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A6 WORLD NEWS
Tuesday 25 april 2023
Amazon Indigenous woman wins Goldman environment prize

By FABIANO MAISONNAVE tion, began in 2007 but was
Associated Press frozen during the far-right
SÃO PAULO (AP) — When presidency of Jair Bolson-
Alessandra Korap was born aro, which ended in Janu-
in the mid-1980s, her Indig- ary.
enous village nestled in the Still, the Munduruku peo-
Amazon rainforest in Brazil ple celebrated a victory in
was a haven of seclusion. 2021 when the British min-
But as she grew up, the ing company Anglo Ameri-
nearby city of Itaituba, with can gave up trying to mine
its bustling streets and com- inside Indigenous territories
mercial activity, crept clos- in Brazil, including Sawre
er and closer. Muybu.
It wasn’t just her village Studies have shown that In-
feeling the encroachment digenous-controlled forests
of non-Indigenous out- are the best preserved the
siders. Two major federal in Brazilian Amazon.
highways paved the way Almost half of Brazil’s cli-
for tens of thousands of set- mate pollution comes from
tlers, illegal gold miners and deforestation. The destruc-
loggers into the region’s tion is so vast now that the
vast Indigenous territories, eastern Amazon, not far
which cover a forested from the Munduruku, has
area roughly the size of Bel- Munduruku leader Alessandra Korap poses at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco, Wednesday, ceased to be a carbon
gium. April 19, 2023 sink, or net absorber of the
The influx posed a grave Associated Press gas and is now a carbon
threat to Korap’s Mundu- responsibility of defending pulous miners, loggers, cor- “This award is an opportuni- source, according to a
ruku people, 14,000-strong their people, overturning porations, and politicians ty to draw attention to the study published in 2021 in
and spread throughout the the traditionally all-male seeking access to their demarcation of the Sawre the journal Nature.
Tapajos River Basin, in Para leadership. Organizing in land. Muybu territory,” Korap told Korap, however, knows
and Mato Grosso states. their communities, they or- Korap’s defense of her an- The Associated Press. “It is that land rights alone don’t
Soon illegal mining, hydro- chestrated demonstrations, cestral territory was recog- our top priority, along with protect the land.
electric dams, a major rail- presented compelling evi- nized with the Goldman the expulsion of illegal min- In the neighboring Mun-
way and river ports for soy- dence of environmental Environmental Prize on ers.” duruku Indigenous Terri-
bean exports choked their crime to the Federal Attor- Monday. The award honors Sawre Muybu is an area tory, illegal miners have de-
lands lands they were still ney General and Federal grassroots activists around of virgin rainforest along stroyed and contaminated
struggling to have recog- Police, and vehemently the world who are dedi- the Tapajos River spanning hundreds of miles of wa-
nized. opposed illicit agreements cated to protecting the en- 178,000 hectares (440,000 terways in search of gold,
Korap and other Mundu- and incentives offered to vironment and promoting acres). Official recognition even though it was officially
ruku women took up the the Munduruku by unscru- sustainability. for the land, or demarca- recognized in 2004. q

Watchdog: World military spending up to an all-time high

STOCKHOLM (AP) — Glob- spenders were the United insecure world,” said Nan spending following Russia’s sian aggression have been
al military spending grew States, China and Russia, Tian, a researcher with SI- invasion of Ukraine, while building for much longer,”
for the eighth consecutive who between them ac- PRI’s Military Expenditure others announced plans to said Lorenzo Scarazzato, a
year in 2022 to an all-time counted for 56% of global and Arms Production Pro- raise spending levels over researcher with SIPRI’s Mili-
high of $2.24 trillion, with a expenditure. gram. periods of up to a decade. tary Expenditure and Arms
sharp rise in Europe, chiefly ‘The rise “is a sign that we Several states significant- Some of the sharpest in- Production Program.
due to Russian and Ukraini- are living in an increasingly ly increased their military creases were seen in coun- “Many former Eastern bloc
an expenditure, a Swedish tries near Russia: Finland states have more than dou-
think tank said Monday. (36 %), Lithuania (27%), bled their military spending
Spending globally in- Sweden (12%) and Poland since 2014, the year when
creased by 3.7% in real (11%). Russia annexed Crimea.”
terms, but military expendi- Both Sweden and Finland Russia also has increased its
ture in Europe was up 13% jointly applied for NATO military spending. SIPRI said
its steepest year-on-year in- membership in May 2022, that grew by an estimated
crease in at least 30 years, abandoning decades of 9.2% in 2022, to around
the Stockholm International nonalignment in the wake $86.4 billion. That is equiva-
Peace Research Institute, of Russia’s invasion of lent to 4.1% of Russia’s gross
or SIPRI, said in a report. Ukraine. While Finland has domestic product in 2022,
Military aid to Ukraine and been admitted, Sweden’s up from 3.7% the previous
concerns about a height- bid to join NATO remains year.
ened threat from Russia stalled by opposition from Established in 1966, SI-
“strongly influenced many Turkey and Hungary. PRI is an international in-
other states’ spending de- “While the full-scale inva- stitute dedicated to re-
cisions.” U.S. Air Force fighter aircraft F-35 performs aerobatic maneuvers sion of Ukraine in February search into conflict, arma-
The independent Swedish on the second day of the Aero India 2023 at Yelahanka air base 2022 certainly affected mil- ments, arms control and
watchdog said that last in Bengaluru, India, Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2023. itary spending decisions in disarmament.q
year, the three largest arms Associated Press 2022, concerns about Rus-