Thaís Borges

Geomapping has enabled quilombola communities in Goiás state, Brazil, to demarcate their land, apply for titles and mount a defence against invading soya farmers, ranchers, miners and land thieves. They are now receiving international recognition.

Extraordinary history of groups of former slaves, indigenous and others in the Cerrado who have forged a sustainable lifestyle from gathering sought-after sempre-vivas flowers and selling them, with enormous care to preserve the environment. Now rewarded by the UN's FAO, they face encroachments from mining and a national park

Ever since the arrival of Spanish Conquistadors in the 16th century, many outsiders have followed the example of these bold European adventurers along with the crown heads of Europe in seeing South America as a treasure house of mineral wealth.

Residents of traditional communities in the Brazilian Amazon municipality of Barcarena, near the mouth of the Amazon River, say that their subsistence and commercial livelihoods, and their health, have been destroyed by an invasion of mining companies which began in the mid-1980’s. This story is the fifth in a series.

by Thaís Borges & Sue Branford Mineração Rio do Norte (MRN) arrived in the Trombetas River basin in the 1970s with plans to mine bauxite...

by Thaís Borges & Sue Branford Mineração Rio do Norte (MRN), the world’s fourth largest bauxite producer, encroached on riverine communities beside the Trombetas River...

by Thaís Borges & Sue Branford This article was first published by Mongabay on 27 May. You can read the original here. In April an official...

by Thaís Borges & Sue Branford The Boa Vista Quilombo in Oriximiná, Pará state, is like many Brazilian quilombola communities. Quilombolas are Afro-Brazilian runaway slave...

by Thaís Borges & Sue Branford Nearly 25,000 COVID-19 cases have been confirmed in Brazil, with 1,378 deaths as of April 15, though some experts...

by Thaís Borges & Sue Branford A 20-year-old Kokama indigenous woman in northern Amazonas state tested positive for the virus, according to the federal government’s...