The trouncing of the far right provides a playbook for social and environmental movements in other countries facing elections, including the US, Spain and France

Thank you, Brazil, for demonstrating how the far right can be trounced while protection for the Amazon is strengthened. In a world where nature and democracy appeared to be bleeding out in tandem, voters and forest defenders in this global south powerhouse have shown it is possible to staunch the flow. This should provide much needed inspiration and, more practically, a playbook for social and environmental movements in other countries facing elections, including the US, Spain and France.

The astonishing comeback victory of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Sunday’s presidential runoff against his extreme right challenger Flavío Bolsonaro has brought oceans of rapturous supporters on to the streets, while also thrilling conservationists, climate activists and social justice campaigners across the world.

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© Photograph: Andre Coelho/EPA

© Photograph: Andre Coelho/EPA

© Photograph: Andre Coelho/EPA

The trouncing of the far right provides a playbook for social and environmental movements in other countries facing elections, including the US, Spain and France

Thank you, Brazil, for demonstrating how the far right can be trounced while protection for the Amazon is strengthened. In a world where nature and democracy appeared to be bleeding out in tandem, voters and forest defenders in this global south powerhouse have shown it is possible to staunch the flow. This should provide much needed inspiration and, more practically, a playbook for social and environmental movements in other countries facing elections, including the US, Spain and France.

The astonishing comeback victory of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Sunday’s presidential runoff against his extreme right challenger Flavío Bolsonaro has brought oceans of rapturous supporters on to the streets, while also thrilling conservationists, climate activists and social justice campaigners across the world.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Andre Coelho/EPA

© Photograph: Andre Coelho/EPA

© Photograph: Andre Coelho/EPA

The Waorani leader says millennia of living in harmony with their surroundings give Indigenous groups unique insights into the consumerist west

Every Waorani child knows the story of the boa’s mouth. How the snake inches forward, watching, its movements almost imperceptible, before it strikes, swallowing its victim whole.

Nemonte Nenquimo knows the boa’s bite. Beguiled as a young girl by the blue eyes and bright dresses of an American missionary child in her Amazon village in Ecuador, she consented to be baptised and left home to study at a church school.

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© Photograph: Benjamin Cremel/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Benjamin Cremel/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Benjamin Cremel/AFP/Getty Images

Lula's government recently announced the lowest Amazon deforestation rate on record. However, he faces a Congress dominated by the far right and agribusiness interests, which often back measures weakening environmental protections.

More than a dozen Indigenous representatives from Peru, Brazil, Colombia and Ecuador are participating in the Oct. 19-23 U.N. conference on transnational organized crime, known as COP13.