Chapter 5 - Indigenous peoples and the rights of nature

The Belo Monte dam, now under construction in the Amazon, is heralded as an abundant power source for Brazil’s burgeoning economy. But critics...

Written for LAB by William Costa 'We were very happy when we lived on the banks of the Paraná River. We had our houses, we...

Communities awaiting compensation from the worst environmental disaster in Brazilian history say they’re being stymied by a convoluted legal process that favors those responsible.

Munduruku people on the Tapajós tributary of the Amazon are engaged in a struggle for survival against the long-term effects of mercury poisoning from gold mining, a new influx of illegal miners and the Covid infection they bring with them.

Josefina Tunki and Tania Laurini, two leaders of the Shuar Arutam people in Ecuador have received explicit death threats from Federico Velasquez, senior official at Lowell-Solaris, a Canadian owned mining company. The Shuar are opposing a gold and copper project at Warintza in the Ecuadorean Amazon.

A wave of protest paralysed Ecuador, with roads blockaded and food running short in some areas. The protests were led by indigenous organizations, but backed by students and trade unions. After various authoritarian actions and threats, Lasso has been forced to conciliate and the protests have subsided for now.

Cristina Calderón, who has died at the age of 93, was the last surviving speaker of the Yaghan language, from Tierra del Fuego. She was renowned and recognized by Chile and by UNESCO.

The short film El Silencio del Rio, ‘The Silence of the River’, by Peruvian director Francesca Canepa, won the Grand Jury Award at the Oscar-qualifying Calgary International Film Festival and is currently longlisted in the Best Short Film category for the 2021 Academy Awards. Mathilde Aupetit considers the film’s blurring of dream and reality in order to present an Amazonian perspective, and its representation of the narrative power of nature.

This article originally appeared in Portuguese in the Portuguese newspaper O Público, on 2 April, here. The version published by Amazon Latitude, here, was translated...

Chinese companies are behind rapid expansion of gold mining in the Mayaya region of Bolivia, and are invading the Madidi National Park. Bolivian journalist and LAB correspondent Sergio Mendoza travelled by canoe down the Beni and Quendeque rivers, witnessing how the illegal mining activity is hidden by Bolivian mining cooperatives and supported or permitted by the government.