Hope for Lula: Amazon Population Demands Climate Change Protection Indigenous people in Peru release kidnapped tourists – including a Swiss man

“Indigenous areas are the areas with the greatest biological diversity and the best-preserved vegetation because they are protected and managed by indigenous people,” said a statement from the indigenous umbrella organization Apib for the world climate summit in Egypt starting Sunday.

A data collection by Apib, the Amazon research institute IPAM and the “MapBiomas” initiative indicates that in Brazil 29 percent of the area around the indigenous areas has been deforested, within the indigenous areas only 2 percent.

President Jair Bolsonaro, who was voted out, sees economic potential in the Amazon region, which is extremely important for climate protection, and wanted to create even more space for agriculture and mining, for example.

“We are seeing up close the effects of the environmental destruction that Bolsonaro has caused,” said Apib coordinator Dinamam Tuxá. “Now with Lula, we hope to work together to change the situation.” Apib also hopes that with Lula’s election victory, Brazil will return to the international environment and climate agenda. In his previous tenure from 2003 to 2010, the leftist Lula was not considered Green, but has now pledged in the election campaign to strengthen environmental and climate protection in the future. (sda/dpa)