indigenous leaders

Safe Passage, Guardians of the Forest – 2017

Safe Passage, Guardians of the Forest: On Tuesday 24th October 2017 Safe Passage held a rally outside Parliament on the first anniversary of the destruction of the Calais ‘Jungle’ calling for help for the hundreds of refugees still sleeping rough in Calais. Later I photographed a rally by Guardians of the Forest, indigenous leaders from Latin America, Indonesia and Africa on their way to the COP23 UN Climate Change Conference in Bonn calling for the rights of indigenous peoples living in forests to be acknowledged and for an end to the destruction of these vital natural resources by mining and cash-crop cultivation.

Safe Passage for the Children of Calais

Old Palace Yard, Westminster

Safe Passage, Guardians of the Forest - 2017

Safe Passage held a rally before going in to lobby MPs on the first anniversary of the destruction of the Calais ‘Jungle’.

Although they praised the government for bringing some child refugees here from France they called for them to provide safe routes here for those still in Calais who have family here and to fill the remaining places allocated under the Dubs amendment.

Eighteen months after the Dubs amendment was passed by Parliament there were still refugee children in Calais who were entitled to come here to be reunited with their families and Safe Passage urged the Home Office to station an official there to help to transfer them and work with the French to provide safe accommodation for all refugee children.

The Dubs amendment had originally proposed that the UK offer a home to 3,000 unaccompanied children but as passed it allowed the government to set a number in consultation with local authorities. Shamefully when the scheme closed in 2020 the government stated it had met its commitment with the transfer of only 480 children.

They were given a special status to stay for for five years with the right to study, work, and to access public funds and healthcare, and to apply after this to settle permanently without paying a fee.

More pictures on My London Diary at Safe Passage for the Children of Calais

Guardians of the Forest – COP 23

Parliament Square

Indigenous leaders from Latin America, Indonesia and Africa held a rally in Parliament Square commemorating those who have lost their lives defending the forests against mining, the cutting down of forests for palm oil and other crops and other threats to the forests and those who live in them.

The Guardians of the Forest held up photographs of a few of the many who have been murdered for the profits of unscrupulous companies including many listed on the London stock exchange. Whole tribes have been forced from their homes and forests where they have lived for many generations, their ancestral rights to their lands ignored and dismissed by governments and occupiers.

They demanded their rights be recognised and for the destruction of the forests they have maintained in a renewable fashion for hundreds or thousands of years to be stopped. These forests have a vital role in removing carbon dioxide from the air and producing oxygen and play a vital role in opposing climate change and preserving biodiversity. As well as reducing emissions we also need to increase rather than reduce forests and other natural habitats that remove carbon dioxide.

*People spoke in their native languages and were interpreted into English*

The Guardians were on their way to the COP23 UN Climate Change Conference in Bonn to argue that the continuing maintenance of the forests by their indigenous inhabitants is vital in the fight against climate change, and that the clearance and devastation has to be stopped. But they face a difficult task against the huge numbers of well-funded lobbyists and powerful governments who dominate these events and have so far prevented the world taking the actions needed for long-term survival.

More on My London Diary – Guardians of the Forest – COP23.

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COP23 & Calais – 24th October 2017

Guardians of the Forest

Four years ago today we were waiting for the start of the COP23 UN Climate Change Conference in Bonn, though for various reasons it didn’t get the same publicity as COP26 coming up shortly in Glasgow. There were certainly fewer hopes of anything positive emerging as it was the first such meeting since Donald Trump had stated he was going to pull the US out of the Paris Agreement.

Those talks were unusual in that although held in Germany (who did most of the organising) they were actually the first hosted by a small-island developing state, with Fiji taking the Presidency.

As usual at such events, not a lot was achieved, with the US decision dominating much of the business in various ways. Syria announced that it would sign up to Paris during the event, leaving the US as the only country in the world saying it would not honour the agreement. And the US withdrawal made China a rather more important player.

Britain actually took part in the one major positive outcome, coming together with Canada to launch the ‘Powering Past Coal Alliance’, calling for the phasing out of coal in OEC and EU countries by 2030 and in the rest of the world before 2050. Unfortunately none of the major coal producing countries signed the pledge.

The Guardians of the Forest, indigenous leaders from Latin America, Indonesia and Africa, had stopped off in London on their way to Bonn and held a rally in Parliament Square to commemorate those who have lost their lives defending the forests against mining, the cutting down of forests for palm oil production and other crops and other threats to the forests and those who live in them.

Many companies listed on the London Stock Exchange are among those responsible for damage to the forests and the murder of indigenous people in search of profits, with whole tribes forcibly removed from their homes and their rights to the land they have lived in for many generations ignored.

Increasingly we are becoming aware of the importance of forests as sources of oxygen and in removing carbon dioxide and so combating global heating and the need for proper stewardship of these huge natural resources – rather than their destruction for short-term profit. Indigenous people have maintained them for hundreds or thousands of years in a renewable manner and their knowledge and continuing maintenance has a vital part to play in the fight against climate change.

Safe Passage

Earlier I’d photographed a rally by Safe Passage on the anniversary of the destruction of the Calais Jungle. Although around 750 child refugees had been brought here from France, they urged the government to provide safe and legal routes for the hundreds of refugees still living in Calais, many sleeping rough in terrible conditions.

In particular they called on them to fill the remaining 280 places allocated under the Dubs law to children but not yet filled 18 months after Parliament passed the law. Many of those still in France are entitled to come here to be reunited with their family and they called on the Home Office to have an official in France to aid their transfers.

More at:
Guardians of the Forest – COP23
Safe Passage for the Children of Calais

Three Years Ago

Three years ago on October 24th 2017 I photographed two protests over stories that have come back into the news in recent days.

This 9th October the House of Lords voted 317 to 223 for an amendment to the immigration bill proposed by Lord Alf Dubs and three other peers to ensure that rights under UK law to family reunion guaranteed under the EU’s Dublin III treaty continue after the transition period. The government used its House of Commons majority to overturn the amendment and it returned to the House of Lords on 21 October. The Lords on 21st October again backed the amendment by a majority of 78, the fourth defeat for the government over attempts to ensure lone child refugees maintain the right to be reunited with their families in the UK. The government will probably use its majority to again strike out the amendment and demonstrate yet again how little they care for others.

Back in 2017, Safe Passage were protesting at the Home Office’s dragging its feet in carrying out their obligations under Dublin III and the previous Dubs Amendment passed in May 2016 to act “as soon as possible” to relocate and support unaccompanied refugee children in Europe. It took four years until May 2020 for the 480 places provided for under this scheme to be allocated and the children allowed to come here. The government then announced it had ended the scheme and had no plans to allow any of the thousands still stranded in Europe to come here.

The second event on October 24th 2017 was a rally by indigenous leaders Guardians of the Forest from Latin America, Indonesia and Africa, on their way to the COP23 UN Climate Change Conference in Bonn, arguing that the continuing maintenance of the forests by their indigenous inhabitants is vital in the fight against climate change, and that the clearance and devastation has to be stopped.

This year, Monday 12th October, known to some as Columbus Day, was celebrated in America and around the world as Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Although first proposed in 1977 and recognised in the 1980s, this year saw a huge leap in its profile, with a US wide billboard advertising campaign featuring work by over 50 artists in what was called ‘The 2020 Awakening’.

Among the indigenous leaders speaking out on climate change is Ugandan activist Vanessa Nakate, who made the news earlier this year when she was cropped out of a photo showing Greta Thunberg at Davos. It made her realise that not just her but the whole of the majority world gets ignored by media coverage. She strongly makes the point that “The Global South is not on the front page, but it is on the front line,” already suffering from the effects of climate change.

At the start of October 2020 Time magazine named Nemonte Nenquimo from the Waorani people of Ecuador of its 100 most influential people of 2020. There is a longer interview with her on Huffington Post.

Facing the climate crisis we need to learn how to live on the Earth in ways that are sustainable and work with nature rather than destroy it. As Nakate puts it:

“People always say that it is hard for human beings to adapt to new ways of living, but the pandemic has shown that we can.”
“If we want a future that is liveable and healthy for everyone, it has to be sustainable, it has to protect the people, it has to protect the planet.”
Vanessa Nakate – Euronews.com