An aerial view captures the Amazon Rainforest in Brazil. ubasi / Wikimedia Commons / CC by 2.0
The Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau are a tribe of less than 300 people in the Brazilian Amazon Rainforest who first came into contact with people outside their community in the early 1980s, according to the Povos Indigenas No Brasil. While they still maintain many of their tribal ways, they and other tribes have recently begun using modern drones to detect and fight illegal deforestation in their territory.
<p>"Nature is everything to us," Awapy Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau told <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/01/americas/amazon-drones-brazil-deforestation-cte-spc-intl/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a>. "It is our life, our lungs, our hearts. We don't want to see the jungle chopped down. If you chop it all down, it will definitely be hotter, and there won't be a river, or hunting, or pure air for us."</p><p>Awapy is a member of the Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau tribe. Last December, he and other young leaders from six Indigenous communities learned how to operate drones to track deforestation, <a href="https://interestingengineering.com/amazon-tribes-use-drones-to-watch-over-the-forest" target="_blank">Interesting Engineering</a> reported. The training was held by <a href="https://www.wwf.org.uk/philanthropy/forests#the-heart-of-the-amazon" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">World Wildlife Federation</a> (WWF) and the <a href="https://www.devex.com/organizations/associacao-de-defesa-etnoambiental-kaninde-kaninde-104815" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Kanindé Ethno-Environmental Defense Association</a>, a local NGO dedicated since 1992 to protecting the Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau and the environment in their home state of Rondônia, Brazil.</p><p>"They really accepted the technology with open arms, and really started to use it," WWF Brazil Senior Conservation Analyst Felipe Spina Avino told CNN.</p>
<p>Avino added that the Indigenous trainees became hooked when they realized they could see the forest from above and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/indigenous-people-amazon-2645327056.html?rebelltitem=7#rebelltitem7" target="_self">keep patrol over much greater areas than ever before</a>.</p><p>According to CNN, the Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau tribal lands lie within a roughly 7,000-square-mile protected area of dense jungle that can be difficult to traverse and monitor on foot. Drones allow them to cover more territory faster and avoid potentially dangerous confrontations with loggers, miners and land-grabbers.</p><p>Within the first month of drone surveillance, the tribe discovered an area of about 494 acres being illegally deforested within their reserve, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-brazil-forest-drones-feature/flying-high-brazilian-tribe-keeps-watch-over-forest-with-drones-idUSKBN20S1N8" target="_blank">Reuters</a> reported. Days later, a helicopter spread grass seed on the plot, indicating that the land would be used for cattle pasture; Awapy's team caught it all on drone video, reported CNN.</p>
<p>"The technology today, for territorial monitoring, is very worthwhile," said Bitate, a 19 year old from Awapy's tribe who was also trained in drone operation, reported Reuters. "Without a drone, that deforestation — which was already advanced — would still be unknown to us."</p><p>They called FUNAI, the Brazilian governmental agency in charge of Indigenous affairs, to stop the illegal land-grab, supplying video evidence and GPS coordinates, but the latter did not respond before the destruction was done, reported Reuters. Awapy hopes technology will help tribes stop deforestation sooner, as it is already too late once trees have been felled and burned, Reuters reported.</p><p>So far, the WWF-Kaninde project has donated 19 drones costing around $2,000 each to 18 organizations focused on the Amazon, Interesting Engineering reported.</p>
<p>Aerial drones have been used by Indigenous peoples in Ecuador, Peru and other places for about three years after becoming more affordable, reported Reuters. The images illustrate the damage of deforestation.</p><p>"Seeing the extent of deforestation from above is much more impactful than standing in the middle of it," Jessica Webb, senior manager for global engagement with Global Forest Watch told Reuters.</p><p>The high-resolution images, video and GPS mapping data from drones can also be submitted in court as evidence of illegal activities, CNN reported. Drones are likely to become more widespread as technology advances allow for longer range and stronger batteries.</p>
<p>"The key is not to think of the technology as a silver bullet," Webb told CNN, advocating to pair the new technology with Indigenous knowledge to create more powerful protections for the forest.</p><p>Keeping remaining rainforest intact is crucial to slow global warming since trees act as a carbon sink. Conservation also protects the Amazon's rich biodiversity, and is critical to food security, water services and the preservation of Indigenous cultures, noted WWF.</p><p>Despite this, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/brazil-amazon-deforestation-coronavirus-2645950493.html" target="_self">consistently pushes to develop Indigenous lands</a> and allow mining and commercial farming to deforest the Amazon. Last year, the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/amazon-rainforest-fire-invisible-damage-2647014608.html" target="_self">Brazilian Amazon suffered its highest level of deforestation since 2008</a>, with this year poised to become worse, WWF reported.</p><p>Awapy and his team have faced death threats from illegal loggers and land-grabbers for their work protecting the forest, CNN reported, but they remain determined to use this new technology to protect their home for future generations.</p><p>"My hope is that while I am alive, I want to see the jungle standing, the jungle intact. That is my hope," Awapy told CNN.</p>
From Your Site Articles
- Stunning Drone Footage Shows Greenland Literally Melting Away ... ›
- Drone Footage Captures Rare Finless Porpoises in Hong Kong ... ›
- Amazing Drone Footage Captures Thousands of Turtles Migrating ... ›
Related Articles Around the Web
Read More
Show Less
EcoWatch Daily Newsletter
Brazil Using Pandemic as Smokescreen for New Attacks on the Amazon, Activists Warn
08 May 2020
Politics
Deforestation and river pollution in the Amazon rainforest near Menkragnoti Indigenous Land, Pará, Brazil. Marcio Isensee e Sa / iStock / Getty Images Plus
Activists warn that the far-right government in Brazil is using the coronavirus pandemic as a smokescreen to undermine protections for the Amazon rainforest.
<p>With the world sheltered in place, the government assembled a "historic assault" on the Amazon and the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/indigenous-peoples">indigenous</a> tribes who live there, entities it is meant to protect, reported <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/deforestation-amazon-rainforest-accelerates-amid-covid-19-pandemic/story?id=70526188" target="_blank">ABC news</a>. The controversial legislation regarding indigenous lands potentially compounds tribes' vulnerability to invasion and infection, the news report said.</p><p>Brazilian President <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/jair-bolsonaro" target="_self">Jair Bolsonaro</a> and his supporters are sacking key environmental officials and quickly and discreetly dismantling rules shielding protected reserves of rainforest, reported <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/06/brazil-using-coronavirus-to-cover-up-assaults-on-amazon-warn-activists" target="_blank">The Guardian</a>. The moves are the latest in the regime's development-friendly <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/jair-bolsonaro-boosting-deforestation-2639445982.html" target="_self">policy changes that have accelerated deforestation</a> in the world's largest rainforest.</p>
<p>Preliminary satellite data shows that deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon rose more than 50 percent in the first three months of 2020, compared to the same three-month period last year, reported <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/deforestation-amazon-rainforest-accelerates-amid-covid-19-pandemic/story?id=70526188" target="_blank">ABC news</a>.</p><p>"Our territory keeps being invaded by loggers and hunters," Laercio Guajajara, a member of the Guajajara tribe, told ABC News. Despite the global health crisis, there were "still a lot of invasions," he said.</p><p>Bolsonaro is "notorious" for racist remarks against indigenous people, distrust of environmentalists and nationalist justifications for developing the Amazon, reported <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/06/brazil-using-coronavirus-to-cover-up-assaults-on-amazon-warn-activists" target="_blank">The Guardian</a>.</p><p>Bolsonaro told foreign journalists, "<a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/jair-bolsonaro-boosting-deforestation-2639445982.html?rebelltitem=1#rebelltitem1">The Amazon is ours, not yours</a>," reported <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/28/world/americas/brazil-deforestation-amazon-bolsonaro.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a>.</p>
<p>This approach makes him popular with farmers, wildcat miners, loggers and land-grabbers and dangerous for environmentalists and indigenous tribes, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/06/brazil-using-coronavirus-to-cover-up-assaults-on-amazon-warn-activists" target="_blank">The Guardian</a> noted.</p><p>"The government has a project and it is advancing over the forest, over indigenous peoples, to benefit those who want the forest cut down," said Mariana Mota, a public policy specialist at Greenpeace Brazil, the news report said.</p><p>The mass deforestation that has increased under Bolsonaro has likely pushed the Amazon beyond the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/amazon-rainforest-point-of-no-return-2645509920.html" target="_self">point of no return</a>, scientists said. The entire ecosystem could <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/amazon-ecosystem-collapse-2645458118.html" target="_self">collapse within 50 years</a>, and that critical tipping point could be reached as early as next year, researchers said. If and when that happens, the rainforest would <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/amazon-deforestation-carbon-emissions-2645127492.html" target="_self">become a carbon source rather than a global sink</a>, exacerbating the effects of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-crisis">climate change</a>.</p><p>The situation has only worsened since the coronavirus outbreak, with the covert passage of new rules that further undermine the Amazon and the tribes that live there.</p>
<p>At the disease's outbreak, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/27/brazil-scales-back-environmental-enforcement-coronavirus-outbreak-deforestation" target="_blank">The Guardian</a> reported that Brazil's environmental agency scaled back enforcement measures, leaving indigenous tribes and the lands they protect more vulnerable to loggers' attacks. In April, Bolsonaro's indigenous affairs agency, FUNAI, passed a new rule that prevents certain long-held indigenous lands awaiting official designation from being labeled and protected as "indigenous" under the law while they wait, <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/deforestation-amazon-rainforest-accelerates-amid-covid-19-pandemic/story?id=70526188" target="_blank">ABC News</a> said.</p><p>The seemingly-obscure rule <a href="http://www.in.gov.br/web/dou/-/instrucao-normativa-n-9-de-16-de-abril-de-2020-253343033" target="_blank">IN 09</a> could open up nearly one third of indigenous lands currently awaiting designation to illegal occupation and deforestation, the news report said.</p>
<p>Bolsonaro first announced another controversial presidential decree, <a href="http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/_Ato2019-2022/2019/Mpv/mpv910.htm" target="_blank">Provisional Measure (MP) 910</a>, in December 2019. The rule is now being fast-tracked towards becoming permanent law, ABC News said. MP 910 allows people who illegally logged or squatted on protected federal lands before December 2018 to purchase such lands at reduced prices.</p><p>This effectively legalizes "land-grabbing" in protected forests and indigenous reserves, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/06/brazil-using-coronavirus-to-cover-up-assaults-on-amazon-warn-activists" target="_blank">The Guardian</a> noted. Farmers illegally squatting could each purchase up to 2,500 hectares of rainforest for cheap. According to the news report, land grabbing, a common practice in the Amazon, involves deforesting, burning the dead trees and putting cattle on the cleared lands to consolidate possession.</p><p>Imazon, a non-profit environmentalist group, found that the measure could lead to deforestation of an additional 16,000 square kilometers of rainforest by 2027, <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/deforestation-amazon-rainforest-accelerates-amid-covid-19-pandemic/story?id=70526188" target="_blank">ABC News</a> added.</p>
<p>In a rare move, 49 federal prosecutors across Brazil <a href="http://www.mpf.mp.br/mt/sala-de-imprensa/Documentos%20para%20link/RECMT.pdf" target="_blank">called</a> for the rule to be annulled for its "unconstitutionality, unconventionality and illegality," <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/06/brazil-using-coronavirus-to-cover-up-assaults-on-amazon-warn-activists" target="_blank">The Guardian</a> said, agreeing it would lead to a land-grab.</p><p>The decree has until May 19 to be approved by Congress, but lawmakers from the agricultural lobby are pushing for an immediate virtual vote in the midst of the pandemic and without standard scrutiny, reported both ABC News and The Guardian.</p><p>Farmers supporting the rule argue it will regularize the Amazon's chaotic land ownership and allow them to hold title to land where they've squatted. This, they argue, will provide access to credit, improve productivity and therefore reduce the need to further expand into the forest, reported The Guardian.</p><p>Reducing protections encourages land invasions, which bring violence and disease. Indigenous leaders and activists fear that history will repeat itself.</p><p>"Five centuries ago, these ethnic groups were decimated by diseases brought by European colonisers … Now, with this new scourge spreading rapidly across Brazil … [they] may disappear completely since they have no means of combating Covid-19," an <a href="https://secure.avaaz.org/po/community_petitions/presidente_do_brasil_e_aos_lideres_do_legislativo__ajude_a_proteger_os_povos_indigenas_da_amazonia_do_covid19/?cZZUvqb&utm_source=sharetools&utm_medium=copy&utm_campaign=petition-994813-ajude_a_proteger_os_povos_indigenas_da_amazonia_do_covid19&utm_term=ZZUvqb%2Bpo" target="_blank">open letter to Bolsonaro</a> warned, reported <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/03/eve-of-genocide-brazil-urged-save-amazon-tribes-covid-19-sebastiao-salgado" target="_blank">The Guardian</a>.</p>
<p>"We are on the eve of a genocide," said Brazilian photojournalist Sebastião Salgado, who organized the petition and who has spent nearly four decades documenting the Amazon and its inhabitants, The Guardian reported.<br></p><p>Alessandra Munduruku, an indigenous leader from Pará state, told <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/06/brazil-using-coronavirus-to-cover-up-assaults-on-amazon-warn-activists" target="_blank">The Guardian</a>, "The indigenous peoples are alone and we have to fight against the virus, the loggers and the wildcat miners. We don't know which is worse."</p><p>Since the rollbacks, indigenous tribes have also reported increased logging and violent attacks. Seven indigenous leaders, many who were outspoken against illegal logging, have been murdered in the past six months, reported <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/06/brazil-using-coronavirus-to-cover-up-assaults-on-amazon-warn-activists" target="_blank">The Guardian</a>.</p><p>"The invaders think they can enter the indigenous reserve because of the government agenda," said Ivaneide Bandeira, of the non-profit group Kanindé, reported The Guardian. "Covid is the cover and the excuse."</p>
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="263ca6561c3abc0359b4f12aaac3ba73"><iframe lazy-loadable="true" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/eCeO_81jawk?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span>
From Your Site Articles
- Brazil's Amazon Rainforest Is the Wild West for Illegal Gold Miners ... ›
- Amazon Rainforest Reaches Point of No Return - EcoWatch ›
- Indigenous People May Be the Amazon's Last Hope - EcoWatch ›
- The Pope Makes Plea to Save the Amazon — Will the World Listen ... ›
- Illegal Loggers Murder Amazon Forest Guardian - EcoWatch ›
- Rainforest Deforestation More Than Doubled Under Cover of Coronavirus - EcoWatch ›
- In 'Totalitarian' Move, Brazil's Bolsonaro Removes Death and Case Totals From Coronavirus Website - EcoWatch ›
- Brazil Passes 50,000 Coronavirus Deaths as Global Cases Top 9 Million - EcoWatch ›
- Brazil’s Bolsonaro Tests Positive for Coronavirus - EcoWatch ›
Related Articles Around the Web
Read More
Show Less
If you're like many busy Americans, you may feel the need for an extra boost of energy to stay focused and perform at your best throughout the day. Whether you experience the age-old 3 p.m. slump at your desk or you need an extra jolt to power through a morning workout, you may be looking for healthy energy drinks.
<p>Caffeine happens to be the most-consumed energy booster in the world. From <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/4-things-you-should-know-about-caffeine-in-your-coffee-1882147495.html" target="_blank">coffee to tea</a> to chocolate, about 90% of Americans consume caffeine in some form every day. And increasingly, people are turning to energy drinks to satisfy their energy needs. </p><p>Energy drink consumption is especially high among young adults. In a 2016 <a href="https://supplements101.net/energy-drink-statistics/#:~:text=In%202016%2C%20the%20sales%20of,drinks%20on%20a%20regular%20basis." rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">survey</a>, over one-third of 18- to 29-year-old respondents said they consumed energy drinks on a regular basis. </p><p>There are dozens of energy and sports drink companies out there to meet this growing demand for a regular energy boost. From flashy cans packed with bold flavors to all-natural alternatives, it can be difficult to cut through the noise and choose the right healthy energy drink for you. </p><p>That's why we're reviewing the top five healthy energy drinks that will give you a moderate level of caffeine without added sugars and artificial ingredients. </p><h2>The Downside of Mainstream Energy Drinks</h2><p>Step into most gas stations, and you'll find a fantastically colorful, shiny, and attention-grabbing display of canned energy drinks slapped with powerful names like "Rockstar" and "Red Bull." But often, hidden behind the neon graffiti-scribbled cans are ingredients best avoided for the sake of your health. </p><p>Most mainstream energy drinks are packed with high amounts of caffeine as well as <a href="https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/energy-drinks" target="_blank">heaps of sugar</a> and other undesirable ingredients. According to the <a href="https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/in-depth/caffeine/art-20045678#:~:text=Up%20to%20400%20milligrams%20(mg,widely%2C%20especially%20among%20energy%20drinks." rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Mayo Clinic</a>, adults should aim to consume no more than 400 milligrams of caffeine a day. </p><p>To put that into perspective, a 1-ounce shot of espresso contains about 64 milligrams of caffeine. A regular cup of coffee has about 70 to 100 milligrams. Some energy shots contain more than 400 milligrams of caffeine in a single serving.</p><p>Overdoing your caffeine intake can have negative impacts on your health. The extent to which you experience side effects will depend on your tolerance for the drug, your age, and your genes. Signs of <a href="https://www.fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/spilling-beans-how-much-caffeine-too-much" target="_blank">too much caffeine</a> include headaches, anxiety, an elevated heart rate, muscle jitters, irritability, and frequent urination. </p><p>Added sugar is another common unhealthy ingredient in mainstream energy drinks. The <a href="https://www.heart.org/en/healthy-living/healthy-eating/eat-smart/sugar/added-sugars" target="_blank">American Heart Association</a> recommends that adult men consume no more than 36 grams of sugar per day and women consume no more than 25 grams. However, a single serving of many mainstream energy drinks can easily contain 27 or more grams of added sugars per serving. </p><p><a href="https://www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/the-sweet-danger-of-sugar" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Studies</a> show that consuming excess added sugars (those that aren't naturally occurring in fruits and vegetables) can have serious health implications. For most Americans, these added sugars come from flavored drinks, cereals, baked goods, and other processed foods, including energy drinks. </p><p>All of this sugar adds up to an increased risk for obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. In one 15-year <a href="https://www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/the-sweet-danger-of-sugar" target="_blank">Harvard study</a>, participants who consumed 17-21% of their daily calories from added sugars increased their risk of death from cardiovascular disease by 38% compared to individuals who consumed 8% of their calories from added sugar. </p><p>Obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure, and cardiovascular disease are all leading causes of death in the U.S. By choosing no- to low-sugar healthy energy drinks without <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/caffeine-coffee-tea-2640888657.html" target="_blank">large amounts of caffeine</a>, you can reduce your intake of added sugars and avoid overdoing your caffeine intake. </p><h2>What to Look for in a "Healthy" Energy Drink</h2><p>So how can you be sure your daily pick-me-up is a healthier option that will still sustain your energy levels? Start by reviewing the caffeine and sugar content. Many natural energy drinks on the market are sugar-free and made with natural caffeine sources. For example, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/best-green-tea-1882131593.html" target="_blank">matcha green tea</a> is an herbal source of caffeine that has other nutritional benefits for overall wellness like antioxidants. </p><p>In addition to the caffeine and sugar content, many healthy energy drinks are fortified with essential nutrients that have positive health effects. You may get the added <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/foods-high-vitamin-e-2427976620.html" target="_blank">benefit of antioxidants</a> from black tea, for example. </p><p>As always, be sure to read the label of any energy drink carefully and with an eye on added sugars, preservatives, and other artificial ingredients. And remember that caffeine is a natural diuretic, so it's important to watch your hydration and drink plenty of water. </p><h2>Best Healthy Energy Drinks</h2><p><span></span><em>Each product featured here has been independently selected by the writer. If you make a purchase using the links included, we may earn commission.</em><br/></p><em><br/></em>
Proper Wild
<a href="https://shareasale.com/r.cfm?b=1609625&u=2021263&m=100832&urllink=properwild%2Ecom%2Fproducts%2Fproper%2Dwild%2Denergy%2Dshots&afftrack=EW%5FEnergy" ><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTE3MTk3My9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1NTczMDU1MH0.R94VYBf5PPcxBRwxP3hG9Fn-0ht_9jLXpRxt7dtxl-E/img.jpg?width=980" id="7750c" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="1505c1814d0f1c399fc5301e3e171285" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="704" data-height="702" /></a><p><a href="https://properwild.com/products/proper-wild-energy-shots?sscid=11k5_bju4m&" target="_blank">Proper Wild's natural energy shots</a> are 100% plant-based and offer a nice alternative to more sugar-heavy energy shots. They contain no preservatives, artificial sweeteners, or <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/why-are-artificial-colors-and-flavors-still-in-our-food-1882014118.html" target="_blank">artificial flavors</a>. Proper Wild also manufactures their shots in the USA following Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) standards. The caffeine in the product is organically sourced from green tea and L-theanine, making it one of the best healthy energy drinks for those who just want a quick shot.</p><p><strong>Strength:</strong> 180mg of caffeine per shot + 180 mg L-theanine<br></p><p><strong>Why Buy:</strong> Gluten-free; Vegan; Wheat-free; Lactose-free; Dairy-free </p>
$24
Sambazon Organic Amazon Energy Drink
<div class="rm-shortcode amazon-assets-widget" data-rm-shortcode-id="85c4853615e47cd7cbb10a107aacb6a2" contenteditable="false"> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XMQD3GG?tag=ecowatch-20&linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1" target="_blank"> <img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51xnTTJ62CL.jpg" class="amazon-assets-widget__image widget__image"> </a> </div> <p>We love that <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XMQD3GG?tag=ecowatch-20&linkCode=osi&th=1&psc=1" target="_blank">Sambazon Organic Amazon Energy Drinks</a> are both low in calories and sugar (with only 6 grams per serving) while providing other important vitamins. The green tea and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/health-benefits-yerba-mate-1908719045.html" target="_blank">yerba mate</a> that give each can its 120 milligrams of caffeine come with potent antioxidants and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/9-foods-power-packed-with-vitamin-c-1960101113.html" target="_blank">vitamin C</a>. This is another slightly more caffeinated option if you're looking for a stronger jolt from your healthy energy drink without the excess sugars and artificial ingredients you'll find in mainstream high-caffeine options. With fruity Amazon-inspired flavors like acai berry and pomegranate, Sambazon ensures every sip is delicious and refreshing.</p><p><strong>Strength: </strong>120mg per can</p><p><strong>Why Buy:</strong> Made with guarana, yerba mate and green tea; USDA-Certified Organic; Non-GMO; Vegan; Gluten-free; Kosher</p>
$26
Sunshine Good Energy Drink
<div class="rm-shortcode amazon-assets-widget" data-rm-shortcode-id="6eb3213e344554c1cf64811f99368be2" contenteditable="false"> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ETBR7MU?tag=ecowatch-20&linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1" target="_blank"> <img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41WwiS5or4L.jpg" class="amazon-assets-widget__image widget__image"> </a> </div> <p>This brightly colored can is not only enticing, but it's also good for you. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ETBR7MU?tag=ecowatch-20&linkCode=osi&th=1&psc=1" target="_blank">Sunshine Good Energy Drinks</a> have a moderate amount of caffeine (about the same amount as a cup of coffee) for a light buzz that won't cause a crash. This low-calorie option (60 calories per can) is especially great for <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/plant-based-diet-health-benefits-2645576295.html" target="_blank">plant-based diets</a>, which can often lack essential B vitamins, especially vitamin B12. These healthy energy drinks are fortified with B12, and the clementine flavor also offers 100% of your daily Vitamin C requirements.</p><p><strong>Strength:</strong> 70mg caffeine per can</p><p><strong>Why Buy:</strong> Made with organic green coffee beans; Added B12; Contains electrolytes; 100% of your daily Vitamin C</p>
$65
GURU Lite Organic Low Sugar Energy Drink
<div class="rm-shortcode amazon-assets-widget" data-rm-shortcode-id="8d373f27415977f94ab37d8410d6985a" contenteditable="false"> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000LZDLZ0?tag=ecowatch-20&linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1" target="_blank"> <img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/514ztFrd7XL.jpg" class="amazon-assets-widget__image widget__image"> </a> </div> <p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000LZDLZ0?tag=ecowatch-20&linkCode=osi&th=1&psc=1" target="_blank">GURU's Lite Energy drink</a> is brewed with antioxidant-packed green tea and hydrating carbonated water. This vegan energy drink includes the added bonus of natural sweeteners and vitamin sources. Every can is made with ginseng, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/echinacea-benefits-2641542326.html" target="_blank">echinacea</a>, guarana, and sweetened with stevia and monk fruit for a lightly sweet, nutrient-packed sip. Plus, GURU has an environmentally friendly commitment to using natural, organic ingredients in this low-sugar, caffeinated energy drink.</p><p><strong>Strength:</strong> 100mg caffeine per can</p><p><strong>Why Buy:</strong> Non-GMO; Vegan; No artificial sweeteners; Organic</p>
$45
Raspberry Sparkling Yerba Mate
<div class="rm-shortcode amazon-assets-widget" data-rm-shortcode-id="425712ca3a2ade8e1f15a1ad7241b81c" contenteditable="false"> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07LGC3C6M?tag=ecowatch-20&linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1" target="_blank"> <img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51+ABrjenML.jpg" class="amazon-assets-widget__image widget__image"> </a> </div> <p>Last on our list of best healthy energy drinks is the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07LGC3C6M?tag=ecowatch-20&linkCode=osi&th=1&psc=1" target="_blank">Clean Clause Sparkling Yerba Mate</a>. Clean Cause donates 50% of its profits from sales of this USDA Certified Organic energy drink to support addiction recovery. The company's mission is to support recovery from alcohol and drug addiction through sustainable funding. Clean Cause brews its energy drinks from the dried leaves of yerba mate, a vitamin-rich South American plant that is naturally high in caffeine and antioxidants. Every serving offers plant-based polyphenols, a group of antioxidants shown to <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/how-to-fight-chronic-inflammation-1882199567.html" target="_blank">reduce inflammation</a> and reduce the risk of many chronic diseases.</p><p><strong>Strength:</strong> 160mg per can (two servings)</p><p><strong>Why Buy:</strong> USDA Certified Organic; Natural caffeine from yerba mate; Four fruity, sparkling flavors</p>
$33
From Your Site Articles
- What Nutritionists Think About Starbucks' Three New Plant-Based ... ›
- 8 Healthy Drinks Rich in Electrolytes - EcoWatch ›
- 8 Healthy Swaps for Everyday Food and Drinks - EcoWatch ›
- 5 Reasons to Stop Drinking Energy Drinks - EcoWatch ›
Related Articles Around the Web
Read More
Show Less
Maisa Guajajara, march of indigenous women, Brasilia, 2019. Marquinho Mota / FAOR
By Rosamaria Loures and Sarah Sax
On an early December morning last year in the state of Maranhão, Brazil, half a dozen members of the Indigenous Guajajara people packed their bags with food, maps and drone equipment to get ready for a patrol. They said goodbye to their children, uncertain when, or whether, they would see them again. Then, they hoisted their bags over their shoulders and set out to patrol a section of the 173,000 hectares (428,000 acres) of the primary rainforest they call home.
<p>This is the Caru Indigenous Territory, where the Amazon peters out toward the northeastern coast of Brazil, and it contains some of the last stretches of intact, contiguous forest in Maranhão. It is also under increasing threat: this part of Brazil has been ravaged by some of the country's highest rates of deforestation and land conflicts over the past decade. Patrols led by Indigenous groups like theirs, known often by the moniker of "Forest Guardians," have been instrumental in enforcing protections and preventing loggers from entering Indigenous territories. Patrols and their enforcement tactics, which have been ramping up over the past decade, have also resulted in community members being threatened, attacked, and killed — as in the case of Paulo Paulino <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/11/guardian-of-the-forest-ambushed-and-murdered-in-brazilian-amazon/" target="_blank">Guajajara</a> last year, who was murdered in a neighboring Indigenous territory.</p><p>But members of the patrol that set out through the forest last December don't call themselves guardians; they prefer warriors. And they differ in one other notable aspect: they are all women.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzU5NDQwMy9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzNDQ1MTIzMX0.AkVqG_3D6cdcY7NHyt2UXYTSb0Ofr1JSye0mjWlQw6w/img.jpg?width=980" id="0a47f" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="7c5fba3813d842215435c6180ee9d5e4" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="1280" data-height="853" />
Women warrior Rosilene Guajajara sits in her home village. Sarah Shenker / Survival
<p>"Why did we take the initiative? Because we are mothers. If we don't act, there would be no forest standing," said Paula Guajajara, one of the "women warriors of the forest," in a public event last year.</p><p>Called <em>guerreiras da floresta</em> in Portuguese, this is the name these women have given themselves. They are in many ways an embodiment of what policymakers, politicians and scholars around the world say is a necessary shift toward gender equality in environmental movements. And they are contributing not just womanpower to the patrols — they are also helping to diversify the tactics and forge new partnerships.</p><p>In Brazil in particular, where protecting intact forests is one of the cheapest, easiest and most effective solutions for<a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rstb.2019.0126" target="_blank"> combating climate change</a>, the work they are doing is literally saving the world.</p><span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="244a0eac1110c46f755b64bd798f35ac"><iframe lazy-loadable="true" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QqKrthJmcN0?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span>
Creating a Space and Finding Their Voice
<p>Actively patrolling their land for invaders is nothing new to the Guajajara; Indigenous people have more than 500 years of experience in this. Today, they use satellite technology and coordinate efforts with outside law enforcement to achieve their goals. This approach is relatively new, but its use has been on the rise in recent years.</p><p>"Across the country more of these groups are forming because of government inaction — or worse, because the government is actively trying to exploit their lands," Sarah Shenker, campaign coordinator for Survival International's <a href="https://www.survivalinternational.org/uncontactedtribes" target="_blank">Uncontacted Tribes team</a>, said in an interview. These groups are primarily men, although women are sometimes included in the patrols. But according to Shenker, as well as other experts interviewed for this article, to have "forest guardian" groups made up solely of women is unique.</p><p>The women warriors were formed six years ago, an offshoot of a program developed by Indigenous organizations and the Brazilian government and implemented by the Ministry of the Environment to enhance the territorial and cultural protection of Indigenous people, called Projeto Demonstrativo de Povos Indígenas (PDPI) in Portuguese. At the time, the predominantly male forest guardians were attempting to end illegal logging and the sale of wood from their territory — a task that was proving extremely difficult. Seeing this, the women stepped in and formed their own group consisting originally of 32 women.</p><p>"In order not to let the project end, we, the Guajajara women, entered and took over the project," Cícera Guajajara da Silva, one of the women warriors, said in an interview.</p><p>But the path to being taken seriously and treated as equals has been long.</p><p>"To seek partnership, we walked, talked, slept on the floor — all in order to seek improvement for our community," Paula Guajajara said, recalling the initial difficulty in being heard and taken seriously inside and outside of the communities. Their patience has paid off, and the women are quick to point out the support and close collaboration of the male forest guardians that has allowed them to combat the greater goal of stopping illegal logging. "Today we have the women warriors who work together with the forest guardians," Paula Guajajara said. "We've already evicted a lot of loggers. If we hadn't acted, there would be no forest standing."</p><p>Many of the married women had already been acting independently, accompanying their husbands in some activities, according to Gilderlan Rodrigues da Silva, the Maranhão coordinator of the Indigenous Missionary Council (CIMI), a Catholic Church-affiliated organization, who has worked with the women warriors. "But, from the moment they created the women's group, they gained strength and visibility," he said in an interview. "Once they were formed, there was this very strong change. Both in the context of decreasing the invasions and waking up to the collective awareness to protect the territory."</p>The Direct and Indirect Impacts of Greater Inclusion
<p>The results are clearly visible. In 2018, there was only 63 hectares (156 acres) of deforestation in the reserve, compared to 2016, when deforestation reached a high of 2,000 hectares (4,940 acres), according to <a href="https://www.globalforestwatch.org/map/country/BRA/10?analysis=eyJzaG93RHJhdyI6ZmFsc2V9&mainMap=eyJzaG93QW5hbHlzaXMiOnRydWUsImhpZGVMZWdlbmQiOmZhbHNlfQ%3D%3D&map=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%3D&mapPrompts=eyJzdGVwc0tleSI6InJlY2VudEltYWdlcnkiLCJzdGVwc0luZGV4IjowLCJvcGVuIjpmYWxzZSwic3RlcEluZGV4IjowLCJmb3JjZSI6dHJ1ZX0%3D&menu=eyJkYXRhc2V0Q2F0ZWdvcnkiOiJsYW5kVXNlIiwibWVudVNlY3Rpb24iOiIiLCJzZWxlY3RlZENvdW50cmllcyI6WyJCUkEiXX0%3D&treeLoss=eyJpbnRlcmFjdGlvbiI6e319" target="_blank">Global Forest Watch.</a> "The biggest achievement I see today in my village is because of the territorial protection, there are no loggers within our territory, and we managed to combat the sale of wood," Cícera Guajajara da Silva said.</p><p>The women's association has also been instrumental in connecting with other Indigenous groups similarly seeking to protect their territories, such as the Ka'apor, Awa-Guaja, and other Guajajara communities.</p><p>"There are 16 Indigenous territories in Maranhão — we have to seek unity to move forward in our struggle," said Maísa Guajajara, one of the original women warriors. Through coordination with other women's groups, like the Articulation of Indigenous Women of Maranhão (AMIMA), they were able to <a href="http://www.funai.gov.br/index.php/comunicacao/noticias/4678-amima-realiza-i-encontro-de-articulacao-de-mulheres-indigenas-do-maranhao?highlight=WyJwcm90ZVx1MDBlN1x1MDBlM28iLCJ0ZXJyaXRvcmlhbCIsInByb3RlXHUwMGU3XHUwMGUzbyB0ZXJyaXRvcmlhbCJd" target="_blank">bring 200 </a>Indigenous women from around the state together for the first time in 2017 to talk about various issues, including territorial protection, reforestation, and environmental education.</p><p>"This whole movement is extremely important because it shows this strength, and that women have a lot to contribute to the movement because they are part of the territory and are concerned with it, and with future generations," Rodrigues da Silva told Mongabay.</p><p>They don't just coordinate with other Indigenous groups; they also conduct training with neighboring communities about the importance of environmental conservation. "Not all women do surveillance work because we know it is dangerous work, but there are always some who do," Maísa Guajajara said. "The warriors generally do more surveillance activities outside the territory, we give lectures around our territory to talk about the invasions within our territory, and we raise awareness in the villages by talking about the importance of keeping nature standing." For example, the women warriors are partners in the Mãe D'água (Mother of Water) project that, together with the Brazilian NGO Fórum da Amazônia Oriental (FAOR), provides support for Indigenous women to strengthen their collective actions against ongoing deforestation and water pollution. These actions include visits to nearby riverine communities in which the women warriors explain their ways of living, such as hunting and rituals, to their neighbors. For the women warriors, the more that their neighbors know about Guajajara culture, the more they will respect their actions to defend their territory.</p>Why Women Are Key to Forest Conservation
<p>In Brazil, and around the world, <a href="https://catarinas.info/43-mulheres-indigenas-do-brasil-e-da-america-latina-para-se-inspirar/" target="_blank">Indigenous women</a> are increasingly at the forefront of environmental movements.</p><p>"The struggle of Indigenous women happens in different ways, day by day. If I am here today, I am the fruit of the women who came in front of me," Taynara Caragiu Guajajara, a member of the Indigenous women's collective AMIMA, said during a live online event in April. "In the context of the world we live in today, we have been conquering space inside and outside the community. We Indigenous women have not always had that voice … but today the struggle is driven by Indigenous women, we are the ones who are in charge of the struggle."</p><img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzU5NDQyNS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY3MTY0NTg3Nn0.LljLRlEDuh7e9YzMu4RMpLvniQePgGUGpZRmQmJSprI/img.jpg?width=980" id="6dc2c" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="c9fd70128e206770b386d470cdc4f733" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="1080" data-height="720" />
Maisa Guajajara, march of indigenous women, Brasilia, 2019. Marquinho Mota / FAOR
<p>Women are increasingly leading the struggle on issues like climate change, but <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2019/02/gender-bias-persists-international-reporting-atlantic/582235/" target="_blank">their voices are heard much less often then men's </a>— to the detriment of everyone. This is partially a byproduct of <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2019/02/gender-bias-persists-international-reporting-atlantic/582235/" target="_blank">gender bias</a> in <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/90401548/theres-a-gender-crisis-in-media-and-its-threatening-our-democracy" target="_blank">journalism itself</a>.</p><p>In 2015, of every four people interviewed, mentioned or seen in the news worldwide, only one was a woman, according to a report by the <a href="http://whomakesthenews.org/gmmp" target="_blank">Global Media Monitoring Project</a>, which releases its findings every five years. A closer look at the data shows that even when women are interviewed, it is for personal quotes, rather than for their expertise. It's a figure that <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2019/02/gender-bias-persists-international-reporting-atlantic/582235/" target="_blank">seems to have barely budged</a> over the past few years, although some newsrooms are starting to actively change that.</p><p>Studies show that, in general, women receive <a href="https://niemanreports.org/articles/where-are-the-women/" target="_blank">greater exposure in newspaper</a> sections led by female editors, as well as in newspapers whose editorial boards have higher female representation. But men are <a href="https://www.poynter.org/business-work/2017/women-dominate-journalism-schools-but-newsrooms-are-still-a-different-story/" target="_blank">disproportionately represented</a> from editors through to reporters, meaning that critical issues for women often go unreported. One of these areas is precisely the connection between conservation solutions and gender equality.</p><p>Women are disproportionately affected by climate change and <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/30/asia/environment-gender-violence-study-intl-hnk/index.html" target="_blank">environmental degradation</a>. <a href="https://www.unenvironment.org/resources/report/global-gender-and-environment-outlook-ggeo" target="_blank">Mounting evidence </a>shows that gender gaps and inequalities, such as inequitable land tenure and women's reduced access to energy, water and sanitation facilities, negatively impact human and environmental well-being. The climate crisis will only make <a href="https://www.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2020/03/womens-rights-in-review" target="_blank">gender disparities worse</a>.</p><p><a href="https://justassociates.org/sites/justassociates.org/files/jass_mch6._rethinking_protection_power_movements_4.pdf" target="_blank">Gender-based violence</a> against women environmental human rights defenders in particular is <a href="http://im-defensoras.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/283951300-Informe-2012-2014-de-Agresiones-contra-Defensoras-de-DDHH-en-Mesoamerica.pdf" target="_blank">on the</a> <a href="https://defenddefenders.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/FINAL-REPORT_pdf-3-1.pdf" target="_blank">rise</a>, and increasingly <a href="https://justassociates.org/sites/justassociates.org/files/jass_mch6._rethinking_protection_power_movements_4.pdf" target="_blank">normalized</a> in both public and private spheres, making it more difficult for women to get justice. As Indigenous communities are often on the front lines of defending their territories, resources and rights from extractive projects and corporate interests, Indigenous women in particular face a two-headed beast of gender-based violence and racism.</p><p>"We fought to defend our territory against invasions and we sought this autonomy to fight for rights," Taynara Caragiu Guajajara said in an interview. "Being a woman is difficult within the macho society, but being an Indigenous or black woman becomes even more difficult, because the prejudice is so great."</p><p>Having more women involved in everything from environmental decision-making to climate politics benefits society at large. <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-019-0438-4" target="_blank">Higher female </a>participation in policymaking increases the equality and effectiveness of climate policy interventions;<a href="https://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/reports/271/hdr_2011_en_complete.pdf" target="_blank"> evidence</a> shows that high gender inequality is correlated with higher rates of deforestation, air pollution and other measures of environmental degradation.</p><p>Yet <a href="https://www.greengrants.org/what-we-do/womens-environmental-action/" target="_blank">less than 1% </a>of international philanthropy goes to women's environmental initiatives, and women are continuously<a href="https://genderandenvironment.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/CI-REPORT.pdf" target="_blank"> left out </a>of decisions about land and <a href="https://www.wri.org/publication/making-womens-voices-count" target="_blank">environmental resources</a>.</p><p>"The global community cannot afford to treat nature conservation and the fight for women's equality as separate issues — they must be addressed together," <a href="https://www.iucn.org/news/secretariat/202003/iucn-acting-director-generals-statement-international-womens-day-2020" target="_blank">said</a> Grethel Aguilar, the acting director-general of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), on international women's day this year.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzU5NDM3NS9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0NjM5NDE0Mn0.n5vyjCQm5G8uiinRRX4wi_9jSlqmueI3r2KcvjUDYAk/img.png?width=980" id="50e14" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="15ca14a4768bfb8892e12430cdbe467a" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="900" data-height="600" />
Map of Maranhão state in northeastern Brazil.
Why the Fight for Indigenous Territorial Rights in Brazil Matters to Conservation
<p>Tracking tree cover loss in Maranhão over the past two decades shows the crucial importance of Indigenous territories in protecting intact forest. Viewed from space, as the forest cover rapidly disappears, the outlines of Indigenous territories become more and more distinct.</p><p>"These Indigenous territories are islands of green in a sea of deforestation in one of the worst deforested places in Brazil," Shenker said.</p><p>The Caru Indigenous Territory, for example, has seen 4% forest loss in comparison to the state of Maranhão, which has lost almost a quarter of its tree cover since 2000, according to Global Forest Watch data. Alongside the various other benefits that come with forest preservation, the forests in the Caru Indigenous Territory are also home to some of the last uncontacted Awá people; video of of two Awá men taken in the neighboring Araribóia Indigenous Territory <a href="https://www.survivalinternational.org/news/12171" target="_blank">made international headlines last year</a>.</p><p>These patches of intact, tropical forests are also the crux of "natural climate solutions" protection. These solutions essentially entail stopping deforestation, improving management of forests, and restoring ecosystems, and could provide more than one-third of the cost-effective climate mitigation needed between now and 2030 to stabilize warming to below 2° Celsius (3.6° Fahrenheit).</p><p>According to one of the seminal <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rstb.2019.0126" target="_blank">papers on natural climate solutions,</a> the single most effective approach in the tropics has proven to be actively protecting intact forests. Protecting intact forests offers twice as much of the cost-effective climate mitigation potential as the second best pathway, reforestation. The Amazon as a whole plays a vital role in mitigating climate change by absorbing and storing carbon dioxide in its forests. When cut down, burned, or degraded through logging, the forest not only ceases to fulfill this function, but can become a source of carbon emissions.</p><p>"Protecting and or conserving intact ecosystems is the number-one priority," said <a href="https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/individuals/dr-kate-dooley" target="_blank">Kate Dooley,</a> a research fellow at the Australian-German Climate & Energy College at the University of Melbourne, who has <a href="https://www.iatp.org/documents/missing-pathways-15degc" target="_blank">authored several papers</a> on the potential of forests as a natural climate solution. "Way-way-way down the line is planting trees. And even then, it needs to be the right kind of trees."</p><p>Of all the countries in the world with some kind of tropical rainforest, Brazil holds more mitigation potential than 71 of the 79 countries combined, <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rstb.2019.0126" target="_blank">according to a recent paper on this topic</a>. It isn't too hyperbolic, then, to say that groups like the women warriors are protecting humanity's last best hope for a livable future.</p><p>"Plenty of research showing that forests are more intact in collectively held lands," Dooley said. "With or without secure land tenure those lands are more intact and less degraded." According <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rstb.2019.0126" target="_blank">to a report in 2018 by the Rights and Resources Initiative</a>, almost 300 <em>billion metric tons of carbon</em> are stored in collectively managed lands across all forest biomes, and <a href="https://www.wri.org/blog/2016/10/protecting-indigenous-land-rights-makes-good-economic-sense" target="_blank">numerous</a> <a href="https://rightsandresources.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Toward-a-Global-Baseline-of-Carbon-Storage-in-Collective-Lands-November-2016-RRI-WHRC-WRI-report.pd" target="_blank">studies</a> have found that the best way to protect forests is to empower the people who live in them, granting them land rights and legal standing.</p><p>This is <a href="https://blog.globalforestwatch.org/people/geospatial-data-indigenous-community-land-forest-management?utm_campaign=BLOG:+LandMark+Data&utm_medium=bitly&utm_source=MonthlyRecap" target="_blank">especially true for Indigenous-held lands in places like Brazil</a>. Between 2000 and 2015, legally designated Indigenous territories in Brazil <a href="http://www.edf.org/sites/default/files/indigenous-territories-barrier-to-deforestation.pdf" target="_blank">saw a tenth </a>the amount of forest loss than non-Indigenous territories. Brazil is home to approximately 900,000 Indigenous citizens from 305 peoples, most of who live in Indigenous territories. Even so, more than half of the locations claimed by Indigenous groups have not yet received formal government recognition.</p><p>"Surveillance and inspection by Indigenous peoples is extremely important, as they are the ones who know the territory and the region best," Rodrigues da Silva said. "On the other hand, unfortunately they are left alone, the Indigenous body responsible for inspection ends up not fulfilling the role and leaving only the Indigenous people."</p>Prevailing Amid Growing Threats
<p>Despite an increasingly hostile government, the women warriors say they are committed to continuing their monitoring, surveillance and educational activities, and are hoping to inspire other groups to do the same.</p><p>"Today women act 100% in defense of the territory," Paula Guajajara said. "Today we are serving as an example."</p><p>But the work is daunting.</p><p>Brazil has the rights of Indigenous people written into its constitution of 1988, and is a signatory to the International Labour Organization's (ILO) <u>Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention.</u> Yet, the current administration of President Jair Bolsonaro has made it clear that Indigenous peoples won't be allowed to<a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/01/bolsonaro-government-reveals-plan-to-develop-the-unproductive-amazon/" target="_blank"> comment</a> on infrastructure projects<a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/03/brazil-to-build-long-resisted-amazon-transmission-line-on-indigenous-land/" target="_blank"> affecting</a> Indigenous territories in the Amazon. Bolsonaro's administration has also <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/02/bolsonaro-sends-congress-bill-to-open-indigenous-lands-to-mining-fossil-fuels/" target="_blank">proposed opening up</a> Indigenous territories to extractive activities — something the constitution specifically prohibits.</p><p>Hundreds of people have been killed during the past decade in the context of conflicts over the use of land and resources in the Amazon — many by people involved in illegal logging — according to the Pastoral Land Commission (CPT), a Catholic Church-affiliated nonprofit that follows land conflicts.</p><p>But perpetrators of violence in the Brazilian Amazon are rarely brought to justice.</p><p>Of the more than <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/11/15/brazils-amazon-and-its-defenders-are-under-attack-illegal-loggers" target="_blank">300 killings that the CPT</a> has registered since 2009, only 14 ultimately went to trial. Maranhão, where the Guajajara live, is among the most dangerous states for Indigenous people in Brazil: more <a href="https://www.cptnacional.org.br/" target="_blank">attacks on Indigenous groups</a> were reported here than anywhere else in 2016, according to data from the CPT.</p><p>The <a href="https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/feature/2020/05/11/coronavirus-Latin-America-Amazon-indigenous-communities" target="_blank">coronavirus poses an additional threat</a> to Indigenous peoples throughout the Amazon and especially in Brazil, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/23/world/coronavirus-indigenous-death-apib-intl/index.html" target="_blank">where the death rate from COVID-19</a> is much higher than the national rate.</p><p>"The surveillance expeditions are stopped by the pandemic, we are not doing surveillance, to care for everyone in the village," Cícera Guajajara da Silva said. "Especially in order to protect our health, because nobody knows who the types of people [invaders] are inside the forest, they may even be infected with the virus, the invader himself can bring the virus to our territory, and that's why we stopped [the expeditions], we are now only sheltering in the village."</p><p>But despite the mounting difficulties, the women warriors are committed to continuing their work.</p><p>"We have the courage to defend our territory," Maisa Guajajara said. "I am a woman and I will fight against all the threats that are in our territory."</p>From Your Site Articles
- Brazil's Bolsonaro Unveils Bill to Open Indigenous Lands to Mining ... ›
- Indigenous Peoples Go to Court to Save the Amazon From Oil ... ›
- Indigenous People May Be the Amazon's Last Hope - EcoWatch ›
Related Articles Around the Web
Read More
Show Less
Trending
Yasuni Man follows Otobo Baihua, a Waorani man who lives in the Yasuni community of Boanamo in Ecuador's Amazon. ©Ryan P. Killackey / Pollywog Productions
Among its many devastating impacts, the coronavirus has brought ecotourism to a halt in the Ecuadorian Amazon. But you can still visit the region from the safety of your couch, while supporting its Indigenous communities, by streaming Yasuni Man.
<p>The award-winning documentary transports viewers to the<a href="https://en.unesco.org/biosphere/lac/yasuni" target="_blank"> Yasuni Biosphere Reserve</a>, an imperiled pocket of the Ecuadorian<a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/Amazon-rainforest" target="_self"> Amazon</a> that is one of the most biodiverse places on Earth. After touring the festival circuit for about two years, the film made its debut on major streaming services Aug. 25. If you watch <em>Yasuni Man</em> within the first two weeks of its release, a percentage of the proceeds benefit the<a href="http://www.amazonemergencyfund.org/" target="_blank"> Amazon Emergency Fund</a> to help the region's<a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/indigenous" target="_self"> Indigenous</a> communities fight COVID-19.</p><p><em>Y</em><em>asuni Man</em> tells the story of Ecuador's Indigenous Waorani people and their fight to protect the area of rainforest they call home. The film follows Director Ryan Patrick Killackey as he visits the home of a Waorani man named Otobo Baihua and his family in the Yasuni community of Boanamo.</p><p><span></span>The movie alternates between telling the complex history of Yasuni and showing unprecedented footage of daily Waorani life. Killackey's camera follows Baihua and his family as they hunt for monkeys with blow darts, grind yuca to make a drink called chicha and introduce visiting scientists to the<a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wildlife" target="_self"> wildlife</a> in their backyard.</p>
<p>But Yasuni is also home to <a href="https://phys.org/news/2016-09-ecuador-oil-amazon-nature-reserve.html" target="_blank">more than 40 percent of Ecuador's oil reserves,</a> and the film details the conflict between fossil fuel companies, the Ecuadorian government and different communities of Waorani over the future of this unique ecosystem.</p><p>As the forest and its inhabitants face new threats from<a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuel" target="_self"> fossil fuel</a> extraction and the coronavirus pandemic, Killackey says the film is more relevant than ever. <br></p><p>"I actually don't think <em>Yasuni Man</em> will ever become irrelevant because our global community is not taking steps to stop the crisis that's happening in Yasuni and other biodiverse places," Killackey told EcoWatch. </p><p><em>Yasuni Man</em> was filmed over five expeditions between 2011 and 2016, but Killackey said not much had changed since then in terms of the underlying pressures on the reserve and its inhabitants. However, Ecuador's<a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/oil-spill-time-coronavirus-200710101154552.html" target="_blank"> worst oil spill in decades</a> and the spread of the coronavirus have made the reserve's fate all the more urgent.</p>
<p>The oil spill occurred April 7, when a landslide ruptured three<a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/pipelines" target="_self"> pipelines</a> along the Coca River, dumping 15,800 barrels of crude oil into the water. The spill eventually reached the Napo River that borders Yasuni. The contamination of water and wildlife made it harder for Indigenous communities throughout Ecuador to protect themselves from the coronavirus as it interfered with their ability to sustain themselves in isolation.<br></p>
<p>"What should you do in case of a fire during a tornado?" scholars<a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/profile/manuela-picq.html" target="_blank"> Manuela Picq</a> and<a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/profile/eduardo-kohn.html" target="_blank"> Eduardo Kohn</a> wrote of the dilemma faced by Ecuador's Indingeous communities in the wake of the spill. "Leave the building or stay inside?"</p><p>In addition to threatening Indigenous health and compounding the impact of the oil spill, Killackey explained that the coronavirus has had two other negative effects on Yasuni. First, the pandemic has ended ecotourism across Ecuador, but fossil fuel extraction continues. The former removes a major source of employment for Yasuni's Indigenous people and gives them little choice but to seek work with the oil companies or participate in bushmeat hunting or logging.</p>
<p>Second, the pandemic has made it more difficult for larger nonprofits and smaller grassroots organizations to monitor the oil companies on the ground. Satellite images published by<a href="https://www.amazonconservation.org/2020-itt-yasuni/" target="_blank"> Amazon Conservation</a> revealed that construction began on a new oil road in Yasuni in March. This was especially concerning because the road moved closer to the "Intangible Zone," a part of the reserve set aside for the Tagaeri and Taromenane, two Waorani clans living in voluntary isolation.<br></p>
<p>"Yasuni is like this microcosm," Killackey told EcoWatch. "You can just look at this little beautiful gem of a forest and see all of these crises happening very clearly."</p><p>Since the images were published, construction on the road has ceased. But the incident reveals the ways in which companies across the Amazon are taking advantage of the pandemic.</p>
<p>"Development is not stopping," Killackey said. "And this whole crisis with coronavirus is actually probably helping many of these major corporations and these banks to be able to go in there and exploit the natural resources and exploit the people."<br></p>
<p>Killackey hopes the film will raise awareness of the pressures on Yasuni and provide advocates with the tools to help preserve it.</p><p>"Really I think the most important thing you can do is educate an audience and try to make them feel a bond and a connection with a place and a people," Killackey said.</p><p>As part of that educational project, Killackey, a wildlife biologist by training, brought a team of scientists to Boanamo to survey the<a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/biodiversity" target="_self"> biodiversity</a> in Otobo Baihua's community and filmed their research as part of the documentary. The survey resulted in eight scientific studies, two of which, on<a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/323483191_Rapid_inventory_preliminary_annotated_checklist_and_breeding_records_of_the_birds_Aves_of_the_Boanamo_indigenous_community_Orellana_Province_Ecuador" target="_blank"> birds</a> and<a href="https://www.degruyter.com/view/journals/mamm/ahead-of-print/article-10.1515-mammalia-2019-0144/article-10.1515-mammalia-2019-0144.xml" target="_blank"> mammals</a>, have already been published in peer-reviewed journals.</p>
<p>Among other finds, the team discovered a previously undescribed species of fish and two seemingly identical frogs in the genus <em>Pristimantis </em>that were actually distinct species<em>.</em><br></p><p style="">Killackey and his team said it was important to document and showcase the biological richness of Yasuni so that people would know what was there and be motivated to protect it.</p><p style="">"Very few Ecuadorians are truly aware of the biodiversity we have, specially about fishes, and its importance," Cecilia Puertas-Donoso, an ichthyologist featured in the film, said in an email. "That is something we should be proud of, and eager to preserve. I would like to tell them this phrase I read somewhere, that 'Destroying the Amazon to extract oil is like making a hole in the Sistine Chapel to remove stones.'"</p><p style="">You can stream <em>Yasuni Man</em> on<a href="https://play.google.com/store/movies/details/Yasuni_Man?id=DzYRWAUEknE.P&hl=en" target="_blank"> GooglePlay</a>,<a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B08CVRTWBF/ref=atv_dp_share_cu_" target="_blank"> Amazon</a>,<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/movie/yasuni-man/id1523042123?ls=1" target="_blank"> iTunes</a> or<a href="https://vimeo.com/ondemand/yasuniman" target="_blank"> Vimeo</a>.</p>
From Your Site Articles
- Ecuadorians 40+ Year Fight Against Chevron Continues Into 2014 ... ›
- Indigenous Peoples Go to Court to Save the Amazon From Oil ... ›
- Why Ecuador Abandoned Plans to Leave Fossil Fuels in the Ground ... ›
Related Articles Around the Web
Read More
Show Less
Aerial view of the Esperanca IV informal gold mining camp, near the Menkragnoti indigenous territory, in Altamira, Para state, Brazil, in the Amazon basin, on August 28, 2019. Joao LAET / AFP / Getty Images
By Peter Yeung
From the skies above Creporizao, a remote town in the south of the Brazilian Amazon, the surrounding area looks like a vast blanket of dark green rainforest. But along the dirt roads and rivers that run through it like arteries are telling patches of muddy brown: illegal gold mines.
<p>Wildcat miners come to the area seeking their fortune. Every day, hundreds of laborers embark on long journeys up and down the Crepori river to reach the gold pits, while others fly in on small planes that land on makeshift airstrips. Such scenes have become common across the world's largest rainforest, and are being held up as the cause of widespread destruction.<br></p><p>Jose Maria, a miner from the state of Maranhao, some 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) to the east — who does not reveal his full name — is waiting on the river banks for a ride. "We're here to do honest work and earn a living," he said. "I don't see what the problem is."</p>
<p>But the pits where Jose Maria and fellow miners work are located on the more than two million-hectare territory of the Munduruku, one of the largest indigenous tribes in the Amazon, whose mineral-rich lands are protected under Brazil's 1988 Constitution.</p><p>A 2019 survey by polling institute Datafolha showed 86% of Brazilians oppose mining on indigenous territory, yet it has been encouraged by Brazilian president <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/brazils-bolsonaro-proposes-bill-allowing-mining-on-indigenous-land/a-52273665" target="_blank">Jair Bolsonaro's controversial bill, which calls for the legalization of commercial mining on indigenous land.</a></p><p>Submitted to Brazil's Congress in early February, the bill has yet to be put to a vote. A planned ballot was pushed back with the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Rodrigo Maia, telling Congress it was "not the right moment." But he also stressed that the bill was "not unconstitutional."</p>
<p>Brazil's Ministry of Mines and Energy told DW it was planning to "regulate activities" on indigenous land, adding that the process would require "consultation with the indigenous communities," which would be able to participate in mining activity.</p><p>While some in the Munduruku have been won over by the allure of riches, and allow gold extraction on their land in exchange for money, the majority remain opposed to illegal mining.</p>
'Full-scale gold rush'
<p>About 13% of Brazil's territory is classified as indigenous land, spread across more than 400 reserves. But <a href="https://www.amazoniasocioambiental.org/en/" target="_blank">according to the Amazon Geo-Referenced Socio-Environmental Information Network</a>, there are more than 450 illegal mining sites in the Brazilian Amazon, where most of those reserves are located.</p><p>The proposed law would likely lead to a dramatic rise in the level of mining activity.</p><p>"Once you open the door, it will become a flood," Glenn Shepard, an American anthropologist who works with indigenous populations affected by illegal mining, told DW. "The law will create a precedent for miners to go in. It's already a full-scale gold rush going on, and these indigenous groups are losing control."</p><p>Greenpeace's journalism team, Unearthed, has reported that <a href="https://unearthed.greenpeace.org/2020/04/03/coronavirus-brazil-amazon-gold-rush-indigenous-groups-deforestation/" target="_blank">gold miners planned to continue working through the coronavirus pandemic</a>, increasing fears of spreading the disease to indigenous groups. </p><p>In advance of the vote on the bill, the Ministry of Mines and Energy told DW it had received more than 4,000 applications for mining-related activities on indigenous land.</p><p><a href="https://www.dw.com/en/brazilian-indigenous-tribesmen-shot-in-hit-and-run-attack/a-51574624" target="_blank">Tensions between miners and local communities are already high.</a> In June last year, Brazil's indigenous rights agency, Funai, reported dozens of miners dressed in military uniform invading the Wajapi community, in the Brazilian Amazon, stabbing and killing one of its leaders.</p><p><a href="https://www.globalwitness.org/en/press-releases/spotlight-criminalisation-land-and-environmental-defenders/" target="_blank">According to research by international NGO, Global Witness</a>, 20 land and environmental defenders were killed in Brazil in 2018 alone. Globally, the nonprofit cited mining as the deadliest sector, with 46 reported murders in the same year.</p>
The deforestation issue
<p>Environmentally, <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/amazon-sees-alarming-rise-in-deforestation/a-51668498" target="_blank">one of the biggest impacts of mining is logging.</a> A 2017 report published in the journal Nature Communications found that mining accounted for 9% of all forest loss in the Amazon between 2005 and 2015.</p><p>Satellite <a href="https://maaproject.org/2020/gold_brazil/" target="_blank">analysis </a>published by the Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project revealed that 2,000 hectares of gold mining-related deforestation occurred in 2019 across the Munduruku indigenous reserve, more than double the amount recorded the year before.</p><p>Last November dozens of tribal leaders from the Amazon met with officials in Brasilia to file claims and report serious threats to their territories.</p><p>Alessandra Korap Munduruku, a leader from Para state who attended the meeting, says the legalization of mining would "be the death of our people."</p><p>Besides bringing "disease and prostitution to our people, drug addiction to our children, and violent conflict to the Munduruku men," she said gold mining activity is also killing fish through mercury poisoning.</p><p>Released across the region's major Tapajos River during the mining process, mercury is seeping into the tributaries like those that snake past the mining town of Creporizao. Local communities rely on these rivers for many of their water needs.</p><p>Late last year, in the first study of its kind, Erik Jennings, a neurologist based in the city of Santarem, took blood and hair samples from 112 tribespeople to assess mercury levels.</p><p>"It's a slow genocide," Jennings told DW. "The mercury can cause serious cognitive and visual impairment, and deform fetuses."</p>
Problematic legal trade
<p>Even the legal gold trade in Brazil is largely unregulated, which facilitates illegal business and plays a significant role in the destruction of the Amazon. Prosecutors in Para state say the lack of regulation in the legal trade and the fact that receipts are paper-based carbon copies make it easy for criminals to thrive and illegal gold to enter the legal system.</p><p>"The practice of fraud in the sector is quite easy, and the investigation of illegalities becomes an almost insurmountable obstacle," Luis de Camoes Lima Boaventura, public prosecutor in the Amazonian city of Santarem said.</p><p>"Until a computerized system is installed, the authorities cannot check, in real time, the legality of the transactions. To make a transaction of illegal gold, all you currently need is a pen and paper."</p><p>According to National Mining Agency estimates, around 30 tons of gold worth some 4.5 billion reals ($1.1 billion, €900 million) are illegally traded in the state of Para annually. That is around six times more than the amount legally declared.</p><p>When miners like Jose Maria return to Creporizao at the end of what can be days away, they come to one of a dozen gold shops that line the main drag to melt what they have mined into standardized bars. Once that is done, illegally-mined gold, which is responsible for widespread deforestation, pollution and violence in the Amazon, has entered the system and can no longer be traced.</p>From Your Site Articles
- Gold Miners Murder Indigenous Leader, Force Villagers in Brazil's ... ›
- Illegal Gold Mining Is Laying Waste to the Amazon - EcoWatch ›
- In 'Totalitarian' Move, Brazil's Bolsonaro Removes Death and Case Totals From Coronavirus Website - EcoWatch ›
- Brazil Passes 50,000 Coronavirus Deaths as Global Cases Top 9 Million - EcoWatch ›
- Farmers Learn How to Preserve Rainforests in Honduras and Costa Rica - EcoWatch ›
- Farmers Learn How to Preserve Rainforests in Honduras and Costa Rica - EcoWatch ›
- Scientists Form Panel in Attempt to Save the Amazon ›
- Brazilian Amazon Has Lost Millions of Wild Animals to Criminal Networks, Report Finds - EcoWatch ›
- Amazon Rainforest Will Collapse by 2064, New Study Predicts - EcoWatch ›
Related Articles Around the Web
Read More
Show Less
Brazilian Amazon Has Lost Millions of Wild Animals to Criminal Networks, Report Finds
30 July 2020
Animals
Freeland Brasil works to conserve biodiversity by combating wildlife trafficking. Freeland Brasil
By Sharon Guynup
The Brazilian Amazon is hemorrhaging illegally traded wildlife according to a new report released Monday. Each year, thousands of silver-voiced saffron finches and other songbirds, along with rare macaws and parrots, are captured, trafficked and sold as pets. Some are auctioned as future contestants in songbird contests. Others are exported around the globe.
<p>Fish bound for ornamental home aquariums also pour out of the Amazon, including the tiny, iridescent blue and red cardinal tetra. Arapaima fish — also known as <em>pirarucù</em>, one of the world's largest freshwater fish — are caught illegally, "laundered" amidst captive-bred specimens and shipped to the U.S. in large numbers.</p><p>Other fish are headed for the dinner table, as are freshwater turtles and their eggs, while tapir, peccary and other mammals are sold in Brazil as bushmeat. Jaguar teeth, heads and skins are shipped to China.</p><p>Millions of animals are being illegally captured and traded live and in parts in a thriving Brazilian black market, according to the report, produced by TRAFFIC, a UK-based nonprofit that studies the trade. "The pervasive and uncontrolled capture of wild animals and plants for the illegal trade is having grave consequences for Brazilian <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/biodiversity" target="_self">biodiversity</a>, the national economy, the rule of law and good governance," it says.</p>
<h3>Lack of Data Hides Trafficking</h3><p>Deep-dive research by biodiversity consultant Sandra Charity — who wrote the 140-page study with Juliana Ferreira, executive director of the nonprofit <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/conservation">conservation</a> group <a href="https://en.freeland.org.br/sobre-nos" target="_blank">Freeland Brasil</a> —focused on Amazon rainforest species and closely investigated the domestic bird trade.</p><p>Importantly, the researchers found that an ever-increasing segment of the illegal trade launders poached animals via a sprawling, legal captive breeding industry — a network that specializes in birds, which have a huge domestic market in Brazil.</p><p>The authors also discovered that few government agencies have kept records or reported solid data that quantify the true scope of the problem. In many cases, records did not even identify the species or number of animals seized by authorities, while data coming from the Amazon was "notoriously scarce."</p><p>"Significant seizures are made on a daily basis by Amazon state law enforcement, and we did not have access to their data," Ferreria said, adding, "from what we saw, [the illegal trade] is even bigger than we imagined."</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzUyMzgyMC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2MzE0OTM1OH0.eh2c71ohiWz1ISwkaJNeOEV4eCZFNV4OkRHqx4N9MXU/img.jpg?width=980" id="efb37" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="2be4dcc7509e3f05df53742af3cec824" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="539" data-height="444" />
<p>Trends remain difficult to track, however, since seizure data alone represents a mere fraction of animals illegally pulled from the wild. But it is clear from existing data that there is an uptick in smuggling of some species, including jaguars: seizures increased by 200% from 2012 to 2018.</p><p>The lack of comprehensive data, the report notes, tends to play down the importance, as well as concealing the severity, of Brazilian trafficking — undermining enforcement efforts, legal attention and the funding needed to fight it.</p><p>But the study warns that the illegal trade is having serious consequences not only for the animals seized, but for entire species, ecosystems and people, not just in the Amazon but around the globe. The current COVID-19 epidemic, for example, caused by a coronavirus that jumped from wildlife to humans, has reminded the world that trafficking in wild animals is not merely a conservation issue, says Ferreira. It's both a public health issue and a biosafety issue.</p><p>An overarching national strategy is needed now to deal effectively with the problem, said the research team.</p>
<h3>Impact on the Amazon</h3><p>Today's vigorous, deadly commerce has helped speed the demise of 1,173 species that are either facing extinction or have already vanished in Brazil. Often the largest, strongest, most beautiful animals are lost, impacting the entire population. For example, the trade targets male birds with their showy plumage, while the few survivors of a species remaining in the wild can become inbred, weakening the gene pool and genetic resilience.</p><p>The scope of the plunder has also sparked concern over broader, cascading ecosystem impacts, says Ferreira, who explained that regularly taking animals from wild populations creates a domino effect, dismantling the biological and physical systems that sustain all life on Earth.</p><p>For example, without birds that act as pollinators and seed-dispersers, trees and plants that many creatures rely on for food disappear. Tropical forests also act as huge carbon vaults, mitigating climate change and extreme weather; they offer buffers from flooding and provide drinking water for millions of people. Losing millions of animals every year to trafficking could lead not only to empty forests, but eventually cause whole ecosystems to crash.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzUyMzgyMy9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2NjY4NzQ1NH0.Gp0WdwqrYcx1FqrpXzx9ZsceQXGml8HybgSadaF617Y/img.jpg?width=980" id="43662" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="ba860e575989538043788aea786470e4" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="768" data-height="1009" />
<h3>Trafficking as Global Organized Crime</h3><p>The wildlife trade is also gaining increasing attention because of its lawless perpetrators: transnational criminal trafficking networks span the globe, make huge profits and cultivating massive corruption. Their illicit supply chain extends from the Amazon to almost every continent.</p><p><a href="https://www.thegef.org/" target="_blank">The Global Environment Facility (GEF)</a> describes the illegal wildlife trade as "one of the most lucrative illegal businesses in the world." It's ranked as the world's fourth largest source of criminal earnings, generating up to <a href="https://www.unenvironment.org/news-and-stories/story/three-ways-united-nations-environment-programme-works-address-illegal-trade" target="_blank">U.S. $23 billion</a> annually. With so much money changing hands under the table, the trade has even become a global national security issue.</p><p>But even though environmental authorities may seize illegally traded animals and apprehend some smugglers, the study notes that law enforcement is not targeting the kingpins who mastermind the trade or its supply chains. As a result, this shadowy underworld industry thrives as it breeds widespread corruption, bribery, fraud, forgery, money laundering and smuggling.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, "Existing legislation does not consider wildlife trafficking a 'serious crime,'" and there are numerous loopholes and inconsistencies in laws, the report says. Since the illicit trade is such a lucrative business, mild penalties offer little deterrent. A six- to 12-month "detention" is common, which is just restriction of freedom — not jail time — or is negotiated down to a stint at community service.</p><p>In addition, the report documented extensive evidence of widespread fraud by both private and commercial breeders in Brazil who forged permits, mislabeled species declarations, and tampered with government-issued identification rings to sell illegally-acquired songbirds alongside those they legally breed. This particular market is largely domestic, feeding an entrenched Brazilian culture that keeps songbirds as pets. IBAMA, Brazil's environmental agency, estimated that in 2015 alone, some three million passerine birds were fraudulently listed with the government — 75% of all that were registered.</p>
<h3>Curbing Amazon Trafficking</h3><p>While the goal of the new report was not to make a comprehensive assessment of the international trade, the authors found that foreign buyers are driving much of it. "It seems that some Asian countries are sourcing more species in Brazil, such as sea cucumber, sea horses, ornamental fish, jaguars and shark fin," Ferreira said, adding that the U.S. is a top consumer of ornamental fish and leather made from pirarucu skin. Birds, amphibians and reptiles typically sell to European collectors, and the Middle East is a market for Amazon raptors.</p><p>Digital commerce — the internet, social media and messaging groups — have become key "sales offices" for wild animals and the products made from them. The "merchandise" itself is moved in every way imaginable: via cars, buses, boats, planes and overnight courier services. Human "mules" have been arrested with birds or eggs taped to their bodies or concealed in clothing. A porous, 8,000-mile border between Brazil and eight Amazon neighbors creates an easy flow. The Peruvian and Colombian borders in the Northwestern Amazon form a "particularly relevant hub" for trafficking, the report noted.</p>
<p>Combatting the trade requires that it be recognized and treated as a serious crime. More complete data is also needed that will allow for strategic planning and strengthened law enforcement, says lead author Sandra Charity. Stronger national laws that target professional traffickers would also allow for the implementation of the UN Convention on Organized Crime, she said.</p><p>Without a market, there is no commerce, so educating consumers is key, concludes Ferreira.</p><p>"Ultimately, it is a matter of choosing why we are buying that animal, or wildlife product, and if it is worth it …. Cultures are dynamic and need to evolve. We need to start to change the way we view wildlife as commodities," she said, and "we also need to understand that loving an animal does equal imprisoning them."</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/07/brazilian-amazon-drained-of-millions-of-wild-animals-by-criminal-networks-report/" target="_blank">Mongabay</a>.</em><br/></p>From Your Site Articles
- Brazil's Amazon Rainforest Is the Wild West for Illegal Gold Miners ... ›
- Illegal Gold Mining Is Laying Waste to the Amazon - EcoWatch ›
- Amazon Rainforest Reaches Point of No Return - EcoWatch ›
Related Articles Around the Web
Read More
Show Less
This combination of pictures shows portraits of (L to R up) Suwerika Waiapi, Eriana Aromaii and Sykyry Waiapi; (L to R down) Kurija Waiapi, Ruwana Waiapi and Siurima Waiapi at the Waiapi indigenous reserve in Amapa state, Brazil on Oct.14, 2017. The tiny Waiapi tribe is resisting moves by the Brazilian government to open the region of pristine rainforest known as Renca, National Copper Reserve to international mining companies. APU GOMES / AFP / Getty Images
Brazil's divisive President Jair Bolsonaro has taken another step in his bold plans to develop the Amazon rainforest.
<p>
A bill he is sponsoring, <a href="https://www25.senado.leg.br/web/atividade/materias/-/materia/139968" target="_blank">now before Congress</a>, would allow transportation infrastructure to be built on indigenous territory. Such lands cover 386,000 square miles of the <a href="https://pib.socioambiental.org/pt/Localiza%C3%A7%C3%A3o_e_extens%C3%A3o_das_TIs" target="_blank">Brazilian Amazon</a> — one-fifth of the jungle. Here, Native people are constitutionally entitled to exercise sovereignty over resource use.<em></em>
</p>
<p class="">
<em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://theconversation.com/indigenous-people-may-be-the-amazons-last-hope-130941" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Conversation</a>.</em>
</p><script async="async" data-counter="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/130941/count?distributor=republish-lightbox-advanced" id="theconversation_tracker_hook" src="https://theconversation.com/javascripts/lib/content_tracker_hook.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<p>The right-wing Bolsonaro administration says "opening" the Amazon will <a href="https://www.acritica.com/channels/manaus/news/ipi-decreto-de-bolsonaro-gera-reacao-de-politicos-e-da-industria-no-am" target="_blank">boost its economy</a>. But <a href="https://amazonialatitude.com/international-colloquium-on-socio-environmental-politics/" target="_blank">environmentalists, indigenous leaders and other concerned Brazilians</a> say that the move will promote mining, logging and other damaging activities.</p><p>As evidence, they cite Bolsonaro's appointment of a Brazilian general who last year served on the board of the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-brazil-indigenous/brazil-general-with-mining-link-takes-over-indigenous-agency-idUSKCN1PB2JG" target="_blank">Canadian mining giant Belo Sun</a> to lead Brazil's federal agency for indigenous peoples.</p><p>Our <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=PTEKYYoAAAAJ&hl=en" target="_blank">research on social movements in the Amazon</a> takes us to areas affected by infrastructure development. There, we have witnessed the disheartening aftermath for Native people and met the <a href="https://www.internationalrivers.org/resources/ocekadi-hydroelectric-dams-socio-environmental-conflicts-and-resistance-in-the-tapaj%C3%B3s" target="_blank">indigenous leaders fighting to save their homelands</a>.</p>
Riches Now in Reach
<p>The Amazon possesses a wealth of minerals including <a href="https://www.cell.com/one-earth/pdf/S2590-3322(19)30081-8.pdf" target="_blank">gold, diamonds, iron ore, manganese, copper, zinc and tin</a>. But the region is so remote, with its southern edge lying 1,000 miles from Rio de Janeiro, that resource extraction was <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1467-8306.2007.00564.x" target="_blank">long limited by transportation costs</a>.</p><p>This began to change in the 1970s, when Brazil's military government <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/btp.12610" target="_blank">built several new highways</a> through the Amazon. It paid little heed to the desires or safety of the <a href="http://www.precog.com.br/bc-texto/obras/pagliaro-9788575412541.pdf" target="_blank">140,000 Native people</a> living there.</p><p>Terrible abuses occurred, including the military's systematic killing from 1967 to 1977 of up to 2,000 <a href="https://apnews.com/9b7372ee4abc4b0aa659bdfb82492851" target="_blank">Waimiri-Atroari people</a> to make way for <a href="https://lab.org.uk/brazil-waimiri-atroari-indigenous-massacre/" target="_blank">a road to the Amazonian capital of Manaus</a>.</p><p>The territorial aggressions culminated in the 1980s, when <a href="https://pib.socioambiental.org/en/Povo:Yanomami#The_gold_rush" target="_blank">up to 40,000 wildcat miners invaded the Yanomami homeland</a> looking for gold. An estimated <a href="https://www.survivalinternational.org/tribes/yanomami" target="_blank">20% of the resident indigenous population perished</a> from disease and violence over a seven-year period. Today there are about 900,000 indigenous people in Brazil.</p><p>After democracy was restored in 1985, Brazil got a <a href="http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/constituicao/constituicaocompilado.htm" target="_blank">new constitution</a> that codified indigenous rights, including the right to aboriginal homelands. Because <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00139157.2018.1418994" target="_blank">so much of the Amazon</a> is indigenous territory, indigenous sovereignty became <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/106/26/10582" target="_blank">instrumental to Brazilian environmental policy</a>.</p><p>The connection between indigenous communities and conservation is global. Indigenous people make up <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2018/11/can-indigenous-land-stewardship-protect-biodiversity-/#close" target="_blank">5% of the world's population, but their homelands hold 85% of its biodiversity</a>. This can make indigenous people extremely effective environmental defenders, because in fighting for their ancestral territory they <a href="https://www.goldmanprize.org/recipient/berta-caceres/" target="_blank">protect some of the world's most pristine places</a>.</p>
A World in Peril
<p>At the turn of the millennium, Brazil was generally <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/106/26/10582.full.pdf" target="_blank">considered a good steward of the Amazon</a>.</p><p>About a decade into the 21st century, however, environmental policy <a href="https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/cobi.12298" target="_blank">began to weaken</a> to allow <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-018-0179-9?proof=trueMay" target="_blank">more infrastructure development</a> in the Amazon. By 2016, some 34,000 square miles of the Brazilian Amazon had <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320716300386" target="_blank">lost its previously protected status or seen protections reduced</a>.</p><p>Indigenous sovereignty, however, was never called into question — until now. Since taking office in January 2019, Bolsonaro has also <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/01/brazils-bolsonaro-creates-amazon-council-and-environmental-police-force/" target="_blank">cut funds for the enforcement of Brazil's strict environmental laws</a>, leading Amazon <a href="https://theconversation.com/amazon-deforestation-already-rising-may-spike-under-bolsonaro-109940" target="_blank">deforestation to spike</a>.</p><p>Brazil's president has long seen protected indigenous land as a <a href="https://www.cell.com/one-earth/pdfExtended/S2590-3322(19)30081-8" target="_blank">treasure trove of resources</a>. In 2015 then-Congressman Bolsonaro <a href="https://www.campograndenews.com.br/politica/bolsonaro-diz-que-oab-so-defende-bandido-e-reserva-indigena-e-um-crime" target="_blank">told the newspaper Campo Grande News</a> that "gold, tin and magnesium are in these lands, especially in the Amazon, the richest area in the world."</p><p>"I'm not getting into this nonsense of defending land for the Indians," he added.</p><p>Bolsonaro defends his current efforts to build in the Amazon as a means of assimilating native Brazilians so they will no longer need their territorial homelands.</p><p>"The Indian has changed, he is evolving and becoming more and more a human being like us. What we want is to integrate him into society," he <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-brazil-indigenous/brazils-indigenous-to-sue-bolsonaro-for-saying-theyre-evolving-idUSKBN1ZN1TD" target="_blank">said in a video posted to social media in January</a>.</p><p>The statement <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-brazil-indigenous/brazils-indigenous-to-sue-bolsonaro-for-saying-theyre-evolving-idUSKBN1ZN1TD" target="_blank">prompted a lawsuit by indigenous Brazilians</a> accusing the president of racism, a crime in Brazil.</p>
Resistance as Conservation
<p>Accelerating deforestation under Bolsonaro has sparked violence in the Amazon.</p><p>Seven indigenous land activists <a href="https://g1.globo.com/natureza/noticia/2019/12/10/mortes-de-liderancas-indigenas-batem-recorde-em-2019-diz-pastoral-da-terra.ghtml" target="_blank">were killed in 2019</a>, according to the Brazilian not-for-profit Pastoral Land Commission, the most in over a decade. Indigenous environmental leaders in the <a href="https://sostenibilidad.semana.com/impacto/articulo/amenazas-a-lideres-indigenas-y-sociales-no-cesan-en-colombia/42919" target="_blank">Colombian</a> and <a href="https://es.mongabay.com/2018/07/amenazas-lideres-indigenas-de-ecuador-medio-ambiente/" target="_blank">Ecuadorian</a> Amazon have also been murdered.</p><p>Such killings mostly go unsolved. But Brazil's Indigenous Peoples Association says one indigenous activist killed in 2019, Paulo Guajajara, was gunned down by illegal loggers in November for <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/02/brazilian-forest-guardian-killed-by-illegal-loggers-in-ambush" target="_blank">defending Guajajara territory</a> as part of an armed group called Guardians of the Forest.</p><p>"We are protecting our land and the life on it," Guajajara told <a href="https://fr.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSKBN1XC0GR" target="_blank">Reuters</a> shortly before his murder. "We have to preserve this life for our children's future."</p><p>Indigenous Brazilians have also defended their land in court.</p><p>In 2012, the Munduruku sued to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2014/dec/22/amazon-munduruku-indians-brazil-tapajos" target="_blank">stop the construction of mega-dams and waterways</a> in the Tapajós River Valley — projects that would have ended life as they know it. Federal prosecutors agreed, filing in support of the Munduruku and calling for the suspension of the largest dam's environmental license.</p><p><span></span>Under legal pressure, the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources in their <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2016/04/amazon-mega-dam-suspended-hope-indigenous-people-biodiversity/" target="_blank">April 2016 decision</a> curtailed the entire infrastructure plan, conserving <a href="https://www.cell.com/one-earth/pdf/S2590-3322(19)30081-8.pdf" target="_blank">7 percent of the Amazon Basin</a>.</p>Amazon’s Last Hope
<p>Not every indigenous Brazilian is a born environmentalist. Many mix traditional livelihoods like hunting, fishing and gathering with <a href="https://pib.socioambiental.org/en/Povo:Xavante#Economy_and_environment" target="_blank">agriculture and ranching</a>.</p><p>Like other <a href="https://theconversation.com/for-cattle-farmers-in-the-brazilian-amazon-money-cant-buy-happiness-85349" target="_blank">farmers who clear forest to plant more crops</a>, indigenous farmers stand to benefit from Bolsonaro's environmental deregulation. The president recently announced his administration would offer <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-brazl-indigenous/brazils-bolsonaro-offers-credit-for-indigenous-farmers-as-he-pushes-to-open-their-lands-idUSKBN20C2PQ" target="_blank">credit to indigenous soybean farmers who want to expand their operations</a>.</p><p>In Roraima state, the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/04/we-are-fighting-brazils-indigenous-groups-unite-to-protect-their-land" target="_blank">Raposa Serra do Sol people</a> live on land rich with gold, diamonds, copper and a slew of lesser-known metals that <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-brazil-election-china-niobium/hands-off-brazils-niobium-bolsonaro-sees-china-as-threat-to-utopian-vision-idUSKCN1MZ1JN" target="_blank">Bolsonaro regards as strategic to Brazil's metallurgical economy</a>. Royalty payments to Native peoples who open their land to miners could be substantial.</p><p>So far, however, indigenous <a href="https://www.ecosystemmarketplace.com/articles/indigenous-leader-aims-to-build-global-defense-against-brazils-tropical-trump" target="_blank">groups are united in their resistance to federal and corporate</a> interference. They may be the Brazilian Amazon's last hope.</p>From Your Site Articles
- The Pope Makes Plea to Save the Amazon — Will the World Listen ... ›
- Illegal Loggers Murder Amazon Forest Guardian - EcoWatch ›
- Brazil's Indigenous Communities Resist Jair Bolsonaro - EcoWatch ›
- Indigenous Peoples Go to Court to Save the Amazon From Oil ... ›
- 2 Indigenous Leaders Killed in Brazilian Amazon - EcoWatch ›
- Meet the 'Women Warriors' Protecting the Amazon Forest - EcoWatch ›
- Climate Crisis: What We Can Learn From Indigenous Traditions - EcoWatch ›
Read More
Show Less
Trending
According to a new study the Amazon rainforest could die in 49 years and rapid deforestation is seen as the main culprit. luoman / E+ / Getty Images
Bigger ecosystems like the Amazon rainforest and the Caribbean coral reefs could be in danger of collapsing more rapidly than was previously assumed, a study has found.
<p>The findings, published Tuesday, also indicated that larger ecosystems may disintegrate at a faster rate than smaller ones.</p>
<p>"The messages here are stark. We need to prepare for changes in our planet's ecosystems that are faster than we previously envisaged," said Professor John Dearing of the University of Southampton, who led the study published in the journal Nature Communications.</p><p>According to the study, once the threshold is passed, the Amazon rainforest could die in 49 years, while the Caribbean coral reefs would take less than 15 years to collapse completely. In the first case, rapid deforestation is seen as the main culprit, while pollution and acidification is the main factor affecting the health of the corals.</p><p>"These findings are yet another call for halting the current damage being imposed on our natural environments that pushes ecosystems to their limits," Dearing concluded.</p>
<p>While large ecosystems take longer to reach their tipping point because of their size, once this point is reached, the deterioration occurs at a faster pace than smaller systems, the study found.</p><p>It studied 42 different ecosystems - including terrestrial, marine and freshwater ecosystems - that varied vastly in size. Critics of this study, however, think that this was not enough, as there was no tropical rainforest included in the terrestrial ecosystems studied.</p><p>"It is very unlikely, if not dystopian, to expect that an area half the size of Europe will experience a complete shift in vegetation in just 50 years," Erika Berenguer, a senior research associate at the University of Oxford, told the Reuters news agency.</p>
<p>"While there is no doubt that the Amazon is at great risk and that a tipping point is likely, such inflated claims do not help either science or policymaking," she added.</p><p>However, the study's authors think that humanity may need to prepare for change sooner than expected, as the Amazon rainforest could reach its tipping point as early as next year.</p><p><span></span><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/amazon-ecosystem-could-collapse-in-less-than-50-years/a-52716809?maca=en-VAM_volltext_ecowatch-28485-html-copypaste" target="_blank">Deutsche Welle</a>.</em></p>
From Your Site Articles
- Great Barrier Reef at 'Unprecedented' Risk of Collapse After Major ... ›
- Pope Affirms Catholic Church's Duty to Indigenous Amazonians Hurt ... ›
- Insects Must Be Saved to Prevent Collapse of Humanity, Top ... ›
- 'Social Breakdown and Outright Chaos': Civilization Headed for ... ›
- Amazon Rainforest Will Collapse by 2064, New Study Predicts - EcoWatch ›
Related Articles Around the Web
Read More
Show Less
NASA Forecast: Conditions Ripe for North Atlantic Hurricanes and Amazon Wildfires
13 July 2020
Climate
Aerial view of burnt areas of the Amazon rainforest, near Porto Velho, Rondonia state, Brazil, on Aug. 24, 2019. CARLOS FABAL / AFP via Getty Images
NASA scientists say that warmer than average surface sea temperatures in the North Atlantic raise the concern for a more active hurricane season, as well as for wildfires in the Amazon thousands of miles away, according to Newsweek.
<p><br/></p>
<p>As NASA pointed out in a <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2020/conditions-ripe-for-amazon-fire-us-hurricanes" target="_blank">statement</a>, warm <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/oceans">ocean</a> temperatures near the equator draw the water northward. As the water moves away from the Amazon, the landscape becomes drier and more flammable. That means that fires set for agriculture and clearing land have an increased potential to grow out of control. Meanwhile, the additional moisture traveling north aids the development of hurricanes.</p>
<p>"The fire season forecast is consistent with what we saw in 2005 and 2010, when warm Atlantic sea surface temperatures spawned a series of severe hurricanes and triggered record droughts across the southern Amazon that culminated in widespread Amazon forest fires," said Doug Morton, chief of the Biospheric Sciences Laboratory at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, in the NASA statement.</p><p>Morton, who co-created the Amazon fire season <a href="https://www.ess.uci.edu/~amazonfirerisk/ForecastWeb/SAMFSS2020.html" target="_blank">forecast</a>, analyzes the relationship between climate conditions and active fire detections from NASA satellite instruments to predict fire season severity.</p><p>"Our seasonal fire forecast provides an early indication of fire risk to guide preparations across the region," Morton, noting that the forecast is most accurate three months before the peak of burning in the southern Amazon in September. "Now, satellite-based estimates of active fires and rainfall will be the best guide to how the 2020 fire season unfolds."</p>
<p>Their model suggests that the regions that were hardest hit by the 2019 wildfires are at the highest risk again. Furthermore, the depleted resources as South American countries try to combat the COVID-19 crisis will exacerbate the problem by diminishing firefighting and emergency responder capabilities, according to Newsweek.</p><p>"You have a perfect storm: drought, the recent increase in deforestation, and new difficulties for firefighting. 2020 is set up to be a dangerous year for fires in the Amazon," Morton said.</p><p>The COVID-19 crisis has also allowed deforestation in the tropics to surge as environmental enforcement has weakened, according to recent report from <a href="https://www.conservation.org/blog/poaching-deforestation-reportedly-on-the-rise-since-covid-19-lockdowns" target="_blank">Conservation International</a>.</p><p>"Fire season in the Amazon is influenced by ecological, climatic, social, cultural and economic factors, from sea surface temperatures that influence rainfall in South America, to commodity-driven deforestation and the COVID-19 pandemic," said Karyn Tabor, senior director of ecological monitoring at Conservation International, in a <a href="https://www.conservation.org/press-releases/2020/07/07/conservation-international-reports-on-elevated-2020-fire-risk-in-amazonian-region" target="_blank">recent statement</a>. "Some governments have used widespread focus on the pandemic to quietly roll back environmental protections designed to prevent deforestation which in turn fuels the capacity for future fires to take hold."</p>
<p>Despite the COVID-19 crisis, changing conditions as the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-crisis">climate crisis</a> bears down on the planet is the largest risk for wildfires, along with human activity, according to Yang Chen, Earth scientist at the University of California, Irvine, and co-creator of the Amazon fire season forecast.</p><p>"Changes in human fire use, specifically deforestation, add more year-to-year variability in Amazon fires," Chen said in a NASA statement. "In addition, climate change is likely to make the entire region drier and more flammable – conditions that would allow fires for deforestation or agricultural use to spread into standing Amazon forests."</p>
From Your Site Articles
- NASA Satellites Enable Scientists to Observe Climate Change ... ›
- Gonzalo Could be First Atlantic Hurricane of the 2020 Season ›
- Hanna Pummels Texas as First Atlantic Hurricane of 2020 and Earliest ‘H’ Storm on Record - EcoWatch ›
- Tropical Storm Warnings Issued for Puerto Rico, Eastern Caribbean as Earliest ‘I’ Storm Threatens to Form - EcoWatch ›
- Isaias Lashes East Coast With Deadly Winds and Rain - EcoWatch ›
- 2020 Hurricane Season Expected to Be Most Active Since 1980s - EcoWatch ›
Related Articles Around the Web
Read More
Show Less
Trending
Pope Francis celebrates an opening Mass for the Amazon synod, in St. Peter's Basilica, at the Vatican, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2019. Massimo Valicchia / NurPhoto / Getty Images
Pope Francis, in an effort to reignite his influence as a global environmental leader, released an impassioned document Feb. 12 entitled Dear Amazon — a response to the historic Vatican meeting last autumn regarding the fate of the Amazon biome and its indigenous people.
<p>In a 94-page "<a href="https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2020/02/12/200212c.html" target="_blank">exhortation</a>," Francis argued for the ecological importance of Amazonia — the world's largest and most biodiverse tropical rainforest — describing the ecosystem services the biome provides, the region's greatly beneficial weather, and the climate change mitigation the forest offers via carbon storage. The pope stressed that those best suited to protect the Amazon are the indigenous people who have lived there since time immemorial.<em></em></p>
<p>The document comes as the Amazon faces "<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/30/world/americas/amazon-rainforest.html" target="_blank">deforestation at breakneck rates</a>," driven by illegal logging, mining, ranching and agribusiness in <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/03/record-levels-of-deforestation-in-peruvian-amazon-as-gold-mines-spreads/" target="_blank">Peru</a>, <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/09/disaster-strikes-in-bolivia-as-fires-devastate-unique-forests/" target="_blank">Bolivia</a>, <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/01/for-colombia-2019-was-a-year-of-environmental-discontent/" target="_blank">Colombia</a> and <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/02/deforestation-in-brazil-continues-torrid-pace-into-2020/" target="_blank">Brazil</a>, a nation that has also seen a sharp <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/12/murders-of-indigenous-leaders-in-brazil-amazon-hit-highest-level-in-two-decades/" target="_blank">spike in killings</a> of indigenous activists.</p><p><em>Dear Amazon</em> isn't only addressed to Catholics, but "to all persons of good will." It sums up the findings of a three-week Vatican synod, a formal meeting held last October that brought together for the first-time hundreds of Catholic bishops, indigenous leaders and environmental activists from nine South American countries with territory in the Amazon. Francis' post-synod response is organized into four "dreams:" societal, cultural, ecclesial and ecological.</p><p>His plea in defense of the rainforest is at once scientific, humanistic, political, and spiritual: "If the care of people and the care of ecosystems are inseparable, this becomes especially important in places where the forest is not a resource to be exploited; it is a being, or various beings, with which we have to relate," Francis writes in the ecological section. "When indigenous peoples remain on their land, they themselves care for it best, provided they do not let themselves be taken in by the siren song and self-serving proposals of power groups."</p>
<p>Francis joins with Amazon scientists and activists in their alarm. Rapidly escalating deforestation in the biome is already <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/09/bolsonaros-brazil-unlikely-to-achieve-paris-agreement-goals-experts/" target="_blank">threatening the key goal</a> of the 2015 Paris Agreement — keeping the world from overshooting a 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) rise since the preindustrial era. The Paris accord specifically cites the carbon-sink-and-sequestration capacity, and vital importance, of large, intact forests as a reliable way to slow global warming.</p><p>Top scientists are already warning that climate change and deforestation could be causing the Amazon to cross a critical rainforest-to-savanna <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/12/the-tipping-point-is-here-it-is-now-top-amazon-scientists-warn/" target="_blank">tipping point</a>, at which time the biome could begin <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/01/impending-amazon-tipping-point-puts-biome-and-world-at-risk-scientists-warn/" target="_blank">releasing vast sums of stored carbon</a>, pushing the world toward climate catastrophe.</p><p>That warning comes as Brazil, which includes much of the Amazon basin, has been beset by <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/10/as-2019-amazon-fires-die-down-brazilian-deforestation-roars-ahead/" target="_blank">wildfires</a> and <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/12/bolsonaros-brazil-2019-brings-death-by-1000-cuts-to-amazon-part-one/" target="_blank">aggressive land grabbing</a>. The Brazilian Amazon lost 3,475 square miles of forest — seven times the size of New York City — in 2019, a staggering 85 percent increase over 2018.</p><p><span></span>But as <a href="https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2020/02/12/whats-pope-francis-apostolic-exhortation-amazon-synod" target="_blank">reported</a> in the Jesuit magazine <em>America, </em>"Pope Francis' words will certainly not please Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro who, on the eve of the exhortation's publication, sent a <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/02/bolsonaro-sends-congress-bill-to-open-indigenous-lands-to-mining-fossil-fuels/" target="_blank">proposed law</a> to the Brazilian Congress that would permit mining activities within the reserves of indigenous peoples, including the Amazon region, without the people's consent."</p>
Defending Nature — Again
<p><em>Dear Amazon</em> stands as an emphatic complement to <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2016/02/top-vatican-official-climate-change-action-is-a-moral-imperative/" target="_blank"><em>Laudato Si, On Care for Our Common Home</em></a>, a papal encyclical released in June 2015 with the express purpose of spurring a positive outcome to the United Nations negotiations that resulted in the landmark Paris Agreement that December. An encyclical is a Catholic teaching document of the highest order, possessing "moral authority."</p><p><em>Laudato Si</em> established Francis on the world stage as an ecumenical leader and advocate for environmental protection. He bluntly blamed human activity for global warming and castigated rampant consumerism and unbridled capitalism as hastening the destruction of the earth.</p><p>Myriad faith communities around the globe were inspired to organize and act on the pope's urgings. However, the controversial manifesto met with <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2015/08/popes-environmental-encyclical-arrives-in-peru-to-mixed-reviews/" target="_blank">mixed reviews</a> in Latin America where some see conservation as a hindrance to economic growth and the relief of the poor in developing nations. Vatican officials have since touted climate action as a "<a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2016/02/top-vatican-official-climate-change-action-is-a-moral-imperative/" target="_blank">moral imperative</a>."</p><p>The message of<em> Dear Amazon</em> seems even more urgent than the 2015 encyclical<em>, </em>coming in response to the rapidly worsening Amazon emergency: "We are water, air, earth and life of the environment created by God," Francis writes. "For this reason, we demand an end to the mistreatment and destruction of mother Earth. The land has blood, and it is bleeding; the multinationals have cut the veins of our mother Earth."</p><p><em>Laudauto Si </em>was released when the progressive pope was at the height of global popularity, and it was heralded and cited for months by international media. But the urgent call of <em>Dear Amazon</em> has so far been largely ignored. Mainstream media accounts in the past week instead focused almost exclusively on Francis' decision to not allow the marriage of priests serving in the Amazon as a way of boosting their dramatically diminished numbers.</p><p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/12/world/europe/pope-married-priests.html?searchResultPosition=1" target="_blank">The New York Times</a> — which like other accounts stressed the Catholic church's progressive and conservative political divide — went so far as to report that "his closest advisers have acknowledged that the pope's impact has waned on the global stage, especially on core issues like immigration and the environment."</p>People of Faith Respond
<p>Francis won't likely be standing down without a fight. He calls on Latin American governments to enforce their environmental protection laws, return land rights to indigenous peoples, and recognize that Amazonian rainforests are more than an economic resource to be monetized for "extraction, energy, timber and other industries that destroy and pollute."</p><p>"The equilibrium of our planet depends on the health of the Amazon region," Francis writes. "Together with the biome of the Congo and Borneo, it contains a dazzling diversity of woodlands on which rain cycles, climate balance and a great variety of living beings also depend."</p><p>Faith leaders contacted by Mongabay looked past Vatican politics and cheered the pope's message in <em>Dear Amazon, </em>saying that it is invigorating their conservation work and strategies.</p><p>"Protecting rainforests is fundamentally an ethical issue, where care for creation and the realization of social justice for indigenous peoples and forest communities are part of one moral fabric," said Joe Corcoran, the UN project manager for the <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/09/interfaith-leaders-step-up-to-protect-the-worlds-sacred-rainforests/" target="_blank">Interfaith Rainforest Initiative</a> (IRI), an NGO which lobbies for governmental climate action in six rainforest countries.</p><p>"Through IRI, we are seeing that not only is the leadership of Pope Francis rallying Catholics to act, but [it is] also inspiring religious leaders from other faiths to protect rainforests around the world," Corcoran said.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMjc3NTY1Mi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzOTM4NjI4M30.Y5pTtZz6P7myoTw2aH0NakqmBCrEZKzMsVPXFs7xkG0/img.jpg?width=980" id="fb23d" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="762322d8e30b479449d744a68ac6644e" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="768" data-height="512" />
<p class=""><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/02/pope-makes-impassioned-plea-to-save-the-amazon-will-the-world-listen/" rel="noopener noreferrer">Mongabay</a>.</em></p>Seeing the Amazon gravely at risk, the Vatican has called on governments and the people of the world to protect the world's largest remaining rainforest. Rhett A. Butler / Mongabay
<p>Laura Vargas leads IRI's <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/12/cop25-laura-vargas-inspires-with-power-of-faith-in-defense-of-forests/" target="_blank">initiatives in Peru</a>: "I believe <em>Dear Amazon</em> marks a turning point for the whole life of the church in the Amazon and beyond its borders. If we believe everything is interconnected, we realize that what happens to the largest tropical forest in the world affects the entire planet."</p><p>Meanwhile, at London-based Christian Aid, a global environmental activism organization, spokesman Joe Ware said, "The pope remains one of the most popular and loved pope's with significant influence not just over one billion Catholics, but of many others, too."</p><p>Ware stressed that 2020 is a crucial year, the year the Paris Agreement <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/" target="_blank">goes into force</a>. The agreement remains dangerously <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/12/cop25-self-serving-g20-spites-youth-humanity-world-at-climate-talks/" target="_blank">incomplete</a> as leaders of the industrialized world continue dragging their feet to establish aggressive carbon emission-reduction policies, even as time runs short to dramatically begin decarbonizing the global economy — the UN itself <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/2018/10/08/summary-for-policymakers-of-ipcc-special-report-on-global-warming-of-1-5c-approved-by-governments/" target="_blank">warned</a> in 2018 that the world's nations have just 12 years to act to avoid climate catastrophe.</p><p>"It's vital," Ware said, "that we have the voice of the Catholic Church and people of faith around the world pushing political leaders this year to make the boldest decisions possible."</p>From Your Site Articles
- Brazil Experts: A 'Genocide Is Underway' Against Uncontacted Tribes ›
- Pope Affirms Catholic Church's Duty to Indigenous Amazonians Hurt ... ›
- As Amazonian Wildfire Season Approaches, We Must Protect the Vulnerable Forest - EcoWatch ›
Related Articles Around the Web
Read More
Show Less
A lone burnt tree stands on a deforested area in the surroundings of Porto Velho, Rondonia State, in the Amazon basin in west-central Brazil, on Aug. 24, 2019. CARL DE SOUZA / AFP / Getty Images
By Ajit Niranjan
Civil society groups and public prosecutors in Brazil are taking President Jair Bolsonaro's government to court for failing to protect the Amazon rainforest, adding pressure to an administration already under fire for mismanaging the coronavirus pandemic.
<p>Lawsuits filed last week challenge the government on two fronts: reducing inspections of exported timber — while demoting the environment agency expert whose team advised against it — and freezing climate funds to preserve forests that other countries also rely on to offset their carbon emissions.</p><p><br/></p>
<p>They are among a series of legal challenges that have been launched in Brazil after a tumultuous year-and-a-half of Bolsonaro rule. His administration has overseen a rise in deforestation, attacked the rights of people indigenous to the Amazon and relaxed rules to prevent illegal <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/amazon-deforestation-eu-firms-linked-to-illegal-logging-in-brazil/a-48442226" target="_blank">logging</a>, <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/mass-deforestation-how-trade-fells-trees-in-brazil-and-indonesia/a-48280649" target="_blank">ranching</a> and <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/brazils-amazon-rainforest-has-become-the-wild-west-for-illegal-gold-miners/a-52623368" target="_blank">mining</a>.</p><p>Bolsonaro is a climate change denier who considers the environment to be a kind of enemy, said Marcio Astrini, executive secretary of Brazil-based think tank Climate Observatory, which provided the legal analysis behind the lawsuits. "It's very hard to believe Bolsonaro will change his behavior or mindset. What we really need to do is neutralize the attacks on the environment."</p>
<p>In recent weeks, the Brazilian government has been rebuked by foreign governments, investors and businesses for enabling deforestation — and by courts and protestors at home for <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/where-could-brazils-criminal-investigation-of-jair-bolsonaro-lead/a-53284984" target="_blank">political interference</a> and its handling of the coronavirus pandemic.</p><p>Brazil's supreme court ordered the government on Monday to resume publishing <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/supreme-court-rules-brazil-must-share-virus-data/a-53754069" target="_blank">coronavirus statistics</a> after it purged the health ministry website of COVID-19 case numbers and death tolls. The virus has killed more than 37,000 people in Brazil, which has the second-most coronavirus cases in the world behind only the U.S. "The manipulation of statistics is a maneuver of totalitarian regimes," said supreme court judge Gilmar Mendes. "The trick will not exempt responsibility for the eventual genocide."</p><p>Deforestation, meanwhile, had already last year hit its highest level since 2008. On Tuesday the country's space research agency INPE revised its estimates, saying it they were higher than previously thought. Using satellite data, the scientists calculated that year-on-year <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/brazil-reports-even-more-deforestation-after-revising-data/a-53767938" target="_blank">deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon</a> rose by 34 percent between August 2018 and July 2019, felling an area of forest about as big as Jamaica.</p><p>Georg Witschel, Germany's ambassador to Brazil, told <a href="https://g1.globo.com/politica/noticia/2020/06/11/desmatamento-na-amazonia-faz-cada-vez-mais-dificil-acordo-ue-mercosul-diz-embaixador-alemao.ghtml" target="_blank">Brazilian news outlet G1</a> on Thursday that deforestation makes it "increasingly difficult" to ratify the free trade agreement between the EU and South American trade bloc Mercosur.</p>
Coronavirus and Deforestation
<p>Brazil's environmental and health crises are closely linked. The coronavirus pandemic had given fresh impetus to land grabbers razing swathes of forests as lockdowns have kept law enforcement officers at home.</p><p>Now, the fires that typically follow the felling of trees could further strain health systems.</p><p>Blazing wildfires, like the ones that devastated the Amazon last year, spout pollutants that lower air quality and work their way into people's lungs, exacerbating the same <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/coronavirus-air-pollution-might-raise-risk-of-fatality/a-52977422" target="_blank">breathing diseases</a> that leave people more vulnerable to the coronavirus. A joint peak in forest fires and COVID-19 cases could overwhelm hospitals without "incisive intervention by the State to curb illegal acts," according to a report published in May by INPE.</p><p>That could collapse health systems in several Amazonian states that are already operating at the limit, the authors wrote. "If the turning point of the epidemiological curve of COVID-19 does not occur immediately, in May 2020, there will certainly be an overlap of fires with the pandemic."</p><p>This could spell disaster for indigenous peoples and uncontacted tribes, said Sarah Shenker, a campaigner with Survival International. "In Brazil, there are more than 100 uncontacted tribes and they could be wiped out if invaders are not removed from their territory."</p><p>Even before the current coronavirus crisis, scientists warned that <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/how-deforestation-can-lead-to-more-infectious-diseases/a-53282244" target="_blank">forest loss makes pandemics more likely</a> by increasing the chance that diseases jump from animals to humans. A study published in the journal PNAS in October found that deforestation of the Amazon significantly increases transmission of malaria, a different type of disease.</p>Preserving the Climate
<p>The Amazon rainforest — 60 percent of which lies in Brazil — is one of the world's great carbon sinks. Preserving its trees and plants is crucial to meeting international targets that <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/co2-emissions-gap-un-report-warns-of-collective-failure-to-act/a-51407286" target="_blank">limit global warming</a> to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.</p><p>Lawsuits that take years to complete are not going to produce results fast enough, said Ricardo Galvao, a former director of INPE who was <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/brazils-research-chief-sacked-after-deforestation-row-with-bolsonaro/a-49874119" target="_blank">fired by Bolsonaro</a> in August.</p><p>To curb deforestation in the Amazon, said Galvao, the best tools are "positive actions that show [that] exploring the forest, rather than destroying it, gives economic returns." For instance, international organizations like the UN could certify products from sustainably managed forests and countries could lower import taxes on such "green-stamped" goods.</p><p>Brazil has a legal commitment to reduce deforestation in the Amazon to a rate equivalent to about 3,900 square kilometers per year from 2020 onwards. In 2012, measures to protect the Amazon had brought deforestation down to 4,600 square kilometers, close to the target, but by 2019, it had rebounded to 9,800 square kilometers. </p><p>The Brazilian government, which in May brought in the military to <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/brazil-deploys-military-to-protect-amazon-rainforest/a-53398270" target="_blank">protect the forest</a>, has disputed its image as an environmental pariah. "We are the country that most preserves the environment in the world," said Bolsonaro on World Environment Day last week. "Unjustly, [we are] the most attacked."</p><p>Data from Brazil's Institute of Socioeconomic Studies show government spending on forest inspection dropped from R$17.4 million (US$3.5 million, €3.1 million) to R$5.3 million from the first five months of 2019 to the same period in 2020, while funding for activities under Brazil's national climate change plan were cut from R$436 million last year to R$247 million this year.</p><p>Ibama, the Brazilian environment agency, did not respond to a request for comment.</p><p>Big tracts of the rainforest have no recorded owner, making it easier to illegally grab land, and a lack of law enforcement can even mean that farmers who comply with regulations struggle to compete with those who don't.</p><p>Working with sustainable farmers and fixing land ownership structures could help Brazil slow deforestation during the coronavirus pandemic and recession, said Monica De Los Rios, Brazil coordinator at the nonprofit Earth Innovation Institute. "This is the most critical moment in the history of the Amazon."</p>
<p class=""><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/to-stop-amazon-deforestation-brazilian-groups-take-bolsonaro-to-court/a-53785160" target="_blank">Deutsche Welle</a>.<a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/r/entryeditor/2646172097#/" target="_self"></a></em><em></em></p>From Your Site Articles
- Indigenous Peoples Go to Court to Save the Amazon From Oil ... ›
- Leaked Documents Show Brazil's Bolsonaro Has Grave Plans for ... ›
- Amazon Deforestation Increase Prompts Germany to Cut $39.5M in ... ›
- Amazon Deforestation Rate Hits 3 Football Fields Per Minute, Data ... ›
- New Study: China and EU Soy Imports Are Increasing Brazil's Deforestation ›
- Physicists: 90% Chance of Human Society Collapsing Within Decades - EcoWatch ›
- Amazon's Widespread Fire Damage Is 'Invisible to Our Eyes' - EcoWatch ›
- Deforestation in Amazon Skyrockets to 12-Year High Under Bolsonaro - EcoWatch ›
- Groundbreaking Court Case Argues U.S. Climate Denial Policy Violates Americans’ Right to Be Free - EcoWatch ›
Related Articles Around the Web
Read More
Show Less
Oil spills, such as the one in Mauritius in August 2020, could soon be among the ecological crimes considered ecocide. - / AFP / Getty Images
By Kenny Stancil
An expert panel of top international and environmental lawyers have begun working this month on a legal definition of "ecocide" with the goal of making mass ecological damage an enforceable international crime on par with war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.
<p>Assembled by the Stop Ecocide Foundation at the request of several Swedish parliamentarians, the initiative to criminalize the destruction of ecosystems at the global level has already garnered support from European countries as well as small island nations highly vulnerable to rising sea levels.</p><p>The drafting panel is co-chaired by Philippe Sands QC, a professor at University College London, and Justice Florence Mumba, a former judge at the International Criminal Court (ICC). </p><p>The November 20 launch date of the project coincided with the 75th anniversary of the beginning of the Nuremberg trials of Nazi leaders, where the terms "crimes against humanity" and "genocide" were coined.</p>
<p>"The time is right," Sands <a href="https://www.stopecocide.earth/expert-drafting-panel" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">said </a>recently at an event commemorating the Nuremberg trials, "to harness the power of international criminal law to protect our global environment."</p><p>"Seventy five years ago, 'crimes against humanity' and 'genocide' were spoken for the first time, in Nuremberg's Courtroom 600," Sands added, "and my hope is that this group will be able to draw on experience since that day to forge a definition that is practical, effective, and sustainable, and that might attract support to allow an amendment to the ICC Statute to be made."</p><p>Charles Jalloh, a professor at Florida International University and member of the United Nations International Law Commission who is on the panel drafting a legally robust definition of ecocide, said that "states should use all tools at their disposal, including their criminal law power at the national and international levels, to protect our shared global environment and to bring the most responsible perpetrators to justice."</p>
<div id="a7786" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="1141146b6f6ee52f22c2ee4ca9b14037"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1331227090755215363" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Professor Jalloh is a member of the UN International Law Commission & Editor in Chief of the Journal of African Leg… https://t.co/MAf3pR2tLV</div> — Stop Ecocide International (@Stop Ecocide International)<a href="https://twitter.com/EcocideLaw/statuses/1331227090755215363">1606224246.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>The Stop Ecocide Foundation <a href="https://www.stopecocide.earth/expert-drafting-panel" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">noted </a>that the concept of criminalizing ecocide "has been steadily gaining traction in recent months since small island states Vanuatu and the Maldives called for 'serious consideration' of it at the ICC's annual assembly" in December 2019. According to the group, French President Emmanuel Macron "has actively promised to champion the idea," and the Belgian government has also "pledged diplomatic action to support it."</p><p>As<em> The Guardian </em><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/law/2020/nov/30/international-lawyers-draft-plan-to-criminalise-ecosystem-destruction" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">reported</a> Monday, the ICC "has previously promised to prioritize crimes that result in the 'destruction of the environment,' 'exploitation of natural resources,' and the 'illegal dispossession' of land."</p><p>"An <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global/2016/sep/15/hague-court-widens-remit-to-include-environmental-destruction-cases" target="_blank">ICC policy paper in 2016</a> said it was not formally extending its jurisdiction but would assess existing offenses, such as crimes against humanity, in a broader context," <em>The Guardian </em>continued. Yet "there have been no formal investigations or charges of this type so far."</p>
<p>Panel member Pablo Fajardo, the Goldman prize-winning Ecuadorian lawyer who challenged Chevron for polluting the Amazon rainforest,<a href="https://www.stopecocide.earth/expert-drafting-panel" target="_blank"> said</a> that this "great legal vaccum that exists globally" results in "crimes... committed against nature, against life... go[ing] unpunished," even though "these crimes take their toll on humanity."</p><p>"We see... systemic, widespread, and deliberate destruction of the environment without any obvious consequences," <a href="https://www.stopecocide.earth/expert-drafting-panel" target="_blank">said </a>panelist Christina Voigt, a professor at the University of Oslo and expert in climate change law. A newly defined crime of ecocide, she added, "could not only bring those responsible to justice, but also more importantly prevent further destruction."</p><p>As <em>The Guardian</em><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/law/2020/nov/30/international-lawyers-draft-plan-to-criminalise-ecosystem-destruction" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> pointed out</a>, "one challenge for the drafting panel would be to define at what point an ecocide offense would come into force. Chopping down a single tree on a village green would not be sufficient."</p>
<p>Jojo Mehta, chair of the Stop Ecocide Foundation, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/law/2020/nov/30/international-lawyers-draft-plan-to-criminalise-ecosystem-destruction" target="_blank">told </a><em>The Guardian</em> that "it would have to involve mass, systematic, or widespread destruction" of the world's ecosystems.</p><p>"We are probably talking about Amazon deforestation on a huge scale, deep sea bottom trawling, or oil spills," she said. "We want to place it at the same level as atrocities investigated by the ICC."</p><p>Mehta explained that "in most cases ecocide is likely to be a corporate crime."</p><p>"Criminalizing something at the ICC means that nations that have ratified it have to incorporate it into their own national legislation," she added. "That means there would be lots of options for prosecuting [offending corporations] around the world."</p><p>Preparatory work is now underway, and the panel plans to deliver a draft of a legally enforceable definition of ecocide in early 2021. </p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/11/30/end-impunity-deliberate-destruction-planet-international-lawyers-drafting-plan" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
- Are the Amazon Fires a Crime Against Humanity? - EcoWatch ›
- 'Her Work Will Live On': Climate Movement Mourns Loss of Ecocide ... ›
Related Articles Around the Web
Read More
Show Less