Joe Leahy – The Financial Times, 06/25/2012
Even as world leaders signed off on new commitments to sustainable development in Rio de Janeiro last week, Brazilian politicians were debating a bill that would open up the nation’s vast indigenous territories for mining.
The bill, under which miners would gain access to Indian lands in return for paying the indigenous owners a percentage of their profit, has angered native peoples already under intense pressure from loggers, ranchers and hydroelectricity companies.
“I have heard about this discussion; people talking about the legalisation of mining in indigenous territories,” Raoni Txucarramae, the 82-year-old chief of the Kayapo tribe, told the Financial Times. “I don’t accept that. I will continue to speak against this. I won’t accept money from mining, from logging, from dams.”
