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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