The Naso Tjër Di people of Panama have finally had their rights to 160,000 hectares of ancestral lands legally recognized. The Supreme Court designated the zone as a semi-autonomous province – the seventh such comarca indígena in the country – after years of legal wrangling.
Rich in biodiversity, Panama is 60 per cent forested, a legacy of the stewardship by the country’s half a million indigenous people. The territory of around 3,500 Naso inhabitants overlaps with two nationally protected areas. The group’s monarch Reynaldo Santana says increased control will improve Naso people’s lives and enable them to lead conservation efforts.
Plans to build Europe’s largest gas power plant in the north of England have been scrapped. Drax, one of the UK’s biggest coal plant operators, had intended the plant to replace two old coal burning units at its site in Yorkshire – a move at odds with the UK’s climate targets.
Environmentalists will not be letting Drax off the hook just yet though, as the company is set to buy the major wood pellet manufacturer Pinnacle Renewable Energy, which stands accused of trashing forests in Canada.
