Norsk Hydro’s Alunorte aluminum refining facility in Barcarena municipality, Pará state, has been accused by Brazilian authorities of contaminating the local waters of several communities with toxic waste that overflowed earlier this month from a holding basin.
The firm denied the allegation, but has agreed to provide water to local residents, and is investigating.
The government also accused...
Brazil’s government this week announced a major shift away from its policy of building mega-dams in the Brazilian Amazon – a strategy born during the country’s military dictatorship (1964-1985) and vigorously carried forward down to the present day.
The Temer government claims the decision is a response to intense resistance from environmentalists and indigenous groups, but while that...
20 December 2017
Dear LAB Supporter and Friend,
The ghosts of elections past, present and future
Across the world, polls this year have been confounded as elections yielded surprising results (not least, for those of us in the UK, in the 2016 referendum on EU membership and the general election in 2017). These results have led many analysts to identify strands...
In 2008, Ecuador, led by President Rafael Correa, approved a new constitution based upon Buen Vivir (the ”Good Life”), committing the nation to indigenous rights, environmental sustainability and state sovereignty. However, Correa quickly aligned the nation with China, a partnership that many critics say undermined the promises of the constitution.
Under Correa, China became...
Jan Rocha takes a break from her usual razor-sharp analyses of Brazil's political landscape. Yet, even in Santarém, Pará, where the Tapajos river joins the Amazon, she finds that all is change: rapid urbanisation, a massive grain terminal, clearance of forest for soya and the arrival of indigenous people from Venezuela.
A full moon hangs in the sky over...
This article was first published on Mongabay on 17 October 2017. You can read the original here. The same article has been translated for LAB into Portuguese by Fernando Moreira. You can read the Portuguese version here.
On 13 October, eighty Munduruku warriors and shamans tried to occupy the São Manoel dam on the Teles Pires River in one...
Em 13 de Outubro, 80 guerreiros, guerreiras e pajés Munduruku tentaram realizar rituais no canteiro de obras da hidrelétrica de São Manoel no rio Teles Pires, em uma das partes mais remotas da Amazônia. Mas dessa vez, Governo e empresas estavam preparados.
Trinta policiais armados da Força Nacional de Segurança Pública foram deslocados para o local e...
23 September 2017
Dear LAB Supporter and Friend,
Apologies for the long hiatus since our last newsletter. We'll try to make them more regular in future.
Brazil
We’ve published a spate of articles on Brazil in recent months. In case you missed them, there were 15 articles in the extraordinary series by LAB Editor Sue Branford and Mauricio Torres, written for Mongabay and...
This is the final post in a series of four written for Christian Aid and LAB by distinguished journalists João Peres and Moriti Neto
4. Company policy: Divide and Rule
MRN, or Mineração Rio do Norte, the bauxite mining company which dominates the extractive industry in Pará, improved the process of 'stakeholder mapping' in 2015, according to the company's financial report....
The Fórum Bem Viver (Good Life Forum) met earlier this month to bring together indigenous leaders, military police, a federal judge, television actors, musicians, journalists, scientists and activists from eight countries and 14 Brazilian states.
The event, organized by the eco-cultural education nonprofit Rios de Encontro, utilized arts performances and workshops to seek common ground between participants regarding...