Brazil: For the preservation of the Amazon!
Forest fires, dams, cattle pastures: The rainforest is being destroyed at an ever-increasing rate. Yet it is not only crucial for our climate, but also home to many indigenous peoples.
Your donation helps people to stand up for their rights and protect the green lungs of our planet.
- Latin & Central America
Sell-out on the Amazon
The Amazon is in a worse state than it has been for a long time. Industrialised agriculture, mining and large-scale infrastructure projects are eating into the rainforest almost uncontrollably. In December 2020, the most rapid deforestation in 20 years was recorded. The species-rich "green lung of the planet" is disappearing piece by piece - and along with the rainforest, the home of many smallholder families and indigenous peoples. Even officially designated protected areas, which indigenous groups have fought hard for over many years, are not being spared destruction.
Violence and destruction in the rainforest
As state controls in the designated protected areas have largely ceased, the indigenous peoples and smallholder families in the Amazon have to take on this important task themselves. In doing so, they are defenceless against the often armed illegal intruders in their territories. The result is a wave of violence: the number of threats, physical injuries and murders of indigenous people and people from farming families has reached a tragic high in recent years.
Belo Monte dam on the Xingu
The Belo Monte dam was put into operation in 2016. But displaced people who had to leave their homes for its construction are still waiting for new accommodation or compensation. The remote villages of the indigenous people, who actually live with and from the river, are without water, as the "Great Loop" of the Xingus will dry up due to the dam. How the many villages here can continue to exist without water remains an unresolved question.
At the side of the people of the Amazon
Misereor's partner organisations are on the side of the threatened people in the Amazon. The work of the organisations is diverse: for example, they pay lawyers, organise campaigns or train community spokespeople. Always with the aim of putting an end to injustice and environmental destruction.
This is what our joint success looks like
- Families in land conflicts receive counselling and legal assistance
- Protective measures are offered for human rights defenders
- Human rights violations are documented
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
- suzanne.lemken@misereor.de
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