Ex-missionary named to head Brazil agency
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Brazil’s President, Jair Bolsonaro, made the provocative nomination of Ricardo Lopes Dias to head FUNAI, the Brazilian government body that establishes and carries out policies relating to Indigenous Peoples. Dias’ nomination appears threatening. Any contact with outsiders exposes isolated Indigenous Peoples to the risk of disease and violence. Dias – an evangelical pastor – has been connected with the proselytising activities of the New Tribes Mission of Brazil (MNTB), a North American missionary organisation. As head of this department, he will have access to geographical information about more than 100 ‘voluntarily isolated’ peoples.
The tragedy of too small forests
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Biodiversity loss is the biggest environmental problem we face today, according to a UN report that came out last year. One of the main reasons is that large forest areas are disappearing due to human impact. A lack of connected forests can prevent trees from multiplying efficiently. The more fragmented the forest becomes, the greater the problem for the trees. “Forest fragmentation has a negative effect on seed dispersal by means of animals,” says Emma-Liina Marjakangas at the Centre for Biodiversity Dynamics (CBD) at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).
Palm oil: Eni fined €5m for deceiving consumers
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Italian regulators today fined Italy’s oil giant Eni over advertisements on TV and in newspapers, digital media and petrol stations that falsely claimed Eni Diesel+ was ‘green’. The watchdog states that the marketing campaign deceives consumers when it claims that the ‘green’ diesel has a positive impact on the environment, saves fuel and reduces air pollution. It is the first ruling against greenwashing in Italy’s history.
“Ancestors are saying something”: Fires turn sky Into Aboriginal flag, stunning Australians
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While Australia enters in 2020 in the middle of its worst fire crisis, an omen of hope appears in the sky. The country where conservatives won elections by promising to support the carbon economy is now on its knees under the blows of a fire crisis triggered by climate change. While in the red-tinted sky of the fires, Rose Fletcher, a resident of southern Australia, captured a new year's image of the sky resembling the Aboriginal flag. In the middle of the catastrophe, an omen for a world in harmony with nature.Indigenous boy, 15, murdered on Brazil's Amazon
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A 15-year-old indigenous boy has been murdered in Brazil on the edge of a heavily deforested indigenous reserve in the state of Maranhão, on the fringes of the Amazon. The murder, the fourth from the Guajajara tribe in recent weeks, came as a wave of racist abuse against indigenous people swept social media in the state.The Indigenous Missionary Council(CIMI), a non-profit group reported that Erisvan Soares Guajajara’s body was found with knife wounds on Friday in Amarante do Maranhão. The group said he had travelled to the town, on the edge of the Araribóia indigenous reserve, with his father. The G1 news site reported that a non-indigenous man called Roberto Silva, 31, was also killed with Erisvan and that both died in the early hours of Friday at a party in an area called Vila Industrial.