Posts Categorized: Extractive Industries

Pope Meets with Indigenous Communities in Peru

Amazonic tribes and Andean communities are celebrated by Pope Francis as models for caring for our Common Home By Jed Koball | Mission Co-worker Peru On a hot and humid January day, gathered in the town of Puerto Maldonado in a region of the Amazon Rainforest devastated by massive deforestation and the contamination of rivers… Read more »

Historic Gathering of Peruvian Communities Affected by Oil and Mining

New platform of communities fighting for their rights to health present their demands to Minister of Health By Jed Koball | Mission Co-Worker, Joining Hands Peru Leaders representing eight different communities whose health is affected by mining and oil industry activity gathered for the first time this past week in Lima. Dating back as much as… Read more »

Emission Standards Relaxed Again in La Oroya

By Jed Koball In a desperate move to facilitate the sale of the Metallurgical Complex in La Oroya, Peru the Ministry of Environment (MAM) approved a significant relaxation of national sulfur-dioxide emissions by increasing the threshold from 20mg/m3 (levels recommended by the World Health Organization) to 250mg/m3 (the current standards in neighboring countries like Chile… Read more »

Waste from Huanuni Mine Harms Communities Downstream

By Chenoa Stock | Mission Co-worker, UMAVIDA, Joining Hands Bolivia   The Bolivian Joining Hands Network, UMAVIDA (Joining Hands for Life), focuses their campaign for water rights and environmental justice in the city of Oruro, a principal center for mining, Bolivia’s second largest industry. Located just outside of Oruro, the small town of Huanuni is… Read more »

Serious Blow to Anti-Corruption Efforts in Africa

By Jaff Bamenjo | RELUFA, Joining Hands Network Cameroon In 2010, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act was passed by the U.S. Congress. The bill included an anti-corruption rule that required the disclosure of payments to governments by oil, gas and mining companies. The anti-corruption rule, “Section 1504,” was celebrated by civil… Read more »

A New Song: Joining Hands with La Oroya, Peru and Standing Rock, ND

By Rev. Ellie Stock | Joining Hands Peru Partnership, Presbytery of Giddings-Lovejoy It is a long story… It all began with a song…in Girl Scout Camp…many moons ago…when I was seven,”Land of the Silver Birch, Home of the Beaver“, an adapted Native Canadian tune and Canadian folk song where the singer/story-teller extols the beauty of his homeland—the… Read more »

Up in Smoke: Report highlights flaws in global carbon trading system

Presbyterian Hunger Program partner Social Action in Nigeria recently published a report Up in Smoke: Gas Flaring, Communities and Carbon Trading in Nigeria. As nations attempt to address the growing challenge of increasing greenhouse gas emissions, impoverished communities in countries like Nigeria stand to lose out. The Kyoto Protocol of 1997 established an international system for trading carbon… Read more »

Partners Push for No Lame-Duck Vote on TPP

Target Democratic House Reps. Himes and DeGette By Jed Koball | Mission Co-Worker Peru Presbyterians are working in collaboration with Joining Hands partners in Peru, Public Citizen´s Global Trade Watch and others from civil society in the U.S. to prevent a lame-duck vote on the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement that has been a focal point… Read more »

RELUFA’s Policy Brief on Diamonds in Cameroon

RELUFA, the Joining Hands network in Cameroon,  has just released a policy brief on the implementation of the Kimberley Process in Cameroon. The Kimberley Process is a process that is meant to keep “conflict diamonds” (diamonds procured through the financing of violence and war) out of the market. RELUFA’s policy brief “The Kimberley Process: Responding to challenges and Policy… Read more »

When Two Worlds Collide

When Two Worlds Collide By Jed Koball |  Mission Co-worker Peru The recently released award-winning documentary ¨When Two Worlds Collide¨ tells the dramatic story of the 2009 massacre in Bagua, Peru that shaped the context of modern day politics and development in Peru and also helped set the course of advocacy for our Joining Hands partners there. 2009 was… Read more »