Radio interview on El Salvador mining, Vermont bans hydrofracking

Hello all, apologies for the delayed writing. Here is our round-up of the most recent going-ons in resource rights.

• The newsletter released by the Network for Justice in Global Development highlights a radio interview with Jan Morrill, with the International Allies Against Metallic Mining in El Salvador. The radio interview is with Milwaukee Public Radio, and it draws out the parallels between issues created by efforts towards mining in El Salvador and Wisconsin. For your references, see the recent press release by the Pacific Rim mining company.

• And while we’re on El Salvador, the indigenous people of El Salvador are to be recognized in the constitution, IPS News reports. Article 63 of the Salvadoran constitution will be amended to acknowledge the language and culture of the country’s mostly Nahua-Pipil indigenous communities.

• “Water resource management is inherently political“: This is an interesting report by the Danish Institute for International Studies on the problems around pre-existing power structures in attempts made at Integrated Water Resource Management.

• Fred Pearce, with an article in The Guardian on why the Rio+20 meeting must take small-holder peasant farmers into account. He writes:

 Next month, the UN committee on world food security will probably agree voluntary guidelines on “responsible” land grabbing. But I hold out no hopes for their success. As one British venture capitalist, with a 100,000-hectare stake in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, candidly admitted at an investor conference last year: “Industrial-scale farming displaces and alienates people, creates few jobs and causes social disruption.”

• Vermont has become the first state in the U.S. to ban hydrofracking, according to the Associated Press. Although Vermont has little to no known natural gas reserves and no drilling activity currently taking place, the Governor hopes that this will serve as an example to other states. Meanwhile, Boston NPR’s Here and Now reports that officials in Michigan have contacted Vermont lawmakers for advice on how to make their own ban, and that North Carolina moves closer to passing a bill that would legalize fracking.

• A Spanish language video in support of Wirikuta, for those who have not yet seen it: