News & Multimedia from 2009

BNDES: Brazil's powerhouse bank

With his slicked-back hair, neatly trimmed, close-cropped beard, and impeccably pressed suits, Luciano Coutinho looks like any other obscure Brazilian banker.

But he is anything but an average banking man.

Coutinho is the president of the Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social - Brazil's national development bank - simply known by its Portuguese acronym, BNDES.

Brazil Bank Funds Destructive Projects, Say Activists

RIO DE JANEIRO, Nov 26 (IPS) - Public money in Brazil is being used by the state development bank to finance deforestation projects and others that trample rights, concentrate wealth, and encourage "imperialist" expansion of large national companies, according to activists at a three-day meeting in this southeastern city.

The National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES) promotes "a deadly kind of progress

Looking ahead, Brazil's farmers take up reforestation

LUCAS DO RIO VERDE, BRAZIL – For nearly 20 years, Luiz Alberto Bortolini cleared trees and planted soybeans as fast as he could, one of many pioneers who turned this barren outpost into prosperous farmland.

Now, he and hundreds of other successful farmers are replanting trees as part of an ambitious initiative to reduce deforestation.

Indigenous people send ultimatum to Ray Hunt: "Get your oil company out of our protected areas"

As deadline approaches, tensions rise again in the Peruvian Amazon

San Francisco, CA-In a recent open letter to Hunt Oil Company President Ray Hunt, the Native Federation of the Río Madre de Dios (FENAMAD) gave Hunt until this week to leave the Amarakaeri Communal Reserve in the southern Peruvian Amazon as a condition to continuing any further talks with the Indigenous communities living in the Reserve area.

Peru Gov't and Indigenous Group Still Disagree on Bagua Clash

WASHINGTON-More than five months after a deadly clash between police and Indigenous protesters in the Peruvian Amazon killed at least 34 people, leading the government to roll back efforts to open up the region for oil and gas development and other extractive industries, a Peruvian Indigenous leader said native communities are still searching for answers.

"We understand that there were deaths and that [bodies] were th

Peru: Hunt Oil Contract to Reignite Amazon Uprising?

After the Indigenous uprising in Peru's Amazon region in June, the country is in many ways fundamentally changed. For the first time, Indigenous leaders from the rainforest are in direct dialogue with the highest levels of government. For the first time, a powerful alliance has emerged between rainforest peoples, highland campesinos, and urban workers, who joined in the protest campaign.

Civil Society Holds the First Meeting of Peoples Affected by BNDES Financed Projects

November 11, 2009 - From the 23rd to the 25th of November, the Plataforma BNDES, a representative body of more than thirty organizations, social movements and networks from Brazilian civil society, will be hosting the first annual 'Meeting of Populations Affected by BNDES Financed Projects' at the Circo Voador in Rio de Janeiro.

La Conaie pide observadores de la OEA en las mesas de diálogo

Los indígenas se quieren curar en salud y llegan a la Organización de Estados Americanos (OEA) a pedir que ésta envíe una o más veedurías a las mesas de diálogo que mantienen con el gobierno del Presidente Rafael Correa.

Desde el lado de los indígenas no fue precisamente una versión que al Gobierno podría agradarle.