Brazil: Save the Amazon: Misereor

Forest fires, dams, vast cattle pastures: the Amazon rainforest is being destroyed at an alarming rate, with no regard for indigenous peoples or the climate.

Your donation protects the local people who are courageously defending their land and their rights. It protects the green lungs of our planet and strengthens Misereor’s work worldwide.

Continent

Latin & Central America

Thematic focus:

Creating climate justice

Industrialised agriculture, mining and massive infrastructure projects are encroaching ever deeper into the rainforest. Our planet’s treasure trove of biodiversity is disappearing day by day. Indigenous communities are literally losing the ground beneath their feet. The destruction does not even stop at officially designated protected areas, which people have fought so hard to secure over decades.

As government controls and the protection of existing reserves often fail in many places, communities are frequently left to defend their land on their own. In doing so, they are usually defenceless against illegal, often heavily armed intruders. Death threats, assaults and lethal violence against environmental and human rights defenders are a bitter reality in the Amazon basin.

A view of an area cleared for cattle grazing in the TI APYTEREWA indigenous conservation area.

Life on and with the river: the everyday life of the people in Pimental takes place between fishing and working in the fields. The Tapajós, a tributary of the Amazon, is a bathroom, laundry room, dishwasher and outdoor pool all in one. But a dam threatens the idyll.

One of the families affected is Ozileia de Nascimento Lima's family. "Here in Pimental, we have our freedom and lead a carefree life. If we have to relocate because of the dam, we will suffer."

If the dam is built, 80,000 people will be affected Pimental would also be submerged in the water masses of the reservoir. Experience shows that, despite great promises, the people will receive no or insufficient compensation.

"The Amazon belongs to these very people, the small farmers who have always lived here to make a living from this earth. It doesn't belong to the big investors." Rev. João Carlos I. Portes is a volunteer at CPT Itaituba.

The waterways created by the dam will be used to transport soya and timber to the port cities, from where it can also be transported to us in Europe. The electricity generated will also mainly benefit industry.

The Belo Monte mega-dam, which came into operation in 2016, is a prime example of how large-scale projects ruin people’s lives and the natural environment: many people who were displaced to make way for its construction are still waiting for adequate alternative housing or fair compensation. As the water is diverted, sections of the Xingu River’s ‘Great Loop’ have run dry – literally depriving the indigenous river communities living there of their livelihoods.

Misereor’s partner organisations are working on the ground alongside those under threat. Through legal support, political campaigning and targeted training for community representatives, they are standing up to environmental destruction and impunity.

Legal representation in court: Our partners support families in court during acute land and environmental disputes and ensure that they are legally represented.
Protection for activists: through specific security measures, the teams protect people who fear for their lives.
Investigation and documentation: Misereor’s partner organisations document instances where human rights are violated or where forests are being illegally cleared. In many cases, this makes it possible to hold those responsible to account.

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For example, with 15 euros you can support beekeeping and organic farming courses. With better yields, farming families can secure their livelihoods.

When making a donation by bank transfer, please quote the reference “S63406 Brazil: Save the Amazon!” in the payment reference field. This lets us know which project is particularly close to your heart; your contribution will be channelled as a general donation towards this work and Misereor’s overall global mission.

To ensure that your donation has an impact in the long term, Misereor uses a small proportion for important administration an related tasks. This way, we make sure that projects are selected carefully and implemented responsibly and that their effects are regularly monitored. Should it not be possible to use your donation as planned, we will use it where it is currently needed most.

Our local partner organisations

CPT

In the absence of functioning state institutions, the church is an important opponent of unscrupulous landlords, corrupt civil servants and large foreign corporations. Defending the rights of the population is at the heart of the work of the rural pastoral organisation CPT, which was founded in 2007 and is supported by Misereor. With a team of just three employees, lawyer Raione Lima Campos looks after an area of 177,000 square kilometres with around 250,000 inhabitants. This includes Pimental, with its 850 inhabitants. They are all to be resettled for a dam.

Suzanne Lemken

Donor Communications

Telephone: +49 241 442127
E-mail: suzanne.lemken@misereor.de

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It is essential to treat conflicts as collective cases. This is usually not about individual fates, but about larger contexts. This empowers more people to work for greater social justice.

Luismar Ribeiro Pinto
Specialist centre for land issues (Comissão Pastoral da Terra - CPT)

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