By Matthew Gilbert
Winds whistling through abandoned houses where Native families once lived. Village schools are closing down due to low student numbers. Over the last few years, a surge in energy costs in rural Alaska caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, has made it nearly impossible for many Native families to pay electrical and heating bills, and as a result, outmigration increased. Alaska Native leaders worry about the futures of their villages.
In a great victory, four Economic Land concessions that had been authorized in the Prey Lang forest of Cambodia have been cancelled. The concessions, totaling 40,618 hectares, would have allowed for the clear-cutting of pristine primary forests in order to grow rubber plantations, adding to a long list of other concessions that threaten the Prey Lang forest.
In a major win for Chileans, one of the two corporations behind the HidroAysén mega-dam project has announced it will indefinitely suspend plans to continue with the project in the Aysen region of Chilean Patagonia, reported the National Resource Defense Council last month.
A member of the Prey Lang Network of Cambodia traveled to Rio last month to participate in the CSO Green Development Conference, running alongside the RIO+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Brazil from June 20-22. Sok Heng made three presentations about Cambodia’s land and forest situation, the implementation of REDD+, and social movement in Cambodia.
On June 20th, the regional government of the Altai Republic in Russia reviewed and passed a decree on the “Preservation and Development of Sacred Sites of the Altai Republic.” The decree imposes restrictions on various kinds of activities at sacred sites, including any activity resulting in resulting in damage to the top soil leading to geological exposure causing irreversible changes to the hydrological regime and any activities resulting in the destruction of the natural habitats of plant and animal species, among other activities.
In early June, the network of Cultural Survival's partner community radio stations in Guatemala got together once again in the training center in San Mateo, Quetzaltenango for a two-day workshop on the best practices of community radio.
Land Acknowledgement
We acknowledge that we are headquartered on Massachusett land, in Cambridge, MA, and we thank the past, current, and future Indigenous stewards of this territory.
