2023-06-22
IMPERATRIZ - in Brazil, companies with long legacies of environmental destruction and human rights abuses are attracting large amounts of finance from European investors, some of it in the form of green finance - the fastest growing financial sector in the world.
The story focuses on three important sectors in Brazil: mining, pulp and paper, and soy. Based on visits to affected communities, interviews with officials and experts, court documents, and financial records, we show the human and environmental legacy of European investments in large companies like Vale, Suzano, and SLC Agricola.
With an increased demand for these commodities, European investors have given billions of dollars of low-interest loans to these companies to expand. But without resolving these land conflicts and environmental irregularities, it will be the environment that suffers, along with the Afro-Brazilian, indigenous, and local communities that depend on it.
Supported
€32.560 granted on 22/08/2022ID
ENV1/2022/101Grant
ONLINE
- Paper at the expense of communities and nature in Brazil, DW, 22 June 2023 (English)
- Vista como sustentável, Suzano acumula denúncias ambientais, DW, 22 June 2023 (Portugese)
- Brasilien: Greenwashing in der Papierherstellung?, DW, 06 July 2023 (German)
- Investasi Hijau Bantu Perusahaan Penyerobot Lahan di Brasil, DW 23 June 2027 (Indonesian)
- Papel a costa de las comunidades y la naturaleza en Brasil, DW, 22 June 2023 (Spanish)
- Divided by mining: Vale’s new rail track fractures an Amazon Indigenous group, Mongabay, 17 July 2023 (English)
- Divided by mining: indigenous people in Pará fight to maintain their identity against the railroad that feeds the global steel industry, Observatório da Mineração, 31/08/2023
- Divididos pela mineração: nova ferrovia da Vale provoca discórdia em povo indígena da Amazônia, Mongabay Brazil, 01/09/2023
- Divididos pela mineração: indígenas no Pará lutam para manter a identidade do seu povo contra a ferrovia que alimenta a siderurgia global, Observatório da Mineração,13/09/2023
-
Who’s behind the destruction of Brazil’s Cerrado?, Grist, 28/02/2024
need resources for your own investigative story?
Journalismfund Europe's flexible grants programmes enable journalists to produce relevant public interest stories with a European mind-set from international, national, and regional perspectives.
support independent cross-border investigative journalism
We rely on your support to continue the work that we do. Make a gift of any amount today.
