ANALYSIS | Defending the Amazon is a dangerous mission. Critics say Bolsonaro is making it worse

Bolsonaro: Journalist and indigenist, victims of evil 3:35

(CNN) --

Fears are growing over the fate of Dom Phillips and Bruno Araújo Pereira, who have been missing in the Brazilian Amazon for more than a week, following the discovery of what appeared to be human remains and revelations that the couple had received death threats.

No clear explanation has yet been given for their disappearance, but Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said Monday that he believed they had been victims of "malice."

The case has drawn global attention to the dangers that journalists and environmental activists often face in Brazil.

Phillips, a veteran journalist who has reported extensively on Brazil's most marginalized groups and the destruction criminal actors are wreaking in the Amazon, had traveled with indigenous affairs expert Araújo Pereira to investigate conservation efforts in the remote Javari valley.

Although formally protected by the government, the wild Javari Valley, like other designated indigenous lands in Brazil, is plagued by illegal mining, logging, hunting, and international drug trafficking, often bringing violence in their wake, as perpetrators clash with environmental defenders and indigenous rights activists.

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A photo of the Javari Valley, Brazilian Amazon on February 15, 2016.

Between 2009 and 2019, more than 300 people were killed in Brazil amid conflicts over land and resources in the Amazon, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW), citing figures from the Pastoral Land Commission, a nonprofit organization. affiliated with the Catholic Church.

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And in 2020, Global Witness ranked Brazil the fourth most dangerous country for environmental activism, based on documented killings of environmental defenders.

Nearly three-quarters of such attacks in Brazil took place in the Amazon region, he said.

The indigenous peoples of Brazil have been frequent targets of this type of attack, in addition to suffering harassment campaigns.

In early January, three environmental defenders from the same family who had developed a project to repopulate local waters with baby turtles were found dead in the state of Pará, in northern Brazil.

A police investigation is ongoing.

After attending the COP26 climate talks in Scotland last November, unknown assailants reportedly raided the home of indigenous and environmental leader Alessandra Korap;

another indigenous activist, Txai Suruí, said she was threatened online and in person after her speech in Glasgow.

• Brazilian Police find traces of blood in boat belonging to suspect in the disappearance of Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira

New finding on the disappearance Phillips and Pereira 0:44

The dangers for activists in the Amazon are a long-standing problem

The lure of the valuable resources of the Amazon rainforest means incursions into indigenous lands and violence against those who resist is nothing new in Brazil.

But some experts say Bolsonaro's rhetoric and actions have created a culture of impunity.

Earlier this month, Bolsonaro signed an environmental decree establishing higher fines for deforestation, illegal logging, burning, fishing and hunting, which the government said is "an important step in environmental law."

But in a series of actions since taking power in 2019, the Bolsonaro administration has effectively weakened federal environmental agencies, demonized organizations working to preserve the rainforest, and spoken out in favor of economic growth on the land. indigenous people, arguing that it is welfare for the indigenous groups themselves.

His rhetoric in particular, with calls to "develop," "colonize" and "integrate" the Amazon, has "effectively given the green light" to criminal networks involved in the illegal logging and mining trade, said César Muñoz, senior investigator for the Americas at HRW and an expert on environmental defenders in indigenous communities.

And while the Bolsonaro administration has previously deployed the country's military to defend the Amazon from illegal logging and clearing, Muñoz says the move ultimately sidelined staff from the country's environmental agency IBAMA, resulting in the loss of environmental experience.

IBAMA and the president's office did not respond to CNN requests for comment.

Roberto Liebgott, coordinator of the southern region of the Indigenous Missionary Council of Brazil, an indigenous rights group affiliated with the Catholic Church, points to cultural prejudices and stereotypes at the root of criminal activity in the Amazon.

At least two narratives fuel the violence, Liebgott told CNN: "The first is linked to the idea that indigenous people are not subject to rights like other humans, which perpetuates the 'savage' narrative and as such can be assaulted, attacked, expelled or killed".

The second, he said, "is tied to the narrative that indigenous people don't need land and that everything is made for them."

Bolsonaro's rhetoric has also been known to promote such stereotypes, stating in a 2020 video broadcast that indigenous Brazilians are still "evolving."

That same year, he described a long-standing "dream" to open up indigenous reserves to mining.

Rather, Phillips' reporting focused on the threats posed by illegal mining and ranching to uncontacted Indian groups, and highlighted the efforts that Indians were making to save their environment.

It's one of the many reasons his and Pereira's work is so crucial, Muñoz says, and why his disappearance is so heartbreaking.

Amazon Human Rights