The threats and intimidation come in many forms: anonymous phone calls warning a human rights defender that he should leave his home city; a gun in the face; break-ins; an activist returning home to find a photo of himself spattered with blood.
Fishermen who have dared to protest the pollution and prohibitions to access fishing areas – both due to the presence of a large oil and gas industrial hub – have ended up dead.
These risks faced by activists and communities living on the fence-lines of Brazil’s oil and gas industry rarely draw attention from national and international media. But that can and should change.
In November, Brazil will host the next UN Climate Change Conference (COP30) in the northern city of Belém. The event offers an opportunity for these activists – some of whom are in such grave danger that they have had to enter government-run human rights defenders protection programmes – to share their stories with the world.
There should also be an honest and open accounting of the Brazilian government’s recent political and legislative support for the very industries that threaten activists, local communities, and the global fight for climate justice.
Brazil should do more than host COP30. It must protect activists and communities denouncing the impacts of the fossil fuels industry, and it should halt legislation that puts the Amazon in imminent danger.
Threats and intimidation
“When I entered my bedroom, I found a t-shirt with my organisation’s logo cut and soaked in blood,” one activist, who works for a human rights organisation supporting Indigenous communities near a large gas project, and who asked not to use his name for fear of reprisals, told Human Rights Watch. “I went to the other room and saw a photo of myself, which they had also thrown blood on.”
In an area of northeastern Brazil, local residents, who complain that they are directly affected by a refinery and its surrounding industrial hub fear being evicted because their territory has not yet been given formal legal recognition.
“When I entered my bedroom, I found a t-shirt with my organisation’s logo cut and soaked in blood.”
An Afro-descendant rural community leader told us: “The employees of the industrial hub pointed a gun to my face. They told me I should not get involved in the hub’s issues. It’s happened more than once.”
In Rio de Janeiro state, we talked with an activist who leads an association of fishermen who have been protesting the pollution and the loss of fishing areas because of a large oil and gas industrial hub. He was forced to flee under the federal human rights defenders programme after he participated in a public hearing about a recent oil spill.
There was no escape for other locals: Four fishermen were killed between 2009 and 2012, and two others were shot while fishing in 2020.
Choose protection, not extraction
Will these activists – some protesting the main driver of climate change, the fossil fuel industry – find a voice at the UN climate summit?
In contrast with previous climate talks, André Corrêa do Lago, the Brazilian official who is president of COP30, has emphasized the importance of civil society participation. He invited campaigners, along with other stakeholders, to join a global mutirão – a Tupi-Guarani term referring to a collective effort toward a shared goal – in the fight against climate change.
There are plenty of related issues that these and other embattled activists could speak to. One is Brazil’s push to extract more oil and gas, despite hosting COP30 – designed to reduce fossil fuel extraction. Early this year, Brazil’s National Oil Agency offered 172 new blocks, including 47 in the Amazon basin, for oil and gas exploration. In June, it sold 34 of those blocks.
Indigenous groups, Afro-descendant rural communities, and other communities protested the auction. The Federal Public Prosecutor’s office filed a lawsuit demanding the suspension of the auction and, if unsuccessful, the exclusion of the 47 Amazon blocks from the auction.
As the auction went ahead without a court decision, the Federal Public Prosecutor’s office requested the suspension of the next stages of the process. If it all goes ahead, as President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva intends, though, the exploration of the blocks – including those located offshore – would require the construction of significant onshore infrastructure. Eventual production risks similar impacts on nearby communities that are already felt in various communities across Brazil.
In parallel, a bill to dismantle the already-permissive environmental licensing framework just passed Congress and is now sitting on President Lula's desk, awaiting his approval or veto. The legislation would broaden the category of projects deemed by the government as strategic and that can benefit from speedy approval – such as oil exploration in the Amazon rainforest. The bill would roll-back existing environmental controls and monitoring and risks aggravating the situation for nearby communities. Lula should veto the bill.
At COP30, Brazil should ensure there’s an opportunity for participants to hear from Brazilian activists and fence-line communities courageously protesting the fossil fuel industry. But more than that, Brazil should do more than simply host COP30. It should take real, concrete steps to protect the environment and all of those defending it.
