News of Note 8/1/25: Rights Violations in Madagascar, Ecuador Cuts Environment Ministry, Indigenous Science Revives Panama Land
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Madagascar government condemned for violating rights of indigenous group (Jurist News)
“Amnesty International conducted research in six villages populated by Antandroy internally displaced peoples (IDP), learning that between 2018 and 2024, roughly 90,000 people were forced to make a 1,500km journey, from their ancestral lands in the South, to Boeny in the North of the country.”
Ecuador Axes its Environment Ministry, Paving Way for Unchecked Extraction on Indigenous Lands and in Biodiverse Forests (Amazon Frontlines)
“On Thursday, July 24, Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa issued Executive Order 60, eliminating the Ministry of the Environment, Water, and Ecological Transition (MAATE) and transferring its functions to the Ministry of Energy and Mines. This decision effectively dismantles Ecuador’s environmental oversight system, concentrating power in the very institution responsible for promoting oil and mining—industries at the heart of Noboa’s plan to boost foreign investment and drive economic growth.”
Indigenous leadership and science revive Panama’s degraded lands (Mongabay)
“Two Indigenous groups in Panama are collaborating with researchers in a long-term reforestation project that promises them income in return for growing native trees for carbon sequestration. As part of the project, researchers from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) have partnered with the local leadership in the rural district of Ñürüm in the Ngäbe-Buglé Comarca, the largest officially recognized Indigenous land in Panama. [...] the project aims to plant native trees across 100 hectares (nearly 250 acres) in Ñürüm.”
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Peru and Ecuador’s Crude Gamble Faces Indigenous Wall of Resistance (Amazon Watch)
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Indigenous Communities in Colombia Mount Resistance against Canadian Oil (IC Magazine)
New research highlights tragic intersection between the disappearance of Indigenous women and human trafficking in Canada (Thomson Reuters)
Navajo Nation pushes for water rights as Colorado River shrinks (Utah News Dispatch)
Kiaʻi Papahānaumokuākea: Protecting our Puʻuhonua From Commercial Fishing (Kai Wi Ola)