GLOBAL PROTECTION OF THE ECOLOGICALLY BALANCED ENVIRONMENT IN THE AMAZON FOREST AND THE URGENCY TO DECOLONISE

Abstract

The long process of colonisation of Brazil, especially concerning the exploitation of the natural resources of the Amazon, has resulted in the degradation of the environment and in a reflexive way, in the mitigation of the human rights of the indigenous peoples. In this way, as the forests were cleared and the rivers were polluted by harmful substances – in order to satisfy the economic commitments of the colonisers – the amerindians watched the violation of their own social and identity rights. Under this bias, this study presents the process of neocolonisation of Amazonian forests, which today is influenced by the “Risk Society” proposed in the studies of Anthony Giddens and Ulrich Beck. Thus, the modern colonisation process repeatedly manifests the same outrages as the predecessor colonisation, this time, however, to serve the interests of the establishment and the large multinationals. Furthermore, even though internal and avant-garde protection laws for the Amazon and the identity rights of indigenous communities are in force, these provisions continue to be disrespected. Still, even if the international declarations for the protection of the rights of nature and human rights of the indigenous peoples were signed, the forests of the Amazonian region continue to be degraded and the local communities remain feeling the effects of the past, suggesting an unfinished decolonization.