DECLARING FREE TERRITORIES

The document outlines the process of declaring 'free territories' as a political practice of autonomy and self-determination. It provides a framework for preventive and reactive strategies, emphasizing the need for information dissemination, network organization, and propositional agendas to protect territories from extractivist models and corporate appropriation. The guide details specific regional examples, including mining-free zones in Mesoamerica, gasfield-free communities in Australia, and GMO-free regions in Europe and Costa Rica.

• Declaring a territory free from a threat is defined as an exercise of autonomy and a political practice to realize collective human rights, including the right to timely information and self-determination.
• The process of declaring a territory free typically occurs at three stages: as a preventive measure before project implementation, during implementation, or during consolidation after a project is operational.
• Effective declarations require a 'propositional agenda' that focuses on what the community wants to preserve—such as sustainable management of commons and traditional ways of living—rather than just opposing a threat.
• In Mesoamerica, the M4 movement has used free-territory declarations since 2011 as a preventive strategy against mining and dams, adapting the approach to the legal and cultural conditions of Guatemala, El Salvador, and Mexico.
• In Australia, the 'Gasfield Free Community' movement saw over 400 communities declare themselves coal and gasfield free, often using door-to-door surveys to establish community consensus and resist fracking.
• Efforts to create GMO-free territories in Costa Rica resulted in 78 out of 81 cantons being declared free from GMOs through agreements with local governments and the creation of native seed protection centers.
• In the European Union, over 170 regions and 4,500 local governments have declared themselves GMO-free areas across at least 25 countries, forming a network of 64 GMO-free regions.
• The document notes that REDD and the Financialization of Nature (FN) are more difficult to declare territories free from than mining because their impacts are abstract and they are presented as conservation solutions.

APA

Rojas, I. (2018). DECLARING FREE TERRITORIES. Friends of the Earth International. https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Free-Territories-declaration_Friends-of-the-earth-international.pdf

Chicago

Rojas, Isaac. DECLARING FREE TERRITORIES. Friends of the Earth International, 2018. https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Free-Territories-declaration_Friends-of-the-earth-international.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Rojas |first1=Isaac |title=DECLARING FREE TERRITORIES |publisher=Friends of the Earth International |date=February 2018 |url=https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Free-Territories-declaration_Friends-of-the-earth-international.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{rojas2018declaring, author = {Rojas, Isaac}, title = {{DECLARING FREE TERRITORIES}}, institution = {Friends of the Earth International}, year = {2018}, month = feb, url = {https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Free-Territories-declaration_Friends-of-the-earth-international.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }