Indigenous people oppose 30 X 30 land grab
The Biden administration’s plan to “protect” “at least” 30 percent of America’s lands and waters by 2030 is moving full-speed-ahead despite the war in Ukraine, crippling energy shortages in Europe, and soaring inflation at home, much of it driven by spiking energy prices.
“Consistent with the President’s national conservation goal and the America the Beautiful initiative, the Budget also makes critical investments to help communities conserve important lands and waters, expand access to the outdoors for underserved communities, and deploy natural solutions to climate change,” the White House’s new budget proposal states.
The 30X30 plan, relabeled “America the Beautiful’ by the Administration, is being quietly but vigorously implemented across federal agencies. More bureaucrats will be needed to oversee the scheme, and they are on the way. Biden’s fiscal 2023 budget request unveiled March 29 asks Congress to allocate funds to hire aa many as 760 new employees at the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM). That follows Biden’s request last year to hire 649 new employees at BLM. If you are going to grab land, you need taxpayer-funded functionaries to help you do your dirty work.
But the Second Law of Thermodynamics tells us that for every action, there is a reaction, of equal or great force, something Vladimir Putin is finding out in Ukraine.
The Texas-based American Stewards of Liberty reports that over 150 counties nationwide oppose the 30X30 plan, and the list is growing. Landowners along with state and local governments are rightly concerned that the federal government lacks the authority to determine how land is to be used in jurisdictions throughout the country.
And resistance is not limited to the United States. Biden’s 30×30 plan is part of a larger global effort promoted by the UN-affiliated Convention on Biological Diversity. Among those in the bull’s eye of this elitist project are indigenous and tribal people who comprise about 6 percent of the world’s population and who lack the political means to defend themselves.
“The Biggest Land Grab in History”
An organization called Survival International speaks up for indigenous peoples whose way of life is far removed from Davos, Martha’s Vineyard, and other venues favored by global elites. On its website, Survival International emphasizes the threat 30X30 poses to indigenous peoples all over the world:
“Dear Humanity,
World leaders are pushing a plan to turn 30% of Earth into Protected Areas by 2030. They say it will mitigate climate change, reduce wildlife loss, enhance biodiversity, and so save our environment, but they are wrong. It will make things worse: it will destroy nature, and lead to the biggest land grab in history.”
The organization notes that for those who are already rich, there is more money to be made in phony conservation schemes:
“Conservation NGOs WWF (World Wildlife Fund) and The Nature Conservancy are among the biggest promoters of the 30 X 30 plan. They are lobbying governments to go ahead with it and teaming up with the biggest-polluting corporations to greenwash them. Why? Because conservation NGOs are set to receive billions of dollars to oversee new projects associated with the plan. They’re pushing ahead even though there is plenty of evidence the plan won’t save the environment, and it will destroy Indigenous and local peoples’ lands and lives.”
“As the most biodiverse regions are those where indigenous peoples still live, they will be the first targeted by the conservation industry,” Survival International points out. The land grab being pushed by 30X30 advocates “will reduce hundreds of millions of people to landless poverty – all in the name of conservation.”
What ranchers in Wyoming, tree farmers in Alabama, and indigenous people in Africa have in common is that powerful people covet their land and care nothing if their greed and lust for power destroys other people’s way of life. People should see 30X30 for what it is and act accordingly.
Author
Bonner Cohen, Ph. D.
Bonner R. Cohen, Ph. D., is a senior policy analyst with CFACT, where he focuses on natural resources, energy, property rights, and geopolitical developments. Articles by Dr. Cohen have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Investor’s Business Daily, The New York Post, The Washington Examiner, The Washington Times, The Hill, The Epoch Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Miami Herald, and dozens of other newspapers around the country. He has been interviewed on Fox News, Fox Business Network, CNN, NBC News, NPR, BBC, BBC Worldwide Television, N24 (German-language news network), and scores of radio stations in the U.S. and Canada. He has testified before the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, and the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee. Dr. Cohen has addressed conferences in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, and Bangladesh. He has a B.A. from the University of Georgia and a Ph. D. – summa cum laude – from the University of Munich.
From cfact.org