Photo: Supplied
Born and raised in Brazil, Dr Vanessa Andreotti is an indigenous land rights activist based in Vancouver and teaching at The University of British Columbia. Dr Andreotti is working alongside a collection of Amazonian tribes as indigenous land rights look likely to be erased in an unprecedented move by Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro.
The far-right president is pushing a Supreme Court bill that would allow commercial agriculture and mining on protected tribal reservations – a move climate scientists fear will accelerate the destruction of the Amazon.
Dr Andreotti holds a Canada Research Chair in Race, Inequalities and Global Change at the Department of Educational Studies, UBC.
Brazilian rainforest being removed to make way for palm oil and rubber plantations. Photo: 123rf/ Richard Whitcombe
