Indigenous Brazilian tribe in the Amazon region owns carbon-trading rights

A new legal opinion from one of the world's largest law firms has found that a vulnerable Brazilian tribe in the Amazon region owns carbon-trading rights in future global warming deals, a development that could preserve vast areas of the rainforest.

The groundbreaking finding, said advocates, should apply to other indigenous groups in Brazil, home to 40 percent of the world's rainforests, representing a major step forward in protecting indigenous people's land rights.

The opinion on the carbon rights of the Surui tribe by international law firm Baker and McKenzie was commissioned by Forest Trends, a conservation group based in Washington, D.C., that works to protect forests around the world.

The significance of the finding, said Forest Trends officials, is that when climate change negotiators strike a new deal to reduce harmful emissions, indigenous groups such as the Surui won't be left behind-and, in fact, can benefit and help save vast swaths of the rainforest. Those protected forests will play a major role in absorbing carbon emissions, limiting the release of dangerous gases into the atmosphere.

"This really is a landmark opinion," said Michael Jenkins, President and CEO of Forest Trends. "What we have been able to demonstrate here is that there will be opportunity and a path forward for indigenous groups to participate in emerging markets from a global warming deal. In fact, the indigenous groups would now be part of the solution."

Over the last several years, many indigenous groups have expressed concern that a climate change deal would be yet another international agreement that eroded their rights.

In response, Forest Trends asked Baker and McKenzie to research whether Brazilian law would allow the Surui and other indigenous groups in Brazil to claim benefits under any deals involving the Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) arrangements, now being considered as a centerpiece of global warming talks during the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen.

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Brazilian Farmers cynically bulldoze UNESCO tribal reserve

A group of Brazilian ranchers is bulldozing a UNESCO reserve inhabited by an indigenous Indian tribe with no prior contact with the outside world, an native rights group said Monday.

Survival International said the UNESCO bioreserve in Paraguay's Chaco region is home to the only uncontacted indigenous tribe in South America outside of the Amazon -- the Ayoreo-Totobiegosode.

"The Totobiegosode's land is being destroyed as we speak," said Stephen Corry, director of Survival International.

"Given that their land falls within a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, we hope that UNESCO can play a part in stopping this destruction and pressing for the recognition of their land rights."

The group says a Paraguayan government representative and two relatives of the tribe attempted to enter the region, but were barred by employees of the ranchers' company, Yaguarete Pore S.A.

Survival International said the reserve was intended to protect both the Indian group but also species including the jaguar, "an irony given that a Spanish language translation of that word, yaguarete, is the name of the company bulldozing the reserve."

Satellite photos show that thousands of hectares of the reserve have been destroyed, even though the company has had its license to operate there withdrawn by the Paraguayan government, Survival International said.

UNESCO biospheres are designated under the United Nation's agency's "Man and Biosphere Program," and are intended to promote conservation and sustainable development.

There are over 500 designated sites in over 100 countries, according to UNESCO. The Chaco region in Paraguay was designated in 2005.