New Minister of Mines and Energy Admiral Bento Albuquerque announced on 4 March that he plans to permit mining on indigenous lands in Brazil, including within the Amazon. He also said that he intends to allow mining right up to Brazil’s borders, abolishing the current ban along a 150-kilometer (93-mile)-wide swath at ...
The Brazilian state of Roraima is currently dependent for 70 percent of its power on Venezuela’s Guri hydroelectric dam. But socioeconomic chaos in Venezuela, and deteriorating political relations between the two nations, have caused Brazil to fast-track a 750-kilometer transmission line to replace the imported energy.General Otávio Rêgo de Barros, using a...
The Belo Monte dam, now under construction in the Amazon, is heralded as an abundant power source for Brazil’s burgeoning economy. But critics contend the project’s benefits are outweighed by the environmental and social costs. In a Yale Environment 360 video report, Charles Lyons explores both sides of this controversial project. Full video...
The massive destruction of forest to make way for the Belo Monte dam and associated roads, reservoir and channels.
Video: Repórter Brasil 2015 (in Portuguese)
Drawn up without any proper consultation, or local participation, the so-called Emergency Plan was used by the developers to keep Indian people well away from the construction site. They set up offices in Altamira to dole out payments in kind, inducing the Indians to travel frequently to the city and alienating them from their traditional home environment.
Amazon Watch and International Rivers have teamed up to create a state-of-the-art 10-minute Google Earth 3-D tour and video narrated by actress Sigourney Weaver, with technical assistance from Google Earth Outreach. The video is in support of Brazil's Movimento Xingu Vivo Para Sempre (Xingu River Forever Alive Movement). The tour allows viewers to...
The struggle of an indigenous Amazonian people in defence of their rights and the land on which they live, in Sarayacu, Ecuador -- against the oil companies, the military and the government.
Video: in Kichwa and Spanish, with English subtitles. 2017
Film. Crudo ('Crude oil'). Directed by Joe Berlinger. Red Envelope & Entendre Films. 1hr 44mins. 2009. English subtitles.
A few years ago, the Ecuadorian government gave an oil company permission to drill for oil on land belonging to the Sarayaku Indigenous Community. The Sarayaku were never consulted and they have been fighting the decision ever since. This film shows them take their struggle to the highest regional court in the...
A film by Gwen Burnyeat and Pablo Mejía Trujillo about the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó.
Chocolate of Peace depicts the Peace Community of San José de
Apartadó’s experiences of resistance, via a journey through their
processes of organic chocolate production. From the seed to the product,
the cacao is the narrative...