Soybean Consumption in China Endangers Brazil’s Amazon Rainforest

posted on May 30th, 2011 in Amazon Jungle, Brazil, Environment

Amazon Deforestation Pressures

Last year, Brazil registered a 27% increase in Amazon rainforest destruction from the previous year, much of that due to increased production of soy beans for China

China’s Interest in Farmland Makes Brazil Uneasy

May 26, 2011

NYT

URUAÇU, Brazil — When the Chinese came looking for more soybeans here last year, they inquired about buying land — lots of it.

Officials in this farming area would not sell the hundreds of thousands of acres needed. Undeterred, the Chinese pursued a different strategy: providing credit to farmers and potentially tripling the soybeans grown here to feed chickens and hogs back in China…

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Amazon Dam Sting, James Cameron Fought Against Gets Go-Ahead from Brazil Government

posted on March 15th, 2011 in Amazon Jungle, Brazil, Environment, Indigenous Rights

Chief Raoni of Kayapo Indians

Chief Raoni, a Kayapo Indian, has been a central figure in fighting against the dam

Brazil court reverses Amazon Monte Belo dam suspension

March 3, 2011

BBC

A court in Brazil has approved a controversial hydro-electric project in the Amazon rainforest, overturning an earlier ruling.

Last week a judge blocked construction of the Belo Monte dam, saying it did not meet environmental standards.

But a higher court on Thursday said there was no need for all conditions to be met in order for work to begin.

Critics say the project threatens wildlife and will make thousands of people homeless…

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Aerial Footage Proves Existence of Brazil’s Uncontacted Tribes

posted on February 10th, 2011 in Amazon Jungle, Brazil, Indigenous Rights, Uncontacted Tribes

(Note: An estimated 100 uncontacted tribes still exist in the world, with the majority of them inhabiting Brazil (with an estimated 67 uncontacted tribes) and Peru (with 15). Most are located not far from the Peru-Brazil border in the Amazonian portions of those countries. Meanwhile, more than 180 oil and gas blocks now cover most of the western Amazon, the most species rich area on earth and home to many uncontacted or extremely isolated tribes. Many of these oil and gas concessions currently overlap indigenous territories, that is, land that has either been titled to native groups or else is currently lived upon by isolated tribes. Recently, a BBC film crew flew over an uncontacted village of what are probably Panoan natives in Brazil’s remote jungle near the Peruvian border. The following is a film clip of that footage from Survival International):

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Amazon Held Advanced, Spectacular Civilizations Prior to European Contact

posted on September 26th, 2010 in Amazon Jungle, Archaeology, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, Recent Discoveries

Map of the Amazon

Scientists Find Evidence Discrediting Theory Amazon Was Virtually Unlivable

The Washington Post

September 5, 2010; 7:57 PM

SAN MARTIN DE SAMIRIA, PERU – To the untrained eye, all evidence here in the heart of the Amazon signals virgin forest, untouched by man for time immemorial – from the ubiquitous fruit palms to the cry of howler monkeys, from the air thick with mosquitoes to the unruly tangle of jungle vines…

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Brazil Creates 20,000 Square Miles of New Indigenous Reserves

posted on December 24th, 2009 in Amazon Jungle, Brazil, Environment, Indigenous Rights

Indigenous Brazilian Tribe

December 23, 2009

On Monday, Brazil decreed nine new indigenous reserves covering 51,000 square kilometers (19,700 square miles) of the Amazon rainforest, an areas larger than Denmark or Switzerland, reports the AFP…

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Brad Pitt Slated to Star in the Amazonian Mystery Thriller, “The Lost City of Z”

posted on March 4th, 2009 in Amazon Jungle, Brazil

Bradd Pitt To Star in Amazonian Movie, “The Lost City of Z”

(Note: Paramount Productions has announced that Brad Pitt will star in an upcoming film set in the Amazon (and filmed in Bolivia) called “The Lost City of Z,” based on the non-fiction book of the same name. In the film, which Pitt’s “Plan B” production company will produce, Pitt will portray the English explorer, Percy Harrison Fawcett. The latter  disappeared somewhere in the Brazilian Amazon in 1925 while hot on the trail of a supposed “lost city.” No trace of Fawcett or of his travelling companions was ever found–KM)

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