community rights, corporate wrongs

Friends of the Earth International (FoEI) documents global campaigns where local and Indigenous communities use collective rights to oppose corporate-led extractive and agricultural projects. The report highlights legal battles against dams in Malaysia and oil pollution in Nigeria, resistance to tar sands in North America, and the promotion of community-based forest governance and food sovereignty in regions such as Indonesia, Cameroon, and Latin America.

• In Sarawak, Malaysia, Indigenous communities have used legal processes to defend native customary rights (NCR) against the 2,400-megawatt Bakun dam project, which displaced thousands of people and flooded an area roughly the size of Singapore.
• Subanon Indigenous communities in Bayog, Philippines, have successfully halted a mining concession and associated militarisation by electing leaders to barangay (village) positions to better engage with legal frameworks like the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act (IPRA).
• Sustained campaigning and a court ruling in Costa Rica led to the repeal of a gold mining concession granted to Industrias Infinito, S.A., and the subsequent passage of a November 2010 parliamentary bill banning open pit metal mining nationwide.
• In Nigeria's Niger Delta, communities have used legal action to hold Shell accountable for environmental destruction and human rights abuses, including a 2009 out-of-court settlement of US$15.5 million for victims in Ogoniland.
• Resistance to the Keystone XL pipeline in the US and Canada is driven by concerns over the environmental impact of tar sands extraction, which has been linked to high cancer rates in downstream communities like Fort Chipewyan, Alberta.
• In Indonesia, Indigenous Dayak communities in Kalimantan face displacement and deforestation driven by oil palm and pulp plantations, with approximately 83% of Central Kalimantan earmarked for conversion or destruction.
• Bagyeli Indigenous communities in Cameroon have used participatory mapping with GPS technology to secure rights to hunt and gather within the Campo Ma’an National Park and to resist the expansion of rubber and palm oil plantations.
• Food sovereignty is being promoted through the recovery of native seeds in Uruguay via the Native Seeds Network and the establishment of peasant ecological markets in Colombia to bypass transnational corporate food systems.
• Opposition to genetically modified organisms (GMOs) has led to bans on specific products like MON 810 maize and Amflora potato in several European countries, including France, Germany, Austria, Hungary, and Luxembourg.

APA

Zacune, J., & Rojas, I. (2011). community rights, corporate wrongs. Friends of the Earth International. https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/community-rights.pdf

Chicago

Zacune, Joseph, and Isaac Rojas. community rights, corporate wrongs. Friends of the Earth International, 2011. https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/community-rights.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Zacune |first1=Joseph |last2=Rojas |first2=Isaac |title=community rights, corporate wrongs |publisher=Friends of the Earth International |date=October 2011 |url=https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/community-rights.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{zacune2011community, author = {Zacune, Joseph and Rojas, Isaac}, title = {{community rights, corporate wrongs}}, institution = {Friends of the Earth International}, year = {2011}, month = oct, url = {https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/community-rights.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }