2013

Everest 'Climbing for Climate Justice' Expedition Aims to Break World Records

Niccolo Sarno — 2013-05-08T08:30:00Z

Expedition members [1] plan to reach the world's highest mountain peak (8,848 m) on May 26 in an attempt to establish several world records.

The expedition aims to raise awareness of the impacts of climate change and the need for climate justice.

It is organized by Save the Himalayas Campaign and Khangri Media in collaboration with Friends of the Earth Nepal / Pro Public. Friends of the Earth International welcomed the expedition in a letter to the climbers.

The climbers include an 82-year old man trying to break his own record as the oldest person to climb Everest and an armless man trying to establish a Guinness world record for scaling Everest without arms.

“Climate change endangers the glaciers, glacial lakes in the Himalayan mountain range and life and property of the thousands of people residing below the lakes,” said Prakash Mani Sharma, executive director of Friends of the Earth Nepal / Pro Public.

“This expedition aims to draw attention to the disastrous impacts that climate change is having on our precious ecosystems as well as local communities,” he added.

Nepal is highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and already experiencing severe problems. The glaciers and glacial lakes in the Himalayan mountain range provide water to approximately ten percent of the world’s population.

Glaciers are melting at an increasing rate, and as a result glacial lakes are growing. The problems associated with this are firstly that the risk of glacial lake flooding is significantly increased. There have already been a number of instances of this happening in Nepal and the results can be disastrous for communities that live in the area or downstream.

“The Himalayas nurture bountiful, mighty, revered rivers such as the Ganga, Indus, Mekong, Yangtze, Irrawaddy, and many others. These rivers feed the lives and livelihoods of over 1.5 billion people including in India, Nepal, Tibet, China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, and Afghanistan” said Dipti Bhatnagar, Friends of the Earth International climate justice and energy co-coordinator.

“Climate change disproportionately affects the most vulnerable and marginalised people in Nepal and around the world; the people who are least responsible for the climate crisis,” said Sarah-Jayne Clifton, Friends of the Earth International climate justice and energy co-coordinator.

“The leaders of the developed countries that caused the crisis are not even trying to deliver climate justice. To avoid climate catastrophe we must transform the unjust and unsustainable economic system at the heart of the problem,” she added.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

IN KATHMANDU, NEPAL (Expedition inquiries and expedition materials requests)

Prakash Mani Sharma, executive director of Friends of the Earth Nepal / Pro Public: Tel: + 977 1 98 51 07 22 26 or email propublic@gmail.com

Babu Ram Paudel, Program Coordinator, Friends of the Earth Nepal / Pro Public: Tel: +977 1 98 41 62 22 87 or email baburam.propublic@gmail.com

IN LONDON (General climate justice inquiries)

Sarah-Jayne Clifton, Friends of the Earth International climate justice and energy co-coordinator: +44 7912 406510 or email sarah.clifton@foe.co.uk

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

[1] The 'Climbing for Climate Justice' Expedition' members are:

1. Speed Climber Pemba Dorje Sherpa, the expedition team leader, holds the world record for climbing Mount Everest in the fastest time. He has set four World Records climbing Mt. Everest.

2. Sudarshan Gautam, a Nepal-born Canadian resident who has no arms. If he reaches the summit of Mount Everest, he will become the first person with no arms or prosthetic limbs to achieve this feat. His aim is to establish a Guinness world record for scaling Everest without arms. He wants to raise awareness of the potential threat of serious injury and disability posed by glacial lakes outburst floods (GLOF).

3. Phurba Tenzin Sherpa is the climb leader for this expedition and holds the world record as the youngest climber to summit Everest 8 times. He will be filming the expedition.

4. Shiva Bahadur Sapkota plans to climb Mount Everest backwards. He is climbing backwards to warn developed countries' leaders that development in countries like Nepal is going backward because developed countries are not taking the urgent steps needed to justly address the climate crisis.

5. Kapur Shrestha is climbing Mount Everest on all fours in a polar bear suit all the way to the Summit. He wants to draw attention to the fact that climate change is endangering many animal species including snow leopards found in the Himalayas and polar bears (found in the Arctic region).

6. Min Bahadur Sherchan, 82, holds the record as the oldest person to climb Mount Everest, since reaching the summit at the age of 77. He aims to break his own record.

7. Suman Shrestha, 22, is the youngest member of the Climbing for Climate Justice Team. He believes we need to save World Heritage sites like Mount Everest for future generations and that youth around the world should join the struggle for climate justice. He is General Manager of Khangri Media.

World Bank Must End Support for Honduran Palm Oil Company Implicated in Dozens of Murders

Niccolo Sarno — 2013-03-19T12:10:00Z

The NGOs are : Friends of the Earth International, Global Forest Coalition, Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Urgewald, Rights Action, Rettet den Regenwald/Rainforest Rescue, Global Justice Ecology Project, and Biofuelwatch.

A World Bank Ombudsman [2] is currently investigating an IFC loan of $30 million for Grupo Dinant which was approved in 2009, at least half of which has already been disbursed.

This month, an Open Letter by 17 NGOs [3] and an international petition signed by over 63,000 people [4] have protested the loan and called on the World Bank to immediately cease their support for Grupo Dinant.

Since 2009, international human rights bodies have documented dozens of murders of peasant activists and their supporters in connection with land conflicts involving Grupo Dinant, the company’s armed security guards and Honduran military and police.

The evidence includes a fact-finding mission report by international human rights organisations in March 2011, a hearing before the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights in October 2011, an international public hearing on human rights in the region in May 2012 [5] and a report about human rights abuses attributed to military forces in the region by Rights Action, published this month [6].

The recent Rights Action report confirms that at least 88 members and supporters of peasant movements have been murdered in targeted killings in the Bajo Aguan Valley over the past three years. It documents the direct involvement of Grupo Dinant’s armed security forces in the violence against peasant movements. Contrary to the World Bank’s claims that the violence ended in 2012, two peasant activists were found tortured and murdered in February 2013. [7]

Annie Bird from Rights Action says: “It is a serious indictment of World Bank’s role in Honduras’s land conflicts that their International Finance Corporation admits to directly engaging with the training of Grupo Dinant’s paramilitary ‘security guards’. It is not clear whether this engagement is a response to concerns over human rights abuses but retraining paramilitaries implicated in killings is never an acceptable response. The World Bank must cease such engagement and stop supporting Grupo Dinant at once.”

Almuth Ernsting from Global Forest Coalition and Biofuelwatch adds: “The World Bank’s claims that killings are being investigated by Honduran courts with full cooperation from Grupo Dinant contradict the findings of human rights missions which show a state of total impunity surrounding those murders. Such a state of impunity has been confirmed by the UN Working Group on Mercenaries. Not only must the World Bank cancel its loan but there needs to be a full investigation into their role in human rights abuses in Honduras.”

In 2011, the German development bank, DEG, cancelled a loan for Grupo Dinant due to the company’s involvement in serious human rights abuses.Yet the World Bank continues to back the company and dismiss all independent evidence, as their recent statement shows.

Jeff Conant from Friends of the Earth US adds: “The World Bank’s statement on Bajo Aguan reveals the extent of their complicity with a palm oil company implicated in some of the most serious human rights abuses in Central America today. Years after a damning audit of their palm oil funding and a supposed overhaul of their policies, the World Bank is legitimising the use of armed paramilitaries in land conflicts against peasants who are trying to reclaim their own land, dismissing a vast volume of evidence from independent fact finding missions.”

The NGOs demand cancellation of the World Bank’s loan to Grupo Dinant and an immediate full and independent investigation into the World Bank’s involvement with Grupo Dinant, which must go beyond the remit of the current Ombudsman investigation.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT :

IN THE US: Jeff Conant, Friends of the Earth US +1- 510 900 0016

IN THE UK: Almuth Ernsting, Global Forest Coalition/Biofuelwatch,

+44 -131-6232600

IN GERMANY: Knud Vöcking, Urgewald +49-171-2832408

NOTES TO EDITORS:

[1] www1.ifc.org/wps/wcm/connect/REGION__EXT_Content/Regions/Latin America and the Caribbean/Strategy/Corporacion_Dinant?

[2] A complaint submitted by Rights Action is currently being investigated by the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO). The CAO is an independent agency which investigates complaints filed by communities affected by project funded by the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC).

[3] fian.org/fileadmin/media/publications/
International_Statement_CAO_-_Lower_Aguan_Honduras_-_01-.pdf

[4] rainforest-rescue.org/mailalert/909/honduras-world-bank-palm-oil-loans-linked-to-murders

[5] fidh.org/IMG/pdf/honduras573ang.pdf , http://hrbrief.org/2011/10/human-rights-situation-in-the-bajo-aguan-honduras/ and www.lawg.org/storage/documents/Honduras/declaration international public hearing bajo aguan.pdf

[6] http://rightsaction.org/sites/default/files//Rpt_130220_Aguan_Final.pdf

[7] See http://www.coha.org/21693/

Land grabs and human rights violations exposed in Liberia ahead of global development summit

Denis Burke — 2013-01-31T16:45:00Z

On the eve of a United Nations meeting in Liberia, that will discuss a new global development framework, Friends of the Earth International is backing the local NGOs’ demands - including renegotiation of contracts for land concessions and a reassessment of the Liberian agricultural development strategy on which these concessions are based. [1] [2]

Malaysian palm oil giant Sime Darby and Indonesian Golden Veloreum have entered into long term land leases with the Liberian Government. Investigations into Sime Darby’s operations reveal that communities located in the areas allocated to the company had little warning or consultation of this land grab. Many of the inhabitants, especially women, say they have lost their farms and food sources, livelihoods, as well as culturally sacred sites to oil palm plantations. [3] [4]

An analysis of the contracts between the Liberian Government and the Asian companies demonstrates they are likely to be violating several Human Rights conventions ratified by Liberia. [5]

“Giving away land for large scale plantations is hailed as promoting the economic recovery of Liberia but in reality these plantations undermine Liberia’s basic food security and cause poverty when livelihoods are lost. Therefore allowing these plantations contradicts the Liberian Government’s own policies on reducing poverty and preventing hunger”, says SDI campaigner Silas Kpanan’Ayoung Siakor.

“Allocating large swathes of fertile agricultural land to foreign companies for several decades will push people further into poverty, as local income generating activities are curtailed and peoples’ earning capacities become limited”, he adds

Civil society organisations are also concerned about large scale conversion of primary and secondary forest to palm oil plantations as Sime Darby expands into Gbarpolu county. They are demanding a halt to any further planting and further deforestation and environmental degradation in any of the concession areas.

“Forests have environmental benefits and provide multiple livelihood sources for the people, which they have now lost. Employment from the plantations is insecure; low- paid and does not contribute to sustaining livelihoods in the long term. Instead, local communities want the Liberian government and the palm oil companies to recognise their ownership of community land”, says SAMFU campaigner Robert Nyahn.

The UN High Level panel meeting in Monrovia brings together political leaders from around the world, including British Prime Minister David Cameron, to discuss development goals especially in Africa. Friends of the Earth Liberia will be present at this meeting to question the suitability of large scale land concessions as a development strategy in Liberia.

Sime Darby claims that it upholds international human rights standards and voluntary guidelines such as the UN Global Compact of which the company is a signatory. However, in its operations in Liberia, Sime Darby is violating several principles of the Global Compact as well as OECD Guidelines for Multinational Companies.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT

Silas Kpanan'Ayoung Siakor, Campaigner, Sustainable Development Institute (Liberia) Phone: 00 35383 148 4210 (Ireland mobile) Email: ssiakor@sdiliberia.org

Maarten Van Den Berg, Communications Coordinator, Friends of the Earth International, Phone: +31 20 622 1369 Email: media@foei.org

NOTES TO EDITORS:

[1] In a statement released today, the three Liberian NGOs are demanding a comprehensive reform program for the agriculture sector which takes into account community livelihoods and recognizes their rights to use and benefit from community resources, to kick-start genuine development in Liberia. See statement at foei.org/simedarby

[2] Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, UK Prime Minister David Cameron and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will convene a high Level Panel meeting on 1st February to discuss global Sustainable Development Goals. See more information on the meeting at http://www.un.org/sg/management/hlppost2015.shtml

[3] A fact sheet with about the operations of Sime Darby in Liberia is online at http://www.foei.org/simedarby

[4] In November 2012, 150 affected community representatives met in Liberia to discuss the impacts of palm oil. See their statement at http://www.foei.org/simedarby

[5] A human rights-based analysis of the agricultural concession agreements between Sime Darby and Golden Veroleum and the Government of Liberia, Forest Peoples Programme 2012, available at http://www.foei.org/simedarby

Dutch Court ruling against Shell a partial victory

Denis Burke — 2013-01-30T14:25:00Z

The court said Shell's subsidiary is accountable for damage caused by oil spills at Ikot Ada Udo, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. Though this is an important victory, Friends of the Earth International is disappointed that the court did not return a similar verdict in the cases brought by the plaintiffs from Goi and Oruma communities.

The plaintiffs and Friends of the Earth Netherlands plan to appeal this ruling, as well as the principle point of the liability of the Royal Dutch Shell (RDS) parent company.

“This win for the farmers of Ikot Ada Udo has set a precedent as it will be an important step that multinationals can more easily be made answerable for the damage they do in developing countries. We anticipate other communities will now demand that Shell pay for the assault on their environment”, says Friends of the Earth Nigeria’s Executive Director, Nnimmo Bassey, who has played a pivotal role in bringing to light the havoc wreaked by Shell in the Niger delta.

Likewise, Friends of Earth Netherlands campaigner Geert Ritsema comments: ‘This verdict is great news for the people in lkot Ada Udo who started this case together with Friends of the Earth Netherlands. But the verdict also offers hope to other victims of environmental pollution caused by multinationals. At the same time, the verdict is a bitter disappointment for the people in the villages of Oruma and Goi – where the court did not hold Shell liable for the damage. Fortunately, this can still change in an appeal’, he added.

The four Nigerian plaintiffs have been demanding that Shell cleans up the oil pollution in their communities, compensates those affected and prevent further leaks from occurring. The communities of the Niger Delta depend primarily on the environment for their livelihoods, including farming and fishing. Oil industry operations in the Niger Delta have damaged or destroyed local food and water supplies, biodiversity and fishing ponds and crops that locals had used to earn money. Today's ruling follows a hearing in October 2012, which was a landmark in itself.

The court decided not to hold the parent company liable for damage done in Nigeria. Friends of the Earth Netherlands was denied access to evidence proving Shell’s international parent company based in the Netherlands (RDS) determines the daily affairs of Shell’s Nigerian subsidiary (SPDC). RDS owns 100% of SPDC shares. SPDC’s profits (estimated at €1.8 billion annually) are deposited in the Netherlands. Nevertheless, under existing laws, RDS cannot be held liable for the damage done on the basis of these facts alone. Friends of the Earth Netherlands must prove that governance actually comes from the headquarters in the Netherlands. Because Shell has not been ordered by the court to allow access to internal company documents which would demonstrate their governance of SPDC, it has been very difficult to prove this. ‘Apparently our justice system allows a company to pocket the profits from a foreign subsidiary without being held liable for the damage it causes while producing those profits.’ said Geert Ritsema of Friends of the Earth Netherlands.

The court also ruled that Shell has convincingly proven that sabotage was involved in two of the three villages. The plaintiffs find it incomprehensible that the court has allowed itself to be convinced by a number of blurry photos and poor quality video images submitted by Shell.

With the plaintiffs, Friends of the Earth International remains convinced that poor maintenance is the cause of the spills. Even where sabotage is involved, Friends of the Earth International believes that Shell bears responsibility and is liable for the damage.

The widespread devastation faced by communities in the Niger Delta as a result of oil spills by companies like Shell also demonstrates the urgent need for a global transition away from corporate-controlled dirty energy like oil, coal, gas, industrial agrofuels and mega-dams, and the development and roll-out of clean energy alternatives which are appropriate to the needs of communities and under their democratic control. This transition is urgently needed if we are to stop catastrophic climate change and avoid climate tipping points while at the same time addressing the inequalities that prevent millions of people from accessing clean, affordable fuel to meet their basic energy needs.

Notes for the press:

Images

Photographer Marten Van Dijl recently took photos of the plaintiffs and
the pollution in the villages in Nigeria. Portraits of the plaintiffs are
also available; these were taken in October 2012 by Pierre Crom during the
court session in The Hague.
All images can be accessed via
www.milieudefensie.nl/publicaties/fotoalbum/fotoalbum-internationaal/shell-rechtszaak/
and are copyright-free (with photo credit).
For more or other photo material from Nigeria, please contact Marten van
Dijl, who shot photo reportages in the three Nigerian villages last week (
06-51499553, info@martenvandijl.com).
For video material, please contact the Milieudefensie press office.

More information:

More information on the background of the case can be found on the
websitge of Friends of the Earth Netherlands: www.milieudefensie.nl.

For questions about the court case, please contact the Friends of the
Earth Netherlands press office, +31(0)20-5507333.