Eco-colonialism and the Munduruku's struggle against Cargill

By: Zubeyr Mohamed
​Zubeyr Mohamed is a student based in Seattle who is looking to complete his studies at South Seattle College and transfer to the University of Washington. He is a big soccer and basketball fan.

In Brazil, indigenous peoples have been the victims of eco colonialism, especially in the Amazon rainforest, as a result of deforestation. One example is when an indigenous activist named Beka Saw Munduruku went to Minneapolis, Minnesota, to send a letter to Cargill-MacMillan family to stop profiting from the destruction of the Amazon rainforest. She is a member of the Munduruku indigenous community that lives in northern Brazil and is part of a campaign by a non-profit environmental organization that is trying to make the Cargill-MacMillan family end their destruction of the Amazon rainforest. The family owns Cargill, which is a grain trader and meat producer ‌accused of being involved in the destruction of the Amazon rainforest as well as human rights abuses. The current project that the family is involved is a railroad, which would carry soya from Cerrado south of the Amazon. The railroad is linked in studies to harms that indigenous peoples and leads to deforestation and creates carbon emissions.

The example of Cargill shows how eco-colonialism works as non-indigenous corporations such as Cargill profit from the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest and creating carbon emissions as well as doing land grabs. All the effects of eco-colonialism have an impact on indigenous people Cargill has claimed that it will not do deforestation in the Amazon and Cerrado and in its supply chain in the near future.Companies such as Cargill that do eco-colonialism often claim that they will stop deforestation and that their practices are environmentally friendly. It shows how the idea of green growth is a rhetorical mask that is used to mask to continue their projects of eco-colonialism. Indigenous peoples in the region, such as the Munduruku, have been doing resistance against eco-colonialism for years. For example, Beka, when she was 12, helped her father to stop the construction of a hydroelectric dam that threatened their land and other indigenous lands. These campaigns have been continuing to force companies to stop their participation in the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest.

The examples shown of deforestation and the exploitation of the Amazon show how eco-colonialism poses a threat to the environment and indigenous peoples. It also shows that protecting the environment must include cooperation with indigenous peoples as they are among the most affected my it. The future of our planet must be for the benefit if all people on this planet.
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• Lakhani, N. (2023, October 12). “Our world hangs by a thread”: Indigenous activist asks US agri giant to stop destroying Amazon rainforest. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/oct/12/amazon-rainforest-cargill-indigenous-activist-destructionLinks to an external site.