EU Accused of Bearing Responsibility in Illegal Amazon Deforestation

By Xiu Ying, Contributing Reporter

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – At least 2,500 indigenous people from the five regions of Brazil and representing more than 100 tribes are expected to gather in Brasília at the end of the month for the annual event Terra Livre.

The two-day event, which starts on April 24th, will be an opportunity for them to protest a series of measures reversing thirty years of progress in advancing the rights of indigenous peoples.

Under attack as never before due to the new administration’s policies, the indigenous peoples are expected to report a growing trend of violence, as well as illegal invasions of communities and territories by emboldened loggers, miners, and poachers.

The Conselho Indigenista Missionário (CIMI) estimates that such invasions may have increased an estimated 150 percent since the election of Jair Bolsonaro. Deforestation in the Amazon has also risen to an alarming 54 percent compared to the same period in 2018.

The nation’s native peoples, led by the Articulation of Indigenous People of Brazil (APIB), argue that the country’s new leadership and the powerful economic interests that support it are not solely responsible for the expansion of industrial and mining activities onto indigenous lands.

In a report created in collaboration with Amazon Watch, to be released on April 25th, APIB  follows the supply chain from illegally deforested lands in Brazil to products sold by twenty-seven global companies from Europe and North America.

The work is expected to reinforce the findings of a new policy brief being released in Brussels today that describes the role of financial actors in the European Union in fueling destruction of the Brazilian Amazon.

APIB, representing more than 300 Brazilian indigenous groups, joined an international coalition of NGOs in calling on the EU to halt agricultural ties with Brazil, citing the role of these agreements in inciting conflict on traditional lands and the destruction of the Amazon.