 square miles or 65,000 square kilometers) per year – an area of forest clearing the size of Sri Lanka each year.

#forets #deforestation et petite controverse avec la #FAO : #satellites vs. mesures de terrain

Brazil’s king of deforestation dethroned in drive to beat land clearers | World news | The Guardian
▻http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/02/brazils-king-of-deforestation-dethroned-in-drive-to-beat-land-clearers

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2015/3/1/1425235766820/aa4c76e1-bdb8-4553-a0e0-d1e6e910d5db-2060x1236.jpeg

Today, however, the thick-set, middle-aged man sits in jail with a notoriety across Brazil as a Tony Soprano-like character whose businesses were used to launder money from one of the biggest land clearance syndicates ever uncovered.

Castanha was arrested last weekend, along with 15 associates, in what has been hailed as a major breakthrough for environmental enforcement. The local media have described the detainee as the “king of deforestation”. According to the environment ministry Ibama, he and his gang were responsible for about 10% of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon last year.

#déforestation #forêt #pillage #banditisme

Rainforest loss increased in the 2000s, concludes new analysis
▻http://news.mongabay.com/2015/0225-tropical-forest-loss.html

http://mongabay-images.s3.amazonaws.com/15/0225fao-vs-kim-pan_tropical150.jpg

Loss of tropical forests accelerated roughly 60 percent during the 2000s, argues a paper published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. The findings contradict previous research suggesting that deforestation slowed since the 1990s.

The study is based on a map of 1990 forest cover developed last year by Do-Hyung Kim and colleagues from the University of Maryland. The map, which includes 34 countries that contain 80 percent of the world’s tropical forests, enabled the researchers to establish a consistent baseline for tracking forest cover change across regions and countries over time.

The study concludes that average annual gross forest loss in the tropics rose 58 percent in the 2000s relative to the 1990s rate. Overall 78.2 million hectares of forests were lost during the decade, up from 49.3 million.

http://mongabay-images.s3.amazonaws.com/15/0225kim_country_forest600.jpg http://mongabay-images.s3.amazonaws.com/15/0225kim_percentage_loss.jpg

#déforestation #data #visualisation

High deforestation rates in Malaysian states hit by flooding
▻http://news.mongabay.com/2015/0119-flooding-malaysia-deforestation.html

http://mongabay-images.s3.amazonaws.com/15/0119kemaman150.jpg

That data lends support to claims by local environmental groups that deforestation may have exacerbated flooding by accelerating runoff during heavy rainstorms. But the impacts may be even more widespread than indicated by deforestation data alone, since it doesn’t fully capture the extent of selective logging, which can degrade a forest’s ability to retain water, nor the reduced absorptive capacity of timber and oil palm plantations, which have less ground cover and root development than natural forests.

“Logging would usually result in erosion, causing mud to flow down from the highlands during rain, eroding hills and destroying water catchments and causing lowlands to become flooded,” Datuk Abdul Malek Yusof the president of Sahabat Alam Sekitar Malaysia (Friends of the Earth Malaysia), was quoted as saying by Malaysian state media.

http://mongabay-images.s3.amazonaws.com/15/0119-malaysia-forest-loss.jpg

Cancellation of flawed Papua New Guinea land leases halted | Pacific Beat | ABC Radio Australia
▻http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/international/radio/program/pacific-beat/cancellation-of-flawed-papua-new-guinea-land-leases-halted/1414719

In June last year, prime minister Peter O’Neill and his cabinet ordered the cancellation almost 30 leases identified by a commission of inquiry.

The leases cover millions of hectares of land, most of which has been leased without landowner consent.

Court action by leaseholders reluctant to relinquish their titles has left some landowers powerless as logging companies continue their activities.

#peuples_autochtones #papouasie_nouvelle_guinée #forêt #industrie_du_bois #terres

Forest Flip -

Use foreign aid to shift the balance of a country’s ecosystem to your advantage.

▻http://luciovilla.github.io/datalore

http://luciovilla.github.io/datalore/img/indonesia1990.jpg

un #jeu de #déforestation ; première partie : l’#Indonésie

Zimbabwe’s Famed Forests Could Soon Be Desert | Inter Press Service
▻http://www.ipsnews.net/2015/02/zimbabwes-famed-forests-could-soon-be-desert

Zimbabwe currently has 88,167 tobacco growers, whom environmental activists say are the catalysts of looming desertification here.

“Curing tobacco using huge quantities of firewood and even increased domestic use of firewood in both rural and urban areas will leave Zimbabwe without forests and one has to imagine how the country would look like after the demise of the forests,” Thabilise Mlotshwa, an ecologist from Save the Environment Association, an environmental lobby group here, told IPS.

“But really, it is difficult to object to firewood use when this is the only energy source most rural people have despite the environment being the worst casualty,” Mlotshwa added.

(...)

#deforestation is primarily caused by the activities of the general population. As the Zimbabwe economy plummets, indigenous timber merchants are on the rise, battling to eke a living, with environmentalists accusing them of fuelling deforestation.

For many rural dwellers, lack of electricity in most rural areas is creating unsustainable pressures on forests in Zimbabwe

Au #Brésil, l’ascension de l’« amazone du lobby vert »
▻http://www.lemonde.fr/ameriques/article/2015/01/28/au-bresil-l-ascension-de-l-amazone-du-lobby-vert_4564970_3222.html

http://s1.lemde.fr/image/2015/01/28/600x315/4564969_3_07e9_katia-abreu-a-brasilia-le-22-janvier_b899ab340048fe5c6b914ae141a073ce.jpg

Ses opposants l’appellent « la Face du diable », les écologistes « Miss #Déforestation » ou « la Tronçonneuse », ses collègues de travail « la Reine de l’#agrobusiness ». Pour la presse, elle est « la dame de fer brésilienne » et « l’amazone du lobby vert ». L’ex-président Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva aurait préféré, dit-on, affronter le démon que d’avoir affaire à elle.

Aujourd’hui, Katia Abreu, 52 ans, trois enfants, dont un député, a endossé les habits de ministre de l’#agriculture du nouveau gouvernement de Dilma Rousseff. Celle qui a joué un rôle essentiel dans l’assouplissement du code forestier, adopté en 2012 et qui favorise les grands propriétaires, est devenue une des figures politiques les plus influentes du pays. La plus dangereuse aussi selon ses détracteurs.

Formée au sein des partis les plus conservateurs, installée à la tête d’une vaste exploitation agricole dans le nord profond du Tocantins (centre du Brésil), Katia Abreu a réussi ce tour de force d’apparaître comme une des plus proches collaboratrices de la présidente, pourtant issue d’un tout autre bord idéologique. L’héritière de Lula a même accepté d’être témoin de son second mariage, prévu le 1er février. Une alliance, d’apparence contre-nature, qui en dit long sur les mutations politiques du moment. « Nous avons beaucoup appris », affirme la nouvelle ministre, avec ce léger sourire qui ponctue régulièrement ses phrases.

#paywall

For you, @odilon !

“Rubber in a Rice Bowl”

The reportage addresses the topic of the current rubber boom and how it affects livelihoods and food security through the voices of the local population. It further raises the question as to how the local community takes part in the process of the agrarian transition driven by large scale rubber companies and to what extent it can benefit from the transformation.

▻http://www.rubberinaricebowl.ch

Trailer :
▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFs4z93gxoo

Tropical Forests Soak Up Much More Carbon than We Thought | Motherboard
▻http://motherboard.vice.com/read/tropical-forests-soak-up-much-more-carbon-than-we-thought

The authors warn, however, that while the CO2 fertilization effect dominates over positive climate feedbacks right now, in the future, accelerated ecosystem carbon losses due to droughts—which will slow forest growth and increase the frequency of wildfires—are likely to come out on top.

And, of course, this sink will only continue to work in our favor so long as we protect our planet’s tropical forests from decimation. For now, we can thank our forests for helping buffer us against the consequences of our fossil fuel appetite, but at the end of the day, we’ve still got to get our act together.

#climat #co2, #carbone #foret, #déforestation #Foret_tropicale

#Climat : 7 pays d’Amérique latine s’engagent à restaurer 20 millions d’hectares de terres
►http://www.lemonde.fr/planete/article/2014/12/08/sept-pays-d-amerique-latine-s-engagent-a-restaurer-20-millions-d-hectares-de
En espérant que ce ne soit pas en plantant des palmiers à huile...

En marge des négociations sur le changement climatique qui se déroulent à Lima jusqu’au 12 décembre, sept pays latino-américains se sont engagés dimanche à restaurer 20 millions d’hectares de terres dégradées, soit l’équivalent de 10 % des sols du sous-continent rendus improductifs par le surpâturage et l’agriculture intensive.

« L’Amérique latine ne pourra pas réduire son empreinte climatique si elle n’enraye pas rapidement la dynamique qui la pousse à utiliser toujours plus de terres pour produire », explique Walter Vergara, du World Ressources Institute (WRI) à l’origine de cette initiative baptisée « 20x20 » car la restauration de ces 20 millions d’hectares devra commencer avant 2020.

Tous élaborent des politiques globales de lutte contre la déforestation dans le cadre du mécanisme #REDD (réduction des émissions liées à la déforestation et à la dégradation). Celui-ci dont les principes ont été arrêtés lors de la dernière conférence sur le climat en décembre dernier à Varsovie (Pologne), promet de rémunérer les pays qui parviennent à conserver leur couvert forestier.

#déforestation #sols

#DRC: handing lands for industrial oil palm plantations, REDD and foreign investors
▻http://farmlandgrab.org/post/view/24300-drc-handing-lands-for-industrial-oil-palm-plantations-redd-and-f

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has the largest continuous rainforest area in Africa, which is one of the largest in the world. However, its high biological diversity, including humid, dry, wetlands, bamboo, mangrove and many other forests, which coexist for centuries with indigenous and forest dependent people, is under serious threat with the expansion of oil palm plantations and foreign investors in general. Moreover, climate policies related to forests in the DRC, such as #REDD, pose further threats to forests and local communities by encouraging industrial oil palm cultivation.

#rdc #déforestation #peuples_autochtones #palmier_à_huile

Ils défendaient la #forêt, ils ont été assassinés. A Lima, leurs femmes témoignent - Reporterre
▻http://www.reporterre.net/spip.php?article6658

L’arrivée à la COP20 des familles des quatre leaders indigènes Ashaninka assassinés en septembre dans la région Ucayali, au Pérou, à la frontière avec le Brésil, rappelle que, partout dans le monde, les défenseurs des droits et de l’environnement subissent menaces et persécutions.

En choisissant de lancer leur appel aux dirigeants réunis à Lima pour décider de l’avenir du climat, ces femmes montrent qu’un accord juste et équitable ne pourra se faire sans prendre en compte les communautés affectées par le pouvoir des multinationales.

Assassinés pour avoir lutté contre la #déforestation illégale de l’#Amazonie

Au milieu des préfabriqués vombrissant au rythme de l’air conditionné dans l’enceinte du Pentagonito (le petit Pentagone !), quartier général militaire où se tient la COP 20, Julia Pérez Gonzales, Ergilia Rengifo Lopez et Diana Rios Rengifo, en costume traditionnel, bercent leurs nourrissons et racontent les conditions de vie de la communauté Alto Tamaya-Saweto, une communauté Ashaninka vivant dans la forêt Amazone à la frontière avec le Brésil.

« Il faut que l’on reconnaisse que nous sommes les gardiens de la forêt. Que lorsque l’on demande de la protection, ça n’est pas seulement pour nos vies, mais pour celle de la planète, pour l’environnement de tous », explique Diana. Et Julia d’illustrer ironiquement : « Ici, vous avez votre air artificiel, mais le nôtre est naturel. Tout le monde parle du changement climatique, mais qui pollue ? Les entreprises qui détruisent les arbres ! »

#climat #terres #entreprises_criminelles