How Global Corporations Enable Violations of Indigenous Peoples’ Rights in the Brazilian Amazon
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Complicity IN Destruction III: HOW GLOBAL CORPORATIONS ENABLE VIOLATIONS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ RIGHTS IN THE BRAZILIAN AMAZON 1 Complicity IN SUMMARY Executive Summary .............................................................................. 04 Destruction III: Note from APIB .................................................................................... 06 Methodology ......................................................................................... 12 HOW GLOBAL CORPORATIONS ENABLE Commodity-driven Destruction .............................................................. 14 VIOLATIONS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ RIGHTS Financing Destruction: The Role of Banks, Investment Funds, IN THE BRAZILIAN AMAZON and Shareholders .................................................................................. 36 Recommendations ................................................................................. 46 Background ........................................................................................... 50 > The Amazon in Crisis and the Threats to Indigenous Rights ................ 52 CREDITS > Brazil’s Political and Economic Context .............................................. 70 Executive Coordinating Committee of the Association of Conclusion ............................................................................................. 74 Brazil’s Indigenous Peoples: Alberto Terena, Appendix ............................................................................................... 76 Chicão Terena, Dinaman Tuxá, Elizeu Guarani Kaiowá, Kerexu Yxapyry, Kretã Kaingang, and Sonia Guajajara References ............................................................................................ 80 Concept: APIB Co-authorship: APIB and Amazon Watch Coordination and review: Luiz Eloy Terena, Sonia Guajajara, and Kretã Kaingang Research: Amazon Watch, De Olho Nos Ruralistas and Profundo Contributing research and writer: Mauricio Angelo Portuguese review: Kátia Shimabukuro English translation: Harkin Translations and Amazon Watch English copy editing and proofreading: Amazon Watch Graphic design: W5 Publicidade Maps: Pablo Pacheco and De Olho Nos Ruralistas Infographics: Eduardo Asta Cover photos: Bruno Kelly/Amazônia Real Photos: Eric Marky Terena/Mídia Índia, Priscila Tapajoara/ Mídia Índia, Bruno Kelly/Amazônia Real, Marizilda Cruppe/ Amazônia Real/Amazon Watch, José Cícero da Silva/Agência Pública, Julia Dolce/Agência Pública, Lalo de Almeida/ISA, Photo: Bruno Kelly/Amazônia Real Marcelo Soubhia/ISA, Bárbara Dias/Cimi, Ana Mendes/Cimi, Ana Kanamari woman from Javari Valley Pessoa/Mídia Ninja, Christian Braga/MNI, Jacy Santos/MNI, Indigenous Territory, Amazonas state. Douglas Freitas/Cobertura Colaborativa, Anderson Barbosa/ Greenpeace, Christian Braga/Greenpeace, Marcos Amend/ Greenpeace, Fábio Nascimento/Greenpeace, Lunaé Parracho/ Greenpeace, Jannes Stoppel/Greenpeace, Tommaso Protti/ Greenpeace, Tommaso Protti/Greenpeace, Todd Southgate/ Fundação Darcy Ribeiro, Vinícius Mendonça/Ibama, Felipe Werneck/Ibama, Gabriel Uchida, Katie Maehler, Camila Rossi, Vitor Massao, Patrick Raynaud, Energia Sustentável do Brasil/ Divulgação and Mídia Ninja. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS APIB and Amazon Watch would like to thank the partners and allies who contributed in various ways, but especially: Mídia Índia, Mobilização Nacional Indígena (MNI), Conselho Indigenista Missionário (Cimi), Instituto Socioambiental (ISA), Amazônia Real, Observatório da Mineração, De Olho nos Ruralistas, Agência Pública, Fundação Darcy Ribeiro, Greenpeace Brasil, Greenpeace US, Rainforest Action Network (RAN), Young Munduruku warriors, on Sawré Climate and Land Use Alliance (CLUA), Uma Gota no Oceano, and Mídia Ninja. Muybu Indigenous land, Pará state. Anderson Barbosa/Greenpeace Photo: 3 Chief Arabonã Kanamari of Bananeira village, Javari Valley Indigenous Territory, Amazonas state. highest rates of deforestation. Influential national Alongside these actors, our findings identify six and international economic interests are complicit major U.S.-based financial institutions – BlackRock, in this plundering of public forests and its resulting Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Vanguard, Bank of violence against Indigenous and traditional peoples. America, and Dimensional Fund Advisors – that contributed more than US$18 billion (100 billion The continued assault upon forest peoples can BRL)2 to nine of the eleven companies profiled be detrimental to the Amazon considering that between 2017 and 2020. Unraveling this network they are proven to be the best stewards of the demonstrates how highly problematic companies rainforest. Studies show that TIs are the ultimate operating in the Brazilian Amazon are intertwined barrier against deforestation and forest degradation. with global financial leaders, shining a spotlight on Protected areas in the Brazilian Amazon including corporate malfeasance and its enablers. those inhabited by forest peoples hold 56 percent of the total carbon stock in the Brazilian Amazon. The companies are but a few of the many actors implicated in today’s devastation of the Brazilian This new edition of Complicity in Destruction, Amazon. They do not operate alone, and their published by the Association of Brazil’s Indigenous actions should be understood as emblematic Peoples (APIB) in partnership with Amazon Watch, of greater trends that increasingly imperil the EXECUTIVE is based on research conducted by the investigative rainforest, and with it our collective wellbeing. journalism outlet De Olho Nos Ruralistas (Ruralista The human rights and environmental abuses Watch - DONR) and the Dutch sustainability research documented in this report would not be possible consultancy Profundo. It reveals how a network of SUMMARY without the extensive investments of international leading international financial institutions is linked to financial leaders. Global markets have the power to conflicts on Indigenous lands, illegal deforestation, either enable or moderate Bolsonaro’s disastrous land grabbing, the weakening of environmental Amazon agenda, thereby permitting or preventing protections, and the production and export of the destruction of the rainforest. APIB, Amazon conflict commodities. Watch, and a coalition of Brazilian and international allies are calling on leading market actors to cease By investigating actors involved in the invasion Photo: Bruno Kelly/Amazônia Real fueling the problem and use their influence to and deforestation of TIs – as well as other rights become part of the solution. abuses since 2017 – DONR identified1 a set of Brazilian companies that was then cross-referenced This report provides recommendations for Every day, soybeans, meat, metals, minerals, and treated as an “obstacle to development” and their by Profundo to identify international buyers and companies operating in or with projects in Brazil, other commodities produced on a large scale in the lands are invaded, occupied, looted, and destroyed. investors whose patronage enabled this behavior. importers of Brazilian products, financial institutions Brazilian Amazon are shipped to South America, Led by Jair Bolsonaro – Brazil’s self-declared anti- This report’s findings show that companies investing in these companies or operations, and Europe, China, the United States, and other global environmental and anti-Indigenous president – the representing three key Brazilian sectors – mining, governments and policymakers responsible for markets. Too often these commodities leave a country’s federal government is actively facilitating agribusiness, and energy – have been directly or oversight of the private sector. It is imperative scourge of human rights abuses and environmental today’s mounting crisis. indirectly involved in conflicts affecting Indigenous that they forge and adhere to policies that respect devastation that threaten the future of the world’s peoples and their territories. Indigenous rights and the environment; refrain largest rainforest and its peoples, and with it the fate A leading driver of Amazon deforestation is the theft from all activities that may contribute to illegal of our climate. of lands in protected areas, such as Indigenous Case studies are presented covering the Amazonian deforestation and threats to Indigenous rights and Territories (TIs) and Conservation Units (UCs) for states of Pará, Maranhão, Mato Grosso, Roraima, territories (including activities of their suppliers); The flow of foreign investments into companies land speculation, in which illegal deforestation and and Amazonas, involving the mining companies create stronger monitoring mechanisms and operating in the Brazilian Amazon encompass criminal arson are used to convert vast swaths of Vale, Anglo American, Belo Sun, and Potassio do conduct due diligence to identify possible violations; an intricate international network that financially primary forest to agricultural plots for the benefit Brasil; agribusiness companies Cargill, JBS, Cosan/ and use their power to demand that imported enables actors responsible for egregious socio- of a handful of powerful actors. It’s no coincidence Raízen; and energy companies Energisa Mato products are not contributing to the destruction of environmental crimes. Within this extractive that the Amazonian municipalities with the greatest Grosso, Bom Futuro Energia, Equatorial Energia the Amazon. Business as usual is no longer economic paradigm, Indigenous peoples are often number of fires in 2019 were also those with the Maranhão, and Eletronorte.