Carbon Colonialism to Increase Pollution and Grab Land
REDD + Indigenous Peoples = GENOCIDE
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The State of California plans to use a third of the world’s forests as carbon dumps for its air pollution. Many Indigenous Peoples and communities who live in these forests say “No Way!” California wants to use Indigenous Peoples’ territories and peasants’ land to absorb its air pollution, so California does not have to cut pollution at home. The Governors’ Climate and Forests Taskforce (GCF) led by Governor Jerry Brown is planning to do international forest carbon offsets, which is also called REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation) in 10 countries and 38 states. REDD-type projects have already caused violent evictions, land grabs, human rights violations and threats to cultural survival. Stand in solidarity with Indigenous Peoples and peasants on the frontlines of the resistance to this new form of colonialism.
Excerpts from the briefing paper:
CHIAPAS, MEXICO
Native and peasant social movements from Chiapas “reject REDD+ in all its versions. Stop the Agreement between the Governments of California, Acre and Chiapas!” According to REDD Monitor, REDD in Chiapas and in Mexico is resulting in “expulsions, privatizations and indebtedness.” The Friends of the Earth report, REDD+, the carbon market and the California-Acre-Chiapas cooperation: Legalizing mechanisms of dispossession summarizes the adverse impacts of REDD. “[T]he logic of REDD allows them to seize control of the territories of traditional communities, thereby enabling corporate access to plants and animals that are being appropriated by the pharmaceutical industry…REDD is being denounced… for being responsible for the violation of the rights of indigenous and traditional peoples for whom agrarian issues are central. Territories… are being expropriated through the promotion of private property, and traditional skills, livelihoods and collective practices are being eliminated.” Furthermore, “the safeguards are merely an instrument of rhetoric and a way of neutralizing criticisms of REDD projects.” The Tzeltal People of the community of Amador Hernandez has asked the governor of Chiapas to “suspend the state REDD+ project in the Lacandon Community Zone, as it constitutes a counterinsurgency plan that promotes conflicts between neighboring communities.”
California Polluters are already doing REDD to prepare for California REDD. The Nature Conservancy, General Motors, American Electric Power, Society for Wildlife Research and Environmental Education, and Chevron (previously known as Texaco), infamous for its destruction in the Ecuadorian Amazon, have implemented the Guaraqueçaba Climate Action Project in the ancestral territory of Guarani People with uniformed armed guards called “Força Verde” or “Green Force” who intimidate and persecute local communities; jailing and shooting at people who go into the forest as well as forcibly entering and searching private homes without due authorization “…[T]he project has caused devastating impacts on the local communities…” Say No to REDD!
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