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What this project aims to do

Brazil holds 60% of the Amazon rainforest, yet forest communities who have a critical role in forest preservation are at risk. 

This two-year project seeks to directly address this issue by protecting over 35,000 square miles of tropical rainforest in northern Brazil, and its 28,000 residents, from deforestation and land grabbing as a result of corporate exploitation. We recognise that investors in the global north are responsible for land grabbing in the global south.

The project will bring together otherwise disparate Amazonian communities, equipping them to monitor their lands from illegal mining, logging and large infrastructure activities and enable them to secure land-rights for their territories.  

We must protect local communities in the Amazon region in order to prevent deforestation and climate change.

Key information

Location:

Northern state of Pará, Brazil

Timescale:

November 2019 to November 2021

Programme value:

£526,073

Implementing partner:

Our approach

Our vision is to see an Amazon region where communities are the driving force behind sustainable development, challenging unjust systems to strive for social, climate and economic justice.

Our approach includes:

  • Working with Quilombola associations and leaders to develop community-based strategies for protecting land
  • Monitoring of external threats and pressures against Quilombola lands
  • Supporting Quilombola communities to lobby against mining and large infrastructure projects
  • Monitoring the process of Quilombola and indigenous land titles
  • Supporting Quilombolas, indigenous and riverine people to work together on joint actions for territorial monitoring
  • Bringing together Quilombolas, indigenous people and riverine people with government, public prosecutors and companies

 

Project outcomes

By the end of the project:

  • Quilombolas in 14 territories (comprising 55 communities) will have access to comprehensive data and evidence regarding their own territories, strengthening their ability to lead processes to protect the forest.
  • 5 communities will have developed their own protocols for consultation as a concrete protection measure against public and private investment trying to install in their lands
  • Local Quilombola, indigenous and riverine associations will present joint demands on behalf of their communities to public authorities and private actors, increasing their chances for successfully protecting their lands

40 Quilombola, indigenous and riverine leaders will expand their ability to network and dialogue with key actors

News and blogs

List articles – by theme

CPI-SP launches publication condemning dams in Brazil

Luiz Jardim’s new report, from our partner Comissão Pró-Índio (CPI-SP), highlights the immense damage that mining dams cause in the Brazilian Amazon.

Second wave of Covid-19 threatens traditional communities in the Brazilian Amazon

Northern Pará has been in lockdown since 1st February. A variant of the coronavirus identified in Manaus (Amazonas) has come to the neighbouring state and the local communities see the rapid growth of cases.

Read more about this issue

 Our article in Latin American Bureau exposes how COVID-19 is being exploited as an opportunity to rush through power line construction - without consultation with quilombola and riverine communities.

The Amazon: COVID-19 exploited to get power lines built

Reports and resources

List Resources – by content reference (specific page match)

Profit before People and Planet

A collaborative report exploring why the Brazilian Amazon and its people need economic justice.