Oil is an increasingly uncomfortable subject for Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who casts himself as a climate crusader, but also faces criticism for his plans to grow Latin America's biggest economy with fossil fuels.
Brazil's climate contradictions got a glaring spotlight Monday, after Ecuador announced voters had decided in a first-of-its-kind referendum to halt oil drilling in the biodiverse Yasuni National Park.
"We hope the Brazilian government will follow Ecuador's example... and leave the oil in the Amazon estuary underground," Marcio Astrini, head of the Climate Observatory, a coalition of environmental groups, said in a statement.
Brazil, home to 60 percent of the Amazon, also faced criticism when it hosted a high-profile summit this month on the world's biggest rainforest, where Lula and other regional leaders ignored calls to adopt Colombian President Gustavo Petro's pledge to stop oil exploration.
Just hours after Ecuador's referendum result was announced -- winning praise from climate campaigners worldwide -- Lula's office sent out a press release from the energy ministry touting his administration's plans to invest 335 billion reais ($69 billion) in the oil and gas sector in the coming years.
The ministry wants state-run oil company Petrobras to explore offshore block "FZA-M-59," near the estuary where the Amazon river, the rainforest's pulsing aorta, empties into the Atlantic.
The project has triggered a battle within the Lula administration.
After the environmental protection agency, IBAMA, denied Petrobras an exploration license in May, citing a lack of environmental studies, the attorney general's office said Tuesday the studies were "not indispensable" and called for a reconciliation process.
"You can't have a 'reconciliation,' this is about technical facts," fired back respected Environment Minister Marina Silva.
- Lula's big-oil 'dream' -
Veteran leftist Lula returned to office in January vowing to protect the Amazon, a vital resource against climate change, after four years of surging destruction under far-right ex-president Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2022).
But the 77-year-old ex-metalworker has also said he is "dreaming" of striking oil off northern Brazil.
Guyana, Brazil's small neighbor to the north, has made billions since 2019 drilling in nearby waters, earning the nickname "South America's Dubai."
But the Brazilian project has drawn protests from environmentalists, Indigenous groups and residents of Marajo, the island at the heart of the Amazon estuary.
They say oil drilling could be catastrophic for an environmentally sensitive region known for its mangroves, wildlife, vibrant fishing communities and connection to the rainforest.
"Most of the planet is suffering the consequences of plundering nature for riches," said Indigenous leader Naraguassu, 60, whose people, the Caruana, believe the spot where the Amazon meets the Atlantic is sacred.
"Temperatures are rising. The Earth is telling us something is wrong," she told AFP.
Luis Barbosa of the Marajo Observatory, a local rights group, emphasized that rising sea levels caused by global warming threaten places like the Amazon estuary.
"Continuing to burn fossil fuels puts the very existence of Marajo at risk," he said.
- 'Energy frontier' -
Petrobras says the project "will open an important energy frontier" and contribute to a "sustainable energy transition."
It points out the proposed exploration site is more than 500 kilometers (300 miles) from the mouth of the Amazon, and says it has "robust" containment procedures in case of an oil spill.
But Brazil, the world's eighth-biggest petroleum producer, is already self-sufficient in oil, says Suely Araujo, senior public policy specialist at the Climate Observatory.
"There's simply no reason to insist on exploring for oil in sensitive areas. We're in a climate crisis," she told AFP.
She knows the conflict well: as head of IBAMA, the environmental agency, from 2016 to 2019, Araujo rejected French oil giant Total's bid to explore the same region, on similar grounds.
A member of the transition team that prepared Lula's environmental policy, she says she is glad to see him addressing climate change, but disappointed with the administration's stance on fossil fuels.
"The Lula government's great contradiction is oil," she said.
In Colombia, a community wins fight to protect a slice of paradise
Nuqui, Colombia (AFP) Aug 25, 2023 -
In the remote west of Colombia, where virgin rainforest and pristine beaches collide, a group of politicians and businessmen dreamed of building a massive port on the Pacific.
It took almost two decades, but a small community managed to sink the project, betting on a different development model to preserve their slice of paradise.
In June, UNESCO declared the Gulf of Tribuga a biosphere reserve, putting a definitive end to plans to build a deepwater port and some 80 kilometers (50 miles) of highway through the untouched jungle.
The remote region, with no roads linking it to the interior, boasts a bounty of plant species, while its warm Pacific waters are a breeding ground for humpback whales and turtles.
In a region where unemployment stands around 30 percent, and poverty affects some 63 percent of inhabitants, the project promised "a lot of jobs," recalls Marcelina Morena, a 51-year-old Columbian of African descent.
"But on the other hand, it was going to bring us destruction of the mangroves, the land, everything. So we said no to the port."
Wearing rubber boots and gloves, she clambers through thick mangrove branches in search of pianguas, a mollusk considered a delicacy in Ecuador and Mexico.
She says the Gulf of Tribuga "is going to be for the children, so that in the future they have something to live on."
"We will not allow anyone to destroy it, because it is a natural heritage."
- 'Benefits to a few' -
The project was first proposed in 2006 by a group of around 30 local officials and businessmen.
It progressed at a snail's pace until Ivan Duque, elected president in 2018, made it a priority.
But he faced fierce resistance from some 18,000 Afro-Colombians and members of the Embera Indigenous community who rejected an offer of a minimum share in profits.
Environmental groups and studies argued over and over again how the construction of the port would damage the unique area.
At the same time, the company backing the project struggled to get the right approvals to move forward with construction.
The local community also pointed to the case of Buenaventura, Colombia's largest Pacific cargo terminal, only 200 kilometers south, which has been in operation for decades.
Nevertheless, the mainly Black population there still suffers from unemployment, a lack of public services, and lives under the threat of armed groups who traffic drugs around the port.
Local media have also reported that the port is operating at less than half of its capacity.
"Buenaventura (is) like a mirror. The port only brings benefits to a few" while creating other problems, said Arnold Rincon, director of Codechoco, the local environmental body that fought against the project.
In February 2022, under pressure from an aggressive environmental campaign, Duque backtracked and asked UNESCO to designate the zone as a biosphere reserve, without explaining his change of heart.
- Eco-tourism -
Residents want a different path to prosperity.
Locals "speak of ecotourism and artisanal fishing, the sale of carbon credits and different strategies that do not affect the biome," said Rincon.
Small-scale eco-tourism to the hard-to-reach area grew 126 percent between 2019 and 2021, according to official data, and is seen as an engine for further growth.
With little connection to bigger markets, one company is helping carry fresh fish from the region by plane to restaurants in the interior.
Viche, a cane brandy distilled by locals, is being sold in bars in Bogota.
The women who spend their days searching for the piangua mollusks, which sell for seven dollars a pound, hope their product will soon find a similar market.
Mangroves -- which trap enormous amounts of carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases -- are "life", says Arisleda Hurtado, president of the local association of piangueras.
"When you survive off something you have to take care of it, you can't destroy that which sustains you."
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