Indigenous peoples around the globe are making themselves heard in international arenas and at the national level. But many challenges remain in the fight for full recognition of all their rights.

PERU: Indigenous Groups Win Major Battle in Congress
Milagros Salazar
LIMA – The Peruvian Congress voted to repeal two decrees that opened up communally owned native lands to private investment and that triggered a wave of protests this month by indigenous people in Amazon jungle provinces.
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Courts Move Closer to Clarifying Accomarca Massacre – By Ángel Páez
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ECUADOR: President “Stabbed In the Back” by Church Over Constitution
Rosa Rodríguez
QUITO – The campaign for the Sept. 28 referendum on Ecuador?s newly rewritten constitution has got under way, with fierce arguments between the document’s supporters and opponents.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43667

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INDIA: Mining Boom Affecting Tribals, Environment
Keya Acharya
BANGALORE – While India has been steadily attracting foreign investment into its booming mining sector, the fact that the best prospects lie in tribal-dominated and heavily forested areas is cause for concern.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43654

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Q&A: “Amazonas State Is in the Environmental Vanguard”
Interview with Nadia D’Ávila Ferreira, Amazonas Environment Secretary*
MANAOS – The Brazilian state of Amazonas is “a quarry of ideas and creativity” and is in the vanguard for having preserved 98 percent of its native forests, paying for environmental services, and enacting the pioneering Climate Change Act, says Nadia D’Ávila Ferreira, the state’s secretary for the environment and sustainable development.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43648

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Angst Follows Olympic Torch from Beijing to Vancouver
Chris Arsenault
VANCOUVER – The 29th summer Olympics cast renewed light on China’s treatment of ethnic minorities in Tibet, and as the games wind down, a similar, if less pronounced set of controversies will follow the torch to Canada when Vancouver hosts the 2010 winter games.
Many indigenous nations in the Canadian province of British Columbia fear the 2010 games will further erode their traditional territory, opening large areas of unceded land to tourism and infrastructure development, damaging hunting and fishing grounds.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43639

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Brazil Sets Important Precedent for Indigenous Lands
Marta Caravantes
BOA VISTA – An imminent decision by Brazil?s Supreme Court on the demarcation of the Raposa Serra do Sol indigenous reservation in the Amazon jungle region has the country?s native communities on edge, because of the precedent it will set.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43631

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CHILE: Exhibit to Celebrate Indigenous Art
Daniela Estrada
SANTIAGO – More than 100 artists from Chile?s nine indigenous groups will take part in the second biennial exhibition of indigenous art in the capital Oct. 17-Nov. 2, which hopes to draw at least 30,000 visitors.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43609

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Bolivia Divided Along Regional, Social and Ethnic Lines
Humberto Márquez
CARACAS – The dialogue with opposition governors that Bolivian President Evo Morales has called for in the wake of Sunday?s recall referendum, to overcome the growing polarisation in the country, will run up against regional, social and ethnic divisions, according to analysts.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43551

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BRAZIL: Small Hydroelectric Dams Not So Green
Mario Osava
RIO DE JANEIRO – The combined impacts of numerous small hydroelectric dams in one river basin can be at least as harmful as one large dam, warn experts, environmental activists and indigenous groups, who face a flood of new projects along the rivers of the western Brazilian state of Mato Grosso.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43508

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