Parts of the Amazon Put up for Auction – Major Protests
Brazil has put up for auction several areas near the Amazon River for oil exploration.
The sale, which comes just months before the UN climate summit in the region, has been met with loud criticism from environmental groups and indigenous peoples.
172 oil blocks – areas where oil and gas exploration and production are permitted – were put up for auction at a luxury hotel in Rio de Janeiro on Tuesday. Most of the sites are currently untouched, including around 50 offshore blocks near the Amazon River’s mouth on the Atlantic coast.
Hundreds of protesters gathered outside the auction, which was held by Brazil’s state oil agency. They warned that oil drilling poses a risk to the Amazon’s fragile ecosystem and the area’s indigenous people.
– We would have liked to have been consulted and to have seen studies on how oil drilling could affect us. None of that has happened, said Giovane Tapura, a protester from the Manoki indigenous community.
Lack of permission
Brazil and President Lula da Silva want to expand oil production in previously untouched areas of the Amazon, and the big oil companies see the area as promising. Among Tuesday’s buyers were mega-companies such as Chevron, Exxon Mobil, Petrobas, and CNPC.
The area around the Amazon estuary has not even been granted an environmental license for oil drilling yet.
– It is regrettable and worrying that blocks are being acquired in a drainage area that has not yet been granted an environmental permit, says Nicole Oliveira of the environmental organization Arayara, which tried unsuccessfully to stop the auction in court.
“Putting everyone’s future at risk”
In the end, “only” 34 oil blocks went under the hammer at the auction, which was part of the government’s goal to expand crude oil production. Last year, crude oil exports exceeded soybean exports for the first time, which had previously been Brazil’s largest export commodity.
In November, the UN climate conference COP30 will be held in Belém, a major Brazilian city often referred to as the gateway to the Amazon. Critics say that President Lula is being hypocritical when he pushes for increased oil production while portraying himself as an environmental champion.
– The Brazilian government is risking everyone’s future. Science has been crystal clear about the need to stop the expansion of fossil fuels worldwide, says Claudio Angelo of the Climate Observatory climate coalition.
Cover image: An indigenous person wears a mask depicting Brazilian President Lula da Silva during Tuesday’s protest against an auction of land and sea areas in the Amazon. Photo: Silvia Izquierdo/AP/TT
The Amazon is a region surrounding the Amazon River that contains the world’s largest tropical rainforest. Most of the area is located in Brazil, but parts of it are also in Colombia, Peru, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana.
Several indigenous groups live in the area, but it is sparsely populated. There is also a great diversity of species in the rainforest.
Since the end of the 20th century, large parts of the rainforest have been cut down. Among other things, parts have been cut down for timber, areas have been burned down to make way for farms, mines, and highways, and areas have been flooded when dams were built for waterworks. The forest that is cut down has little or no chance of regrowing.
In addition, oil extraction has penetrated deep into the Amazon. Indigenous peoples have been severely affected by the oil companies’ infrastructure, oil spills, and pollution.
Source: Nationalencyklopedin, World Wildlife Fund
