Banks and Biodiversity

As touristic investments in Komodo National Park increases, local groups warn about the potential consequences of unsustainable tourism.

For years, WALHI/Friends of the Earth Indonesia has been a crucial watchdog of the Indonesian government, which has been criticized for facilitating unsustainable projects in the Komodo National Park. Recently, they are raising concerns regarding tourism developments in and around the Park. WALHI’s paper, “Komodo National Park: The Only Home of Komodo Dragons in Peril,” exposes the negative environmental and social impacts of unchecked tourism development on the Komodo ecosystem and the Indigenous peoples who live in the park.

Mitigation is not enough for the East African Crude Oil Pipeline; threats to several No Go Areas warrant a full stop to the project

A recent article by Al Jazeera highlights the backwards thinking around the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), which would pose serious threats to several highly biodiverse and critical ecosystems, including at least four of the Banks and Biodiversity No Go Areas. The project’s key developers, Total Energies and the China National Offshore Oil Corporation, claim to be committed to minimizing the pipeline’s environmental impacts, but turn a blind eye to the fact that EACOP should have been prohibited from the start, by virtue of its location.

A new report from the Environmental Paper Network reveals another case of “Conflict Plantations,” this time in Chile.

The impacts and the needed steps towards solutions of Chile’s pulp and paper industry have been documented in a report released by the Environmental Paper Network together with Colectivo Viento Sur and Global Forest Coalition titled, “Stolen land and fading forests in Chile.” The report is Chapter 3 in a global investigative report series by the Environmental Paper Network titled, “Conflict Plantations.”