The Amazon’s most famous Indigenous leader called upon Brazil’s president on Friday to defend the rights of Indigenous people. Chief Raoni Metuktire demanded that “invaders” be removed from their territories and that the government stop negotiations on carbon credits that had excluded Indigenous people from the discussions.
In a letter to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Raoni demanded a government response to 11 specific requests by Aug. 9, the second and final day of the Amazon summit that Lula and other South American heads of state will attend in the city of Belem.
The manifest was handed over to the minister of the Indigenous peoples, Sonia Guajajara, at an event attended by 1,000 members of different ethnic groups in the town of Sao Jose do Xingu in the state of Mato Grosso.
Lula in May signed legislation paving the way for a market to trade carbon credits — generated by reducing greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change, and which may be purchased to comply with eventual limits on emissions. Lula’s administration is reportedly drafting regulation for the carbon market’s operation and plans to present it in the coming months.
Source: AP News