Forest Custodians

Brazil holds 60% of the Amazon rainforest, yet forest communities who have a critical role in forest preservation are at risk. 

This two-year project seeks to directly address this issue by protecting over 35,000 square miles of tropical rainforest in northern Brazil, and its 28,000 residents, from deforestation and land grabbing as a result of corporate exploitation. We recognise that investors in the global north are responsible for land grabbing in the global south.

The project will bring together otherwise disparate Amazonian communities, equipping them to monitor their lands from illegal mining, logging and large infrastructure activities and enable them to secure land-rights for their territories.  

We must protect local communities in the Amazon region in order to prevent deforestation and climate change.

Our vision is to see an Amazon region where communities are the driving force behind sustainable development, challenging unjust systems to strive for social, climate and economic justice.

Our approach includes:

• Working with Quilombola associations and leaders to develop community-based strategies for protecting land
• Monitoring of external threats and pressures against Quilombola lands
• Supporting Quilombola communities to lobby against mining and large infrastructure projects
• Monitoring the process of Quilombola and indigenous land titles
• Supporting Quilombolas, indigenous and riverine people to work together on joint actions for territorial monitoring
• Bringing together Quilombolas, indigenous people and riverine people with government, public prosecutors and companies

 Our article in Latin American Bureau exposes how COVID-19 is being exploited as an opportunity to rush through power line construction - without consultation with quilombola and riverine communities.