BRAZIL: Livelihoods Vs. Environment - Afro-Descendants Caught in the Middle

"Brazil’s quilombola communities today are made up of the descendants of the African slaves who originally founded them," the Inter Press Service's Mario Osava writes. "Similar settlements were established throughout the Americas in regions colonised by Europeans.

"The greatest threat currently faced by these communities in Brazil is related to land ownership issues.

"In the Ribeira Valley, there have been at least 59 quilombola communities identified, but only 15 have been formally recognised as such, and of these, only six have been granted land ownership deeds. And even in the latter, community members are still waiting for the eviction of 'third parties' -- non-Afro-Brazilians who have occupied parts of quilombola territories and must now be compensated by the government before they will leave."