About For Land & Life: The Oakland Institute Podcast
As a leading policy think tank, the Oakland Institute is bringing fresh ideas and bold action to the most pressing social, economic, and environmental issues of our time. In partnership with impacted communities, we research and document threats to land rights, livelihoods, and natural resources, and develop communications and advocacy campaigns to support and elevate these struggles in the international arena.
Maasai Rise to Defend Ancestral Land ft. Joseph Oleshangay
Maasai communities have acted as the ancestral guardians of the Great Rift Valley in East Africa for centuries. Today, they are under attack as the Tanzanian government wages a brutal campaign to forcibly evict them from the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA) to boost tourism revenues. Despite mounting pressures to force them from their homes, Maasai have recently waged a historic protest mobilization in defense of their rights to land and life.
On today's episode we speak with Joseph Oleshangay, a Maasai human rights lawyer on the frontlines of this struggle. Based in Arusha and working with the Legal and Human Rights Centre, Joseph was the recipient of the 2023 Weimar Human Rights Prize for his ongoing efforts to protect the rights of the Maasai people in Ngorongoro and Loliondo. As one of the leading voices working to protect Maasai land rights, he has faced retaliation and surveillance from the Tanzanian government. We are extremely grateful to have him as our guest today and recognize his courage for continuing to speak out on behalf of impacted Maasai communities.
Tune in to learn more about the crippling livelihood restrictions these Indigenous communities face as the government prioritizes the interests of safari tourists over their well being. We also discuss the complicity of international conservation NGOs and donor governments and how listeners can support their struggle.
Learn more: https://www.oaklandinstitute.org/country/tanzania
17 Jul 2023
Crackdown on Loggers in Papua New Guinea ft. Eddie Tanago
After decades of being exploited for natural resources, Papua New Guinea is cracking down. Our guest today is Eddie Tanago, the Campaign Manager at ACT NOW, a PNG-based organization on the forefront against illegal logging and other destructive extractive industries. He discusses the recent historic fine imposed on a logging firm in PNG for tax evasion and the path forward to a truly people-centered development strategy.
For more see: https://www.oaklandinstitute.org/country/papua-new-guinea
1 Mar 2023
Carbon Pipelines Fuel Environmental Racism ft. Sikowis Nobiss, Mahmud Fitil, Jaylen Cavil & Alejandro Murgia-Ortiz
Summit Carbon Solutions intends to build the world’s largest carbon capture and storage pipeline across the Midwestern US, despite fierce and sustained citizen opposition.
While media coverage so far has focused on the opposition white landowners in the path of the proposed route have to the pipelines – this project represents the latest instance of environmental racism as Indigenous, Black, Brown and Migrant communities will face some of the greatest risks if this project goes through.
Today's episode features several leading activists fighting against this and other proposed carbon pipelines in Iowa – Sikowis Christine Nobiss, Founder & Executive Director of Great Plains Action Society (GPAS), Mahmud Fitil, Frontlines Action Director GPAS ; Jaylen Cavil Advocacy Director for the Des Moines Black Liberation Movement; Alejandro Murgia-Ortiz Community Organizer with Iowa Migrant Movement for Justice.
The full report is available at: https://www.oaklandinstitute.org/midwest-carbon-express-summit-carbon-solutions
26 Sept 2022
A Decade of Struggle to Reclaim Land from Foreign Agribusinesses in Senegal, ft. Ardo Sow
As US-based holding company African Agriculture Inc. (AAGR) has filed an initial public offering to fund a large-scale agribusiness project in the northern region of Saint-Louis in Senegal, local communities are demanding the company return their land stolen over a decade ago.
Today's episode features an interview with Ardo Sow from the Collectif pour la Défense du Ndiaël, who have been steadfastly campaigning for the return of their ancestral land since 2012.
Learn more: https://www.oaklandinstitute.org/communities-senegal-demand-return-land-aagr-senhuile
https://www.oaklandinstitute.org/company/senhuile
https://grain.org/article/entries/4815-who-is-behind-senhuile-senethanol
Music credit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S25uEldJffU
20 Jul 2022
Agroecology: The Solution to the Food Price Crisis ft. Luwayo Biswick, Malawian Permaculture Farmer
The world is currently in the midst of a food price crisis, with prices of staple foods and agricultural inputs such as fertilizers and pesticides skyrocketing on global markets. As usual, the most vulnerable are being hit the hardest by these rising prices.
The good news is that more and more farmers are breaking free from the reliance on expensive and polluting pesticides and fertilizers to feed themselves and their communities.
In Malawi, Luwayo and Grace Biswick run the Permaculture Paradise Institute. By using agroecological practices, they have transformed their land to produce an abundant diversity of crops year-round. They have also made their livelihoods resilient to climate shocks and market volatility, while saving on agricultural inputs.
Hear their story and how they are helping scale up agroecology in a country in urgent need of a new path forward on the latest episode of For Land & Life – The Oakland Institute Podcast.
To learn more see:
https://www.facebook.com/permaculturetraining/
3 Mar 2022
Stealth Game: Community Conservancies Devastate Land & Lives in Northern Kenya ft. Abdinoor Dima Jillo, Isaiah Biwott and Violet Matiru
This episode explores the devastating impact privatized, neocolonial wildlife conservation and safari tourism have had on Indigenous pastoral communities, specifically in Northern Kenya.
Since its founding in 2004, the Northern Rangelands Trust (NRT) has set up 43 "community" conservancies on over 42,000 square kilometers of land in Northern and Coastal Kenya – nearly 8 percent of the country's total land area. Although terms like “participatory,” “community driven,” and “local empowerment” are extensively used by NRT, this episode amplifies the voices of pastoralist communities who have been dispossessed of their ancestral lands, through corruption, cooptation, and sometimes through intimidation and violence, to create wildlife conservancies for conservation dollars. Guests include:
Anuradha Mittal, Oakland Institute Executive Director and author of the Stealth Game report
Abdinoor Dima Jillo, member of the Borana Council of Elders in Isiolo County, Kenya
Isaiah Biwott, community member Tugen community, Baringo County, Kenya
Violet Matiru, Executive Director, Millennium Community Development Initiatives, Kenya
Host: Andy Currier
Report available: https://www.oaklandinstitute.org/stealth-game-community-conservancies-devastate-northern-kenya
6 Dec 2021
Art as Resistance ft. David Solnit
If you’ve participated in any mobilizations over the past decade, chances are you’ve seen the work of today’s guest, Oakland Institute Senior Fellow David Solnit.
A climate justice, global justice, anti-war, arts, and direct action organizer, David is also an author, a puppeteer, and a trainer. He was a key organizer in the shutdowns of the WTO in Seattle in 1999 and in San Francisco the day after Iraq was invaded in 2003. Today is he deeply involved in climate action protests.
In this episode, David reflects on decades spent on the front lines of some of the most important mobilizations and shares his thoughts on the role art can play in resistance movements.
To see David's work firsthand and stay up to date on his current organizing see: https://www.facebook.com/david.solnit
19 Sept 2021
UN Food Systems Summit Resistance: Part II ft. Elizabeth Mpofu, Alejandro Argumedo & Anuradha Mittal
The second episode in a two part series exploring resistance to the upcoming UN Food Systems Summit and mapping out sustainable, bottom-up approaches to food sovereignty. Featuring Elizabeth Mpofu (La Via Campesina), Alejandro Argumedo (Swift Foundation) & Anuradha Mittal (Oakland Institute)
Intro: Chivy Sok
Host: Andy Currier
For more see: //www.oaklandinstitute.org/food-systems-summit
13 Sept 2021
UN Food Systems Summit Resistance: Part I ft. Nnimmo Bassey & Kristen Lyons
The first episode in a two part series exploring resistance to the upcoming UN Food Systems Summit and mapping out sustainable, bottom-up approaches to food sovereignty. Featuring Nnimmo Bassey (Health of Mother Earth Foundation) and Kristen Lyons (Professor of Environment and Development Sociology, U Queensland).
Intro: Chivy Sok
Host: Andy Currier
For more see: https://www.oaklandinstitute.org/food-systems-summit
22 Feb 2021
Dignity or Exploitation? What Future for Farmworker Families in the US ft. David Bacon
Oakland Institute Senior Fellow, journalist and photographer David Bacon discusses the history of exploitation of the H-2A worker program and how it creates a race to the bottom for all farmworkers.
Will the Biden administration protect the profits of growers and expand the H-2A program or will it stand with farmworkers who labor in the fields to keep our country fed?
Report: https://www.oaklandinstitute.org/biden-administration-end-slavery-conditions-h2a-guest-worker-program
19 Jan 2021
On the Frontlines of Duterte’s War on Filipino Farmers ft. Kathryn Manga
Kathryn Manga of KMP (Peasants Movement of the Philippines) joins to discuss how farmers faced with land grabs and violent repression continue to struggle for genuine agrarian reform and a better future in the Philippines.
For the latest news on KMP:
https://www.facebook.com/kilusangmagbubukid/
https://twitter.com/kmp_phl
Music: Mike Mell
9 Dec 2020
”We are Human Beings” Inside the Longest McDonald’s Workers’ Strike ft. Angely Rodriguez & Maria Ceja
Today's episode features Angely Rodriguez and Maria Ceja - two McDonald’s workers who went on a historic strike in response to the company’s failure to provide the bare minimum to protect its workers as COVID-19 ran rampant through their Telegraph Ave location in North Oakland.
To learn more and get involved visit: www.fastfoodjusticeahora.com.
Hosted by Andy Currier
Music: Michael & Randy Mell
13 Oct 2020
Changing the Path to Development in Papua New Guinea ft. Frédéric Mousseau
The Oakland Institute Policy Director Frederic Mousseau joins to discuss how despite an abundance of natural resource wealth, Papua New Guinea’s reliance on large scale extraction projects has failed to provide development for its people. Instead of allowing foreign corporations to evade taxes and bank profits offshore, PNG must change course to provide people centered development.
https://www.oaklandinstitute.org/extraction-inclusion
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