For nearly 2,000 years, the Indigenous Karen people of southeast Myanmar have led a relatively tranquil life in the hilly forests that are part of the Indo-Burma biodiversity hotspot. But in the last seven decades, Karen civilians have found themselves entangled in the world’s longest armed conflict, between the Karen National Union and the Myanmar […]
Brazil’s Amazon dam plans have been slowed down over the past decade due to realization by the country’s electrical authorities that obtaining environmental licenses would be difficult when Indigenous peoples are impacted, despite the government’s success in forcing approval of dams such as Belo Monte. Teles Pires (see here and here) and São Manoel that […]
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Brazil elections boost environmental violators to high office in Amazon
Fifty-one of the candidates were sitting office holders, 28 of whom ran for reelection.
Many of these candidates are former illegal loggers and ranchers, and continue to hold a stake in agribusiness companies operating on deforested land.
In addition to the environmental violations, some of the candidates are implicated in other serious crimes, including one accused of using slave labor on his farm, and another who owns a ranch where police uncovered 583 kilograms (1,285 pounds) of cocaine.
By the end of the election, 85 municipalities across Brazil had elected mayors or deputy mayors fined by IBAMA, Brazil’s environmental agency, for committing infractions in the past decade; a quarter of these politicians triumphed in Amazonian municipalities.