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Full statement on the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples August 9, 2020
Today, we salute all indigenous peoples who have persevered in their struggles for the respect and defense of our collective rights to ancestral land, resources and self
Join the indigenous peoples’ struggles to save our environment
he spate of killings of environment and land defenders in different parts of the world is a serious concern as it is ironic that our endeavors to preserve our environment is being suppressed with violent intensity.
Statement on the Laos dam collapse
Based on reports, many were killed in this tragedy and hundreds more are still missing. This devastation has expanded to other neighbouring communities including Cambodia, reports say.
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Full statement on the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples August 9, 2020
Today, we salute all indigenous peoples who have persevered in their struggles for the respect and defense of our collective rights to ancestral land, resources and self
Join the indigenous peoples’ struggles to save our environment
he spate of killings of environment and land defenders in different parts of the world is a serious concern as it is ironic that our endeavors to preserve our environment is being suppressed with violent intensity.
Statement on the Laos dam collapse
Based on reports, many were killed in this tragedy and hundreds more are still missing. This devastation has expanded to other neighbouring communities including Cambodia, reports say.
Debunk lies, amplify facts.
OPINION
Full statement on the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples August 9, 2020
Today, we salute all indigenous peoples who have persevered in their struggles for the respect and defense of our collective rights to ancestral land, resources and self
Join the indigenous peoples’ struggles to save our environment
he spate of killings of environment and land defenders in different parts of the world is a serious concern as it is ironic that our endeavors to preserve our environment is being suppressed with violent intensity.
Statement on the Laos dam collapse
Based on reports, many were killed in this tragedy and hundreds more are still missing. This devastation has expanded to other neighbouring communities including Cambodia, reports say.
Indonesia’s Indigenous Cek Bocek demand immediate suspension of PT AMNT’s Copper Mark certification
Indigenous Cek Bocek/Selesek Reen Sury people (recognized as Berco tribe) have filed a complaint against Indonesia’s PT Amman Mineral Nusa Tenggara (PT AMNT) at the Copper Mark for violations of multiple criteria of the leading assurance framework for copper value chain at its Elang mining project in the island of Sumbawa in West Nusa Tenggara. They have demanded immediate suspension of the PT AMNT’s Copper Mark certification and a full and independent investigation into the complaint submitted on 9 August – the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples.
Opposition to mining in Sumbawa originated in the early 2000s when the PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara – a subsidiary of USA-based mining company, Newmont Corporation – commenced exploration activities in the concession it received overlapping with ancestral lands of the Cek Bocek people.[1] Despite persistent objections, operations proceeded without substantive consultation or consent in Batu Hijau mine now operated by PT AMNT that acquired the mine in 2016. Batu Hijau mine is the second largest copper and gold mine in Indonesia and one of the world’s top and one of the world’s top five copper-equivalent contained reserves.[2] In July 2024, PT AMNT received the Copper Mark for the Batu Hijau mine while it “partially met” the Copper Mark’s criterion on Indigenous Peoples’ rights as per independent assessment to receive the certification.[3]
In 2025, PT AMNT commenced Phase 8 mining operations at Batu Hijau, which will continue through 2030. Operations will then transition to Elang deposit – one of the world’s largest undeveloped copper-gold resources discovered in 1991 – which is expected to be mined through 2046.[4] In parallel, they restarted exploration and drilling efforts across their concession areas while drilling efforts are ongoing at the Elang deposit.[5] PT AMNT is currently finalizing the Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) – a vital phase preceding the commencement of full-scale mining operations. For the Cek Bocek people, this stage represents a decisive moment that will determine their future.
“Our future is being determined at this stage. Without Free, Prior, and Informed Consent, the DFS serves only as a superficial exercise of legitimacy,” said Febriyan Anindita, Chairperson of Sumbawa chapter of Aliansi Masyarakat Adat Nusantara (AMAN) – the national level federation of Indigenous Peoples of Indonesia. AMAN had earlier opposed the 2022 stakeholder mapping study for Batu Hijau mine, which had stated that the existence of Indigenous Peoples in Sumbawa was still a matter of debate, during the assessment of Batu Hijau mine for the Copper Mark certification.
In the complaint, the Cek Bocek people have noted their formal legal recognition as Indigenous People through a local regulation adopted in 2020. They have thus asserted that the PT AMNT has operated on their ancestral lands without their Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) descecrating their culturally significant sites, including ancestral graves.
As Indigenous leader Datu Sukanda stated, “Our ancestral lands embody not only physical territory but the soul and history of our people. To disregard our voices is to undermine our very existence.”
Further, as per the complaint, PT AMNT has engaged in deliberate “greenwashing” by omitting information about conflict with the community from its reports, and even violated a formal mediation agreement facilitated by Indonesia’s National Commision on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) between the company and the Cek Bocek people. Those actions constitute not only the breach of criteria of Copper Mark on FPIC, Human Rights, Stakeholder Engagement and Grievance Mechanism, but also clear violations of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, among other international human rights laws and standards.
“If our concerns in the complaint are disregarded, Copper Mark risks becoming a mere instrument of greenwashing for corporate interests,” added Febriyan Anindita of AMAN. “This is a call for recognition, respect, and justice that must be realized before it is irrevocably delayed.”
[1] https://sukuberco.com/berco-indigenous-community-challenges-pt-amnt-at-global-certification-forum-examining-the-commitment-to-sustainable-mining/
[2] https://www.amman.co.id/amman-mineral-nusa-tenggara
[3] https://coppermark.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Copper-Mark_AP_PT-Amman-Mineral-International-Tbk_summary-report_2024.07.23.xls
[4] https://www.amman.co.id/article/phase-8-batu-hijau-amman-s-strategic-transition-for-sustainable-mining-and-national-competitiveness#:~:text=This%20extension%20plays%20a%20critical,to%20be%20mined%20through%202046.
Indigenous Peoples in Nepal file complaint over IFC advice to devastating Pathivara cable car project
NEPAL 26 August 2025: A construction company supported by a World Bank advisory project is building a cable car up the sacred Mukkumlung mountain in the Himalayas and has already felled over 10,000 trees in forests inhabited by highly endangered snow leopards and red pandas. Indigenous communities who have been protesting against the Pathivara cable car project have been violently repressed by armed police including by live fire.
Today, Indigenous leaders from the Limbu (Yakthung) nation – supported by lawyers and NGOs – are filing a formal complaint against the Bank for breaching its own safeguarding standards, resulting in human rights abuses and the destruction of cultural heritage. The Bank’s private sector lending arm – the International Financial Corporation (IFC) – gave advisory support to one of Nepal’s biggest conglomerates, the IME Group, to build four cable car projects, including the highly controversial $22m Pathivara cable car on Mukkumlung mountain.
IME Group is involved in energy, manufacturing, infrastructure and trading, as well as running the largest commercial bank in Nepal, Global IME Bank. The IFC has provided over $50 million to IME Group over the past decade, plus a $500 million trade finance guarantee. IFC continues to invest in Global IME Bank today, providing ongoing leverage and influence.
The mountain, its forests and its biodiversity are of paramount importance to the Indigenous Limbu people’s culture and religion. These communities have been resisting the project.
In response, the Nepalese government, in support of IME Group’s powerful owner, who is also the President of Nepal’s Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry, has sent in the Armed Police Force (APF) and Nepal Police who have violently repressed protests, with beatings and live fire.
The complaint alleges that the IFC did not ensure that the IME Group applied IFC’s safeguards to the project, which are meant to provide Indigenous Peoples with protections against environmental and human rights abuses.
“The IFC’s own Performance Standards say that Indigenous Peoples have the right to give their Free Prior and Informed Consent to projects on their lands. But no one ever asked us whether we want this cable car project.” said Saru Singak of Mukkumlung Conservation Joint Struggle Committee. “The project is destroying our forests, mountain and nature sacred to us. It disrespects our cultural heritage and our religion. Yet no one came to talk to our religious bodies or our cultural associations,” she added.
No impact assessment for harmful Pathivara cable car
The project encroaches on an area of Kanchanjunga Conservation Area, which is home to endangered species such as the Red Panda, Snow Leopard and Himalayan Musk Deer. These animals are under threat of extinction due to forest clearance and the construction of the Pathivara cable car – however, no study has been carried out on the project’s impacts on these and other endangered species.
Although the Pathivara cable car project has extensive social and environmental impacts, no formal Environmental Impact Assessment was carried out. Instead, a much more limited Initial Environmental Examination was completed and only done after project approval – in breach of national laws. Section 6 of Nepal’s Environment Protection Act 1997 requires an EIA for any project that has a significant environmental impact.
“We have challenged this project in the Supreme Court on the grounds of violations of our lands, territories and resources as well as environmental destruction – where the case is sub judice,” says Advocate Shankar Limbu, Vice-Chair of Lawyers’ Association for Human Rights of Nepalese Indigenous Peoples (LAHURNIP). “It is a clear case of violations of constitutional and 1774 Treaty rights of Indigenous Limbu nation, which is tantamount to cultural genocide.”
“Nepal’s government authorities and some parliamentarians have sacrificed the rights of Indigenous Limbus for the vested financial interests of a powerful business consortium by promoting the cable car project” says Prabindra Shakya, Convenor of Asia Indigenous Peoples Network on Extractive Industries and Energy (AIPNEE). “In advising this business group, the IFC – that has a mandate to improve lives of people – has added insult to injury, furthering this injustice against the Limbu nation.”
The IFC exited the project last year, which would normally block a complaint from being accepted. However, the complainants say they have a clear argument for eligibility given IFC’s lack of transparency about its involvement.
The IFC only disclosed the advisory project publicly in July 2024 – nearly two years after investing – and only confirmed its involvement in the Pathivara cable car in writing to affected communities on 19 May 2025, nine months after it had exited the investment.
“The IFC is currently consulting on its review of its Performance Standards and it clearly needs to improve the way it engages with Indigenous Peoples. It can start by meeting with them on their terms and learning from experiences like these where things have gone so badly wrong,” says Kate Geary, Programme Director for Rights and Accountability at Recourse.
In the complaint, Indigenous leaders and supporting organisations call on IFC to release all project documents, and urge that all encroachment on sacred sites ceases, security forces are withdrawn and the violence ends, an independent investigation into human rights abuses is commissioned, and construction is stopped until the project is brought into compliance and grievances are resolved, including through peacebuilding and reconciliation.
CONTACT:
Advocate Shankar Limbu, LAHURNIP: shankar1database@gmail.com, +977 9851 007932
Prabindra Shakya, AIPNEE: prabin@aipnee.org, +977 9860 980745
Kate Geary, Recourse: kate@re-course.org, +44 7393 189175
NOTES TO EDITORS:
Complainants to the case are leaders from the Indigenous Peoples Organisation of Limbu (Yakthung) nation, Kirat religious organisation and the Mukkumlung Conservation Joint Struggle Committee, supported by their legal counsel Lawyers’ Association for Human Rights of Nepalese Indigenous Peoples (LAHURNIP) and advised by Asia Indigenous Peoples Network on Extractive Industries and Energy (AIPNEE) and Recourse.
The formal complaint on the Pathivara cable car has been filed to the accountability mechanism of the International Finance Corporation, the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO).
Photo: A current cable car in Nepal. Image by Bhaskar Pyakurel via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0).
The Unfolding Crisis In Kaziranga: A Report On Illegal Land Acquisition For Luxury Tourism
This report examines the contentious land acquisition and development plans for a five-star hotel by Juniper Hotels (operating under the Hyatt global brand), and its associated partners in the immediate vicinity of Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve (KNPTR), in the state of Assam, northeast India. The Kaziranga National Park is a globally significant UNESCO World Heritage Site.
This report highlights the inherent conflict wherein large-scale commercial tourism initiatives are ostensibly framed as catalysts for economic development. They are often seen to prioritise corporate interests over fundamental Indigenous rights and environmental sustainability, thereby challenging the normative principles of responsible tourism in ecologically sensitive domains.
This study details the impending displacement of forty-five Adivasi families of the Hatikhuli Bagicha village near the Kohora range of Kaziranga National Park, who are in imminent danger of the loss of their ancestral lands. These are portions of land, which they have cultivated and been taxed for generations at Inlay Pathar (‘pathar’ meaning agricultural field), situated near their village at Kohora, Kaziranga.
These lands that are on the periphery of the Kaziranga National Park were forcibly acquired by the Assam Tourism Development Corporation in June 2024. Subsequently, the Assam government announced that a five-star luxury hotel and cultural centre would be built on these lands. The acquisition at Inlay Pathar was forced upon by uninformed perimeter fencing, deployment of a police battalion to deter access to the affected farmers, and the commencement of building of a permanent structure in the demarcated area.
These actions signify a violation of established land rights and procedural justice, which the Greater Kaziranga Land and Human Rights Protection Committee (GKLHRPC) has been fighting for since 2022. The report highlights the systematically unlawful land acquisition process, the issues of human rights violations and displacement through case studies of the Adivasi families, and the absence of requisite clearances from the Forest Department and the State Board of Wildlife for the construction of a hotel of this magnitude on the immediate periphery of a National Park.
This briefer was produced by the GKLHRPC with assistance from the Asia Indigenous Peoples Network on Extractive Industries and Energy.
Read the full report here: https://tinyurl.com/yn2xbbpy
