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BNDES paradox: bank funds both destruction and conservation of indigenous lands

As one arm funds destruction of indigenous lands via the Belo Monte Dam, another supports indigenous projects.


At the same time it is funding a dam that will devastate indigenous lands and block the Xingu River, Brazil’s National Development Bank (BNDES) may allocate some $14.3 million (BRL 22.3 million) in grants for projects developed within the Kayapo indigenous lands, reports Conservation International.



Earlier this week BNDES approved the creation of the Kayapo Amazon Fund to support indigenous-led projects to promote sustainable use and management of five ethnic Kayapo reservations: Kayapo Bau, Menkragnoti, Badjonkôre Jarina and Capote in southern Pará and northern Mato Grosso. The reservations are home to approximately 7,000 indigenous Kayapo.



The Kayapo Amazon Fund will also support environmental monitoring of indigenous territories.


 A section of the Xingu River as viewed by Google Earth.
Chief Raoni of the Kayapoi has spent 30 years fighting the Xingu River. Photo courtesy of Amazon Watch.

The fund will draw from the Amazon Fund, a Brazilian government initiative that aims to conserve and sustainably manage the Amazon. The Amazon Fund, which aims to raise nearly $20 billion in foreign donations over roughly the next, has so far dispersed $139 million (BRL 217 million) across 17 projects.



The Amazon Fund is managed by BNDES, a government-owned bank with more than $300 billion in assets. BNDES is the lead funder of the controversial Belo Monte dam, a project that will flood more than 40,000 hectares of forest and displace over 20,000 people in the same watershed occupied by Kayapo groups.



The Kayapo have been among the most ardent opponents of the dam.







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