Hundreds of Indigenous and local community groups, conservation organizations, governments and policymakers gathered to strategize how communities can play a bigger role in African conservation efforts, which are typically dominated by big international NGOs.
The Indonesian federal government has recognized 55,700 acres of ancestral forests on the northern tip of Sumatra for the first time. Indigenous communities in the region have welcomed the recognition, saying it will give them legal protection to manage their forests in a sustainable manner.
The Brazilian government has launched a long-awaited operation to remove thousands of non-Indigenous invaders illegally occupying two ancestral territories in the Amazon Rainforest, in what human rights defenders hail as a victory for protecting Native communities.
Wab Kinew, the 41-year-old head of the leftwing New Democratic party (NDP), has led the province’s party since 2017. A former rapper, broadcast journalist and university administrator, Kinew said his newly elected government will focus on reopening three emergency rooms shuttered in recent years.
It was a historic “rematriation” for the Indigenous nation of around 600 people in what is now known to many as Canada’s British Columbia. The return of the Ni’isjoohl pole could also set a precedent in a broader repatriation movement gaining steam around the world.
Mobi draws information from public databases, government statistics, and field observations to paint a comprehensive picture of the threats facing uncontacted Indigenous peoples in the Brazilian Amazon. Activists hope the platform will help create a vulnerability index that can promote stronger public policies.
In a move celebrated as a victory by an Indigenous community that since 2005 has been fighting plans to mine nickel in a protected area, the Philippine Supreme Court issued a verdict mandating the company and government agencies involved in the project to address Indigenous concerns about forest destruction.
Six of the 11 justices have ruled in favor of restoring territory to the Xokleng people, from which they were evicted. The ruling sets a precedent for hundreds of Indigenous land claims and is expected to have widespread consequences for Indigenous land rights throughout the country.
The referendum was a popular initiative demanded by Indigenous communities to protect the vast Yasuní National Park from oil drilling. Ecuador’s government has announced that it will honor the result of the referendum and have machinery removed within a year.
An analysis of satellite data showed that 500 square kilometers of tropical rainforest were cleared in Brazil’s portion of the Amazon during the month of July, a 66% decline relative to July a year ago.
