News

Source : Rainforest fondation UK
The Peruvian Amazon is a treasure trove of biodiversity. Its aquatic ecosystems sustain bountiful fisheries, diverse wildlife, and the livelihoods of tens of thousands of people. White-water rivers flowing from the Andes provide rich sediments and nutrients to the Amazon mainstream.

Source : pequenaduvida.wordpress.com
A new El Dorado was revealed in the Altamira region (Brazilian State of Para), where the very controversial Belo Monte dam is being built, with catastrophic consequences for the environment and the indigenous populations.
The information had been well kept hidden from the public, but you are reading correctly. A Canadian company, Belo Sun Mining Corporation, is in fact developing the largest gold mining project in Brazil. Where? In the Grand Xingu Belt (Volta Grande), exactly 15 km from the construction of the Belo Monte factory…

Source : Fox Business (http://www.foxbusiness.com)
Following a Brazilian court order to stop construction, the company building the controversial 11,200-megawatt Belo Monte dam said Thursday that it was suspending all work on the project.

Source : bbc.co.uk
A federal court in Brazil has ordered the immediate suspension of work on the huge Belo Monte hydro-electric dam in the Amazon.
The court says local indigenous people have not been properly consulted. Officials point out that the builders of the dam will be able to appeal against the decision. Once completed, the 11,000-megawatt dam, in Brazil's Para state, would be the third largest hydro-electric dam in the world

Our official Facebook page :
http://www.facebook.com/raoni.com.en
Twitter account : http://twitter.com/Raoni_com

The mobilisation of the citizens of the world through social networks is a major ingredient in the fight to save the Amazon forest, the "green lungs" of the Earth. Joining our official Facebook page and passing on our information and our tweets contributes to tearing down the walls of silence and indifference. The media do not feel concerned by the destruction of this environment vital to all ? We do! So, do you? So let's tell it on one of the only real forums people still have access to.

In a judgement qualified of historical, the Regional Federal Court da 1ª Região (TRF1 – the Brazilian Federal Court) relied upon the violation of the ILO Convention 169 (International Labour Organization), which concerns the obligation of consulting the indigenous and tribal people affected by the project, to invalidate, on Tuesday, 14th of August, 2012, the license allowing the beginning of the works, delivered by the IBAMA in June 2011. The Public Federal Ministry also suspended the construction license of the Teles Pires dam. This event is bringing hope to all the activists, who mobilized themselves during years against all those injurious constructions in Amazon, and particularly against Belo Monte.
Even if all of them are expecting a legal response from the Norte Energia Consortium, it is of course a big victory for the indigenous people opposed to the project, especially for Chief Raoni, who never stopped fighting against Belo Monte since the reactivation of the project after a previous cancellation. During the recent Rio+20 Earth Summit, Chief Raoni repeatedly hammered his opposition to Belo Monte, in front of the whole world media. His warriors were standing next to him. We present you today the testimony of one of them, Patxon Metuktire.

A meeting was planned at the French Pavillon of the Athlets Parc during the UN Summit for sustainable development RIO+20 on the 20th June 2012 between the French President François Hollande and Raoni Metuktire, chief of the kayapo people, symbolic figure of the fight for the preservation of the rainforest and of the people living in this area. The People Summit and the Official Summit were 30 kms away from one another and the area was protected by the forces of law and order. Without escort it was impossible to make it through the traffic jam. As a result, the two men missed eachother by five minutes. Chief Raoni was quite optimistic about the possibility of meeting the French President in a near future and he addressed him this video message

Signed by Chief Raoni and other Kayapo leaders, a call from French NGO Planète Amazone has recently been given by hand, at the Rio +20 world summit, to the French President, François Hollande.

They are neglected by the major medias and forgotten by the powerful figures of this world : cacique (chief) Raoni Metuktire and the peoples of the Amazon truly have the intention of reminding these people of their presence during the imminent Rio+20 Earth Summit (20th-22nd June 2012). You have been many to sign Raoni's petition, which we administrate, the time of action has now come. You can act today in concrete terms by participating to the Rio+20 Mission of the Planet Amazon association, of which the holders and successes are detailed to you bellow. By accompanying Raoni and the peoples of the Amazon at Rio+20, Planet Amazon will make itself the ambassador of your near 350 000 signatures. Therefore, each of you will symbolically be present during each of their interventions and will contribute to deliver the world this message :

LET'S PRESERVE THE AMAZON, LET'S PRESERVE OUR FUTURE.

Source : Indian Country Today Media Network (http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com)
In the beginning of March, indigenous struggles took several turns. The ILO criticisms echo those of indigenous and other allied activists in regards to the Belo Monte Dam project and others. This lack of prior consultation was also noted by Brazil’s Federal Public Ministry (MPF) and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) of the Organization of American States.

Source : Amazon Watch (www.amazonwatch.org)
For over a month Chief Raoni and the Kayapo have suffered threats and intimidation at the hands of cattle ranchers, illegal settlers and hired gunman who are determined to push them off their lands. Since then, we have worked to shine a spotlight on this dangerous situation, in an attempt to dispel the potential for violence and to pressure the Brazilian government to recognize the Kayapo's land rights. 

Source : The Guardian (www.guardian.co.uk)
Brazilian activists who inform on illegal loggers laying waste to the rainforests can expect a visit from the gunmen.
A single shot to the temple was Mouth Organ John's reward for spilling the beans. His friend, Junior José Guerra, fared only marginally better. Guerra's prize for speaking out against the illegal loggers laying waste to the greatest tropical rainforest on Earth? A broken home, two petrified children and an uncertain exile from a life he had spent years building in the Brazilian Amazon.

Source : Survival International
An investigation into the reported killing of an uncontacted Indian child by loggers, has uncovered disturbing ‘evidence of an attack’ deep in the Amazon forest. The findings suggest loggers were operating 400 meters away from an uncontacted Awá camp where the burned remains of a child were allegedly found. Brazilian NGO CIMI, The Order of Attorneys of Brazil and the Maranhão Human Rights Society, who jointly carried out the investigation, also found, ‘many indications that the Awá had been in the place of the reported incident.’

Source : vaticaninsider.lastampa.it
The Brazilian government is planning the construction of more than 60 facilities on the rivers that run through the largest and most unprotected forest in the world.
The Amazon looms as a great victim of Brazil's impetuous development process. Reported by the Missioline agency in a story by Alessandro Armato.

Source : Condé Nast Traveler
22nd Annual Condé Nast Traveler Environmental Award André Villas-Bôas has helped the Amazon's tribes protect a quarter of the earth's freshwater and its largest remaining rain forest for decades. Now, as they face their most powerful foe, the future of the planet could hang in the balance.

Source : www.forbes.com
Some 1.3 million people signed a petition calling for an end to the construction of Brazil’s massive Belo Monte dam in the Amazon. A delegation of Brazilian celebrities and activists delivered the petition Tuesday to the country’s President Dilma Rousseff and called — yet again — for the immediate suspension of the controversial hydroelectric dam in Para state, located in Brazil’s north.

Source : www.greenpeace.org
The next stage of voting on Brazil’s new Forest Code – which could have devastating impacts on the Amazon - has been once again postponed before going to President Dilma, who can either approve or veto it. The new code, which has been labelled a ‘forest protection measure’, has been so badly altered that it has become nothing more than an invitation for bulldozers and chainsaws to come to the forests.

Source : www.bbc.co.uk
A judge in Brazil has revoked a decision which had halted work on the Belo Monte dam in the Amazon region.

Judge Carlos Castro Martins reversed the order he had issued in September, which had barred any work on the Belo Monte dam that interfered with the natural flow of the Xingu river. He said the company behind the project had subsequently shown its work would not harm local fishing.

Source : www.myoo.com
Hydroelectric power is renewable but is it clean? The debate has electrified the alternative energy community.
The solar people are at war with the wind people; algal oil is the enemy of ethanol. The idea of renewable infighting is now such a cliché that it has entered the world of car advertising.