Against the insatiable demand of those who control capital both for minerals and alternative energy on the lands of Indigenous and poor communities, some legal victories have been won after persistent collective effort.
Chile’s Second Environmental Court has revoked a permit tied to the $3.2b expansion of the world’s sixth-largest copper mine, the Collahuasi owned by Anglo American, Glencore and a Japanese consortium led by Mitsui & Co. It annulled the project’s Environmental Qualification Resolution on the grounds of the mine’s impact Aymara Indigenous communities in Chile’s Tarapacá and marine diversity not be properly considered as well as the project’s energy demands.
Australia’s Federal Court has awarded the Yindjibarndi People of Western Australia . $107m in compensation against mining giant Fortescue and its Solomon Hub iron ore operations built on Yindjibarndi land without the traditional owners’ consent. It is the culmination of a 20 year legal campaign an constitutes the largest native title payout in Australian history. The payout is a proverbial drop in the ocean compared to the billions of dollars of revenue since its opening in 2013 and members of the affected community have not been slow in pointing it out while a relieved Fortescue spokesperson said that the company’s executive chairman cares “deeply about all First Nations people” and the company “accepts that the Yindjibarndi People are entitled to compensation”.
A Brazilian court has ordered Sigma Lithium ’s subsidiary to pay nearly $10million over potential damages linked to its Grota do Cirilo mine. The court cited severe community impacts, including dust, noise, tremors and housing damage, It called for emergency measures for health funding, independent technical assessments and limits on night time operations.
In India, the Rajasthan High Court has halted the cutting down of trees for a solar project linked to the finger-in-every-pie Adani Group and ordered a review of whether the land includes Orans – sacred Indigenous and community-managed groves which existing regulations are enabling to be misclassified and allocated for development without adequate consultation.
Elsewhere communities are warning and protesting renewable energy projects at their expense. In Colombia’s La Guajira region, Wayúu Indigenous leaders warn that a rapid buildout of wind energy projects will impact already scarce land and water resources in an area long affected by coal mining. In the Philippines, fishing and Indigenous communities are protesting large scale renewable energy projects that threaten livelihoods and ancestral lands, including the $5.7b Buha Wind offshore wind project developed by Copenhagen Energy and local partners, and solar farm expansions by Energy Logics Philippines and Nanchao Renewable Energy. Communities say that these proceeded without prior consent