DEVELOPMENT GIVES SOME AND DESTROYS A LOT
Leaders meeting for the creation of the Kayapo Amazon Fund.
photo © Cristina Mittermeier/ International League of Conservazon Photographers (iCLP).
Brazil's national development bank BNDES is funding both destruction and conservation of indigenous lands.
At the same time it is funding a dam that will devastate indigenous lands and block the Xingu River, Brazil's National Development Bank (BNDES) may allocate some $14.3 million (BRL 22.3 million) in grants for projects developed within the Kayapo indigenous lands, reports Conservation International.
And now Brazil's environmental protection agency chief says: Brazil will do the same to indigenous peoples as 'Australians did to the Aborigines'
Rather than demonize one side or the other, I think that the take-away message is that development destroys while it creates - everywhere - and so far no one has really resolved the dilemma. We know the horror of the past. We know that, as long as material development is in the driver's seat, the inertia of our habits of consumption and waste make it hard to find a better way. But, for the sake of all peoples including ourselves, we must.
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