Community Leaders Killed in the War for the Amazon

Yesterday, Brazilian politicians took a decisive step towards opening the door to massive new Amazon deforestation, by voting in favor of radical changes to the Brazilian Forest Code - the primary legal instrument for protecting the Amazon. If these changes become law they will let hundreds of forest criminals off the hook, and massively expand the amount of forest under threat from the chainsaws. After yesterday's vote, the bill needs Senate approval prior to becoming law, and can then can only be vetoed by President Dilma Roussef.  

Greenpeace Brazil issued a statement outlining the implications of the changes to the Forest Code and the state of the Amazon as it faces further deforestation. “The Amazon forest has never been threatened as it is now. Yesterday was a dark day for Brazil. It started with the assassination by gunmen of Jose Claudio Silva and Maria do Espirito Santo, forest community leaders in the Amazon state of Pará, and finished with the news that most of Brazil’s politicians in the Congress approved the assassination of our forest legislation," said Paulo Adario, director of the Amazon Campaign for Greenpeace.  


“This debate in parliament is already having a devastating impact to the Amazon forest and it's communities. Government monitoring shows a huge spike in deforestation over the last months compared to last year. Farmers are rushing to cut down forests, expecting that the new law will protect them from being punished for their past crimes. They’re also gambling that the new rules will allow them to cut down more forest in the future, and they’re getting started before the ink is even dry.” Illegal logging barons are acting with impunity, as indicated through the assassination of José Silva and Maria, his wife. A community leader, who collected and sold Brazil nuts, José lived with constant death threats and in an area with considerable illegal timber extraction. Relaxing forest rules will only increase the risk to such communities, and to the forest they depend on for their livelihoods.”
 

According to The Guardian, the couple were killed in an ambush near their home in Nova Ipixuna, in Pará state, about 37 miles from Marabá. The couple had not had police protection despite getting frequent death threats because of their battle against illegal loggers and ranchers. On Tuesday there were conflicting reports from about whether the killing happened on Monday night or Tuesday morning. A police spokesperson said there were reports of a "double homicide" at the settlement called Maçaranduba 2. 

In a speech at a TEDx event last November, Da Silva spoke of his fears that loggers would try to silence him. "I could be here today talking to you and in one month you will get the news that I disappeared. I will protect the forest at all costs. That is why I could get a bullet in my head at any moment … because I denounce the loggers and charcoal producers, and that is why they think I cannot exist. [People] ask me, 'are you afraid?' Yes, I'm a human being, of course I am afraid. But my fear does not silence me. As long as I have the strength to walk I will denounce all of those who damage the forest."

Roberto Smeraldi, founder and director of the environmental group Amigos da Terra (not affiliated with Friends of the Earth International), who worked with Da Silva in the Amazon, said he had been in a meeting with Brazil's president, Dilma Rousseff, discussing changes to the Forest Code when the news broke of Da Silva being killed. "He was convinced he would be killed one day," Smeraldi said. He added that Da Silva had been "very active" in the fight against illegal forest burning and logging. According to Brazilian media reports, Rousseff has asked her chief of staff, Gilberto Carvalho, to offer support to the murder investigation.





Source: Greenpeace, The Guardian

A Biofuel Without Deforestation?

Hemp is an excellent Bio Diesel fuel! USA Oil Barons got it outlawed to protect oil derived synthetics in the 1930's. But third world countries should legalise hemp for their own advantage.

On Andrew Mellon, founder of the Gulf Oil Corporation: "He knew that cannabis hemp was an alternative industrial raw material for the production of thousands of products, including fuel and plastics, which, if allowed to compete in the free-market, would threaten the future profits of the oil companies. As Secretary of the Treasury he created the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, and appointed his own future nephew-in-law, Harry Anslinger, as director. Anslinger would later use the sensational, and totally fabricated, articles published by Hearst, to push the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 through Congress, which successfully destroyed the rebirth of the cannabis hemp industry. "A prominent member of one Congressional subcommittee who voted in favor of this bill was Joseph Guffey of Pennsylvania, an oil tycoon and former business partner of Andrew Mellon in the Spindletop oil fields in Texas. 

 The Du Pont Chemical Corporation, "which owned the patents on synthetic petrochemicals and industrial processes that promised billions of dollars in future profits from the sale of wood pulp paper, lead additives for gasoline, synthetic fibers and plastics, if hemp could be suppressed. At the time, du Pont family influence in both government and the private sector was unmatched, according to historians and journalists. "This publication, however, reveals documented historical evidence that the suppression of the hemp industry was only one key part of a much larger conspiracy in the 1930s, not only by the three corporate interests named above, but by many others, as well. "Congressional records, FBI reports and investigations by the Justice Department, during the 1930s and 1940s, have already documented evidence of this wider plot. A list of the corporations named include Du Pont, Standard Oil, and General Motors, all of which were proven to be conspiring with Nazi industrial cartels to eliminate competition world-wide and divide among themselves the Earth's industrial resources and commercial markets, for profitable exploitation. 

The use of hemp as a source of methanol was known to the Nazis, revealed in the pamphlet 'The Humorous Hemp Primer,' published in Berlin, also in 1943. This document, recently re-published in the 1995 edition of 'Hemp and the Marijuana Conspiracy: The Emperor Wears No Clothes,' by veteran hemp conspiracy researcher Jack Herer, states that: " 'Crops should not only provide food in large quantities, they can provide raw materials for industry. . . Among such raw materials of especially high value is hemp . . . " 'The woody part of this large plant is not to be thrown out, since it can easily be used for surface coatings for the finest floors. It also provides paper and cardboard, building materials and wall paneling. Further processing will even produce wood sugar and wood gas. " 'Anyone who grows hemp today need not fear a lack of a market, because hemp, as useful as it is, will be purchased in unlimited amounts.'

Why Hemp Fuel? Quoting from the article:

• Biodiesel is the only alternative fuel that runs in any conventional, unmodified diesel engine. It can be stored anywhere that petroleum diesel fuel is stored.
• Biodiesel is safe to handle and transport because it is as biodegradable as sugar, 10 times less toxic than table salt, and has a high flashpoint of about 300 F compared to petroleum diesel fuel, which has a flash point of 125 F.
• Biodiesel can be made from domestically produced, renewable oilseed crops such as hemp.
• Biodiesel is a proven fuel with over 30 million successful US road miles, and over 20 years of use in Europe.
• When burned in a diesel engine, biodiesel replaces the exhaust odor of petroleum diesel with the pleasant smell of hemp, popcorn or french fries.
• Biodiesel is the only alternative fuel in the US to complete EPA Tier I Health Effects Testing under section 211(b) of the Clean Air Act, which provide the most thorough inventory of environmental and human health effects attributes that current technology will allow.
• Biodiesel is 11% oxygen by weight and contains no sulfur. The use of biodiesel can extend the life of diesel engines because it is more lubricating than petroleum diesel fuel, while fuel consumption, auto ignition, power output, and engine torque are relatively unaffected by biodiesel.

The Congressional Budget Office, Department of Defense, US Department of Agriculture, and others have determined that biodiesel is the low cost alternative fuel option for fleets to meet requirements of the Energy Policy Act.

 My further argument to this, is that Hemp Oil is a far more ecologically sound alternative to Palm Oil. Palm Oil has caused massive deforestation across South East Asia, and is driving indigenous species to extinction. Hemp is also a multi-purpose crop, besides the already well established medicinal benefits it can be used for paper production, which gives a fantastic yield with a far lower carbon footprint than wood pulp. We would not need to chop down trees to make room for Palm, nor for paper production. We would have one crop which could facilitate all this. We have here our energy, oxygen, paper and plastic solution. And it's being kept from us by United States corporations who are convincing the rest of the world to follow suit through the pressure of globalisation on local economies. They would rather manufacture products using pollutants than by naturally processing a green plant. 

But the dollar is now falling. So what leg do they have to stand on, really? Hemp production needs to be escalated, and the farming of Palm needs to be reduced drastically. Third world countries are convinced to use Palm oil for biofuels as a quick fix to reduce greenhouse gases, but actually the deforestation needed to convert land to palm oil plantations is producing way more carbon than it could ever save. And once the trees are gone, they are gone for ever. Please boycott palm oil today, and seek alternatives. Pressure local governments to investigate hemp as a commercial crop again, a crop our civilisation already used for 10,000 years before these petrochemical companies had it outlawed.



Source: Belize Development Trust, Jack Herer

CITES Species: Wood Bison

The Wood Bison (Bison bison athabascae), also called Mountain Bison, Wood Buffalo or Mountain Buffalo, is a distinct northern subspecies of the American Bison (often called "buffalo"). Its original range included much of the forest regions of Alaska, Yukon, Western Northwest territories, northeastern British Columbia, northern Alberta, and northwestern Saskatchewan. It is included on the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) threatened species list. 

The Wood Bison differs from the Plains Bison (Bison bison bison), the other surviving North American subspecies/ecotype, in a number of important ways. Most notably, the Wood Bison is heavier, with large males weighing over 900 kilograms (2,000 lb), making it the largest terrestrial animal in North America. The highest point of the Wood Bison is well ahead of its front legs, while the Plains Bison's highest point is directly above the front legs. Wood bison also have larger horn cores, a darker and woollier pelage, and less hair on their forelegs and beard.

As with other bison, the Wood Bison's population was devastated by hunting and other factors. By the early 1900s, they were regarded as extremely rare or perhaps nearly extinct. However, a herd of about 200 was discovered in Alberta, Canada in 1957. This herd has since recovered to a total population of approximately 2,500, largely as a result of conservation efforts by Canadian government agencies. In 1988, the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) changed the subspecies' conservation status from "endangered" to "threatened".  

 On June 17, 2008, 53 Canadian Wood Bison were transferred from Elk Island National Park in Alberta, Canada, to the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Centre near Anchorage, Alaska. There they will be held in quarantine for two years, and then re-introduced to their native habitat in the Minto Flats area near Fairbanks. Currently there are only 3,000 Wood Bison in the wild, located in the Northwest Territories, Yukon, British Columbia, Alberta, and Manitoba. In 2006, an outherd was established in Yakutia, Russia where the species died out over 6000 years ago. In addition to the loss of habitat and hunting, Wood Bison populations have also been in danger of hybridizing with Plains Bison, and therefore polluting the genetic stock.

Publicly-owned free-ranging herds in Alberta, British Columbia, Yukon, and the Northwest Territories comprise 90% of existing Wood Bison, although six smaller public and private captive breeding herds with conservation objectives comprise approximately 10% of the total. These captive herds and two large isolated free-ranging herds in the Yukon and Northwest Territories all derive from disease-free and morphologically representative founding stock from northern Wood Buffalo National Park in northeastern Alberta and southern Northwest Territories. These captive herds are particularly important for conservation and recovery purposes, because the larger free-ranging herds in and around Wood Buffalo National Park were infected with bovine brucellosis and tuberculosis after 7,000 Plains Bison (Bison bison bison) were trans-shipped by barge from Buffalo National Park near Wainwright, Alberta in the 1920s. 

These diseases and others remain endemic in the free-ranging herds in and around Wood Buffalo National Park. The diseases represent a serious management issue for governments, various local Aboriginal groups, and the cattle industry rapidly encroaching on the park's boundaries. Disease management strategies and initiatives began in the 1950s, and have yet to result in a reduction of the incidence of either disease despite considerable expenditure and increased public involvement.



Source: Wikipedia, CITES

Apennine Brown Bear Facing Extinction

The May 3 death of an Apennine brown bear (Ursus arctos marsicanus) has put the world's rarest bear subspecies one step closer to extinction. Just 50 or so of the animals remain in two of Italy's national parks, a population so small that the bears are "below the threshold of survival," Giuseppe Rossi, head of the National Park of Abruzzo, Lazio, and Molise, told The Christian Science Monitor.

The bear killed this week was likely struck by a car, an example of the increased bear-human conflict that has halved the population from 100 animals since the 1980s. In addition to traffic fatalities, poachers used poison to kill three bears in 2007, including a cub and his famous father named Bernardo, who was known for casually strolling around the streets of local villages. A female bear died in 2008, also from poisoning. 

Although the bears have become people-friendly, that has put them even further at risk. As Italy magazine reported in 2008, some villagers "were unhappy with incursions by Bernardo and his kin, claiming they were a menace. The disappearance of high-mountain fodder and smallholdings has been one of the reasons why the bears have begun roaming further downhill, causing friction with humans." 

Aiming to reduce this conflict, forest rangers have planted thousands of fruit trees in the parks over the last few years in hopes of increasing the bears' natural food supply. Last year, a $7.3 million project called Life Arctos (named after the bear) was launched, partially funded by the European Union, to coordinate conservation efforts between multiple government agencies and NGOs. According to The Christian Science Monitor, Life Arctos will help plant more trees and build electric fences around peoples' gardens and beehives to prevent bears from using human settlements as their grocery stores. According to the U.K.-based organization Save the Bears, the Apennine bears cause around $75,000 in damage every year to beehives, gardens and livestock.




Source: Scientific American

CITES Species: Blackbuck

Blackbuck (Antilope cervicapra), is a species of antelope native to the Indian subcontinent. Their range decreased sharply during the 20th century. Since 2003, the IUCN lists the species as near threatened. This species is the only member of the genus Antilope, and has been introduced in Texas and Argentina. It is one of the fastest of all terrestrial animals reaching speeds of up to 80 km/h and is one of the few antelopes where males and females have distinctive coloration, as the male bucks are a distinctive black and white and have long twisted horns, while females are fawn coloured with no horns. In its scientific name Antilope cervicapra, 'Antilope' from 'anthalops' (Greek) a horned animal; 'cervicapra' from 'cervus' (Latin) a deer and 'capra' (Latin) a she-goat.

The blackbuck, as the provincial animal of India it is known as Krishna Mriga in Kannada. Also known as Krishna Jinka in Telugu, it has been declared as the state animal of Andhra Pradesh. Other local names for the species include Krishnasar in Bengali, Kala Hiran, Sasin, Iralai Maan, and Kalveet in Marathi. It is often simply called Indian antelope though this term might also be used for other Antilopinae from the region. The skin of Krishna Mrigam plays an important role in Hinduism, and Brahmin boys are traditionally required to wear a strip of unleathered hide after performing Upanayam.

The distinctive horns of the Blackbuck are ringed with 1 to 4 spiral turns, rarely more than 4 turns, and can be as long as 79 cm (31 in). A trophy Blackbuck is greater than 46 cm (18 in). In the male, the upper body is black (dark brown), and the belly and eye rings are white. The light-brown female is usually hornless. Blackbuck usually roam the plains in herds of 15 to 20 animals with one dominant male.

On the open plain, the Blackbuck is one of the fastest animals and can outrun most predators over long distances. Its chief predator was the now extinct Indian Cheetah. It is now sometimes preyed upon by wolves, feral dogs, etc. The diet of the Blackbuck consists mostly of grasses, although it does eat pods, flowers and fruits to supplement its diet. The maximum life span recorded is 16 years and the average is 12 years.

Originally spread over large tracts of India (except in North East India). Today the blackbuck population is confined to areas in Maharasthra, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka with a few small pockets in Central India. In Nepal, the last surviving population of blackbuck is found in the Blackbuck Conservation Area south of the Bardia National Park. In 2008, the population was estimated to comprise 184 individuals. Its original habitat is open plain and not dense jungle during the early part of the 20th century for the purpose of hunting and breeding. 

The main threats to the species are: Poaching, Predation, Habitat destruction, Overgrazing, Diseases, Inbreeding and Sanctuary visitors. Large herds once roamed freely on the plains of North India, where they thrived best, but no longer. During the eighteenth, nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth centuries, Blackbuck was the most hunted wild animal all over India. Although Indian law strictly prohibits the hunting of these endangered animals, there are still occasional incidents of poaching. The remaining populations are under threat from inbreeding. The natural habitat of the Blackbuck is being encroached upon by man's need for arable land and grazing ground for domesticated cattle. Exposure to domesticated cattle also renders the Blackbuck exposed to bovine diseases. It used to be one of the most abundant hoofed mammal in the Indian subcontinent, so much so that as late as early 1900s, naturalist Richard Lydekker mentions herds of hundreds in his writings, though today only small herds are seen inside reserves, chief reason of their decline being excessive hunting. 

Like most wild animals, the Blackbuck is in principle protected in India by the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972. Its protected status has gained publicity through a widely reported court case in which one of India's leading film stars, Salman Khan, was sentenced to five years imprisonment for killing two black bucks and several endangered chinkaras. The arrest was prompted by intense protests from the Bishnoi ethnic group, which holds animals and trees sacred, and on whose land the hunting had taken place. In another notorious incident of criminal poaching, Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi also killed a Blackbuck and then absconded as a fugitive. He finally surrendered only when the case was transferred from the criminal court to a Special Environment court, where he would face lighter sentencing.



Source: Wikipedia, CITES

No Palm for Oil

Demand for palm oil is growing - and fast. At the moment, most of it ends up in hundreds of food products - from margarine and chocolate to cream cheese and oven chips - although it's also used in cosmetics and increasingly, for use in biodiesel. But the cost to the environment and the global climate is devastating - to feed this demand, tropical rainforests and peatlands in South East Asia are being torn up to provide land for oil palm plantations.

Our consumption of palm oil is rocketing: compared to levels in 2000, demand is predicted to more than double by 2030 and to triple by 2050. Over 70 per cent ends up in food, but the biofuels industry is expanding rapidly. Indonesia already has 6 million hectares of oil palm plantations, but has plans for another 4 million by 2015 dedicated to biofuel production alone. 

Commitments from various governments to increase the amount of biofuels being sold are pushing this rise in demand, because they're seen as an attractive quick fix to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. By 2020, 10 per cent of fuel sold in the EU will be biofuel and China expects 15 per cent of its fuel to be grown in fields, while India wants 20 per cent of its diesel to be biodiesel by 2012. The irony is that these attempts to reduce the impact of climate change could actually make things worse - clearing forests and draining and burning peatlands to grow palm oil will release more carbon emissions than burning fossil fuels. 

But this phenomenal growth of the palm oil industry spells disaster for local communities, biodiversity, and climate change as palm plantations encroach further and further into forested areas. This is happening across South East Asia, but the problem is particularly acute in Indonesia which has been named in the 2008 Guinness Book of Records as the country with the fastest rate of deforestation. The country is also the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases, largely due to deforestation. 

Much of the current and predicted expansion oil palm expansion in Indonesia is taking place on forested peatlands. Peat locks up huge amounts of carbon, so clearing peatlands by draining and burning them releases huge greenhouse gases. Indonesia's peatlands, cover less than 0.1 per cent of the Earth's surface, but are already responsible for 4 per cent of global emissions every year. No less than ten million of Indonesia's 22.5 million hectares of peatland have already been deforested and drained. 

Industry efforts to bring this deforestation under control have come through the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). It was set up in 2001 to establish clear ethical and ecological standards for producing palm oil, and its members include high-street names like Unilever, Cadbury's, Nestlé and Tesco, as well as palm oil traders such as Cargill and ADM. Together, these companies represent 40 per cent of global palm oil trade. 

But since then, forest destruction has continued. Many RSPO members are taking no steps to avoid the worst practices associated with the industry, such as large-scale forest clearance and taking land from local people without their consent. On top of this, the RSPO actually risks creating the illusion of sustainable palm oil, justifying the expansion of the palm oil industry. 

Greenpeace investigations - detailed in their report Cooking The Climate - found evidence that RSPO members are still relying on palm oil suppliers who destroy rainforests and convert peatlands for their plantations. One member - Duta Palma, an Indonesian palm oil refiner - has rights to establish plantations on land which theoretically is protected by law. 

The world was hoping that the proposed Moratorium on the invasion of peatland and it's conversion to palm oil plantations would go some way to redress the balance. Sadly, that was not to be. If you look at the maps and the figures, a tiny percentage of peatland is proposed as protected area. The rest will fall under the axe and chainsaw (the red area above). Indonesia's forests are an expendable luxury it seems, in the face of corporate greed and consumption. Susilo Bambang Yudhyono, Indonesia's president did the bare minimum when presented with the chance to take a big step and save vital habitats. He opted for profit, not preservation.

Source: Greenpeace

Sarawak's Minister Hiding the Facts of Deforestation

Images from Google Earth show a sharp contract between forest cover in Sarawak, a state in Malaysian Borneo, and the neighboring countries of Brunei and Indonesia at a time when Sarawak's Chief Minister Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud is claiming that 70 percent of Sarawak's forest cover is intact.

Google Earth images from GeoEye, TerraMetrics, Tele Atlas, Europa Technologies, and other providers show logging roads snaking across Sarawak's forest areas. Forests across international borders are substantially less impacted, as viewed on Google Earth. 

The images seem to lend support to claims from environmentalists that Sarawak's forests have been heavily logged. Some groups estimate that Sarawak has lost 90 percent of its primary forest cover. Most of what remains is forest that has been selectively — but heavily — logged two or three times in the past 30 years. Some forest areas have been converted for timber, wood-pulp, and timber plantations. 

Last week Chief Minister Taib said that 70 percent of Sarawak's rainforest is intact, while 14 percent of its "secondary forests" has been replanted or is in the process of being converted to plantations. Taib invited independent observers to assess Sarawak's forest cover.

"People can make many claims, but my government has been very deeply committed to sustainable management of our forest," he said in an interview with Sarawak Reports, a web site created earlier this month by the Chief Minister's supporters. "These are the simple facts and if people want to verify, they are welcome to Sarawak. I'll be open for... independent inspection and I have nothing to hide." 

Taib has come under pressure in recent months from campaigners who have linked him and his family to hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of overseas properties. The holdings, which are uncleared and would seem to be illegally acquired, are believed to be tied to Taib's interests in the forestry sector.

The campaign against Taib has been led by the Clare Rewcastle Brown, the sister-in-law of British former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who helps run the Sarawak Report and Radio Free Sarawak. Both outlets have come under heavy pressure from the government of Sarawak, which, together with logging companies which own publications like the Borneo Post, control much of the state's print media. Accordingly, Sarawak media has lately become very critical of the former British Prime Minister, who recently described the deforestation of Sarawak as "probably the biggest environmental crime of our times".

Lukas Straumann of the Bruno Manser Fund, a group that has long advocated on behalf of Sarawak's forest people, expressed doubt that Taib would follow through on his pledge to allow independent examination of Sarawak's forests.

"Taib has never allowed any foreign inspection of Sarawak's forests since the 1991 ITTO mission which had not turned out the way he had hoped. In particular, he has consistently refused ITTO to conduct a follow-up mission," he told mongabay.com.

"We know from satellite imagery that less than 10% (possibly less than 5%) of Sarawak's forests are still intact. Taib himself stated in 2001 that 90% of loggable trees had been cut so that the forestry industry needed to start looking out for new sources of timber." 

With government approval, rampant logging began in the 1980s and has continued to present day, transforming Sarawak's once verdant forests into a shadow of their former selves—environmentalists estimate less than 10 percent of the state's primary forests remain. Eight percent of the remaining forests are protected in parks, but these protected areas are chronically threatened by illegal logging and even government concessions. While the 1980s saw some of Borneo's richest forests fall, it also saw the rise of a number of Sarawak logging companies including Samling, Rimbunan Hijau, WTK, KTS, Shin Yang and Ta Ann. Over the past three decades the logging operations have grown exponentially, expanding timber operations worldwide and spreading into such non-related areas as the media and construction. 

"[The companies'] track records of diversification and internationalization, however, go hand in hand with the violation of human rights, political patronage and the destruction of the environment in their home country and many other parts of the world," writes Daniel Faeh in the report. Research assistant at the Economic Geography Group at the University of Bern in Switzerland, Faeh is the author of Bruno Manser Funds' report.

Owning 1.3 million acres, Samling is the largest timber company in the Sarawak. It has been accused of illegal logging and environmental destruction throughout Southeast Asia, in the Amazon, and the Pacific. The second largest logging company, Rimbunan Hijua, has repeatedly been accused of violating human rights and abusing indigenous people. The WTK group was accused of illegal logging in the Amazon, and the Ta Ann group has been criticized for logging old-growth temperate rainforests in Tasmania.

There is little oversight in these matters in Sarawak. Taib is not only Chief Minister of Sarawak, but also Minister of Planning and Resource Management, which means, according to the report, that "[he] has absolute control over the allocation of timber licenses and logging concessions to himself, his allies, friends and family." 

Source: Mongabay