Skip to main content
Search
Switch language:

Brazil: Ban Wildlife Works from the Ka’apor Rainforest

Co-sign before Jul 15, 2025

To: Minister of Indigenous Peoples, Sonia Guajajara; President of FUNAI, Joenia Wapichana; Coordinator of the 6th Chamber of the Attorney General's Office - Indigenous Peoples and traditional communities

Ladies and Gentlemen,

For two years, the leaders of the Indigenous Ka'apor Council, Tuxa Ta Pame, have been complaining to the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office (MPF) and FUNAI about rights violations on their territory in Maranhão by the US company Wildlife Works. According to the lawsuits, the company intends to carry out a project to generate carbon credits on the Indigenous land of Alto Turiaçu in the Amazon region, violating national and international laws.

In January 2024, the Tuxa Ta Pame Council officially informed the company in a letter that it did not accept the presence of foreign individuals in connection with the carbon credit project on their land and demanded the immediate withdrawal and cessation of all activities.

Wildlife Works has not obtained free, prior, and informed consent for the project from all the Ka'apor, as required by Convention 169 of the United Nations International Labour Organization (ILO), which Brazil has ratified, Tuxa Ta Pame Council complains.

Despite this, the company continues to hold meetings and gatherings in various villages in the area and disregards the decisions of the Indigenous leaders of the Tuxa Ta Pame Council. Wildlife Works' activities and promises also lead to conflict among the Ka'apor, making the area – which has suffered for decades from encroachment by loggers, poachers, and ranchers – even more vulnerable.

Wildlife Works began encroaching on the Ka'apor Indigenous land when the company was not even registered in Brazil – which the Tuxa Ta Pame Council considers illegal.

In light of the deteriorating situation, in October 2024, the Tuxa Ta Pame Council filed a lawsuit in federal court against Wildlife Works, the Indigenous authority Funai, and the federal government. It called for a halt to all of the company’s activities in Alto Turiaçu and for the federal government and Funai to carry out inspection and control actions in the Ka'apor territory, preventing the entry of national or foreign companies that promote carbon credit trading, especially since there are no standards for this in Brazil.

We ask Your Excellencies to take urgent measures to fulfill the demands of the Tuxa Ta Pame Council: Please prevent the company from entering Indigenous land and continuing to violate the rights of the Ka'apor people in their own territory.

Yours faithfully,

Co-signed by
  • ABED Action pour la biodiversité environnement et développement durable, Democratic Republic of the Congo
  • Ação Franciscana de Ecologia e Solidariedade, Brazil
  • Accion Ecologica, Ecuador
  • Aceh Wetland Forum, Indonesia
  • Aldeia Rio Do Cahy pataxó comexatiba, Brazil
  • Amigas da Terra Brasil, Brazil
  • Apel Green Aceh, Indonesia
  • APROMOVA, Brazil
  • AXIAL Naturaleza y Cultura, Paraguay
  • Belantara Papua, Indonesia
  • Bios Iguana A. C., Mexico
  • CDAHL, Mexico
  • Centre de Recherche pour la Gestion de la Biodiversité (CRGB), Benin
  • Centre pour la Justice Environnementale, Togo
  • Centro de Formação Saberes Ka’apor, Brazil
  • Comissão Pastoral da Terra de Minas Gerais, Brazil
  • Comissão quilombola do super do norte, Brazil
  • Conselho Indigenista Missionário Regional Maranhão, Brazil
  • Conselho Pastoral dos Pescadores, Brazil
  • Construyendo Paz Latinoamericana, Mexico
  • CPT Santarém Pará, Brazil
  • Ecodefender Earth Hour, Indonesia
  • EcoNexus, United Kingdom
  • Ecopaper, Switzerland
  • Edu Sur: filosofía y humanidades, Mexico
  • FASE/ES, Brazil
  • FIAN Indonesia, Indonesia
  • Fórum carajás, Brazil
  • Forum Ökologie & Papier, Germany
  • Fundaexpresión, Colombia
  • Global Forest Coalition, Netherlands
  • Global Forest Coalition, Bolivia
  • Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), Nigeria
  • ICRA Internationnal, France
  • Indigenous Environmental Network, United States
  • Instituto Amazônia Solidária (IAMAS), Brazil
  • Instituto Preservar, Brazil
  • Jaringan Advokasi Tambang Sulawesi Tengah, Indonesia
  • Justiça Ambiental, Mozambique
  • Kowaki Tanah Papua, Indonesia
  • lbh Papua Merauke, Indonesia
  • Lembaga Bantuan Hukum (LBH) Padang, Indonesia
  • Lembaga Bantuan Hukum Papua Merauke, Indonesia
  • Masyarakat Adat Mataloko, Indonesia
  • Milieudefensie, Netherlands
  • Missão Tabita, Mozambique
  • Movimento dos Atingidos por Barragens (MAB), Brazil
  • NRAN - No REDD in Africa Network, Mozambique
  • Observatorio Ukamau. Territorio y Dignidad, Mexico
  • Ofraneh, Honduras
  • Otros Mundos Chiapas, Mexico
  • Plataforma Boliviana Frente al Cambio Climático, Bolivia
  • Pusaka, Indonesia
  • Red Latina sin fronteras, Spain
  • Red Latinoamericana de Mujeres Defensoras de Derechos Sociales y Ambientales, Mexico
  • Rede Alerta contra os Desertos Verdes, Brazil
  • Rede de Agroecologia do Maranhão -RAMA, Brazil
  • Rettet den Regenwald e.V., Germany
  • Salva la Selva, Spain
  • Salviamo la Foresta, Italy
  • SOMO, Netherlands
  • Sumatera Environmental Initiative, Indonesia
  • SYNAPARCAM, Cameroon
  • Transnational Palm Oil Labour Solidarity (TPOLS), Indonesia
  • UNIR-HAITÍ, Haiti
  • Women’s Network Against Rural Plantations Injustice (WoNARPI), Sierra Leone
  • World Rainforest Movement, Uruguay
  • Yayasan Pusaka Bentala Rakyat, Indonesia

Co-sign this letter