Smallholders: Drivers or Targets of Amazonian Deforestation?

As the excitement from the Rio Olympics calms, and the world’s gaze turns elsewhere, the harsh realities of life for Brazilian environmentalists remain. The recent murder of social and environmental activist Nilce de Souza in 2016 is not an isolated case (CPT 2016). According to Global Witness (2014), an NGO that protests environmental and human rights abuses around the world, Brazil is not safe for environmentalists. Largely underreported, most assassinations have yet to be solved. That is the case for many, such as environmentalists José Claudio Ribeiro da Silva, Maria do Espírito Santo Silva, Chico Mendes and Sister Dorothy Stang. In fact, more than forty environmental activists are murdered every year in Brazil, comprising almost 50% of all environmental activists murdered worldwide (Global Witness 2014).