SKYWAVES: Indigenous News Worldwide - March 29th, 2012

There are an estimated 350 million indigenous peoples remaining with Mother Earth. They legally own more than 11% of the world’s forests and those coincide with areas that hold up to 80% of the world’s terrestrial biodiversity. Traditional knowledge is a different but no less valid way of understanding the world.

STORY ONE: To Asia - Cambodia

During the last 50 years, almost half of the world’s forests have been destroyed. The remaining forests contain 80 percent of terrestrial species and provide livelihoods for nearly a third of the human population. Studies by the Center for International Forestry Research show that Indigenous forest-dwelling communities do a better job of protecting forests than conservation programs do. Some 200,000 mostly Indigenous Kuy villagers, a small group of people located in the highlands of Cambodia are desperately trying to prevent the destruction of Prey Lang (“Our Forest), the last large primary forest of its kind on the Indochina peninsula.

STORY TWO:

To South America - Bolivia has transformed itself by ignoring the Washington Consensus

By breaking with orthodox prescriptions for progress, Evo Morales has helped to forge a new Bolivia centred on 'living well' from the desk of Luis Hernandez Navarro

In spite of the force of racial discrimination, on 22 January 2006, the Aymara Indian and cocalero unionist Evo Morales was elected president. Since then, the Bolivian state and society have undergone a profound transformation. The country has been decolonised. Indigenous people hold key cabinet positions in government and also in political institutions, while their standard and quality of life have been notably improved. In the past six years, Bolivia has become one of the Latin American countries most successful at improving its citizens' standard of living. Economic indicators such as low unemployment and decreased poverty, as well as better public healthcare and education, are outstanding.

STORY THREE: To North America - Thousands of Indigenous peoples and campesinos in Guatemala have embarked on a nine-day protest march to the capital Guatemala City, covering over 214 kilometers. Organized by the Comite de Unidad Campesino or Campesino Unity Committee, (CUC) the march demands the attention of the State of Guatemala, as well as local, national, and international media to the issues facing the rural Indigenous and campesino majority of the country. The march has been gaining the participation of different communities and activist groups throughout their journey, which started in the city of Coban, in Alta Verapaz on Monday, March 19th. Community Radio station Uqul Tinamit, a member of the Guatemala Radio Project's pilot radio network streamed online their on-location reporting of the event as it passed through the departments of Alta and Baja Verapaz, allowing community radio stations across the country to broadcast their programing. The movement leaders have issued a press statement, “Declaration of the March for Resistance and Dignity, in Defense of the Earth and Territory”.

“News sources today include Survival International, Cultural Survival, Bolivia Rising’s Luis Hernandez Navarro and Indigenous Peoples Issues and Resources”

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