Brazil

In early December of this year, the Brazilian National Development Bank (BNDES) announced that it was granting a new loan of 22.5 billion reais, the largest in its history, to the Belo Monte hydroelectric dam project.

The Mundukuru indigenous community in the Brazilian Amazon state of Para decided to cancel a contract that would have allowed the Irish company “Celestial Green Ventures” to sell carbon credits from forests in their territory. The agreement was signed earlier this year giving the Irish company the right over the carbon in forests inside the indigenous territory. “We are going to cancel the deal. Many in the tribe didn’t want it, so to avoid problems we decided to stop it,” said Candido Waru, leader of a local association of the Munduruku people.

Testimonies of community women impacted by carbon and forest conservation projects that today are included in the so-called Green Economy.

The Pindaré Caru indigenous movement, composed of the Guajajara and Awá people, blocked the VALE multinational mining railway this past Oct. 3 in the town of Alto Alegre do Pindaré, State of Maranhão. The blockade was mounted in protest to the loosening of Brazilian legislation on indigenous rights (measures such as PEC 215 and Resolution 303/2012 by the State Attorney General). The aim of this loosening is to make it easier for multinational companies like VALE to appropriate indigenous territories and thus benefit even further from the exploitation of these riches.

By Sindicato dos Trabalhadores Rurais de Xapuri – Federação do Povo Huni Kui do Acre. What are the real problems of forest peoples in Acre? Why aren’t REDD and environmental services a solution to these problems? What concerns forest peoples about REDD and environmental services? Download the full document here

A story of the peoples of the Atlantic Forest in southern Brazil in a disputed territory where the green economy competes with community-based economies.

  Produced by the World Rainforest Movement Interviews: Winnie Overbeek Camera and Edition: Flavio Pazos. A story of the peoples of the Atlantic Forest in southern Brazil. In Brazil, the Atlantic Forest, which covered the country's entire coastline 500 years ago, is seriously endangered.

by Winfridus Overbeek

The Brazilian organizations Juízes para a Democracia (Judges for Democracy) and CIMI have launched a petition addressed to various Brazilian authorities to demand the urgent demarcation of indigenous lands in the country, particularly in view of the disastrous situation faced by the Guaraní-Kaiowá people in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul. The Guaraní-Kaiowá who live in the PyleitoKue/Mbarakay territory announced that they would rather die en masse than leave their territory in reponse to an eviction order and threats.

  Over the last two decades, the Latin America and Caribbean region has lost 9% of its forest cover, primarily as a result of logging, the expansion of agribusiness, major infrastructure projects like highways, hydroelectric dams, mining, oil drilling and urbanization, as well as forest fires and the conversion of forests to other land uses, largely caused by these same activities.

By Elder Andrade de Paula On the eve of another world conference on the environment – Rio+20 – which places emphasis on the climate crisis, we are witnessing major efforts by the centres of world power to promote a discussion with no real discussions. The worn-out model of “sustainable development”, now recycled under the new name of “green economy”, is being put forward as the only alternative to “save the planet”.