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.

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Global Response is currently involved in two campaigns in Ecuador, where indigenous Shuar, Achuar and Kichwa Sarayacu communities are struggling to protect their territories against multinational oil companies. 

The Ecuadorian environmental organization Accion Ecologica supports these and many other campaigns for environmental protection and environmental justice in Ecuador. In May, their office was burglarized, and now they have received death threats.

Indonesia will charge only one of six Newmont Mining Corp. executives accused of dumping toxic waste into a bay, prosecutors said Tuesday, in a legal victory for the U.S. gold mining giant.

Robert Ilat, the chief prosecutor in the case, said his office plans to pursue charges against Newmont's top official in Indonesia, American Richard Ness, and the Denver-based company itself.

A trial could start within weeks, he said.

 Honduran priest has organized a grassroots environmental movement to protest illegal logging and government corruption—with stunning results.  

On June 20^th,  throngs of school children, teachers and parents shouted this appeal to officials of the United Nations as they paraded in front of UN headquarters on June 8, World Oceans Day. Organized by Global Response and the Sea Turtle Restoration Project (STRP), the marchers were decked out in sea turtle costumes and carried black painted turtle umbrellas. They displayed thousands of letters urging U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan to take action against longline fishing, which kills 40,000-60,000 sea turtles annually.

On May 30, the Canadian government signed an agreement with the Assembly of First Nations pledging to pay a lump sum in compensation for former students of Indian residential schools.

Long-time visitors to the Bahamas have raised concerns that the controversial Bimini Bay Resort will keep environmentally-minded tourists from coming to the island. In several letters to Prime Minister Christie, copies of which were also sent to the Tribune, tourists appealed to the government to halt construction of Phase I of the million resort to preserve the island's mangrove eco-system.

Activists condemned a suggestion by a minister that the government might consider an out-of-court settlement with U.S. mining company Newmont in a civil lawsuit involving alleged pollution of Buyat Bay, North Sulawesi, warning that it would set a bad precedent for the enforcement of environmental law.

Raja Siregar of the Indonesia Forum for the Environment (Walhi) said that if the government acceded to Newmont's offer of mediation, this would prove its half-heartedness in enforcing the law in the environmental field.

Activists in communities around the world -- wherever Newmont Mining Company operates open-pit gold mines -- experience intimidation, threats and violence that come directly or indirectly from Newmont managers and contractors. In Indonesia, Newmont is currently suing three community activists for "defamation;" if convicted, they face jail sentences, fines and/or confiscation of their property.

The following update comes from CS campaign partner Ma Yong-Un, regarding two prominent activists for protection of the Saemangeum wetlands, Father Moon Kyuhyun and Reverand Sukyung:

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Father Moon Kyuhyun

 Father Moon has continued his efforts to conserve the Saemanguem tidal flat and has been working to establish a wetland education center at the Saemangeum tidal-flat in Buan to promote public awareness on conservation of the wetland. He keeps trying to persuade people to reconsider the destructive project whenever he has a chance.