The Peoples Dialogue is a network that brings southern Africa and South American rural and popular activists and social movements together to share experiences and strengthen linkages in challenging injustice and building alternatives.

The Peoples Dialogue held a meeting in Durban from 21-23 September 2011 to engage with the issue of climate change and the challenges it poses for rural movements, moving towards COP17 and Rio+20.

This is their declaration for the next international climate negotiations to be held in Durban and for the 2012 Rio+20 Earth Summit…

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The present crisis of climate change facing the planet and humanity is a part of a broader crisis of capitalism, an economic system that is reaching its ecological limits. The planet and its resources are more than capable of providing for the needs of all its people. However, we live under a system of production and consumption that undermines the natural basis of life through a need for constant growth, while only a small minority of the world’s population, historically in the North and a growing elite in the South, benefits from the results of such growth. Meanwhile, many of the effects of overproduction and consumption and climate change are felt by the world’s small scale and peasant farmers, the poor and the working class.

The United Nations has created the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to provide the architecture for states to negotiate reductions in their greenhouse gas emissions. Annual Conference of the Parties (COP) meetings since 1995, however, have failed to halt the onset of a drastically changing climate. The negotiations reflect neoliberal ideologies of market-based solutions. However, it is the very operation of the market that has caused the present crisis. The negotiations are heavily influenced by transnational corporations, and governments largely have failed to reduce emissions, fearing they will sacrifice corporate profits and economic growth.

The South African government, the hosts of COP17 in November and December this year, also offer little hope in dealing with the climate crisis. It too sees development as based on high carbon economic growth, and has played an obstructive role in terms of achieving a progressive deal for Africa at COP15 in Copenhagen in 2009. In this context, just south of the venue for COP17 in Durban are the communities of south Durban that for years have been choking on the fumes from oil refineries. At the same time, representatives of the country’s largest polluter, Eskom, are lead negotiators in South Africa’s negotiating team at the COPs. Given the nature of the COPs and the South African context, we cannot hope that COP17 will see us move any closer to binding reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.

As popular movements from the South, we need to reject market-based solutions and propose alternative ways of dealing with climate change. We also need to envision future societies in ways that are driven from the grassroots and aimed at meeting people’s needs. Notions of green economy merely reinforce business as usual and fail to provide a genuine alternative out of the climate crisis. Linked to this is ‘climate smart agriculture’ promoted by the World Bank. Both approaches promote the further commodification of the environment and the resources that many of the world’s people directly rely on for survival. If a green economy is to mean anything, it must be envisioned in terms that are genuinely ‘green’; that is, new people-centred, democratic and ecologically sound relations of production and consumption that are grounded in social and ecological justice. These alternatives already exist in the form of agro-ecological practices that cool the planet, food sovereignty, jobs that directly contribute to reducing carbon emissions and build community resilience, and others.

An alternative civil society space at COP17, that will bring together the victims of climate change, activists and social movements from all over the world, will be the only viable space in Durban to discuss and promote concrete and sustainable solutions to the crisis of humanity and climate. Because of the failure of the climate negotiations and the refusal of governments to abandon market-based false solutions to climate change, we will be engaging in mass protest and civil disobedience in Durban in December.

Only people driven and democratically decided solutions based on solidarity and human wellbeing will offer genuine ways out of the crisis of climate change and towards a humane society.

GLOBALISE THE STRUGGLE! GLOBALISE HOPE! 

According to Simon Upton, former New Zealand minister for the environment, now head of the OECD department that produced the world’s most high level report on Green Growth earlier this year; whether people like it or not, Green Growth is an economic growth strategy, not an environmental strategy. After looking into this report and hearing from those promoting Green Growth here in Aotearoa, we couldnt agree more.

The Pure Advantage business leaders group has emerged from a small group of investors called The Cleantech group, with professional interests in what they are branding ‘green’ technologies and related business models. But as a global business movement, cleantech, which should not be confused with simply clean technology, ain’t all about community windfarms, permaculture and solar panels. [1] For the ecopreneurial capitalists, well meaning or not, it’s all about turning concern about climate change into public acceptance and public funding for their private business ventures. For OECD countries and industries, its is a way of internalising the self induced financial and ecological crises, while turning it into a driver of economic growth and legitimation. As Pure Advantage’s full page ads in the daily papers said; “Even if you don’t believe in climate change, there’s money to be made doing something about it.”.

Included in a list of over 200 emerging ‘cleantech’ companies identified by Investment New Zealand are companies focussing on genetic engineering, synthetic biology [an even more dangerous, advanced form of genetic engineering], nanotechnology, biochar, carbon trading companies and companies focussing on the development of second and third generation biofuels [see page 13 of this presentation for the complete list of 'cleantech' standouts]. Environmental and social justice focussed organisations such as Friends of the Earth, ETC Group and Biofuelwatch are leading research into some of these technologies, and already alarm bells are ringing out.

Questioning whether these technologies will reduce greenhouse gas emissions at all, or make things a lot worse, the ETC Group report The New Biomassters – Synthetic Biology and the next assault of biodiversity and livelihoods explores some of the social and environmental dangers involved, and explains how this relates to ‘land grabbing‘ [2] in countries least responsible for causing climate change. According to ETC group; “Enabling the next stage of this new grab is the adoption of synthetic biology techniques (extreme genetic engineering) by a wave of high-tech companies partnering with the world’s largest energy, chemical, forestry and agribusiness corporations.” What we’re looking at here, is a potential new round of colonisation in the name of greening the economic growth that has caused climate change in the first place.

At next years RIO+20 Earth Summit, ETC Group, and others, will be calling on governments to establish a legally-binding ‘International Treaty for the Evaluation of New Technologies‘ in order to establish an international process whereby technologies are carefully evaluated for their social, environmental and other impacts before they are rushed out to market.

If New Zealand is to become a real clean technology leader, we must consider what ‘cleantech’ actually is, and what it isn’t. We might also want to consider what the consequences of unleashing these technologies on the rest of the world could look like. The interaction between the rise of biofuel production and the global food crisis gives us some clues.

When we discuss climate solutions, it’s important to remind ourselves that the best solutions leave people with the power to control their own destiny and generate their own solutions. From the small scale community controlled agricultural systems that already feed most of the worlds people, sustainably, to national scale Cuban style food systems based on permaculture principles that create hundreds of thousands of jobs. We don’t need corporate controlled biotechnology to feed the world. In any case, no matter how many times it is said, Fonterra is not ‘feeding the world’, with dehydrated milk power.

New Zealand could share its renewable energy expertise locked up in intellectual property rights owned by state owned power companies, and give it away for free to those who need it NOW.

With a powerful movement emerging to confront ecological destruction in Aotearoa, staunchly standing up to mining companies, we believe that it is very important we understand what the alternatives could be, and what threats are posed by capitalism’s proposed alternatives. Climate Justice Aotearoa is committed to helping bring about discussion amongst this movement to ensure that solutions put forward are well understood both by those promoting them, and by those affected by them.

We can support, learn from and defend the vast majority of the world’s people who already feed, clothe and shelter themselves in an ecologically responsible manner, including those who already know how to live low carbon lifestyles in New Zealand and other OECD countries. The alternative, is to maintain the illusion that rich people in OECD countries can live off the backs of the rest of the planet’s inhabitance, stealing whats left of their land and resources, unleashing new technologies upon their world, in an attempt to sustain the unsustainable.

As explained by Tadzio Mueller and Alexis Passadakis in their article linked below, the only two examples of significant decreases in national greenhouse gas emissions have come about as the result of unintentional economic degrowth. We need new multiple green economies that are local, diverse and participatory, ones that can manage economic degrowth positively and democratically. Today we have the chance to create a new kind of non-growth, non-greed driven economy, or even better, many new kinds of economies existing side by side, reflecting and providing for the needs of those participating in them because there cannot be just one new green globalised economy.

At its core, this Green Growth approach is the ultimate climate denial because it is the denial of the need to tackle the root causes of climate change. Whether those promoting Green Growth like it or not, the end of economic growth is imminent. Resisting it, which is the real impetus behind these Green Growth strategies, will only make things worse. The real opportunity we are being presented with is the chance to move towards non growth economies, led by the majority of people in the world who already know how to live like this. We should be taking the lead from them.

—

Additional notes:

According to an attendee of the OECD’s green growth and development workshop in Paris, Mr. Upton made it clear that, “whether people like it or not, the OECD’s extensive Green Growth Strategy is an economic growth strategy not an environmental strategy”. [link]

[1] Converging Technologies: Another word for ‘Cleantech’, is ‘converging technologies’, which refers to the way in which seemingly distinct technological fields such as the ones mentioned above, combined with information technology and even robotics can combine to create a powerful hybrid technology platform.

[2] Land Grab :  An aggressive taking of land, especially by military force, in order to expand territorial holdings or broaden power

Links:

Green capitalism and the climate: It’s economic growth - Tadzio Mueller and Alexis Passadakis

A critical review of biochar science and policy – Biofuelwatch

Small scale sustainable farmers are cooling down the earth

Friends of the Earth : Nanotechnology, climate and energy: Over-heated promises and hot air?

Next generation biofuels and synthetic biology – report by FIELD

Reports & Presentations – Biofuelwatch

Greed is good, as long as it’s green | Pundit

Photography : Nick Tapp

Keely Kidner

31st August 2011 – Wellington

Around 30 people rallied outside the Canadian Embassy in Wellington today to express solidarity with anti-tar sands activists in North America. This marks the second week of rolling civil disobedience on the White House lawn, where protesters are risking arrest to urge President Obama to say no to the controversial Keystone XL pipeline. The Keystone would carry tar sands crude from Northern Alberta, Canada all the way to Texas refineries, endangering communities along its path.

The tar sands are a deposit of bitumen (an impure mixture of hydrocarbons that can be refined into oil) which lie under the boreal forest in Northern Alberta, Canada. Most of the bitumen is extracted through open-pit mining, leaving massive tailings lakes visible from space and full of heavy metals and other pollutants which leak into the river. Extracting tar sands uses more water and creates more CO2 emissions than conventional oil extraction and wreaks havoc on plant and animal life in the region.

Besides the obvious destruction of one of the largest forest systems on Earth, the tar sands have damaging social impacts as well. Downstream from the mines, Indigenous communities are experiencing higher levels of illness, rare cancers and are harvesting fish with unsettling deformities. In violation of their rights under Treaty, First Nations Peoples are unable to eat traditional diets of moose and caribou for fear they may be poisoned.

But despite these growing concerns, the Canadian government continues to develop the tar sands with no hint of slowing down, essentially creating a sacrifice zone about the size of England. In fact, the Alberta government has never turned down a tar sands project, and through low royalties and corporate-friendly policies, has essentially subsidized the oil industry instead of sustainable alternatives. A better way forward would be to phase out tar sands once and for all, and invest in a renewable energy future for all Canadians.

The approval of the Keystone XL pipeline would legitimize and expand tar sands impacts to even more communities, putting aquifers, farmers, and First Nations Peoples in danger. Already over 500 arrests have been made on the White House lawn and a national day of action is planned in Ottawa, Canada for Sep 26. You can follow these actions at www.tarsandsaction.org and www.ottawaaction.ca .

But New Zealand has its own fossil fuel problems too. Fracking in Taranaki is harming local communities, deep sea oil drilling threatens our coastline and proposed lignite mining in Southland is another bad idea. Here and all around the world people are saying no to fossil fuel development and yes to a just, sustainable future that recognizes the rights of communities over corporations.

Keely is a Canadian student of linguistics, now living in Wellington and has been active in the struggle to stop the Tar Sands in her home country

Press Release: The People Of Parihaka

Letter of Position from Parihaka Hongongoi 2011

To the United Nations, the New Zealand Ministry of Economic Development and the NZ Petroleum & Minerals Department, the Department of Labour, the Energy Minister, the Taranaki Regional Council, and all Companies wishing to operate or buy into Petroleum works in our environment.

Ngā mihi,

We, the people of Parihaka, who are the descendants, morehu and followers of Te Whiti o Rongomai and Tohu Kakahi who meet every month on the Raa (the 18th and 19th of every month), wish to inform you that we do not consent to the mass expansion of exploratory surveying and drilling for petroleum products in the environment of our papakainga.

1. We do not grant permission for use of our tūpuna and papakainga names for the permits granted by the government, namely Tohu PEP 51149 and Parihaka PEP 51558. We find this deeply offensive to the kaupapa held by Tohu Kakahi, Te Whiti o Rongomai and the people of Parihaka. We were not consulted about this and we would like to know who, if anyone was consulted with for the use of these names.

2. We have serious concerns about the pollution of the moana, kaimoana and coastline in our environment from offshore oil spills, and the damage to marine life from the offshore seismic surveying. There are several oil and gas rigs off our coast with exploration in progress to construct many more rigs.

A large spill or continuous oil spills will seriously affect everyone’s ability to use and enjoy this marine environment and badly damage the country’s ‘clean, green’ image and the billion dollar tourism and fishing industries.

3. We are concerned about the injection of unknown and known toxic chemicals into drilling fluids and the dumping of the waste on, into and under land, by or in waterways or in underground aquifers or discharging it to the air. The regional council monitoring reports are insufficient protection because their testing does not cover all chemicals being used, it is not independent and the required safety levels of chemicals are regularly being breached without proper clean up or future preventions being put in place. The resource consents that are required are generally non-notified, despite the activities being of interest to the wider community, especially tangata whenua who have a long history and long-term commitment to settlement here. What is more the regional council deems resource consents unnecessary for seismic surveying on land despite the storage and use of explosives, unknown chemicals and dumping of drilling wastes in our communities.

The continued and increased pollution of Taranaki lands and waters will further negatively impact our communities’ health and the local billion dollar farming, tourism and fishing industries on which much of the Taranaki community, and indeed much of the country, currently depends.

4. We also have grave concerns about the NZ government’s granting of the permits for this massive increase in petroleum exploration in our environment. This is during the scientifically-proven onset of climate change with full knowledge that fossil fuels make up a major portion of this country’s greenhouse gas emissions that are damaging the planet’s atmosphere.

Climate change and peak oil have catastrophic implications for billions of people around the world and for the survival of other fauna and flora. The permits allow far too much petroleum product to be taken far too quickly for the planet to cope with and leaves little for the future well-being of our uri (offspring).

5. We fear for the drill-site and rig workers. The current speed of petroleum extraction by industry and government does not provide sufficient safety mechanisms to minimise damage to the environment and site workers. All people deserve the dignity of a safe working place. Already we have lost far too many people to the unsafe fossil fuel extraction industry and we do not want to lose any more.

Under Te Tiriti o Waitangi and He Wakaputanga o Te Rangatiratanga o Niu Tirini and the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples we retain our rights of “tino rangatiratanga” sovereignty) over our “whenua” (lands), “kainga” (homes) and “taonga katoa” (all that we treasure). Under The Treaty of Waitangi the crown also guaranteed all Maori “exclusive and undisturbed possession of their lands and estates, forests, fisheries and other properties.”

Many waahi tapu have been damaged or destroyed in Taranaki from earth works for well sites and other activities. At least four oil spills in the last ten years have denied hapu the ability to eat their kaimoana for some period of years. All the activities in points 1 to 5 of this letter are in direct breach of the above agreements with the crown, and breach international laws of human rights by threatening surety of the necessities of life such as safe, clean drinking water and healthy food.

The ownership of many of the desired lands for drilling, including subterranean, seabed, water and airways and in particular the EEZ (Exclusive Economic Zone), are or soon will undergo lengthy and expensive legal proceedings to determine treaty settlement and ownership. This will create an unstable and expensive atmosphere for any exploration or drilling companies wishing to proceed their activities in this region. Promised protests and land occupations will also disrupt activities and will call on government to decline permits.

We have had over a hundred years of petroleum exploration and production in the greater Taranaki region which has contributed to the country’s economy and resource base. The activities have however caused known and unknown harm to the local and global environment. Councils and government have had the imposed governance of these areas in this time and they have failed. These petroleum resources need to be recognised under the katiakitanga and ownership of Maori to ensure their availability for the greater good of all people for all time, as we move to reduced energy consumption and renewable energy sources.

To the government, we demand that you cease the permitting of petroleum mining and exploration in our environment. To the regional council, we demand that you cease the granting of resource consents for those mining activities. To the companies, we demand that you cease your exploration and drilling activities in our environment now. We call on the United Nations to investigate these breaches of human rights and we call on our thousands of whanau and supporters nationally and internationally to oppose this current mass expansion of petroleum exploration.

Witnessed by:

Rangikotuku Rukutai, Kaitiaki o Toroanui Marae

Maata Wharehoka, Kaitiaki o Te Niho o Te Atiawa

Ruakere Hond, Kaikorero o Te Paepae o Te Raukura

[Copied to: the South Taranaki and the New Plymouth District Councils, the local MPs, PKW, TPK, the Taranaki Iwi Trust, the Maori Party, the Mana Party, the Iwi Chairs Forum and ALL MEDIA]

Links:

Climate Justice Taranaki

Climate Justice movement growing in Taranaki

Aotearoa New Zealand : new fossil fuel extraction projects will be resisted

Report Back from Camp for Climate Action Gathering Aotearoa – Parihaka

Hello World!

Kia Ora Friends, Colleagues and Comrades, Welcome to Climate Justice Aotearoa!

Please take a look around the website and ‘like’ our facebook group here.

What is Climate Justice Aotearoa?

Those involved in CJA got together because we saw a space that needed to be filled in New Zealand’s environmental and climate change movement. We are a New Zealand based collective committed to advancing social and ecological justice in the context of a world teetering on the brink ecological destabilisation.

We wish to provide information on climate change related topics through research, education and communication. To do so, we will be sending out regular blogs about climate justice issues here in Aotearoa, speaking with people around New Zealand and overseas about climate justice, researching environmental issues from a social justice perspective and trying our very best to ensure this information is communicated to you; whether you are involved in climate justice focussed mahi yourself, environmental issues more broadly, or are just kind of curious. We want to explore what is really happening to our environment and why, so that New Zealanders can make informed decisions about what to do about it, and what real solutions and pathways forward can look like.

Climate Justice Aotearoa is linked in with a large and growing global movement of grassroots organizations and networks of people acting on Climate Justice issues everywhere. You can read more about our aims and the main avenues of our work on this page.

Why is Climate Justice Aotearoa needed today?

Aotearoa’s environmental movement is growing. It’s positively blooming. Thousands upon thousands of New Zealanders are taking action against climate change. A powerful movement is emerging to stop fossil fuel extraction aimed at defending communities from exploitative extraction companies and keeping fossil fuels in the ground themselves. It is incredibly inspiring.

Not all solutions to the climate crisis were created equal. In fact, some of them, especially the ones designed to keep large corporations pockets lined with cash, are just plain dangerous, ineffective and/or damaging to the environment and people. If we want to act for change and bring about a just and sustainable world, then we need to be clear about what we are working towards. We need solutions that will help people and planet, that will really tackle climate change, and move us towards more economic and social equality, not further away from it.

Climate Justice Aotearoa exists because we want to help those acting for change to be as informed as possible, and linked into global efforts to confront the root causes of climate change and bring about a better world, from below.

So what is Climate Justice? See our page HERE.

What we can CJA do for you?- Just ask!

• We can share information
• We can speak to your group about climate justice in Aotearoa and elsewhere
• We can put you in contact with others acting for climate justice both here in Aotearoa and in other parts of the world. Or point you to someone who may know more about a particular issue that you are interested in.
• If you have a story to tell about environmental justice or injustice, and what you’re doing about it, please let us know!

What can you do for CJA?

1) Keep updated on our blog [this website], share it with friends and colleagues

2) LIKE our facebook page HERE

Please also get in touch with us, say hi and share with us any feedback on our website and organization. We also need money to be able to do what we do, so if you are feeling generous please donate on our Support Page HERE

New Zealanders from Dunedin to Auckland led globalised protests to commemorate the one-year anniversary of BP’s Gulf Oil Disaster by demanding an end to the environmental destruction and climate destabilization created by fossil fuel and other extractive industries. Communities of Aotearoa stood alongside environmental, climate, and social justice groups all over the world in an International Day of Direct Action Against Extraction.

New Zealanders in Taranaki, Wellington, Dunedin, Whanganui, Nelson, Auckland, the East Cape and more were joined by Gulf Coast residents fighting offshore drilling, Appalachians resisting mountaintop removal coal mining, Pennsylvania and New York residents opposing natural gas hydrofracking, Canadians fighting tar sands mining in Alberta and more across the globe.

Reports of global activities are being compiled by Rising Tide North America at the www.extractionaction.net website.

Looks like we’ve got a movement on our hands…

The Potential of Rio + 20

In June 2012 Rio de Janeiro will host an event that may symbolize the end of a period and the beginning of a new one. Rio + 20 is expected to carry out a comprehensive assessment of the 1990s UN conferences beginning with Rio 92 and including the conferences on population, human rights, women, social development and the urban agenda. It is also during 2012 that the Kyoto Protocol will expire.

The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development / Rio +20 proposes to discuss three issues: assessment of compliance with the commitments agreed to in Rio 92, the green economy and the institutional architecture for sustainable development. Rio + 20 therefore, has the potential to be a moment to, at the same time, assess the successes and failures of the past two decades and also identify a new agenda of struggles ahead.

Click here to read the Brazilian environmental and social justice group FASE’s discussion piece on RIO+20

April 15, 2011 | Andrew E. Miller

“So, you are an artist and activist?” I inquired with Ora Barlow as we sat down for morning coffee in mid-March. “I’m just a local person who is concerned about the future of my community,” she replied.

By happenstance, our respective travel plans had brought us both to the west coast of Aotearoa’s (New Zealand’s) north island. A Maori musician from the Te Whanau-a-Apanui people, Ora plays with the three-woman band Pacific Curls. They had just performed the night before in New Plymouth. I was there on vacation with my wife, visiting my brother-in-law.

In the last year, Ora has become an accidental activist. On June 1st of 2010, New Zealand‘s government publicly announced a contract with Petrobras, offering a huge off-shore gas exploration concession along the north island’s east coast. This was a shocker for coastal Maori communities, who were hearing about the deal for the first time. The announcement was made right at the height of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Local communities were swift to express their discontent: they organized coordinated beach protests, lighting bonfires up and down the coast as an act of symbolic opposition to the plans. At the time, organiser Ani Pahuru-Huriwai said. “This is the way we all informed each other, signaled each other way back – through fire. In this case we’re saying that it’s Petrobras that we’re all against.”

Since then, Ora has focused her energies on public education at a local level about Petrobras and what’s at stake for the Raukumara Basin. She helped organize a highly successful “Stop the Drilling!” music festival to raise these issues with Maori community members, which attracted 1,500 concert-goers. She also contributed to a three-page issue brief that is currently educating people within New Zealand and beyond about the campaign.

Though some areas of New Zealand have seen oil and gas exploitation for decades, the right-wing government has just recently launched their “Petroleum Action Plan” to expand such activities far and wide all around the country. Communities elsewhere are also just beginning to understand the deals having been made with oil and gas interests. Local resistance efforts are flowering around the country as a result.

Listening to Ora, I was stunned to hear that consultation with indigenous communities around resource extraction within their territories is as bad or perhaps worst than what we see around the Amazon. Community access to prior information is zero and the “consultation” is held with government-selected councils that are unrepresentative of the actual grassroots communities. I asked myself, “Is it really possible that the government of New Zealand is on par with that of Peru?”

Encouragingly, the localized resistance campaigns around New Zealand are gaining momentum. Understanding the importance of strength in unity, they are reaching out to other communities within their region and increasingly across the country. A number are organizing events as part of the April 20th global day of action against fossil fuels.

In the immediate term, the campaign against Petrobras’ deep-water concession is heating up. A local indigenous call for national solidarity has galvanized a group of Kiwi environmental groups to launch a flotilla of ships from Auckland harbor to the East Coast. The initiative is starting to bring a national-level media spotlight on the situation.

For our part, I committed that Amazon Watch would work to connect Ora and fellow Maori leaders with strategic contacts including Brazilian indigenous federations and organizations dealing with Petrobras in other contexts. As we have seen with our work across the Amazon, direct indigenous to indigenous exchanges of information and solidarity can help mutually strengthen their respective struggles.

In a serendipitous turn of events, I learned that Sydney Possuelo – the renowned Brazilian defender of the Amazon’s “lost tribes” or indigenous peoples in state of voluntary isolation – is living in New Zealand for the next two years. During my visit I facilitated an initial meeting between him and a local climate justice activist, Gary Cranston, who is working closely with Ora and the Petrobras campaign. My hope is that Sydney will provide first-hand knowledge of Petrobras and Brazilian connections that will strengthen indigenous efforts in New Zealand.

The success of this kind of campaign will depend on local conviction, persistence, and creativity. Indigenous organizers like Ora Barlow are part of a new generation of leaders who will carry the campaign forward in the years to come. As she and others step forward to challenge powerful economic and political interests, we should educate ourselves about their campaign and offer support when and where we can.

To learn more:

• Petrobras and the Co2lonization of Aotearoa issue brief
• No Drilling Aotearoa
• Stop Deep Sea Oil

Your support and solidarity is urgently needed!

Tino Rangatiratanga Flag : symbol of Maori self determination which embraces the spiritual link Māori have with Papatuanuku (Earthmother) and is a part of the international drive by indigenous people for self determination.

1. Contact media in your country, write a press release supporting the communities in New Zealand that are threatened by mining activities and supporting their efforts to defend themselves. International media coverage is needed to put pressure on Petrobras and the New Zealand government NOW.

2.Use this information to alert your colleagues, networks and members of your organisation to what is happening in New Zealand through email lists, newsletters, magazines, bulletins etc.

3.Send a message of global support and solidarity to nodrillnz@gmail.com. Let these communities know that they are not alone, and that they are a part of a global movement for climate justice.

4.Consider taking action against Petrobras in your own country as a way of supporting what is happening here, and building links between your organisation or community fighting Petrobras [or other extractive companies] and the communities of Aotearoa threatened by fossil fuel exploration projects.

PETROBRAS AND THE CO2LONISATION OF AOTEAROA

On the 1^st June 2010, just 42 days after the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill and 44 days before the well was capped, Brazilian company Petrobras was awarded by The New Zealand Government a five year exploratory license for oil and gas in the Raukumara Basin, situated in the East Cape / Bay of Plenty region of the North Island of Aotearoa (New Zealand). The license starts from a mere 4 kilometres offshore and goes out to 110 km. The granted permit area is 12,330 sq km. The New Zealand government sees just 6% of the profit Petrobras makes. If the project goes ahead, Petrobras will bring in their own workforce and maybe offer a few short term jobs.

The area for exploration is the traditional fishing grounds of indigenous peoples from the tribes and sub-tribes of Te Whānau-a-Apanui and Ngāti Porou. There was no prior consultation with these communities whatsoever.

The New Zealand National Party was elected in 2008 to lead a coalition government that has been committed to opening up the land and sea around the country for oil, gas and other minerals extraction in the interests of national economic development. A policy to mine pristine conservation lands was abandoned in 2010 when huge public opposition, supported by many environmental organisations, expressed widespread opposition to the plan, however, the areas remaining open to exploitation cover an area 42 times greater than that which is currently being mined, across most of Aotearoa.

A visit from a vessel contracted to Petrobras is expected to arrive off the East Cape on the weekend of the 2^nd-3^rd of April 2011. In response to a call to oppose deep sea oil drilling from East Cape iwi (tribe) Te Whanau a Apanui, a flotilla of ships is to set sail from Auckland, for the East Cape to confront the exploration vessel. People are being asked to light fires on the beaches and hui (meetings) are being called along the coast to mobilise the communities on land.

BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill superimposed on to the Raukumera permit zone

LOCAL IMPACTS
The Raukumara Basin sits on a major and active fault line. In a high seismic activity area such as the Raukumara Basin there is an extremely high possibility that there would be damage to any sub-sea installations (wells, pipe lines) in the probable event of an earth quake. The exploration area regularly experiences +4 or +5 magnitude quakes and lies on the same faultline as the one that recently devastated the South Island city of Christchurch.

The massive oil and gas spill in the Gulf of Mexico, which took three months to cap and spilled millions of barrels of oil, was an exploratory drill. The depth of the exploratory drill

in the Gulf of Mexico was 1500 metres. In the Raukumara Basin proposed depths range from 1500 metres to 3000 metres, yet NZ has almost no capacity to deal with a major spill and has no adequate or enforceable means of compensation. It is entirely unknown what impacts the 240db sonic booms shot from the exploration vessel during the 2d seismic exploration phase will have on aquatic life, particularly regarding marine mammals. The area is at the heart of a well documented whale migration route.

The region’s history revolves around the moana (sea) and the Iwi (Maori tribes) have many stories that speak of the cultural and spiritual significance of the sea. It holds some of the most central and important history of the iwi threatened by Petrobras’s search for hydrocarbons and profit on behalf of its shareholders.

For as long as the Maori communities of the East Cape can remember, their daily lives, tikanga (customs) and whakapapa (ancestry) have been connected to the sea. “The sea is forever in our lives” says coastal community member Ora Barlow of Te Whānau-ā-Apanui.

The CO2lonisation of Aotearoa

PETROBRAS THE GIANT

Petrobras has recently become the third biggest petroleum company in the world after implementing the largest share offer in the history of capitalism, specifically to raise funds for offshore oil exploration at a time when the world stands on the brink of runaway climate change and global oil reserves are peaking. Increasingly dan

gerous extraction projects are becoming more commonplace in an industry desperate to maintain its grip on the world’s energy systems. As a result, communities most directly affected by the exploitation of fossil fuel reserves are facing unprecedented levels of risk as these companies target what they call ‘unconventional’ fossil fuel reserves.

The New Zealand government has given permission to a foreign company, with an abhorrent social and environmental record the permission to threaten these coastal communities without any prior consultation whatsoever. An oil spill will mean nothing less than cultural genocide for a region that has managed to maintain a great deal of its traditionally cared for land and traditional knowledge of environmental management against all odds. Toka Tū Moana is their renowned phrase (whakatauakii) that declares steadfastness and resilience, standing firm and unshakeable, despite adversity. A great deal of effort is made within these communities to maintain knowledge of traditional environmental management and many programmes are underway to transition these communities back towards states of true community resilience. “Our tipuna (ancestors) practised sustainable living, we can do it too, they relied on whanaungatanga (collective living), and so do we.” – Ani Pahuru-Huriwai, Ngati Porou

However, an oil spill, and climate change itself may well wipe out the entire coastal community’s ability to maintain whatever level of traditional food sovereignty and self sufficiency they have left.

COMMUNITY REACTION

When the government announced their awarding of this permit to Petrobras, local Maori symbolised their opposition to the plans of Petrobras and the New Zealand government by lighting fires along their coastline. Ms Pahuru-Huriwai of Ngati Porou (one of the closest communities to the permit area) said. “This is the way we all informed each other, signalled each other way back – through fire. In this case we’re saying that it’s Petrobras that we’re all against.”.“It’s a serious threat to us and our kapata kai (food cupboard). It’s not just a Maori thing either – we think every Kiwi (New Zealander) has an issue with it. Everyone who is scared of what’s happening, they need to be here.”

Several months later and with no sign of Petrobras or the New Zealand government changing their plans, a music festival under the banner of ‘Stop The Drilling!’ was held in Te Kaha, a region adjacent to the permit area. One and a half thousand people showed up to show their support, dwarfing the resident population of that particular tribal

area. Crowds shouted ‘Stop the Drilling!!’ and spoke of defending their community from attack by sea.

Petrobras have approached local runanga (tribal leaders) and have entered into a process of communication with them. The runanga have communicated to Petrobras the position of the communities that no consent will be given to Petrobras to follow through with the project. Preparations have been made by Iwi leadership to apply for a judicial review of the decision made to grant the permit, and for communication with the United Nations while local Maori have, with support from environmentalists, fishermen and others, established the Ahi Ka Action Group to campaign for a revocation of the permit and a decision not to explore the area.

The Ahi Ka Action Group have distributed 20,000 flyers to raise public awareness of the situation, they have established a basic website and have lobbied local authorities to throw their weight behind efforts to prevent exploration and extraction activities in the permit area. The group has been linking up with individuals and groups in other parts of Aotearoa and overseas who are under threat from mining in their area. A national networking and information sharing website is under development at: www.nodrilling.org.nz

Petrobras has contracted a vessel to undertake the first stage of seismic testing in the Raukumara permit area and this work is due to start in March 2011.

A MOVEMENT IS FORMING

With such a massive proportion of land and sea being opened up to mining companies, communities across the country are getting ready to defend themselves.

On the West coast of the North Island communities of Taranaki are also under attack from land and sea with 13 new onshore/coastal permits and 15 new offshore permits being handed out by the government. Parihaka, a settlement of huge cultural and historical significance  which In the 1870s and 1880s became the centre of a major campaign of non-violent resistance to European occupation of confiscated land in the area is already surrounded by oil and gas exploration projects and is now facing even more. The company Greymouth Petroleum is focus­sing on northern to central Taranaki while companies Kea Petroleum, TAG Oil, Green Gate, L&M Energy and Todd Energy are targeting the rest of inland eastern and southern Taranaki. There is a great deal of concern surrounding the increased use of hydraulic fracturing to access oil and gas reserves in this area, a highly dangerous extraction process recently banned in some places in of the United States.

Down South, government-owned Solid Energy and other coal companies want to mine massive quantities of lignite, a low-quality brown coal, that lies under Southland farmland. They plan to turn it into briquettes, urea fertiliser, and synthetic diesel. At least 6.2 billion tonnes of lignite is technically and economically recoverable in 10 major deposits in Otago and Southland. The in-ground lignite resource is approximately 11 billion tonnes. A wide range of local and national groups are gearing up to stop these developments.

Up North, permits for a wide range of minerals, including gold are spurring communities into defensive action and communities are linking up with one another and a national level movement is coalescing to stop the drilling across the country.

CLIMATE JUSTICE

Of course, this isn’t exactly a new phenomenon, Petrobras and the fossil fuel industry in general has a long and bloody history of threatening the very existence of communities in order to access fossil fuel reserves. “it’s an international issue and we have to make sure our local support is strong and then globalise” – Ora Barlow, Te Whānau-ā-Apanui

While politicians fiddle around in flailing international negotiations to halt runaway climate change, their hands tied behind their backs by the most powerful consortium of companies the world has ever known, these communities, and others directly impacted by the root causes and impacts of the climate crisis are successfully standing together and defeating them in their own back yards.

“We must stand united with other hapu, other iwi, other New Zealanders who care about the environment. We must keep pressure on our government to wake up and show some long-term leadership, make Aotearoa a Renewable Energy Country, no longer reliant on Fossil Fuels like oil & gas, that the human race is quickly exhausting. We are a nuclear free country; we need to be a fossil fuel free country too!” – Ani Pahuru-Huriwai, Ngati Porou

“We must support those who carry this kaupapa for us to the international stage. We must unite with other indigenous peoples and learn from their experiences.” – Ani Pahuru-Huriwai, Ngati Porou

As the case of the BP oil spill and those lower income communities hit hardest by hurricane Katrina illustrates, the communities most vulnerable to environmental destruction are also those most susceptible to the climate crises. Those hit first and worst are most often the least responsible for the crisis yet are actively leading the fight against major climate polluters. They require globalised support and solidarity in defending their answers to an ecological crisis which they have not caused or reaped untold profits from.

Te Whanau a Apanui spokeswoman Dayle Takutimu has called on the whole country to support their stand, at a time when seismic surveying by Brazilian oil giant Petrobras is expected to begin off the Cape.

“We are resolute in our defence of our ancestral lands and waters from the destructive practice of deep sea oil drilling. This is an issue for all peoples of New Zealand and we call on those who support our opposition to stand with us in defence of what we all treasure,” she says.

Links

Flotilla Heeds Iwi’s Call To Stop Deep Sea Oil

stopdeepseaoil.org.nz

nodrilling.wordpress.com

climate justice taranaki

Withoutyourwalls – climate justice infoshop

Facebook group : Stop the Drilling on our East Coast

Contact : climatejusticeaotearoa@riseup.net for global climate justice movement related contact on the situation