• A Brazilian state was set to close a massive $180 million carbon credit deal, but now faces an escalating legal battle, accused of violating national laws and Indigenous rights, potentially ruining the project.
• Brazil’s Federal Prosecutor’s Office is seeking to nullify the 2024 contract, which sells 12 million carbon credits from Pará to companies like Amazon, Bayer, H&M Group and Walmart.
• Indigenous and Quilombola leaders voice concerns that the program could restrict their access to their land and interaction with nature, undermining inherent rights and deep spiritual connection to the rainforest.
• Widespread accusations over the failure of free, prior, and informed consent for the project highlight ongoing criticism of carbon credit initiatives in Brazil and globally, after scandals involving unapproved use of traditional territories and a loss of confidence in REDD+ projects.

archived (Wayback Machine)

an artist I follow on bluesky creates gorgeous fantasy illustrations inspired by forests and the natural world (k.m. steere or keymonster if you wanna look them up). they wanna create a sticker or print series and donate the profits to landback and forest defense groups. suggestions for groups would be hugely appreciated!

The most important paragraphs, to me:

Here lies the difficult truth for many Pākehā [the Maori word for non-native New Zealanders]: your ancestors may not have been colonisers by choice. Many were the descendants of the English poor, pushed off their own land by enclosure, then shipped off to build lives on land stolen from Māori.

This is capitalism’s double theft, stealing land from the peasantry in England, then using those same dispossessed people to colonise indigenous land abroad. Settler working-class people are not responsible for the theft of land, but they have often been its beneficiaries, whether knowingly or not.

Acknowledging this does not mean embracing guilt—it means embracing solidarity. It means recognising that both Māori and working-class Pākehā have a common enemy: the system that profits off enclosure, exploitation, and empire.

The Supreme Court's three liberals sadly, but unsurprisingly, joined three conservatives in upholding the planned transfer of sacred Apache land to mining company Resolution Copper, turning the site of thousands of years of religious ritual into a two-mile-wide crater filled with industrial runoff:

The land in question had been under federal protection for decades, until Republicans added language allowing the federal government to sell or swap the land to the mining companies into a must-pass defense bill in 2014. Federal planning records show that extracting the deposit would over the course of several decades turn Oak Flat — which the Apache call Chí’chil Bildagoteel — into a nearly two-mile-wide, 1,000-foot-deep industrial crater.

Gorsuch, who has strongly supported Native rights from the bench, penned a passionate dissent:

However, Justice Neil M. Gorsuch wrote a dissent — joined by his fellow conservative, Justice Clarence Thomas — saying the majority’s decision not to take the case was “a grievous mistake” and “one with consequences that threaten to reverberate for generations.”

Gorsuch said he had “no doubt” that the high court would have heard the case “if the government sought to demolish a historic cathedral” rather than a Native American sacred site.

“Faced with the government’s plan to destroy an ancient site of tribal worship, we owe the Apaches no less,” Gorsuch wrote. “They may live far from Washington, D.C., and their history and religious practices may be unfamiliar to many. But that should make no difference.”

While “climate change” is a forbidden term in the Trump administration, wildfire risk reduction is one of the cited reasons behind the USDA order, with the directive designating almost half the Black Hills National Forest as being under “emergency” wildfire risk levels. This authorizes increased removal of trees. The memo also calls for streamlining “to the extent allowable by law, all processes related to timber production,” such as environmental review. Finally, the USDA has said the Forest Service will “issue new or updated guidance to increase timber production.” South Dakota’s congressional delegation, led by Senate Majority Leader John Thune, has been pushing for more logging, too.

Groups like the Natural Resources Defense Council and NDN Collective, a national Indigenous-rights nonprofit based in the Black Hills, call the directive a hastily constructed disaster. They claim that it mislabels millions of forest acres nationwide, including land that falls within reservation boundaries in many states. It also threatens at least 25 endangered species nationwide, like the gray wolf, which has been spotted in the Black Hills, while potentially reducing the carbon storage capacity of the forest.

The directive also conflicts with a memorandum of understanding signed here just last year between the Forest Service and eight tribal nations of the Oceti Sakowin Oyate, which called for cooperative planning on forest management on issues ranging from climate protection and remediation to workforce development and the protection of cultural resources and sacred sites.

Colombia has taken a major step in Indigenous rights by formally recognizing Indigenous councils as local governments across parts of the Amazon.

• Indonesia’s human rights commission has found serious rights and environmental violations in a government-backed plantation project in Papua, including land grabbing, lack of Indigenous consent, and militarization that has created fear among local communities.
• The project, aiming to clear 3 million hectares (7.4 million acres) for sugarcane and rice plantations, threatens biodiverse forests and Indigenous livelihoods, violating national and international protections for land rights, food security and environmental health.
• Five key rights were found to be violated: rights to land, environment, food, participation in decision-making, and security — all guaranteed by Indonesian law and international norms.
• The rights commission, Komnas HAM, recommended legal recognition of Indigenous lands, fair participation, and restoration of rights, but civil society groups are calling for a complete halt to the project and demilitarization, warning of systematic harm if it continues.

(To be clear, they intend to cut down the rainforest and plant 3 million hectares of grass.)

archived (Wayback Machine)

In Ecuador, Indigenous communities are fighting for stronger safeguards to protect their sovereignty as more oil drilling looms. A right to say no to unwanted development could revolutionize a consultation process used around the world.

“We reject this future. We want to shape our own destiny, to live well in our forests.” — Silvana Nihua, Kiwaro community

archived (Wayback Machine)

Since 1970, people all around the world have set aside April 22 as Earth Day, pausing to focus on caring for the planet.

Since time immemorial, of course, Indigenous peoples have been doing the same thing. Every day.

“This is about how we think, how we live, our ways of knowing … about being human,” said Inuit leader Sara Olsvig, chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Council and a former member of the Greenland and Danish Parliaments. “And also being human in close interaction and with nature. It represents our worldview of humans not being separate from nature.”

The one-day focus of Earth Day — although in some circles the commemoration has grown to become Earth Month — can strike a slightly discordant note to Native ears.

“It's an odd thing to even say, ‘Oh, it's Earth Day,’” said Penobscot citizen Darren Ranco, an anthropology professor at the University of Maine. The Penobscot are Wabanaki – the People of the Dawnland – and are taught to greet the sunrise every day and appreciate their place in the natural world, their connection with the earth.

“That connects us to our places,” Ranco said. “I think the cultural framing [of having a single Earth Day], of course, is quite different.”

The Eastern Shoshone this month voted to classify buffalo as wildlife instead of livestock as a way to treat them more like elk or deer rather than like cattle. Because the two tribes share the same landbase, the Northern Arapaho are expected to vote on the distinction as well. The vote indicates a growing interest to both restore buffalo on the landscape and challenge the relationship between animal and product.

While climate change isn’t the main driver behind the push to restore buffalo wildlife status, the move could bring positive effects to the fight against global warming. Climate change is shrinking Wyoming’s glaciers, contributing to drought, and increasing wildfires. While buffalo might give off comparable emissions to cows, increasing biodiversity can promote drought resistance and some herds of buffalo have been shown to help the earth store more carbon.

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights ordered the Ecuadorian government to protect Indigenous groups from oil operations and to leave oil in the ground underneath their lands.

The court underscored that the rights of people living in voluntary isolation includes not just their physical territories but also their cultural identity, health, food security, housing and the overall environment necessary for their dignified life.

Multiple international treaties recognize the rights of people living in voluntary isolation to remain uncontacted.

The court suggested that to fully protect the rights of the Tagaeri, Taromenane and Dugakaeri, the government may need to expand a Delaware-sized area of rainforest and its 6-mile buffer zone that are supposed to be off-limits to extractive activity. The ruling noted that there have been multiple sightings of uncontacted groups traveling outside the designated off-limits area, known as the “Intangible Zone.”

In recent years, oil operations have expanded into the buffer area surrounding the Intangible Zone.

The Missionaries and the Oil Company

All Waorani people lived uncontacted in the Ecuadorian Amazon until the late 1950s, when American Christian missionaries began to force contact on Waorani groups to evangelize them. A few years later, the U.S. oil company Texaco worked with the missionaries to accelerate their forced contact campaign and remove Waorani people from their oil-rich lands. (...)

JAKARTA — The Indonesian government and civil society have signed a joint statement, marking a shared commitment to fast-track agrarian reform in the country. The joint statement was signed by various ministries on Feb. 19 during the first day of the Asia Land Forum in Jakarta, the largest regional forum focused on land rights and and agrarian issues in Asia.

Another thing the government should do, she said, is create a roadmap with detailed plans and targets for agrarian reform.

“We must strike while the iron is hot and immediately follow up with concrete plans,” Dewi said.

New Zealand has formally granted a mountain legal personhood for the first time, recognizing not only its importance to Māori tribes but also paving the way for its future environmental protection.