Can Brazil’s indigenous population save the Amazon?

About 60 percent of the Amazon rainforest is in Brazil and it is home to more than 300 indigenous groups. But for centuries both the rainforest and its indigenous inhabitants have been under threat, from deforestation, agri-business, mining and politics. Brazil’s current president, Luis Ignácio de Silva, has made the future security of the Amazon and its peoples a key policy pledge. So far, the president has appointed a new minister for indigenous peoples and according to government figures, the first six months of this year saw a 33 percent drop in deforestation. But at the recent Amazon Summit in Belém, the president failed to commit to zero-deforestation, to the disappointment of indigenous leaders. They are calling for more protection for their land and their way of life, which they say is crucial to the future preservation of the Amazon and a matter for the whole world.

This week on The Inquiry we are asking ‘Can Brazil’s indigenous population save the Amazon?’

Contributors:

Pedro Cesarino, Professor of Anthropology at the University of Sao Paolo and Writer, Brazil

Carlos Peres, Professor of Conservation Biology at the University of East Anglia, England

Ana Carolina Alfinito, Legal Advisor at the NGO Amazon Watch

Kawá Huni Kuin, Indigenous leader and representative from the Huni Kuin/Kaxinawá people, in the State of Acre, Brazil. Presenter: David Baker

Producer: Jill Collins

Researcher: Matt Toulson

Editor: Tom Bigwood

Technical Producer: Kelly Young

Production Co-ordinator: Brenda Brown (Image: Kawá Huni Kuin, Photo Credit: Bimi Huni Kuin)