Published on Thomson Reuters Foundation
A Brazilian government proposal to open indigenous land in Brazil to mining concessions could lead to the loss of forests over an area larger than England, researchers said Friday.
Such a loss would reduce by $5 billion a year the global benefits the forest provides in terms of things such as forest products, rainfall generation and storage of climate-changing emissions, they estimated.
“The impact would be direct for indigenous communities, but mainly for society in general. The entire planet would be affected,” said Juliana Siqueira-Gay, a University of São Paulo environmental engineer and lead author of the study published Friday in the science journal One Earth.
A bill introduced in Brazil’s Congress in February proposes opening indigenous land in the Amazon and elsewhere to mining, hydroelectric plants, oil and gas projects and livestock farming.
Such development could be carried out over the objections of indigenous communities living on the land, according to the bill, supported by large numbers of members of Congress aligned with agribusiness and extractive industries.
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Sobre o autor
Fundador, diretor, editor-chefe e repórter especial do Observatório da Mineração. Pesquisador vinculado ao Centro de Desenvolvimento Sustentável da Universidade de Brasília (UnB). Professor e palestrante de jornalismo. Repórter com centenas de matérias publicadas na mídia brasileira e internacional (Reuters, UOL Notícias, Mongabay, Repórter Brasil, Pulitzer Center, OCCRP, Folha de S. Paulo, Deutsche Welle, El País, Intercept e outros). Eleito um dos três jornalistas mais relevantes do Brasil no setor de Mineração, Metalurgia e Siderurgia pelo Prêmio Especialistas de 2022 e 2021. Vencedor do Prêmio de Excelência Jornalística da Sociedade Interamericana de Imprensa (2019).
Maurício Angelo is an award-winning international investigative journalist and the founder of Mining Observatory, a Brazilian based investigative journalism Centre established in 2015. Researcher at Sustainable Development Center at the University of Brasília (UnB). He publishes in many media outlets in Brazil and around the world and was the winner of the Excellence in Journalism Award (2019) by Inter American Press Association. Considered one of the Top 3 journalist experts in Extractive Sector in Brazil in 2022 and 2021.
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