Forest peoples accuse governments of using pandemic to damage jungles – dpa international Indigenous activists putting on a traditional dance performance during a 2017 AMAN conference in Tanjung Gusto, North Sumatra, Indonesia. (Simon Roughneen) DUBLIN — The novel coronavirus pandemic has facilitated government-backed “economic opportunism” in the world’s rainforests, according to a report published on Thursday. Authorities in Brazil, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Indonesia and Peru “have set aside social and environmental safeguards in favour of destructive development projects that are harming indigenous communities,” said the Forest People’s Programme, a British-based organization that works with indigenous people’s representatives in dozens of countries.