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Source: MongabayNearly 150 homes were reportedly destroyed in the latest incident in a long-standing conflict between indigenous Batin Sembilan residents and former Wilmar unit PT Asiatic Persada.

Peru’s Ministry of Culture (MINCU) has issued a report that blocks, at least temporarily, the expansion of the country’s biggest gas project in the Amazon rainforest in a Reserve set aside for the protection of isolated indigenous peoples. 

Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) and Wapichan Communities in the Rupununi are raising major concerns over road building plans affecting pristine forest in the south of the country on lands within Wapichan territory.

Click here to read NGOs letter to the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) Carbon Fund participants

Following the widely publicised launch on 7 November of a landmark study on Free, Prior and Informed Consent in 16 oil palm operations in Southeast Asia and Africa titled ‘Conflict or Consent? The Oil Palm Sector at a Crossroads’, over 40 civil society organisations from Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Cameroon, the United Kingdom, the United States and South Africa congregated in Medan, North Sumatra (Indonesia) in a three-day workshop organised by Forest Peoples Programme, Transformasi Untuk Keadilan INDONESIA, ELSAKA and BothENDS on 8 – 10 November.

The production of palm oil has come under sustained criticism for its destruction of forests, biodiversity and wider environmental values. More recently, the industry has also been targeted to prevent the massive greenhouse gas emissions from its forest clearance and from drainage and planting on peatlands. Under pressure from local and international campaigning groups, the palm oil giant Golden Agri Resources has adopted a new Forest Conservation Policy that promises no clearance of tall forests and no planting on peat. What are the implications of this new policy for forest peoples?

Key decisions on REDD+ adopted at the 19th Conference of the Parties (COP19) of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Warsaw, and future UNFCCC climate negotiations and financing commitments by donors, such as the United Kingdom, will pose further significant challenges for indigenous peoples' rights and its advocates.

On 30 October 2013, after months of intense negotiation and dialogue with the Peruvian government, Peru’s Forest Investment Plan (FIP) was finally approved by the Sub Committee of the Forest Investment Programme, a World Bank initiative that aims to reduce emissions from deforestation.

The International Finance Corporation Compliance Advisor/Ombudsman (IFC CAO) has formally announced its withdrawal from the case of PT Asiatic Persada, following the sale of the concession by Wilmar in April 2013, and the new management’s decision to continue mediation through a government team instead. This is despite the fact that the affected Batin Sembilan communities and complaint signatory NGOs have repeatedly called on the IFC CAO to continue its role as mediator and to encourage the company to pursue this avenue towards conflict resolution.

Recognition of the social and environmental impacts of large-scale land conversion to monoculture plantations such as oil palm has led to numerous voluntary sustainability standards, including the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), to adopt the concept of High Conservation Values (HCVs). These are defined as the critical social and environmental values in ecosystems and landscapes that long-term multi-stakeholder processes have collectively identified as the key values to be conserved and enhanced in the management of natural systems.

On 1 November 2013 indigenous and civil society organisations from Peru including FENAMAD, AIDESEP, Derecho Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (DAR), and the National Human Rights Coordinator presented evidence in a hearing before the Inter-American Commission.The petitioners documented the failure of the Peruvian government to provide effective protection for isolated indigenous peoples in Peru.

Source: Survival InternationalPlans to build a massive hydro-electric dam on the land of two unique tribes in Guyana would lead to the destruction of a unique people and vast tracts of rainforest, a new report has revealed today.

Medan, Indonesia, 13 November 2013 – Progressive palm oil companies and environmental and social NGOs today launched the Palm Oil Innovation Group (POIG) at the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil’s (RSPO) Annual General Assembly. The group is made up of producers and civil society organizations and includes Agropalma, DAABON, New Britain Palm Oil, as well as WWF, Rainforest Action Network (RAN), Forest Peoples Programme and Greenpeace.

Thank you co-chairs and distinguished parties delegates, for this opportunity to speak on behalf of indigenous peoples.We would like to acknowledge last month’s decision of the REDD+ Partnership to allocate funding for the representation of indigenous peoples and local communities at partnership meetings until the end of 2014. This will facilitate the articulation of indigenous peoples’ issues and concerns from the ground. The regional caucuses of indigenous peoples shall undergo the self-selection process and inform about their representatives to the partnership.

MEDAN, INDONESIA (7 November, 2013)—Members of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) are violating the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities in the forests and peatlands of tropical nations worldwide, according to a new research publication released today. The study details the performance of 16 oil palm operations, many run by RSPO members, reporting on their failure to uphold human rights and environmental standards required.

Press Event to Issue Research in Advance of the RSPO’s 11th Annual Meeting in Medan; NGOs From Across Asia and Africa Question Effectiveness of RSPO Standards.

• Full report (6.9MB): Conflict or consent?

On Monday October 21, 2013 the Government of Guyana and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) signed a contract for the Amerindian Land Titling Project under the Guyana/Norway Guyana REDD Investment Fund (GRIF) arrangement. This signing took place during the opening session of the Seventh Annual Meeting of the National Toshaos Council and is heralded by President Donald Ramotar as fulfilling a promise made to the Amerindian people in the PPP’s manifesto. Campaigning? According to another government official Minister of Finance Ashni Singh, the project will give Amerindians control over the lands that belong to them. The project, according to the government is to facilitate the titling and demarcation of Amerindian lands. 

In statements published in a Peruvian national newspaper and online, both AIDESEP (the national indigenous Amazonian organisation) and over 50 Peruvian and international civil society organisations, including Forest Peoples Programme, have reiterated their demand that the State establish strict measures for the protection of isolated peoples in Peru.

The board of controversial mining giant BHP Billiton is set to be slammed at its AGM by an Indonesian activist over seven coal concessions collectively covering an area of more than 350,000 hectares in the relatively unspoilt rainforest centre of the island of Borneo. Part of this project overlaps the transnational Heart of Borneo conservation area, described by the Asian Development Bank as “the lungs of Southeast Asia".