Bolsonaro's Plan to Legalize Crimes Against Indigenous Peoples [View all]

[Judi Lynn]

March 1, 2020 5:00AM EST
Languages
Available In English Português

Published in UOL Notícias

Maria Laura Canineu
Brazil Director, Americas Division
@mlcanineu

Andrea Carvalho
Consultant
@deiarauscher

When President Jair Bolsonaro presented a draft bill to Congress, on February 5, to regulate mining, hydroelectric power projects, and other commercial enterprises in Indigenous territories, he recognized that it would “face pressure from environmentalists.” And so it should.

The Amazon, the world’s largest rainforest, is one of most important carbon sinks, critical for mitigating climate change. Data from Brazil's National Space Research Agency (INPE) show that deforestation there increased by 29.5 percent from August 2018 to July 2019. Recent studies warn that the accelerated destruction is driving the Amazon toward an irreversible “tipping point” at which it will become a dry savannah and release billions of tons of stored carbon into the atmosphere. Bolsonaro’s bill could fuel this dangerous trend.

By legalizing the commercial exploitation of natural resources in Indigenous territories, the bill would invite even more encroachment on and deforestation of Indigenous land. In addition to direct environmental impacts, mining and large-scale infrastructure projects like hydroelectric dams require roads, which drive deforestation because they grant easier access to the rainforest for rogue loggers and cattle ranchers.

What the world has been watching in the Amazon is not only an environmental crisis, but also a public security emergency. In a report published last year, Human Rights Watch documented how Indigenous people who have organized themselves to defend their forests—in the absence of adequate law enforcement—have been threatened, attacked, and, according to community leaders, murdered by people engaged in illegal deforestation.

More:
https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/03/01/bolsonaros-plan-legalize-crimes-against-indigenous-peoples#