How Tensions With Russia Are Jeopardizing Key Arctic Research
With the Ukraine war, international collaborations with Russia on Arctic research and governance have been strained or broken off. This loss of critical cooperation is compromising efforts to confront mounting environmental risks in the Arctic, from shrinking sea ice to pollution. Biologist Eric Regehr…
The Humanitarian Crisis Affecting Yanomami Peoples: Bolsonaro’s Catastrophic Legacy in the Amazon
By Edson Krenak (Krenak, CS Staff) Shocking images have been released over the past few days showing the suffering of Yanomami Peoples in the Brazilian and Venezuelan Amazon. In the third week of January 2023, Yanomami people in Roraima, northern Brazil, were found with severe…
New Year, New Board Members
As we welcome the new year, we are thrilled to welcome three new board members: Community Sector: Pavel Sulyandziga, Russia Pavel is an Indigenous leader and human rights activist from the Bikin River valley in Siberia. He is dedicated to protecting indigenous communities, whose…
New Board member at IRMA
At the end of 2022, Batani Foundation President Pavel Sulyandziga became a member of the Board of The Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance (IRMA), an organization that has developed some of the highest standards for indigenous rights. This organization brings together representatives of different,…
Diverse coalition urges federal appeals court to protect Oak Flat
WASHINGTON – A diverse coalition of religious groups, native tribes and legal experts filed half a dozen friend-of-the-court briefs yesterday in Apache Stronghold v. United States, asking a federal appeals court to protect Oak Flat, the spiritual lifeblood and sacred site of the Apache people in…
How Russia Implements the Free, Prior and Informed Consent Principle
On November 12, in the village of Lovozero in the Murmansk region, a public discussion was held on a project for the reorganization of the Seidyavvr nature reserve. The Seidyavvr Nature Reserve The Seydyavr State Nature Reserve — with a total area of 17,972 hectares —…
Forced mobilization in Russia among indigenous peoples for the war in Ukraine. Open letter for UN
To whom: Copy: Since September 21, 2022, in Russia there has been taking place a massive mobilization among the civilian population for the war against Ukraine. We, the representatives of indigenous peoples, speak against this inhuman war unleashed by the Putin regime, and we…
Organization Sign-On Letter: Stop Perpetuating Racist Rhetoric Against Ethnic Minorities and Indigenous Peoples in Russia
In a recent interview, Pope Francis mentioned Chechens and Buryats as “cruelest” perpetrators of the war in Ukraine. “When I speak about Ukraine, I speak about the cruelty because I have much information about the cruelty of the troops that come in. Generally, the…
Indigenous peoples and communities drive climate finance reform
Protecting forests by investing in Indigenous peoples and local communities, or IPLCs, is increasingly seen as one of the most effective ways to mitigate climate change and halt the global loss of biodiversity. The trouble is that a lot of the funding flow doesn’t reach the IPLC-led…
How the Pope’s Racist Comments Parrot Russian Propaganda
In an interview with America Magazine published on Monday, Pope Francis off-handedly disparaged Russia’s Buryat and Chechen ethnic minorities, characterizing them as the “cruelest” soldiers in the Russian military. By saying this, Pope Francis — whether on purpose or by accident — repeated one of the…