brazil – Tribes Alive

COP30: Belém, Brazil

Another year, another Climate COP.

Since the last one we have had a year when the global temperature topped the 1.5 degrees rise that the world’s climate scientists tell us bodes disaster. 2024 was the hottest year on record, 2025 joint second with 2023. 2026 looks set to exceed the 2024 record.

This confirms that we are well off the UNFCCC’s target. COP30 failed to be the turning point which we so desperately need, when the global community tips from denial to action. The giant fossils of the petrochem industry again managed to derail real progress.

If we are to avoid climate disaster Indigenous peoples have a major part to play. They are small in number, but occupy substantial areas of the remaining tropical forests. They need our support to manage and protect their forests.

Here’s an example. The Kayapó occupy an area only slightly smaller than the size of England. This map shows their territory, with the outline of England in bright green at the same scale:

Now imagine yourself in England. Fill the entire area of England with dense, almost impenetrable tree cover. Take away all of the roads and railways, but leave a very small number of dirt tracks, which become impassable when it rains. Now surround England with land, not sea, and imagine that land outside having an aggressive population intent on destroying the trees and taking possession of your land. Now figure out how you are going to protect that land – bearing in mind that your population is less than 10,000 individuals. Now you have some idea of the difficulties the Kayapó are facing.

Their budget for controlling their borders and managing their land is £1.2 million, which sounds like a lot – until you realise that the UK Border Force budget alone is £1.2 billion. The Royal Parks receive over £10 million, and the Dartmoor Authority £3.5 million. The global community is not willing to pay enough to protect this vital area of land, even though losing it would result in huge disruption to global climate systems, and even to ocean currents.

I have written a paper, which is published in International Affairs, the journal of Chatham House – https://doi.org/10.1093/ia/iiag124, which explains the funding issues facing frontline Indigenous Organisations. Here is an earlier version:

Direct Funding Download

News Amazon Rainforest, brazil, Climate Action, climate change, ClimateAction, ClimateChange, COP30, Forest Guardians, ForestGuardians, indigenous people, indigenous rights, IndigenousPeople, IndigenousRights, Kayapo, Tribes Alive, TribesAlive, UNFCCC

Victory Against The Absurd

*Indigenous leaders in Times Square, New York during Climate Week; Chief Raoni Metuktire, with banner: ‘Marco Termporal Não’.*

On Friday Brazil’s Supreme Court voted on a case which has been a Sword of Damocles hanging over the heads of Brazil’s indigenous peoples. The result was a 9 to 2 ruling against the concept of a ‘Marco Temporal’ – a date-based limit on indigenous claims to territories they occupied.

It has taken more than two tortuous years for the Supreme Court to throw out this patently absurd case, which had been rumbling through the lower courts for over ten years.

The case rested on the idea that only those lands which were physically occupied by indigenous communities on the date that the 1988 Constitution came into force would qualify for demarcation as Indigenous Territories (ITs). Even a superficial reading of the Constitution makes it quite clear that this was not the intention of the Constitution, nor was it feasible within the wording of the clauses relating to the rights of indigenous peoples. If this were to be upheld by the Supreme Court it would have prevented the demarcation of any further ITs and would have put many existing ITs at risk.

In Brazil justice flows very slowly, and sometimes throws up confusing results. But this time reason prevailed, bringing huge relief – and a lot of partying – in indigenous territories throughout the country.

Brazil’s Indigenous Peoples owe much of this victory of reason over greed to actions taken 35 years ago, when Brazil’s post-dictatorship 1988 Constitution was drafted. The political climate at the time was sympathetic to the recognition of indigenous rights, and indigenous activists of the time were invited to input their ideas to the Constitutional Commission. Foremost among the indigenous negotiators was Bep’kororoti Payakan, known as Paulinho by the non-indigenous. Sadly, he was a victim of Covid. He was highly intelligent and spoke good Portuguese – very rare at the time. He was very actively involved, with the powerful support of Chief Raoni Metuktire, in negotiating the exact terms of the 1988 Constitution, as part of a coherent indigenous effort to have their rights enshrined in the Constitution. Their success in that process established the essential foundations on which this case was decided, so we owe them a huge debt of gratitude for their work. They must not be forgotten.

News 1988, brazil, Climate Week, constitution, Demarcacao Ja, indigenous people, Marco Temporal Nao, New York, Payakan, Raoni, Times Square, UNGA

Update on Coronavirus in the Xingu

Indigenous people are dying at an alarming rate throughout the Xingu, though the picture is far from uniform and not all is doom and gloom.

*Kayapó Warriors blocking access to their Village*

Many communities have locked themselves down very effectively, not allowing any opportunity for the virus to penetrate their isolation. But that has come at great cost. Unable to access the small government payments many have become accustomed to – pensions and the bolsa familia paid to them while their children are in school – families and entire communities have suddenly been left without many of the daily necessities they have grown to depend on, including some basic food provisions.

At the same time, many indigenous people who live mainly in the towns outside the reserves while attending secondary schools and universities, or because they are employed in positions which require them to live in the town, have returned to the villages, increasing the population and putting pressure on the ability of the community to feed itself.

We have been providing support by financing the purchase of essential supplies – food, medicines, tools and equipment – to help them increase their capacity to grow food and catch fish, and so that everyone can be fed properly. Working with their own associations we have established safe lines of supply which can sanitise the supplies and transport them to the communities in a safe way which minimises the risk of infection being introduced.

In other parts of the country, government medical professionals have unintentionally become virus superspreaders as they visit remote communities to dispense medical services, so the communities in the Xingu are limiting access even to nurses and doctors, leaving them with reduced access to medical treatment and medication.

But still the infection takes hold in some cases.

Young men in particular are sometimes exposed to the kind of false information which is widespread in Brazil, telling them that the threat from the virus is small and people should not take it seriously. A few have returned to their villages carrying the infection, where it spreads rapidly because of the physical closeness of their way of life. As a result people are dying, often elders and chiefs. They take with them a store of knowledge and spiritual sensitivity which has been carried down through the generations, leaving the culture scarred and their resilience undermined.

*Information Posters in the Kayapó language*

When it gets into a village the infection can be devastating. The Yawalapití, one of the tribes of the Upper Xingu’s convergent culture, have been badly affected; most of the community have contracted Covid-19, and Chief Aritana is in intensive care in a hospital in Goiânia, over nine hours away. His brother Mataryua died of the disease, along with four other chiefs from the Xingu Indigenous Territory (TIX), which occupies the southern part of the Xingu basin. To date, nearly eighty cases have been confirmed in the TIX alone, and seven people have died.

Throughout the Xingu there are cases in indigenous communities; as of the 23^rd July 1,322 cases have been confirmed and at least fifteen people have died, though this does not include those who died in hospitals or towns outside of the indigenous territories. The eastern area – the indigenous territories of Kayapó, Badjonkore, Las Casas and Menkragnotí – is the worst affected with 831 confirmed cases and at least eight deaths. Latest reports from there are that the number of serious infections is less than was initiailly feared, though it is still relatively early in the progress of the infection. Nearby, the Xicrin of the Cateté indigenous territory, which adjoins the Xingu river basin, have seen 90 confirmed infections and four deaths.

Medical equipment and supplies which we have helped to provide for the worst-affected villages, including oxygen concentrator machines for respiratory support, are proving effective in preventing the disease becoming life-threatening. This should dramatically reduce the number of deaths in the future and reduce the suffering of those who catch the disease. Isolation measures are increasingly effective as they become better organised and the dangers are better understood by all the members of the communities, which should minimise the number of people falling victim to Covid-19. But the disease is still widespread in Brazil and shows no sign of being under control in rural areas, so we expect that the communities will need our support for many months.

We are a small organisation and we cannot provide for all of the many needs which the Coronavirus pandemic is driving, but we know that the grants we are providing are filling urgent needs. Our longstanding personal experience means that we are confident in our indigenous partner organisations, and we have been able to provide vital information to facilitate some of the larger international organisations we work with, including Amazon Watch and the Amazon Emergency Fund, in placing their support where it will be most effective.

This time has been harrowing for us. When people we work with and have known, sometimes for decades, die suddenly, it is hard to accept. When people who we respect for the work they do with their communities break down as they speak to us, under the stress of having many family members falling ill, lying in intensive care and even dying, it can feel that we are not doing enough. But they tell us that the support we provide is effective, and we know that by enabling the communities to isolate themselves, and by providing medical support, we are saving lives.

*Supplies and medical equipment loaded into a trailer with children wearing masks*

The support of the amazing people who contribute financially to help the indigenous people of the Xingu is vital; there are no words which can adequately express our gratitude, so – inadequately – Thank You All.

We are especially grateful for the incredible effort by Rainforest Concern who are so effectively running a fundraising campaign on our behalf.

The survival of indigenous communities has been shown time and time again to be the best means of protecting the remaining Amazon rainforest and we are priviledged to be part of a worlwide effort to protect them and to help them through this most difficult time.

Please click the button below to make a donation:

Donate to the Tribes Alive Emergency Fund

News Amazon, brazil, Covid-19, indigenous people, Kayapo, Xingu

Tribute to Bepkororoti ‘Paulinho’ Payakan

Bepkororoti ‘Paulinho’ Payakan outside the Houses of Parliament in Westminster in 1989

We are deeeply saddened by the death from COVID-19 of the great leader and warrior Bepkororoti, better known as Paulinho Payakan.

Born in the village Kubẽkrãkêj in the 1950s, the son of chief Tchikirí, he went on to found the village A’Ukre. He dedicated his life tirelessly to protecting the forests and guaranteeing the territories and rights of Brazil’s indigenous peoples. He was one of the first of his people to learn Portuguese and like his uncle Raoni he was one of the Kayapó’s most accomplished diplomats. He was famous as a Mẽkabẽndjwỳj, a master of words – everyone was impressed to hear him speak. He had a wealth of knowledge about Mẽbêngôkre (Kayapó) culture and tradition, but he also understood better than any other Kayapó how the non-indigenous world worked. Although he was softly spoken he was astute and incisive in fighting for the rights of his people.

Bepkororoti ‘Paulinho’ Payakan speaking out against the construction of the Belo Monte dam in Altamira, Brazil, 1989

He made good use of his extraordinary communication skills to promote the cause of indigenous rights. He was a cornerstone of the indigenous movement in Brazil and became involved with the growing global environmental movement in the 1980s, building long-standing international partnerships for his people. He was fundamental in creating the main institutions of the Mẽbêngôkre-Kayapó people, including Associação Floresta Protegida (the Protected Forest Association). He was core to the struggle to ensure that indigenous rights were specifically included in the post-dictatorship 1988 Brazilian Constitution and he worked tirelessly to achieve the demarcation of the Kayapó Indigenous Territory. He was also at the forefront of the fight against the Belo Monte dam (then known as Kararaó) in the 1980s, preventing its construction until 2016, when a smaller scheme was built. He was the first elected president of the Federation of Indigenous Peoples of Pará State.

Payakan, your journey ends today in Ngômeiti village, where your relatives will mourn your departure. The indigenous movement has lost a great warrior and veteran of countless conquests. We honor you legacy and continue your struggle, alongside Oê and Maial, your daughters, who follow in your footsteps.

Bepkororoti ‘Paulinho’ Payakan with Sting and Chief Raoni in Altamira, Brazil, 1989

News Belo Monte, brazil, Coronavirus, Covid-19, dams, human rights, indigenous people, indigenous rights, Kayapo, Mebengokre, Megaron, Paiakan, Payakan

The Spirit of the Amazon vs The Spirit of Capitalism

>> Em português: SpiritAmVsCapitalist_pt.pdf

Chief Raoni talked about the greed which is the basis of our culture

Why do we talk about the Spirit of the Amazon?

Because, today, the Spirit of the Amazon is at war with the Spirit of Capitalism.

Felled trees in the rainforest

This is not primarily a war of weapons and armies, though too many of the Amazon’s defenders have suffered, and continue to suffer, violence and death, and the Amazon is under attack from the ground forces of invasion on all of the fronts that have been discussed at length; agriculture, mineral extraction, logging, infrastructure projects – all at their core examples of predatory extractivism and the pillaging of natural resources.

This is a cultural war, a philosophical war, a war between two contradictory and irreconcilable systems, each with its own social structures, intellectual structures and – for want of a better term – economic structures.

These two systems are so fundamentally different that it is hard for us, rooted and formed in our moneyed capitalist system, to imagine how it could be to grow up and function in the other, alien system, built on community and sharing rather than on individualism and ownership.

Western Culture

The basic building blocks of our ‘western’ culture are so ingrained in us that to appreciate what the world we inhabit looks like from an indigenous perspective is a huge intellectual challenge. And to even begin to consider changing our lives to be more like theirs is, unfortunately, unimaginable.

The day we are born we start absorbing our cultural environment. We are individuals; our selfish needs are our immediate priority. Very early, in our baby cribs, we begin to accumulate wealth; a toy, a blanket, a feeding bottle – the crib itself. We soon enter the world of money; our grandparents give us a few coins to spend in the sweet shop, and soon our mothers or fathers send us on errands to the shops, as their agents in the world of commerce.

Shop window with expensive goods

And so our accumulation of social and cultural values continues, imperceptibly building the foundations on which our understanding of the world is constructed, until we can no longer even perceive those foundations, our cultural underpinning. We are captives of our own experiences of life. We cannot even recognise, let alone remove, the prejudices behind the things we take so much for granted: education is good, everyone should be able to read and write, all human beings deserve and require a basic level of income, our health is reliant on outside agents, in the form of doctors and the makers of pharmaceutical medicines, everything and every piece of land is owned by somebody.

To succeed in our world we must compete with others, because our success is predicated on our ability to gain advantage over other members of society, in financial terms, in status, in authority or in power, and our success is measured by what we accumulate and by how much power we have, both in terms of financial and material resources and in terms of social and employment structures. We value material things far more than we value social goods; we would rather have a nice comfortable house than be part of a mutually supportive community. We distrust our neighbours, we fall out with our families over inheritance and disparity in wealth. Increasingly we live in isolation, connected only tenuously to our friends and family, whose physical distance from us often facilitates, perhaps even drives, our social divergence from them. We share little and we hoard much. The rich accumulate more than they could ever make any use of yet they are driven by some perverse lack of reason to accumulate yet more in a vicious spiral that leads to waste and destruction, and brings precious little happiness or satisfaction.

The Indigenous Tradition

Xicrin Boys

How different the indigenous baby? Cocooned in love, cared for by all the members of her community, she grows in understanding without the need for a blanket, getting all the warmth and comfort she needs from the proximity of her mother. Toys – at least, things she can play with to develop her understanding of the world – are all around her, in such diversity and richness that she has no need to ‘own’ them. He quickly learns how he should interact with the spirits, because the spirits are present everywhere and at all times, in the earth, in the sky, in the rocks, in the plants and animals and in the water and air. A successful day is one where the spirits have been in balance, because then there will be no hunger, no disquiet, no disagreement with other humans, nor with the animals or any other components of the world. The day will finish with contentment and without need, as it began.

Yawalapiti boy playing with sticks

And that is enough. To be is enough. To be part of the community, to contribute and to receive, to participate and to be valued in equal measure, is enough.

Built on a lie

Your reaction to my words is probably ‘how nice that must be, but it is not the real world, we could never achieve that, because we need things; we need houses, and cars, and buses and trains; we need learning, universities, hospitals and theatres’.

We don’t need those things. We are accustomed to them, to the point where we will never willingly give them up, because they represent our cultural values, they are our world.

But our world is built on a lie.

It is built on the false assumption that it can continue.

It is built on the basis of a pyramid scheme. Inevitably it will eventually collapse, because our consumption cannot, by any reason of logic, continue to grow indefinitely, our economies cannot continue to grow indefinitely, though they have perversely been created as a mechanism which depends on continual growth for its proper functioning.

Greed

Chief Raoni Metuktire

In January, in the Kayapó village of Piaraçu on the Xingu River, my teacher and friend Chief Raoni talked about the greed which is the basis of our culture. Greed is anathema to indigenous values, the antithesis of the communitarian foundation of indigenous culture. But it is beginning to infect the indigenous peoples of the Xingu, who have for five hundred years managed to avoid subjugation and who have developed their contact with the mainstream of Brazilian society to a large extent on their own terms, retaining traditional values and social structures. Only now, in the 21st century, is increasing reliance on money in danger of undermining cultural norms which have stood the test of time from long before the arrival of Orellana and Cabral. And that threatens the integrity of indigenous communities.

Chief Raoni is only too aware of that danger of infection, and he is clear that it must be resisted. Although it may be impossible for us to shuck off our cultural baggage, we must at least ensure that indigenous communities are able to maintain the integrity of theirs, which demonstrably weighs much more gently on the resources of this world than ours, and which may, in due course, be immensely valuable in re-directing our flawed model towards greater sustainability in the way we live, and which may even prove crucial in allowing mankind to survive in the long term.

Re-engineering to Eliminate Waste

Illegal garimpeiro gold miners

If industrial man continues with business as usual – wasteful over-consumption, gross financial and resource inequality, rampant greed, continuing profligate use of the Earth’s natural resources – including, of course, fossil fuels – and the careless disposal of waste, we are headed for disaster. But if we can recognise in time that the path we are on leads inevitably to a cliff edge of resource depletion, then we can at least delay the time we will reach that cliff edge, and perhaps even arrive at the point of sustainability, which could ensure a fair and comfortable future for six, ten and twenty generations into the future.

That would require what today is an unimaginable re-engineering of the social, financial and commercial structures of the mainstream world. The global population would have to level off and fall, ostentatious wealth must become offensive and unacceptable rather than aspirational, inequality must reduce and we would have to begin to take better care of the Earth’s resources, recognising that they are finite. We have to recycle and re-use everything we make, and completely eliminate waste, transforming our consumption patterns into a closed cycle of use, re-use, and recycling, where recyclability is designed and built into every product and every structure, and where each item is designed to use the minimum amount of resources and to last as long as possible, by being durable and repairable – the exact antithesis of corporate priorities of today.

The first and most pressing step must be to pursue rapid decarbonisation of our energy production, and it seems increasingly that we have at least reached the point of realisation about that.

The final objective – the closed loop – is today still unthinkable, an impossible dream.

Minimising the Pain

But one day, inevitably, it will become the norm. And the sooner we reach that point the less will be the pain. Future generations will look back on our time as the Age of Waste and question why we took so long to change our wasteful ways.

Chief Raoni Metuktire

Indigenous people like Chief Raoni can, and must be our teachers in this process. We must recognise and value the wisdom of the indigenous way of life, and find ways to adapt ours, to adopt many of the values inherent in theirs. We must hope that we can do so in a way which retains the many irrefutable benefits mankind has developed in the last few millennia, but set them in a framework which recognises the damage we have done to our world and the finite nature of natural resources. We must become guardians of this world instead of parasites. We must learn to share its bountiful resources with others, and especially with future generations, instead of being so selfish, greedy and avaricious.

People will not change overnight, but we need to begin moving in the right direction. Greed is not an inherent human trait, it is a learned behaviour. We need to begin to un-learn it in order to make this world a better place. And indigenous people, like those who are leaving their homes to try to enlighten us, can be our guides and mentors in that process.

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Exhibition: ‘In The Heart of Brazil’

Sue Cunningham’s exhibition ‘In The Heart of Brazil’ runs from the 4th to the 24th March at the Brazilian Embassy, just off Trafalgar Square. Full address 14-16 Cockspur Street, London SW1Y 5BL, open Monday to Friday 11am to 6pm. Admission is free.

The exhibition centres on the first ever International Indigenous Games, which took place in Brazil during October last year – more information here. There will also be workshops for school students, ‘A Journey Through the Brazilian Amazon’, but these must be arranged in advace through the Brazilian Embassy.

The photographs are of Indigenous People from Brazil and over twenty other countries. They came from all over the world to participate; not just compete, but to celebrate their traditions and to exchange information about their common experiences and the threats that they all share.

Education, News brazil, games, human rights, indigenous games, indigenous people, Maori, Tribes Alive, world

Fundraising: Indigenous Secondary School

Komomoyea Kovoero Indigenous Secondary School

We have a target: just £3,500 will provide a comfortable and secure place to stay for students.

Here’s the Just Giving Link:

As we walked down the path three pairs of squawking macaws flew over us. Bright blue giant morpho butterflies took to the air, disturbed by our approach. To the side the forest sighed with a gentle breeze.

We were on our way to visit a unique secondary school, located within the indigenous reserve, in response to a request for help from the community.

Our counterpart organisation Instituto Raoni, which represents the Kayapó of Mato Grosso and southern Pará, have approached us for funding for the school.

Until recently, any Kayapó teenagers who wanted to progress beyond the basic level of education had to leave their village and move to a town to attend a mainstream secondary school.

This put them under immense stress. Torn away from their traditional villages, they were cast adrift in an unfamiliar environment where they faced vicious discrimination. They became victims of bullying and targets for drug dealers and people encouraging them to drink alcohol. They suffered badly, and many of them dropped out.

Now there is an alternative. Cirenio and Cisera Terena are teachers. They have established the Komomoyea Kovoero Secondary School in the indigenous territory, where Kayapo students can go for more advanced education, away from the pressures and distractions of the school in town.

There are now over twenty Kayapó pupils at the school. They come from villages spread out across the Kayapó territory, which is the size of England. But they live in a dilapidated and very basic building, which desperately needs to be replaced. It is overcrowded and does not provide adequate facilities for the students to study.

And that is where we come in. The money we raise will provide showers, lavatories, bedrooms and study areas. The students will have kitchen and dining facilities to help them to learn additional life skills.

Beside the school is a vegetable garden, where the students help to grow most of the food for the school. They also tend banana plantations which help to raise the money to pay for daily expenses.

The school strives to be financially independent, but the new accommodation block will enhance the opportunities for study and help the students to acquire the training and skills so vital if they are to help their people to maintain their traditions and cultures in future years.

These are the future tribal leaders. They work hard at their studies. They merit our help.

Donating is easy – please help us. Simply click this button to donate by credit/debit card or PayPal:

or text KYAP55 £10 to 70070 from your mobile phone – you can substitute a different amount.

You are also welcome to email us to ask about making a direct transfer.

Education, News brazil, education, indigenous, indigenous people, infrastructure, Kayapo, secondary school, Terena

Report Back: Visit of Chiefs Raoni and Megaron

The summer has passed and we are now in the bracing clutches of autumn. Yet it seems only a few weeks ago that we had the immense pleasure of hosting Raoni Metuktire and Megaron Txucarramae, leaders of the Kayapo and spokesmen for all of Brazil’s indigenous peoples, in our home.

The Chiefs in front of the House of Commons

Their visit was a whirlwind. They would have liked a little time to see our country, and we wanted very much to show them some of the sights that date back to tribal times in England, like Stonehenge and the Uffington White Horse.

But that was not to be; despite having very short notice of their visit we managed to put together a full programme, including open meetings at Oxford University and University College London, a meeting with senior-level MPs at the House of Commons and media interviews. They met with Survival International and the Gaia Foundation, and the Rainforest Foundation helped us to put on a press conference, chaired by Bianca Jagger. They even had a private meeting with Prince Charles.

We have produced a short video report of the visit:

Outcomes

British politicians active in the areas of international environment and human rights are now better informed about the situation on the ground in the Amazon. The impact of this is difficult to evaluate because the results are not always obvious.

Meeting at Paliament

The visit has elevated the public profile of Brazil’s indigenous peoples and highlighted the Brazilian government’s lack of commitment to supporting and prioritising environmental sustainability and indigenous peoples’ rights.

Issues

Land Demarcation

Raoni spoke passionately about the demarcation of indigenous territories. In particular he talked about Capot Nhinore, traditionally inhabited by the Kayapo, where his ancestors lie buried.

Although the government acknowledged the Kayapó’s claims over thirty years ago the area is still occupied illegally by settlers and farmers. Successive governments have unjustifiably sidelined the demarcation of this area.

The Kayapo are left with no alternative but to take matters into their own hands. If the government will not act to fulfil its obligations, then the indigenous people feel they must do it for themselves. They need our support to do this, and today, following a plea from the Chiefs during their visit, we launch a fundraising initiative to help them.

Please make a donation to our demarcation appeal:

Background

After thirty years of procrastination, in 2012 Brazil’s courts directed Funai, the Indigenous agency, to demarcate the land. The technical work has now been completed, but the demarcation still requires the signature of the Minister of Justice, José Eduardo Cardozo. It joins a growing number of other indigenous territories which have been fully researched and signed off by Funai, but which the Minister has refused, so far, to sign into law.

To put this into perspective, the 1988 constitution mandated the government to complete the demarcation of all indigenous territories within five years. Yet more than a quarter of a century later many remain undemarcated. The rate of demarcation declined under the presidency of Lula and has ground to a halt under Dilma Rousseff – not a single territory has been demarcated since April 2013, despite the pile of cases on Cardozo’s desk being now over thirty. The following table shows demarcations signed into law during the last six presidencies:

President [period]	Number	Extension (Ha)
Dilma Rousseff [Jan 2011 to Nov 2014]	11	2,025,406
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva [Jan 2007 to Dec 2010]	21	7,726,053
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva [Jan 2003 to Dec 2006]	66	11,059,713
Fernando Henrique Cardoso [Jan 1999 to Dec 2002]	31	9,699,936
Fernando Henrique Cardoso [Jan 1995 to Dec 1998]	114	31,526,966
Itamar Franco [Oct 92 to Dec 94]	16	5,432,437
Fernando Collor [Mar 90 to Sep 92]	112	26,405,219
José Sarney [Apr 85 to Mar 90]	67	14,370,486

(Source: Instituto Socioambiental – ISA)

The complete halt since April 2013 clearly demonstrates this government’s reluctance to fulfil its statutory obligations.

Changes to Brazilian Law

Proposals to change Brazilian law in ways which will badly affect Brazil’s indigenous peoples are deeply troubling for Megaron. He told his audiences about several measures, any one of which will spell disaster for many indigenous communities. These range from moves to modify the 1988 constitution itself, to changes in ministerial regulations which could open up indigenous territories for mining and agriculture, oil exploration and dam building.

These represent a major attack on the rights and interests of indigenous peoples. They go against the letter and the spirit of Brazil’s international commitments, including United Nations declarations and conventions which it has signed up to. They also conflict with rights granted under Brazil’s own laws, but the justice system is heavily loaded in favour of the government and against the intersts of indigenous communities.

Dam Building

Dams present polemical problems in the Amazon. The Brazilian government claims they are a source of green energy, yet they produce so much methane that they can contribute more to climate change than producing the same amount of energy from fossil fuels. The social and environmental impacts are horrendous, and they bring hundreds of thousands of migrants into sensitive environments with no infrastructure, where they wreak unrestrained havoc.

Belo Monte construction site

But the Brazilian government is adamant: Brazil will build ever more dams. Belo Monte, the world’s third largest, is presently under construction, despite Brazil’s courts having found it illegal time and time again. There are over twenty legal cases against it, mostly initiated by the Public Prosecutors’ Office in Belém. Each case takes years to come to court, yet when the courts impose injunctions to stop the construction they are suspended in days by a judge in chambers, pending a hearing in a higher court. That hearing is always years away, and in the intervening time the construction project steams ahead despite being judged illegal.

One case which was initiated nine years ago, brought on the grounds that the project is unconstitutional, finally reached the Court of Appeal in August of 2012. Three High Court judges unanimously upheld the findings of the lower court and reimposed the injunction, paralysing the scheme. Within days, a carefully chosen Supreme Court judge had suspended the injunction yet again, allowing construction to recommence. By the time the case gets to a full hearing in the Supreme Court, the dam will be complete, so any finding will be too little, too late.

These inequalities in Brazil’s legal process are at odds with its claim to be a modern democracy. They hark back to the dark days of military dictatorship.

Brazil has plans for up to sixty huge dams in the Amazon, and hundreds of smaller ones.

The sensitive rainforest environment is already changing, becoming drier and less stable. Rapid development in the States of Mato Grosso and Pará in recent years are already causing a reduction in rainfall which threatens to leave the dams with insufficient water to work efficiently, yet the viability and environmental studies for them failed even to consider these factors at all.

With Belo Monte fast becoming a fait accommpli, attention is now moving to the next river, the Tapajos, where three dams are already in the advanced planning stage. These will have a massive impact on the Mundurucu indigenous people.

More Information:

Demarcation: http://pib.socioambiental.org/en/c/terras-indigenas/demarcacoes/introducao
Belo Monte Hydroelectric Dam: http://www.internationalrivers.org/campaigns/belo-monte-dam
Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Amazon Dams: http://amazonwatch.org/news
Scientific Paper about GHG emissions from Dams: http://www.academia.edu
Tapajos River – Hydroelectric dams: http://www.internationalrivers.org/resources/tapaj%C3%B3s-basin-dams-3352

Interview on Channel 4 News

Kayapo Chiefs Raoni Metuktire and Megaron Txucarramãe arrived in England last Monday. They found themselves very quickly ushered into the high tech surroundings of the Channel 4 studio!

It has been twenty-five years since Chief Raoni was accompanied by rock star Sting on a world tour. Sadly, the threats and problems that existed then are still causing problems, and a giant dam – Belo Monte, which will be the world’s third largest – is being built on the Xingu River where he lives.

The Chiefs were here to ask for our help. The interview is moving. Paul Mason said on his blog “It’s one of the most amazing encounters I’ve ever had – and one that nobody in the world will be able to have again if we let development and resource speculation destroy what’s left of the world’s indigenous peoples.” – See more on Paul’s blog

Here is the interview with Paul Mason on Channel 4 News:

It was a great experience. It was very touching how, with the interview completed, all of Paul’s highly professional team just couldn’t wait to get selfies of themselves with the chiefs – and that included Paul Mason himself, who was clearly deeply moved by the meeting!

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Photos for the Visit of Chiefs Raoni Metuktire and Megaron Txucarramãe

Photos related to the June 2014 visit are available from the Sue Cunningham Photographic picture library. The gallery below includes photos taken during the visit and historic photos of the two Chiefs, together with a selection of images which illustrate the issues they raised while in the UK.

The pictures are available for editorial use on a commercial license, but a limited selection may be made available free of charge on a limited license for use only in connection with this visit and stories related to it. Photos are not supplied Royalty Free and may not be distributed to third parties or used on the Internet, other than as stated above. Clicking on an image will take you to the Sue Cunningham Photographic site.

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