Could Indigenous Communities in Brazil Hold Key to Climate Justice?

AUGUST 2, 2023

Author:

Amanda Magnani
AMAZON RJF GRANTEE



Telma Macuxi offers caxiri to a community member who is helping work her land in the Willimon community in Raposa Serra do Sol Indigenous territory, Brazil. Image by Amanda Magnani/Al Jazeera. Brazil, 2023.


Across the Amazon, Indigenous residents are developing sustainable economies centred on local production.

Boa Vista, Brazil – Under the scorching late-morning Amazon sun, dozens of people begin to approach from all corners of the woods, farming gear slung over their shoulders.

As tradition dictates, residents of the Willimon community in the Raposa Serra do Sol Indigenous territory of Brazil’s Roraima state are coming together to help fellow farmers plough their land.

Despite the blue skies and high temperatures, it is winter, which means rainy season in the Amazon – so it is time for planting. Today, the men and women of this community are helping Telma Macuxi clear her land.

“I work as an Indigenous health agent [for] the Willimon community, but it is these crops that will provide for my household,” Macuxi told Al Jazeera. “I have a big family, and the salary I receive for my work is mostly used for the things we don’t produce: salt, sugar, clothes.”

Spanning nearly 1.75 million hectares (4.3 million acres), Raposa Serra do Sol is among the largest Indigenous territories in Brazil. After decades of land conflict, its boundaries were formally demarcated in 2005.

More:
https://pulitzercenter.org/stories/could-indigenous-communities-brazil-hold-key-climate-justice