New research: European north under siege by mining
New research by the Yes to Life, No to Mining Network has revealed a spike in mining projects and massive expansion of areas under concession for mining in Sweden, Finland, and Norway. Read more ▸
Europe and Russia
Indigenous peoples’ food systems: Inari Sámi and Snowchange share key messages
Arctic Inari Sámi community, and Snowchange (ICCA Consortium Member) have authored a major case study in the in the latest book on Indigenous food systems co-published by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Read more ▸
Exhibition on pastoral territories of life
The exhibition “Territories of life on the edge: Pastoral Commons of the Mediterranean Mountains in the 21st-century” highlights bio-cultural diversity within a shared space, the resilience of communities, the threats they face, and conservation challenges in Euro-Mediterranean pastoral territories of life. Read more ▸
Montenegro community successfully prevents military training in Sinjajevina pastures
In snowy and sub-zero conditions from October to December, a protest camp by local community members prevented NATO from entering the area. Read more ▸
EU should suspend Montenegro membership talk until it stops militarizing Sinjajevina
Montenegro must stop militarizing Sinjajevina highland pastures, global and local civil society rights groups urge in a new campaign. European Union has been asked to suspend membership talks with Montenegro. Read more ▸
Community-led restoration in the Jukajoki river basin raises hope for boreal territories of life
In Finland, the Selkie village community’s success to restore territories of life in the Jukajoki river basin raises hope for national-scale landscape restoration. Mining and other extractive activities degraded boreal peatlands in the Nordic country. But the villagers and fishers of Selkie successfully used local ecological knowledge and legal actions to stop destructive mining. Read more ▸
Celebrating Indigenous and Community Contributions to World Oceans Day
ICCA Consortium Members and Honorary members elevated the voices of Indigenous peoples and local communities in events on small-scale fisheries and ocean governance. Read more ▸
The Evolving Crisis in Sinjajevina
Last September, we published an alert about Sinjajevina, Montenegro, where local communities and civil society were organizing to defend their pasturelands, in the face of government plans to occupy and use it as a military artillery testing range. Our Honorary member Pablo Domínguez tells us how the Sinjajevina communities have been confronting the crisis since then. Read more ▸
BIOSEC podcast on community conservation in Romania and Rwanda
Emerging biodiversity and wildlife policies may have the potential to change the same-old-same-old approaches of colonialist fortress conservation. Read more ▸
Third ICCA Site Registered in Finland: GoldCrest Forest
“GoldCrest” is a small old-growth forest site of great importance to the local Selkie village that is now registered in the global ICCA Registry hosted by UNEP-WCMC. The forest had been under a threat of being clear cut, but thanks to the Landscape Rewilding Programme, it has now been spared. An article by Snowchange. Read more ▸
Multimedia: Fishing for the future — Climate and young fishermen in Finland
The effects of climate change this winter have hit the fisheries across boreal Finland like never before. Our Member Snowchange rises to the challenge with a Master-Apprentice programme. In a beautiful multimedia piece, we learn how Snowchange is transmitting ancient skills and the preparation of traditional fish recipes to local young people. Read more ▸
Big Football Team Mega-Mall vs. Galician Local Community Forest
As the community forest of Monte Veciñal en Man Común de Tameiga (Spain) is threatened by the construction of a mega-mall owned by a football team, the local community is defending its commons, with the support of Iniciativa Comunales (ICCA Consortium Member). Read more ▸
Dr. Marc Foggin
Auditor of the accounts and Ombudsperson
Pastoral Stone Enclosures as Biological Cultural Heritage: Galician and Cornish Examples of Community Conservation
Co-authored by Joám Evans Pim, from our Member organisation Vilar Woods Commons Community, this paper describes how Frojám and Ladydown Moor ICCAs-Territories of Life are recovering their biocultural values, especially in terms of identity and positive conservation outcomes. Read more ▸
Sarah Ryder
Operations Coordinator
Truth and (Re)Conciliation for the Sámi in Finland — or a Way for the State to Wash its Hands?
Preparations have been made in Finland to establish a truth and reconciliation commission regarding the indigenous Sámi people. As the plans go forward, Aslak Holmberg, Vice President of the Saami Council, stipulates that unless this process is prepared to change the political marginalisation of the Sámi, there is little reason for opening old wounds for what could otherwise be an empty apology. Read more ▸
From a ‘Territory of Life’ to a ‘Territory of Death and Destruction’? Save Sinjajevina!
In Montenegro, local communities and civil society are organizing to defend the pasture area of Sinjajevina, used by pastoral tribes for millennia, and now threatened by government plans to occupy it for military artillery testing. Official studies have recommended giving the area a protected status but those are being hastily set aside… Read more ▸
Governing Water, Governing Biodiversity – Highlighting The Role Of Indigenous Peoples At The 2019 World Water Week
Paul Sein Twa, ICCA Consortium Honorary member, participated in the World Water Week in Stockholm, where he strongly advocated for the recognition of ICCAs’ contributions through a right-based approach to conservation, as a key element for the success of any ongoing and future environmental protection and climate change initiatives. Read more ▸
Yes To Life, No To Mining Launches new ‘Emblematic Cases’ From Frontline Communities
A new collection of interactive case studies from the Yes to Life, No to Mining Network, of which the ICCA Consortium is part, shares the stories of communities resisting mining, restoring damaged ecosystems, and protecting and developing alternatives to extractivism. Read more ▸
Koitajoki River Documented in a New Seining Film
“Koitajoki”, a documentary film, has been released by Snowchange, Member of ICCA Consortium; the community of Ala-Koita fishermen; PrettyGoodProductions; and the Interreg SHAPE project. It focuses on an iconic, but highly endangered cultural fishery in Karelia: river seining. Read more ▸
