"Sometimes I feel we Indians are alone in this fight to protect our nature – everyone’s nature.” - Brazilian indigenous land rights & environmental activist Maria Valdenice Nukini.
https://t.co/PFka5Y0QOp
"Global Witness published their 2014 report, Deadly Watch:
147 eco-activists were killed in 2014 compared to 51 in 2002.
Between 2002-2013, at least 908 activists were killed.
Ten more disappeared in suspicious circumstances.
Only ten convictions were recorded."
In 2015, 185 environmental activists were killed. 40% of them Indigenous. "If it’s not the oil company, it’s loggers, or people looking for metals, or people who steal our plants," - Maria Valdenice Nukini.
"2016...high-profile indigenous activists including Berta Caceras, a prominent critic of a hydroelectric dam project in Honduras..shot to death in her own home along with her brother, and Lesbia Janeth Urquía, who was active in opposing the privatisation of rivers in La Paz."
"Indigenous activists should not have to lose their lives trying to save their communities. We can help them by making the connection between their land rights, environmental degradation, and rampant capitalism."
"Deforestation in South America is increasing at such an alarming rate that if it continues, there will be no rainforests left at all, including the Amazon, within 100 years. And yet, the authorities continue to grant permits to loggers, miners, and agriculturalists."
“Now that climate change has asserted itself...as something happening here and now, supporting land rights for indigenous communities not only goes some way to atoning for the ills of colonialism, it promotes human rights while striking a blow against environmental catastrophe.”
