The November 2011 edition of AEFJN's Forum for Action is now online. It contains articles on the ethical responsibility of the Church on the climate issue, on the clean up of the Ogoniland oil spills, which will take decades, on the spread of Libyan arms in the Sahel, on the production of medicines in Africa and on the EU's attempt to force African countries to sign EPAs.
The national election campaign officially started the 28th October in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), exactly one month ahead of historic presidential and legislative elections, scheduled for November 28 2011. 41 humanitarian and human rights organizations, among them AEFJN, have expressed concern about the high political tension and deteriorating security situation. They have called upon all Congolese and international actors involved to take urgent measures to prevent electoral violence, better protect civilians and ensure credible, free and fair elections.UN Climate Summit
December 2011 - Durban
Negotiators at the UN climate talks have narrowly avoided a collapse, agreeing to the bare minimum deal possible. The plan gets the Green Climate Fund up and running without any sources of funding, preserves a narrow pathway to avoid 4 degrees of warming and gets a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol without key members.
REDD strongly criticized by Indigenous Peoples
While in Durban negotiations continued on REDD (UN programme for Reduction of Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation), an NGO report strongly criticised the market mechanism which, it says, is similar to a new tool for land grabbing in the South. In the name of the fight against climate change, indigenous communities are seeing their access to forests being confiscated. The REDD programme does not reduce global warming, but at the Durban conference it was endorsed for financial reasons.
Indigenous peoples ask for a moratorium on REDD+ projects: To know more