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Nature and EnvironmentBrazil

Brazil: Indigenous people demand rights protection

Karl Sexton with Reuters, AFP, EFE
April 11, 2025

The protesters want their ancestral land rights, which are under threat from industrial farming in the Amazon, to be respected. Police used tear gas to clear demonstrators near Congress in Brasilia.

https://p.dw.com/p/4szNe
Women of the Krikati indigenous people attends a ritual dance at the Terra Livre (Free Land) protest camp while demanding the demarcation of land and to defend cultural rights
The Terra Livre (Free Land) protest camp gathers thousands of Indigenous people from across the AmazonImage: Adriano Machado/REUTERS

Thousands of Indigenous people were rallying at a protest camp in Brazil's capital city to call for their land rights to be protected.

The protesters were also pushing for commitments to end fossil fuels during the upcoming COP30 Summit, which will be held in the northern city of Belem in November.

What are the demonstrators protesting against?

The protesters say a 2023 law violates their rights to ancestral land that are enshrined in the country's constitution and which makes it impossible for some tribes to reclaim land they were forced from by the farming and logging industries.

The dispute has reached the Supreme Court, where a conciliation chamber has been set up to try to find common ground between the Indigenous groups and the powerful farming sector.

But the Indigenous umbrella group that is challenging the legislation has pulled out of those talks, arguing that the chamber's very existence flouts their constitutional rights.

Indigenous people take part in the "We are the answer" march during the annual Free Earth camp, where they discuss rights, territorial protection and their role in COP30
Brazil is hosting the COP30 UN climate summit later this yearImage: Eraldo Peres/AP Photo/picture alliance

Tensions at protest camp boil over

The annual Terra Livre (Portuguese for "Free Land") protest camp in Brasilia has brought together thousands of people from Indigenous ethnicities from across the Amazon and Oceania this week.

Tensions in the capital boiled over on Thursday evening when security forces used tear gas to disperse Indigenous demonstrators who had approached Congress. 

In a statement, officials from Brazil's Lower House accused the activists of attempting to break into the building, allegations the marchers denied.

Also on Thursday, 180 indigenous and climate groups from around the world delivered a letter to the COP President Andre Correa do Lago, urging him to block new oil extraction ventures and to cut down the production of natural gas and crude oil.

The letter also called for COP30 to back the transition to renewable energy and renew the global commitment to phasing out fossil fuels and limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

Brazil is Latin America's largest oil producer. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva wants to move forward with offshore drilling around 500 kilometers from the mouth of the Amazon River.

After returning to power in 2022, Lula pledged to protect Indigenous land rights and end deforestation, which had spiked under his predecessor, the far-right Jair Bolsonaro.

Battle for the Amazon — Indigenous tribes fight back

Edited by: Kieran Burke

Karl Sexton Writer and editor focused on international current affairs