International NGO sees red over 'green projects'

MIRI: A London-based organisation wants the international community and governments to stop classifying energy-production projects as “green” if such projects affect the lives of native communities.

The latest report from Survival International, a global organisation involved in protecting tribal people, said native people and the envi­ronment were suffering more now because of so-called green projects being implemented by governments and rich corporations.

Survival International director Stephen Corry, in an e-mail to The Star yesterday, furnished a copy of the latest report entitled The Most Inconvenient Truth of All, in which the RM9bil Bakun Dam and RM3bil Murum Dam projects in central Sarawak were cited as among global projects that had harmed the indigenous people and environment.

The report also criticised similar projects in places in Africa and other continents.

“Bio-fuel is being promoted all over the world as the alternative green energy to fossil fuels.

“However, in the pretext of going green, the reverse is actually happening.

“From South America to Borneo, we are seeing the destruction of massive areas of jungles and the ruin of ancestral homes belonging to tribal people.

“Projects that victimise the people and harm the environment cannot be promoted or marketed as green projects,” said Corry.

Corry said the world community must see through the hidden agendas.

The report called for a complete global re-look of hydro-electric dam and bio-fuel projects because these were causing even more harm to the people and environment than previously.