New coal mines are being mined every year, and oil and gas companies are still exploring new areas of the world. But increasingly, people — especially Indigenous communities — are saying no to new fossil fuel development on their lands, and are using the courts and legislative bodies to get that message across.
In India, protests from indigenous communities convinced officials to cancel an auction of coal mining land in Chhattisgarh state’s biodiversity-rich forests. In South Africa, the Mpondo people blocked Shell Global from conducting seismic exploration for oil and gas near the Wild Coast. In Australia, Aboriginal people blocked the development of coal mines in Queensland.
These legal victories occurred within the past three years. On Monday, these and other leaders of grassroots environmental movements from six countries won the Goldman Sachs Environmental Prize.
“One of the things we’ve seen in recent years is that environmental law, natural resource protection, has become intertwined with human rights law and Aboriginal law,” said Michael Sutton, an environmental lawyer and the group’s executive director. Goldman Sachs Environmental Foundation.
Carla García Zendejas, attorney-at-law and director of the Human, Land and Resources Program at the Center for International Environmental Law, said that what forces such cases to happen The fact is that as climate concerns intensify, so too does fossil fuel exploration in many places.
“With all the decisions being made about climate change, trying to solve the climate crisis, it seems like oil companies just want to get every drop of oil out of the ground as quickly as possible,” said Ms. García Zendejas, who discussed licenses and concessions. This is possible before the rights are suspended, revoked or discontinued. “
In most countries, proposed natural resource extraction projects must go through an environmental review process, she said. People living in the area have a legal right to access information about the proposed project.
In 2021, locals in Mpondoland on South Africa’s Wild Coast learned from visiting tourists and tour guides that a project was underway to conduct seismic exploration for oil and gas off their coast.
“We were shocked to hear that the Ministry of Mines and Energy had given Shell permission to explore for oil and gas,” said Nonhle Mbuthuma, a local resident and community organizer. “But people there don’t know that.”
She co-founded a group called the Amadiba Crisis Committee, initially to fight the proposed titanium mine project, but she soon mobilized the group to oppose seismic exploration.
Ms Mbutuma is one of this year’s recipients of the Goldman Environment Prize, along with Sinegugu Zukulu, a local NGO called Sustaining the Wild Coast. Organizational project manager.
The area’s coastal waters provide habitat for dolphins, whales and many migratory fish species. Communities in the area rely on fishing and ecotourism for their livelihoods.
“When you talk to people on the Wild Coast about the ocean, the ocean is our home,” Ms Mbutuma said. “The ocean is the economy.”
Seismic testing could harm wildlife – Damages the hearing of marine animals, disrupts their natural behavior and causes them to leave the affected area. Study of smaller invertebrate species Like lobsters, scallops and zooplankton, some species can die from injuries or illness after being exposed to seismic airguns.
Ms Mbutuma said both coastal and inland communities in the region had mobilized against the project, “saying no to oil and gas with one voice”.
Ms Mbutuma and Mr Zukuru, along with other community members, have launched a legal challenge to the project’s environmental approval, arguing local people were not adequately consulted. 2022 High Court of South Africa ruling in their favour. and revoked Shell’s license.
Shell did not respond to a request for comment, but the company has appealed the court’s decision.
Mr Zukulu said the Mpondo people were concerned not only about direct threats to their livelihoods and local pollution, but also about global climate change caused by the burning of fossil fuels. “It’s not just us on our land, in our little corner,” he said. “This is a global challenge.”
Similar local battles are taking place around the world. In rapidly developing countries, demand for energy continues to grow as more people gain access to electricity and economies grow.
in India, More than 70% power Currently it mainly comes from coal, with more than 20% of coal coming from Chhattisgarh.
For years, India’s central government has vacillated over whether to open the state’s Hasdeo Aranya forest to coal mining or declare it a “no-go zone.” The forest is home to dozens of rare and endangered species, including Asian elephants. About 15,000 indigenous people in the area rely on the forest to maintain their traditional way of life.
But Hasdeo Alanya also has one of the largest coal reserves in the country.
“It represents a very unique microcosm of all environmental and social justice movements in India,” Alok Shukla, another winner of this year’s Goldman Sachs Prize, said through a translator. Mr. Shukla helped form the local Save Hasdeo Aranya resistance committee and convened a coalition of grassroots movements in the state called the Save Chhattisgarh Movement.
With the help of Mr. Shukla and other organizers, residents of the area have protested against proposed mines for years and successfully lobbied for the creation of an elephant sanctuary in the forest. In 2020, the government announced a new round of land auctions for potential coal mines, triggering a new wave of protests.
Neither India’s coal ministry nor the environment, forest and climate change ministry responded to requests for comment.
In October 2021, 500 villagers carried out a 10-day march to the state capital Raipur. The following spring, women in several villages began a week of tree-hugging protests, adopting a tactic used to stop deforestation in northern India in the 1970s.
That summer, the Chhattisgarh state legislature passed a resolution banning mining in the region.
Other winners of this year’s Goldman Sachs Prize include a lawyer from Spain who won legal rights to Europe’s largest saltwater lake; an activist from the United States who campaigned to limit carbon emissions from freight trucks and trains in California; and a lawyer from Brazil. Journalists traced the beef supply chain to illegal deforestation and convinced supermarkets to boycott illegally sourced meat.
In Australia, Murrawah Maroochy Johnson, a young Verdi Aboriginal woman, also won the Goldman Prize for her work in stopping coal mining on her community’s land. Ms Maroochy Johnson argued in court that the greenhouse gases released by the mine would violate the human rights of Aboriginal people across Australia.
Mr Shukla hopes their actions will inspire others around the world.
“Local communities can actually resist even the most powerful companies through their determination and through peaceful, democratic means,” he said.
