Allan Lissner is an independent documentary photographer based in Canada. Home to seventy-five percent of the world’s mining companies, Canada leads the way in the global mining industry. But people the world over are raising complaints describing the industry as Canada’s number one contribution to global injustice. Complaints include the displacement of indigenous communities, families being torn apart, destroyed livelihoods, ruined ecosystems, and the erosion of ancient indigenous cultures.

On Wednesday 2^nd of December in the afternoon, a new violent confrontation between local residents and police occurred in the town of Cajas Canchaque, district of Carmen de la Frontera, in the province of Huancabamba (Piura, Northern Peru).

Nov 01 2007, by Miningwatch Canada

Communities dealing with the impact from mining activities (whether at the claim-staking, exploration, development, operating, closure, or restoration/rehabilitation stage) find themselves confronted by a legal entity they may not understand, making demands that are contrary to the desires of the community, and giving reason for its behaviour that they do not know how to counteract. This booklet is an attempt to understand the nature of this legal entity – what drives it and maintains it, where its strengths and vulnerabilities lie – and to provide some tools to persuade the entity to act in a manner that sees the best interests of the community as part of its self-interest. We invite you to download the document (pdf, 1,7 MB).

Based on eye-witness accounts and reports by human rights organizations, NGO Rights Action reports on the recent violent clashes in El Estor (Guatemala).
 

CATAPA has long been working on the Majaz case in Peru. Recently a new documentary about the case was made by the London-based filmmaker Michael Watts, and is available online:

Laguna Negra is a film that explores the core values of a campesino community in Huancabamba (Peru), the way the fabric of this society has been threatened by large scale mining and the destructive outcome of imposing a capital intensive model of development on a society based on traditional values.