Peruvian Indigenous Blockades Extract Government Promise

LIMA, Peru, April 23, 2009 (ENS) - A framework for negotiating the removal of road and river blockades by indigenous peoples in the Peruvian Amazon was signed Monday by government and indigenous representatives in Lima.

The president of the Peruvian Rainforest Inter-Ethnic Development Association, AIDESEP, Alberto Pizango Chota, and other indigenous leaders signed the agreement after a four hour meeting with Prime Minister Yehude Simon and Environment Minister Antonio Brack Egg.

For weeks, thousands of indigenous people have been blockading roads and river traffic throughout the Amazon in non-violent protests over the Peruvian government's roll-back of indigenous land rights and plans for water privatization.

Peruvian government officials and indigenous leaders meet in Lima. (Photo courtesy AIDESEP)

Indigenous peoples are demanding the repeal of a series of new laws enacted by the administration of Peruvian President Alan Garcia as part of Peru's Free Trade Agreement with the United States, which took effect on February 1, 2009.

The indigenous communities say these laws have created a rush of private investments in natural resource extraction on their lands and have stripped away their rights to their traditionally owned ancestral territories.

In a letter to Pizango Chota dated April 22, the President of the Peruvian Congress Javier Velasquez Quesquen undertakes to bring the issues motivating the indigenous protest up in a plenary session of Congress next Tuesday without putting these matters through the usual parliamentary proceedings.

To prepare for the congressional hearing, technical advisers with the presidency of the Congress will work jointly with AIDESEP representatives from Thursday through Monday, Velasquez says in the letter.

In March, Pizango Chota demanded the repeal of legislative decrees 1020, 1064, 1080, 1081, 1089 and 1090 for "impinging upon the rights of indigenous peoples, violating the Constitution as well as Convention 169 of the International Labour Organization."

A similar mobilization of Amazonian indigenous peoples was suspended last August after promises made by Velasquez to revise the decrees were not carried out.

"Far from carrying out its promise, Congress instead passed Law 29317 that modified and incorporated diverse articles of Decree 1090 known as the Forest and Fauna Law," AIDESEP leaders told the Servindi news agency.

"We are opposed to a development model that destroys the rainforest for profit of a few individuals and companies. We seek development in harmony with the environment, where all indigenous peoples can participate and benefit," says Pizango Chota.

Piles of earth block a road in Peru. March 25, 2009 (Photo by Revolution Cycle)

Indigenous and environmental organizations are concerned that the new legislation takes advantage of the hundreds of indigenous communities whose land titles have not yet been formalized by the Peruvian government.

"This amounts to government backed land-grab," said Atossa Soltani, executive director of Amazon Watch, based in the United States. "Peru is basically becoming a 'corpocracy' with large corporations that possess close political ties to the government chomping at the bit to get a slice of the pie."

Last week, the Peruvian authorities called out troops to confront protesters in what indigenous organizers saw as an act of provocation.

"For the third time this week we are calling on the Prime Minister to set aside hostile intentions and recognize that acts of provocation are not the solution to problems in the Amazon," said Pizango Chota at the time.

Roger Najar, the President of the Congressional Commission of Andean and Amazonian Peoples, agreed, saying, "There's been no political resolve in either Congress or the Executive to deal with this issue."

In addition to repeal of the six presidential decrees, AIDESEP is concerned about plans to privatize water resources on indigenous lands, and the rapid expansion of palm oil plantations that are one of the biggest threats to the rainforest.

AIDESEP has issued a statement demanding the restoration of territorial rights; the recognition and titling of indigenous communal lands; the creation of reserves to protect the rainforest and uncontacted populations; and the suspension of all oil, gas, mining, tourist and logging concessions within indigenous territories.

"This is not only about indigenous rights but also the basic human right to live in peace," said Pizango Chota, "We're not seeking confrontation, but to simply be allowed to protect our environment, our homes and our lives."

Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2009. All rights reserved.

Towards finding Greener Ways of Living Cooperatively

Towards finding Greener Ways of Living Cooperatively
Posted by: "sustcomm" sustcomm@yahoo.com sustcomm
Thu Apr 23, 2009 2:46 pm (PDT)


I would like to suggest that there should be no need for incandescent lights, in any Sustainable Community, because they are not very energy efficient as we all know.

I would also like to suggest that there should probably be no Flourescent Lights allowed in either, not even the compacts, which all contain poisonous mercury vapors, and that spills out little droplets of poison out into the environment when they break, as they inevitably do, and that floats all over the home and the land, and it never breaks down into an organically useful material.

Therefore it could be said that all lighting systems in the Homes must be LED. And you can now get these at Real Goods.

We probably don't really want any NiCad batteries around either, because of the cadmium, which is very poisonous as well.

There should also be no need for CRT or Cathode Ray Tubes, I would say, at risk of sounding too authoritarian, which some old timers, and old computers, and old TVs may still use, and so it may be time now to switch it up to the new LED Backlit screens, on all your Computers and TVs, which are very thin and flat, and use very low power.

Apple Computers are on top of that already in the computer world and Samsung is now doing it for us all in the wonderful wide screen world of TV dreamland, so all you have really got to do is to kick back and give thanks for all the good work that all the good people around the world are doing, who are helping us all, as they come around to using the appropriate new technologies and they may even brgin to approach community, from a perspective of world service and contribution.

Nobody owns it all. And it is very much like a Forest that we are planting here on Earth, of Sustainable Communities, where each one is locally self autonomous economically, but with a network of voluntary support that is not for sale, and may or may not be of any value, just like it is with all real relationships. We call this the Emerald Forest of Sustainable Communities.

We are just some of the Kindred Spirits of the Emerald Forest.

Nobody owns the whole Emerald Forest. And nobody is in charge of all of that. And all may join the Emerald Forest, who may choose to do so. But they do have to declare their active membership, and show some support for the emerging whole, and with some respect for the roots, and to make some positive connections with some of the other brothers and sister communities all around the world, who may or may not all connect up on the root level.

We welcome the voluntary collaboration of all supportive individuals as well, who are all busy with their own projects and collaborative activities, but that doesn't mean there is no way that you can still plug in. I am sorry if some folks have not yet found a way to do that, but part of that has to do with creating new tools that others can use, and those who can give birth to something real, may be able to help us to give birth to something real.

The results of our various individual efforts and collective work will not be a great big splash of change but will be just rippling little waves that are running through the ocean right now all around the world, that sometimes may run very deep and strong,

The people will see what is possible, as we will welcome qualified individuals to come join us a honored visitors, who have deep roots, and we will continue to promote our ideas in many other ways, and other folks will start wondering, why they haven't done something like this for themselves, in their own part of the world, which just requires a voluntary re-ordering of the underlying natures of our societies in a whole new way, and that may have a lot to do, with working voluntarily, within the natural order of priorities, instead of fighting that like the plague, regardless of our own adolescent desires to put our own magnificent self first, and the collectivization of that, as the all mighty majority, which is dead wrong from the get go, since might does not make right, and that can collectivize in a very dangerous manner, because that is not sound thinking, and that is why that must be rejected.

There are no "peeple" who come first before the Earth, with their precious need and greed, and they do not eat first. The Ocean comes first, and the fish esat first, and the forests and the wildlife eats first and the farms and the soil must be fed first, and then the people may sit down to eat who have helped to bring in the harvest. That is what the Voice of Truth might say.

The whole world will support positively oriented constructive people like us, even though we are changing everything, but only if we can prove that we can generate our own funding, and come up with our own technologies, and generate all the necessary resourses, and bring together all the right people, who have the right skills, so bring us your tools, and your able bodied workers for change, because that is the one thing they will not give us, and we will not succeed, unless we can earn it, and build it, and then we can sell it, and sell it, and sell it, and sell it, without ever losing any of it.

Let this new approach be just one small part of the many new ways in which we can all help to save the Earth, or to pay it all forwards, by disconnecting from the usual technologies, and these worn out ethics of dominator culture that are all based on need and greed, and the media generated political intrigue.

We need to disengage from the usual politics of self centric need and greed first, and those who are only concerned about their own selves and start putting the Earth First, and start using the right technologies, even if they are not always cheaper.

We only buy things that are beautifully efficient, and will not burn out, for a very long time, and in all other ways, using locally available materials, that don't need to be trucked around or manufactured, and that will lower our Carbon Footprints, way down to a self sustainable model, for others to learn from, unless they will last a very long time, as in highly durable goods.

This is what we call Dark Green. We are the Darker Greeners, as it might be said, who must now go beyond the simple minded or even absent minded ethics of the sixties era politics of Premature Dissolution, which was unfounded and ungrounded, and now we have to turn that around into Selective Re-Integration, of those who are willing and able.

A lot of other people, who have become nothing so far, of any great value, may still only be willing to go light green, in their perspectives, but only if we did all the work, since they have become accustomed to doing nothing, so let us do not be afraid to make the true distinctions about where people really are, since we cannot be taken in by empty promises.

We are like those many others who must learn to rely upon Deeds that have been completed, even though we keep forgetting about that, as only then will that count for anything real among any of us, here within the Emerald Forest, instead of words, which are way too cheap and never can be allowed to count for anything real among us.

Some may be just finally getting around to thinking about adding a few compact flourescents, like they were doing us all a big favor, but as you can see we have already moved far beyond that point, and we may now regard that as being already almost completely obsolete, before it has even taken hold, and so in this way we intend to go all the way out there, into the Dark Green territories, where the Truth can still be found.

How do others feel about some of these recent new perspectives? - T

http://edenvillage. net