Indigenous community leader Jyotirindra Bodhipriya Larma came down heavily on the government saying that thousands of people from the minority communities are sinking under the high tide of country’s “so-called development”.

“The government says that high tide of development spreads across the county, but actually thousands of people of the minority communities are sinking by the so called tide,” said the president of Bangladesh Adivasi Forum.

Peasants, small farmers, and indigenous people are being massacred over land rights and environmental conflicts across rural Brazil. From January to July of this year, 52 people have been killed, according to the Land Pastoral Commission (the Comissão Pastoral da Terra, or CPT, a Catholic organization that tracks this violence).  At this rate, 2017 will be far more violent than last year, when 61 people were murdered in the hinterlands – an extraordinary number that was already double the yearly average of the past decade.

Knowledge of animals, insects, agricultural techniques and weather patterns is honed from interaction with nature passed down through generations

The government this week reaffirmed its commitment to indigenous peoples living in Cambodia, promising to protect their traditional ways of life ahead of International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples.

Prime Minister Hun Sen issued an open letter on Tuesday ahead of the international day that is set for August 9 and which the government plans to observe.

What do you get from fighting for land rights in Thailand? You cannot ask Den Khamlae, 65, a prominent grassroots land rights activist. He mysteriously disappeared in a forest reserve near his rickety home in Chaiyaphum last year.

A storm of protest greeted the 19 July announcement that Brazilian President Michel Temer has approved a recommendation made by the Attorney General’s office (AGU), that federal government bodies should adopt new criteria for setting the boundaries of indigenous land. Respected lawyer Dalmo de Abreu Dallari, who headed the University of São Paulo’s legal faculty for many years, said that the recommendation was a “legal farce,” with the objective of “extorting from the indigenous communities their right to the land they have traditionally occupied.” But the bancada ruralista rural caucus in Congress is triumphant. Federal deputy Luiz Carlos Heinze, a leading member of the caucus, celebrated the AGU recommendation, saying in a video circulated on social media that it will lead to a reassessment of more than 700 cases, resulting ultimately in the dismissal of 90 percent of ongoing indigenous territory land claims.

Satellites are mechanical reporters of the Amazon deforestation process. By documenting the degradation and gaps created by the clear-cutting process over the years, they deliver the verdict: two-thirds of the Amazon’s deforested area has been turned into pastures.

Honduras has the highest murder rate for environmental activists in the world mostly because of conflict over land rights.

Relatives of Berta Caceres, the iconic Indigenous environmentalist from Honduras who was killed in March last year, denounced a "hate campaign" against them Wednesday.

Hyderabad, Jul 24 (PTI) People’s groups today called for rejection of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the mega Free Trade Agreement (FTA) which is currently being negotiated in the city.

People’s groups from different parts of the city took out a protest rally demanding to stop RCEP talks.

The RCEP is a proposed mega regional FTA, which 16 countries including India and ASEAN countries are negotiating.

In Guatemala, one of the world’s largest silver deposits reaps millions for its Canadian owners but for local farmers the price is their land and even their lives

Deep underground, buried in the lush hills of southern Guatemala, lies a veritable treasure trove: silver, tonnes of it, one of the largest deposits in the world.

Temer’s unelected government and its neoliberal austerity agenda are greatly threatening the lives of Brazil’s Indigenous tribes.

Indigenous groups in Brazil are under threat — as right-wing government officials drastically slash funding to an agency meant to protect them, already leading to increased homicides over land dispute issues.

Public Statement

New York, 10 July 2017 – Fifteen indigenous peoples’ representatives from various Asian countries, including Bangladesh, Nepal, India and Malaysia are participating in the HLPF this year taking place at the UN Headquarters in New York from 10 to 19 July 2017 under the theme “Eradicating poverty and promoting prosperity in a changing world”. They are among the 2000-plus participants from various sectors, including governments, private sector and civil society.