Financial Times | Even as world leaders signed off on new commitments to sustainable development in Rio de Janeiro last week, Brazilian politicians were debating a bill that would open up the nation's vast indigenous territories for mining.
All: 2012
Amazon Villagers Concerned about Environment
Al Jazeera | Some of the people who may be directly affected by plans for sustainable development live along the Amazon river. Gabriel Elizondo took a six-day journey along the waterway to visit them, and hear their thoughts on Rio+20.
Amazon Indians Occupy Belo Monte Dam Site
Al Jazeera | An estimated 200 indigenous people from Brazil's Amazon region have occupied a work area at the Belo Monte dam construction site, at least partially halting work on the controversial mega project on the Xingu river.
Quechua Turn Pastaza Oil Protest into Watershed Deal with Government
Alianza Arkana Blog | After more than a week of peaceful protests, indigenous Quechua residents of the Pastaza River basin finally pushed the Peruvian government to launch a high-level investigation of foreign oil company operations.
Civil Society, Indigenous Groups Protest at Rio+20
Democracy Now | Protests continue at the Rio+20 U.N. Conference on Sustainable Development in Brazil. On Thursday, civil society delegates staged a walkout of the talks to call for bold action against global warming. Meanwhile, hundreds of indigenous activists marched through the streets of Rio de Janeiro to deliver a petition demanding fairer treatment over land...
Amazon Watch is building on more than 25 years of radical and effective solidarity with Indigenous peoples across the Amazon Basin.
Kari-Oca II Declaration: Indigenous Peoples at Rio+20 Reject the Green Economy and REDD
REDD Monitor | In 1992, while the first Rio Earth Summit took place, hundreds of indigenous peoples met and produced the Kari-Oca Declaration and the Indigenous Peoples Earth Charter. 20 years later, in parallel with Rio +20 meeting, more than five hundred indigenous peoples met and produced the Kari-Oca II Declaration.
60 Dams in Brazil's Amazon?
Controversy Spills over into "Earth Summit II"
MSNBC | Deforestation has received plenty of attention in recent years, but lesser known is the plan to build 60 dams there – including the $11 billion Belo Monte project.
Indigenous Rights Are Key to Rio+20's Vision of Sustainability
The Huffington Post | Twenty years ago I participated in the Earth Summit in Rio. I remember the hope and elation among hundreds of indigenous peoples from all four corners of the earth who had come together to push for their rights on an international stage. Far from the official summit from which they had been barred, one of the defining moments was the signing of...
As Growth Ebbs, Brazil Powers Up Its Bulldozers
New York Times | In a show of the extraordinary sway that Brazil's government wields in nearly every important area of the economy, President Dilma Rousseff is accelerating an array of stimulus projects throughout the country aimed at blunting a slowdown that has reduced Brazil's economic growth to a snail's pace.
Alternative Voices from Rio+20
While world leaders negotiate in the Rio+20 meeting halls, thousands of activists have launched "The People's Summit"
Al Jazeera | Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – "The development – the drilling, mining and damming – is affecting everyone, our communities and the Earth, our home and the only planet we have."
Amazonian Indigenous Peoples Occupy Belo Monte Dam Site
Altamira, Brazil – Indigenous peoples affected by the controversial Belo Monte dam complex in the Brazilian Amazon have occupied a coffer dam that cuts across channels of the river since last Thursday.
Stars of the Earth Summit
New York Times | Rio de Janeiro – If the Rio+20 conference on sustainable development has been criticized for being short on results, the mega-event has at least made the city a stage for a colorful cast of political and environmental personalities.
Living Art Resistance at Rio+20
Nearly 1500 people used Rio's Flamengo Beach as a canvas. Their bodies formed the lines of an enormous image promoting the importance of free-running rivers, truly clean energy sources like solar power and including indigenous knowledge as part of the solution to climate issues.
"Rivers for Life" Human Banner at Rio+20
Nearly 1500 people used Rio’s Flamengo Beach as a canvas. Their bodies formed the lines of an enormous image promoting the importance of free-running rivers, truly clean energy and including indigenous knowledge as part of the solution to climate issues.
Hundreds of Indigenous Activists and Allies Form "Human Banner" at Rio+20
Living art work creates iconic image demanding "Rivers for Life"
Río de Janeiro, Brazil – Nearly 1500 people used Rio's Flamengo Beach as a canvas today, their bodies forming the lines of an enormous image promoting the importance of free-running rivers, truly clean energy sources like solar power and including indigenous knowledge as part of the solution to climate issues. The activity was led...
Hundreds of Indigenous Activists and Allies to Form "Human Banner" at Rio+20
"Living art" piece will make iconic image at Earth Summit
Altamira, Brazil – While the Brazilian Government prepares to host the Rio+20 United Nations Earth Summit, 3,000 kilometers north in the country's Amazon region indigenous peoples, farmers, fisherfolk, activists and local residents affected by the construction of the massive Belo Monte Dam project began a symbolic peaceful occupation of the...
Freeing the Xingu
Seeing the majestic Xingu River being dammed is heartbreaking; this morning, there was hope. Today's daring grassroots action was one of the most inspirational acts of resistance I have witnessed in 15 years as Executive Director.
What Bulldozers and Cynical Politics Do, Shovels and Grassroots Resistance Undo
300 indigenous people, small farmers, fisherfolk, and local residents occupied the Belo Monte Dam project, removing a strip to restore the Xingu's natural flow and "freeing the river."
As Rio+20 Gets Underway, Brazil's "Pandora" Dam Swarmed By Activists
Protesters planted 500 native açai trees and erected 200 crosses to honor the lives of those lost defending the Amazon.
Forbes | Around 300 activists protested hydroelectric dams in the Brazilian Amazon on Friday less than 24 hours after the nation's president, Dilma Rousseff, praised them as sources of clean and renewable energy at the U.N. Rio+20 conference. Using pick axes and shovels, people who are being displaced by the Belo Monte hydroelectric project removed a strip...
Amazonian Communities Occupy the Belo Monte Dam Site To Free the Xingu River
On the Eve of the Rio+20 UN Conference, Community Resistance Calls Attention to Brazilian Government's Unsustainable Energy Policy
Altamira, Brazil – While the Brazilian Government prepares to host the Rio+20 United Nations Earth Summit, 3,000 kilometers north in the country's Amazon region indigenous peoples, farmers, fisherfolk, activists and local residents affected by the construction of the massive Belo Monte Dam project began a symbolic peaceful occupation of the...
Please Stop Xingu Dam, Amazonian Indians Plead at Summit
AFP | Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – Amazonian chief Raoni on Thursday implored the UN environment summit here to halt a $13-billion dam being built in one of the world's last bastions of wildlife.
On the Eve of Rio+20: Ruin and Resistance on the Xingu
Jungle Dispatch | The Brazilian government is moving ahead with construction of the third-largest dam in the world and one of the Amazon's most controversial "development" projects – the Belo Monte Dam.
Rio+20's Search for Green Solutions Hampered by Deep Divisions
Expectations for action are low despite UN assessment that the world's environment is declining rapidly
The Guardian | Twenty years after trying and failing to halt humanity's destruction of our planet, the governments of the world will gather again in Rio this month for a "once-in-a-generation" Earth Summit that will open with great fanfare but low expectations of success.
The Canadian Face of the Biggest Lawsuit in the World
The Globe and Mail | Mr. Lenczner, 69, a veteran of high-stakes court battles, has now become the Canadian face of perhaps the largest, longest-running, and most controversial lawsuit against a major company anywhere in the world.
Indigenous Voices at Rio+20
While world leaders gear up for the Rio+20 Earth Summit, the Brazilian government's push to build the Belo Monte dam illustrates a frightening hypocrisy between a truly "green" economy and the human and environmental costs of schemes that destroy the Amazon and its peoples.
Ecuador Clean Water Charity Started Amid Oil Fight
San Francisco Chronicle | Residents of Ecuador's rain forest have spent 18 years fighting American oil companies that they say poisoned their water and land. And while their lawsuit grinds on, the water remains tainted. So several veterans of the legal fight have set up a charity to bring clean drinking water to Ecuador's oil patch, one home at a time.
Protests and Independent Events at Rio+20 Expose the Human Cost of Brazil's "Green" Economy
Media opportunities at the Rio+20 Earth Summit
The Brazilian government's costs-be-damned attitude about the Belo Monte dam and ominous recent changes to the country's Forest Code expose a glaring hypocrisy between a truly "green economy" and the human cost of measures that are destroying the Amazon and its indigenous peoples in Brazil's own backyard.
Violence Hits Brazil Tribes in Scramble for Land
New York Times | Aral Moreira, Brazil – The gunmen emerged from pickup trucks at dawn, their faces hidden in balaclavas, and stormed into an encampment surrounded by a field of soybean plants near this town on Brazil's porous frontier with Paraguay.
Countdown Begins for Chevron in Canada
After months of suspense, the Ecuadorian rainforest communities have finally opened up the first front in what is likely to be a worldwide legal battle to force Chevron to pay its $18 billion ruling for environmental devastation in the Amazon.
