Dear Glen,

I am very happy to tell you that we have been successful in cancelling the goldmining activity by the Canadian company Cambior (now part of IAMGOLD group). Last week, Sarkozy announced this decision. As you will remember, we have been successful in the fall of 2006, which resulted in freezing the activity. If we look at a reconstruction of facts, we cannot claim this success, as there was a strong and broad movement of opposition to this project in French Guiana as well, but we certainly made an important contribution by issuing the email alert in a critical stage of the process – at he moment when only the governor needed to put one final signature and all other environmental permissions had been granted already. The actual market value of the 34 tonnes of gold that will remain in the ground now, is more than 600 million euro. We need to congratulate Sarkozy on this wise decision, which is a valuable contribution to greening the French economy, as he advocates. Green gold is worth more than real gold in this case! It is a historic decision, since ecological considerations never have been taken seriously in the face of major resource extraction projects in this overseas department of France. So there is an important precedent now!

Thank you very much for your effort. This came as a complete surprise, not in the last place to the local environmentalists. We are very, very, happy. An important threat to the adjacent Trésor nature reserve and other highly valuable primary forest and wetlands in the neighbourhood has been removed. Site preparation had already taken place, so part of the forest had been logged already to create space for the installations, but at least the destruction of a much larger area (eg as a result of road construction, illegal logging, agricultural expansion) could be avoided.

Many regards,

Pita Verweij
Assistant professor
Copernicus Institute for Sustainable Development and Innovation

Utrecht University

P.S. I would be grateful if you could mention my name somewhere in the announcement of the news about this success. It helps me to demonstrate the societal value of our research activities. You may remember that my student in Biology Liesbeth Fontein and me put together the document on environmental risks of gold mining, which served as the basis of the campaign. We used information from existing reports and articles to make that overview.

Rejection of the gold mine project in French Guiana: the scientists have been listened to

The rejection by the Head of the State of the open-pit gold mine in French Guiana implies “taking in consideration our work”, estimated Thursday Pierre-Michel Forget, one of the experts selected by the government to provide complementary expertise on this discussed project. “I am happy that our scientific work was at this point considered”, declared to AFP Mr. Forget, scientist with the museum of Natural History, who belongs to the five experts selected at the end of 2007 by the government to appraise this project carried to Guiana by CBJ Caïman, a subsidiary company of the Canadian giant IAMGOLD. The mission of the experts led to two reports delivered on January 3: that of the three appointed general inspectors (environment, mining and administration) and that of the two scientists of the Natural History Museum (Pierre-Michel Forget and Odile Poncy). This mission report was not made public yet. “Our report stresses that the preliminary analyses made at the time of the impact study showed that this concerns a zone of an exceptional biodiversity, superficially studied, in particular, the large trees”, specified Mr. Forget. “The exceptional precipitation at the site, which reaches sometimes 5 meters of rainfall annually, with strong rains in April and May, suggests a larger risk of run-off and flooding than what was considered by the company”, indicated the scientist. Moreover, “near the site chosen for the mine, the importance of the ridge forest where there is a population of the protected bird Cock-of-the-Rock was not taken into account. However this population must feed in the zones down-slope from where the gold mine was envisaged. One would have modified the entire functioning of the ecosystem ", he also pointed out. He however added that “the decision taken on this project should not be the tree that hides the forest”. "There are other problems in Guiana with authorized crude gold exploitations/extractions that do not comply with the type of regulation imposed on CBJ Caïman", he continued. “It will also be necessary to put a halt to the pollution of the streams and rivers by sites of alluvial gold extraction, legal and illegal, spread over Guiana in the zones of green rock: where one finds gold ", he concluded. According to conclusions from the report of the scientists, mining at the foot of the mountain range Montagne de Kaw “would have destroyed the identified sites and, beyond the concession mining, the ecological integrity of the massif/mountain chain with the guarantee that no return to the initial state is possible”. Nicolas Sarkozy decided not to give green light to this project “after learning about the outcomes of the mission report”, announced the spokesman of the Elysium David Martinon on Thursday.

(AFP document, originally in French).

Awesome victory !!!

Congratulations on you work !!!
:))

best,

flo c.

How exactly is the human population to be reduced?

Congrats on the good news!

You are right.

Dear Glen, I am pleased and proud of what you are achieving with EI. I note the successes with impeding palm oil plantings. I am sure that you are aware of the rape of forests in West Papua, which is Indonesian, and also Papua New Guinea, which is independent but corrupt. I have noted the attachment as that is the first voice out of RI to really sound like he is going to stop logging. He could therefore use one of the EI campaigns of mass email pointed at the appropriate area in Djakarta as well as Suebu who I think is Papua Indigenous and therefore a rare governor unless SBY is trying to change the Papuan spots.

If you think this is one which would deserve EI attention, let me know how I can help. Maybe with RI email addresses, as I have a hitch with the Australian West Papua Association. They are pretty well informed. In fact, could be a good liaison point.

Gotta go. Let me know what you think.

Max Stark.

My congratulations! Keep up the good work, Rick

That is wonderful news about your victories, Dr. Barry. We have to turf the "Conservative" government here in Alberta (election is March 3/08) before we will see any change in biofuel policies, I expect, so I've been concentrating my letter writing to that end.

Carry on with the good work. I wish you all the best and I will send money when I have some that doesn't have a 'save for' tag on it.

Dorene A. Rew

Dear Glen,

You really are doing well. I hope all those successes, even if we have to
keep on fighting to make them permanent/long lasting, make you feel happier.

Did you ever get the holiday you were going to have?

Are you still working 100 hour weeks?

How has the fundraising gone? I assume you met your pre Christmas target?

My very best wishes,

Tiiu

Hello Glen. Thanks for your report on recent successes in your campaigns. As you said earlier, saving rainforest may be only a temporary repreive. Unless the forest is in a stable country with firm laws --- then there is a good chance that it will survive long term. Even a stay of execution is better than nothing -- it buys time.
Daresay you are watching your election. If Obama wins the Democratic nomination, then the Republicans will almost certainly win. If it is Hilary Clinton then with Obama as VP the Dems have a chance. Still, it looks like a Mc Cain victory either way. I know he wants action on climate change. Good. What he is like on population I dont know. He is conservative, but the "social" agenda of the Right is likely to have a lower priority than with Bush. I am still nervous about Huckabee --- with "God" ( ie. his god ) on his side he is still a danger. That man is bad news.
Best wishes, Roger (Xanten)

Good news. Your feedback is always appreciated
The Shorter family, UK

Well done. Thank you for the information.

Cheers,

Cr Gordon Wallace

Many congratulations, Glenn! A great achievement by my compatriots Pita Verweij and Liesbeth Fontein. Pita not only is a highly regarded scientist in her field but has also contributed to important conservation activities in Costa Rica which EALA actively supports.

Many more victories are needed, now:

http://biopact.com/2008/02/new-study-shows-stabilizing-climate.html