The Socialist Standard has drawn attention to how many indigenous peoples are punished by the creation of "nature" parks.
One of the latest is happening in Myanmar. Plans to create two parks to protect swathes of mountainous jungle in Myanmar could stop more than 16,000 refugees who fled conflict from going home, campaigners said on Wednesday. The parks, totalling 1.3 million acres (5,260 square km), could block the Karen people from returning to 55 villages in the Tanintharyi Region, said a report by the Conservation Alliance of Tanawthari (CAT), an advocacy group. It said the proposals - which have been demarcated after being proposed in 2002 - should be halted until refugees' right of return was guaranteed. The CAT said plans for Tanintharyi National Park and nearby Lenya National Park pose a threat to people who traditionally lived within the proposed boundaries. Those fears are partly based on the impact of another protected area in the region - the Tanintharyi Nature Reserve Project, which was established in 2005. When residents of Kye Zu Daw village returned to homes they had fled during the war, said the CAT, they found their land had been split between the reserve and a palm oil plantation. CAT said villagers were no longer able make a living by farming the narrow strip of land that was left, with efforts to cultivate areas on either side resulting in court cases. "If we go into our forest, the government will sue us. If we go into the lower part of the village, the company will sue us," said Saw Chit Wey Htoo, a villager.
The Karen National Union, an ethnic armed group, signed a ceasefire agreement with the government in 2012 after 62 years of conflict, which led some refugees to return home - although fighting continues in parts of the country. About 100,000 refugees remain in camps across the border in Thailand, according to the United Nations refugee agency, while others sheltered within Myanmar after fleeing their homes.
http://news.trust.org/item/20180221152257-mogno/
One of the latest is happening in Myanmar. Plans to create two parks to protect swathes of mountainous jungle in Myanmar could stop more than 16,000 refugees who fled conflict from going home, campaigners said on Wednesday. The parks, totalling 1.3 million acres (5,260 square km), could block the Karen people from returning to 55 villages in the Tanintharyi Region, said a report by the Conservation Alliance of Tanawthari (CAT), an advocacy group. It said the proposals - which have been demarcated after being proposed in 2002 - should be halted until refugees' right of return was guaranteed. The CAT said plans for Tanintharyi National Park and nearby Lenya National Park pose a threat to people who traditionally lived within the proposed boundaries. Those fears are partly based on the impact of another protected area in the region - the Tanintharyi Nature Reserve Project, which was established in 2005. When residents of Kye Zu Daw village returned to homes they had fled during the war, said the CAT, they found their land had been split between the reserve and a palm oil plantation. CAT said villagers were no longer able make a living by farming the narrow strip of land that was left, with efforts to cultivate areas on either side resulting in court cases. "If we go into our forest, the government will sue us. If we go into the lower part of the village, the company will sue us," said Saw Chit Wey Htoo, a villager.
The Karen National Union, an ethnic armed group, signed a ceasefire agreement with the government in 2012 after 62 years of conflict, which led some refugees to return home - although fighting continues in parts of the country. About 100,000 refugees remain in camps across the border in Thailand, according to the United Nations refugee agency, while others sheltered within Myanmar after fleeing their homes.
http://news.trust.org/item/20180221152257-mogno/
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