Peru Approves Rules On Consulting With Indigenous Peoples

Peru Approves Rules On Consulting With Indigenous Peoples

 

Peru's government has approved regulations for the implementation of a new law aimed at improving consultation with indigenous communities before the development of natural resource projects. The regulations, which were published in the official gazette El Peruano on Tuesday, will go into effect Wednesday. The legislation, known as the prior consultation law, was the first law approved by President Ollanta Humala, who took office in July. Government officials have said the law will be an important tool to resolve social conflicts in the country's key mining and energy sectors.

 

Lakota Olympian Billy Mills’s New Race

 

A highlight of the National Indian Gaming Association’s annual tradeshow and convention, held April 1 to 4 in San Diego, will be a special event with Billy Mills, 1964 Olympic gold medalist and the national spokesperson for Running Strong for American Indian Youth. He is scheduled to join Dr. Donna Galbreath, president of the Association of American Indian Physicians (AAIP), and Kickapoo Tribal Chairman Steve Cadue in raising awareness and funds for diabetes prevention in Indian country. Cadue and Mills serve as honorary co-chairs of the AAIP Diabetes Plan, which works with “American Indians in underserved communities to reduce morbidity and premature mortality, and eliminate health disparities associated with diabetes,” according to a press release. It is a subject with which Mills is all too familiar. “I am a type 2 diabetic,” he said. “I was diagnosed as hypoglycemic and as borderline diabetic in 1963—one year before I won the Olympic gold medal.”

 

Hispanics spell out why labels don't fit

 

Public debate is raging over how to describe George Zimmerman, the man who admitted shooting unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin. Is he Hispanic? Or white? Or both? Should his identity even be raised in the news? Amid the whirlwind of controversy comes a new survey about why the label "Hispanic" doesn't always fit those it attempts to describe. A majority of Hispanics or Latinos don't fully embrace that term; instead, they most often identify themselves by their family's country of origin, said the Pew Hispanic Center study released Wednesday.

 

How Bolivia Lost Its Hat

 

Over the approximately 200 years of its independence [5], Bolivia has lost about half its original territory. Comparing a map of this “Greater Bolivia” to one of the country’s present incarnation, it’s as if somebody cut off three of Bolivia’s limbs — or rather two limbs, in the southeast and southwest, and a curious, flat-top hat in the north [6].At the root of Bolivia’s partial erasure are valuable resources: specifically rubber, guano [7] and oil. That Bolivia lost each of those fights was not just a result of neighborly coveting, but also internal strife. Like many mineral-rich states [8], Bolivia’s natural wealth makes it potentially rich and powerful, but in reality quite weak.  

 

Gambling on nation-building

 

That sovereignty is still a topic of discussion at all should be surprising. America’s constitution names three sovereigns: the federal government, states and tribes. The “treaties” America signed with tribes in the 18th and 19th centuries also implied sovereign parties. Tribes could not keep armies or devise a currency, but they could issue their own passports, as the Iroquois have famously done (which made their lacrosse team miss a tournament in 2010, after Britain refused to recognise the documents). The Iroquois, the Sioux and the Ojibwe (Chippewa), even separately declared war on Germany in 1941.

Uncontacted Tribes Threatened by Peru Gas Project, NGO Claims

 

The Peruvian government is drawing heat from some NGOs and indigenous tribes over its decision to continue with the expansion of the controversial Camisea natural gas project onto land inhabited by uncontacted indigenous tribes. Survival International, an NGO that aims to protect indigenous communities, claims that Peru and the six companies that make up the Camisea consortium have violated United Nations guidelines that protect the land of uncontacted tribes and prohibit the granting of land rights to develop natural resources. The land in question is part of block 88, the largest natural gas block of the project that will provide the resource domestically in Peru.

 

Climate Change Linked to Waterborne Diseases in Inuit Communities

 

As global warming triggers heavier rainfall and faster snowmelt in the Arctic, Inuit communities in Canada are reporting more cases of illness attributed to pathogens that have washed into surface water and groundwater, according to a new study. The findings corroborate past research that suggests indigenous people worldwide are being disproportionately affected by climate change. This is because many of them live in regions where the effects are felt first and most strongly, and they might come into closer contact with the natural environment on a daily basis. For example, some indigenous communities lack access to treated water because they are far from urban areas.

 

Senate Bill 2109 Seeks to Extinguish Navajo and Hopi Water Rights

 

Senators Jon Kyl, Arizona - R, and John McCain, Arizona - R, will be in Tuba City on Thursday, April 5, 2012, to persuade Navajo Nation and Hopi Tribal leaders to give up their peoples' aboriginal and Treaty-guaranteed priority Water Rights by accepting a "Settlement Agreement" written to benefit some of the West's most powerful mining and energy corporations. They are doing so by trying to persuade the Navajo Nation and Hopi leaders to support and endorse Senate Bill 2109.