Indigenous Peoples in Brazil will hold a mass 5-day rally next week, dubbed “the Xingu Encounter,” to protest against a series of hydro dams planned for the Xingu river and its tributaries.

The sacred lands website explains, there are a total of 70 large dams and dozens of smaller ones planned throughout the central and northern parts of the country. “One of these is the proposed Paranatinga II dam. Located on the Culuene River, a tributary of the Xingu, Paranatinga II would destroy an area sacred to 14 tribal groups. The same …

So-called armed guards working for one of the rice farmer’s currently (illegally) occupying Raposa/Serra do Sol indigenous territory opened fire on a group of Macuxi indigenous People yesterday, injuring At least 10. One of them remains hospitalized in serious condition.

The owner of the farm, Paulo Cesar Quartiero, claims his men were firing in self-defense after the group refused to leave ‘his’ property. The Earth Times quote him as saying, “They invaded the estate. My men went there to ask them to leave, but they were met with arrows. There was a clash, and …

Nobodies from the Rainforest (Anonimato) is a short documentary about the Hupda indigenous People from Alto Rio Negro, northwest Amazon (Brazil).

Produced last year by Orlando Lemos, the film reveals a precarious health situation among the Hupda — one that’s been caused by outsider contact and a lack of access to clean water — as they struggle day to day with little resources, assistance, or even hope.

As for the health problem, the film primarily looks at Trachoma, which is a leading cause of infectious blindness in the world (8 million people, mostly in so-called developing countries, are visually impaired every …

The Brazilian Supreme Court has suspended the police operation that sought to evict a group of rice farmers illegally occupying Raposa Serra do Sol indigenous territory in the Brazilian state of Roraima.

The decision came last Wednesday (April 9), after the farmers began threatening and attacking the regions indigenous people, destroying bridges, and setting up roadblocks to resist their eviction.

According to the Associated Press,

The court blocked the eviction of farmers from the Raposa Serra do Sol reservation late Wednesday, saying protests by the settlers… could erupt into “a veritable civil war.”

Roraima …

A small group of rice farmers illegally occupying indigenous lands in the Brazilian state of Roraima have recently turned violent in an effort to resist their eviction.

Survival International explains in a recent release that at least one person has been injured, a local Indigenous Leader in the community of Barro, after the farmers threw a home-made bomb into his home. The farmers have also set up roadblocks and burned at least three bridges leading into Raposa Serra do Sol indigenous territory.

Home to the the Makuxi, Wapixana, Ingarikó and Taurepang, …

Survival International reports a Brazilian judge has affirmed the rights of the Enawene Nawe in the Rio Preto, an area of huge economic and spiritual importance to the People.

Each year the Enawene Nawe spend several months there, trapping and smoking fish for the community, while performing an elaborate ritual “called ‘yankwa’ where foods are exchanged to placate the ‘yakairiti’ spirits. Enawene Nawe elder Kawari explains, ‘All this land [the Rio Preto area] belongs to the yakairiti - our ancestral spirits. They own the rivers, the fish and the trees. If …

Following up the story published last week about Via Campesina’s “week of mobilization for Agrarian Reform and against the violence of big land-owners”, the women of Via Campesina and the Landless Workers Movement of Brazil organized several other actions to report—most notably, against the transnational companies Monsanto, and Syngenta.

On Friday, hundreds of women entered a research plant near Brazil’s capital of Sao Paolo, destroying a greenhouse and an experimentation field for the MON810 strain of GM corn. Patended by Monstanto, the strain was recently banned in France over concerns that it …

The Rural Landless Workers’ Movement (MST) has blockaded eight roads in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. This action comes in response to the “violence and abuses” committed against 900 women two days ago.

Organized as part of a “week of mobilization for Agrarian Reform and against the violence of big land-owners”, the women of La Via Campesina decided to occupy a plot of land that was illegally acquired by the Swedish-Finnish company Stora Enso.

According to Via Campesina, Brazilian law states foreigners cannot own land that’s “less …

The following article is an opinion piece featured in the most recent edition of the World Rainforest Movement’s Monthly Bulletin. If you would like to read or download the entire Bulletin, please visit www.wrm.org.uy (it’s available in English, Spanish , Portuguese and French)

Aridity and death vs diversity and fertility: a women’s view of plantations

International Women’s day is around the corner and we would like to pay homage to the countless women struggling for their rights by sharing parts of a recent research (1) carried out by two women …

An indigenous Bororo community in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso is on edge after land invaders threatened to destroy their village and attack children, adults and elderly people.

In a recent article on BrazzilMag, Maria Aparecida Toroekure, chief of the indigenous community explains that the invaders have been threatening them for 20 days now.

[…] but since January 28 they began to act more aggressively. Twenty of the 28 indigenous people who lived in the indigenous area left after these threats.

Aparecida believes that threats like these are made because people …