Campaigners Highlight Global Ecological Destruction and Indigenous Community Violation at Mining Giant BHP's Annual Meeting

picture-25876-1571179299.jpg
on

Protestors from three continents gathered outside mining giant BHPโ€™s annual general meeting this morning to demand an end to the companyโ€™s environmentally and socially destructiveย activities.

Campaigners from Colombia, Chile, Brazil, and the US joined supporters from the UK outside the Queen Elizabeth Conference Centre in Westminster, London, where BHP is holding its annual shareholder gathering. The protest was organised by campaign groups War on Want and the London Miningย Network.

Braced against the wind and rain, about 30 protestors demanded that shareholders recognise the destruction that the companyโ€™s mines bring to communities and theย environment.

Rosa Marรญa Mateus Parra, a lawyer with the Josรฉ Alvear Restrepo Lawyers Collective (CCAJAR), which defends the rights of indigenous communities, told DeSmog UK that they were in London to draw attention to the plight of people in La Guajira, Colombia, site of one of the largest opencast coal mines in theย world.

Parra said the mine was โ€œcontributing to environmental disaster, as well as a cultural and spiritual disaster, as well as the destruction of many communities, animals, and vegetation, which also contributes to climateย change.โ€

The mine is operated by BHP, Anglo American and Glencore, and coal from the mine is exported to be burned in the UK.


Like what you’re reading? Donate here to support DeSmog UK‘s journalismย todayย 


โ€œWe need to be listened to, and we will continue in this process of struggle and demanding our rightsโ€, Parra said, โ€œbecause in this historical moment in the world we need to change mentalities and be able to do something regarding our responsibility for futureย generations.โ€

โ€œWe believe we have to change the paradigm and model of consumption that is exhausting ourย planet.โ€

Campaigners opposing the La Guajira mine say they have been subject to threats from the far-right paramilitary group รguilas Negras, who have accused the protestors of trying to โ€œstop the progressโ€ ofย Colombia.

Roger Featherstone, a campaigner with the Arizona Mining Reform Coalition, who was also taking part in the protest in London, said it was โ€œheartbreakingโ€ to hear other campaignersโ€™ stories. โ€œThe message is that this is unacceptableโ€, he told DeSmog UK.

He said the mines werenโ€™t just bad for the environment and local communities, but with the constant local opposition to the projects around the world shareholders should be asking โ€œdoes BHP really want that kind ofย headache?โ€

โ€œWe donโ€™t have the money and resources that BHP do, but we have the willpowerโ€, heย said.

Featherstone said that around the world, including at the copper mine site he was protesting against in Superior, Arizona, it was increasingly โ€œa choice between mines and communitiesโ€. Arizona is experiencing serious drought, and he said that the large water resources needed for the mine would mean communities competing with theย companies.

โ€œWe donโ€™t have enough water to go aroundโ€, heย said.


Image:ย Roger Featherstone of the Arizona Mining Reform Coalition speaks at the demonstration outside of the BHP Billiton AGM. Credit:ย Liam Barrington-Bushย (c)


Credit: Mat Hope/DeSmog UK

A similar story was told by a campaigner from Chile, Lucio Cuenca Berger, who is a geo-survey engineer from the University of Santiago de Chile and Director of the Latin American Observatory of Environmentalย Conflicts.

He told DeSmog UK about the Minera Escondida, BHPโ€™s biggest copper mining project in Chile, which sits in the one of the driest deserts in the world. He said competition over water between the communities and company was driving conflict in the region. Thatโ€™s why he came toย London:

โ€œWeโ€™ve come to denounce the violation of indigenous peopleโ€™s rights, the destruction of these vital and fragile ecosystems that these communities depend on, and the flora and fauna that exist only in these ecosystems and nowhere else in the worldโ€, heย said.

โ€œWe demand that BHP stop damaging these ecosystems and violating these communitiesโ€™ย rightsโ€.

BHP has been contacted forย comment.

All interviews were conducted throughย translators.

Main image credit: Liam Barrington-Bushย (c)


Like what you’re reading? Donate here to support DeSmog UK‘s journalismย todayย 


picture-25876-1571179299.jpg
Mat was DeSmog's Special Projects and Investigations Editor, and Operations Director of DeSmog UK Ltd. He was DeSmog UKโ€™s Editor from October 2017 to March 2021, having previously been an editor at Nature Climate Change and analyst at Carbon Brief.

Related Posts

on

Major oil and gas firms are being represented by lobbyists that have given more than ยฃ300,000 in support to Keir Starmerโ€™s party.

Major oil and gas firms are being represented by lobbyists that have given more than ยฃ300,000 in support to Keir Starmerโ€™s party.
on

New documents show close coordination between the oil major and a coalition of free-market think tanks at a crucial moment in climate diplomacy.

New documents show close coordination between the oil major and a coalition of free-market think tanks at a crucial moment in climate diplomacy.
Analysis
on

Right wing YouTuber Tim Pool is the latest to own โ€˜climate peopleโ€™ with fake facts spouted by a grizzled TV oilman.

Right wing YouTuber Tim Pool is the latest to own โ€˜climate peopleโ€™ with fake facts spouted by a grizzled TV oilman.
on

Critics say the controversial GWP* method โ€“ which New Zealand appears close to adopting โ€“ is โ€œopen to significant abuseโ€.

Critics say the controversial GWP* method โ€“ which New Zealand appears close to adopting โ€“ is โ€œopen to significant abuseโ€.