President-Elect Jair Bolsonaro’s mission to “change the destiny of Brazil” (Report, 29 October) looks set to abolish environmental protection and exacerbate the bloodshed linked to the unregulated exploitation of the Amazon.
For a decade Brazil has been the most dangerous country in the world for environmental and land defenders. Courageous indigenous and rural landless communities are being killed with little recourse to justice. Impunity and lack of rule of law have exacerbated this trend – of the 1,270 murders since 1985 linked to land conflict in Brazil, less than 10% have ever reached court.
The policy proposals of Bolsonaro’s Social Liberal party to halt the demarcation of indigenous lands, open existing reserves to mining and persecute social movements that protect environmental defenders will affect us all. Irreparable damage to the world’s largest rainforest threatens to irreversibly accelerate climate change for future generations worldwide.
Esther Gillingham
Brazil programme officer, Cafod
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