MEXICO CITY.- Alessandra Korap, a leader of the Munduruku tribe in the Brazilian Amazon, explains that the name of her town derives from an insect that may seem small but has enormous strength.
And, when faced with a threat, they also react like the red fire ant: "We started to bite, to sting until it hurt."
This is how this town has had to defend itself for years, especially from the
garimpeiros
, who mine for gold regardless of the fact that it is illegal to do so in a protected Amazon area.
With the
sting
of a campaign led by Korap, the Munduruku people managed in 2021 to get the British mining company Anglo American to withdraw its requests for "mineral research" in Mundurku territory, which activists say are permits with which the companies later hide to hide.
carry out illegal mining
.
Korap's achievement made her a recipient on Monday of the renowned Goldman Environmental Prize, nicknamed the environmental Nobel Prize, which each year highlights the work of environmentalists in six regions of the world.
Korap explains in an interview with Telemundo News that one of his hopes is for more people
to come out in defense
of the planet.
"When you are in your village, you think you are the only one experiencing these problems, defending the territory and the community," he says in Portuguese, "but when you leave you see that the struggle is the same, the suffering is the same, the attacks are
the themselves
even though the language is another and the people are another".
It seems that we are dreaming even when we are in the real world"
Alessandra Korap
"That is why I think it is important that all of us, as a people, are not afraid to fight, to defend ourselves, our children and our forests," he adds.
"It is not easy when the very powerful want to claim the land as their own, but I feel that the real power is the one that comes from the river that follows its course and its flow, from the forest that stands tall, and from the people that resist ", says.
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The Amazon on alert
Deforestation rates in the Amazon area, especially in its areas located in Brazil, have reached record levels in recent years.
This degradation has an impact throughout the world: it is the largest
tropical forest
on the planet, and in addition to its enormous biodiversity it serves as a lung to absorb greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming and the climate emergency.
Alessandra KorapCourtesy of Goldman Environmental Prize
The Munduruku people live at the heart of this crisis: illegal mining not only entails loss of forests, but also mercury pollution of rivers and areas where Amazonian indigenous communities in Brazil, Bolivia and Peru live.
The fight for the planet and the life within it must belong to everyone"
This has led to cases of cancer among the Munduruku people, as well as among the Kayapó and Yanomami peoples (the latter may be suffering genocide due to the incursion of armed men linked to illegal mining and due to the lack of medical care in recent years, according to a Brazilian government investigation).
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The non-profit organization Amazon Watch has also discovered that
American companies
help finance the mining companies that cause such havoc, and that companies such as Tesla, Microsoft and Apple are benefiting, albeit indirectly and unintentionally, from the exploitation. of gold in these territories, since two of its suppliers are being investigated for acquiring the precious metal through illegal mines.
Meanwhile, Brazil still does not officially recognize
several of these lands: the demarcation of indigenous territories was halted for three years by the government of Jair Bolsonaro, who even said that having protected areas was an "impediment" to economic development.
The now president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has promised to settle this matter, and established a ministry of Indigenous Affairs when he took power in January for the first time.
Korap celebrates: "It feels like a dream. And it feels like we're dreaming even when we're in the real world."
But he warns: "It seems that Lula is negotiating in other aspects, such as doing more business with China, and that could directly affect our territory and our lives. So regardless of the government in power, people should not lower their eyes and think that the battle is won.
'We do not negotiate the lives of our children'
Latin America, and especially Brazil, has been for years the deadliest region
for
land
and environmental defenders.
That is why Korap believes that receiving the international recognition of the Goldman Prize, like the American Latina Nalleli Cobo or the Ecuadorians Alessandra Narváez and Alex Lucitante before it, sends an important message: "It is recognition of the struggles of the peoples, that we are there and We're not going to retire
.
"
"Hopefully it will make companies or governments realize: our house is ours, and we do not negotiate the lives of our children, our sacred location or our forest," he adds.
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"There is growing concern around the world about climate change, but those concerns tend to focus on the people affected," says Korap.
"But the impact is on everything: on our Mother Earth, biodiversity, rivers, fauna... And that is why
the fight for the planet and the life within it must be for everyone"
, he concludes.
