Fw: Please support Paraguayan communities threatened by soya expansion

[Guest guest]

" Rettet den Regenwald e.V. "

Please support Paraguayan communities threatened by soya expansion

 

 

Dear Colleague,

 

Paraguay now has 2.6 million hectares of soya

monocultures, most of them GM soya. Soya is being

grown for export - mainly for animal feedstock and for

biofuels. Biofuel expansion is pushing up the price

of soya and soya companies are converting another

400,000 hectares of Paraguay's land to plantations

just now. The results of this expansion are massive

deforestation, culminating in the worst forest fires

on record this year and accelerating global warming,

and the displacement of tens of thousands of rural

families. During the last decade, 90,000 families

have been driven off their land. Agrochemical

spraying is causing illnesses and even deaths amongst

the rural population. Soil depletion and water

pollution are threatening people's future.

 

Paraguayan social organisations have asked for urgent

international support for two important email

campaigns:

 

The first one is a letter to government institutions,

calling for full legal protection and support of

leading members of two peasant organisations. Leaders

of those organisations have been receiving death

threats, legal threats and intimidation because they

are trying to defend their communities from

agrochemical poisoning by soya companies.

 

The second one is a letter urging authorities to stop

the building of a mega-port by Cargill. That port

would handle large quantities of soya for export. It

would contaminate the drinking water supply for the

capital, Asuncion, and surrounding communities,

destroy fish stocks and thus the livelihood of fishing

communities, and it would also trigger further soya

expansion and thus further deforestation, evictions,

use of toxic agrochemicals and, in all likelihood,

human rights abuses.

 

Please go to

 

http://www.regenwald.org/international/englisch/

 

Please take part in both email actions today. And

please let your friends and family know about this

important alert. Many thanks.

 

Yours sincerely,

Reinhard Behrend

Rettet den Regenwald e. V.

22337 Hamburg

Info

http://www.regenwald.org