On the eve of an important decision by the Board of the World Bank, ' Pygmy ' people in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have issued a major challenge to the Bank about its plans to open up the world's second largest rainforest for massive industrial felling of timber.

Since 2002, the World Bank has taken a leading role in reforming DRC's forestry laws, starting the process of 'zoning' the forest into areas for timber felling and other uses, and encouraging foreign investment in the timber industry [1].

A local environment group – Earthcare - is in talks with international partners about a potential boycott of Hilton Hotels to bring more pressure to bear on the Bimini Bay Resort and Casino, long accused of environmental infractions, The Bahama Journal has learnt.

The resort earlier this year secured Hilton’s brand for the property.

The move is the latest strategy that critics are using to halt the environmental degradation of mangroves that is allegedly happening with the resort’s construction.

Brazil — Here at the great bend of the mighty Xingu River, the Brazilian government is pushing to construct a dam that could end up being the world's second largest, generating huge amounts of hydroelectric power.

* Philip Merrill has left Exim Bank. Send emails to the Chairman and Acting President of Exim Bank, James H. Lambright; same address as before, with this email: james.lambright@exim.gov .

Congratulations to Bertha Oliva, a Honduran activist, on her nomination for a Nobel Peace Prize!  Bertha, and her organization COFADEH, have been active partners in the Global Response campaign Honduras:Protect Forests and Environmental Activists.  

June 29, 2005, 7:09 pm ET 

The Gwich’in Steering Committee announced on October 25, 2005, the release of a new report outlining the implications of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) as a violation of Gwich’in human rights under international law.

Despite years of opposition from concerned people from around the globe, despite enormous evidence of the area's ecological importance, and despite a recent outcry from the people of Bimini, in the last week the Bimini Bay Resort and Casino has begun removing the mangroves from North Bimini's North Sound lagoon.

As this newsletter was going to press, we heard the tragic newsassassination of Pascal Kabungulu, Executive Secretary oJustice, a human rights activist who was unflagging in his courage and his dedicated work for the rights of the poorest and most marginalized people in one of the world’s most violent and dangerous countires. He was killed at his home in Bukavu, Democratic Republic in the early hours of the morning of July 31st. Armed men in uniform broke into the house and dragged Pascal from his room.

The World Bank has been heavily criticized by its own ombudsman for breaching protocol in its funding of the Marlin Project, a $45 million gold mine project in San Miguel Ixtahuacán and Sipakapa, Guatemala. According to an August 22 article in the Financial Times, the ombudsman drafted a report accusing the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the arm of the World Bank that made the loan, of failing to allow sufficient time to conduct an ‘informed consultation’ prior to establishing the mine.

August 18, 2005

Our campaign to save the mangrove forests of Bimini island in the Bahamas – and avert extinction of sharks and other marine species -- is featured in this major article from the Washington Post. Please help persuade the Bahamian government to stop the mangrove destruction. A golf course is a very bad trade-off for a mangrove forest that sustains one of the most productive and diverse ecosystems in the Caribbean! 

Celebrate some good news with our campaign partners on Sakhalin Island, Russia!

Since January 2004, Global Response has participated in an international campaign to stop Shell Oil company from endangering the Pacific Gray Whale and the wild salmon fishery of Sakhalin Island.  Indigenous communities have been protesting on Sakhalin for many months.

Now a Russian court has rejected Shell's Sakhalin-II Environmental Review. See more information below, from Pacific Environment.

*****************************************************