“Hope is the last to die. We are apprehensive about what happened, but we will fight.” These are the words of Indigenous leader Jose Antônio Parava Ramos, a member of the Chiquitano people whose territory sits on the border of Bolivia and Brazil. He was sharing his perspective on a revived proposal to restrict the […]
After gold miners shoot Yanomani people, Brazil cuts environmental regulation further
by Mongabay.com on 13 May 2021
With 300 votes in favor and 122 against, Brazil’s Lower House passed the draft of a bill on May 12 that withdraws environmental impact assessments and licensing for development projects, ranging from construction of roads to agriculture.
The measure, which was submitted to the Senate for its appraisal, is backed by President Jair Bolsonaro and the powerful conservative agribusiness lobby the ‘ruralistas’ who champion it as a way of slashing red tape on environmental licensing, to facilitate “self-licensing” infrastructure projects.
Congressmen, experts and activists opposed to it are convinced the new legal framework will inevitably fast-track approval of high-risk projects, leading to deforestation and the escalation of violence against traditional communities.
Karipuna people sue Brazil government for alleged complicity in land grabs
by Shanna Hanbury on 6 May 2021
Leaders of the Karipuna Indigenous group in Brazil are suing the government for what they say is complicity in the continued invasion and theft of their land.
Findings by Greenpeace and the Catholic Church-affiliated Indigenous Missionary Council (CIMI) show 31 land claims overlapping onto the Karipuna Indigenous Reserve, while 7% of the area has already been deforested or destroyed.
The Karipuna Indigenous, who rebuilt their population to around 60 in the last few decades from just eight members who survived mass deaths by disease that followed their forced contact with the outside world in the 1970s, are seeking damages of $8.2 million, the right to permanent protection, and the cancellation of all outsider land claims to their territory.
Brazil’s Bolsonaro vowed to work with Indigenous people. Now he’s investigating them
by Mongabay.com on 4 May 2021
At least two top Indigenous leaders in Brazil, Sônia Guajajara and Almir Suruí, were recently summoned for questioning by the federal police over allegations of slander against the government of President Jair Bolsonaro.
Both probes were prompted by complaints filed by Funai, the federal agency for Indigenous affairs, just a week after Bolsonaro pledged at a global leaders’ climate summit to work together with Indigenous peoples to tackle deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon.
The NGO Human Rights Watch said it’s “deeply concerned” about the government’s moves and called any retaliation against Indigenous peoples a “flagrant abuse of power,” while APIB, Brazil’s main Indigenous association, called the government’s approach a “clear attempt to curtail freedom of expression.”