Brazil

The state of Acre, in the Brazilian Amazon region, earned worldwide attention in the late 1980s through the struggle for social and environmental justice waged by the late Chico Mendes. In more recent years, the state has once again gained prominence in Brazil and internationally, but for very different reasons. This time the spotlight on the state is a result of the propaganda around the “green” development model promoted through “forest governance” and based on the so-called “sustainable management” of the forests and the sale of environmental services.

I come from a family that considers seeds as something sacred. Back in my father's day, our neighbours could sleep peacefully, because they knew that my father had a safe supply of seeds to plant. (Family farmer, Paraíba)

On October 27, hundreds of indigenous men and women, fisherfolk and riverine community members occupied the construction site of one of the biggest hydroelectric dam projects in the world, the Belo Monte dam in the state of Pará, Brazil, which will have devastating impacts on the lives of the local population.

Only available in Portuguese - Depoimento (audiovisual) de José Luiz Kassupá sobre os impactos do mecanismo REDD na vida dos Povos Indígenas, durante a oficina "Serviços ambientais, fundos verdes e REDD: Salvação da Amazônia ou Armadilha do Capitalismo Verde", 3-7 de outubro em Rio Branco (AC), Brasil. José Luiz é primeiro secretário do movimento indígena no estado de Rondônia.  

Only available in Portuguese Depoimento de Sandra Lineia de Caritas Manaus (AM), sobre a relação entre o mecanismo REDD e a migração de populações tradicionais e rurais para as Cidades, durante oficina "Serviços Ambientais, REDD e Fundos Verdes do BNDES: Salvação da Amazonia ou Armadilha do Capitalismo Verde?", em Rio Branco, estado de Acre, entre 3 e 7 de Outubro de 2011  

We gathered in Rio Branco, in the State of Acre, on 3-7 October 2011 for the workshop “Serviços Ambientais, REDD e Fundos Verdes do BNDES: Salvação da Amazônia ou Armadilha do Capitalismo Verde?” (Environmental Services, REDD and BNDES Green Funds: The Amazon’s Salvation or a Green Capitalism Trap?)

Dear friends, We would like to invite you to support the following action, which is being launched as part of the activities for the International Day Against Monoculture Tree Plantations. This action is being coordinated by our friends at CEPEDES in Brazil, who have been working for years to support and coordinate resistance to the expansion of monoculture eucalyptus plantations and the pulp mill owned by Veracel Celulose.

Brazil, September 2011, various organizations. Only available in Portuguese - Read the letter here

In 1999, a number of years before the emergence of REDD, one of the world’s first forest carbon projects was launched. A joint initiative of Brazilian NGO Sociedade de Pesquisa em Vida Selvagem e Educação Ambiental (Society for Wildlife Research and Environmental Education, SPVS) and U.S.-based NGO The Nature Conservancy (TNC), the project is located on the coast of the southern Brazilian state of Paraná, more specifically, in the municipalities of Antonina and Guaraqueçaba.

The region of Brazil, and perhaps the world, where monoculture eucalyptus plantations and pulp production are expanding most rapidly is in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, and specifically the micro-region of Três Lagoas.

On May 24, environmental activists José Cláudio Ribeiro da Silva and Maria do Espírito Santo, who were husband and wife, were shot and killed near their home in the southeast of the state of Pará, in the Amazon rainforest region of Brazil. As leaders of the National Council of Extractive Workers (CNS), formerly known as the National Council of Rubber Tappers, they fought for the sustainable and diversified use of the forest and against illegal logging and deforestation. Their murders are two more on a long list that seems never-ending…

On April 4, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), an organ of the Organization of American States (OAS), officially requested that the Brazilian government immediately suspend the authorization and construction of the Belo Monte Dam Complex in the state of Pará. According to the IACHR, all of the traditional communities who live in the Xingu river basin and would be affected by the construction of the dam must be consulted through a process that is "free, prior, informed, of good faith and culturally appropriate."