To donate by check, phone, or other method, see our More Ways to Give page.

×
  • Home
  • Politics
  • Climate
  • Economy
  • Rights & Justice
  • War & Peace
  • Breaking News
  • Opinion
  • News
  • Newswire
  • Further
  • Planned Parenthood Action Fund
  • Trade Justice Education Fund
  • Profile Organization Test
  • ProsperUS
  • Repairers of the Breach
  • Fix Our Senate
  • ACLU Florida
  • Alliance for Retired Americans
  • Concerted Action
  • Green New Deal Network
  • Costs of War
  • Fossil Free Media
  • Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights
  • Independent Jewish Voices Canada
  • Cascadia Wildlands
  • Congressman Jamaal Bowman
  • Environmental Defense
  • National Coalition for the Homeless
  • Riverkeeper
  • U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines
  • Free Gaza Movement
  • Friends of the Earth Europe
  • Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
  • Basel Action Network
  • Healthy California Now
  • Groundwork Collaborative
  • One Fair Wage
  • Progressive International
  • Data for Progress
  • Congressman Ro Khanna
  • Fight Corporate Monopolies
  • Mijente
  • Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal
  • Oxfam America
  • Repair Our Democracy
  • Farm Action
  • Accountable.Senate
  • The Sentencing Project
  • Hunger Free America
  • Fridays for Future
  • Family Farm Action
  • National Family Farm Coalition
  • Protect the Results
  • AFSCME
  • Color Of Change PAC
  • MPower Change
  • Western Watersheds Project
  • WildEarth Guardians
  • The Elders
  • Gwich'in Steering Committee
  • Stop the Money Pipeline
  • RootsAction
  • United Nations Human Rights - Special Procedures
  • Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO)
  • Communications Workers of America
  • The Endangered Species Coalition
  • Center for Climate Integrity
  • Climate Power
  • NORML
  • Lower Drug Prices Now
  • National Education Association (NEA)
  • Democracy Initiative
  • Small Business for Paid Leave
  • Campaign Legal Center
  • Muslim Advocates
  • Congresswoman Ilhan Omar
  • Accountable.US
  • Climate Mobilization
  • GLAD
  • Out & Equal
  • American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
  • The Sunrise Project
  • American Economic Liberties Project
  • Bend the Arc
  • Poor People's Campaign
  • Jewish Voice for Peace Action
  • The Revolving Door Project
  • Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
  • TIME'S UP Now
  • Oil Change U.S.
  • Vote Climate U.S. PAC
  • Community Change Action
  • Democracy 21
  • Environmental Justice Foundation
  • Center for Popular Democracy Action
  • Climate Justice Alliance
  • Free Press Action
  • International Rivers
  • JVP Action
  • Open Markets Institute
  • Center for Popular Democracy
  • Stand Up America
  • Demand Justice
  • Stand.earth
  • By the People
  • The Sanders Institute
  • Tax March
  • Friends of the Earth Scotland
  • Justice Democrats
  • Sunrise Movement
  • Western Values Project
  • Good Jobs First
  • Climate Works for All
  • Democratic Socialists of America
  • Freedom From Facebook & Google
  • National Center for Transgender Equality
  • As You Sow
  • Rootstrikers
  • Every Voice
  • Direct Action Everywhere
  • Earthworks
  • Global Witness
  • National Abortion Federation
  • Representative Keith Ellison
  • Transgender Law Center (TLC)
  • Sea Shepherd
  • American Promise
  • Americans For Tax Fairness Action Fund
  • Biofuelwatch
  • Grassroots International
  • Climate Justice Programme
  • End Rape On Campus (EROC)
  • Stop the Wall
  • Organization for Competitive Markets
  • Balestra Media
  • Pacifica Foundation
  • The LGBT Network
  • Compassion in World Farming
  • UNHCR
  • Community Alliance for Global Justice
  • Elders Rising
  • Moms Demand Action For Gun Sense in America
  • The Right Livelihood Award
  • Women's Earth & Climate Action Network (WECAN)
  • The International Rescue Committee
  • Women Cross DMZ
  • Acadia Center
  • American Sustainable Business Council (ASBC)
  • The New York Immigration Coalition
  • GAIA
  • The Culinary Union
  • The American Immigration Council
  • Citizens Against Monopoly
  • Our Revolution
  • United We Dream
  • National Women's Law Center
  • SumofUs
  • Global Zero
  • The Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC)
  • NAACP Legal Defense Fund
  • Network Lobby
  • NIAC Action
  • Asian Americans Advancing Justice
  • Freedom of the Press Foundation
  • Progressive Congress Action Fund
  • The Main Street Alliance
  • Millions Marching For Medicare For All
  • The World Health Organization
  • Senator Elizabeth Warren
  • Rep. Barbara Lee
  • John Conyers, Jr., Congressman
  • The Commonwealth Fund
  • Social Security Works
  • Mercy for Animals
  • American Federation of Teachers
  • Climate Disobedience Center
  • Nuclear Age Peace Foundation
  • Open Media
  • Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
  • Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund
  • Bold Alliance
  • The Greenlining Institute
  • Physicians for Reproductive Health
  • Americans for Tax Fairness
  • Climate Action Tracker
  • American Federation of Government Employees
  • Patriotic Millionaires
  • Congresswoman Barbara Lee
  • Progressive Change Campaign Committee
  • Indivisible
  • Friends of the Earth Action
  • Stop the War Coalition
  • Earthrights International
  • Free Speech for People
  • National Employment Law Project
  • Navdanya International
  • Open Debate Coalition
  • Shut It Down - Climate Direct Action
  • SOA Watch
  • Grassroots Global Justice Alliance
  • Green Party of the US
  • Live Share Grow
  • Advancement Project
  • Chicago Teachers Union
  • Indigenous Environmental Network
  • Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency (FACT) Coalition
  • Coalition to Stop Gun Violence
  • The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
  • Stop Mass Incarceration Network - Chicago
  • International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN)
  • Progress Michigan
  • 350 Action
  • Climate Action Network International
  • Climate Tracker
  • Regeneration International
  • Ecojustice
  • Together for Global Justice (CIDSE)
  • Carbon Underground
  • Fight for $15
  • sHELLNO
  • Pembina Institute
  • Global Justice Now
  • Grassroots Leadership
  • La Via Campesina
  • New York Civil Liberties Union
  • Privacy International
  • National Iranian American Council (NIAC)
  • Restaurant Opportunities Centers United
  • U.S. Right to Know
  • Share the World's Resources
  • National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health
  • Don't Shoot Coalition
  • Fight for the Future
  • Environmental Action
  • Oceana
  • UltraViolet
  • Huu-ay-aht First Nations
  • Latino Advocacy
  • Western Environmental Law Center
  • Rolling Jubilee
  • Coalition for Peace Action
  • Rodale Institute
  • Food Research and Action Center
  • Reject and Protect
  • The Upstate Coalition to Ground the Drones and End the Wars
  • Center for Reproductive Rights
  • People's Action
  • Iraq Veterans Against the War
  • Jewish Voice for Peace
  • US Robin Hood Tax Campaign
  • Chesapeake Climate Action Network
  • Council of Canadians
  • Haiti: Make Births Safe
  • Center for Corporate Policy
  • Our Children's Trust
  • The Partnership for Civil Justice Fund
    commondreams-mobile-logo
    globe-icon
    LATEST NEWSOPINIONCLIMATEECONOMY POLITICS RIGHTS & JUSTICEWAR & PEACE
    LATEST NEWS
    OPINION
    globe-iconlogo-icon
    commondreams-logo
    commondreams-tagline

    rainforests

    Logging truck in Cameroon.

    Stop Green Genocide in Cameroon

    Fortress conservation has pushed the Baka people from the rainforests of the Congo Basin into villages bordering the national parks of southern Cameroon, while the logging that truly threatens the forest continues.

    Paul Renaut
    Jul 16, 2024

    Clouds of red dust rise into the sky and hang in the air as the truck roars past. It's impossible to breathe as the dust gathers in the folds of villagers' clothes, settles on rooftops, and coats the forest's green leaves. The next truck goes by, and another cloud rises up in its wake. They carry massive tree trunks felled in the rainforests of the Congo Basin. The Baka people struggle to breathe every day, as logging companies from China, France, Italy, and Lebanon descend on the tropical forests and cut everything in their path.

    The Baka have been pushed into villages bordering the national parks of southern Cameroon. Amid the din of passing trucks, they tell me they have been barred from their forest—they can no longer hunt for food, access their sacred sites, fish, or gather medicinal plants. Government authorities and "nature conservation" organizations say it's not the clear-cutting loggers destroying the forests. They blame the Baka—Indigenous hunter-gatherers who rely on the forests to live.

    Keep ReadingShow Less
    Opinion
    indigenous rights
    A Ogiek woman sits amid the ruins of her demolished home with her children on either side.

    Africa’s Carbon Deals Must Serve Those Most Vulnerable to the Climate Crisis

    Several mega-transactions negotiated recently in tropical forested countries in sub-Saharan Africa place a spotlight on who is missing from these market opportunities—the Indigenous Peoples and local communities that have, against all odds, kept the forests intact.

    Solange Bandiaky-Badji
    Mar 08, 2024

    Carbon markets have all the allure of a new investment option—mainly, that they have not failed yet. The idea of paying for conservation activities to offset polluting industrial activities, and then trading credits for those activities, sounds like a win-win solution to the climate crisis. But, in practice today, it looks like fool’s gold. That may be why the European Union included “carbon offsets” in new regulations that limit the use of sustainability buzzwords in promotional activities.

    Several mega-transactions negotiated recently in tropical forested countries in sub-Saharan Africa place a spotlight on who is missing from these market opportunities—the Indigenous Peoples and local communities that have, against all odds, kept the forests intact. Although these carbon credit deals were announced last year, they have yet to be finalized and, instead, their grassroots opposition has gained traction.

    Keep ReadingShow Less
    Opinion
    carbon markets
    People stand in a line with traditional weapons.

    'This Land Is Our Life': Indigenous Shipibo-Konibo-Xetebo People Defend Forest From Illegal Destruction in Peru

    More than 300 community members participate in La Guardia Indigena, protecting around 8 million hectares of one of the most biodiverse regions on Earth from logging, fishing, and coca growing.

    Olivia Rosane
    May 05, 2023

    The Shipibo-Konibo-Xetebo people of the Peruvian Amazon are organizing themselves to protect their ancestral forests and waters from illegal fishing, logging, and coca growing amidst conservation and development efforts from both the government and international nonprofits that they say are ineffective at best and actively harmful to Indigenous ways of life at worst.

    More than 300 members of the community participate in La Guardia Indigena—or the Indigenous Guard—that works from around 25 bases in the Ucayali region of Peru to protect around 8 million hectares.

    Keep ReadingShow Less
    News
    indigenous

    SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER

    Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.

    subscribe
    below
    * indicates required
    True
    True
    Follow Us
    Most Popular

    'All Are Now Vulnerable': Legal Scholars Alarmed as DOJ Begins Push to Denaturalize Citizens

    NYT Runs Hit Piece on Mamdani Based on Tip From Proponent of 'Race Science'

    'Heinrich Should Be Ashamed': Lone Senate Dem Helps GOP Deliver Big Pharma Win

    Outrage Pours in After House GOP Approves 'One of the Most Catastrophic Bills Passed in Modern History'

    'Evil and Cruel': GOP Lawmaker Shamed for Unloading Medicaid-Related Stock Before Voting to Gut Program

    Trump-GOP Budget Bill Will Give Top 1% Over $1 Trillion in Tax Breaks: Analysis

    Trump Asylum Crackdown Dealt Major Blow in 'Hugely Important' Court Ruling

    'An Act of Retaliation': EPA Suspends 140+ Employees for Signing 'Declaration of Dissent'

    A Declaration of Independence From Trump’s Fascist America

    Critics Shred JD Vance as He Shrugs Off Millions of Americans Losing Medicaid as 'Minutiae'

    We cover the issues the corporate media never will.
    Please support our journalism.