#protecting indigenous people protects the Amazon from deforestation by the agricultural sector that proposed this change to strip the land | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

allthebrazilianpolitics · 3 years ago

Text

In Conversation With Two Indigenous Women Fighting for the Future of the Amazon—And the Planet

[Image description: on the left, Sônia Guajajara is a mother and leader of the Brazilian Indigenous movement, the executive coordinator of APIB (Articulação dos Povos Indígenas) and one of the most influential environmentalists in Brazil; on the right, Samela Sateré Mawé, a representative of the Sateré Mawé Indigenous Women's Association (AMISM) and Fridays For Future, at a FFF demonstration during COP26, in Glasgow, Scotland, wearing a mask that reads ‘Indigenous Lives Matter’ and holding a sign that reads “Landback! There’s no solution to the climate crisis without indigenous land rights”.]

“There is no way to separate the fight for Indigenous rights from the fight for environmental rights, because we see ourselves as being the land itself. We are part of the earth and everything that affects the earth directly affects us.” -Sônia Guajajara

The climate crisis has reached the critical tipping point scientists have been warning us about for decades. All over the world, we are witnessing an increase in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather conditions like the California wildfires and urban flooding in cities like New York. Shortly before November's global climate conference in Glasgow, James Lovelock, one of the world's leading scientists and the eco-pioneer behind the Gaia theory, emphasized in an open letter to the Guardian that there were "two genocidal acts" behind the impending catastrophe: greenhouse gasses and the destruction of the rainforests.

The Amazon—an ecosystem spanning eight nations with the largest territory found in Brazil—is undoubtedly one of the most crucial rainforests remaining. It is home to unparalleled biodiversity (a source of potentially transformative biological solutions), thousands of miles of river including an airborne river (responsible for hemispheric hydrological systems) and hundreds of billions of trees (the world's largest patterns of tree diversity), all of which influence global carbon cycles and thus climate change. But four years of Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro's agenda to systematically dismantle environmental protection laws and remove Indigenous peoples from their territories has further threatened this already vulnerable ecosystem.

Bolsonaro's Brazil is going against international climate goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Deforestation, illegal mining, and land grabbing in the Amazon is out of control. Imazon (a Brazilian research institute that tracks the destruction of the Amazon using satellite images) reported that this year, 10,476 square kilometers of sacred ecosystem was destroyed; this is an area seven times the size of London and 13 times the size of New York City. These are the highest levels of destruction since 2012.

Indigenous people rights have also deteriorated under Bolsonaro. His government began by dismantling FUNAI (the National Indigenous Foundation), the organization responsible for the demarcation of Indigenous lands as well as health care and education for Indigenous peoples. Land demarcation was transferred to the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Agriculture, which is run by rural groups and agribusiness. This move furthered the interests of the mining and energy sector already eager to take over Indigenous lands. According to the Socio-environmental Institute, 25% of Indigenous lands in the Amazon are being mined illegally. Mining not only requires clearing forest but the use of toxic chemicals that poisons rivers, causing malnutrition and cancer. Women and children bare the the brunt of sexual violence and cultural degration from communities that develop around the illegal mines.

Also looming is the Marco Temporal, a bill that is awaiting approval by the Brazilian Supreme Court. The bill proposes that Indigenous people can only claim lands which they can prove they occupied since October 5, 1988, the official date of the Brazilian Constitution. This disregards the fact that Indigenous people are Brazil's first people and that all of Brazil is in fact Indigenous land. The bill is being pushed by the powerful agrarian caucus, and if passed would be disastrous for the planet.

Traditionally, Indigenous cosmologies regarded human civilization as interconnected with the earth, attributing sentience to plants, animals, spirits, and the environment. Although many Indigenous peoples have embraced aspects of Western culture, most have held on to their ancestral beliefs. Increasingly, the scientific community is acknowledging that Indigenous-managed lands harbor more biodiversity than conventionally protected lands, suggesting that the land management practices of Indigenous people are superior technologies for protecting various species and the environment overall.

Amid industrial and governmental encroachment, there is a glimmer of hope as we witness the resurgence of grassroots activism with environmental movements like Fridays for Future and Extinction Rebellion connecting and mobilizing people around the world. Although there has been an attempt to silence Indigenous women for generations, Brazil's Indigenous women have organized to form powerful groups that are challenging the Bolsonaro government and agribusiness lobbyists, often at great risk to their personal safety. According to Amazon Watch, in March of 2021 women leaders from the Munduruku Wakoborun people in the Amazon’s upper Tapajós were forced to go into hiding after receiving death threats following protests against illegal mining projects in their territory. The garimpeiros (armed and illegal miners) also defaced their association headquarters before setting it on fire.

Indigenous women have in fact been at the forefront of social and environmental justice since their territories were invaded 500 years ago. 47-year-old Sônia Guajajara is a mother and leader of the Brazilian Indigenous movement, the executive coordinator of APIB (Articulação dos Povos Indígenas) and one of the most influential environmentalists in Brazil. 25-year-old Samela Sateré-Mawé is a student of biology and an artisan who heads the communication team at APIB and the Brazilian chapter of Fridays for Future. Both women are members of ANMIGA, a grassroots Brazilian Indigenous women's movement channeling the energy, wisdom and knowledge of ancestral female warriors to mobilize communities and fight for environmental and social justice.

I spoke with Sônia and Samela after Cop26, where they were part of the largest Indigenous delegation in history, to learn more about their work and find out what people around the world can do to support the cause.

#brazil #climate change #environmentalism #environmental justice #politics #brazilian politics #indigenous rights #sonia guajajara #Samela Satere Mawe #amazon rainforest #mod nise da silveira

80 notes · View notes

sciencespies · 5 years ago

Text

The causes and risks of the Amazon fires

https://sciencespies.com/environment/the-causes-and-risks-of-the-amazon-fires/

The causes and risks of the Amazon fires

This Aug. 21, 2019 satellite image courtesy of Planet Labs, Inc. shows smoke billowing from forest fires in Nova Bandeirantes in Mato Grosso, Brazil. (Planet Labs Inc. via AP)

Fires have been breaking out at an unusual pace in Brazil this year, causing global alarm over deforestation in the Amazon region. The world’s largest rainforest is often called the “lungs of the earth.” Here’s a look at what’s happening:

___

WHAT’S BURNING?

Brazil’s National Space Research Institute, which monitors deforestation, has recorded 76,720 wildfires across the country this year, as of Thursday. That’s an 85% rise over last year’s figure. And a little over half of those, 40341, have been spotted in the Amazon region.

The agency says it doesn’t have figures for the area burned, but deforestation as a whole has accelerated in the Amazon this year. The institute’s preliminary figures show 3,571 square miles (9,250 square kilometers) of forest—an area about the size of Yellowstone National Park—were lost between Jan. 1 and Aug. 1. That already outstrips the full-year figure for 2018 of 2,910 square miles (7,537 square kilometers).

Stricter enforcement of environmental laws between 2004 and 2014 had sharply curbed the rate of deforestation, which peaked in the early 2000s at about 9,650 square miles a year (25,000 square kilometers).

Meanwhile, large fires also have been burning in neighboring countries such as Bolivia, Paraguay and Argentina.

This photo released by Mato Grosso Firefighters, shows the Chapada dos Guimaraes wild fires, in Mato Grosso state, Brazil, Friday, Aug. 23, 2019. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Friday said he might send the military to fight massive fires in the Amazon as an international outcry over his handling of the environmental crisis grows. (Matto Grosso Fire Department via AP)

___

WHAT’S CAUSING THE FIRES?

Paulo Moutinho, co-founder of the Amazon Environmental Research Institute, said this week that “it is very difficult to have natural fires in the Amazon; it happens but the majority come from the hand of humans.”

Moutinho, who has been working in the Amazon forests for nearly 30 years, said fires are mostly set to clear land for farming, ranching or logging, and they can easily get out of control, especially during the July-November dry season. Moutinho says this year hasn’t been especially dry. “We’re lucky. If we had had droughts like in the past four years, this would be even worse.”

Critics of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro say ranching and mining interests eager to expand their holdings have been emboldened by his oft-stated desire to increase development in the region.

___

Fire consumes an area near Porto Velho, Brazil, Friday, Aug. 23, 2019. Brazilian state experts have reported a record of nearly 77,000 wildfires across the country so far this year, up 85% over the same period in 2018. Brazil contains about 60% of the Amazon rainforest, whose degradation could have severe consequences for global climate and rainfall. (AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano)

HOW IMPORTANT IS THE AMAZON?

The world’s largest rainforest, ten times the size of Texas, is often called the “lungs of the earth,” and 60% of it lies within Brazil.

Trees store carbon absorbed from the atmosphere, and the Amazon each year takes in as much as 2 billion tons of carbon dioxide—a greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming.

The Amazon’s billions of trees also release water vapor that forms a thick mist over the rainforest canopy. It rises into clouds and produces rain, affecting weather patterns across South America and far beyond.

It’s also home to an estimated 20% of the earth’s plant species, many of which are found nowhere else.

“With each hectare burned we could be losing a plant or animal species that we didn’t even know about,” said Andre Guimaraes, director of the Amazon Environmental Research Institute.

This Aug. 20, 2019 satellite image courtesy of Planet Labs, Inc. shows smoke billowing from fires in Mato Grosso, Brazil. (Planet Labs Inc. via AP)

Fire consumes the jungle near Porto Velho, Brazil, Friday, Aug. 23, 2019. Brazilian state experts have reported a record of nearly 77,000 wildfires across the country so far this year, up 85% over the same period in 2018. Brazil contains about 60% of the Amazon rainforest, whose degradation could have severe consequences for global climate and rainfall.(AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano)

Wildfires consume an area near Porto Velho, Brazil, Friday, Aug. 23, 2019. Brazilian state experts have reported a record of nearly 77,000 wildfires across the country so far this year, up 85% over the same period in 2018. Brazil contains about 60% of the Amazon rainforest, whose degradation could have severe consequences for global climate and rainfall. (AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano)

Virgin jungle stands next to an area that was burnt recently near Porto Velho, Brazil, Friday, Aug. 23, 2019. Brazilian state experts have reported a record of nearly 77,000 wildfires across the country so far this year, up 85% over the same period in 2018. Brazil contains about 60% of the Amazon rainforest, whose degradation could have severe consequences for global climate and rainfall. (AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano)

___

WHAT IS ‘THE TIPPING POINT?’

Climate scientist Carlos Nobre of the University of Sao Paulo and Thomas Lovejoy, an environmental scientist at George Mason University, have estimated that the “tipping point for the Amazon system” is 20% to 25% deforestation. Without enough trees to create the rainfall needed by the forest, the longer and more pronounced dry season could turn more than half of the rainforest into a tropical savannah, they wrote last year in the journal Science Advances.

If the rainfall cycle collapses, winter droughts in parts of Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Argentina could devastate agriculture, they wrote. The impacts may even be felt as far away as the American Midwest, according to Bill Laurance, a tropical ecologist at James Cook University in Cairns, Australia.

Lovejoy said Friday that close to 20% of the Amazon already has been deforested.

“I worry that the current deforestation will push past the tipping point leading to massive loss of forest and biodiversity,” he said.

Lovejoy also said that the government has proposed infrastructure projects “which would push yet further beyond and accelerate the dieback. It will add to the climate change challenge, massive loss of biodiversity and all that means in foregone human health and economic benefit.”

___

BOLSONARO’S VIEW

Bolsonaro took office on Jan. 1 after campaigning on promises to loosen protections for indigenous lands and nature reserves, arguing that they were helping choke Brazil’s now-struggling economy by stifling its major agricultural and mining sectors.

He has expressed a desire to protect the environment, “but without creating difficulties for our progress.”

Bolsonaro has also feuded with non-governmental groups and foreign governments, including Germany and France, which have demanded Brazil do more to protect the Amazon. Bolsonaro calls it meddling by people who should improve the environment in their own countries. This week he even suggested, without evidence, that a non-governmental organization or activists could be setting fires to make him look bad.

He has disputed figures released by the space research institute, and the agency’s head recently was forced out after defending the figures.

Explore further

The Amazon is burning and smoke from the fires can be seen from space

Citation: The causes and risks of the Amazon fires (2019, August 23) retrieved 23 August 2019 from https://phys.org/news/2019-08-amazon_1.html

This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.

#Environment

#08-2019 Science News #Physics/Space/Nature/Humans/History #Science #Science News #Environment

0 notes