Brazilian indigenous leader Alessandra Korap Munduruku found herself and her community pitted against British mining giant Anglo American in her fight to protect the Amazon rainforest the indigenous Munduruku community inhabits. The Munduruku people inhabit the Sawré Muybu Indigenous Territory, a particularly vulnerable region in the northern state Pará in Brazil. It is not formally recognised by the Brazilian government and hence under larger threat from land-destroying mining, logging, and cattle ranching operations. Between 2011 and 2020, 97 mining applications were filed within the territory – the most of any Indigenous territory in the country.
After learning about Anglo American’s mining applications, Korap raised the alarm with the Munduruku community. The Munduruku developed a campaign and fundraising strategy and conducted patrols to rigorously measure levels of deforestation, often involving grueling and dangerous expeditions into remote rainforest areas. In December 2020, an assembly of 45 chiefs and 200 participants, along with the help of the Coalition of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil, wrote an open letter to Anglo American, calling out its duplicity in issuing mining research permits without the indigenous communities’ informed consent required under Brazil’s constitution. After an initial Anglo American denial and a sustained media campaign featuring Munduruku community members, in May 2021 Anglo American formally announced a withdrawal of 27 approved mineral research permits in Indigenous territories of the Amazon, a move that prompted Brazilian mining company Vale to follow suit.
While Korap was recently honored for her grassroots success as a Goldman Environmental Prize winner in April 2023, the fight is far from over. On 14 May, prominent indigenous leader Lúcio Tembé in the same state Pará was shot by two hooded gunmen, the latest episode of violence in a new wave of land conflicts between major palm oil company Brasil BioFuels SA and local indigenous communities. FRFI stands with all indigenous peoples in their fight to protect their lands from exploitation and environmental destruction!
Soma Kisan
Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! No 294, June/July 2023
