LA DÉCLARATION DE TERRITOIRES LIBRES

The guide outlines the political and social process of declaring territories 'free' from specific threats, such as REDD+, mining, fracking, and GMOs. It frames these declarations as an exercise of autonomy and self-determination, providing strategic advice on prevention, information sharing, and alliance building. The document details various global case studies, including the M4 movement in Mesoamerica, anti-fracking efforts in Australia and Europe, and GMO-free initiatives in Costa Rica and the European Union, emphasizing that such declarations are tools for resisting corporate imposition and promoting sustainable, community-led development models.

• Declaring a territory 'free' is a political act used to exercise the principle of autonomy and human rights, allowing communities to decide on the activities and policies affecting their land.
• The process of declaring a territory free typically occurs at one of three stages: prevention (before project implementation), execution (during implementation), or consolidation (after a project is operational and needs to be expelled).
• In Mesoamerica, the M4 (Mesoamerican Movement against the mining extraction model) has used preventive declarations since 2011 to stop mining and dam projects before they arrive, adapting the method to the legal and cultural contexts of Guatemala, El Salvador, and Mexico.
• In Australia, the 'Gasfield Free Community' movement led to over 400 communities declaring themselves free of coal and gas fields to oppose fracking, with some achieving legislative bans.
• Efforts to declare territories free of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are used to protect local seeds and traditional farming; in Costa Rica, 78 out of 81 cantons have declared themselves GMO-free.
• The financialization of nature (FN) and REDD+ projects are identified as abstract threats that are harder to combat than visible mining, as they are often presented as paid conservation efforts.
• State-level actors also participate in these networks; for example, a network of 64 GMO-free regions exists in the European Union, involving regional or local authorities.

APA

Rojas, I. (2018). LA DÉCLARATION DE TERRITOIRES LIBRES. Friends of the Earth International. https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/La-declaration-des-territoires-libres_Amis-de-la-terre-international.pdf

Chicago

Rojas, Isaac. LA DÉCLARATION DE TERRITOIRES LIBRES. Friends of the Earth International, 2018. https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/La-declaration-des-territoires-libres_Amis-de-la-terre-international.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Rojas |first1=Isaac |title=LA DÉCLARATION DE TERRITOIRES LIBRES |publisher=Friends of the Earth International |date=February 2018 |url=https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/La-declaration-des-territoires-libres_Amis-de-la-terre-international.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{rojas2018dclaration, author = {Rojas, Isaac}, title = {{LA DÉCLARATION DE TERRITOIRES LIBRES}}, institution = {Friends of the Earth International}, year = {2018}, month = feb, url = {https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/La-declaration-des-territoires-libres_Amis-de-la-terre-international.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }