Brazil: Increase in land killings as political crisis threatens Amazon

http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_round_up/2989025/brazil_increase_in_land_killings_as_political_crisis_threatens_amazon.html
Date Written:  2017-06-07
Publisher:  Ecologist
Year Published:  2017
Resource Type:  Article
Cx Number:  CX20833

Cuts to Funai, the agency meant to protect Brazil's indigenous tribes, have encouraged land barons to expand their land holdings into indigenous territories.

Abstract: 
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Excerpt:

There has been a significant increase in the number of indigenous people and environmental activists killed over land disputes in Brazil, as human rights experts warn of a dangerous political mood in the nation.

New research shared with Energydesk by Brazilian human rights NGO Comissão Pastoral da Terra (CPT), shows that 37 people have been killed in the first six months of the year in rural land conflicts, eight more than at the same time in 2016.

The data comes as President Temer's right-wing government has cut funding dramatically for the country's indigenous rights agency, Funai.

CPT, which has been collecting data on rural violence since 1985, has found that so far the number of people killed in these disputes is set to exceed last year's figures, when 61 people died.